Tuba (organism)
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Tubae can supposedly grow up to two metres in length and are thought to be both deaf and colour blind.
Tubae feature in many Mongolian folk songs - known as long-songs, or Tuul - often appearing during times of struggle in a narrative in order to help the protagonist along their way. A tuba's horn, when powdered, is seen as an elixir of life, and is often sought after by hunters. In some versions of the legend, the tuba is immortal.
The legend was first brought to Western attention by Welsh explorer and social anthropologist Realth Chalmers, who briefly mentioned the fictional creature in his 1807 journal, written during his expedition across Western Mongolia<ref>Chalmers, R: "Dyddiadur / Journals 1805 - 1810".</ref>. Chalmers describes the creature in Welsh, a translation of his description reads as follows: A small kid, which as far as I can tell is devoid of any limbs, save two large horns which in some stories are much sought-after by hunters. Chalmers goes on to hypothesise that the creature is a metaphor for opportunity or luck, although the locals were apparently adamant that such a creature actually existed - not an unusual part of many folklore tales.
There have been a number of formal scientific studies of the tuba, most of them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1920s Russian biologist Professor Tsyben Zhamtsarano accumulated a substantial amount of research on the creature. However, after the rise of Stalin in the 1930s, Professor Zhamtsarano's work was lost, and he was imprisoned for studying Mongolian folklore.
In recent years there have been several reported sightings of tubae in tabloid newspapers, however most mainstream scientists would consider current evidence of the tuba's existence to be flimsy and better explained as hoax or misidentification of known species. The actual likelihood of the existence of such a creature, possessing distinct characteristics from two separate phyla, is negligible. However, several expeditions with the aim to prove (or disprove) the existence of the tuba have been made, although no truly conclusive evidence has ever been found. Indeed - one of the leading arguments as to why no satisfactory evidence has ever been found is that, assuming the tuba's physiological makeup more closely resembles that of a soft-bodied mollusc than a mammal, its body would decompose in a mere matter of days after death.
Tubae in popular culture
- In 1979, Czechoslovakian animator Zdenek Miler created a short film, The Cricket And A Tuba, which documented an unlikely friendship between two creatures trying to find their way home after escaping from an overturned circus train. Parts of the film were censored by the the Czechoslovak government as 'potentially subversive' - it was seen to undermine socialist values..<ref>The Cricket And A Tuba at the Internet Movie Database</ref>
- In 1991, the Caerphilly Players Amateur Drama Society staged an original production entitled My Tuba And Other Family Members, a satire on the slow demise of the traditional family unit in the Welsh valleys.
Trivia
- A tuba was once the unofficial mascot of the British submarine, HMS Tapir.
- Recently, the Mongolian government commissioned the Social-Economical Research Center in the Bayan-Olgee province of Mongolia to assess the importance and prevalence of the tuba legend in modern Mongol culture.<ref> Menggu zu wenwu yu kaogu yanjiu/Research on Mongolian culture and archeology, 1999. ISBN 7-80644-336-3 </ref>
References
<references/>
Categories: Mythological hybrids | Cryptozoology | Forteana
