'ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN.'

Thames Star, 24 December 1921, Page 4

'ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN.'

IN THE HIMALAYA, Was it human footprints that the Mount Everest expedition found on the snow many thousands of feet up beyond all human habitation? The white men never saw anything but tho footprints, but the coolies had strange, confused stories of people they called "Abominable Snowmen," or Meet'oh Kangun\,, They are said to be clothed only in their own hair, and to live on berries and vermin, and are hostile to strangers, but can' easily be avoided. These men are believed to be descended from outlaws, and are shunned by the ordinary population of the mountain districts.

Dr. Douglas Freshfie'ld, the explorer, writing in the London Times, says he was told, in 1896, by Russian offiicials of a race of wild men in the Caucasus who had no villages or language, and appeared naked anf) gibbering in the depth' 2 «?*& the„y; r ' ,a a , where they,Jh"vcy3(.;. - M i«.-iies, and w-X '"'' .'.a s^siumojuoduoj^ qOItJAY O} S9pi!ftlO-\UOO 9ttf jo 0110 JO oraox[ aitf SBAV Suipjmq p]o ai[j oo4 > -2ug m utsqm;4sa;o.ij jr', v '^arrum- ■ ' T r.O- I >*/ n ; •-. . ariim. They shunned ' . spoke an unintelligible d\e, used the bow and- arrow, and DTO ■ . ate rushes and vermin. Sir Joseph Hooker says the existence of these men was believed, in all over Sikkim at that time. Mr.,H. J. Elwes, the entomologist, heard of coolies being driven from their work at an elevation of 8000-9000 feet in Sikkim- in 1914 by an attack of wild men. Another traveller, Mr. William Hughes Knight, a member of the Royal Societies' Club,, says that in crossing a pass in Tibet, near Gantok, some years ago, he saw what he believes to have been one of these "Abominal Snowmen." He was about 15 or 20 paces away, standing looking down the side of the mountain, and .was about six feet high, stark naked in the bitter cold, a pale yellow all over, had a head of tousled hair, but with little hair on his face, highly splayed feet, large formidable hands, and terrific muscular development in the arms, thighs, legs, and back. He did not see Mr Knight, and after a moment or two bounded down the hillside in pursuit of something. So it looks as if there may still be a few people in the world who haven't heard of the war and don't go to the pictures.