(Investigator
122, 2008 September)
A talking
mongoose in the 1930s received extensive press coverage, attracted
ghost-busters, psychic investigators and numerous reporters, and
provoked a sensational court action for libel.
In
September 1931
Gef, the talking Mongoose, arrived at the isolated farmhouse of
Cashen's Gap on the Isle of Man in the British Isles.
James Irving, the owner of
the farm, heard tapping in the attic, then barking and growling. Then a
loud crack shook the room. He searched the attic but failed to find the
source of the noises which continued all night.
Irving
made bird
and
animal sounds and after each sound he called the name. Something
replicated each noise and repeated the corresponding word in a
high-pitched voice.
Over several days It
learned to speak fluently, called itself Gef, and fired question after
question. No matter how quietly Irving and wife, Margary, spoke, Gef
seemed able to hear them. Gef said: "I am a ghost in the form of a
weasel and I shall haunt you with weird noises and clanking chains."
Irving
set rat
poison
without success.
The famous
ghost-buster Harry Price (1881-1948) first corresponded with Irving
in1932: "…he described the animal as being of a yellowish tinge, like a
ferret. 'The tail is long and bushy and tinged with brown. In size, it
is about the length of a three parts grown rat in the body, without the
tail.'" (Price 1974, page 85)
The Irving farm was
situated 750 feet up the windswept slopes of Dalby Mountain, four miles
from the town of Peel, and faced the sea toward Ireland. It consisted
of treeless, undulating hills, covered in short turf. Reaching the farm
required an hour's climb up a slippery track.
James Irving, born about
1875, was a piano salesman before World War I and bought the farm in
1915. Initially prosperous, the farm by 1930 supplied grazing for only
30 sheep, a few goats, and some poultry.
The
Irvings'
daughter, Voirrey, born 1918, was introverted, had dropping eyelids
that half-hid her eyes, and often roamed the hills with her sheepdog,
Mona.
In
October Gef became
international news. The Daily Mail reported about the
"man-weasel", and
the Daily Sketch published a photo of "Talking Weasel Farm".
In 1932 the Manchester Daily Sketch sent a
reporter who
wrote: "The
mysterious man-weasel has spoken to me today. I have heard a voice
which I should never have imagined could issue from a human throat. The
people who claim it was the voice of the strange weasel seem sane,
honest and responsible folk and not likely to indulge in a difficult,
long-drawn-out and unprofitable practical joke.”
The reporter wondered whether the solution lay in, "the duel
personality of the 13-year-old girl, Voirrey Irving?” He observed
Voirrey in a mirror while listening to the "piercing and uncanny
voice".
Her fingers partly-covered her mouth and he did not see her lips move.
Some visiting relatives who also heard Gef speak suggested the culprit
was Voirrey. Gef declared, "I'll kill their turkeys. And later their
ducklings and turkeys disappeared.”
Voirrey and Mrs Irving suggested Gef hid in the 3-inch space between
the original interior wall and new paneling that overlaid it. They
claimed they had a number of times seen part of a bushy tail. Voirrey
further claimed she saw a yellow, hedgehog-like face, with flat snout.
Mrs Irving claimed she stroked Gef's fur through a crack in the wall
and got bitten by an inch-wide mouth with "tiny and sharp” teeth
followed by the words, "Go and put ointment on it.”
Gef said he was born in Delhi, India, in 1852: "I am a little clever,
extra clever mongoose. I am the eighth wonder of the world.” But he
didn't explain how he got to England.
Gef could laugh, sing songs and hymns, repeat nursery rhymes, and spoke
a smattering in several languages, such as Spanish, Arabic, Russian and
Welsh. Mona the sheepdog never showed any reaction to Gef's voice.
Sometimes Gef shouted "Got a rabbit” and outside the Irvings would find
a dead rabbit, apparently strangled.
Starting in 1934 Gef supposedly
ranged over the Island, eavesdropped and spied on neighbors, and
brought back gossip.
A stream of visitors began the climb up Dalby Mountain to Cashen's Gap
but none ever saw Gef. A Captain Macdonald, a racing motorist, heard
loud thumps on the stairs and "Hello everybody” and shone a flashlight.
A voice shouted "You damn sleech” [sly man] and a china tray and bottle
hurtled down the stairs.
New York psychiatrist and research officer for Psychical Investigation,
Dr Nandor Fodor, made several visits to Cashen's Gap, even staying a
week at the farmhouse but neither heard nor saw Gef.
Fodor wrote, "Is there a ghost at Doarlish Cashen? Or is it a
poltergeist, or stranger still, a survival of the familiars, the
talking animal companions of witches in dark medieval days?”
Gef became known as The Dalby Spook. James Irving kept diaries about it
from 1932 to 1935 which, according to Price, rivals the Arabian Nights
in fantastic improbabilities.
In March 1935 Harry Price received some fur which (according to the
Irvings) Gef had removed from himself. Price had it analysed by an
authority in fur and hair who concluded it came from a dog and had been
cut off rather than pulled out since no hair had a root-bulb. A later
investigation compared Mona's fur with the alleged mongoose hairs and
found them identical.
Harry Price visited Cashen's Gap in August, bringing with him Richard S
Lambert editor of The Listener magazine. Again Gef refused to
show or
talk. But foot-impressions on plasticine were sent away for analysis.
The foot-impressions could not be identified.
Lambert subsequently mentioned the talking mongoose on social
occasions, notably to Sir Cecil Levita, former chairman of the London
Council, and his wife Lady Levita. Lambert and Lady Levita were both
Governors of the British Film Institute. Sir Cecil informed the BBC
about Lambert's belief in a talking mongoose, and suggested Lambert is
"cracked" (mad) and unfit as Film Institute governor.
Action for libel followed, the case came to court in November 1936. By
then Harry Price and R S Lambert had authored The Haunting of
Cashen's Gap and every jury member received a copy.
The case made headlines from London to America. One headline read:
"B.B.C. Official alleges Madness slander; Gef the Talking Mongoose".
Reporters climbed the slippery track to Cashen's Gap but Gef refused to
show himself to any of them. Mr Irving, however, assured everyone that
Gef was well and still contacted the family daily.
Sir Cecil Levita lost and was ordered to pay ₤7,500 and Lambert
autographed the jury's copies of The Haunting. Mongooses became
popular
as pets in England and their price in pet shops increased accordingly.
Believers in the paranormal wondered whether Gef could be a
poltergeist. Real-life mongooses, however, did live on the Isle of
Man – a local farmer released some in 1912 to try to reduce the rabbit
population.
The American Weekly asked: "Is Voirrey in a falsetto
voice all there is
to Gef?"
And that is indeed the plausible conclusion – that Voirrey in
collaboration with one or both parents practiced a long-term hoax for
the attention it produced. If only one parent was involved then
probably the mother because:
A
curious feature of the talking mongoose case is that the creature is
seldom seen by Mr. Irving. Very rarely, something dashes along a beam,
or he glimpses the tip of a tail rounding a corner, and that is about
all. On the other hand, his wife and daughter have often seen him face
to face, and Voirrey has even attempted to photograph him. (Price 1974
page 87)
Furthermore Mrs Irving and Voirrey, but not James
Irving, claimed to
have stroked Gef, fed him bacon, sausages, bananas and chocolate, and
gotten him to dance to gramophone music.
No one, however, caught the Irvings out. Price called it his most
curious experience and Dr Nandor Fodor said the tale was incredible but
not trumped up.
In 1937 the Irvings sold Cashen's Gap and left. The new owner never
heard from Gef. Voirrey was still alive at the turn of the century but
never confirmed the suspicion that she was Gef.
REFERENCES:
Brookesmith, P 1989 Out of this World, Mysteries of Mind, Space and
Time, pp 419-427
Price, H and RS Lambert 1936 The Haunting of Cashen's Gap: A Modern
Miracle, Methuen & Co.
Price, H 1974 Confessions of a Ghost Hunter, Causeway, pp 85-97
The strange case of the talking mongoose, Headlines No. 20, April 1973,
pp 23-26
(BS)
ADDITIONAL REASON
MONEY
(Investigator
123, 2008 November)
I read with interest the story about the talking
mongoose. (#122) I
remember reading years ago that the Irvings charged people money to
visit their farm to try to encounter and converse with the talking
mongoose.
Money, therefore, seems a reason for the fraud additional to the reason
given in the article.
Carmilla