(04-22-2020, 07:38 AM)Wallfire Wrote: I tried to watch the second video but lost interest very fast. To be honest this big foot thing has just got silly. It would be nice if some one would take an honest look at the storys behind all the big foot types all over the world. What I do find interesting is that almost every country has some sort of creature, big foot, wear wolfs, reindeer's (that can turn into people or the other way round) the list goes on and on. Why do we have such creatures in almost every culture. Is there something behind all the storys ??
I believe there IS something behind the tales, and that they all go back to a Time Before Time.
There are tales of were-folk (werewolves, were-bears, dogmen, etc), people who can transform into wolves, bears, deer, goats, sheep - just about any animal you can think of - all around the world. The Transylvania region of Romania is a hotbed of such tales, but I doubt it is the ultimate source of them - I think they are far older. There is a cave painting in France, in Trois-Freres cave I believe, called "The Sorcerer" that shows a half-man, half-stag Being. The Gundestrup Cauldron has a relief of what is presumed to be the Celtic Cernunnos, showing a man with stag antlers.
Europe has it's werewolves, Scandanavia it's Berserkers and Ulfhednar, but such tales are also found in America, and were here before the Europeans arrived, meaning they had to come from a far older source, much closer to the origins of man before the dispersal around the globe. The Navajo have their tales of Skin-Walkers, the Shawnee are dubious of large owls, as they believe witches can transform themselves into owls. Likewise, tales of were-folk are present in Africa, and I believe among the Australian Aborigines. I believe there was a common source for all of these tales, and "The Sorcerer" cave painting whose tale we will never know.
Other tales that come from that long-ago time are those of giants and the little people. Those also are found around the world, including in America from pre-European times. The Indians said there were giants living in what is now Kentucky, and there are also tales of giants from out west, in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin. Oddly, all of the American Indian giant legends I have encountered mention that they had red hair (except one - the Cherokee "Stone Giants"), an odd detail from a people whose hair was almost universally coal black.
"Bigfoot" and allied creatures are also universally spoke of. America's "Bigfoot" and "Sasquatch", Europe's "Wild Men" and "Wudewosa", Asia's Almas, Almasty, and Yeti, the Siberian Yeren and Chuchunaa, the Australian Yowie... the list goes on and on. Even Daniel Boone claimed to have seen a large hairy biped during his exploration of Kentucky before Europeans settled there, when it was still a wilderness... a creature he referred to as a "Yayhoo".
In parts of Southeast Asia, they even combine the tales of hairy bipeds and little people into one, which is called an "Ebu-gogo" or an "Orang Pendek". It strikes me as fitting that in that area, on the island of Flores, is where the "Hobbit" ancient hominid was actually discovered by science - I don't know why more folks are not making that connection. A diminutive hominid standing about 3 or 3 1/2 feet tall, around 1 meter, and resembling a shrunken form of Homo Erectus, but living up to at least 11,000 years ago. I take that discovery as confirmation of the tales of the Ebu-gogo or Orang Pendek, but scientists would say that I take the association too far - the nerve of me, using a scientific discovery to confirming the existence of a legendary creature!
I think the giants and little folk, and the hairy bipeds, are or were real creatures which we have had tales passed down to us about. The shape-shifters I have more doubt of the reality of. It would be pretty hard to change your entire species at will, and change back again. However, I think even those tales have a common basis, in some ancient religion from the dawn of Man...
... in a Time Before Time.
ETA: @"BIAD" - How fares Irwin (or was it Erwin?) the Pixie Hunter? Did they finally get him with their dinky little arrows?
,
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’