Dahu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Dahu (disambiguation).
The dahu is a folkloric creature well known in France and Switzerland.
"Dahu" might be spelled "dahut". It is named dairi in Jura, darou in Vosges or darhut in Bourgogne.
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[edit] Basic facts
A shy mountain animal depicted as looking like ibex, chamois or goat. Its defining characteristic is that it has two legs shorter on one side than on the other side. Thus it is well adapted for walking on mountain slopes. For this reason it was said that to hunt a dahu, one had to whistle to catch its attention. When turning around, its imbalanced legs would cause it to fall down the mountain.
As this animal is very shy and is afraid of flashes, no picture of dahu is available around the world. That's why nobody is sure of what it really looks like.
[edit] The rise of the dahu
The dahu is a staple of 20th century French popular culture. Known in Lorraine, in the mountainous regions of eastern France (Alpes and Jura), and in French-speaking Switzerland as a theme of jokes among natives and a spoof for fooling young children, its popularity began to soar toward the end of the 19th century. The budding tourism industry brought to the mountains wealthy city dwellers with a somewhat arrogant attitude and a paltry knowledge of the countryside. The mountaineers working as hunting guides would take advantage of the gullibility of some tourists to lure them into the "dahu hunt" (in french "chasse au dahu"). The animal was touted as a rare and precious bounty, the capture thereof required waiting alone all night on a chilly slope, crouched in an uncomfortable position. In the second half of the 20th century, the supply of naive hunters had dried up, and the dahu hunt enjoyed a second life as a summer camp spoof.
[edit] The dahu today
Since the last decades of the 20th century, the dahu is widely recognized as a fictional creature, a joke, and a metaphor for a tall tale. It has been adopted by other mountainous regions such as the Pyrenees. Recreational "dahu hunts" are sometimes organised as outdoor activities in France and Switzerland. There are dahu websites and dahu aficionados, such as Marcel Jacquat, director of the Natural Science Museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, who wrote a monograph and opened on the 1st April 1995 an exhibition devoted to the animal. On April 1, 1967, the Prefect of Haute-Savoie (France) officially made the mountainous suburbs of the small town of Reigner a "Dahu Sanctuary" where hunting and photography are forbidden.
[edit] Dahu Species
Two species of mountain dahu ("dahu des montagnes") are told to exist:
- the laevogyrous dahu ("dahu lévogyre") has shorter legs on the left side
- the dextrogyrous dahu ("dahu dextrogyre") has shorter legs on the right side
As these two kinds always meet face to face, they cannot produce hybrids in natural conditions.
To allow campers outside mountainous regions to enjoy the hunt, the flatland dahu ("dahu des plaines") was invented. This very shy animal has four legs of the same length, and red glowing eyes. It goes out only at night, and to avoid attracting attention, keeps only one eye open at a time, the right or the left alternatively. Dahu hunters are actually after a councilor with a red flashlight.
