Hidebehind
A strong, nocturnal creature which feeds off the intestines of its prey. It captures and hides from wayfarers in the woods by sucking in its body so that it can hide behind the trunk of any tree, or the person trying to look at it. It is said they have an aversion to alcohol.
Jorge Luis Borges - Book of Imaginary Beings
Gef, sometimes referred to as the Talking Mongoose or the Dalby Spook, was a talking mongoose reported to inhabit a farmhouse known as Cashen’s Gap on the Isle of Man.
In September 1931, the Irving family, consisting of James, Margaret and 13 year old daughter Voirrey, heard scratching and rustling noises behind their farmhouse’s wooden wall panels. Initially they thought it was a rat, but then the unseen creature began making different sounds. At times it spat like a ferret, growled like a dog or gurgled like a baby.
The entity soon revealed an ability to speak and introduced itself as Gef, a mongoose. It claimed to have been born in New Delhi India, in 1852. According to Voirrey, the only person to see him properly, Gef was the size of a small rat with yellowish fur and a large bushy tail. (The Indian mongoose is in reality much larger than a rat and does not have a bushy tail). He would never allow anyone but Voirrey to see him, however, and if he didn’t like you, you could count on being insulted, or pelted with pebbles.
Many researchers suspected that Gef was a poltergeist, and the Irving’s daughter Voirrey was at the right age for that sort of thing. If a poltergeist, Gef was rather a nice one. He often talked and joked with the family, and would occasionally leave small game, mostly rabbits, on their doorstep for dinner.
Gef claimed at times to be “an extra extra clever mongoose”, an “Earthbound spirit” and “a ghost in the form of a mongoose”. He once said: “I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you’d faint, you’d be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!”
The only physical evidence cited in support of Gef’s existence would appear to be a series of footprints,none of which were identified as those of a mongoose, stains on the wall, supposed hair samples which were identified as having belonged to the Irving’s sheepdog, and several photos which were claimed by the Irvings to depict Gef, (such as the one above).
James Irving kept diaries about Gef between 1932 and 1935. These diaries, along with reports about the case, are in Harry Price’s archives in the Senate House Library, University of London.
Cryptid of the Day: Snow Worm
Description: In Spring of 1978, in California’s San Gabriel Mountains, two cryptozoologists found a worm-like creature wiggling along a bank near a creek. They took it home and kept it for three months without feeding it. Miraculously, it lived. They believe the worm was a new species, since no worm expert could identify the species.
An Endling is the last known member of a species or subspecies. The endling’s death means the end of the species as a whole. The word was supposedly coined by Robert Webster in the mid 1990s. The term is used, however, it still does not have an entry in The Merriam-Webster Dictionary despite Robert trying to get it into the dictionary before his death in 2004. The endling for the Thylacine was called Benjamin.
pet peeve of mine is people laughing at this w/out knowing this is literally how the bigfoot looks in the famous footage. xfiles didn’t make this up bigfoot has always had huge boobs
Hidebehinds are large dog-like creatures found in the stories of lumberjacks. Hidebehinds are described as large dog-like creatures with black, shaggy fur, long, sharp claws, and a tail. The Hidebehind gets its name due to the fact that it hides behind people and when they turn around the Hidebehind hides behind an object or runs behind the person so it isn’t seen then once it gets close enough the Hidebehind kills its victim and then eats them. Experts believe that the Hidebehinds could be black bears.
The Jersey Devil has gained many nicknames over the years since its first sighting. Some are less creative like “The Leeds Devil” while others are downright strange like “The Hoodle-Doodle Bird" or “Wozzle Bug”. It is not really known how the Devil got these odd nicknames.