CRYPTO ZOOLOGY - Study of Hidden Animals
Large Snakes
Large snakes are often featured in Brasillian colonial literature. This photo was taken in a museum in Recife, Brasil of a snake eating a deer - this is carved from a coconut husk (circa 1650, displayed at Brennand Castle).
GIANT BIRDS
Marco Polo describes several unusual animals seen during his travels in the 1200's-1300's. One such animal is the GRYPHON BIRD, which Marco Polo relates live on rocky outcrops of islands located southerly beyond Madagascar and Zanzibar.
As follows: "These more southerly islands, which men do willingly visit because of this southward drift, are very numerous, and it is said that they are inhabited by gryphon birds, which make their appearance here at certain seasons of the year. But you must know that they are by no means such as men in our country suppose, or as we portray them - half bird and half lion. According to the report of those who have seen them, it is not true that they are a blend of bird and lion; but I assure you that these men, the actual eye-witnesses, report that in build they are just like eagles but of the most colossal size. Let me tell you first what these eye-witnesses report and then what I have seen myself. They report that they are so huge and bulky that one of them can pounce on an elephant and carry it up to a great height in the air. Then it lets go, so that the elephant drops to the earth and is smashed to pulp, whereupon the gryphon bird perches on the carcase and feeds at its ease. They add that they have a wing-span of thirty paces and their wing feathers are twelve paces long and of a thickness proportional to their height (Z and R make the wing-span sixteen paces and the feathers eight). What I have seen myself I will tell you elsewhere..." "...To return for a moment to the gryphon birds, I should explain that the islanders call them rukhs and know them by no other name and have no idea what a gryphon is. But I feel sure from the monstrous size they attribute to the birds that they cannot be anything but gryphons." (VB(followed by R) adds that the envoys also brought back a gryphon feather, which Marco himself measured and found to be eighty of his spans in length, while the girth of the quill was two of his palms).(1)
As follows: "These more southerly islands, which men do willingly visit because of this southward drift, are very numerous, and it is said that they are inhabited by gryphon birds, which make their appearance here at certain seasons of the year. But you must know that they are by no means such as men in our country suppose, or as we portray them - half bird and half lion. According to the report of those who have seen them, it is not true that they are a blend of bird and lion; but I assure you that these men, the actual eye-witnesses, report that in build they are just like eagles but of the most colossal size. Let me tell you first what these eye-witnesses report and then what I have seen myself. They report that they are so huge and bulky that one of them can pounce on an elephant and carry it up to a great height in the air. Then it lets go, so that the elephant drops to the earth and is smashed to pulp, whereupon the gryphon bird perches on the carcase and feeds at its ease. They add that they have a wing-span of thirty paces and their wing feathers are twelve paces long and of a thickness proportional to their height (Z and R make the wing-span sixteen paces and the feathers eight). What I have seen myself I will tell you elsewhere..." "...To return for a moment to the gryphon birds, I should explain that the islanders call them rukhs and know them by no other name and have no idea what a gryphon is. But I feel sure from the monstrous size they attribute to the birds that they cannot be anything but gryphons." (VB(followed by R) adds that the envoys also brought back a gryphon feather, which Marco himself measured and found to be eighty of his spans in length, while the girth of the quill was two of his palms).(1)
GIANT EAGLES IN NEW ZEALAND
Personally, I have spoken to a full-blooded Maori from New Zealand, who was living in Sydney, Australia at the time we conversed, about giant birds in New Zealand. This Maori lady, stated as a personal testimony to me that her grandmother had related to her, that when she was a child, there used to live giant eagles that lived on the coastal cliffs of the islands in New Zealand and that they were so large they could pick up humans and take them away. She insisted that these were not made up fantasies but were real living creatures. This was probably reference to the pouākai (Haast’s eagle).
Animals unknown to Science, or Rare
UNICORNS
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Strange Fish
Marco Polo describes an unusual fish seen during his travels in the 1200's-1300's in Asia:
"Let me tell you now of a marvel that occurred while Bayan was besieging this city. It happened, after King Facfur had taken to flight, that a multitude of the townsfolk were fleeing by boat by way of a broad, deep river that flows past one side of the city. All of a sudden, while they were actually in the river, the water completely dried up, so that Bayan, on learning the news, came to this part and compelled all the fugitives to return to the city. And a fish was found lying high and dry across the river-bed - and what a fish! For it was fully 100 paces long, but its girth was by no means proportionate to its length. Its whole body was hairy. Many people ate of it, and many of those who did so died. Messer Marco, as he relates, saw the head of this fish with his own eyes in a certain temple of the idols."1(p.228)
"Let me tell you now of a marvel that occurred while Bayan was besieging this city. It happened, after King Facfur had taken to flight, that a multitude of the townsfolk were fleeing by boat by way of a broad, deep river that flows past one side of the city. All of a sudden, while they were actually in the river, the water completely dried up, so that Bayan, on learning the news, came to this part and compelled all the fugitives to return to the city. And a fish was found lying high and dry across the river-bed - and what a fish! For it was fully 100 paces long, but its girth was by no means proportionate to its length. Its whole body was hairy. Many people ate of it, and many of those who did so died. Messer Marco, as he relates, saw the head of this fish with his own eyes in a certain temple of the idols."1(p.228)
Native TIGER reports in Australia
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DRAGONS
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References
1. The Travels of Marco Polo, Roland Latham translation, Penguin Books, London England, published 1958, p.300
1. The Travels of Marco Polo, Roland Latham translation, Penguin Books, London England, published 1958, p.300