Myth 128: “If a Chameleon Focuses on You With Both Eyes, It Will Crush Your Testicles”

The Claim:

In Goba, at the foot of the Bale Mountains, villagers whisper this myth with genuine fear: that a chameleon locking both turreted eyes on a man will somehow unleash a supernatural force, crushing his testicles.

The Chameleons in Question

• The species here is Trioceros wolfgangboehmei, a recently described member of the T. affinis complex.

• They are small, cryptic, garden-dwelling chameleons, more likely to vanish into a hedge than to launch an attack.

• Their density is remarkable — they thrive along fences, in village gardens, and even in town spaces, yet remain largely unnoticed. Their populations in the wild are weaker than in suburban areas.

Forensic Truth

If the myth were true, the consequences would be catastrophic:

• With such dense populations of chameleons, virtually every man in Goba would be infertile.

• The demographic curve would collapse, villages would empty, and the Bale Mountains would echo with silence.

Instead, the opposite is observed: human populations flourish and grow exponentially, proving the myth is biologically impossible.

Folkloric Context

This tale is a dairy‑style superstition, origin unclear, but deeply rooted in local storytelling.

The Oromo have lived in Bale for centuries, yet myths like this reveal the layered folklore of non‑original settlement: when people encounter cryptic animals, they invent supernatural explanations.

The chameleon's uncanny eyes — swiveling independently, then converging — become a canvas for fear, exaggeration, and humor.

This myth is not zoology, but theatre of the imagination.

• The chameleon, a shy garden dweller, is recast as a mythic executioner of fertility.

• The villagers' fear becomes a comic paradox: the more chameleons there are, the more men should be infertile — yet the opposite is true.

• It is a folkloric joke written by nature itself: the "testicle‑crushing chameleon" is a phantom, disproven daily by the thriving families of Goba.

Myth 128 is a reminder that superstition thrives where cryptic animals live. The chameleon's eyes are not weapons — they are instruments of survival, precision, and beauty. The only thing they crush is the myth itself, with quiet dignity and a wink from the hedgerow.