Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Forbidden Island

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Forbidden Island · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Spend enough time at sea and your eyes
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  Speaker 1: could start to play tricks on you. You might see
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  Speaker 1: phantom sea creatures in the distance, or even a massive
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  Speaker 1: land floating above the water. The latter is called the
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  Speaker 1: Fata Morgana and was named after Morgan le Fay, the
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  Speaker 1: powerful sorceress from our theory and legend. It was believed
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  Speaker 1: that her powers had caused fairy castles to sprout above
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  Speaker 1: the waves. For apps, Morgan le Fay was behind another
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  Speaker 1: mysterious ocean mass, one that has confounded explorers and cartographers
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  Speaker 1: for hundreds of years. What was nothing more than a
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  Speaker 1: speck on a map became the legend that launched a
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  Speaker 1: thousand ships. One of those ships belonged to John Nesbitt.
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  Speaker 1: Nesbitt was a soldier after fighting in the Thirty Years
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  Speaker 1: War during the seventeenth century. He probably should have settled
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  Speaker 1: down with his wife and family back in Scotland, but
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  Speaker 1: Nesbitt couldn't shake his sense of duty. He continued to
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  Speaker 1: serve in battles between sixteen sixty six and sixteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: nine before being labeled an outlaw for his extreme religious views. However,
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  Speaker 1: while captaining his own ship one day in sixteen seventy four,
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  Speaker 1: he noticed something in the water. His map showed it
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  Speaker 1: as nothing more than a tiny circle an island. It
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  Speaker 1: had appeared on maps since the mid fourteenth century, yet
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  Speaker 1: no one had ever stepped foot on it before. On
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  Speaker 1: this day, John Nesbitt would be the first. He and
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  Speaker 1: his crew headed toward it. They dropped anchor once they
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  Speaker 1: had gotten close enough and went out in rowboats to investigate.
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  Speaker 1: Once they came ashore, the men lit a fire and
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  Speaker 1: observed the local wildlife. Enormous black rabbits hopped around everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: There was also a large castle made of stone. It's
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  Speaker 1: only occupant, a man believed to be a wizard. As
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  Speaker 1: they explored the island, the crew met another old man
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  Speaker 1: who would lived there for quite a long time. He
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  Speaker 1: gave them gold and silver to take back to their ship.
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  Speaker 1: When Nesbitt told others back on land about his expedition.
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  Speaker 1: He was met with one of two reactions, either laughter
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  Speaker 1: at his expense or more questions than he had answers to.
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  Speaker 1: Another captain, who heard Nesbitt's stories decided to see for himself.
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  Speaker 1: He and his crew sailed to the island and surprisingly
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  Speaker 1: had the same experience. They saw the castle, the rabbits,
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  Speaker 1: and met the old man, who bestowed them with gold
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  Speaker 1: and silver, just like Nesbit. After that, as sightings of
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  Speaker 1: the island shrunk, so would its appearance on nautical maps.
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  Speaker 1: No and saw it for two hundred years, and then
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two, explorers Robert o'flairti and T. J.
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  Speaker 1: Westdrop claimed to have spotted it from their ship. West
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  Speaker 1: Drop allegedly visited on his own three separate times, before
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  Speaker 1: bringing his family along on the voyage. There, the west
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  Speaker 1: Drops said the island appeared and then disappeared without a trace.
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  Speaker 1: According to the legends, the island only appears once every
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  Speaker 1: seven years, when the fog that normally surrounds it lifts,
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  Speaker 1: allowing sailors to catch a glimpse. And the name of
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  Speaker 1: this mythical land they called it Brazil. No, not that Brazil.
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  Speaker 1: It was also known as High Brazil, named for Brazil,
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  Speaker 1: the Celtic name for the high King of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Maps dating from thirty five all the way up to
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  Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds positioned it about two hundred miles off
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  Speaker 1: the coast of Ireland, out in the Atlantic Ocean. There's
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  Speaker 1: a long history of mythology and folklore surrounding the island,
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  Speaker 1: aside from the rabbits and the magic, and it's been
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  Speaker 1: said that Brazil is also the Irish version of Mount Olympus,
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  Speaker 1: home to the gods of old. No one has seen
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  Speaker 1: it since and you won't find it on any modern map,
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  Speaker 1: but some say it's still out there waiting to be found.
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  Speaker 1: An island shrouded and missed as well as mystery. When
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  Speaker 1: we die, we leave behind more than we realize. There
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  Speaker 1: are often grieving family members, perhaps a beloved pet now
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  Speaker 1: without its owner, And in far too many cases we
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  Speaker 1: have debts that have gone unpaid. Most debts will be
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  Speaker 1: forgiven or collected by the banks through various means. Other debts, however,
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  Speaker 1: aren't waived so easily. They need more than a signature
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  Speaker 1: to dismiss them. These debts require a unique kind of
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  Speaker 1: payment in the ledge of Rattling Hope, England, Richard Munslow
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  Speaker 1: made himself a reputation for collecting those debts. He was
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  Speaker 1: unlike a lot of folks in his trade, which favored
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  Speaker 1: the poor. He was far from it, in fact, having
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  Speaker 1: been born to a wealthy family and his farm was
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  Speaker 1: quite successful. But Munslow loved his neighbors and wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do something for them at one of the saddest points
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  Speaker 1: in their lives. So whenever one of them died, Munslow
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  Speaker 1: would venture to the graveyard and eat over the body.
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  Speaker 1: You see, a person who died suddenly didn't have the
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  Speaker 1: time to confess their sins to a priest or to God,
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  Speaker 1: thus leaving their souls impure. An impure soul was unable
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  Speaker 1: to move on to heaven. However, there was a way
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  Speaker 1: for the soul to be cleansed after the fact. It
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  Speaker 1: was believed that consuming a meal over the dead would
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  Speaker 1: absolve them of their sins, which would then pass on
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  Speaker 1: to the sin eater, instead allowing the soul to move on.
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  Speaker 1: The practice of sin eating had existed for thousands of
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  Speaker 1: years in various forms. In early Mesoamerica, a dying person
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  Speaker 1: could confess their sins to the Aztec goddess of fertility
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  Speaker 1: and motherhood, who would consume them and purify the soul
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  Speaker 1: that specific term. Though sin eater originated in Wales as
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  Speaker 1: a practice, it gained popularity in specific parts of England
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  Speaker 1: throughout the fifteenth century all the way up until the
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  Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Aside from helping the dead move on, the
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  Speaker 1: act of eating one sins would also prevent restless spirits
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  Speaker 1: from tormenting the living, which was a good benefit if
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  Speaker 1: you ask me. Sin eating was originally a paid job
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  Speaker 1: performed by the poor. No one of any wealth or
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  Speaker 1: status would take on the sins of others, which brought
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  Speaker 1: with it the stigma of being a pawn to the
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  Speaker 1: devil himself. Sin Eaters were thought to be blasphemers and
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  Speaker 1: practitioners of black magic. They also became targets for the
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  Speaker 1: Catholic Church, who had cornered the market on absolution. Anyone
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  Speaker 1: caught practicing sin eating could be sentenced to death. The
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  Speaker 1: same was true for folks who hire senators in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, as they had gone against God's will. But
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  Speaker 1: Mounslow didn't mind any of that. He tended to his
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  Speaker 1: farm and occasionally stopped by the graveyard to break bread
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  Speaker 1: with the recently deceased, and his neighbors loved him for it.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't shunned by them for cavorting with spirits or
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  Speaker 1: working with the devil. He performed a necessary service and
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  Speaker 1: was beloved for it. Sin eating as a practice started
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  Speaker 1: to die out in the mid nineteenth century, but carried
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  Speaker 1: on in some of the smaller towns. The locals found
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  Speaker 1: it an important part of the greeting process. Richard Munslow,
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  Speaker 1: though did not die out until the nineteenth century. Some
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  Speaker 1: believed that he continued the practice out of respect for
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  Speaker 1: his deceased children, who had passed away of scarlet fever
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  Speaker 1: when they were very young. Munslow lived until nineteen oh six,
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  Speaker 1: becoming the last living senator in England. The village of
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  Speaker 1: Rattling Hope erected a memorial for their hometown hero, which
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  Speaker 1: had fallen into disrepair over the years. In two thousand ten,
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  Speaker 1: the town got together to restore it to its former glory,
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  Speaker 1: a lasting homage to the man who sacrificed his mortal
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  Speaker 1: soul for his friends and neighbors. And while they had
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  Speaker 1: no qualms about bringing Manslow's grave site back from the dead,
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  Speaker 1: they apparently drew the line at resurrecting his occupation. Some leftovers,
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  Speaker 1: it seems, just aren't worth saving. I hope you've enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
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  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye