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Lake monsters have been reported from Lake Nyasa, an African Great Lake located in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania,[1] where such a monster is sometimes called the dzimwé.[2] It has often been compared to a sea serpent.[1]
Attestations[]
Rumours of a lake monster in the Nyasa were first published in a Canadian newspaper, the Manitoba Weekly Free Press, on 25 June 1905. The newspaper reported that missionaries working on the shores of Lake Nyasa claimed that a boat belonging to the British administration had been attacked by a "sea serpent," which tried to board the boat until it was beaten off with oars. The story is reminiscent of Sir Clement Hill's lukwata sighting on Lake Victoria. Arnold Drummond-Hay also told colonial administrator Sir Hector Livingston Duff (1872 – 1954) that he had once seen what looked like a sea serpent in the lake.[1]
Further descriptions of a large unknown animal in Lake Nyasa were published in the magazine Animals (7 May 1963), which reported that three fishermen, alongside other locals, recently claimed to have seen a "giant water serpent" with a long dark body and a head raised straight above the water. It was believed to inhabit caves in the lake.[1]
Sightings[]
Undated[]
A Tonga fisherman from Bandawé told Duff that he had once seen a "curious amphibian" on the lakeshore. He described it as the size of a cow, with a zebra's mane and a fish's tail, and, in response to Duff's incredulity, later claimed to have eaten it.[1][3]
1905[]
In 1905, while Duff was administrating West Nyasaland, he was travelling across the lake from Nkata Bay to Ruarwi after a violent storm, when he noticed an object floating in deep water near Toto Bay. Duff was initially certain that the object was some kind of mammal or reptile, not an inanimate object, and described it as twice the size of the largest hippopotamus, with shiny leather-like skin and two large humps of unequal size. The object made little movement, simply rolling over or swaying lightly, and Duff's boatmen identified it as dzimwé, "the fabulous monster of the lake, which only rises to the surface after great storms". Duff's companion fired on the object, which sank into the water.[1][3]
Theories[]
When Duff later recounted his experience to a steamer captain on the lake, the captain burst out laughing and told him he had seen a dead hippopotamus, massively swollen by putrefaction and carried by the current into deep water. After initially believing this to be impossible, Duff accepted the captain's explanation, and believed that the animal had disappeared when shot because the newly-made holes had allowed the release of accumulated gas.[1][3]
While Duff accepted the explanation of a bloated hippopotamus corpse, Bernard Heuvelmans found this explanation implausible, instead arguing that Duff had in fact seen a genuine lake monster. He questioned why the boat's Tonga steersmen would be incapable of recognising a hippo; whether putrefaction could cause a hippo's corpse to bloat to twice its ordinary size; and why Duff and his companion would fail to hear gas escaping from the corpse, when, according to Duff, they could clearly hear the bullets hitting flesh.[1]
Based on Drummond-Hay's description of the animal he saw, Duff felt that it (and the lukwata) had likely been an exceptionally-large python. Drummond-Hay accepted this explanation, albeit reluctantly.[1]
Lake map[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique, Plon, ISBN 978-2259003872
- ↑ Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Duff, Hector L. (1932) African Small Chop