Can Solomon Islands Giants be Real?
One of the four riddles or mysteries of Solomon Islands - or at least one of the four most fascinating and worthy of attention - are mysterious beings simply called "Solomon Islands giants", although known among the natives under many different names, such as Cho(wa)-Cho(wa), Moomoo, etc. (could they be designations of various giant races?).
Nevertheless, while ancient ruins - if they exist - are easy to investigate (although extremely difficult to get to) as they are something tangible, a hard structure made of stone; while "Dragon Snakes" and/or other light manifestations can indeed be observed over the islands (I, for one, was able to make such an observation, although from a considerable distance); while, last but not least, the existence of Kakamora ("small people") could be logically justified based on accounts from the world and particularly from Indonesia, Solomon Islands giants, on the other hand, constitute the greatest challenge to a researcher, not only and not so much because of relatively rare encounter reports, but also because they are the least probable (i.e. most difficult to believe and verify) mystery of Solomon Islands. After all we know that something like ancient ruins does exist. We also know more or less credible reports on light phenomena in the sky - about UFOs (I'd like to include under the acronym not just alleged craft of alleged aliens but also all kinds of lights in the day or night sky that cannot unambiguously be classified as a star/meteorite, a plane and/or another known object, but which may as well be a work of nature, an effect of human activity, hallucination or a joke/hoax). Furthermore, the existence in Solomon Islands of "small people" is supported by at least one, Indonesian, analogy. But giants? And giants speaking some language? There is, admittedly, some indirect circumstantial evidence that give rise to assumptions that the giants are not just a fiction, but there is no certainty...
In his article and in his book an Australian researcher, Marius Boirayon, devotes as much space to Solomon Islands giants - if not more - as to "Dragon Snakes", i.e. strange and uninvestigated lights over the Solomons. He writes, among other things:
"Apart from being known for building timber base structures with sheltering sago palm and other leaf, they have vast cave systems running within the majority length of the mountains of this 200 plus kilometre long tropical Jungle Island. [i.e. Guadalcanal - WB] Some of the Guadalcanal Giants live in organised lifestyles with social structures, and I have come across many Guadalcanal people that believe they can go from east to west through their cave systems without seeing the light of day, and many believe that their population numbers in the thousands. [...] Mount Tatuva is definitely one of this city’s main entrances. [...] To my understanding, there are three different species or types of these Giants. The larger and more commonly seen are over 10 foot tall [approx. 3 metres - WB], but I have come across numerous Islander accounts with evidence that supports that they do grow much taller than that. These Giants have very long black, brown or reddish hair, or a mixture. [...] They have a protruding double eyebrow, bulging red eyeballs, and flat nose wide gapped mouth facial features. [...] From the large hairy type, they range down in size with reducing amounts of body hair.[...]".
So much for Boirayon. What remains for us to do is to analyse possibilities, just as we did with "Dragon Snakes".
The first possibility that immediately comes to mind is the simplest: tales about giants are blatant lies, a tissue of nonsense, fables; no giants exist even in myths or legends. Obviously one cannot completely dismiss such a possibility, however a question appears about the usefulness of such "pulling the wool" over anyone's eyes. To arouse interest in Solomon Islands? But whose interest? A handful of the researchers of the "Unknown" among thousands of potential tourists? For what purpose? Perhaps just to arouse sensation? But - so far - it is exactly the giants that are the part of Solomon Islands mysteries which arouses least sensation, probably because of their elusiveness and enormous problems with delivering specific proof or even sufficient circumstantial evidence.
What if these "monsters" do exist, even if only in myths, legends and folk tales? Can they be an indispensable, constant part of the mythical or magical reality? Taking into account the enormously rich folklore and unusually diversified culture of Solomon Islands - such an explanation seems to be far more sensible. However, if we assume that giants are mythical creatures, we also need to accept that stories about them - as is usually the case in mythical stories - serve some specific purpose. They may, for example, explain the origin of the very rich flora and fauna of Solomon Islands, describe or domesticate fear or otherwise allegorically describe the world that surrounds us. Usually, however, in that kind of tales certain generalisations are used, moreover they usually concern some remote past, mythical or unspecified times. If so, then what mythological tale is hidden behind one - probably one of hundreds existing - story that I heard one evening in Guadalcanal from a representative of the older generation? The story, concerning an abduction of a woman by one of those giants, included such details as exact time and date! I know not of any myth, legend or folk tale that would include such details. Is this a proof for the reality of giants? Of course not. However, it should make us approach the myth theory with more cautiousness...
Let us assume for a while that not only are not tales spun by the natives lies but that they concern completely real beings. Who or what would then giants be? One of the possible interpretations (albeit still hard to accept to many people) is that those giants are in fact hominoids unknown to nature, representatives of anthropoid primates not recognised by science, of the same kind as have been described in the Himalayas (Yeti), North America (Bigfoot, Sasquatch), Australia (Yowie) and many other parts of the world. It would fit descriptions of giants ideally: tall, sometimes very tall, thick and full hair coverage, prominent eyebrows, bipedality and secretiveness...
What, then, do the stories told by the elders of Solomon Islands in Guadalcanal, Malaita or Makira say? Is it only mythology? A fabrication? Hidden reality?
I do admit that among the four most important mysteries of the Solomons this one seems to be the hardest one to resolve, even in the case of an organised expedition. After all, no-one from outside of Solomon Islands has ever succeeded in encountering even some traces of a giant's presence, let alone a giant himself/itself... It is however justified and advisable to try to solve this riddle...
And yet there is something else, something because of which tales about giants cannot be treated merely as hoaxes, fairy stories or folklore, what is more - something that constitute quite a strong PROOF that in the remote (or perhaps quite recent) past the Earth was indeed inhabited by giants... Please have a look at the films below. I would like to draw your particular attention to press clippings from the period between the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, i.e. from the times when nobody even dreamed about the existence of things such as PhotoShop... By the way, I wonder: if one could go to places indicated in the press clippings, would they still find some giant skeletons? Obviously there is a difference between long-dead giants and those who are alive, so the films below cannot be a direct proof for the existence of giants in Solomon Islands, however they do at least indicate the factual reality of beings called giants...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbEyUsyy_xs&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-8bVEIVUh8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXGJAE-VvvQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Ar5jrESzE&feature=related