T
I n addition to werewolves, vampires, and Chupacabras, there are many JL other fanciful man-beasts that—so to speak—people the supernatural realm. These include Devil Men, the Zanzibar Demon, and Zombies— each treated in turn here.
In the belief of many fundamentalist Christians, Satan is not merely a personification of evil, but its very real embodiment. As such he is supposedly the power behind sorcerers (warlocks and witches). Frequently he is depicted as a serpent (signifying his lowly position and his cunning, poisonous ways) or, alternately, he is portrayed as a man-goat figure (apparently after pre-Christian deities like Pan, the goatlike god of fields and forests from Greek mythology). In this form he typically has whiskers, horns, cloven hooves, and a tail (Rachleff 1971, 107; Cavendish 1975, 170-71).
From time to time evidence is brought forth that supposedly confirms the existence of the goatlike satan. For example, there was the nineteenth- century case of “the Devil’s hoofprints” in the county of Devon, England, that proved to be a contagious rash of misperceptions (Nickell 2001, 10-17). Then there was the “Jersey Devil,” a phantom folklore creature with hooves, an animalian head, wings, and tail. It was given embodiment
in a famous hoax of 1909 in which a caged kangaroo was outfitted with fake wings and prompted to leap at spectators by being prodded with a stick (Nickell 1995, 243-44).
Again, there were the cloven-hoofed tracks allegedly discovered outside the infamous “ Amity ville Horror” house in Long Island. Supposedly those of a demon, they were, however, part of another elaborate hoax (Nickell 2004, 73-77).
I had my own close encounter with a “devil” in 1971. It was in the form of a supposedly mummified little creature I came across in the window of a Toronto curio shop. It had budding horns, fangs, clawlike nails, a long tail, and realistic hooves: a devil-baby mummy! Apparently I showed too much curiosity (or skepticism) about the small creature, because the owner snapped at me that it was not for sale and that I should not interest myself in it. I did wrest from him the statement that he had bought it from an Irish museum twelve years before. Later the figure was moved to the rear of the store, but a photographer I commissioned obtained a photo during the shop’s off hours by shooting through the window with a long-range lens (see figure 14.1).
Still later, I sent a friend to the store. Using a wad of cash to get the
Figure 14.1. A reputed devil baby mummy appeared for a time in a Toronto curio shop, 1971 (authors photograph).
proprietor’s attention, my friend received an offer to buy the sinister creature for a five-figure sum. Before leaving, he was able to get a close look at the curio, observing that the hair had been glued on.
Subsequently, in a book titled Vampires, Zombies, and Monster Men , I discovered a photograph of a similar creature—or rather a pair of them, their arms folded in the repose of death. Headed “Clahuchu and his Bride,” a sign affixed to the creatures’ coffin claimed: “These shrunken mummified figures were found in a crude tomblike cave on the island of Haiti in 1740 by a party of French marines. They are supposed to be the remains of a lost tribe of ‘Ju-Ju’ or Devil Men—who, after death followed a custom of shrinking & mummifying their dead.” The sign concluded: “Are they real? We don’t know, but. . . X-Rays showed skin, horn, & hooves human!” There was, astonishingly, however, no mention of a skeleton. Painted beneath the sign were these mumbo-jumbo words: “YENOH M’l DLOC!” (Farson 1976, 32). My cryptanalytical (codesolving) interests were piqued, and I soon discovered that reading each word backward in turn yields the prankish message, “Honey I’m Cold!”— presumably an indication of the seriousness with which we should approach the “devil” figures (Nickell 1995, 111-15).
There are other such creatures. One had been in the possession of a cult leader who claimed it was his satanic offspring, which was stillborn. As described by John Anderson in his Psychic Phenomena Unveiled: Confessions of a New Age Warlock (n.d., 103-104, 108), it had “the shape of a small petrified body. The skin was very dark, almost black. Its feet were those of a goat. The body appeared to be half human, half animal, the face long, with a pointed chin.” Later, Anderson heard from a former cult member who had managed to sneak a closer look at the figure in the daylight. He said: “Impressive all right. An impressive papier-mache and plaster of paris job . . . not the remains of some mutant offspring of Satan.”
Figures like this are reminiscent of those seen in many carnival sideshows. A showman named William Nelson, who once managed the show wagon of the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, began to sell “mummified curiosities” in 1909. These included a “Devil Child” that sold for “$15 cash” or, “with 8 x 10 [sideshow] banner, $35.00”
An elaborate figure of this genre is the modern “Devil Man,” what is known in carnival parlance as a gaffed (faked) oddity. The touring figure, owned by carny authority James Taylor, is the creation of sideshow banner painter and “gaff artist” Mark Frierson, who fashioned it from papier- mache, pieces of bone, and craft supplies (Nickell 2005, 338).