Legends 31: Slither

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Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books.

So if you're ready, let's begin.

Some names are more powerful than they should be.

For example, if I sneezed and you handed me a box of tissues, you would ask if I needed a Kleenex, even if that's not the brand on offer.

If a schoolboy skins his knee on the playground during recess, the school nurse will most likely give him a band-aid.

Again, whether or not that's the actual brand.

And of course, if you sat down in a restaurant in most southern states in America, you would order a Coke, even if your desired beverage was really a Pepsi.

It's an odd phenomenon, really, this Kleenex effect.

Every now and then, the name of something specific takes over a larger category and almost rebrands it.

Often, this is due to the simple fact that the items in question, whether a real authentic Kleenex or a store-brand facial tissue, are practically identical to the naked eye.

And sometimes it's just a product of a cultural simplification.

And the truth is, most of us don't even notice these examples when we encounter them in our daily life.

It's natural and seamless.

And it's a process that happens in a bunch of categories, even in folklore.

And a great example is right under your feet.

Worms.

According to the internet, there are something like 57 billion of those wriggly sliming things in the earth for every one of us human beings.

They help with the breaking down of decomposing matter and, if you like to fish, offer a nearly endless supply of bait.

And while some people don't care to touch them and would probably refer to them as gross, I don't know anyone who is deathly afraid of them.

But that term, worm, has experienced the Kleenex effect in the past, and for a very long time, it was a word that had the power to strike fear in the hearts of the people who heard it.

So, come with me as we explore the legends that hide in a strange corner of history.

Some are small, while others are enormous.

But according to the stories, one thing is practically universal: not everything that slithers is safe.

I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is Lore Legends.

Deep in the jungles of Brazil is said to be a creature that seems to defy reality.

Legend says that it's massive, measuring upwards of 50 feet long, large enough to prey upon the local wildlife like fish and even cattle.

It supposedly dwells in lakes and bogs, waiting for the right moment to strike.

You might think that I'm describing one of the most fearsome creatures found in South America, the green anaconda.

But this beast is different because it's bigger, meaner, and a lot more dangerous.

It's called the Minyokao.

The Minyokau has been described as a giant earthworm or even an eel-like creature.

It's covered in scaly black skin and has tentacles protruding from its massive head.

And its its pig-like snout bears a mouth capable of devouring animals like cows, small horses, and even people.

It's a burrowing creature too, ranging anywhere from 50 to over 200 feet long and 10 feet in diameter.

It's been known to terrorize central and southern Brazil with occasional sightings throughout South America.

After a heavy rain, the Miño cow will dig a trench into the earth so large it can fell nearby trees and houses.

And this is where it will wait for its prey.

as soon as a tasty animal is within reach it will burst out of the ground and drag it away to finish it off although the first sightings of the cryptid date back to the 16th century eyewitness reports didn't hit their peak until the 1800s when european colonists naturalists and explorers came to the region even so most accounts come from brazilian natives who encountered it themselves One of the first sightings came from a man named João de Deos in west-central Brazil in 1849.

He had heard something one night along the Rio dos Papagayos following a heavy rain.

Funny enough, it sounded like more rain, except the sky had cleared up.

It was something nearby, very nearby, that was making the rustling sound.

Dadios went to investigate the following morning, and there in the ground were deep trenches running all the way back to the river.

Sightings continued over the next 30 years.

One of the more prominent ones came from Francisco de Amaro Varreya in 1870.

He said that he had spotted the Minyocao along the bank of the Rio das Calleiras.

It was enormous, he said, about three feet in diameter with the telltale pig-like snout.

He didn't notice any appendages, just its long body slithering near the river.

Varreya called out for help, hoping that someone nearby might be able to help him capture the creature, but by the time he turned back to face it, it was gone.

and had left behind a trench of dirt in its wake.

A number of theories have been put forth by scientists and cryptozoologists over the years as to the Minyoko's true identity.

19th-century French botanist Augustin des Saint-Hilière suggested that the beast was an unusually large variety of the South African lungfish, one of a handful of species capable of breathing on land.

And English cryptozoologist Carl Schucher proposed the theory that the minyokao was actually a giant caissalian, a amphibious worm-like creature.

But that idea was quickly debunked, considering caesalians only grow to be about a few inches long.

It's been argued that the miño cal could be descended from prehistoric animals like the titanoboa or even giant armadillos that lived almost 50 million years ago.

But whatever it was, it looks like it's as extinct as its potential ancestors, since there hasn't been a single sighting in the last 130 years.

Still, its legacy lives on to this day.

If you travel through Sao Paulo, Brazil, you might find yourself driving along an elevated highway that was opened in 1969.

It was originally called the Elevado Presidente Costa y Silva, named after a prominent leader within the country's military.

But because it looks like a gargantuan worm snaking its way through the city, the highway was renamed to the Miñoca.

With all that said, rumored creatures lost in the jungle are one thing, but some legends speak of similar creatures that have picked a more prominent place to roam.

And if the stories are true, these giant worms aren't shaped like you'd expect.

And some have a bigger bite than others.

Dragons.

If you've ever looked at a medieval painting of one, you might notice something a bit different about them than our modern expectations.

Their bodies are elongated like a snake's.

They have short legs and there are no wings on their backs.

Believe it or not though, these paintings aren't really depicting dragons.

The wingless dragon-like creatures were actually called worms, spelled W-Y-R-M, and became the subject of almost two dozen folktales throughout England and Scotland.

In Sussex, for example, they're called knuckers.

In Wales, they go by Anfunk.

But one small village in Scotland had a worm of its own, and it was a lot more terrifying than the slimy things wriggling around in the mud.

It was called the Linton Worm, named for the small village where it lived, and its legend dates back to the 12th century.

It was said to have dwelled inside a cave on the northeastern side of Linton Hill, an area still referred to today as the Worm's Den.

But this was no average worm.

It was a snake-like creature described as roughly 10 feet long and as thick as a person's leg.

Some say it was able to breathe fire, while others claim it once sported a pair of wings.

In other words, it was something between a worm and a dragon.

The linton worm would emerge from its lair at dusk and dawn, feeding on everything in its path, livestock, crops, and even people.

Many attempts were made to kill the beast, either by shooting it with arrows or hurling darts at its body, but no one found success, and not a single soul dared to get close enough to try and pierce it with a sword or a lance.

That is, not until the laird of Lariston came into the picture.

Now, some say that his name was John de Somerville, others claim that it was William.

Whatever the truth, this man was brave and honorable, and for our retelling today, I'll simply refer to him as John.

And John had heard about the linton worm from locals in a nearby village, and he felt that maybe he could be the one to slay the beast.

He traveled to its den, where he set up a lookout post at a safe distance away, and then he watched it for some time, noting its behavior and habits and patterns.

For example, the worm would slither out of its cave and wait with its mouth open to eat anything or anyone who got too close.

If it felt that the prey was too large to swallow, it would let it walk by, but stay vigilant for any food of a more appropriate size.

With this knowledge in hand, John went to a local blacksmith and had a weapon forged to slay the dragon once and for all.

It was a spear made of iron with a wheel toward its point.

According to one description, this allowed the end of the lance to rotate on contact.

John practiced at length until he was able to wield his spear as deftly as he handled a sword.

And so when he was finally ready to face the monster, he mounted his horse at dawn and headed to the worm's den with his servant in tow.

He made sure to remain atop his steed so that he would appear too large to swallow.

Once he reached the cave, John galloped toward the creature at full speed.

At just the right moment, he shoved the spear far down its gaping mouth until most of it had disappeared into the animal's stomach.

The worm had been mortally wounded.

It writhed in agony before slithering off to its cave to die.

They say that as it succumbed to its injuries, its muscles contracted so strongly that they left indentations in the surrounding hills that can still be seen today.

And the local name for those hills, Wormington.

Of course, John de Somerville was celebrated for his victory over the dragon.

As a reward, he was knighted and made a first baron of Linton in 1174.

To this day, his family crest still bears the image of a Wyvern or dragon sitting atop a wheel.

In fact, one Linton church bears a sculpture over the door that depicts a a man on a horseback fighting an unknown creature.

It's a beast with four legs, quite unlike the serpent of legend that stalked the village, but the locals swear that this sculpture represents John slaying the famed worm 850 years ago.

The linton worm may no longer strike fear into the hearts of Scottish citizens, but 6,000 miles away, another creature still lives on in the minds of cryptozoologists everywhere.

Because this one has yet to be found.

Not all deserts are sweltering, endless sandscapes devoid of trees and water.

Asia is home to the fifth largest desert in the world and it's defined by its colder climate and rocky terrain.

The Gobi is only 5% sand, but what it lacks in sweeping dunes, it more than makes up for in other ways, like what lies beneath the ground.

The Gobi Desert is home to an animal that has been described as one of the world's most sensational creatures.

It's known as the Olgoi Korkoi, or large intestine worm, but most biologists know it by the more chilling moniker, the Mongolian death worm.

Despite its name, it isn't a debilitating parasite that lives inside one's stomach.

Rather, it's sometimes called the large intestine worm because it's red in color and about the size of a human being's intestines.

The finer details of this sausage-shaped beast differ depending on who you ask.

Some say it has no discernible eyes, nose, or mouth, while others claim it bears an enormous mouth full of sharp teeth capable of ripping flesh from bone.

Its size is relatively small compared to creatures like the Minyokau or the Linton worm, but deadly things come in small packages too.

Ranging anywhere from 2 to 5 feet in length, the Mongolian death worm is still surprisingly lethal.

Legend has it that it can kill at a distance by shooting a steady stream of corrosive yellow venom, and some stories claim it could even melt metal in seconds.

The worm has also been said to electrocute its victims from several feet away, and touching any part of its body can lead to instant death.

Of course, rumors about the Mongolian death worm have led to numerous expeditions over the years by scientists and researchers hoping to find the elusive creature.

One such researcher was paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, who in the 1920s received a specific request from the Mongolian premier to track down and capture the worm.

Andrews made several expeditions to the Gobi Desert between 1922 and 1930, but never found evidence of the Mongolian death worm's existence.

Of course, that might be because it supposedly spends much of its time hibernating and traveling subterraneously.

It only comes out in June or July, and it's not the worm that gets noticed, but the sandy wake it leaves behind as it burrows burrows underground.

But even though Andrews never caught a glimpse of it, doesn't mean that it wasn't real.

The locals told him many stories about it.

Even the Mongolian officials he was working with hadn't seen it, but they could describe it in incredible detail.

And yet, despite all the stories, Andrews himself didn't believe the death worm was real.

Still, he wrote about it in his 1926 memoir about his adventures.

But he wasn't the last to go looking for it.

In 1972, Russian scientists allegedly found a Mongolian death worm, but it was already dead.

Any trace of the specimen's existence is only rumor at this point, with the actual remains supposedly locked away in the basement of a Russian museum.

Since then, other explorers and scientists have ventured into the Gobi Desert to find the death worm, but none have succeeded.

To this day, stories of its existence continue to be told among the local populations.

Many theories have been suggested to explain the creature and its origins.

Carl Schucher, who I mentioned earlier, suggested that it was actually a limbless lizard known as an amphisbenian.

Others have claimed that it might actually be a type of snake like the Tartar sanboa, which just so happens to be about the same size as the rumored Mongolian death worm.

It could also be an entirely new species of snake, one that is yet to be discovered and catalogued.

Or it might be an ancient prehistoric creature that has survived for millions of years in the desert undisturbed.

Whatever it is, its existence is still up for debate, even today.

And while there are many believers, the stories of its acidic venom and poisonous skin have usually been chalked up to nothing but tall tales.

Then again, the desert is a pretty big place.

Anything could be living under all of that sand.

All it could take is one chance encounter to turn a legend into fact.

What if?

That's the question at the heart of a lot of stories from folklore.

What if there were large, hairy, human-like creatures roaming the woods of North America?

What if those deep, dark lakes aren't home to just small things like fish?

What if we aren't alone?

And the same question seems to tug at this issue of folklore about worms.

It's a global artifact from a deeply human fear that something dangerous might might be lurking just beneath our feet.

And if it can live down there, move through the soil and hunt for prey with its eyeless face, then it must be a worm, right?

Truth be told, the only thing less surprising than the stories themselves are the lengths to which people have gone to prove them true.

And back in the Gobi Desert, that's a thread that people never seem to have gotten tired of tugging at, as one last story might make clear.

Czech cryptozoologist Ivan Makerly wasn't worried about worms back in the late 1980s, but he was fascinated by them.

And as soon as he heard about the Mongolian death worm, he booked a flight to try and see it for himself.

All he knew about the creature were the details that had come from those wild stories.

He came to believe that the worm was 20 inches long and as thick as a human arm.

So, in 1990, he and his team spent eight weeks looking for that legendary red intestine-like creature in the Gobi Desert.

Their expedition was a bust, but two years later he tried again, and on this trip, Buddhist monks warned him not to seek out the worm.

Doing so, they told him, would put his life in danger.

One night during this second trip, Makerly went to bed and he dreamed about the death worm.

It was an intense and vivid nightmare, but that was nothing compared to what came in the morning.

He awoke to find his back covered in blood-filled boils.

A warning?

Perhaps.

But he kept pushing onward, hoping to track down the elusive beast once and for all.

Sadly, just like that first time, he came up empty.

It wasn't until 2004 that he received a promising lead.

He had employed a local interpreter to help him in his journey, and this interpreter told him a story from his childhood about a group of Western geologists who came to the Gobi Desert on an expedition of their own.

During this trip, one of those scientists must have become bored or was looking for a distraction when they picked up an iron rod sitting nearby.

With With a tool in hand, they began stabbing and poking into the sand.

For a moment, they were fine.

A second later, though, they were dead, as if they'd suffered a heart attack.

Then, a few seconds after the scientist had collapsed, the sand around his body started to shift, making way for something to reach the surface.

What emerged was an unexpected sight: an enormous red worm.

I hope today's exploration of this strange corner of legend has managed to slither its way into your heart.

I know that I will never look at worms the same way again, and maybe you can relate.

But hearing the tales so far has left me with a hunger for more.

So my team and I have tracked down one last slippery story to share.

Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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Certain places in the world just feel more connected to the unexplained than others, like Savannah, New Orleans, or even New Jersey.

But one location has been tied to the strange and unusual for generations.

The island of Shikoku is the fourth largest island in Japan and is divided into four prefectures.

The island is home to many legends, but they all seem to center around one of the largest and most awe-inspiring sites there, Mount Suguri.

The mountain rises almost 6,500 feet over the valley, and its peak provides glorious views of the sea and surrounding island.

But if if you talk to the locals, you'll quickly learn that this famous mountain is more than just something to climb.

It's also something to be feared.

And that, they say, is because of its most famous resident, a massive serpent and, I quote, as thick as a telephone pole and covered in black scales known as the giant snake of Mount Suguri.

The creature was discovered on May 26th of 1973 when a group of forestry workers caught sight of it.

They were only able to see about 16 feet of the snake at the time, while the rest of it was hidden by the surrounding greenery.

Its actual size was estimated to be more than 33 feet long.

But the giant snake didn't stick around to find out what the workers wanted.

Instead, it made a loud chirping noise before disappearing into the forest.

Word of the enormous animal spread across the island and with it, a wave of panic.

Pretty soon, more reports of giant snakes started pouring in, each a bit different from the last.

Some said that it was 26 feet long, while others claimed it was closer to 40 feet in length.

After a while, it was hard for authorities to shake the stories off as just mass hysteria.

Something had to be done.

So, a few weeks after the first sighting, officials launched a widespread search for the snake.

Volunteers combed parts of Mount Suguri for any signs of its presence, but the snake wasn't to be found.

The search party did, however, uncover what appeared to be a track it had left behind, which measured about 16 inches across and continued through the underbrush.

Some said that they had stumbled upon fallen trees that had been knocked down by the snake on its way back to its lair.

One local museum alleged that the snake eventually died.

How do they know?

Well, they claim to have its 13-inch wide jawbone on display.

But don't let that help you sleep at night.

Critics have pointed out that the bones on display are just a shark's jaw that has been manipulated to look like that of a snake.

The real thing is still out there, they say, and it's not alone.

Other parts of Japan have had sightings of giant snakes as well.

According to the stories, Mount Tataiwa in the Gunma Prefecture in mainland Japan is full of them, and a 23-foot-long snake was spotted on January 24th of 1987, terrorizing a poultry farm.

The farmer, Asakura Kayoko, had heard a commotion in one of his chicken coops.

He ran out to investigate and found what he first believed to be a log lying across the top of the coop.

But as he got closer, he quickly realized that it was no log.

It It was a giant snake, and its hulking body was undulating as it swallowed one chicken hole after another.

It took Kayoko's dog to chase it off the property, but that still left a bigger question.

If it was the mysterious giant snake of Mount Saguri, it was very far from home, over 50 miles away, in fact.

Had the serpent from the mountain traveled all this way to get away from the people who were hunting it there?

Or was there another beast out on this island, slithering among the trees?

I wouldn't stop too long to think about it, though.

That is, unless you want to become its next meal.

This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Mankey, with writing by Harry Marks and Aaron Mankey and research by Jamie Vargas.

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