The Idol of the Peorias

[Chim Chim]

https://www.clyx.com/books/blake/anecdotes_of_the_american_indians/the_idol_of_the_peorias_from_an_old_traveller.htm
Here’s a story I’ve never seen before, I read it in an old book and then found it online.  I’m thinking this dates to the mid-late 1700’s, the Peorias moved west of the Mississippi after the French and Indian War in 1763.  The gist of it is ‘Old Traveller’ visited an Indian village where they kept a creature they found in the woods, it comes to an unfortunate end and he secures the remains and turns it over to a collector in France.

…Judge of my astonishment, for this is the picture of their Manitou: his head hung upon his breast, and looked like a goat’s; his ears and his cruel eye were like those of a lynx, with the same kind of hair; his feet, hands, and thighs were in form something like those of a man.

“The Indians found him in the woods, at the foot of a ridge of mountains…

Not exactly a BF description, but no neck and humanoid shape caught my attention.  If true what else could it be?

 

…so that it was strangled. I got it instantly dissected, in order to bring it to France, where its skeleton is now in the cabinet of natural history of M. de Fayolles…

Who knows what may have fallen into human hands in the past only to be forgotten/misidentified and tossed aside, or destroyed.

 

[Doug]

9 hours ago, Chim Chim said:

 If true what else could it be?

Dogman?

[Chim Chim]

I wonder how long Dogman has even been a thing.  Personally I’ve always thought it was most likely a misidentification of BF, details can get confused when people are freaked out.

 

The book this came from was published in the 1840’s, I was surprised to see it.  It’s a nonfiction collection of stories/writings, this story definitely seemed out of character, I guess the author believed it to be true.  I’m thinking it was originally in French.