What was the beast of Gevaudan?

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Whoever she was, she was no maiden to choose for a goodnight kiss unless you have an unusual taste or your new Tax Return is late. With her, the Last Waltz meant just that. She killed through cunning, surprise and speed, not rash boldness and strength, evidencing a careful professional judgment of risk against profit. The index-linked civil servants tried to prevent her from working, like they always feel compelled to do with entrepreneurs but she survived and kept them in jobs too.

The church also was ostensibly against this working girl making an honest living but she proved to be prayer-proof. For example, several churches were the rendezvous for processions of supplicants on 18/19 August 1765 and other dates. Besseyre, Nôtre Dame de Beaulieu, Venteuges, Pébrac and Paulhac (old church probably destroyed in war) were some of them. There was ceremonial movement of icons of the Madonna between various churches and some of them can still be seen in the places to which they were delivered by the anti-Bête processions two hundred years ago.

Study of frequency and location of attacks using computers and backs of envelopes supports the contention that more than one beast prowled but locals then and now reject the idea of several, although many reports exist of smaller animals seen both alone and with their mother. To the French, La Bête is an Edith Piaf and will remain so. Both were unique stars with neighing voices and no regrets. On the other hand, who ever heard of a French lady lacking boyfriends, Joan of Arc possibly excepted?

Perhaps the Wulver - that burly but unaggressive Scottish werewolf, allegedly seen in the Shetlands this century - should have been introduced to our fiery Madame to cool her temper. By now those farmers could be assailed by wicked Lady Macbête plus her bairns. Only French farmers deserve such suffering. It is best to laugh at dark corners.

Another overseas candidate as La Bête, in addition to the legendary Nandi bear from Africa, who also had a penchant for rapid head removal, is the famous, mythical and dangerous Canadian beast called the Wendigo - elusive, frequents lonely forests and loves children. A French Canadian Bête would, after all, be appropriate.

If it is acceptable to consider La Bête might have been a surviving prehistoric animal, the one that most closely resembles her appearance is the Mesonychid. This was a wolf-like mammal, an early ancestor of the dolphin, with wide jaw, spots, mobile tail etc.

The thylacine marsupial wolf of Tasmania, alive as recently as 1934 and still occasionally reported, for which a cooking recipe exists (no, not vin-de-loup) is easily dismissed as too puny for the job. However, tails strong enough to knock people over were possessed by larger prehistoric carnivorous marsupials like the Thylacoleo. Such an unusual tail often appears in La Bête descriptions, as do other kangaroo-like features. Another Australian contender, although an unlikely one, being relatively small, is an animal still occasionally reported but which probably became extinct in the 19th or early 20th century. This is the Tasmanian or Queensland tiger, the subject of a TV program, which was marsupial and rather like a wolf with claws, probably resembling the extinct tiger-dog of Japan, which is another possible but uninvestigated candidate.

One report of La Bête describes a strange animal killed and buried in the Pinols region in July 1766. There had been deaths there since 1765. It was recorded by curate Bergier, whose description resembles that of a very large baboon but unfortunately only limited information is available and the killings did not cease with the death of this beast. Crude drawings remain.

Romulus and Remus were allegedly suckled by a wolf, so perhaps a human returned the compliment to an animal, which might explain where she obtained support, if any was needed, when wounded or during the long periods - sometimes months - which could elapse between killings. There are other accounts of humans being brought up by animals. Part of the Gévaudan area was renamed Aveyron shortly after the French Revolution in 1789. Books titled The Wild Boy of Aveyron, who was allegedly a wolf-child, were published in 1962 and 1976.

Not previously recorded in the La Bête saga, registered here almost certainly for the first time in this context, is the fact that a strange and haunting drawing originated in Italy in 1495 of a woman/monster with claws and horse-like head, washed up from the River Tiber. This is yet another unexplained beast story that had a significant effect on the Catholic church.

The idea that La Bête was a human/animal hybrid rears its particularly revolting head in some books. Such are reputed to have existed, almost all degenerate and shambling creatures. For example there is even an obscure story that a man/beast monster was brought back by the Royal Navy and kept in secret on a small rocky islet off the South Coast, being led around on a leash. Obviously not her, or it would have been ''Hello sailorburger''. Such an aristocrat of killing as La Bête deserves to keep her thoroughbred reputation, not that of a monster from a horror comic.

On 29th January 1997 the first edition of a Fortean TV series on the 'Unexplained' was broadcast by Channel 4. The program reported on a strange vampire-like beast: 'The Goat Sucker of Puerto Rico', nicknamed El Chupacabras. This creature has killed 150 goats in the Canavoras region by sucking their blood and liver through neat incisions in the neck. Other animals - cattle, rabbits and chickens - have also been killed but, so far, no humans. The army has been called to investigate.

Drawings from eye-witness reports show it to resemble no known animal, being kangaroo-like, fast, strong and able to stand on 2 feet. Footprints of three-clawed toes have been found at killing sites. The drawings and TV representations bear a resemblance to La Bête, who also was usually reported as first licking or sucking blood from victims, devouring them only afterwards. Reports have been received from US and elsewhere of attacks on animals by similar beasts. On 19th November 1997 a program based on El Chupacabras, referred to as a weird creature in Mexican folklore, was broadcast in the X Files series but strayed from the original vampire-like monster legend.

So far evidence is sketchy. The animal as reported shows similarities to La Bête but there are big differences. Its incisions are neat, whereas hers could be untidy - you can’t call tearing-off heads neat. It has been reported as having three-clawed toes; she was not often reported with three but hers were also sometimes said to be clawed. If El Chupacabras ever graduates almost exclusively to humans, moves faster, operates mainly in the daytime and adopts less tidy eating habits, we can perhaps say, "La Bête has returned".

Mystery dog found in Texas

According to the TV program, explanations considered include an alien or the outcome of genetic experiments at an American military base. These trains of thought mirror those which have taken place - so far unsuccessfully - over the last 230 years to explain La Bête, for example the possibility that La Bête was an alien or caused by alien experiments has recently been studied in France and views published. Closing scenes of the film 'Species' show a female alien who, although furless, uncomfortably resembles La Bête in speed, style and murderous intent. Before dismissing the alien concept remember that for over two centuries clever people have unsuccessfully sought a solution to the Bête mystery. Under these circumstances the apparently impossible must be admitted as a possibility. No, that is not quite what Sherlock Holmes said.

The classic black and white film 'The Night of the Demon' has a large unforgettable clawed monster, one of the best ever. La Bête can reasonably be described in appearance and behavior as a fast moving mini-version of this and also resembles other traditional demons. Funny how our concept of wolf-like monsters has changed so little over the centuries and is consistent world-wide.

The Hindus believe in a terrible blood-drinking feminine spirit called Kali, dedicated to destroying life to allow for re-creation. She is sometimes represented as clawed, hideous woman and has been worshipped by Thugees for more thousands of years than Christianity has centuries. Victims are left with broken necks, mutilated, in shallow graves. To quote her fellow-worker Shiva, 'Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds'. In a hot Bengal night the life re-cycling concept of Kali does not seem as unlikely as it does by a de Quincey style Lake District fireside in November.

Some writings about La Bête refer to mysterious caves, prehistoric bones, once collected for fertilizer, and suspiciously knowledgeable individuals but one question apparently never researched is whether any of the famous cave drawings and paintings in the area show an animal - of known or unknown species - that might have been La Bête's ancestor? The recent discovery of important caves containing 20,000 year-old drawings of animals ranging from rhinos to mammoths in the neighboring Vallon Pont-d'Arc region ( to the South East - the Vivarais direction from which she was first reported) gives food for thought. A famous Cro-Magnon cave painting of an odd, upright creature called 'The Sorcerer' exists at Les Trois Frères. At nearby Le Moustier there is a cave containing the world's earliest known ceremonial burial, that of a Neanderthal nicknamed 'Nandy'. There is a museum at Chilhac showing remains of animals going back 2.5 million years. Prehistoric people drew and fought animals which have become extinct (or have they?) only since the council erected the new play area at Stonehenge. Like our own House of Lords, the Gévaudan district contains some of the world's best preserved and most numerous remnants of early intelligent human activity. Incidentally, she was last witnessed in September 1767 strolling peacefully along in Sarlat, also a prehistoric cave area.

In establishing the identity of La Bête one apparently neglected information source is old family records. The use of surnames, especially those with titles, is particularly well controlled and documented in France so the descendants of most people involved are traceable. For example there are still members of the ‘Barthe’ family in the district, one of whose ancestors, a nobleman, was among the first and best witnesses of La Bête. Unpublished information hides for centuries in old drawers and teenage daughters' bedrooms. Pity the French never ask you home.

Truth may sparkle one day to someone with long bar bill and pickled liver who, Western hero style, strides into local brasseries and asks questions, finally expiring as La Bête's last victim - Number 96 or 101, according to which statistics you accept. Liver (raw no onions) was always her favorite entrée following a warm blood consommé - free lunch for the aristocrat of killing who dined royally by daylight.

Plump tomes, written in sunny Auvergne wineshine, expansively affirm she was not hyena, wolf or human but none tells what she damn well was. Entries on a postcard please. No prizes, not after the blind dinner date.

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