Gef's tale begins in a small farmhouse (what is it with isolated farmers and supernatural phenomena?) on the Isle of Man in the 1930's. In September 1931 the Irving family - consisting of James, his wife Margaret, and their daughter Voirrey - started to hear strange noises like a wild animal coming from the attic of their farmhouse. Strangely enough, these noise began to develop into a voice, echoing the words spoken by James. Before long this mysterious voice had learnt a sufficient amount of English and it introduced itself as a mongoose by the name of Gef. He told them he had been born on the 7th of June, 1852, in Delhi, India.
As well as talking, Gef, it seemed, also developed a flair for singing. He knew the words to a good many popular songs and was also a bit of a joker, providing the family with an interesting source of entertainment (certainly must of been a good sight better than Darrel Sommers). There was one time, however, when apparently he went a little too far and pretended to have been poisoned, which the family did not find in the least bit amusing (I think they just lacked a decent sense of humour). Just to prove he was also a fully rounded Renaissance mongoose, Gef also took to espionage. Apparently he spent also spent good deal of time spying on the locals and reporting their goings on back to the Irvings. Occasionally, some of the locals reported hearing the odd sounds of an invisible creature, which they believed to be the Irving's "pet" mongoose.
Gef insisted on remaining hidden to the family, being seldom seen except for the daughter Voirrey. The mongoose apparently resided within the walls of the house or would perhaps hide in the garden. The only evidences that the creature existed were the sound of its voice and a few other strange happenings, such as objects being moved and thrown about the house.
As is usually the case with talking mongeese (Is the plural of mongoose, mongeese or mongooses? That's a question that's going to keep you up all night.), Gef's fame spread quickly and it wasn't long before the press got wind of it. In 1932 an old family friend, John Northwood, arrived at the farm to check that the family was surviving the onslaught of reporters. After some coaxing, Gef began talking with Northwood and their conversations varied from idle chat to vicious accusations and threats. On hearing that Northwood's son Arthur was due to arrive at the farm, Gef bacame angry sand shouted, "Tell Arthur not to come. He doesn't believe. I won't speak if he does come. I'll blow his brains out with a thrupenny cartridge!" (If ever there was an argument for gun control, it's an irate talking mongoose with an itchy trigger finger.)
Gef finally allowed himself to be photographed by Voirrey, but although several photographs were taken of it, none show sufficient detail to determine whether the creature was a mongoose or even animate. In March 1935 Gef calimed to have plucked some of his own hair and left it on the mantelpiece. (It's so important for a mongoose to care about the way he looks.) This hair sample was sent to "Captain MacDonald", a friend of famous psychic investigator Harry Price who had been sent to have a poke around the farmhouse a few years earlier. This hair sample eventually found its way to Price who had it examined by a zoological expert, it was the expert's thought that the hairs most definitely came from a long haired dog.
On the 30th July 1935 Harry Price finally arrived at the Irving's farm, with magazine editor Richard Lambert, to have a look into all this Gef business for himself. Unfortunately, on arrival James Irving told them that Gef had not been seen for several weeks. They stayed for three days, and still Gef refused to put in an appearance. They returned home after having first removed some of the Irving's pet dog's hair for comparison to the ones sent earlier. They proved to be a perfect match.
Not long after Price's and Lambert's departure, Gef reappeared at the farm, leaving a set of footprints behind. James Irving sent three plaster casts of the prints to Price, who passed them on in turn to the Natural History Museum in London. The museum's report said that none of the three seemed to bear any relation to the others. One was possibly made by a dog, another by a North American raccoon (What on earth was a North American raccoon doing on the Isle of Man?) and the third was never formally identified. None of them appeared to have been made by a mongoose.
The Irving family themselves finally moved out of the farmhouse in 1937. Later in 1947, the new owner of the farm claimed that he had shot a "strange looking mongoose like animal," which had been roaming around the property. Although some say that this may well have been Gef, the majority of people on the Isle of Man at the time were sure that Gef left the farmhouse along with the Irving family. Personally I doubt it would have been Gef, because from what we know of him it seems likely that he would have shot first.
http://studentweb.us...22414/tale.html
Sign In
Register
Help
Board Index
Top
MultiQuote
I didn't know mongooses went to mongoose school to learn geography and dates and to learn what a ghost is. 
