View source for Gef

{{Short description|Supposed talking mongoose}}
{{Other uses|GEF (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2021}}
[[Image:Gef the talking mongoose.png|thumb|George Scott's sketch of Gef the talking mongoose, from 1936]]
[[File:Gef Mongoose ventriloquism.jpg|thumb|A 1932 article that suggested trickery and [[ventriloquism]] from Voirrey Irving was the cause of the Gef phenomena]]
'''Gef''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|ɛ|f}} {{respell|JEF|'}}), also referred to as the '''Talking Mongoose''' or the '''Dalby Spook''', was an allegedly talking [[mongoose]] which inhabited a [[farmhouse]] owned by the Irving family, located at Cashen's Gap near the [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] of [[Dalby, Isle of Man|Dalby]] on the [[Isle of Man]]. The story was given extensive coverage by the [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid press]] in Britain in the early 1930s. The Irvings' claims gained the attention of [[parapsychology|parapsychologists]] and [[ghost hunting|ghost hunters]], such as [[Harry Price]], [[Hereward Carrington]], and [[Nandor Fodor]]. Some investigators of the era as well as contemporary critics have concluded that the phenomenon was a hoax that the Irving family perpetuated by using [[ventriloquism]].

==Story==
[[Image:Voirrey Irving.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Voirrey Irving]]
In September 1931, the Irving family, consisting of James, Margaret, and a 13-year-old daughter named Voirrey, claimed they heard persistent scratching, rustling, and vocal noises behind their farmhouse's wooden wall panels that variously resembled a [[ferret]], a [[dog]], or a baby. According to the Irvings, a creature named Gef introduced itself and told them it was a mongoose born in [[New Delhi]], India, in 1852. According to Voirrey, Gef was the size of a small rat with yellowish fur and a large bushy tail.

The Irvings claimed that Gef had communicated to them that he was "an extra extra clever mongoose", an "Earthbound spirit" and "a ghost in the form of a mongoose" and once said, "I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you'd faint, you'd be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!"<ref name=josiffe1 /> The Irvings made various claims about Gef: he supposedly guarded their house and informed them of the approach of guests or any unfamiliar dog; if someone forgot to put out the fire at night, Gef would go down and stop the stove; Gef would also wake people up when they overslept; and whenever [[mice]] got into the house, Gef supposedly assumed the role of a cat, although he preferred to scare them rather than killing them. According to the Irvings' words, they gave Gef biscuits, chocolates, and bananas, with food left for him in a saucer suspended from the ceiling which he took when he thought no one was watching. The mongoose regularly accompanied them on their trips to the market, but always stayed on the other side of the hedges, chatting incessantly.

The story of Gef became popular in the [[tabloid journalism|tabloid]] press, and many journalists flocked to the Isle to try to catch a glimpse of the creature.<ref>''Out of this World, Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time'', 1989, page 419–420.</ref> Many other people, both locals and visitors, claimed to have heard Gef's voice, but only a handful claimed to have seen it. When Arthur Morrison visited the Irving home, he claimed that when Gef spoke to him from under the bed he slept in at the home, he could see a pair of yellow eyes.<ref name=josiffe1>{{cite web | last = Josiffe | first = Christopher | title = Gef the Talking Mongoose | work = Fortean Times | publisher = Dennis Publishing | date = December 2010 | url = https://www.academia.edu/1476809 | access-date = 2016-12-02}}</ref> Two teenagers named Will Cubbon and Henry Hall claimed to see Gef in Cubbon's own yard and described him as yellow with a black spot on his tail.<ref>Josife, Christopher (2021). ''Gef!: The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose'' United Kingdom: Strange Attractor Press. {{ISBN|978-1-907222-48-1}}</ref> However, physical evidence was lacking. Footprints, stains on the wall, and hair samples claimed to be evidence of Gef were identified as belonging to the Irvings' sheepdog, as were several photos which were claimed by the Irvings to depict Gef.<ref name=willett2/>

Margaret and Voirrey Irving left the home in 1945 after the death of James Irving. They reportedly had to sell the farm at a loss because it had the reputation of being haunted. In 1946, Leslie Graham, who had bought their farm, claimed in the press that he had shot and killed Gef. The body displayed by Graham was, however, black and white and much larger than the famous mongoose and Voirrey Irving was certain that it was not Gef.

Voirrey died in 2005. In an interview published late in life, she maintained that Gef was not her creation.<ref>McGraw, Walter. (1970). [http://www.fatemag.com/fortean/gef-the-talking-mongoose-30-years-later/ ''Gef - the Talking Mongoose...30 Years Later''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017080810/http://www.fatemag.com/fortean/gef-the-talking-mongoose-30-years-later/ |date=2013-10-17 }}. [[Fate (magazine)]]. pp. 74-82</ref>

==Psychic investigations==
===Harry Price===
[[Image:Richard. S. Lambert psychical researcher.png|thumb|Richard S. Lambert investigating the site]]
In July 1935 the editor of ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', [[Richard S. Lambert]] (known as "Rex"), and his friend, [[Ghost hunting|paranormal investigator]] [[Harry Price]], went to the Isle of Man to investigate the case and produced the book ''The Haunting of Cashen's Gap'' (1936). They avoided saying that they believed the story but were careful to report it objectively. The book reports how a hair from the alleged mongoose was sent to [[Julian Huxley]], who then sent it to [[naturalist]] [[F. Martin Duncan]], who identified it as a dog hair.<ref name=low>{{cite book | last = Rachael | first = Low | title = History of British Film | publisher = Routledge | year = 1996 | pages = 193–194 | isbn = 0-415-15650-5}}</ref> Price suspected the hair belonged to the Irvings' sheepdog, Mona.<ref name="Wiseman2011">[[Richard Wiseman]]. (2011). ''Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there''. London, UK: Pan Macmillan. p. 185. {{ISBN|978-0956875655}}</ref>

Price asked [[Reginald Innes Pocock|Reginald Pocock]] of the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] to evaluate [[pawprint]]s allegedly made by Gef in [[plasticene]] together with an impression of his supposed tooth marks. Pocock could not match them to any known animal, though he conceded that one of them might have been "conceivably made by a dog". He did state that none of the markings had been made by a mongoose.<ref name=willett2>{{cite web | last = Willett | first = Cliff | title = The Evidence for Gef: Pt 2 Gef's Pawprints | work = Gef: The Eighth Wonder of the World | url = http://dalbyspook.110mb.com/gefpawprints.html | access-date = 2008-09-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120216140513/http://dalbyspook.110mb.com/gefpawprints.html | archive-date = 2012-02-16 | url-status = dead }}</ref> The diaries of James Irving, along with reports about the case, are in Harry Price's archives in the [[Senate House Library]], [[University of London]].<ref>[[Raymond Buckland]]. (2009). ''The Weiser Field Guide to Ghosts''. Weiser Books . p. 26. {{ISBN|978-1578634514}}</ref>

Upon visiting the Irvings, Price observed double walls of wooden panelling covering the interior rooms of the old stone farmhouse which featured considerable interior air space between stone, as well as walls, also made of wood, that "[made] the whole house one great speaking-tube, with walls like sound boards. By speaking into one of the many apertures in the panels, it should be possible to convey the voice to various parts of the house."<ref name="Price1936">{{cite book|author=Harry Price|title=Confessions of a ghost-hunter|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.221797|access-date=20 August 2013|year=1936|publisher=Putnam}}</ref> According to [[Richard Wiseman]], "Price and Lambert were less than enthusiastic about the case, concluding that only the most credulous of individuals would be impressed with the evidence for Gef."<ref name="Wiseman2011"/>

===Nandor Fodor===
[[Nandor Fodor]], Research Officer for the [[International Institute for Psychical Research]], stayed at the Irvings' house for a week without seeing or hearing Gef. Fodor disbelieved any deliberate deception had occurred and moulded a complex psychological theory to explain Gef based on "[[Split-personality|a split-off part]]" of Jim Irving's personality.<ref>{{cite book | last = Carrington| first = Hereward |author2=Nandor Fodor | title = Haunted People: The Story of the Poltergeist Down the Centuries | publisher = Lightning Source Inc. | year = 2006 | isbn = 1-4254-8106-X}}</ref>

==Critical reception==

Although some psychic investigators thought that Gef was a [[poltergeist]] or another type of [[ghost]], sceptics, including residents of the Isle of Man, believed the Irving family had colluded to perpetuate a hoax that was originated by daughter Voirrey. An ''[[Isle of Man Examiner]]'' reporter wrote that when he caught the girl making noises, her father tried to convince him the sound came from somewhere else.<ref name="Nickell2010">{{cite book|author=Joe Nickell|author-link=Joe Nickell|title=The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=21IIoCQC0VAC&pg=PT144|access-date=13 August 2013|date=29 September 2010|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-3707-0|pages=144–}}</ref> According to [[Joe Nickell]] researchers have suspected Voirrey used [[ventriloquism]] and other tricks "the effects of which were hyped by family members, reporters in search of a story, and credulous paranormalists."<ref>[http://www.csicop.org/si/show/psychic_pets_and_pet_psychics/ Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics] Nickell, Joe. Vol. 26.6, November / December 2002. Skeptical Inquirer.</ref>

Contemporary media scholar [[Jeffrey Sconce]] writes that the most likely explanation is that "this extra extra clever mongoose was an imaginary companion created by the Irvings' extra extra clever daughter."<ref name="BerryKim2010">{{cite book|author1=Chris Berry|author2=So-yŏng Kim|author3=Lynn Spigel|title=Electronic Elsewheres: Media, Technology, and the Experience of Social Space|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rsZ3C011_dgC&pg=PA39|access-date=19 August 2013|date=January 2010|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-4736-1|pages=39–}}</ref>

==Lambert slander case==

In 1937, Lambert brought an action for slander against Sir [[Cecil Levita]], after Levita suggested to a friend that Lambert was unfit to be on the board of the [[British Film Institute]]. Levita said that Lambert was "off his head" because he had believed in the talking mongoose and the [[evil eye]].

Lambert was pressured to abandon his action by [[Stephen Tallents|Sir Stephen Tallents]]; he persisted and won, receiving £7,600 in damages. It was an exceptional figure for a slander case, awarded because Lambert's counsel managed to introduce a [[BBC]] memo that showed Lambert's career had been threatened if he persisted with the action; it later became known as "the Mongoose Case".<ref>{{cite web | title = The Mongoose Case - 1936 | publisher = BBC | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/editorial-independence/mongoose-case/ | access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Lambert | first = Richard Stanton | title = Ariel and All His Quality: An Impression of the BBC from Within | publisher = Victor Gollancz | year = 1940 | isbn = 0-946976-11-2| page = 216}}</ref>

==Gallery==

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170">
Image:Gef foot tracks and teeth marks.jpg|Alleged foot tracks and teeth marks from Gef
Image:Mona the sheep dog.jpg|Mona, the Irvings' sheep dog
Image:Mr and Mrs Voirrey Irving.jpg|Mr. James Irving and daughter Voirrey at their house
</gallery>

==In media==
*[[Lemon Demon|Lemon Demon's]] 2009 song "Eighth Wonder", is written about Gef and contains many of Gef's alleged statements. The original song was 5:10 long, however, an alternate abridged mix of the song was released on the 2016 album ''[[Spirit Phone]]''. 
*''Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose'' ({{ISBN|9781907222481}}), by [[Christopher Josiffe]], a nonfiction account of the case, was published by [[Strange Attractor Press]] in 2017.
* ''[[The Last Podcast on the Left]]'' covered Gef in episode 409.<ref>{{cite web |title=EPISODE 409: GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE |url=https://www.lastpodcastnetwork.com/blog/2020/5/1/episode-409-gef-the-talking-mongoose |website=Last Podcast Network |publisher=The Last Podcast on the Left |access-date=13 December 2022}}</ref>
* Gef was covered in an episode of the podcast [[Loremen podcast|Loremen]]''.
* Gef and Fodor's investigation are core to the plot of the audio drama "The Dalby Spook", released as a part of ''Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures: What Lies Inside? (''{{ISBN|9781838687526}}), by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle, and published by [[Big Finish Productions]] in 2022.
* The Fodor investigation into Gef is central in the 2023 film ''[[Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose]]'' starring [[Simon Pegg]], [[Minnie Driver]] and [[Christopher Lloyd]], with [[Neil Gaiman]] as the voice of Gef.

==See also==
* ''[[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]'' features a talking mongoose.
* [[Hoover (seal)|Hoover the talking seal]]
* [[Talking animal]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==

*{{cite book | last = Fodor | first = Nandor | author-link = Nandor Fodor | title = Between Two Worlds | publisher = Parker Publishing Company | year = 1964 | url =https://archive.org/details/betweentwoworld00fodo| url-access = registration }}
*{{cite book | last = Graves | first = Robert | author-link = Robert Graves |author2=Alan Hodge |author2-link=Alan Hodge | title = The Long Week End: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939 | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1941 | url =https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.150979| page = [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.150979/page/n362 346] }}
*[[Christopher Josiffe|Josiffe, Christopher]] (2017). ''Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose''. London, UK: [[Strange Attractor Press]].
*Morris, Richard (2006). ''Harry Price: The Psychic Detective''. Stroud, UK: Sutton. A biography that includes an account of the Gef investigation.
*[[Harry Price|Price, Harry]] & [[Richard S. Lambert|Lambert, Richard]] (1936). ''The Haunting of Cashen's Gap: A Modern "Miracle" Investigated''. London, UK: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
*[[Richard Wiseman|Wiseman, Richard]] (2011). ''Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there''. London, UK: Pan Macmillan.
* Film: [[Brian Catling|Catling, Brian]] & [[Tony Grisoni|Grisoni, Tony]]. (1999). ''Vanished! A Video Seance.'' UK.

==External links==
* [http://www.harrypricewebsite.co.uk/Famous%20Cases/mongoosebyharryprice.htm The Talking Mongoose by Harry Price]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120207024323/http://paranormalnews.com/article.aspx?id=1060 "Putting Together The Poltergeist Puzzle"]
* [https://www.academia.edu/1476809/Gef_the_Talking_Mongoose Academia.edu article "Gef the Talking Mongoose" by Christopher Josiffe]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gef The Talking Mongoose}}
[[Category:1930s in the Isle of Man]]
[[Category:1930s hoaxes]]
[[Category:Purported mammals]]
[[Category:Culture of the Isle of Man]]
[[Category:Manx ghosts]]
[[Category:Manx legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Talking animals]]
[[Category:Fictional mongooses]]
[[Category:Hoaxes in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Poltergeists]]