I got you beat already, maybe. Grandson asking if I have a horror story. Yeah.
Midnapoor India...
Three feet big, bloody giants. Skin crawls even as I writes.
Was doing social service there, exploding from both ends with dysentary in 120 degree heat.
My host took me to an outback in Midnapoor to coordinate the relief efforts. House carved out of the jungle across a rice field.
The boss man saw that I was about to drop. Said I wouldn't understand the language anyway. He would attend the meeting. I could rest in the shade at a cool 110. Agreed.
The boss walked off across the raises dirt walkway. I was relieved to be excused. Turned around against the jungle wall to collapse for awhile, and there they were.
Less than a foot away. Monsters right out of hell. There were three of them. They made their nets across the trees in parallel. The alpha male was in front. Smaller behind and the runt of the litter, barely 2 feet big in the back. They caught birds and rats and was said they could take down a cobra. Architecture was that if the rat got thru the first web, the second would slow it down and number two would get the feast etc. According to the locals, the only problem they had was with vultures. They were so heavy upon landing that they went thru all the webs like a bowling ball. The giants were however revered as pets of the gods because they kept the rat and snake infestation under control. Bird deaths were not celebrated.
Funny how they say that in death crisis, your life flies before your eyes. I was scared ****less about to be eaten. It was like going thru everything fast forward to reconcile the experience. My mental data base rewinded and settled on a high school biology lecture. The biggest spider in the world was a goliath from somewhere in South America. Maybe 8 inches across. Was going thru rapid fire negotiation with reality that these monsters staring me in the eye could therefore not exist.
Didn't fall into the web. Have no information on how poisonous they were.
Have done many web searches trying to identify the giants. No luck. Figure that the unexplored jungles of Midnapoor are now covered with concrete and a McDonald's on every corner. The god's pets are probably extinct.
John