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Begins with Shwe-Maong, Who Was Born in the Highlands of Laos in 1796

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Begins with Shwe-Maong, Who Was Born in the Highlands of Laos in 1796 Charles Eisenmann cabinet card, 1887 (Mitchell). From left: Moung Phoset's wife, Moung Phoset, Mah Phoon, and Mah Phoon's attendant, who helped her get around after she lost her eyesight. The famous "Sacred Hairy Family of Birma" begins with Shwe-Maong, who was born in the highlands of Laos in 1796. At birth the child was covered in silky, greyish-brown lanugo hair, quite a different color and texture than that of an ordinary Southeast Asian. This hair grew thickest on his face, in particular his ears and nose. He was also toothless. The strange little boy was brought to the court of Burma's King Bagydaw as a curiosity at the age of five. He took to imitating local monkeys to entertain the nobles, and was such a delight that Bagydaw elected to keep him in the court as a jester. Shwe-Maong first became known to the West in 1836, through an English naturalist named John Crawford. Crawford believed Shwe-Maong to be a member of a new species, which he called Homo hirsutus. When Shwe-Maong was about twenty years old, King Bagydaw presented him with a slave girl for a wife. The couple had four children together, and of these, one, a girl born in 1828, was hairy like Shwe-Maong and possessed of very few teeth. Called Mah Phoon, the little girl was raised in the royal court and took Shwe-Maong's place as the court mascot after he was killed by robbers. After Bagydaw died, his successor Theebaw kept Mah Phoon in his court and even offered a reward to any man who would marry her, as long as the king found him acceptable. When an Italian man tried to marry her so he could take her on a European tour, Theebaw forbade it. Mah Phoon eventually did find a suitable Burmese husband, and had three children: a normal son, a hairy son named Moung Phoset, and a hairy daughter named Mah Me. One report states that King Theebaw actually paid Mah Phoon's husband a retainer of 500 rupees a month to perpetuate Mah Phoon's "species". What became of the second, non-hairy son is a mystery, as he did not join his mother and siblings on tour and is mentioned only sporadically before that point. Dr. Jan Bondeson, in his excellent book The Two Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels, theorizes that Mah Me was actually Moung Phoset's daughter rather than his sister, but an 1871 article from The Indian Daily News describes the hairy family as "a woman of forty-five, a man of twenty, and a girl of eleven", suggesting the two were less than ten years apart in age. Likewise, a syndicated piece from 1883 relates, "Only one of [Mah Phoon's] two boys took after his mother, but shortly afterward the lady was blessed with a daughter who developed the maternal characteristics in a marked degree." Moung Phoset worked primarily as a carpenter, and he, his mother, and his sister earned extra income by exhibiting themselves to European visitors. This arrangement was first described in 1855 by an English missionary, Captain Henry Yule, who said they would not allow themselves to be shown for less than forty rupees. Tantalized by explorers' descriptions, Western showmen were determined to secure these hairy marvels for their own shows. P.T. Barnum sought to import the hairy family as early as 1871, but the king would not allow them to leave the country. It was in search of the legendary Burmese family in 1882 that the Norwegian explorer Karl Bock discovered the hairy girl Krao. Then, in 1885, King Theebaw was overthrown and his palace burned. Mah Phoon and her two hairy children escaped into the jungle. An Italian officer who worked for King Theebaw, Captain Paperno, found them hiding and offered to take them to Europe. Mah Me died in June of 1886, evidently while in transit from Burma to England. By the time Mah Phoon and her children came to London in 1886, Mah Phoon was 68 years old and blind, and able to do little else, entertainment-wise, but sit motionless on the show platform. Nevertheless she was described as a bright, lively old woman who loved to chew betel nut despite her lack of teeth. Her son, too, was pleasing to British observers: "[Moung Phoset] is of medium hight [sic.], with pale brown skin, and is fairly friendly, having been partly educated, and married to a maid-of-honor," reported one contemporary publication. Mrs. Moung Phoset was "a Burmese woman of good-humored appearance, who appears, as the exhibitor states, to take pride in her extraordinary husband." P.T. Barnum traveled to England at the end of 1886 to meet this extraordinary family, with the hope of bringing them to the United States for his Greatest Show On Earth. When he arrived he found a mob of other showmen, Americans and Europeans alike, bidding frantically for the honor of showing Mah Phoon and Moung Phoset. In the end Barnum made the winning offer of $100,000 (about $2.3 million!) to their English managers, Archer and Farrington, for a one-year contract beginning in March of 1887. Mah Phoon died just short of fulfilling the contract, in February of 1888. She received a traditional Burmese burial in a Washington, D.C. cemetery. When she was born, Dora Gutterman, a Jewish girl from Flatbush Avenue, New York, was covered in fine hair, which became thicker and coarser over a matter of weeks. Her parents were quite poor and had seven other children, so they consented to place little Dora on exhibition. As a sideshow star Dora earned $300 a week, enough to support her family comfortably. By 1930, Dora had tired of being a freak and actively sought to have her beard and other body hair permanently removed. "If I had a clear skin, and could use make-up, and wear the beautiful clothes I can afford, I'd be better looking than half the women that come to the circus," she explained to a reporter. She visited an electrolysis clinic and spent hours under the needle - but to no avail. Her beard grew back just as thick as it had been before treatment. At last, resigned to her fate, she began investing in real estate in Brooklyn. During the sideshow's off-season she collected rents and oversaw repairs herself; during the touring months she delegated responsibilities to another agent. One of the saddest stories in the history of human prodigies is that of Julia Pastrana, the so- called "Female Nondescript". Born in western Mexico around 1834, Julia was a "Digger" Indian who, fully grown, stood just four and a half feet tall. (Since "Digger" is a blanket term applied by European settlers to any indigenous group that ate roots, regardless of tribal affiliation, it is impossible to know exactly what culture Julia came from.) She was covered in black hair and possessed a full beard and mustache and all the telltale facial features of hypertrichosis, as well as the usual second row of teeth. As a young girl she became separated from her tribe and was sent to live with Pedro Sanchez, the governor of the state of Sinaloa to work as a servant. Dr. Jan Bondeson, in his book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities probably the most complete biography of Julia Pastrana to date reports that she was "ill used" by Sanchez, and at the age of about twenty she left his employ, determined to return to her tribal homeland. During her journey home she was intercepted by an American named Rates, who promised her great riches if she would let him take her on a tour of the United States. She spent about three years on the American dime museum circuit, submitting to examinations by prominent medical men who proclaimed her to be everything from a bear-human hybrid to an orangutan-human hybrid to a typical specimen of a Digger Indian. In fact, it was even claimed that, as Digger Indians go, this one was exceptionally tall, beautiful and human-like. A museum advertisement from 1857 proclaimed, "The Bear Woman is a curious and interesting little lady, whose entire face and person are covered with thick black hair. She has also a resemblance to the Orang- Outang, and in fact it would seem that she is half Monkey. Julia was found in Mexico, in a cave with animals of different kinds, and is pronounced by Dr. Mott, of New York, a Hybrid creature. During her exhibition, the Bear Woman entertains her visitors by singing pretty little romances, and by Dancing a Highland Fling, Polka, &c. Julia is very good natured, she behaves herself like a little lady and wherever she is exhibited she becomes the pet of all ladies and gentlemen, and by her strange appearance in a glistening Spanish costume, she highly amuses the children." Julia's luxuriant costumes and sprightly dances did little to hide the sad truth, however. Her succession of showmen first Rates, then a J.W. Beach, and lastly a Mr. Theodore Lent - kept the little woman in seclusion, fearing that if the public saw her in the street they might not pay to see her on stage. Thus, her worldview was markedly stunted, despite her normal intelligence and great capacity for emotion. Though onstage she was costumed like a princess in her spectacular gowns and glittering jewels, spectators came not to admire her beauty or talent but to gawk in revulsion at what soon became known as "the ugliest woman in the world".
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