Gef The Talking Mongoose - Blog Posts

Some of the things that Gef the Talking Mongoose had said were written word for word in James Irving’s personal diary. It is thought that Voirrey Irving was behind it all using ventriloquism. 

“I am not evil. I could be if I wanted. You don’t know what damage or harm I could do if I were roused. I could kill you all, but I won’t.” 

“I am a ghost in the form of a weasel, and I shall haunt you with weird noises and clanking chains.” 

“Of course I know what I am, and you are not going to get to know, and you are only grizzled because I won’t tell you. I might let you see me some time, but thou wilt never get to know what I am.” 

“I have three attractions.  I follow Voirrey, Mam gives me food, and Jim answers my questions.” 

“I’ll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!” 

“If you are kind to me, I will bring you good luck. If you are not kind, I shall kill all your poultry. I can get them wherever you put them!” 

The Irving family posed many questions to Gef the Talking Mongoose to try and get his answers. Once, among all their questions, the Irvings asked Gef if he knew what death was. To which, his voice replied simply, “Yes, a changeover.” 

Gef the Talking Mongoose said a number of notable things in his time living at the home of the Irvings on the Isle of Man. He could speak a number of different languages according to those he spoke to, including but not limited to Welsh, Spanish, and Russian. However, even though he could speak more than English, he once claimed that the Irvings were the ones that had taught him to speak: “For years, I understood all that people said, but I could not speak until you taught me”. 

Gef the Talking Mongoose is obviously a most unique creature. Unsatisfied by others’ renditions of him, Gef decided he must draw a self portrait. Supposedly, Gef grasped a pencil and drew this sketch of himself. It says: “Crude sketch by Gef. 17/8/35. Supposed to be of his head. J.T.I.” The initials are those of James Irving, on whose property Gef lived. 

Gef, sometimes referred to as the Talking Mongoose or the Dalby Spook, was a talking mongoose reported to inhabit a farmhouse known as Cashen’s Gap on the Isle of Man.

In September 1931, the Irving family, consisting of James, Margaret and 13 year old daughter Voirrey, heard scratching and rustling noises behind their farmhouse’s wooden wall panels. Initially they thought it was a rat, but then the unseen creature began making different sounds. At times it spat like a ferret, growled like a dog or gurgled like a baby.

The entity soon revealed an ability to speak and introduced itself as Gef, a mongoose. It claimed to have been born in New Delhi India, in 1852. According to Voirrey, the only person to see him properly, Gef was the size of a small rat with yellowish fur and a large bushy tail. (The Indian mongoose is in reality much larger than a rat and does not have a bushy tail). He would never allow anyone but Voirrey to see him, however, and if he didn’t like you, you could count on being insulted, or pelted with pebbles. 

Many researchers suspected that Gef was a poltergeist, and the Irving’s daughter Voirrey was at the right age for that sort of thing. If a poltergeist, Gef was rather a nice one. He often talked and joked with the family, and would occasionally leave small game, mostly rabbits, on their doorstep for dinner.

Gef claimed at times to be “an extra extra clever mongoose”, an “Earthbound spirit” and “a ghost in the form of a mongoose”. He once said: “I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you’d faint, you’d be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!”

The only physical evidence cited in support of Gef’s existence would appear to be a series of footprints,none of which were identified as those of a mongoose, stains on the wall, supposed hair samples which were identified as having belonged to the Irving’s sheepdog, and several photos which were claimed by the Irvings to depict Gef, (such as the one above).

James Irving kept diaries about Gef between 1932 and 1935. These diaries, along with reports about the case, are in Harry Price’s archives in the Senate House Library, University of London.

Gef the Talking Mongoose said a number of notable things in his time living at the home of the Irvings on the Isle of Man. He could speak a number of different languages according to those he spoke to, including but not limited to Welsh, Spanish, and Russian. However, even though he could speak more than English, he once claimed that the Irvings were the ones that had taught him to speak: “For years, I understood all that people said, but I could not speak until you taught me”.