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A giant with six fingers
The patrol
W and his platoon hiked into the mountains of Kandahar to look for Army Rangers who had gone missing. Along a goat trail they found pieces of a government-issued radio, bits of antenna, and a camo backpack. At the top was a plateau strewn with equipment and bones, and in front of it, a cave entrance.
The cave
Two men went into the cave and backed out because it was too dark and dropped off steeply. Then a spear flew out of the entrance and killed a teammate named Mike. A huge man with a big red beard and tribal regalia charged out, and the soldiers shot him dead. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes.
The aftermath
A helicopter carried the body away in a net, and W's crew got no debrief. Through the grapevine, W heard that the body went to an air base where pilots talked about the six fingers and six toes until they were told to keep quiet. Interpreters in Afghanistan had separately heard rumors of giants living in the caves around Kandahar.
Why do giant legends appear in so many cultures?
Stories of giants turn up in Greek myth, in the Hebrew Bible's account of Goliath, and in Norse and Native American traditions. Folklorist Adrienne Mayor argued in The First Fossil Hunters in 2000 that large fossil bones, such as mammoth and mastodon remains, were sometimes mistaken for the bones of huge people. Ancient writers such as Pausanias recorded finds of giant bones. Mayor traced a number of Greek and Roman monster myths to fossil discoveries.
What causes extra fingers and toes?
The condition is called polydactyly, and it affects roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 births, with estimates varying by population. It arises when limb development in the womb takes a different course, often tied to changes in genes such as GLI3 that shape the pattern of digits. It can run in families. Polydactyly also appears in many animals, including the Hemingway cats of Key West.
Why did caves matter in the Afghan war?
Afghanistan's mountains hold natural caves and tunnel networks that fighters have used for shelter and storage for decades. Caves shield occupants from aircraft and are hard to search because they twist underground. The Tora Bora complex in eastern Afghanistan was used in the 1980s war against the Soviet Union. It became the site of a major battle in December 2001.
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