November 7, 2023 • 10 mins
Today's tour through the Cabinet takes a stop in France, where some very curious things are afoot.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Where there's no risk, there's no reward. Crack open any
history book and you'll find the stories of people who
were willing to gamble everything to achieve their dreams. One
of those people was Jean Beret. He was born in
rural France in seventeen forty and was fated to become
a farmer, just like his dad. But Jean didn't want
to grow plants. He wanted to study them. He dreamed
(00:57):
of becoming a botanist, and although the cards were stacked
against him, Jean had enough bravery and determination to break
away from the farm and find work as a botanist
assistant in Paris. He worked alongside Philibet Commerson, a more
established botanist who collected in catalog new plant species. Commerson
was so famous that in seventeen sixty seven he was
(01:19):
hand selected by King Louis the fifteenth for an exciting expedition.
Two government funded naval ships were about to take off
for a trip around the globe. The King appointed Commerson
as the head botanist on a ship called the Etoal,
and Commerson asked Jean Beret to come along as his
botanical assistant slash cabin boy. At twenty seven years old,
(01:41):
Jean wasn't exactly a boy, but he also wasn't in
any position to turn down such a big offer. He
happily accepted, and that same year he and Commerson boarded
the Yetoale and took off on the adventure of a lifetime.
Only the conditions on the ship were harsher than anything
Jean might have imagined. With over one hundred men on board,
the quarters were cramped and dirty food and water were scarce.
(02:04):
It would take months to get from one destination to
the next, which meant months of floating in the wide
open sea. At one point, when rations were dangerously low,
the crew was reduced to eating rats. Likely due to
this horrible living situation, Commerson became ill. He developed an
ulcer on his leg that wouldn't heel, and while Jean
(02:24):
had dreamed of doing glamorous international botanical research. He wound
up caring for his sick employer for the majority of
the voyage. Still, there were good moments. When the Aetoale
reached Brazil, for example, Jean ventured inland by himself to
survey the plants. There, he made one of the most
famous discoveries of the entire expedition, a previously unknown, at
(02:45):
least unknown to Europeans, vining flower known as the Boganvilia.
The ship also made stops in Madagascar and Papa and
New Guinea, among others. Jean cataloged and took samples of
hundreds of different plant species, and then about a year
into the journey, the ship landed on Tahiti, and that's
where everything fell apart for Jean. When the crew stepped
(03:08):
off the ship, they were approached by local Tahitians. Right away,
a group of men surrounded Jean. They took note of
his shorter than average stature and his beardless chin. According
to one retelling, a Tahitian man called Jean Mahu, which
was a word for a person who lives as a
different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.
The label didn't come with any judgment. Trans people were
(03:29):
respected in Tahiti, but it did create a huge problem
for Jean. You see, Jean wasn't trans, but she wasn't
a cis man either. Her real name was Jean, and
she'd spent her entire year long trip aboard the Atoal
living in disguise. There was only one person who knew
her real identity, Philibet Commerson, who was both her employer
(03:50):
and her lover. Ever since Jean had broken away from
the farm in rural France, she had been living and
working with Commerson. They'd made great botanical discoveries together, and
they'd also had a son who they agreed to put
up for adoption, most likely to keep their relationship a secret.
So as you'd imagine, when Commerson accepted the position as
head botanist on the Attoal, Jane's company was never in question.
(04:13):
But because eighteenth century French law specifically forbade women from
stepping foot on naval ships, she could only go if
she masqueraded as a man, and the disguise had worked
well sort of. The fact that Jean never changed clothes
around any of the other men had aroused suspicion, and
the callouts in Tahiti was the nail in her coffin.
(04:35):
In response to the discovery, the crew agreed to take
Jean and Commerson only as far as Mauritius, an East
African island nation where there was a French settlement. When
the Aetoal took off again without them, they were basically stranded.
They made the best of a horrible situation, though, continuing
their botanical work for about five years, and then Commerson
died suddenly, leaving Jane all alone. Always one to rise
(04:59):
up in the face adversity, Jean opened a tavern so
that she would be able to support herself. Less than
a year later, she met a French army officer who
was visiting the island. She married him, although whether the
nuptials were motivated by love or the promise of a
trip back to France, we can't be sure. Nevertheless, Jean
eventually made it back home to Paris. And here's the
(05:19):
real kicker. She had always been motivated by two things,
studying botany and staying with Philibert Commerson. She had never
really meant to make history, but she did, and not
for anything to do with flowering vines. You see, it
turns out that That final trip back to France made
Jean Beret the first woman in recorded history to have
ever circumnavigated the globe. And I guess you could say
(05:42):
that her risks certainly paid off. Can I say something
obvious to you? Books are special. They can alter a
(06:03):
person's viewpoint, shift their mood, and even change their life.
A good book is hard to put down. A great
book is one that never leaves you, even after you've
closed the cover. But one book has been keeping people
up at night for the last thirty years. And it's
not that it's scary or suspenseful. It's because of an
Owl on The Trail of the Golden Owl was written
(06:24):
by French author Regis Hauser in nineteen ninety three. Although
the idea had come to him about a decade and
a half earlier, it had been a serious project, requiring
upwards of four hundred and fifty hours to complete. But
this wasn't just any novel or nonfiction work. By the
time he was done, Hauser had crafted eleven elaborate clues
you see. What he had devised was a treasure hunt.
(06:47):
Artist Michelle Becker provided eleven paintings for the book, each
one just as beautiful and detailed as the clues they accompanied. Together,
they would guide one resourceful sleuth to the location of
the final prize, a ten inch tall bronze statue of
an owl. Now normally such a meager reward wouldn't be
enough to entice amateur treasure hunters to devote years to
(07:07):
its discovery, but this owl was different. It was only
a placeholder. Once it was found, it could be exchanged
by the winner for the real owl, an identical version
cast in silver and gold, with diamonds, rubies, and other
gems all over its head and body. And that owl
is worth about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars today.
Both statues had been designed by Becker, with the jewel
(07:30):
encrusted versions stored safely in Paris. The bronze bird was
buried by Hauser somewhere in France. He published his book
of clues under the pseudonym Max Valentine and waited for
readers to begin their search. The idea was to have
the hunt last only a few months, but the clues
proved to be more difficult to solve than expected. Despite
the book's popularity and the obsessive nature of the hunters,
(07:52):
no one has been able to find the golden owl
that Houser buried, and this includes a high power lawyer
at a French law firm and groups of dedicated treasure
seekers who pick apart the clues for some greater meaning.
These associations have developed their own language of sorts when
discussing the clues. For example, Limega is the term for
mega astus, a superstructure on the puzzle, and la fleche
(08:16):
d'Apollon refers to Apollo's arrow, a component of clue number six.
But a few sections have been solved already. For example,
the clue titled Opening was successfully decoded and revealed the
city in which the hunt was meant to begin, Bruges
in Belgium. Only a few clues have been successfully solved, though,
with others either answered in part or still entirely obscured. Sadly, though,
(08:38):
in two thousand and nine, Hauser passed away and with
him went the secrets of the owl's location. Luckily, he
had written it down and passed it on to Becker,
thus keeping the game alive. In twenty twenty one, the
artist and co founder of the puzzle ventured to the
original burial site, where Hauser had planted the bronze owl
all those years ago. He brought with them a legal
(08:59):
bailiff as a witness to verify that the statue was
still there. It was only meant to have been buried
under three feet of dirt, but Becker shoveled away, waiting
for the clink of metal against metal. After three hours,
he finally heard it. He dropped to his knees and
began scraping away the soil with his fingers, feeling for
the telltale sign of the statue he'd crafted three decades earlier.
(09:21):
And it took some doing, but he eventually pried it
free from its grave. It was still wrapped in its
protective plastic. He tore it away, only to reveal an aged,
rusted owl statue, and so Becker got rid of it.
But don't worry, the hunt is still ongoing. He merely
replaced it with a brand new bronze owl statue, which
has remained in this same secret hiding place. It is
(09:43):
always occupied. The game is still afoot today, and the
men and women who have been searching for this Maltese
owl are no closer to finding it now than they
were thirty years ago. Only Michel Becker knows where it
is for sure, and sadly he isn't talking. I hope
(10:05):
you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(10:27):
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Where there's no risk, there's no reward. Crack open any
history book and you'll find the stories of people who
were willing to gamble everything to achieve their dreams. One
of those people was Jean Beret. He was born in
rural France in seventeen forty and was fated to become
a farmer, just like his dad. But Jean didn't want
to grow plants. He wanted to study them. He dreamed
(00:57):
of becoming a botanist, and although the cards were stacked
against him, Jean had enough bravery and determination to break
away from the farm and find work as a botanist
assistant in Paris. He worked alongside Philibet Commerson, a more
established botanist who collected in catalog new plant species. Commerson
was so famous that in seventeen sixty seven he was
(01:19):
hand selected by King Louis the fifteenth for an exciting expedition.
Two government funded naval ships were about to take off
for a trip around the globe. The King appointed Commerson
as the head botanist on a ship called the Etoal,
and Commerson asked Jean Beret to come along as his
botanical assistant slash cabin boy. At twenty seven years old,
(01:41):
Jean wasn't exactly a boy, but he also wasn't in
any position to turn down such a big offer. He
happily accepted, and that same year he and Commerson boarded
the Yetoale and took off on the adventure of a lifetime.
Only the conditions on the ship were harsher than anything
Jean might have imagined. With over one hundred men on board,
the quarters were cramped and dirty food and water were scarce.
(02:04):
It would take months to get from one destination to
the next, which meant months of floating in the wide
open sea. At one point, when rations were dangerously low,
the crew was reduced to eating rats. Likely due to
this horrible living situation, Commerson became ill. He developed an
ulcer on his leg that wouldn't heel, and while Jean
(02:24):
had dreamed of doing glamorous international botanical research. He wound
up caring for his sick employer for the majority of
the voyage. Still, there were good moments. When the Aetoale
reached Brazil, for example, Jean ventured inland by himself to
survey the plants. There, he made one of the most
famous discoveries of the entire expedition, a previously unknown, at
(02:45):
least unknown to Europeans, vining flower known as the Boganvilia.
The ship also made stops in Madagascar and Papa and
New Guinea, among others. Jean cataloged and took samples of
hundreds of different plant species, and then about a year
into the journey, the ship landed on Tahiti, and that's
where everything fell apart for Jean. When the crew stepped
(03:08):
off the ship, they were approached by local Tahitians. Right away,
a group of men surrounded Jean. They took note of
his shorter than average stature and his beardless chin. According
to one retelling, a Tahitian man called Jean Mahu, which
was a word for a person who lives as a
different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.
The label didn't come with any judgment. Trans people were
(03:29):
respected in Tahiti, but it did create a huge problem
for Jean. You see, Jean wasn't trans, but she wasn't
a cis man either. Her real name was Jean, and
she'd spent her entire year long trip aboard the Atoal
living in disguise. There was only one person who knew
her real identity, Philibet Commerson, who was both her employer
(03:50):
and her lover. Ever since Jean had broken away from
the farm in rural France, she had been living and
working with Commerson. They'd made great botanical discoveries together, and
they'd also had a son who they agreed to put
up for adoption, most likely to keep their relationship a secret.
So as you'd imagine, when Commerson accepted the position as
head botanist on the Attoal, Jane's company was never in question.
(04:13):
But because eighteenth century French law specifically forbade women from
stepping foot on naval ships, she could only go if
she masqueraded as a man, and the disguise had worked
well sort of. The fact that Jean never changed clothes
around any of the other men had aroused suspicion, and
the callouts in Tahiti was the nail in her coffin.
(04:35):
In response to the discovery, the crew agreed to take
Jean and Commerson only as far as Mauritius, an East
African island nation where there was a French settlement. When
the Aetoal took off again without them, they were basically stranded.
They made the best of a horrible situation, though, continuing
their botanical work for about five years, and then Commerson
died suddenly, leaving Jane all alone. Always one to rise
(04:59):
up in the face adversity, Jean opened a tavern so
that she would be able to support herself. Less than
a year later, she met a French army officer who
was visiting the island. She married him, although whether the
nuptials were motivated by love or the promise of a
trip back to France, we can't be sure. Nevertheless, Jean
eventually made it back home to Paris. And here's the
(05:19):
real kicker. She had always been motivated by two things,
studying botany and staying with Philibert Commerson. She had never
really meant to make history, but she did, and not
for anything to do with flowering vines. You see, it
turns out that That final trip back to France made
Jean Beret the first woman in recorded history to have
ever circumnavigated the globe. And I guess you could say
(05:42):
that her risks certainly paid off. Can I say something
obvious to you? Books are special. They can alter a
(06:03):
person's viewpoint, shift their mood, and even change their life.
A good book is hard to put down. A great
book is one that never leaves you, even after you've
closed the cover. But one book has been keeping people
up at night for the last thirty years. And it's
not that it's scary or suspenseful. It's because of an
Owl on The Trail of the Golden Owl was written
(06:24):
by French author Regis Hauser in nineteen ninety three. Although
the idea had come to him about a decade and
a half earlier, it had been a serious project, requiring
upwards of four hundred and fifty hours to complete. But
this wasn't just any novel or nonfiction work. By the
time he was done, Hauser had crafted eleven elaborate clues
you see. What he had devised was a treasure hunt.
(06:47):
Artist Michelle Becker provided eleven paintings for the book, each
one just as beautiful and detailed as the clues they accompanied. Together,
they would guide one resourceful sleuth to the location of
the final prize, a ten inch tall bronze statue of
an owl. Now normally such a meager reward wouldn't be
enough to entice amateur treasure hunters to devote years to
(07:07):
its discovery, but this owl was different. It was only
a placeholder. Once it was found, it could be exchanged
by the winner for the real owl, an identical version
cast in silver and gold, with diamonds, rubies, and other
gems all over its head and body. And that owl
is worth about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars today.
Both statues had been designed by Becker, with the jewel
(07:30):
encrusted versions stored safely in Paris. The bronze bird was
buried by Hauser somewhere in France. He published his book
of clues under the pseudonym Max Valentine and waited for
readers to begin their search. The idea was to have
the hunt last only a few months, but the clues
proved to be more difficult to solve than expected. Despite
the book's popularity and the obsessive nature of the hunters,
(07:52):
no one has been able to find the golden owl
that Houser buried, and this includes a high power lawyer
at a French law firm and groups of dedicated treasure
seekers who pick apart the clues for some greater meaning.
These associations have developed their own language of sorts when
discussing the clues. For example, Limega is the term for
mega astus, a superstructure on the puzzle, and la fleche
(08:16):
d'Apollon refers to Apollo's arrow, a component of clue number six.
But a few sections have been solved already. For example,
the clue titled Opening was successfully decoded and revealed the
city in which the hunt was meant to begin, Bruges
in Belgium. Only a few clues have been successfully solved, though,
with others either answered in part or still entirely obscured. Sadly, though,
(08:38):
in two thousand and nine, Hauser passed away and with
him went the secrets of the owl's location. Luckily, he
had written it down and passed it on to Becker,
thus keeping the game alive. In twenty twenty one, the
artist and co founder of the puzzle ventured to the
original burial site, where Hauser had planted the bronze owl
all those years ago. He brought with them a legal
(08:59):
bailiff as a witness to verify that the statue was
still there. It was only meant to have been buried
under three feet of dirt, but Becker shoveled away, waiting
for the clink of metal against metal. After three hours,
he finally heard it. He dropped to his knees and
began scraping away the soil with his fingers, feeling for
the telltale sign of the statue he'd crafted three decades earlier.
(09:21):
And it took some doing, but he eventually pried it
free from its grave. It was still wrapped in its
protective plastic. He tore it away, only to reveal an aged,
rusted owl statue, and so Becker got rid of it.
But don't worry, the hunt is still ongoing. He merely
replaced it with a brand new bronze owl statue, which
has remained in this same secret hiding place. It is
(09:43):
always occupied. The game is still afoot today, and the
men and women who have been searching for this Maltese
owl are no closer to finding it now than they
were thirty years ago. Only Michel Becker knows where it
is for sure, and sadly he isn't talking. I hope
(10:05):
you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(10:27):
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.