Mythical creatures and tales of fantasy are familiar in nearly all cultures. We hear so many stories from people worldwide, some of which may have some common elements but are nonetheless fascinating. People speak of ‘mythical creatures’ with conviction, even if they have not personally witnessed or experienced them. It is hard to determine which experiences are based on fact and which are fabrications.
My fascination with the paranormal began from a very young age. At thirteen, I overheard my grandmother excitedly recount a tale about a giant snake living in a remote village. The snake laid eggs and they hatched. There was a wedding, so people moved the hatchlings for their safety. The snake came out of its den and looked for its young but did not find them, so it poisoned a large pot of food. Later that day, before the wedding started, the snake found its young, so it returned to the pot of food it had poisoned, coiled itself around it, and dropped it to the floor, rendering the food inedible. This story is from so-called ‘eye witness’ testimony. Please don’t ask me how the story originated in the first place.
I was intrigued and begged my grandma to take me to the village so I could see the giant snake. She hesitated at first; it was a few hours away by car, but bless her, she could never say no to me, so we set off the next day. It was a long drive, and we were tired, but we finally got there. The village was small, with no leading roads, so we continued our journey on foot. Grandma enquired about the village’s Sheikh (religious figure or elder), and we were led to a tiny, isolated, old clay house. An older man sat on the floor in the middle of the room, clutching on prayer beads and he went on a monologue about the legendary snake. I noticed that he was blind, and when my grandmother naively asked him if he had personally witnessed the incident, he confirmed that he had seen it with his own eyes. He said the snake lived under his house and came out from a hole in the corner of the room. There was indeed a hole in the corner of the room, the size of an adult fist, but it could be for anything. We left the older man, and frankly, I wasn’t too impressed with the tale anymore; I did not feel it was credible.
I could tell that my grandmother was no longer as excited. We drove back to town in relative silence, but I did ask my grandmother how the Sheikh could have seen the giant snake when he was blind, and she said, “That man could not have seen a snake even if it were to swallow him!”
If anything, it was worth the journey to see my grandmother’s response in the end.
