February 20, 2024

The Creature behind the Walls

22 minutes

The Story of ‘Gef,’ the strangest creature that bewildered a farming family & most of the United Kingdom when his story was reported on across many city newspapers. “It is impossible to deny that there is serious evidence … for Gef’s reality,” said Mr. R.S. Lambert of the BBC, in the 1930’s. We could be forgiven for believing that Gef was a man, or a boy, but in fact ‘Gef’ was an animal, an animal that appeared not quite of this world. The closest description of ‘Gef’ or ‘Jeff’ was apparently a mongoose. That could talk. Mongoose is the English name for family of Herpestidae, who are small carnivores native to Eurasia, Africa, and Southern Europe. They have long bodies, long angular faces and short legs with a tail. They were venerated in ancient Egypt for their ability to handle venomous snakes. ‘Gef,’ who was most colloquially called ‘Jeff,’ also took on other appearances too – varying from a strange cat, to something that looked a bit like a pig, and other indefinable small monsters. Mostly though, Geff was invisible. He appeared on the Isle of Man at a small and isolated farm called Doarlish Cashmen, owned by 58-year-old Mr. T. Irving, a former travelling piano salesman. Mr. Irving himself was somewhat of an anomaly, for although he owned the farm, he did not work it and remained always immaculately suited with uncalloused hands. He and his wife had a 12-year-old daughter called Voirrey, who was known to wander the Moors alone except accompanied by her dog Mona. It was said that the dog would hypnotise a rabbit with mesmerism while the child sneaked up on the rabbit from behind and clubbed it to death!

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