Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 11 — Gef the Talking Mongoose
In September 1931, the Irving family—consisting of James, Margaret, and their teenage daughter Voirrey—began to experience mysterious happenings on their remote farm near the hamlet of Dalby on the Isle of Man. Strange scratching and rustling sounds emitted from the wood panel walls of their old farmhouse day and night. The culprit soon made themselves known...by talking to the family in a shrill little voice.
The entity behind the voice said its name was Jack at first but it changed that before long, preferring to instead be called Gef. Gef claimed that he was "an extra special mongoose" originally from India where he was born 80 years before. However Gef also claimed to be a ghost or a wayward spirit. Gef told the family, "I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you'd faint, you'd be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!"
As time went on, the family would catch glimpses of Gef in their home and the land surrounding it. They claimed he was small, perhaps only nine inches long, was yellow-ish brown in color, and had a bushy tail. Gef also had very human-like hands with three fingers that the family would sometimes see poking through holes in the walls of the home.
Gef seemed to love the Irving family and would even kill rabbits for them to eat but he had a foul mouth and fouler temper and would sometimes threaten to kill the family if they angered him. He would go on to cause mischief for years, not just for the Irving family but for members of the neighboring community. He liked to spy on people and gossip but became very angry when anyone came to stay at the farmhouse and attempted to see him, though a few people outside the family did claim to catch glimpses of him over the years.
Gef would haunt the Irving family until James died in 1945. Magaret and Voirrey moved away after his death but both maintained that the story of Gef was true until the ends of their days.
