A book has recently been released about life as it once was in the Americas, or perhaps never was. The title is La Fureur Mensongère ou les contes fabuleaux du Nouveau Monde (Lying Fury, or tales of the New World). As you may have already guessed, the book is written in French.

 

We have been told that the book was written by Lying Fury herself, but a look at the fine print reveals the name of Thibault Ehrengardt, the writer of so many fascinating articles from France seen regularly on this website. M. Ehrengardt admits that he has had to help Lying Fury out a bit with the writing as she is now old and lazy.

 

This book is filled with tales of creatures found in the Americas by the earliest explorers. Well, perhaps some were found in America though we suspect others were found in the imaginations of the early visitors. They ranged is size from the Sauvagesse, French for a feminine savage from Labrador, who stood less than 3 feet tall, to the Patagonian giants of southern South America. The Patagonian giants were first described as being nine feet tall. With each succeeding visit they got a bit smaller. Eventually, they were reported to be six feet tall, still tall by contemporary standards but not someone you would particularly want on your basketball team.

 

Those were some of the more normal creatures. There were people with two hands on the same arm, flat heads and bodies. And these were in the days before melted down nuclear power plants. Others relieved themselves from their mouths, urinated from their armpits. They probably weren't invited to many parties. There were creatures that were part man and beast, others part beast and beast, but with bestial parts that don't normally go together. And then there was the gentleman depicted on the cover of the book. He had no separate head, but a face that appeared within his chest. Of course, we in America know such creatures still exist in this land. Some are our neighbors, but we will never let on to the French.

 

For those who would like to buy the book (in French), or read more about it, the link is lafureurmensongere.blogspot.fr. You can view some of the images and descriptions, and for those who must wait for the English edition, Google Translate helps.