TODAY IT'S ALL ABOUT ...... 'HAIRY MAN'.

There is a Yeti in the back of everyone’s mind; only the blessed are not haunted by it.
- The saying of an old Sherpa.

There are no Abominable Snowmen, there are no Sasquatch, there are no Big Feet OR are there?

According to THIS ARTICLE on the BBC News website a UK/Swiss team will use DNA testing to investigate the origins of the remains claimed to be from Yeti and Big Foot.


North America: Sasquatch/Big Foot ('Hairy Man of the forest'), the Himalayas: Abominable Snowman/Yeti/Meh-Teh ('Dweller among the rocks'), Australia: Yowie/Doolagahl ('Great Hairy Man'), Brazil: Mapinguari, China: Chi-Chi/Chang Mi ('Wild Man'), Russia: Almastis, Bolivia: Jucucu - call this mythical creature what you will.


Think the Sasquatch of North America or the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas are the only 'Hairy Men' known to the world? Well, think again.


Firstly coming to the attention of popular Western culture in the late19th/early 20th century, the earliest 'reliable' source of this hairy ape-like creature was in 1925 when a photographer working as part of British geographical expedition in the Himalayas saw a creature moving in the distance, the footprints discovered in the snow ........

Similar in size and shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches long by four inches wide at the broadest part of the foot,  the marks of five distinct toes and the instep were perfectly clear, but the trace of the heel was indistinct.

Though generally considered to be a combination of folklore, mistaken identity and hoax there are those who not only actually believe that 'Hairy Men' exist but those who believe that he exists in another dimension, travelling by astral projection.


Anyway,


Onto two of the lesser known 'relatives' of the yeti, onto the Australian Yowie, and the Brazilian Mapinguari.  


The Yowie: Depending on the particular tribe this reclusive creature is also, amongst other names, known as Doolagharl, Pankalanka, OR Kanchenjunga Demon -  Kanchenjunga being the third highest mountain in the world and the name of a Goddess of the Sikkimese people.


Roaming the forests as individuals, in pairs or, less commonly, in small 'family' units, the Yowie has been seen over a wide area of Australia from the earliest times of the Aboriginal people to the early European settlers to the present day. 


Physically very like the the Abominable Snowman, the Yowie is believed to have been a creature of the Dreamtime (The creation story of the Aboriginal peoples) and it is claimed was in fact seen almost 100 years before Europeans had even so much as heard of the Himalayan Abominable Snowman.

The Mapinguari: Often translated as 'the roaring animal' or 'fetid beast', the Mapinguari is also known as the Mapinguary or the Isnashi.

Though thought by many to be a creature of Brazilian folklore or even a hoax there are those who believe that the Mapinguari is best explained as a well preserved memory of the giant sloth like animals (Mylodons) that roamed this part of the world some 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago.

According to local legends the Isnashi was a man who in is desire for immortality was cursed to lead a life lived forever wandering the forest as a fifteen foot, shaggy, one-eyed beast with a love for tobacco who because of his awful smell was often followed by clouds of flies.

Traditionally depicted as having only one eye, alligator-like skin which legend has it no arrow could penetrate, backward facing feet, and a second mouth on its belly, more recent accounts describe the Mapinguari as being similar to the Abominable Snowman though it is said to have black fur instead of the more typical red. 

Sources: Wikipedia, The UnMuseum, The Skeptic's Dictionary, Australian Yowie Research Centre, the Great Hairy Man Story, Paranormal Encyclopedia,  Frontiers Of Zoology, Occultpedia.


PS Sorry if you dropped by hoping for a post about hairy men when what you in fact got was, well, err, a post about 'hairy men'.