MANIFESTING THE MULILO - A RAINBOW-SUMMONED HILL-DRAGON, OR A LOATHSOME BLACK SLUG-SNAKE?

 

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)

 

EBONY ENCOUNTERS OF THE SERPENTINE KIND

Melanistic specimen of the Patagonian green snake Philodryas patagoniensis (Laurie J. Vitt)

Whereas some mysteries become less mystifying once investigated, others only become even more so – and the herpetological example under consideration here definitely belongs to the latter category.

As a child, I was bought a wonderful anthology entitled Animal Stories, published in 1967, whose contents had been chosen by Alan C. Jenkins. Within its covers, he had compiled a splendid collection of animal-themed fiction and non-fiction, including chapters extracted from a number of classic books, such as Gerald Durrell's The Bafut Beagles (1954), Jim Corbett's Man-Eaters of Kumaon (1944), Ernest Thompson Seton's Lives of the Hunted (1901), and W.H. Hudson's Far Away and Long Ago (1918).

My favourite story in the entire anthology was a chapter entitled 'A Serpent Mystery', from the above-mentioned book by W.H. Hudson (in which he recalled his early life in the Quilmes, a borough in Argentina's Buenos Aires Province). Reading it, the mystery in question, namely the identity of a very remarkable snake that he had encountered on three separate occasions, seemed to have been solved by him at the end of the chapter. However, after returning to this story recently and investigating his claims concerning the snake, I have realised that the mystery may still be far from solved.

Hudson's 'Serpent Mystery' chapter can be summarised as follows.

Even as a boy, Hudson was familiar with the various ophidian species native to his home region, none of which exceeded 4 ft long, and he spent many hours exploring a weed-infested piece of waste ground at the far end of his family's plantation. One hot December day, while standing amid this wilderness, he heard a soft rustling sound near his feet, and, looking down, was startled to see a very long, slender, coal-black snake moving very slowly past him. He estimated its total length to be at least 6 ft, probably more, and he stared at it intently, remaining motionless until it finally vanished from sight among some long grass. What could it have been? Neither its colour nor its size matched that of any species that he had ever known or heard of existing in this area.

Initially, Hudson vowed never to return to this dangerous site, but his fascination with its unexpected inhabitant ultimately won the day, compelling him to venture back – and after numerous days of failure, he finally caught sight of the mysterious ebony-scaled serpent again, gliding languorously through the weeds in the very same spot as before. This time, however, Hudson was able to spy its destination – a hole in the ground, into which it passed until it was totally hidden from view. On many subsequent visits to the waste ground, he deliberately stood quietly near to this hole in the hope that sooner or later he would once more see its enigmatic owner, but the long black mystery snake never made an appearance.

Did Hudson's ebony-scaled mystery snake look like this Eastern indigo snake?

Then one day, after having stood there yet again, and for some considerable time, but still without success, Hudson became bored, and chose instead to interest himself in observing a bat hanging from a twig just overhead. Concentrating upon the bat, he at first paid no heed to a sensation of pressure upon the instep of his right foot, but when the pressure increased, until it seemed as if a heavy metal bar were resting upon it, he casually glanced down to see what was responsible for this sensation – and was shocked to discover that it was none other than his long-sought-after black mystery snake, which was actually drawing its lengthy inky-black coils leisurely across his foot!

By standing in his present position, Hudson's foot was inadvertently blocking the snake's passage to its hole, and so rather than moving around the offending obstacle it had decided simply to take the shorter course, and pass directly over it! Thrilled, terrified, and tantalised in equal measures, Hudson remained immobile as coil after coil rippled like a sable stream across his foot, until at last their sinuous owner had re-entered its den undisturbed and unalarmed.

W.H. Hudson (1841-1922)

Although Hudson returned many times afterwards, he never saw the snake again, and no-one whom he questioned about it had ever seen or heard of anything like it in that area of Argentina either. Subsequent investigations, however, led him to believe that it was a melanistic (all-black) specimen of a species that he referred to as Philodryas scotti. He claimed that this was a not uncommon Argentinian species, though not in his home region, and that it did indeed grow to 6 ft or more.

In addition, Hudson noted that two years before his three meetings with the black snake, a normal-coloured P. scotti specimen – one that he described as "a pale greenish-grey, with numerous dull black mottlings and small spots" - had been encountered by his sister as a small child (and swiftly dispatched by their horrified father), but until now had not been identified.

As noted earlier, one might assume from the above account that Hudson had duly solved the mystery of his black snake – but in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

Patagonian green snake Philodryas patagoniensis (Kemi Ksas)

To begin with: when googling Philodryas scotti, I discovered that only a single publication referred to it – and that publication was none other than Hudson's own book, Far Away and Long Ago. Could it be, therefore, that the name given by Hudson had been incorrect? Pursuing this possibility, I soon discovered that there was indeed an Argentinian species mentioned in numerous sources whose name differed by only a single letter – namely, Philodryas schotti (sometimes given as schottii). A species of venomous, rear-fanged colubrid, its common name is the Patagonian green snake, and nowadays it is referred to by many authorities as Philodryas patagoniensis.

Was this the true identity of Hudson's 'Philodryas scotti'? Certainly, photographs of P. patagoniensis correspond closely with Hudson's description of the snake encountered by his baby sister. Moreover, there are also a number of photographs online of melanistic specimens that readily recall Hudson's black mystery snake. However, P. patagoniensis does not normally exceed 5 ft.

Melanistic specimen of Patagonian green snake Philodryas patagoniensis (Axel Kwet)

Consequently, if the two snakes reported by Hudson did indeed belong to this species, either they were unusually lengthy or their size had been over-estimated by him. Some mutant gene alleles responsible for melanism are known to increase body size too, so assuming that Hudson had not over-estimated its length, this could explain the black snake's extra-large size, but not the normally-coloured specimen's.

So were these two snakes truly P. patagoniensis, or did they belong to a different species – and, if they did, which one? Perhaps, more than 90 years after the publication of Far Away and Long Ago, the last word has still to be said on the subject of W.H. Hudson's intriguing serpent mystery.

Colour engraving from 1858 of Patagonian green snake Philodryas patagoniensis