Bête question -
Wikipedia[en] (et par extension, les copieurs-colleurs de Monstropedia
) présentent le Gazeka comme un animal fictif inventé par le comique anglais George Graves en 1905. Pourtant, il y a un article sur un cochon géant de Nouvelle-Guinée qui a été publié en 1875 par un certain Meyer (mais je n'ai pas l'impression que le nom "Gazeka" y apparaisse).
Ma question est : d'où vient le nom "Gazeka" ? Je suppose que le comique s'est inspiré de cette histoire authentique de cochon géant pour son sketch (ou a, par hasard, imaginé une créature rigolote qui ressemblait à une description faite trente ans plus tôt par un zoologue... ou une créature rigolote sans rapport dont le nom a par la suite été repris pour désigner le cochon géant), mais est-ce lui qui a inventé ce nom, qui aurait ensuite été repris par les (crypto)zoologues, ou est-ce le nom donné à la créature par les indigènes de Nouvelle Guinée ?
Mon impression est que le nom a été inventé par le comique et n'a commencé à être utilisé pour désigner le cryptide qu'après l'article de Monckton, en 1906, d'où le nom alternatif de "
Monckton's gazeka" - qui est peut-être un peu moqueur, s'il a effectivement été inspiré par le sketch de 1905.
Notez quand même que Meyer, dans son article, se montrait très sceptique de l'existence réelle de l'animal dès l'abstract :
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1875Natur..11..268MCiter:
I AM quite of your opinion that the occurrence of a rhinoceros in New Guinea is very seriously to be doubted (see NATURE, vol. xi. p. 248), but I beg leave to mention a report of a very large quadruped in New Guinea, which I got from the Papuans of the south coast of the Geelvinks Bay. When trying to cross the country from there to the south coast, opposite the Aru Islands, -in which I did not succeed, but only saw the sea-shore at a great distance from the height of a mountain chain (I afterwards succeeded in crossing the continent of New Guinea from the Geelvinks Bay more to the north, over to the Maclure Gulf),-and when hunting wild pigs along with the Papuans, they told me, without my questioning them, of a very large pig, as they called it, fixing its height on the stem of a tree at more than six feet I could not get any other information from them, except that the beast was very rare, but they were quite precise in their assertion. I promised heaps of glass pearls and knives to him who would bring me something of that large animal, but none did. I cannot suppose, so far as my experience goes, that the Papuans are remarkably prone to lies; notwithstanding I seriously doubted the existence of such a large ``pig'' and as the sons of that country are very superstitious, and see ghosts and absurd phenomena everywhere, I may just mention as an example, that when I shot, on the same hunting party, a specimen of Xanthomelus aureus, that most brilliant gold-orange Bird of Paradise, they said they could not kill this bird, because it would lighten and thunder when they did, I booked that report as an efflux of their lively imagination, though not without discussing in my diary the possibility and significance of the occurrence of a large quadruped in New Guinea.
(Si quelqu'un a accès au texte complet de l'article, qu'il me fasse signe)
Autre source d'information, une page dans
Mysterious creatures: a guide to cryptozoology :
http://books.google.be/books?id=z9gMsCU ... 8.&f=falseEn ce qui concerne le gazeka du comique, une illustration de 1906 est visible ici, sur une pub pour Perrier :
http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/Archiv ... ichus.htmlOn ne peut pas dire que la ressemblance avec un cochon géant soit frappante, d'où mon idée que le comique a juste inventé un animal cocasse appelé "Gazeka" dont le nom a été repris pour désigner la créature étrange observée par Monckton l'année suivante (et qui avait été citée par Meyer trente ans plus tôt).
Edit : j'avais loupé le reste de la page, on y trouve notamment la description de l'animal par le comique :
Citer:
The text on the reverse of the above advertisement reads:
'The True History of the Gazeka.
By the Discoverer, George Graves.
(Described by him in Act II. of The Little Michus at Daly's Theatre.)
It has been said that my little Gazeka is the outcome of a fevered brain - a late night at the Club - an over-heated imagination - even worse things have been said of him - poor little fellow. Nothing of the sort, my "Gazeka" is the product of accident.
'Nature has been so neglectful as to forget to clothe him in any way, except for a little patch of fur on his chest; the rest of his carcase is perfectly bald, but such a sweet-natured little fellow is he, that to prevent the little patch of expensive and rare fur on his chest being in any way ruffled before it reaches us he sleeps on his little back. But to show what a dirty trick nature has played, when the moon's rays sine on him (he being of a very light milky skin) the other animals mistake him for a turnip and nibble him. Shame!!! His breed is decimated, inasmuch that the young Gazekas - to be correct, the Gazikëtas - whilst very young, are pounced upon by the voracious slugs of the district, who attack the ankles of the young Gazeka, and he, being of a self-absorbed nature, doesn't discover until too late that the slugs have chewed through his equilibrium - consequently the next thing he knows is that he has lost his balance and is on his face in the suffocating mud. He generally remarks before dying, "I think that will do for to-day" - and exists.
'[signed] George Graves.
'(The "Gazeka" design on the other side is by Mr. Charles Folkard, the winner of the "George Graves" prize.)'
Absolument rien à voir avec l'animal décrit par les (crypto)zoologues, donc, ce qui me renforce dans l'idée que le comique a inventé une créature rigolote et l'a baptisée "Gazeka", nom qui a ensuite été récupéré (par dérision ?) pour désigner l'animal observé par Monckton.