Might
the mulilo – if it exists – look something like this? (created by Dr Karl Shuker
using Dream Lab)
In more than 40 years of cryptozoological
researches and writings, I have been proud and privileged to introduce to the
cryptozoological community and beyond a considerable number and notable diversity
of cryptids whose details had been hitherto consigned to obscure, overlooked periodicals,
books, and other passed-over publications. One such mystery beast is the
mulilo, whose details I uncovered in a long-since-forgotten Empire Review article, but which I duly
documented and discussed in one of my own books, From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings, first published in 1997,
and which was the very first crypto-themed publication to include it.
My book From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings (© Dr Karl
Shuker)
Today, conversely, numerous online
websites have also documented this creature, but as far as I can tell their
coverages are merely paraphrasings of my
book's original version, with no new, additional content Yet my book is seldom referenced as their
source, sadly.
Consequently, coupled with the
regrettable fact that certain of these online paraphrased coverages are far
from accurate iterations of mine anyway, I've decided to present on
ShukerNature my book's original, concise account of the mysterious mulilo – so here
it is.
Dream a dream of a mysterious dragon that only appears when a
rainbow is resting upon the vivid, viridescent hillsides of Zaire [now the
Democratic Republic of Congo] and Zambia – a creature whose reality is widely
accepted by many native people in these tropical African countries. One might
expect such an Arcadian, picturesque scenario to inspire images of a bright,
evanescent entity with sparkling opalescent scales, a proud noble head of
classical profile, and sweeping, polychromatic butterfly wings – a golden,
glittering creature of Faerie, of heady sunlit reverie.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth, because the image
that these people do visualize when contemplating this creature is an evocation
of much darker dreams. According to their belief, Central Africa's
rainbow-summoned dragon, known as the mulilo, is a gigantic, coal-black,
slug-like beast of loathsome form, almost 6 ft in length, over 1 ft in width,
and leaving death in its wake – the deadly legacy of its poisonous breath.
Could the mulilo be a giant black slug? (created
by Dr Karl Shuker using Grok X1)
One could certainly be forgiven for considering the mulilo to be
nothing more than a fanciful folktale. Yet as reported in 1940 by W.L. Speight
within an Empire Review article on
African mystery beasts, a living, corporeal animal is apparently involved,
because pieces of blackened flesh said to be from dead mulilos are worn by some
natives as fertility charms.
There is no known species of slug that attains the size attributed
to the mulilo; in any event, the bodies of slugs are relatively insubstantial,
little more than slender gelatinous sacs - hardly the likeliest of materials to
remain intact for utilization as charms. Perhaps, therefore, the blackened
flesh is really from a slug-like snake, or even a serpentine salamander (like
the sirens of North America).
Even so, the thorny question remains as to whether this corporeal
creature is truly the mulilo, or whether its flesh is merely used by the
natives to vindicate their belief in what is actually a non-existent, wholly
mythical beast? If the flesh is from
a mulilo (regardless of what species it may belong to), how do the natives
obtain it?
Another giant black slug-inspired mulilo
representation (created by Dr Karl Shuker using Grok X1)
According to Speight, they set a trap – building a secure cage,
lined internally with sharp blades, and baited with a living cockerel. Then
they simply wait each night, and listen. On the morning that no cock-crow is
heard, the natives celebrate and journey joyfully to the cage – for they know
that inside it they will find the mulilo, dead, impaled upon the blades during
its capture of the cockerel.
Yet despite this apparently successful method of obtaining
mulilo remains, the mulilo is as mysterious and unidentified today as it was
when documented by Speight over half a century ago [almost a full century ago
now]. Moreover, it does not even seem to have been reported again. Perhaps
rainbows have been rare in Zaire and Zambia lately?
My
view concerning the mulilo that I held back in the late 1990s remains unchanged
today, almost 30 years later. Namely, that if it is indeed a real,
flesh-and-blood entity, it is most likely to be some form of black-scaled snake,
possibly a fairly thick-bodied or sturdy one, perhaps even a melanistic variety
of a species already known to science.
Over
the years I have documented a number of times with a variety of different examples
that in the culture of many indigenous peoples from around the world, aberrant
animal specimens, such as melanistic, albinistic, or extra-large individuals,
for instance, are often categorised by them as being fundamentally (rather than
merely superficially) distinct, wholly separate creatures from normal specimens
of the same species, and are even given wholly separate names by them.
Is the mulilo based upon an unusual melanistic
variety of snake? (created by Dr Karl Shuker using Dream Lab)
So if
the mulilo were indeed nothing more than an all-black form of a known snake
species but deemed special by the locals on account of its unexpected
colouration, this would not be in any way surprising.
In addition,
certain snakes, especially large meat-eating constricting species such as the
African pythons, are notorious for the foul stench of their breath. So if the
mulilo is simply a melanistic version of one such species, this could plausibly
explain native testimony (conceivably somewhat exaggerated or embellished if
retold to the more ingenuous of Westerners?) relating to its allegedly
poisonous exhalations.
A large and sturdy melanistic specimen of constricting
snake might inspire superstitious fear among local people encountering it (created by Dr Karl
Shuker using Magic Studio)
If only
further details could be obtained. So if anyone reading this ShukerNature
article is aware of any addition information appertaining to the mulili, I'd
love to hear from you, so please comment below with your news – many thanks
indeed!
Excerpted
from my book From
Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings (Llewellyn: St Paul, 1997).
An intriguing image generated by Dream Lab,
combining the serpentine scaly body of a melanistic snake with slug-like
cephalic tentacles – the perfect mulilo? (created by Dr Karl Shuker using Dream
Lab)