Decades later, a flying bug (a dragonfly or butterfly, depending on the version) flutters into the Great Hall and starts garnering a lot of the king's attention. And of course the queen goes: FOLLOW THAT BUG! And all the warriors getting their butterfly nets ready... Sounds familiar? (Yes, just like in the Three Oranges/Lemons tale.)
Well, she catches that flying bug indeed, in some versions of the tale. But not in the expected way. So, Étaín flies away as fast as her little wings can take her. Either the rival queen or a chieftain's wife, a descendant of hers (in case this is a centuries-old dragonfly or butterfly) gets Bug!Étaín in her cup and drinks her. Must have been either too thirsty or too distracted, or most likely both, to notice that she had swallowed a living bug until it was too late.
Wincing and coughing and retching to get the little winged pest out of her system is to no avail. And what's most relevant is that the next day she gets morning sickness...
...and of course, nine months later, she births a healthy baby girl, whom she decides to name Étaín...
...she alit on the rooftree of a house in Ulster where folk were drinking, and she fell into the golden beaker that was before the wife of Étar, the champion from Inber Cíchmaine, in the province of Conchobar, so that she swallowed her with the liquid that was in the beaker, and in this wise she was conceived in her womb and became afterwards her daughter. She was called Étaín daughter of Étar. Now it was a thousand and twelve years from the first begetting of Étaín by Ailill until her last begetting.
In a similar manner, in the same mythology, Cú Chulainn is conceived when Ulster princess Deichtine (Dectera), sister to King Conchobar, quenches her thirst, a mayfly or a little humanoid of light having landed in her cup before it was drained; nine months later, due to the doubts about the child's parentage, Setanta -the future Cú Chulainn, before killing Culainn's watchdog- is raised in various foster homes.
But the time came for her(Deichtire) to be married, so a match was made with Sualtim, who was of noble blood and her equal in every way. But while her fifty maids prepared the bride-to-be, she took a cup of wine, and so caught up as she was in the preparations that she didn't notice the mayfly she had swallowed with the same draught!
She swiftly fell into a deep sleep, and her maids along with her, and while she slept she dreamed of a tall young man with uncannily long arms, who introduced himself as Lugh, one of the Sidhe. He had been in the form of a mayfly, he said, when she had swallowed him, and he told them they had to come away with him.
At the feast, Dechtire was thirsty af (same tho), so they gave her some wine, but a mayfly flew into the cup and she swallowed it.
Afterwards she went to take a nap in her sunny parlor, accompanied by her 50 maidens. In her sleep, the god Lugh of the Long Hand appeared to her and said “Yo whaddup, it’s me, the mayfly. From the cup? Funny story- You and your maidens must come with me.”
But, as Sualdham passed the cup to her, a small white mayfly fell into the drink. Deichtire was so thirsty she drank it all down. She felt the mayfly in her throat, coughed and gasped, but by then it was too late to do anything but swallow it. They gave her more wine immediately.
After a while, whether from the wine or from the chase or from some property of the mayfly, she grew sleepy and left the festivities to take a nap. Conchovor ordered Deichtire's fifty female attendants to go with her to be sure she was all right.
Left alone inside the fortress, Deichtire fell asleep and began immediately to dream that a strange man approached her. He had radiant eyes and skin so bright she could not look long upon him. This man told her that he was Lugh Long-Arm. He had come to her disguised as the mayfly so no one would know him. Lugh wanted Deichtire to come away with him because she had such a gentleness about her that she brightened any place she went. He held out his hands to her and she reached out and touched him.
The parallels between Étain's conception and that of Cú Chulainn cannot be clearer, since they imply the same circumstances. In both cases, a thirsty royal maiden swallows a bug with her drink and subsequently finds herself expecting a supernatural demi-divine child.
----------------------
But this is not the only mythology in which such strange things happen. The oldest fairytale in the world, the tale of Anubis and Bata, written in hieratic (stylized hieroglyphic) script, found in the d'Orbiney papyrus from Pharaonic Egypt, ends on a similar note. But what led up to this was equally bizarre:
So, there are two brothers on a farm. Older brother Anubis, married and childless, the heir to the estate; and little brother Bata, a young bachelor and farm worker. One day during sowing season, Anubis's cougar (lioness?) wife makes advances on Bata (who had come to the barn where she was resting, to fetch more grain) and then pulls a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to make it appear like he (Bata) was the one making advances on her. Of course Anubis believes his wife's little yarn and, after some honest fighting, the brothers split up, a disowned Bata leaving home.
(So far, just like the biblical Joseph son of Jacob/Yosef ben Yakov, or Hippolytus in classical myths. Tale as old as time in its oldest version recorded.)
So Bata goes to live in a secluded valley in Phoenicia (Lebanon) and decides to take his heart out of his chest and hide it in a cedar treetop as a cedar cone (basically, making the very first Horcrux ever in written records). As long as that tree is not felled and the heart is kept alive by the sap, heartless --though not emotionless!-- Bata will be alive. Should he die, as he explains to Anubis during their leave-taking, the older brother's mug of beer will completely foam over, leaving no liquid within.
Right, so Bata lives a more or less lonely hunter-fisher-gatherer existence in the Valley of Cedars in Phoenicia until the gods decide to make him a wife, out of the blue. So this turns into an idyllic young couple living in peace with nature and with themselves, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden... (more biblical parallels!) until a serpent enters this paradise. The Wadjet cobra serpent on a royal crown, that is...
You see, a sharp branch accidentally cut a lock of the maiden's soft and scented raven hair, and the winds carried said lock across the sea and up the Nile to the reigning pharaoh's royal gardens. The still single ruler was smitten and hell-bent on making the owner of that soft and finely-scented lock of hair his queen, so he dispatched messengers, even whole regiments of warriors of both foot and chariot, to seek out the maiden... and they found her in the Valley of Cedars. Of course the Pharaoh was even more smitten after hearing the full description of such a beauty... and thus a whole royal expedition sets off lock, stock, and barrel for Phoenicia... not only bringing armed men with spears, and bows, and chariots... but also jewellery to bribe the maiden. She was so dazzled by the brightness of the gold and gems that she agreed to lead a courtly life and even told the Egyptians that her husband could only die if the cedar with his heart for a cone was felled. And thus, faster than you can say "TIMBER!!" both the young man and the heart-tree staggered and fell lifeless to the ground.
(Again, more biblical parallels, this time to Samson and Delilah!)
Back in Egypt on the farm, a widowed Anubis (whose wife had just committed suicide, unable to bear the remorse of her wicked deeds --just like Lady Macbeth!) found that all the beer he was served just foamed out of his cup. Time to rescue his li'l brother... So off he set with provisions, and even weapons for self-defense...
He entered the tower of his younger brother, and he found him lying upon his mat; he was dead. And he wept when he saw his younger brother truly was lying dead. And he went out to seek the soul of his younger brother under the acacia tree, under which his younger brother lay in the evening.
He spent three years in seeking for it, but found it not. And when he began looking in the fourth year, he desired in his heart to return into Egypt; he said in his heart, "I will go tomorrow morning". Now when the land lightened, and the next day appeared, he was spending his time in seeking the flower. And he returned in the evening, and laboured at seeking it again. Then he at last found a seed. He returned with it. Look, this was the soul of his younger brother. He brought a cup of cold water, and he threw the seed into it: and he sat down, as he usually did. Now when the night came his soul of his brother sucked up the water; Bata then shuddered in all his limbs, and he looked on his elder brother; his soul was in the cup. Then Anubis took the cup of cold water, in which the soul of his younger brother was; Bata drank it, his soul stood again in its proper place, and he became as he had been. They embraced each other, and they spoke together.
It doesn't just stop here, with a heart being lodged back into its owner's chest by getting poured down his throat with a cool drink.There is also a similar ingesting-pregnancy motif in the second half of the story:
The resurrected Bata comes to and realises that his wife betrayed him. So he tells Anubis: "We head back into Egypt and I'll turn into such a lovely and healthy young bull that the royals will keep me as a pet." Said and done. (Wait... in classical myth, the royals of Crete did the same before it went disastrously wrong!)
But the Queen is in for a shock when her bull suddenly stops mooing and begins to speak, at least to her (everyone else at court must have been hearing this as mooing!), accusing her of her betrayal. So of course the arms race between Bata and the Queen is on. So she gets depressed, like really listless, and tells her husband that the only thing that may raise her spirits would be eating the liver of her pet bull. Of course the Pharaoh waits upon her hand and foot, and commands that the young ruminant should be sacrificed to the bull-god Apis, but the liver be cooked and served to his queen at the next supper feast.
Said and done as well.
Now you may expect that eating the liver leaves the Queen knocked up with human Bata. It does NOT.
However, as Bull!Bata was sacrificed and his throat was slit, two streams of his blood ran down to the left and right entrance pillars of the Apis temple, flanking the gate. Where two saplings instantly shot up...
About a lustrum later, nay, a decade, two decades, the teak trees, all grown up, entwined over the gate to the temple of Apis. It was then the Queen, now middle-aged and still childless, heard rustling in their branches about her betraying her true love and having a heart tree cut down.
Once more, she looked as depressed as before eating her pet bull, but this time she told her spouse that the cure for her melancholy would be having some nice teakwood chairs at the palace... made from the teak trees at the gates of Apis. Her will be done, as usual.
However, when the Queen is inspecting the cutting down of the teak trees from up close to verify that it's done right and that annoying soul won't resurrect...
...the royal wife, was standing looking on, and they did all that was in her heart unto the trees. But a chip flew up, and it entered into the mouth of the Queen; she swallowed it, and after many days she bore a son. And one went to tell His Majesty, "There is born to you a son." And they brought him, and gave to him a nursemaid and servants; and there were rejoicings in the whole land. And the King (the Pharaoh) sat making a merry day, as they were about the naming of him, and his majesty loved him exceedingly at that moment, and the king raised him to be the royal son of Kush (Crown Prince of the Upper Nile).
Now after the days had multiplied after these things, His Majesty made him heir of all the land.
So he is reborn into royalty and acknowledged as crown prince.-----------------
The villainess in this Pharaonic tale has ironically rebirthed her own rival. So does, quite relevantly, the sorceress Ceridwen in Welsh myths (we're back in Celtic lore!) to Taliesin, at first her little orphan assistant Gwion. Ceridwen had a potion meant for giving immense powers to her own son Afaggdu, but Gwion accidentally downed the first drops, as he sucked his hands to cool his burned fingertips upon which the potion had splashed... and the chase was on. The shape-shifting interspecies arms race of a chase. The boy turned himself into a bunny to hop away faster than his mistress could run... and... voilà, she was a female greyhound hot on his heels. Taking advantage of the surging river nearby, Rabbit!Gwion plunged in as he turned into a salmon... too bad Greyhound!Ceridwen had become an otter darting off like a torpedo in pursuit of the salmon whose fish-tail had already begun to feel weary. So off he hopped back on land, turning himself into a grain... as Otter!Ceridwen leapt on terra firma, turned into a black hen, and did the very first thing you think a hen does upon spotting grain on the ground:
Then she transformed herself into a high-crested black hen, and went to the wheat and scratched it with her feet, and found him out and swallowed him. And, as the story says, she bore him nine months, and when she was delivered of him, she could not find it in her heart to kill him, by reason of his beauty.
But of course Ceridwen was far brighter than the Egyptian queen above. So, after resuming humanoid shape, having downed the grain, and then awakened the next day with morning sickness, and the customary nine months (in late October, around Samhain; or in mid-April, around Beltane --again, sources vary), she tucked her newborn into a leather sack and shoved it downstream --down the same stream where the otter-vs.-salmon leg of their race had been swum--, in true Moses style. Fortunately, the new-reborn Gwion was fished up and happily adopted; significantly, on Samhain/Beltane (depending on the version) itself! He would become a great bard and enchanter, even Merlin's own master.
------
In the Kalevala, "Marjatta, the fairest maiden..." a young girl afraid to death of commitment, does some berry divination about her fortunes when a lingonberry ("marja," notice the similarity to her name) suddenly seems to have developed a life of its own, popping into her mouth and down her throat:
Marjatta, korea kuopus, meni matkoa vähäisen,
meni marjan katsantahan, punapuolan poimintahan
hyppysillähän hyvillä, kätösillä kaunihilla.
meni marjan katsantahan, punapuolan poimintahan
hyppysillähän hyvillä, kätösillä kaunihilla.
Keksi marjasen mäeltä, punapuolan kankahalta:
on marja näkemiänsä, puola ilmoin luomiansa,
ylähähkö maasta syöä, alahahko puuhun nousta!
on marja näkemiänsä, puola ilmoin luomiansa,
ylähähkö maasta syöä, alahahko puuhun nousta!
Tempoi kartun kankahalta, jolla marjan maahan sorti.
Niinpä marja maasta nousi kaunoisille kautoloille,
kaunoisilta kautoloilta puhtahille polviloille,
duhtahilta polviloilta heleville helmasille.
Niinpä marja maasta nousi kaunoisille kautoloille,
kaunoisilta kautoloilta puhtahille polviloille,
duhtahilta polviloilta heleville helmasille.
Nousi siitä vyörivoille, vyörivoilta rinnoillensa,
rinnoiltansa leuoillensa, leuoiltansa huulillensa;
siitä suuhun suikahutti, keikahutti kielellensä,
kieleltä keruksisihin, siitä vatsahan valahti.
rinnoiltansa leuoillensa, leuoiltansa huulillensa;
siitä suuhun suikahutti, keikahutti kielellensä,
kieleltä keruksisihin, siitä vatsahan valahti.
Marjatta, korea kuopus, tuosta tyytyi, tuosta täytyi,
tuosta paksuksi panihe, lihavaksi liittelihe.
tuosta paksuksi panihe, lihavaksi liittelihe.
Alkoi pauloitta asua, ilman vyöttä völlehtiä,
käyä saunassa saloa, pime'issä pistelläitä.
käyä saunassa saloa, pime'issä pistelläitä.
Marjatta, korea kuopus, tuop' on tuohon vastoavi:
"En ole miehen naimattoman enkä nainehen urohon.
Menin marjahan mäelle, punapuolan poimentahan,
otin marjan mielelläni, toisen kerran kielelläni.
Se kävi kerustimille, siitä vatsahan valahti:
tuosta tyy'yin, tuosta täy'yin, tuosta sain kohulliseksi."
"En ole miehen naimattoman enkä nainehen urohon.
Menin marjahan mäelle, punapuolan poimentahan,
otin marjan mielelläni, toisen kerran kielelläni.
Se kävi kerustimille, siitä vatsahan valahti:
tuosta tyy'yin, tuosta täy'yin, tuosta sain kohulliseksi."
Marjatta the petted damsel,
Went a very little distance,
Went to look upon the berry,
And the cranberry to gather,
With her skilful hands to pluck it,
With her beauteous hands to pluck it.
On the hill she found the berry,
On the heath she found the cranberry;
'Twas a berry in appearance,
And it seemed to be a cranberry,
But from ground too high for eating,
On a tree too weak for climbing.
From the heath a stick she lifted,
That she might pull down the berry;
Then from ground the berry mounted
Upward to her shoes so pretty,
From her pretty shoes arose it,
Upward to her knees of whiteness,
Rising from her knees of whiteness
Upward to her skirts that rustled.
To her buckled belt arose it,
To her breast from buckled girdle,
From her breast to chin arose it,
To her lips from chin arose it,
Then into her mouth it glided,
And along her tongue it hastened,
From her tongue to throat it glided,
And it dropped into her stomach.
Marjatta the petted damsel,
After this had chanced grew pregnant,
And it soon increased upon her,
And her burden soon was heavy.
Then she cast aside her girdle,
Loosely dressed, without a girdle,
Secretly she sought the bathroom,
And she hid her in the darkness.
Went a very little distance,
Went to look upon the berry,
And the cranberry to gather,
With her skilful hands to pluck it,
With her beauteous hands to pluck it.
On the hill she found the berry,
On the heath she found the cranberry;
'Twas a berry in appearance,
And it seemed to be a cranberry,
But from ground too high for eating,
On a tree too weak for climbing.
From the heath a stick she lifted,
That she might pull down the berry;
Then from ground the berry mounted
Upward to her shoes so pretty,
From her pretty shoes arose it,
Upward to her knees of whiteness,
Rising from her knees of whiteness
Upward to her skirts that rustled.
To her buckled belt arose it,
To her breast from buckled girdle,
From her breast to chin arose it,
To her lips from chin arose it,
Then into her mouth it glided,
And along her tongue it hastened,
From her tongue to throat it glided,
And it dropped into her stomach.
Marjatta the petted damsel,
After this had chanced grew pregnant,
And it soon increased upon her,
And her burden soon was heavy.
Then she cast aside her girdle,
Loosely dressed, without a girdle,
Secretly she sought the bathroom,
And she hid her in the darkness.
Marjatta the petted damsel,
Then replied to her in this wise:
" Neither with a man unmarried,
Nor with any married hero,
But I sought the hill of berries,
And I went to pluck the cranberries,
And I took what seemed a berry,
And upon my tongue I laid it,
Quickly in my throat it glided,
And it dropped into my stomach.
Thus it is that I am pregnant,
Thus it comes that I am pregnant."
Then replied to her in this wise:
" Neither with a man unmarried,
Nor with any married hero,
But I sought the hill of berries,
And I went to pluck the cranberries,
And I took what seemed a berry,
And upon my tongue I laid it,
Quickly in my throat it glided,
And it dropped into my stomach.
Thus it is that I am pregnant,
Thus it comes that I am pregnant."
----------------
It's even more enticing to find this motif in the New World First Nations lore as well. In a Pacific Northwestern tale (found all the way from Northern California to Alaska), the Raven takes on the role of Prometheus, stealing the light by means of freeing the sun and the moon. To do so, he needs to get closer to those who hoard the luminaries for themselves. And he does so by turning into a conifer needle that drifts downstream as a thirsty maiden of that clan approaches the stream with her drinking cup in hand:
Se changeant alors en aiguille de pin, il se laissa tomber dans le flot et descendit le courant juste à point pour être pris dans le seau qu'elle remplissait. Même sous cette dimension réduite, Corbeau était encore capable d'exercer ses pouvoirs magiques, assez tout au moins pour donner si soif à la jeune personne qu'elle but une grande gorgée d'eau et avala l'aiguille.
Quand il eut dégringolé bien au fond de son petit ventre chaud, Corbeau se nicha dans un coin confortable, se transforma une fois de plus, cette fois en un minuscule être humain, et partit pour un long sommeil. Tout en dormant, il se mit à grandir.
(le Corbeau) prend la forme d’une aiguille de pin, se retrouve dans le seau d’eau et, rapidement, dans le ventre de la jeune fille. Quelque temps après, elle met au monde un enfant étrange qui parvient avec ruse à faire ouvrir le coffre...
Se changeant alors en aiguille de pin, il se laissa tomber dans le flot et descendit le courant juste à point pour être pris dans le seau qu'elle remplissait. Même sous cette dimension réduite, Corbeau était encore capable d'exercer ses pouvoirs magiques, assez tout au moins pour donner si soif à la jeune personne qu'elle but une grande gorgée d'eau et avala l'aiguille.
Quand il eut dégringolé bien au fond de son petit ventre chaud, Corbeau se nicha dans un coin confortable, se transforma une fois de plus, cette fois en un minuscule être humain, et partit pour un long sommeil. Tout en dormant, il se mit à grandir.
Un jour il reconnaît les pas plus légers de la jeune fille, la suit ! Comme Corbeau est un très grand magicien, il se transforme en aiguille de pin et se laisse glisser à la surface de l'eau juste au moment ou la jeune fille plonge le seau dans la rivière... Et Corbeau qui a toujours ses pouvoirs fait en sorte que la jeune fille eut très très soif, elle boit une gorgée du seau et avale l'aiguille de pin qui s'enfonce le plus loin possible et le plus au chaud dans son corps...
Au fil des mois la jeune femme se transforme, son ventre s'arrondit...
Even in his much diminished form, the Raven was able to make at least a very small magic -- enough to make the girl so thirsty she took a deep drink from the basket, and in so doing, swallowed the needle.
The Raven slithered down deep into her warm insides and found a soft, comfortable spot, where he transformed himself once more, this time into a very small human being, and went to sleep for a long while. And as he slept he grew.
The young girl didn't have any idea what was happening to her, and of course she didn't tell her father, who noticed nothing unusual because it was so dark -- until suddenly he became very aware indeed of a new presence in the house, as the Raven at last emerged triumphantly in the shape of a human boy-child.
The Raven, a supernatural being, decided to transform himself into a
pine needle. The chief’s daughter would come out to draw water at the
waterhole. Soon she did, as she was thirsty. She was just about to drink,
when she saw the pine needle in the water. Though she wanted to blow it
away, it kept drifting to her mouth. In her impatience she finally swallowed
it. Soon she became pregnant, and eventually gave birth to a boy.
needle... [which got] caught in the basket the girl was dipping in the river...she took a deep drink from the basket, and in doing so, swallowed the needle... [Raven] went to sleep for a long while... [emerging] triumphiantly in the shape of a human boy child...
As she drank from the basket, she swallowed the needle. It slipped and slithered down into her warm belly, where the Raven transformed himself again, this time into a tiny human. After sleeping and growing there for a very long time, at last the Raven emerged into the world once more, this time as a human infant.
When she took a deep drink from the basket and swallowed the needle, the Raven slithered down into her belly. There, he transformed himself once more, this time into a very small human being, and went to sleep for a long while. And as he slept he grew. Months later, the Raven emerged triumphantly inside the house in the shape of a human boy-child, albeit a strange-looking one.
He transformed himself into a conifer needle and slipped into a bucket of water. When the daughter drank the water and swallowed the needle, Raven changed himself into a tiny person inside her. He grew and grew until she gave birth. Raven-child looked strange indeed...
At length he (Raven) hit on a plan. He noticed that the daughter
went to the well every day for a supply of water. While there she often had a drink. So he
turned himself into the needle-like leaf of the spruce tree and floated on her drinking water
and was swallowed by her. In due season she gave birth to a son who was none other than
Ne-kilst-lass or Cauch (Ravenchild), who by this means was born into the family.
The Raven flew around the girl’s compartment but did not
see her. He stood outside and waited. Soon he saw her coming out of the
house. He turned himself into a pine-needle, fell into the water she was drinking,
and was swallowed. The young woman became pregnant, and gave
birth to a boy.
So Raven feeds himself as a needle of fir or pine through the River
and is consumed by the thirsty Daughter that he might gain access
into the house he could not get into. Therewithin the daughter
births Raven, and their small family, being in darkness, does not
see that it is Raven.
and is consumed by the thirsty Daughter that he might gain access
into the house he could not get into. Therewithin the daughter
births Raven, and their small family, being in darkness, does not
see that it is Raven.
Somehow the Daughter is impregnated ...this process allowed the
Daughter through her journeys to the River...this being BY Raven THROUGH
the River. This "impregnation" may be comprehended as the knowledge
OF THE LIGHT as understood through her thirst for it, as magnified by
the River: metaphorically... Raven becoming the seed and eventually
the son (the sun).
Daughter through her journeys to the River...this being BY Raven THROUGH
the River. This "impregnation" may be comprehended as the knowledge
OF THE LIGHT as understood through her thirst for it, as magnified by
the River: metaphorically... Raven becoming the seed and eventually
the son (the sun).
Raven transformed himself into a Spruce Needle and floated into her basket as she dipped it into the water. Being very thirsty she drank some of this water and carelessly swallowed the 'Needle'. It is through this, a magical conception, that she became pregnant and gave birth to Raven inside the Longhouse.
He transforms himself into a single (conifer) needle, floats down river into the daughter's dipping basket, gives her thirst so that she drinks him down, and enters the house inside of her. Having symbolically impregnated her, Raven emerges as a human child who begins to grow up, as all spoiled children do...
The baby-Raven, known as Ravenchild, cajoles his elders to let him play with the luminaries as toys, throwing hissy fits until he gets those bright balls in hand, and then throwing them away with a strength unlikely of any infant... thus placing the sun and the moon in the sky for everyone to see.
------------
Now let's move on to more recent times, in fact, to last decade. As a tween or pre-teen, I read in an online Swedish newspaper (Aftonbladet, 29th of June 2004) of an Iranian mother of two who had birthed a frog --a frog with nailed fingers and a human tongue-- for a third child. She said she must have ingested the tadpole when swimming in a murky pool:
Tvåbarnsmor påstår sig ha fött en - groda
En iransk kvinna påstår sig ha fött en groda. Hon säger att hon fått i sig grodlarver när hon simmat i en smutsig pool och de sedan måste ha utvecklats inne i hennes kropp.
Doktor Aminifard, som sett grodan, säger till tidningen Etemaad:
- Den har vissa mänskliga drag, fingrarnas form och tungans storlek och form.
Grodan ska undersökas av genetikexperter.
Kvinnan har tidigare fött två vanliga barn.
The woman’s gynaecologist confirmed that the lady in question, whose period had stopped for six months, had undergone sonography in May which showed she had a cyst in her abdomen and that following severe bleeding, she gave birth to a live grey frog accompanied with mud.
Numerous news outlets subsequently carried the story, but in the manner of reporting that an Iranian paper had run the item, not as a confirmation of the facts of the account.
The rumour spread, and soon both a Leipzig University lecturer and the Court Physician of Denmark were researching on Katharina, to see if it was possible through the scientific method. But all they could yield, using themselves and Frau Geisslein as test subjects, were dead, partially digested herptiles after consuming an emetic; and it turned out to be a hoax, with Katharina having swallowed her animals very shortly in advance before she chucked them up.
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In the medieval parable Patience, Jonah dwells for those three days in a hyrne (nook or corner) of what is called the "wombe" of the whale or sea monster (whose gender is never specified), but is actually most likely its duodenum (having entered through the mouth and down the throat, and then wound through the belly into a sharp bend). This is even more confirmed when this place is referred to as both "wombe" and "gutte" later on in Patience. The womb and the gut conflate, like in all of these mystical pregnancy tales, in other words...
...and so may do the chest through which the gullet runs as well, the thoracic esophagus being conveniently right behind the heart as it plummets from right to left. Why is it called heartburn, and why the stabbing pain right in the chest, at heart height, upon downing a cold drink in haste? Or that cozy warmth from within after drinking liquor in haste? It's as if it went right into the heart --instead of the gut--, or at least somewhere else inside the chest. Isn't there where we feel that life throbs, as heartbeats and breathing? My witness be (aside from Bata in that Pharaonic papyrus) Calderón de la Barca as he explains, in La vida es sueño, the way a drugged prince loses consciousness:
Viéndole ya enfurecido
con esto, que ha sido el tema
de su dolor, le brindé
con la pócima, y apenas
pasó desde el vaso al pecho
el licor, cuando las fuerzas
rindió al sueño, discurriendo
por los miembros y las venas
un sudor frío, de modo
que, a no saber yo que era
muerte fingida, dudara
de su vida. En esto llegan
las gentes de quien tú fías
el valor de esta experiencia,
Después en las plantas superiores, una progresión se afirma: la región abdominal más cercana al suelo, cargada de transferencias de la materia viva, con las funciones de conservación y crecimiento por la nutrición y la sexualidad. A partir del diafragma, esta vida primaria, puesta al servicio del pensamiento individual, en el misterio de las funciones de los pulmones y del corazón.
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Which brings us further "up north" in the human system, towards the nightmare-inducing description of the Eighth Plague in Théophile Gautier's Roman de la momie, with locusts getting stuck in people's tracheae, entering through their mouths and their nostrils as they breathe in:
[···] elles se succédaient par tourbillons, comme la paille que disperse l’orage ; l’air en était obscurci, épaissi ; elles comblaient les fossés, les ravines, les cours d’eau, éteignaient sous leurs masses les feux allumés pour les détruire ; elles se heurtaient aux obstacles et s’y amoncelaient, puis les débordaient. Ouvrait-on la bouche, on en respirait une; elles se logeaient dans les plis des vêtements, dans les cheveux, dans les narines; leurs épaisses colonnes faisaient rebrousser les chars, renversaient le passant isolé et le recouvraient bientôt...
They followed each other in swarms like the straw blown about by the storm; the air was darkened; they filled up the ditches, the ravines, the streams; they put out by their mere mass the fires lighted to destroy them; they struck against obstacles and then heaped up and overcame them. If a man opened his mouth, he breathed one in; they found their way into the folds of the clothing, into the hair, into the nostrils; their dense columns made chariots turn back; they overthrew the solitary passer-by and soon covered him.
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Moving away from the realm of mystical pregnancies and the effect of drugs, there are also the stories of joint-eaters, parasitic magical creatures that are unwittingly ingested by unaware hosts... and have them consume far more than the host can handle, giving rather rapid metabolism but also constant fatigue. From the Japanese gaki to the Celtic alp-luachra, the joint-eaters can be seen as an irrational explanation of what real-life endoparasites, unseen in the olden days, do to their hosts. Sometimes the naughty little things even spawn inside their hosts!
The most effective method, time and again, for all kinds of joint-eaters is making the host thirsty, thus making the joint-eaters thirsty as well, but having the host refrain from drinking until the little newt-like or frog-like beasts are forced out through this war of attrition --through the mouth, just as the first one entered.
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All of these tales might be considered variations of the “bosom serpent” legend, described by Harold Schecter as a tale in which “through some unfortunate circumstance or act of
After all, our own inner workings were thought to be sacred for ages, leaving yet another frontier (aside from the skies and the oceans) on which the establishment could write HERE BE DRAGONS.
What's it like in there? Warm, soft, throbbing... and dark, and generally unknown. Prime territory for fantasies of both humans entering oversized monsters and undersized monsters entering humans.
It was normal for people to have fantasies about evil spirits within them, invasion of their innermost privacy, as normal as it is now... in spite of our whole system being charted down to the last synapses. There is a certain anxiety, especially if the bosom serpent is drunk or breathed in by its host --after all, we are conscious of how important it is not to thirst or suffocate to death--, that the invasion cannot be avoided: it's ineluctable. It may strike us when we least expect it, when our guard is down...
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