Saffron Walden Witch Bottle

During some alterations which are in progress at Messrs. Hart's, in King-street, workmen came upon an old "Witch Bottle," embedded about 18 inches below the floor of the shop, and about 12 inches from the fireplace. It contained some water, about 40 horsenails, and 20 thorns. It is supposed to be 200 years old. Some quaint old carvings on stone and oak were also discovered, supposed by antiquarians to date from the time of Elizabeth.
Chelmsford Chronicle, 22nd July 1870.

Towards the end of the last century, at Saffron Walden, Essex, there were discovered during alterations to buildings both a "witch jug" and a "witch bottle." The latter was buried in the floor of a house. It contained some water, about forty horse-shoe nails, and twenty thorns. It was supposed to be about two centuries old. It was customary in England in the early years of the seventeenth century to place under the entrance of a house a jug or bottle filled with horse-shoe nails to prevent the entrance of witches.
Framlingham Weekly News, 15th November 1930.

Was that a Moa I saw?

A miner writes to a New Zealand paper to say that whilst he and his mate were prospecting for gold last autumn, between lake Rotorua and the Cannibal Gorges, in the province of Nelson, he saw what he believed to be the moa. His description is as follows: - 

"We heard a strange screeching noise in a gully about a hundred yards from where we were camped, and went to where the noise proceeded from, and to our surprise we saw two gigantic birds coming towards us. They did not show the least alarm at seeing us, but continued coming to where we were, so we took to our heels. We heard them two or three times that night again.  Having no gun with us we thought it advisable to start the next morning, for fear they would tackle us. One of them was apparently about twelve feet high, and the other somewhat smaller, with feathers resembling the kiwi's."

Hardwicke's Science-Gossip, vol. XV, 1879.

Some people annoying a couple of moas, as imagined by Heinrich Harder (via Wikimedia).

FF Notes:
There were nine species of moa on New Zealand. They were flightless but could kick the arse of most other creatures due to their enormous size. Like the miners claimed, some did get as big as 12 feet tall. But Wikipedia begs to differ on the sound they would have made - at least some had tracheal rings, which are associated with resonating deep calls in extant species of birds.

It's thought that they were all extinct by 1445, hunted by the Maori. They were only 'rediscovered' in the 1830s, when Sir Richard Owen (founder of the Natural History Museum in London) figured out what sort of bone he'd been sent by his Australian uncle.

Sightings persist until very recently. You can read a paper detailing some of them here. 
But it's probably unlikely that they still exist, sadly.

The idea that they could still exist, or people want them to exist, or people want to tell stories about them existing, really interests me. One of my favourite creatures is the thylacine - a similarly beleaguered animal that lived in Australia until its eventual extinction in the 1930s. People are still seeing those stripey marsupials on and off. Sometimes I go to visit a real (albeit dusty) one in Bristol Museum. 

Later in the magazine, a cynic writes that they can't find a Lake Rotorua on the south island of NZ, nor the 'Cannibal Gorge'. But actually they're there, although it's a pretty big area between them. It's nice to think the moas might have been about. But I should get a grip.

A Mythical Man-Eater: the Wobbo or Mantillit

"In Science-Gossip for June, 1867 (p.128), in an article upon an old natural history more than a century old, I described a strange beast called the Lamia. This creature is said to be bred in Libya; to decoy men to it by exposing its bosom; to have a face and breast like a beautiful woman; and its hinder parts like a goat. This is said to be the creature mentioned as the Lieliath in the 34th chapter of Isaiah and the 4th chapter of Lamentations. So runs the old chronicler.

Never having heard of the monster I was amused to read of a legend existing in modern Abyssinia regarding it, which seems to require some explanation, as it is so very circumstantial. Mansfield Parkyns says, in his very interesting work entitled "Life in Abyssinia" published by Murray in 1868 (on p.404): 

"There is an animal, which I know not where to class, as no European has hitherto succeeded in obtaining a specimen of it: it is supposed by the natives to be far more active, powerful and dangerous than even the lion, and consequently held by them in the greatest possible dread. They call it 'wobbo' or 'mantillit,' and some hold it in superstitious awe, looking upon it more in the light of an evil spirit with an animal's form than a wild beast.

Their descriptions of this animal are vague in the extreme: some say that its skin is partly that of a lion, but intermixed with that of the leopard and hyena; others, again, assert that its face is human, or very like it. It appears int he valleys, happily only rarely; for they say that when it takes its abode near a village, it pays nightly visits, entertaining the very houses, and carrying off the children, and even occasionally grown-up persons. One had been killed some years ago on the river Weney, and its skin presented to Oubi (king of Tigre); but i could never discover what became of it. I heard of a village which had suffered considerably from its depredations, and for several days watched every night in the neighbourhood, but without success."

--F.A.A.

 Hardwicke's Science Gossip, 1874.


Not really a Wobbo but a Manticore. Looks a bit similar. From Joannes Jonstonus's 1678 book.

FF Notes:

Abyssinia (Ethiopia) is nowhere near Libya so I think F.A.A's conflation of the biblical Lamia and the contemporary Wobbo is very imaginative indeed, especially considering their descriptions only coincide with their human-like faces.

But the idea of the Wobbo or Mantillit is rather interesting - that the creature sneaking up on them in the night isn't merely a big cat after some dinner, but something more supernatural.

Mr Cryptozoology, Karl Shuker, says on his blog:

The Ethiopian wobo is known chiefly from the baffling pelt formerly exhibited at the principal cathedral of Eifag. According to Ethiopia's Amhara and Tigré inhabitants, the wobo is larger than a lion and yellowish-brown or brownish-grey in colour with black stripes. Sceptics dismiss the Eifag skin as a tiger Panthera tigris pelt brought there from Asia by a traveller or merchant, but as the wobo is a familiar beast to many Ethiopians, this is not a satisfactory explanation - especially when an identical creature, dubbed the abu sotan, has been reported from the mountains near the River Rahad in neighbouring Sudan.

Curiously, I don't see any place called 'Eifag' in Ethiopia. Or anywhere.  There's a Ifag / Yifag but I don't know if it's a big enough sort of place you'd find a cathedral (this page suggests it was once important for trade and had excellent wine). Maybe I'm wrong, but the internet is certainly devoid of much information. So that's a bit bemusing. And it's been copied all over the internet. Naughty Mr Shuker and lazy copiers. I wonder if it's been taken from the original Mr Cryptozoology, Bernard Heuvelman's book (in French)  'Les Felins Encore Inconnus d'Afrique' and is some sort of translatery misunderstanding.

So beware of repeating things you've read on the internet. Obviously I don't doubt in the human-faced Wobbo. But it sounds as elusive as the Eifag cathedral.