http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2009/08/bigfoot-beyond-our-borders.html
paranormal cases from Spain, South America and the Caribbean
BIGFOOT
BEYOND OUR BORDERS
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2005
It is possible that
the man-apes variously known as Sasquatch, Yeti, Ukumari, etc. constitute the
greatest and best known variety of mystery creature, and the only kind whose
study has received a tacit nod from officialdom. Anthropologists have even gone
as far as establishing its identity as the Gigantopithecus, an anthropoidal
creature which may have survived into modern times by keeping clear of Homo
sapiens. The historic record contains mentions of these beings, such as that
they were used by the ancient Medes and Persians as ferocious battle animals,
and that Nearchos, Alexander the Great's admiral, encountered communities of
these creatures on the barren shores of the Persian Gulf. The historian Arrian,
whose Anabasis Alexandrii (Indica) was translated by E. Illiff Robson in 1933,
mentions that as the Greek admiral headed westward, his galleys hugging the
shore of the Asiatic landmass, he came upon a remarkable--and terrifying--group
of natives.
When anchored by the River Tomerus (its modern location
unknown), the returning Macedonians found "a lagoon at the mouth of the river"
whose natives dwelt in recesses near the bank, occupying "stifling cabins". The
natives, having never seen ships, took an offensive stance: Arrian states that
ignorant of metals, they nonetheless wielded fire-hardened spears. The war
galleys fired a volley of stones and arrows against them, and the primitives
proved no match against the Macedonians, fresh from their victories along the
Indus. But what is of interest to us isn't the prowess of Nearchos's forces, but
the description of the six hundred or so primitives:
"Some were killed in flight; others were captured;
but some escaped into the hills. Those captured were hairy, not only their heads
but the rest of their bodies; their nails were rather like beasts' claws; they
used their nails (according to report) as if they were iron tools; with these
they tore asunder their fishes, and even the less solid kinds of wood;
everything else they cleft with sharp stones; for iron they did not possess. For
clothing they wore skins of animals, some even the thick skins of the larger
fishes."
The rough technology evinced by these hirsute
primitives-- tropical versions of the Toonijuk or Tunnit who reputedly lived in
Greenland and Bylot Island in ages past )--is also found in descriptions of the
Maricoxis, bestial creatures confronted by the ill-fated explorer Col. H.P.
Fawcett in the early 20th century while surveying the Matto Grosso. Fawcett's
description of the Maricoxis, as "great apelike brutes who looked at if they had
scarecely evolved beyond the level of beasts," would not have been out of place
in Admiral Nearchos' log. The Maricoxis were considered primitive even by the
standards of other primitive tribes, despite the fact that they wielded bows and
arrows.
Arrian mentions that the number of primitives who attacked the
Macedonians stood at approximately six hundred. Did the ones that escape,
assuming both males and females, retreat to the mountains of what is today
northern Pakistan, moving on into what are now the modern republics of Central
Asia (Kazhakistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, etc.) to give rise to the legend
of the Almasti? A fascinating possibility.
Mexico's Fearsome Quinametzin
One of
these early chroniclers of Mexico's history--Fernando Alva
Ixtlilxochitl--mentions in his book Obras Históricas the widespread belief that
the Chichimecs, the earliest occupants of what is now Mexico, had to displace an
old race of giants that lived there. This echoes not only the Biblical
displacement of giants from Canaan by the advancing Hebrews, but other
traditions surrounding the elimination of giants from Britain by a Trojan
warrior named Brutus. The presence of these ancient colossi would thus account
for the persistent discovery of abnormally large remains. Ixtlilxochitl also
mentions the wars between the giants known as Quinametzin and normal-sixed
humans.
Memory of the Quinametzin was widespread throughout Mesoamerica,
as can be seen from the information gleaned by Spanish explorers and colonizers.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Hernán Cortés on his conquest of the
Aztec Empire, wrote of a belief among the Tlaxcalan people that
"...their ancestors had shared the land with men and
women of very tall bodies and large bones, and since they were very wicked and
ill mannered, [the ancestors] slew them in combat, and what remained of them
died out..."
Other information turned up by early missionaries is
also quite intriguing. Fray Diego Durán claimed to have seen the bones "of
immense giants" excavated "out of rough places". Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta was
told by the older natives that their predecessors had been forced to struggle
against giants, "and after this land was won, the bones of many tall men were
found." Bernardo de Sahagún, the great Franciscan missionary, would be the first
to suggest that the pyramids of Teothihuacan and Cholula were the handiwork of
the vanished giant race. Wherever the conquistadors went, more stories were
added to the body of information concerning these creatures. When the rapacious
Nuno de Guzman reached what is today Jalisco, he demanded to know from the
natives why a number of towns had been abandoned. They informed him that the
towns had been inhabited by a band of giants who had come up from the
south.
There was to be no peaceful co-existence between the Quinametzin
and the newly-arrived humans, who called them
quinametzin hueytlacame ("huge deformed men"
or "monstrous giants"). The advancing human tribes (tentatively identified as
Olmecs and Toltecs) drove the giants out of their ancestral domain, causing some
of them to flee to the north and others to the south, following the Pacific
coastline down to Central America. Fray José Mariano Rothea, a Jesuit, sums up
this belief as follows:
"...in very ancient
times there came men and women of extraordinary height, seemingly in flight from
the North. Some of them went along the coast of the Southern Sea, while others
took to the rough mountainsides..."
Fray Andrés de Olmos, writing
in the 16th century, mentions a curious detail: the Mexican giants nourished
themselves on oak acorns and a variety of weeds. This detail contained in the
codexes enables us to contemplate a strange possibility: could the Quinametzin
have survived into our present age under the guise of the tall, hirsute simian
beings known as Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch and myriad other denominations? Those
interviewed by the Colonial-era chroniclers explained that tradition held that
those giants who were not exterminated by normal-sized humans were chased into
the wilderness, where remnants of their race still endure. Marc Dem, the French
author of a number of works on the paranormal, has identified the Biblical
Anakim with giant beings such as the Asian Yeti.
Is there any evidence
that such a race of giants actually existed south of the border?
In 1975,
Mexican ufologist Pedro Ferriz visited Calvillo, Aguascalientes (on the Pacific
coast, famous for its intricate mazes of unexplored manmade caves) to inspect
some ancient petroglyphs on the property of local landowner Víctor Martínez.
Martínez told the ufologist that he was ambivalent about the petroglyphs, which
he considered unlucky, particularly since "that affair with the giants". When
asked to elaborate, Martínez explained that he had stumbled upon the ancient
skeletons of two extraordinarily large creatures while tilling the soil.
Martínez went into Calvillo to notify the authorities about his find, only to
discover that the local police believed him to have killed both giants and
wanted to incarcerate him!
The farmer finessed his way out of the
predicament, returned to his farm, and set fire to the bones.
Monster-Men of the Andes
Argentina's
Salta region has been the focus of a number of hairy hominid sightings for many
years. This rugged, mountainous region could not differ more from the
Sasquatch's forested Pacific Northwest: arid, desolate landscapes meet vast salt
deserts, such as the Puna de Atacama, where rainfall is almost
nonexistent.
In 1956, Dr. José Cerato and geologist Claudio Spitch
discovered the footprints of a Bigfoot-like creature at an elevation of almost
16,000 ft. The prints, according to Spitch, were so large that they precluded
the possibility of having been made by a human being.
Shortly after
Cerato and Spitch's discovery, a muleteer named Ernesto Salitonlay (name also
given as José Santolay by some sources) led his animals into a lowland area and
was startled by "a strange being covered by dense hair" that let out piercing
screams upon seeing the human, terrifying the pack beasts in the process.
Salitonlay said that the bizarre creature looked more like "a large, agile
monkey" than anything else and fired his shotgun at it, but missed the target.
The hairy hominid took flight and the muleteer headed post-haste to the local
police station to report the incident. Authorities looking into his claims
surmised that it could have been the Ukumar Zupai described in the legends of
the Coya inhabitants of the region.
From all descriptions, the Ukumar was
smaller than its Himalayan counterpart. It had a pointed head and projected its
body forward when it ran; the natives became accustomed to hearing its cries at
dusk and in the winter months. There was also the interesting detail that locals
would come across ruined condor and eagle nests, high in the mountains, which
appeared to have been ransacked by a savage attacker, leaving dead and injured
birds in its wake.
The creature was not seen again until a hapless
prospector named Benigno Hoyos, combing the Quitillipi region for minerals, was
caught by an unexpected snowstorm in the vicinity of Morro del Pilar and was
forced to take shelter from the elements in a cave...which turned out to be
occupied by an "unknown creature of large proportions, similar to a bear." The
prospector was able to fire his sidearm at the improbable being and scored a
hit: the creatures screams turned into heart-rending cries of
pain.
According to anthropologist Silvia Alicia Barrios, hunters have
successfully apprehended live specimens of Bigfoot's southern cousin. One such
case involves the capture of a family of Ukumaris--a mother and two
offspring--by Andrés Olguín. The two young Ukumaris were allegedly turned over
to a Paraguayan zoologist.
[Ukumaris are still being reported post-2000; their zoological identification is still debated]
Ucumar
GIANT HOMINID of South America.
Etymology: After its ululating call.
Variant names: Sachayoj, Ucu, Ukumar-zupai
(in Tolar Grande). In Bolivia and Peru, the spec-
tacled bear is known as Ucamari or Jucamari.
Physical description:Half man, half bear. Cov-
ered in long, black hair. Bearded. Small eyes.
Large hands and feet.(Some tracks reported with) opposed big toe
Behavior:Bipedal. Makes eerie, ululating calls
(“uhu, uhu”) at night. Eats wild fruit and
honey. Said to abduct women for breeding.
Tracks: Humanlike. Length, 17 inches.
Habitat: Mountains, caves, and rocky areas.
Distribution: Tolar Grande, Mount
Umahuaca, El Chorro, and Baritú National
Park in Salta Province, Caliliegua in Jujuy
Province, Chaco Province, all in Argentina.
Possible explanation: The Spectacled bear
(Tremarctos ornatus) is found in the Andes as far
south as northern Argentina. Its occasional for-
ays into Argentina could contribute to Ucumar
folklore.[There is no way it could make tracks that big]
Sources: Angel Luciano López, Narraciones y
supersticiones del Desierto Saladino (La Banda,
Argentina, n.d.), pp. 20–26; José Murillo,
Leyendas para todos (Buenos Aires: Editorial
Guadalupe, 1978); Pablo Latapi Ortega,
“Ucumar, the Argentinian Yeti,” Contactos
Extraterrestres, April 16, 1980; Simon
Chapman, The Monster of the Madidi:
Searching for the Giant Ape of the Bolivian
Jungle (London: Aurum, 2001).
-From Eberhart,George, Mysterious Creatures, 2002
A
Possible Connection with UFOs?
Argentinean cryptozoologist Fabio
Picasso, compiler of the
Manual de
Criptozoología Argentina y Sudamericana (1990), mentions the Ukumar-Zupai
in his catalogue of hairy hominid sightings: In July and August 1956, the La
Gaceta newspaper began to publish a series of articles (obtain with the aid of
Chilean researcher Liliana Núñez) about the creature seen in the vicinity of
Nevado Macón, a Andean peak standing 5700 meters above sea level, where "huge
human footprints larger than those of an elephant have been allegedly seen."
["Elephant tracks" are also attributed to Yetis in Tibet and the tracks are probably remelted and enlarged-DD]
Picasso notes that the sightings of the Andean hominids commenced
shortly after a flurry of UFO sightings in the area, to which the newspaper
items attest: in 1955, the year before the first hominid reports began, a
strange object had crashed into the slopes of Nevado Macón in full view of the
residents of the villages of Tolar Grande, Caipe, and Quebrada de Agua Chuya,
all in the vicinity of the Salar de Arízaro. Apparently, prior to colliding, the
vehicle had flown over the region all day, making themselves visible to workers
at a Public Works shanty and members of the local gendarmerie, who took photos
of it.
The Ministry of Aeronautics's Information Service received a
request, says Picasso, to conduct an investigation to determine if the crashed
object was either "an aircraft or an aerolite", but nothing appears to have been
done in this regard. The fact remains that strange luminous artifacts continued
to be seen over the Andean deserts, first hovering over the dusty villages and
then giving the appearance of descending in the mountains. Author Gustavo
Fernández adds the interesting detail that an official police communique
revealed the crashed object was cylindrical and measured a whopping three
hundred fifty meters long by fifty meters in diameter (approximately 1000 ft. by
165 ft.) and was metallic in color with a "dark band" visible across it. Despite
the fact that it was wingless, it executed sharp and sudden turns, leaving a
smoky contrail that remained visible for four hours.
"This anecdote," states Fabio Picasso,
"appears to contain the seeds of the oft-mentioned
theory regarding the link between UFOs and Yeti-type creatures; a theory which
would was foreign to the specialized media and was only approached in the 1970's
by Angelo Moretti, regarding South American cases involving primitive beings
found amid a sweeping UFO flap." The author cautions his readers that
this should not be construed as the creatures and the UFOs sharing the same
origin. It is possible that the powerful crash into the mountainside drove the
hominids out of their lairs.
In 1963, the village of Ranelagh in the
Province of Buenos Aires was visited by a strange entity whose journalistic
moniker, El dientudo ("Toothy") de Ranelagh came from its extraordinarily long
fangs. For eight days, according to Gustavo Fernández, residents of this unpaved
shanty town, surrounded by contaminated streams, were haunted by the fearsome
"Toothy". This shaggy entity, standing some six feet tall, had phosphorescent
eyes and was seen by a number the witnesses late at night near a small
bridge.[This is essential a southward extension of the apelike Mapinguari]
Unlike most cases involving hairy hominids, "Toothy" lashed out
against humans, injuring a few of them; but it saved its true rage for dogs.
According to reports, the monster killed several and devoured
them.
"Toothy"'s short reign came to an end when a police officer fired
his service revolver at the monster one night; the following morning it was
ascertained that blood had been found next to its footprints. Police speculated
that the creature, wounded to death, had fallen into Ranelagh's polluted creek.
It was never seen again.
INSERT- Dientudo
Giant Hominidof South America.
Etymology: Spanish, “big teeth.”
Physical description: Half bear, half man.
Huge teeth.
Habitat: Forests.
Distribution: El Gato Creek, Ringuelet, and
Toloso in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
Source: Fabio Picasso, “South American
Monsters and Mystery Animals,” Strange
Magazine, no. 20 (December 1998): 28–35.
[There have also been more recent sightigs]
There are more recent cases of strange creature
activity in Argentina: Carlos Alberto Iurchuk, editor of the El Dragón Invisible
journal, received a letter from one Gustavo Aufnerr--owner of an estate in the
municipality of Carlos Spegazzini--regarding a 1996 encounter with the
unknown.
Aufnerr was walking through a forest trail one summer evening
when he heard a noise behind him. Upon closer inspection, Aufnerr and a
companion shone their flashlights toward the ground, only to find the carcass of
a dog, eyes vacant and jaw torn off. Gripped by fear, both young men heard the
noise once again. As they moved away, they came across another carcass--this
time that of a cat, slain in the same gruesome fashion. They only did what could
be expected in such a circumstance: they ran.
But their frantic race
toward safety was interrupted by "something" that crossed their path in a
sideways motion, crossing the forest trail from left to right. According to
Aufnerr's description, the strange "something" was about the size of a dog, but
running on two legs, with a rounded head smaller than its body, and with claws
dangling from the upper part of its body.
[By inferrance this is a "Chupacabras" sighting]
Patagonian Giant
GIANT HOMINID of South America.
Etymology: The size of these animals caused
explorer Ferdinand Magellan to name them
Patagónes (Portuguese, “big foot”) and their
country Patagonia.
Variant name: Chaucahue (possibly Huil-
liche/Araucanian).
Physical description: Height said to be 7–12
feet.[A report of an isolated bare footprint stated it was 18 inches long.]
Behavior: Nomadic, following the wild herds
of Guanaco (Lama guanicoe), their primary
source of food.
Distribution: Southern Argentina and Chile.
Significant sightings: In June 1520, the expe-
dition of Ferdinand Magellan encountered giant
Indians at Puerto San Julián, Santa Cruz
Province, Argentina.
In June 1578, Francis Drake’s men brawled
with the Puerto San Julián Indians, noting they
were not as tall as Magellan’s chronicler had in-
dicated.[ So possibly they had NOT encountered the same Giants!]
Sebald de Weert in 1598, Joris van Spilber-
gen and Wilhelm Schouten in 1615, John
Byron in 1764, and other visitors also encoun-
tered Indians of large stature.
Probable explanation: The Tehuelche Indians,
whose height was exaggerated by clothing and
long hair. In 1983, the last thirty or so remain-
ing Tehuelche lived on a small reserve at Ca-
mashu Aike, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.
Sources: Antonio Pigafetta, First Voyage
around the World [1525] (Manila, Philippines:
Filipiniana Book Guild, 1969); Wilhelm
Schouten, The Relation of a Wonderfull Voyage
Made by William Cornelison Schouten of Horne
(London: Nathanaell Newbery, 1619), p. 18;
Francis Drake, The World Encompassed [1628]
(New York: Cooper Square, 1969); Cornelius
Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les
Américains (Berlin, 1770); John Hawkesworth,
An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the
Order of His Present Majesty for Making
Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere
(London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773),
vol. 1, pp. 27–32, 152–155; Charles Darwin,
Voyage of the HMS Beagle [1839] (New York:
Harper and Row, 1959), chap. 9, pp.
164–165; Rupert T. Gould, Enigmas: Another
Book of Unexplained Facts (New Hyde Park,
N.Y.: University Books, 1965), pp. 16–23.
-Once again quoting Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures, 2002
¿Bigfoot in the Pyrenees?
The
Pyrenees--the mountain range separating the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of
Europe--also appear to be the home of a fascinating mountain hominid. For
centuries, there have been reports of hairy, foul-smelling creatures known as
basajún in the Basque country and simiote or simiot in Aragón and Cataluña.
Author Miguel Aracil went in search of this elusive manimal at the behest of
Spain's Más Allá magazine and ascertained that belief in the simiots, far from
being medieval legend, was current fact.
Medieval tradition, which has
survived to our time as chronicles and artwork (two 12th century images of the
simiot are known to exist, depicting it as a creature resembling the "black
cats" that haunt the British countryside), holds that the simiots killed entire
flocks of sheep and an occasional human. As in other countries, these Pyrenean
hominids issued strange cries, grunts and wails, aside from a noisome odor.
Aracil writes that a group of woodsmen from the wild Pyrenean region of
Peña Montesa was attacked by "a bizarre, hairy creature with semi-human
features" which went on to indulge itself a vandalistic frenzy, shattering
vehicles and heavy forestry equipment and even hurling tree trunks against
humans, according to one account. Groups of volunteers scoured the mountains in
search of the being but came up empty-handed, suggesting that it hid away in
"the enormous caves that are found in the region." Many years later, a tourist
who had gone hiking in the area had a face-to-face encounter with the creature
and was astounded by its foul smell.
Scientists have dismissed the
simiots as mere folktales. French scientist Alain Pillaire believed that the
reports concerned a "baboon", regardless of the fact that these animals are
found in equatorial Africa and are seldom over three feet tall.
Alfonso
Serra concurs with Miguel Aracil, stating in his book Misterios Ocultos
(Barcelona: Protusa, 1997) that gigantic skeletal remains of great age have been
found in the Pyrenees, some of them buried near the prehistoric dolmen of Oren,
in La Cerdanya. Nothing further was ever heard about them after they were turned
over to the Barcelona Archaeological Museum. Another giant skeleton, allegedly
measuring three meters long, was found in near Garós in the Pyrenees: it had the
peculiarity of having had an ancient piece of iron driven through
it.
Could it be possible, as many authors have suggested in past decades,
that humanity is not quite alone on this planet? This question has usually been
raised with regard to presence of extraterrestrial life on our world, whether
visiting in passing or possessing permanent bases on it. But in this case the
question is directed at the very real presence of other beings--possibly
sentient--living in remote or nearly impenetrable parts of our world.
