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Mapinguary
Alternatively
Mapinguari
and
Isnashi.
Another
mysterious primate,
this time from
Brazil.
Brazil's
Bigfoot,
described as a tall black-furred hominid,
has been allegedly
seen in the jungles along the 'Rio Araguaia', a large river in
Brazil's state of
Mato Grosso do Sul.
Sasquatch-like
creatures have been reported in many areas of
Brazil
for over two hundred years, but it seems that this central area of this immense
and diversified country is the 'hotspot' for them.
In March
and April of 1937 one of these creatures supposedly went on a three week
rampage at
Barra das Garças, a small farming town 300 miles southeast
of the city of
Cuiabá, capital of the central state of
Mato Grosso do Sul. A large number of heads of cattle were slaughtered by somebody or
something with super-human strength, enough to torn out their huge
tongues. Reports included unconfirmed sightings, humanoid-like tracks as
long as 18 inches, and horrible roaring from the woods. All together,
over one hundred heads of yellow cattle of old Spanish origin were
killed, all the way to
Ponta Branca, located 150 miles south of
Barra das Garças. This Mapinguary rampage made the major newspapers in
Rio de Janeiro and
São Paulo.
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Other
reports from South America describe the Mapinguary as a large foul
smelling nocturnal
animal, covered in red hair and with a frightful screaming cry. This
other version of
the legendary creature is supposedly a strict vegetarian, with feet that
are turned backwards and claws capable of ripping apart the palm trees
it feeds on. Other local names for this type include 'capé-lobo' (wolf's cape),
'mão de pilão' (pestle hand), and 'pé de garrafa'
(bottle foot).
According
to old Indian, 'seringueiro' (rubber tree worker) and 'caboclo'
(local mixed race people) legends, the Mapinguary was a man
whose hubris led him to seek immortality and who is now relegated to wandering the forest forever as a stinking, shaggy,
one-eyed beast. Fifteen feet tall and with hair so thick it makes it
invulnerable to bullets, swords, knifes, arrows and spears, the creature
loves tobacco and twists off the upper skulls of its human victims so as to suck up their gray matter.
But its most freaky feature is its 'extra mouth' in the middle of its belly! When it feels threatened, it lets out a truly vile stench
— something like commingled garlic, excrement, and rotting meat — from this second mouth, which, the Indians say, is strong enough to suffocate any attacker.
Because of this despicable odor, the creatures are often followed by
clouds of flies, and the strongest warriors are forced to flee from the
smell of the monster alone; others find themselves dazed and sick for
days after an encounter.
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Because
of such reports, legends and descriptions, a small number of naturalists believe
that these are surviving specimens of the giant ground sloth, Mylodons, generally
assumed to have died out around ten thousand years ago. They were red-haired
vegetarians that emerged about 30 million years ago and roamed the Americas, the Caribbean, and Antarctica.
With large claws that curled under and faced backward when they walked on all
fours, these giant marsupials could also stand on their hind feet like people. Some species had dermal ossicles,
bony plates that made their skin very tough.
See Agogwe,
Abominable
Snowman, Almas, Sasquatch,
Curupira,
Kaki Besar, Maricoxi,
Bigfoot, Yeti,
Meh-teh, Nguoi Rung, 'X', Windigo,
Orang Pendek and Wildman of China.
Sources: (1)
Anderson, Ivan T.,
Abominable Snowmen: Legend
Come to Life,
Adventures Unlimited Press;
(2)
Wilson, Colin and Damon,
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved,
Carroll & Graf;
(3) Heuvelmans, Bernard,
On the Track of Unknown Animals,
Columbia
University Press;
(4) Wilson, Damon,
The Unexplained,
Scarlet Books; (5) Clark, Jerome,
Unexplained!,
Visible Ink Press.
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