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Parlangua
(Par-laan-GUA) is a Urban legend out of Louisiana about a half alligator/ half man swamp boogie man.

In 1983 the band Cahoots (album) released a single entitle Legend of the Parlangua which told a story of a young man getting lost in the swamp and fighting the Louisiana swamp monster. The song was a relative success. YOUTUBE VIDEO

The Parlangua is different than other paranormal Cryptid in that it is a single creature like the Loch Ness Monster and not a group or herd like Unicorns. Also the Parlangua is a true urban legend that has not spread beyond Louisiana's borders. The legend started in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. The creature has had a few sightings, though none have been verified or recorded as a picture or film. Sightings go back to the 1970s and over time the creature grew in size and alligator attributes.

Rapides Parish geographically is mainly undeveloped woods and protected wildlife and wilderness areas, with the exception to the city of Alexandria. Many lakes and streams trickle into swampland that engulfs much of the Louisiana landscape.

There are multiple stories to the creation of the Parlangua
1) begins with a young couple during the 1960s drove off a bridge on a foggy night. Trapped in their car, they were attacked by alligators. One of the alligators was about to lay eggs. When they hatched, a monster was born instead.

2)begins with a circus freak who ran away into the swamp. She lived there and gradually became more and more insane. Somehow she mated with an alligator and the resulting child was a monster whose first act of life was killing his mother. 3)the beginning relates to chemicals being dropped into the Red River that drained and pooled around an alligator's nest of eggs. The chemicals were from a human egg harvesting clinic. This combination gave birth to the monster.

4)begins with a Cherokee shaman casting vengeance on the population in retaliation for the Trail of Tears. He called on the swamp's greatest beast and used that mold to create the Parlangua.

5)A family of sadist worshiped in the swamp. A part of their rituals required the sacrifice of an alligator and wearing pieces of the cut up skin on their own body. In the 1960s a fire burned down the shack during one of these rituals searing the alligator skin to the leader of the group. In shame he ran and lived in the forest becoming an off shoot of the supernatural creature Wendigo.

6)Military experiment gone wrong and escaped into the swamp to survive.

Regardless the meat of the legend remains consistent. The creature is said to be around 10 feet tall, green in color, red slit eyes, scaled skin, and a tail that sweeps behind him. Due to the allegories, it is believed that the creature is bullet proof in that the bullets do not effect or hinder the creature. Though alligators typically hiss, the Parlangua is noted as having a roar.

Information on alligators can be found at http://www.alligatorfur.com/alligator/alligator.htm

Jake the Alligator Man
Jake the Alligator Man is an exhibit in Long Beach, WA that features a half man/ half alligator skeleton found in Florida.

Some believers say that these two creatures are separate species a part of the same genus. They share some characteristics, but the overall description of the Parlangua does not match that of Jake the Alligator Man. Also Jake is celebrated as a piece of fun in a museum for the weird and strange while the Parlangua maintains a monster persona and an element of fear lost on Jake the Alligator Man.

Legacy
The landscape of Louisiana provides the perfect background for such an urban legend in much the same way a the ghost and corresponding story fit perfect into a large old building. In the swamps of Louisiana the people believe in the existence of such a creature. Fathers tell the legend and a story of a survivor. Mothers warn children before bed of the swamp boogie man. This legend has been passed in true oral tradition. a

--Jam.6075477 (talk)