Comments on: Princess Caraboo

Princess Caraboo

Count Ziggurat — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 10:43:31 -0800

In April of 1817, a distraught, exotic, bizarre young lady wearing a black turban appeared in the village of Almondsbury, England. She spoke an unintelligible language, and mystified villagers brought her to see the local magistrate. Linguistic experts of the day were baffled: until a Portuguese sailor appeared, who claimed to be able to translate. He explained that she was kidnapped royalty from the island of Javasu. She called herself Princess Caraboo.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:03:06 -0800

I actually thought the film version was pretty good.

By: samh23

samh23 — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:09:42 -0800

Great story. Thanks.

By: 517

517 — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:23:08 -0800

Pheobe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, still good.

By: piratebowling

piratebowling — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:45:40 -0800

This is an amazing post! Thank you so much!

By: gsteff

gsteff — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:51:07 -0800

Neato. My favorite part is the discovery of the random Portugese sailor who claims to be able to understand her made-up language. Its like something Mark Twain would have written.

By: cerebus19

cerebus19 — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:49:44 -0800

In April of 1812 1817, according to the articles. A good post--I just thought I'd point it out.

By: sourbrew

sourbrew — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 22:26:32 -0800

i can't believe you arn't getting more comment love, this post rocked, thanks.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 23:07:24 -0800

Excellent post, Count Z, regardless of comment volume. What gets me is how naive / gullible folk were back then. Living in an information vacuum. If Princess Caraboo tried to pull this shit on MetaFilter we'd have her outed in 10 minutes...

By: Count Ziggurat

Count Ziggurat — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 09:17:00 -0800

Thanks, cerebus. Corrected.

By: aine42

aine42 — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 12:09:36 -0800

Great post, Count Ziggurat. I knew there was a movie called Princess Caraboo, but never had any idea it was based on a true story. I'll have to check it out. Mary Baker must have been very bright to pull off everything she did. Wonder how she'd fare in this century. With her imagination, she'd probably have had a huge future in children's books or television.

By: annieb

annieb — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:35:18 -0800

Great post, a fun read! Funny how people still try to pull off such stunts..Anyone remember the story of a guy who claimed to be the son of Sidney Poitier?