Classification: Mythical Beasts & Cryptids

Temporal Range: 1930s-1940s

Geographic Range: Dalby, Isle of Man

Diet: Biscuits, chocolates and bananas

Horde: Urban Legends

In the quiet town of Dalby on the Isle of Man, a mongoose caused quite the stir. Also known as Gef the Talking Mongoose to those closest to him, the Dalby Spook was a national sensation. This creature was a small rodent with the gift of speech and attracted reporters, investigators, and even ghost hunters and parapsychologists from all over the UK.

First appearing to the Irving family in September of 1931, the Dalby Spook looked like a ferret the size of a rat and introduced itself as Gef. It claimed to be a mongoose that had traveled to the Isle of Man from India and was now looking for a home.

Gef took on the role of a protector for the family, alerting them to visitors, putting out the fire in the hearth at night, and chasing off any rodents. He claimed to be a spirit trapped in the body of a mongoose, and the family accepted this and looked after him. Few locals saw Gef and even fewer heard him, but the key thing here is that there were more eyewitnesses than just the Irvings. One recorded statement of the Dalby Spook captured his own sense of torment of being trapped in the body of an animal: “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!”

If you choose to approach Gef, we recommend bringing him some chocolate, biscuits or - better still - a chocolate biscuit, and you may hear some of his thoughts on worldly matters, or just a tale of how he chased off a mouse earlier that day.