Legend Of

The notion of an unknown sea monster has long been a part of our history. Since the ancient times, such creatures have appeared as mythological figures in literature, art, and oral accounts, most likely branching from Indo-European culture. The Hebrew bible, for example, has several mentions of sea monsters such as Rahab, the “demonic angel of the sea,” and the Leviathan, which has been widely adopted in video games and in the 1989 horror film bearing the same name. Sea serpents were described to be aquatic dragons without wings or four legs, something like Hydra and Scylla in Ancient Greek mythology. However, as time progressed from the ancient times, sailors began seeing these very same sea monsters on their oceanic voyages. They were quickly becoming something not only of mythology, but also of reality. Beginning in the 1500s, sightings gradually increased. In his 1555 book History of the Northern People’s, Olaus Magnus writes about a 200 foot long aquatic serpent living near the co

                                     J’Ba Fofi translates to “giant spider” in the Baka people’s language in the Congolese forests. The Congo basin is 500 million acres and the world’s second largest tropical rainforest, and it is home to a vast variety of wildlife, including endangered primates, elephants, and 10,000 species of tropical plants. The Baka represent the area’s population, and since the late nineteenth century, they and foreign travelers have been reporting a man-eating giant spider. Described to have a leg span of 4-6 feet in adulthood, the J’Ba Fofi, or sometimes called the Giant Congolese Spider, is said to operate like a trapdoor species. Sometimes, witnesses report funnel trapdoors located in or below tree roots, and sometimes it creates webs spanning from tree to tree, and lays a trip line web to alert itself of any prey. It’s massive and sturdy webs catch anything that crosses its path, and then the creature emerges: a dark brown spider resembling a tarantula, wi