One Year Ago ...

... the Eggsalad Annie blog came to life. The face here has gone through a number of morphs, most recently after our "Long Way Backwards, Baby" post. Annie's blog disappeared for a time after that one and could only be resurrected by starting it over with a new template. As a matter of fact, it has disappeared a few times. Uploading graphics has become progressively worse over the last six months. People say "it's a free blog! You can't complain!" Such is life!

In honor of our One Year anniversary, we present a sufficiently odd little news item in keeping with the overall weirdness of our Spinning Salad Bowl. This story comes to us via a West Bengal village called Ban/ar/hat. The children were talking today about creatures with tails, most notably those that are used as weapons or to assist climbing. They also spoke for a time about elephants. They do this out of the blue. No precursor, no preamble, no fuss, very matter of fact. Those are generally the conversations and stories that often require closer attention. Anyway, here's the story that popped up this evening:

Tailing a monkey man in search of healing powers
Tue Jun 20, 8:16 AM ET
KOLKATA (Reuters) - Thousands of people are flocking to an impoverished Indian village in eastern West Bengal state to worship a man they believe possesses divine powers because he climbs up trees in seconds, gobbles up bananas and has a "tail."



Devotees say 27-year-old villager Chandre Oraon is an incarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman -- worshipped by millions as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.

"He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect," says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.
Tucked away in a hamlet in Banarhat, over 400 miles north of Kolkata, the state capital, devotees wait for hours to see or touch Oraon's 13-inch tail, believing that it has healing powers.
Doctors said the "tail" -- made up of some flesh but mostly of dark hair -- was simply a rare physical attribute.

"It is a congenital anomaly, but very rarely do we find such cases," B. Ramana, a Kolkata-based surgeon, told Reuters.


Hanuman is also called "Son of the Wind." Here's an excerpt on him:

Hanumaan, the Vaanara (monkey) attendant of Rama, in the Raamayana is venerated throughout India with temples and with shrines in Vaishnavite and Saivite temples alike. The ideal qualities of loyalty, unstinted devotion and love are depicted in the character of Hanuman, who helped Rama cross over the ocean, defeat the demons in battle and recover Sita, who had been kidnapped by the demon king Raavana.
www.templenet.com

http://www.thefetus.net/page.php?id=997

The birth of a baby with a tail is indeed a disturbing happening for the medical team as well as for parents.

Several 19th century medical reports and popular tales mentioned human tails. In was believed that the embryo, during its development passed through the form of inferior animals. In fact, most malformations were thought to be errors in the transition between inferior species and humans10. In particular, Darwin describes a case to support his theory related with human evolution in “The descent of Man”11.

There are many reports of this anomaly. Some report that tribes in Paraguay, Borneo and Philippines, have individuals with tails12.

Bartels et al. in 1884 reviewed cases reported to that date finding 116. Of the 68 cases in which the sex was mentioned, 52 were male and only 16 were female infants13. In a similar report, Lu et al. reviewed cases between 1960 and 1997 finding only 59. He reported an association with spina bifida was 20%9.
(photograph of neonate with vestigal tail appendage)(photo courtesy of www.thefetus.net)


When we compare this “human tail” with the tail of other vertebrates, the difference is evident. This tails do not contain vertebral structures. In fact, there is only one case reported in medical literature in which the human tail had vertebral remnants14.

Associated anomalies: spina bifida (20%), meningocele, lipomeningocele, chondrodysplasia, cleft palate, cutaneous hemangiomas, syndactyly and oligodactyly 8,9.

Differential diagnosis: Spina bifida, caudal regression sequence and sacrococcygeal teratomas.

So, it's not really so strange, as human vestigal tails are rare but they do occur. Most of us carry a vestigal organ. It's called the appendix.

But why does the guy in Banarhat run up and down trees, gobbling bananas? Good exercise, loves bananas? Loves the trees and bananas? It is curious. And we see what people do! Annie didn't read anywhere that the fella claimed to be a divine reincarnation *or* a healer. But, there you go. Whether he has a divine gift of healing I guess remains to be seen. But if enough people believe, miraculous things have been known to occur. Some people require signs and "miracles" to spark belief in a God of this Mysterious Universe. Some people require them on a regular basis or they slip back into the netherworld of doubt. Annie feels fortunate and blessed most days. She lives with three miracles who remind her every day of God's presence and keep the ego tempered a bit - as it has that human tendency to want to inflate beyond all reason.

Greets on the Solstice. May the sun's longest days burn brightly in your hearts and lives every day.