Bargaining With Yourself

Another entry in Chiadro's Diary.

There's a devil hovering over my left shoulder in panel three. The modern image of the devil -- the earless, scaly creature that rasps away your soul with its tongue -- was conceived some six hundred years ago. Explorers, empowered by newer and larger sailing ships, had begun searching for new lands and discovering new people. Among the things they brought back were drawings and stories of strange new creatures, which we now know as pangolins. Their bizarre appearance caught the imaginations of many, and they appeared in stories, woodcuts, and paintings over the next twenty years -- not depicted as people, but rather as fantastic animals. Their resemblance to the mythical serpent was exaggerated by the many artists who drew pangolins without having ever seen one. As pangolins took on the image of the devil, so the devil took on the image of a pangolin.

Most people know that pangolins, after years of being associated with evil, were finally exterminated in a series of colonial campaigns starting in 1480. A number of pangolins had been tortured into confessing to an assortment of crimes, chief among them being the stealing of souls. These confessions gave governor Padua, who was under pressure to expand the colony, enough of a pretext to order raids on nearby villages. It's not so well known that the king of Turacoes, directly west of the colony, supported the effort. The sweeping of the countryside was regarded with plenty of hostility; however, one the one hand, pangolins were an ethnic minority and a small percentage of the population, and on the other hand, the military backing of Turacoes deterred retaliation. No organized counterattack was made. There's some dispute over the reason Turacoes supported the campaigns; it's thought that either the king intended to redistribute the vacated land for political favors, or he hoped that the campaign would weaken his neighbors, thus strengthening his own position. Whatever the case, the colony grew to six times its original area over three years, officially because it needed to restore the people living nearby, who had been corrupted by the evil influence (or perhaps just were angry at being invaded). Although Padua had succeeded in eliminating pangolins from the area, it wasn't until years later that he learned how completely he had succeeded.

History is fascinating, in a morbid kind of way. There's an exhibit on pangolins at the Smithsonian, including an embalmed pangolin man. If you're ever in the D. C. area, I'd encourage you to check it out.

There is also an angel in panel three. This is, of course, just a mythical creature. Everyone knows that bird-people don't exist.