Giants From the Dreamtime the Yowie In Myth And Reality

Borderland Between Indochina & Thailand 1951

Enormous shadowy figure-Taw Taw

Back in the days of French Indochina [as Vietnam was once known], an employee of the French Government, Jean-Pierre Delaine, was on a visit to a small village located on the borderland between Indochina and Thailand. The year was 1951 and the French were fighting a war to hang onto their colony. Delaine was on a mission to attempt to convince a native tribe to support France in this was, and was already on good terms with the village chief.

However, the chief only allowed him to walk about the village with spear-carrying bodyguards, his reason being that the 'Taw' were prowling about in the nearby jungle and that the Frenchman needed protection. Delaine retired to a small hut to sleep at that night, while two bodyguards armed with spears stood outside the entrance. Suddenly he was woken up by what he later described as "an awful shriek", and the "roar of some primeaval monster".

Running outside he found his bodyguards hiding out of sight, trembling in fear of their own lives. It was a moonlit night, and as villagers hiding in their huts screamed "Taw! Taw!", he spotted an enormous shadowy figure striding down the main thoroughfare of the village, a figure at least 9ft [2.75m] tall. It was covered with long hair and walked upright like a human.

Hearing a scream coming from a nearby hut, Delaine saw another 'Taw' striding out of the dwelling with a grown woman tossed over his shoulder, her struggles in vain against the strength of the manbeast. Grabbing a pistol from his hut Delaine only got off two shots at the manbeast as he vanished quickly into the dark, although Delaine was certain his bullets had hit him.

However, he seemed to pay no attention to my bullets" he puzzled later. Meanwhile Delaine had forgotten about the other Taw, which suddenly appeared out of nowhere and knocked him to the ground with a powerful hairy arm, dislodging the pistol from his hand. Three times the manbeast picked him up only to slam him down against the earth. He barely had time to grab the pistol before the monster began giving him a death hug. The smell from the creature's hairy body was horrible.

Then, as the monster momentarily relaxed its grip, Delaine was able to fire his pistol. The manbeast dropped Delaine, then moved away from him. It was then Delaine realised his shot had only grazed the creature's hip, yet it was enough to frighten the manbeast and it ran off behind one of the huts and into the jungle.

A search the following day resulted in finding the dead body of the woman, and about the area were found the huge footprints of several Taw giants, on or more of whom had eaten the flesh off her arms. Delaine was glad to leave the area. The Vietnamese believe many tribes of gigantic Taw of from 3 to 4m in height inhabit the remote mountainous regions. The Taw or 'mouth-men' of Vietnam appear to be related to the Kung-tu 'mouth men' of Burma. Their range also extends from Vietnam and Thailand into Cambodia.