Chronicles Of The Strange And Mysterious
By
Arthur C. Clarke
Contents:
1 – The Beasts that Hide from Man
2 – The Silence of the Past
3 – Out of the Blue
4 – Strange Tales from the Lakes
5 – Of Monsters and Mermaids
6 – Supernatural Scenes
7 – Fairies, Phantoms, Fantastic Photographs
8 – Mysteries from East and West
9 – Where Are They?
Foreword
It is now almost a decade since John Fairley, Simon Welfare and I started to assemble the extremely miscellaneous bits and pieces which eventually formed the thirteen-part Yorkshire Television series, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, and its sequel, Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers. In each case, our object was to intrigue and entertain the viewer by presenting unexplained phenomena and objects, and curiosities of any kind which we found interesting.
We had no particular bias or philosophical party line, but we were determined to play fair with our audience. We would not cheat by creating phoney mysteries or withholding explanations when they were available – as has frequently been done by networks our lawyers won’t allow us to mention. At the same time, we were not out to ‘debunk’, except when the subject richly deserved it; even then, we kept editorial comment to the minimum and preferred to leave the final decision to the viewer. And when, as sometimes happened, a mystery got deeper and deeper the more we investigated, we weren’t ashamed to admit total bafflement.
The same policy was carried out in the two books based upon (and named after) the programmes. Text and video both had a very large – indeed, global – audience and, as might be expected, there was a great deal of feedback from viewers and readers. Many people rushed to report events similar to those we had recorded, or to volunteer explanations of outstanding mysteries.
Almost all the letters received were thoughtful and serious; only a few – perhaps surprisingly, considering the nature of our material – were wildly eccentric. The most far-out one arrived with a covering note headed ‘Broadmoor Hospital Mental Health Act 1983’, and an assurance by the consultant forensic psychiatrist that nothing had been removed from the packet. (If you’re dying to know, it contained a mass of numerology no crazier than much that has been produced outside mental hospitals. The impetus that pocket calculators have now given to this age-old nonsense is appalling to contemplate.) We do not know whether to be pleased or disappointed that few clear-cut solutions or answers emerged from all this correspondence; but we are very happy to know that we made people realize that there’s a lot more in the universe than meets the eye (and sometimes, a good deal less).
It would have been easy to make another television series – or at least one or two ‘Specials’ – out of the material we’d accumulated, but I had grown rather tired of standing in front of cameras in the Sri Lankan sun, even with the protection of that notorious beach-umbrella. So a book seemed the best compromise; but what to call it? My colleagues’ first uninspired suggestion was Arthur C. Clarke’s Diary of the Strange and Mysterious. This I rejected instantly as being too reminiscent of Mrs Dale and innumerable other soap operas. (Though I do have a diary, it is for appointments only, and the entries self-destruct into total illegibility within a month.) After a little thought, I came up with an alternative which sounds much more romantic and imposing – indeed, almost heroic.
Here, then, with a little – well, frankly, rather a lot of -help from my friends John and Simon, are my Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious. As many of the items chronicled end up even stranger and more mysterious than when we started to investigate them, the series could obviously go on for ever. I promise you that it won’t. There’s a nice symmetry about a trilogy, and I have no intention of spoiling it.
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 October 1986
1 – The Beasts that Hide from Man
Arthur C. Clarke writes:
Would you care to guess how many kinds of unknown animals – i.e. creatures that have never been described by science – there still remain on this planet? A hundred? A thousand? The answer may well be in the millions – if you go all the way down to insects barely visible to the eye. And the vast majority never will be discovered; the accelerating destruction of the natural environment means that they will be extinct before they are even noticed.
To most people, however, an ‘unknown animal’ won’t be of much interest unless it’s at least as large as a dog – better still, an elephant – best of all, a dinosaur. Most zoologists are willing to admit that large creatures still remain undiscovered in the sea. But on land? Impossible, of course … but read on, starting with this delightful letter from Dr Dalrymple, which takes me instantly back to Saunders of the River:
Dear Professor Clarke,
We have been watching with great keenness your TV programme The Mysterious World, and I feel that the following might be of interest to you:
In 1935, I was Medical Officer on the River Gambia in West Africa. One night, I was awakened by much noise, by the locals. The next morning, I discovered the excitement had been caused by the appearance of what they called the ‘NIKENANKA’. This animal was described as ‘having the face of a horse, a neck like a giraffe, a body like a crocodile, a long tail, and being about 30 ft long’. I asked the Head Men to let me know, next time this animal was seen. It was said to appear only from time to time, on moonlight nights, from the mangrove swamps where it lived, submerged in mud.
Several months passed, and, one evening, I was told of the reappearance of the animal. However, the swarms of mosquitoes, off the swamp, were such that I turned back without seeing the ‘NIKENANKA’.
As MO Rivers, I regularly visited the various stations and had occasion to call on the Manager of one of the trading Companies. During lunch, we heard a great disturbance in the nearby local market. We went out to investigate and discovered one of the manager’s servants waving the educational magazine called Animals of the World. The excited crowd was shouting that the White Man had photographed the ‘NIKENANKA’: it was, in fact, a photograph of a concrete dinosaur, in one of the New York parks. They all recognized this as the animal they had seen in the swamps, on moonlight nights.
Later on, I was on board ship, travelling back to Nigeria, and a Marine Department Officer told me that, when checking the traffic lanes in the Niger Delta, his attention had been drawn by his crew to a large ‘sea serpent’. He fired his gun but was out of range. The creature, however, must have heard the report, as it reared up, turned its head, and made swiftly for a mangrove swamp island. The sun was setting, and it was too dark to be absolutely certain, but he thought the animal was between 30 and 40 ft long, similar to a dinosaur, as it heaved out of the water and disappeared into the mangrove swamp.
This is, I am afraid, all I can tell you, but, as the Gambia River is about 200 miles long and the mangrove swamps, on either side, vary from 50 to 100 ft wide, it represents a large expanse of, then, unexplored ground, and I always felt there was the possibility that some animals, long thought to be extinct, might be surviving there.
Some years later, I was stationed in the British Cameroons. I became very friendly with the Fon (Chief) of N’SAW. Later, I was accepted into the two most powerful Ju-Ju societies, known as the N’FU BA and the N’FU GAM. It was then that I was told of the existence of ‘KABARANKO’, said to be a human, living down a well, and existing on human excreta. He was only let out for the funerals of very important chiefs. I saw him once at such a funeral. He was said to be endowed with superhuman strength and I watched (and photographed) him pick up a ram and tear it in two. I believe he also picked up a big car and threw it over a cliff, but I did not see this.
What he was, I do not know, but he looked like a short human figure, covered in long black hair. He was greatly feared and, when brought out, he was controlled with ropes attached to his feet, one man walking in front and one at the back, in the same way farmers guide dangerous bulls. If he happened to escape, the natives whistled loudly, as a warning to everybody to keep out of ‘KABARANKO’S’ way. The only way to recapture him was to hold a pregnant woman in front of him, when he would fall, unconscious, on the ground.