Son of the Mallet: Japanese Offer Two Million Yen Reward for a Short, Thick Snake

In Japanese folklore, there is a snake called the Son of the Mallet.

It looks like this: less than a meter long, with a short body that is very thick in the middle, like a wooden mallet used for pounding mochi, a thin tail, and it can jump—one or two meters in a single leap. Some say it makes a snoring sound, and it gets startled when it sees people first. Some say it is venomous, and some say it gets drunk if it drinks alcohol.

In the 1970s, Japan experienced a "Son of the Mallet craze," with people everywhere claiming to have seen it. Some places, to attract tourists, offered rewards of several hundred thousand or even several million yen for anyone who caught a live Son of the Mallet; the highest reward reportedly reached two million yen.

It is said that every time someone "caught" one and took it for appraisal, it was mostly a snake that had swallowed a rat and had a swollen belly, or a lizard.

In some places, they turned this into tourism: holding an annual "Son of the Mallet Festival," holding competitions to see who found the most clues, and selling snacks shaped like the Son of the Mallet.

To this day, no one in Japan has actually produced a live Son of the Mallet, but the legend persists, and in some places, people still go into the mountains to look for it.

#Paranormal #网络转载 #未解动物