The Metamorphosis of unknown animals in fabulous beasts 
Bernard Heuvelmans
S the stories that appear daily tired of seeing in its menu of beef, lamb chops or ham, Louis XVI implored one day the sky these words: "Oh God, donatemi a new animal."
Maybe it's just a legend, but certainly for many centuries this was the deepest prayer of every zoologist eager to see associare il suo nome alla scoperta di un animale ancora sconosciuto e diventare quindi immortale tutt' a un tratto.
Quando si evoca la scoperta di animali "nuovi" o "sconosciuti" è, beninteso, solo un modo di dire. Bisognerebbe dire piuttosto "nuovi per il mondo occidentale" o "sconosciuti dai nostri scienziati". I soli animali veramente "nuovi" sarebbero i rappresentanti di specie apparse nei nostri giorni sotto l' effetto dell' evoluzione incessante degli esseri viventi. (Si parla spesso di animali "preistorici", ma in verità ci troveremmo molto a disagio nel citare una sola specie tra i vertebrati almeno che non sia preistorica, che insomma non sia nata prima dell' inizio della storia).
Pochi animali are really unknown to 'Men in general, in every region of the world, the natives know all the wildlife that shares with them the' environment. And in the heart of every culture, the sages and scholars have always stretched the 'inventory as complete as possible of the animals in the region. The
"Tapir's mantle" in India, only described by zoologists in 1816 under the name Western scientific Tapirus indicus, was already two thousand years before the Chinese encyclopaedias as me, and the giant panda was discovered in 1869 in Sseu-Tch 'Ouan by his father Armand David, seems to have been mentioned in 621 in a manuscript of' T'ang era under the name of Bei-Shung (white bear).
The Gorilla, the cui il mondo atlantico non ha voluto ammettere l' esistenza che nel 1847, aveva già da lungo tempo un nome in tutti gli idiomi dell' Africa centrale ed occidentale ed era anche stato descritto con cura agli inizi del XVII secolo dall' avventuriero inglese Andrew Battel. Quando nel 1850 Brian H. Hodgson portò indietro dalla regione dell' Himalayana delle pelli e dei crani di una specie di montone grande come un bue, che denominò Budorcas taxicolor, non fece altro che far conoscere in Occidente l' animale che i Mishmi dell' Assam chiamavano Takin.
Fu nel 1878 che l' impero britannico apprese l' esistenza in Kenia di una stupefacente gazzella con il collo di giraffa che in seguito ricevette il nome di Litocranius walleri, ma sul posto l' Gerenak had always called, and, in 'antiquity, had not only been represented on the coarse rock carvings dating from the east bank of the Nile from three to four thousand years, but also realistic bas-reliefs dating from the reign of Ramses II (XIII century BC) .
In 1900, Harry H. Johnston, governor of the 'Uganda, revealed to the astonished world survival, the forests of the' Ituri, an ancestor of the giraffe dating from the Miocene (15 to 35 million years ago), but the 'animal was well known under the name Okapi, the Wa-Mbuti Pygmies, who did not disdain sometimes to eat meat.
Pavone of the Congo, discovered among the general amazement of ornithologists in 1936, including the collections of Museo del Congo Belga, a Tervuran, era una preda di caccia tradizionale che i Bakumu chiamavano Itundu, e i Wa-Bali, Ngowé. Anche il più celebre dei fossili viventi del nostro tempo, il Celecanto, descritto nel 1939 dal Professor J.L.B. Smith, non era una novità per i pescatori delle Comore, che talvolta lo pigliavano nelle loro reti, e lo denominavano un tempo M'tsamboidoi, prima di chiamarlo più comunemente Kombessa : essi si servivano persino delle squame spinose di questo pesce "a zampe", risalente a più di 300 milioni di anni, per grattare la camera d' aria bucata dei pneumatici delle loro biciclette prima di incollarvi una toppa di caucciù.
Bisogna dire che gli animali terrestri, ben più facili da osservare, and that you continue to discover new species here and there across the world, are always known to the people who live in their proximity. The large fossil Catogonus
peccary, found alive and well in Paraguay in 1975, was duly baptized with the name of the Indians of the Gran Chaco Tagua who hunted for their meat. When I tried it myself in 1969, survival in our age of residual populations of Neanderthals, based on careful study of a sample frozen recently killed in Vietnam, the scientific name of Homo Neanderthaliensis pongoides paleoantropi that I gave to these highly specialized, has not been in fact, that a further addition to many other names.
My discovery was actually the result of a systematic investigation that he had allowed to establish that such wild and hairy men were known from one end to 'more of' Asia - from the Caucasus to the Bering Strait and the Malacca peninsula - and referred to throughout with a specific name by local populations.
The only regions of the world in which living beings are totally unknown, are in fact those that are not inhabited by 'man that almost uninhabitable or impossible to cross, or even to understand, in short, of the immensity of dry ice, rocks or sand, Some peaks of unclimbed mountains, and, of course, the ocean depths.
said that, in contrast, it must be confessed that no animal there is well known.
Sull 'secret existence of those that are nocturnal or burrowing, desert or water, or inhabitants of the vast rainforest partly flooded, we can not know a great thing.
Actually there are still areas of 'shadow or serious gaps in our knowledge of the animals easier to observe. Even our pets to retain something of their mystery: we do not know yet, beyond all doubt, face like a cat purring! The French philosopher of science
Brunschvieg Leon used to say: "I want to explain everything primitive, while the advanced admit their shortcomings." This distinction between the thought of the "wild" and that of "Civilized" is artificial. Whether we like it or not, 'Unknown terror strikes down' one and all 'other. If
to win the primary uses of explanatory myths, the Western scientist fills the gaps in his knowledge of building hypotheses. And there is not much difference.
The mythical thought always seems more an evolutionary adaptation designed to guard against the representatives of our species associated with the trauma of new experiences, the more distressing, so why ever faced before. It seems that when the information received from the outside world through that part of the central nervous system is sometimes referred to as "emotional brain", they go to store in the same categories, on the same mental processes to align and deform in the same stereotypical molds of the spirit in which they develop characters and plots of our mythologies, epics of our stories or our wives.
It is generally a more or less clear distinction between the myths, regarded as essentially religious, heroic sagas or legends, and folklore, namely the 'set of beliefs, sayings and popular rites.
These different faces of a triptych in which they actually reflect the views of the world of the mystic, the poet and of 'man of the people, are structured in accordance with the laws the same, and that sort of forces divinely majestic cycle of nature, fantastic adventures the simple life of heroes and fairy tales, or even vulgar jokes humorous, they reveal only one built on the same model.
Because of the similarity of their process of mythologizing, the multiple vicissitudes of our insignificant individual existence - the 'painful experience of birth,' s expulsion from the womb, the 'icy hostility of the outside world, the primal pleasure of temporary food deprivation, consuming passion, but hampered by his mother, his rivalry with his father, the damper of the feed, and then, soon, the rivalry with the brothers and sisters, feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and the first later unfulfilled sexual desires, the fights and defeats, chess and humiliation, the betrayal and abandonment, divorce and death and death itself - all these daily misadventures seem eternal succession according to a script, that of cosmic traditions, historical or poetic.
So we seem, at first glance, the most natural thing in the world are no longer unexpected and terrifying tragedies that arise without warning and take us out of darkness by the throat and suck the blood, as if under the 'effect of a conspiracy evil forces that continues to destroy. If
'imagination deserves the nickname of "mad house" that we owe to Malebranche, his madness, however, the paranoid type, because it is a strictly systematized delirium. The laws are rigid and
coartanti 's imagination are clearly related to' architecture of our brains. It is they who have put up between 'the birth of another language, namely the' free association for nothing - but based on similarities, correspondences or parallels - selected phonemes and various objects, sensations, feelings and actions that constitute the our Universe.
them that I'm still contribute to furthering our knowledge and our understanding of natural phenomena, particularly that of animals of all kinds. Less
know of them, plus descriptions of their anatomy, their life and their costumes to go drawing on the thought processes, more associative really creative - and in any case prelogical and irrational - and more so it will look great filled with at the time of our science will begin to be interested in them.
When circumstances lead us in the presence of a being entirely unknown or rare, at least in our eyes - whether sore or unwilling to have left her natural habitat, is that for some reason we are there we entered - this meeting will seem so wonderful , so unusual that we tend to see a sign or perhaps an omen.
's why we have the' habit to call such animals "monsters" because, as Cicero said, 'Show' s future or what is hidden "(monster appellantur quia monstrant).
And we are not content to give them this name ambiguous: we mold, warped and adultery what we got to see them and extrapolate, with an unconscious bias, what we could not see, so as to let them in the most easily possible in a family structure to our mythical thought, in what CG Jung called an "archetype."
If the 'unusual animal, covered at will after being stranded on a beach, or just a glimpse into the thick of a forest, it seems huge, able to swallow, so terrifying, we describe it as necessarily a kind of dragon.
Just in case that does not have a horn on the forehead or nose or maybe a simple storage do hair, feathers or scales placed there, we, of course, turned it into a unicorn.
If you have a humanoid appearance without being a man and if living in camps or in the woods without the 'help of simple technology and especially if it is much more hairy than normal, take a wild man. If
will appear in the night, pale, sepulchral, \u200b\u200balmost elusive, no doubt it will look like a vampire in search of a prey to slaughter and then feeds on its blood, fresh, warm and regenerator.
If the 'animal, humanoid, is huge, hungry and threatening, we will call ogre. If, however
appear small and fearful we shall see him as a representative of the people of the fairies, miniature made pariahs in our own image and likeness, ready to help in exchange for small gifts, but certainly doomed, as you see them so rarely, to hide in the bowels of the earth.
If the 'extraordinary animal has shown us glimpses of the dark face of the waters of a lake is because they think should be the guardian of some swallowed treasure, a specific type of dragon: the lake monster.
If it is a very large bird whose silhouette stands out against a twilight sky, giving us a thrill in the back, attributed to him aggressive intentions and birds of prey, assimilation, even unwillingly of the Gryphon 'antiquity or to' Bird-Roc of the Arabian tales.
If you have a multi-colored plumage, iridescent and magnificent'll surely the Phoenix, the most beautiful of the inhabitants of this world. Me is certainly especially at sea or on the banks of the "monsters", abound, because of the marine animals will not get to feel that the little 'that can be glimpsed in a flash of time, when the curtain closes fleetingly waves here that 's imagination has a way of doing the lion's share!
If the animal is long and thin - which is the form that larger aquatic creatures end up taking to the mechanical reasons only - you affannerà to proclaim that he saw Grand sea serpent, the Leviathan of the Bible.
If he left out from 'huge wave of tentacles, it pale in thinking about the Kraken, the animal-sprawling island legends of Nordic and the giant octopus, able to seize entire ships colandoli to peak, the terror of sailors eager, in the past , of going to conquer the world.
And if the aquatic creature has a shape, even though roughly human, it will inevitably preferably a man or a woman ocean sea, a mermaid. Our imagination will grace his features up to give it an irresistible seduction skills, but we will try to escape, however, because at the same time, we have also given degli appetiti cannibali.
Come avviene dunque che, dappertutto nel mondo, gli uomini, quale che sia la loro razza o la loro cultura, abbiano sempre inventato le stesse creature favolose, agghindate con gli stessi attributi ed aureolate della medesima reputazione?
Si è ritenuto per molto tempo che queste leggende si siano potute trasmettere tramite scambi culturali.
Ma a forza di dover spingere indietro nel tempo l' epoca della loro presunta disseminazione, fino ad arrivare agli albori stessi dell' umanità, è stato necessario arrendersi all' evidenza: esse affondano in realtà le loro radici nelle nostre stesse profondità, in quello che Jung ha chiamato "l' inconscio collettivo".
E quest' ultimo senza doubt not, as we suggested above, and that a specific adjustment, genetically programmed, designed to protect against the psychological trauma that could arise from unusual and shocking experience, just like the natural defenses of the 'body against all types of aggression which is subject. In what we call "monsters" are reflected in all our fundamental psychological problems.
The Western Dragon is the embodiment of evil, all that we have to fight to live with dignity. L 'Unicorn, a phallic symbol, is the' image of the aggressive virility of male power that can be won, however, from what the weak woman has more pure, more naive, even more insidious and ultimately more effective.
La Sirena is rather the 'wrap-around image of the mother but devouring, the Femme Fatale, the Vamp, of which' man is the 'eternal victim. 'S Amazon falls a bit' in the same scheme, but on a social level: not content to seduce the 'man and then devour it; it so violent, then he does and castrates his slave, as soon as he fulfilled his role stud.
The 'wild man, the satyr, has a dual role: serving as a part of the trash, a counterpart to the' civilized man, for all that remains of the beast, of uncivil, repugnant, from 'On the other hand is rather 's idyllic image e nostalgica del Paradiso perduto dell' animalità naturale non costretta al lavoro e non colpevolizzata dallo schiacciante senso del peccato. L' Orco, maschio e femmina, e i giganti antropofagi sono una visione terrificante del mondo dei genitori, degli adulti, percepito attraverso l' occhio del bambino.
Quanto al Piccolo popolo, quello degli gnomi e dei folletti, non è che il contrario del medesimo mito, una trasposizione dell' universo dei bambini isolati dalla loro dimensione, incompresi, respinti in una sfera inferiore ed obbligati a fare dei piaceri agli adulti per assicurarsi la loro protezione ed i loro favori. Il Babau vorace, la bestia che divora il mondo ha, come molti altri mostri, una funzione ambivalente : rappresenta da una Apart from the fear of being swallowed up, killed, destroyed, by 'other nostalgic desire to return to excellence in the warm safety of the womb.
The lake monster, hidden under water impenetrable to the eye, is the 'image of what's perverse, d' shameful, 's indicated in the bottom of our consciousness of all that is most deeply held secret in our heart. The sea serpent is a symbol, and how transparent!, The Devil, the Prince of darkness, maybe what was once called "the fear of 'unknown', namely the 'immensity of the' ocean of lies beyond 'horizon, which was thought to be the ultimate seat of power of evil.
As the sprawling monster that rises from the depths, representing the dangers that threaten us from below (from the 'inside! Our inner conflicts in other words), so the' Bird is the kidnappers 'images of those who control us from' high (the Demiurge, the 'moral authority to judge us and punish us in case of error). La Fenice, a wonderful ambassador of the universe or far, perpetually reborn from its ashes, recalls the 'lost Eden, the country where death did not exist, and his example gives us a glimpse into a possible return to the Age of' Oro .
As for the Vampire, if also evokes longing for immortality, it serves to remind us of the curse that accompanies it as a 'shadow. In short, there are myths for all ages, all sexes and particular tastes. That's why we attract, seduce us, disturb us, captivates us, enlighten us, albeit a dark light, and ultimately reassure us and console us.
No wonder we are so greedy monsters and fantastic creatures in the film as literature. Paradoxical as it may sound, the fabulous monsters are without doubt, among all animals, those closest to us, the most closely related to our inner life. The dog, cat, horse and some other animals live on our side, the legendary beasts live in us.
E 'to the surface of the waves of our unconscious mermaids frolic, Kraken and sea serpents, and forests that shade its banks that are hidden dragons and unicorns, satyrs and female riders, orcs and goblins, werewolves and vampires. And it is the sky of our dreams in flight explained that cross the formidable bird Roc, kidnapper of elephants, and the Phoenix who eternally returns to his native heaven.
It 's a fact that affects us all.
is the deeper reason why we are so inclined, and that impatience! A to wear the uniform of fabulous beasts, animals of flesh and blood, sometimes the most prosaic: d 'the hand' operation is much easier because these animals are poorly known, little known or only on the eve of being ...
E 'because the manatee has breast chest as his cousin, elephant seals, as well as the Woman, and because his body to the tail ends of fish, which has always confused, one part el' the other 's Atlantic with disturbing siren - even in spite of its appearance very awkward to us - and it was suspected at the same time bloodthirsty instincts.
But in reality it is possible to imagine a more harmless animal, the more helpless of this marine species of cow that spends most of his time to browse the hyacinth 's water and other succulents? In the last century
circulated throughout Africa 's tropical entries for a giant hairy, bloody and slippery that stunned the elephants to beating and kidnap women for rape in the forest. This being half satyr and half ogre is revealed in the end nothing 'more than the Gorilla, a great ape, which is now known to be mild and peaceful, almost totally vegetarian and a lot less obsessed with sex that the' man.
Since we started to know it better it was necessary to transfer its bad reputation to another ape, the unknown of 'Himalaya. That 's what it is today accused of putting the yak Ko to bare fists, before gut with his claws, and to kidnap young girls for fun: The' Abominable Snowman, to call it by its name, 's other hand, totally undeserved.
When on the eve of the First World War was discovered on an 'island' s Indonesia is currently the largest known lizard, a lizard that was more than three feet long, of course, he was given the name of the Komodo Dragon. And yet his size was insignificant compared to those of larger crocodiles, at least twice as long and heavy at least six times as much, since even more than a ton.
These real monsters do not give the prestigious name of "dragons" because they are too well known, and for too long, to be more similar to some mythical animal. In our day, continues unabashedly to treat as "sea serpent" any slender animal apparently unknown, glimpsed here and there on the surface of the waves.
Yet most of these moves just as mammals are able to do, with the vertical undulations of the body, including reptiles in general, and snakes in particular, are incapable of doing.
Especially since 1933, unusual and quite large animals are reported very frequently in the largest lake in the British Isles. For being perpetuated for centuries, it is obvious that they must build an entire population 's hand more specimens have been observed simultaneously.
This does not prevent you from continuing to talk about the monster of Loch Ness "and that it has been accused, unfairly well, to devour the sheep. This
to conform to the myth of the dragon lake, the guardian of treasures, that good manners would be sacrificed from time to time a virgin, a type of food has become rare.
not to leave more to chance discovery of the animals still ignored and speed it up somewhat with the research-oriented in a precise way, I strive for decades, to build a new discipline of science, which I gave the name of Cryptozoology (or science of hidden animals).
addition to the collection, location and criticism of the testimony of observers, the unmasking of the false, the 'analysis of indigenous knowledge and the study of any representations - archaeological o recenti - la cui sintesi deve sboccare sulla sistematizzazione di un ritratto-prototipo dell' aspetto dell' animale e di una descrizione il più possibile accurata dei suoi costumi, questa disciplina ha anche come scopo la demitizzazione delle voci, che corrono in varie parti del mondo, su diversi "mostri", al fine di scoprire gli animali reali che si nascondono sotto la loro maschera stereotipata.
A causa della quantità di aspetti fantastici di cui tali animali sono agghindati e dei comportamenti stravaganti che loro si attribuiscono, la loro realtà è sovente messa in dubbio o negata con forte sarcasmo da zoologi di spirito conservatore o da folkloristi che imputano tutto il meraviglioso all' immaginazione.
Di fatto danno prova di fraintendere la nozione di "mito" e di una totale incomprensione del processo di mitizzazione. E' proprio perché delle specie animali non sono state ancora identificate e debitamente classificate, che esse si prestano per eccellenza a questa operazione di distorsione e di adulterazione.
Meno sono conosciute, più è facile farle entrare di forza nello stampo, talvolta stretto, di un archetipo favoloso, proprio come Procuste col suo letto poco confortevole. E questa operazione da quel momento fa loro restar incollato al corpo, quasi come una decalcomania, l' aspetto caratteristico e le abitudini talvolta assurde del prototipo leggendario.
E, a questo punto, scrollarglieli di dosso diviene abbastanza delicato. Rassicuriamoci, comunque : questa operazione systematic demystification of the monsters will never end with the 'annihilation of them. Once entered into the 'fold of Science, and duly baptized by you, the animals in that they embody, he will always find others to take the baton and play their role.
And if the 'inventory of the animal world really came to run out - something that' s current zoological continues to deny - that we would find somewhere else to feed our myths. Already Vamp artificial as that of the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang, is ready to take the place of 'irresistible siren, the kidnapper of young nymphets Robot replacing gradually in science fiction to' old satyr and his nymphs molester successor, il Gorilla violentatore di indigene; i dischi volanti sostituiscono l' Uccello Roc per rapire i terrestri; i piccoli marziani verdi prendono il posto dei folletti, degli gnomi e degli altri rappresentanti del Piccolo Popolo; ed il Triangolo delle Bermude fa più vittime lui solo che il gran Trio oceanico : il Serpente di mare, la Sirena e il Polpo gigantesco.
I mostri non sono prossimi alla morte.
Non che siano eterni; senza dubbio sono nati con il nostro pensiero e finiranno con lui. Spero tuttavia che a loro sopravvivano tutti gli animali in carne e ossa che si sono incarnati successivamente in ciascuno di essi, e che in qualche modo li hanno nutriti e mantenuti in vita per l' equilibrio della nostra anima. Noi gli dobbiamo certamente almeno questo.
Adapted from www.criptozoo.com
