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PASSPORT TO MAGONIA,
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CHAPTER ONE,
VISIONS OF A 
PARALLEL WORLD.

ON JUNE 15, 1952, in the jungles of Yucatan, an archaeological 
expedition led by Alberto Ruz Lhuillicr and three companions made 
a remarkable discovery. The team was investigating the impressive 
Palenque monuments, located in the state of Chiapas, on the site of a 
well known Mayan city that scientists were busy restoring and 
mapping in systematic fashion. Yucatan is a region of constant 
humidity and high temperature, and the tropical vegetation had 
caused considerable damage to the temples and pyramids erected by 
the Mayas, whose civilization was marked by the genius of its 
architects and is thought to have declined in the first centuries of our 
era, disappearing almost completely about the ninth century—that is, 
at the time of the Charlemagne Empire in Europe. e
One of the most impressive constructions on the Palenque site is the 
"Pyramid of Inscriptions," an enormous truncated pyramid with a 
long stairway in front. The pyramid is of a somewhat unusual 
design, for on the top is a large temple. The purpose of the 
monument was unknown until Lhuillier and his companions sug 
gested that it might have been built as a tomb for some exceptional 
king; or illustrious priest. Led by this idea, they began to search the 
temple at the top of the pyramid for some passage or stairway 

leading directly into the monument. And on June 15, 1952, they 
discovered a long flight of stairs going down through the enormous 
mass and actually under ground level. 
The passage was built after the traditional Mayan fashion, the 
inclined walls giving the enclosure a high, conical shape ending 
with a narrow ceiling. Some Indian huts in Yucatan are still built 
this way, a most efficient design in the tropical climate since it 
allows hot air to rise, thereby providing a relatively comfortable 
temperature inside the hut. At the bottom of the temple passage 
stairway was a splendid crypt, and in the crypt was a sarcophagus 
covered with a single carved stone measuring twelve feet by seven. 
Ten inches thick, the slab weighed about six tons. The fantastic 
scene depicted by the artists had not suffered; it came to light in 
every detail; and archaeologists are completely at a loss to interpret 
its meaning. 
The Mayans are supposed to have vanished without having invented 
even the rudiments of a technology. Some archaeologists doubt that 
they knew the wheel, and yet the design on the Palenque 
sarcophagus appears to show a very complex and sophisticated 
device, with a man at the controls of an intricate piece of machinery. 
Noting that the man is depicted with his knees brought up toward his 
chest and his back to a complicated mechanism, from which flames 
are seen to flow, several people, among them Soviet science writer 
Alexander Kazantsev, have speculated that the Mayans had actually 
been in contact with visitors from a superior civilization—visitors 
who used spaceships. Kazantsev's interpretation is difficult to prove. 
However, the only object we know today closely resembling the 
Mayan design is the space capsule. 
The demigod for whom sarcophagus, crypt, and pyramid were built 
with such splendid craftsmanship by the Mayan artists is something 
of a puzzle, too. The body is radically different from the morphology 
of the Mayans, as we imagine them: the corpse is that of a man 
nearly six feet tall, about eight inches taller than the average Mayan. 
According to Pierre Honore,1 the sarcophagus was made for the 
"Great White God," Kulkulkan, but no final clue to the mystery has 
yet been found, and the tropical jungles of Central America where 
dozens of temples and pyramids are 
   
still buried under the exuberant vegetation have not yet yielded the 
secret of the Palenque sarcophagus. 



 
It is in the literature of religion that flying objects from celestial 
countries are most commonly encountered, along with descriptions 
of the organization, nature, and philosophy of their occupants. 
Indeed, several writers have consistently pointed out that the 
fundamental texts of every religion refer to the contact of the human 
community with a "superior race" of beings from the sky. This 
terminology is used, in particular, in the Bible, where it is said: 
They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the 
Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole 
land.2 
The visitors have the power to fly through the air using luminous 
craft, sometimes called "celestial chariots." With these 
manifestations are associated impressive physical and meteorological 
displays, which the primitive authors call "whirlwind," "pillar of 
fire," etc. The occupants of these craft, to whom popular imagery 
will later ascribe wings and luminosity, are similar to man and 
communicate with him. They are organized under a strict military 
system: 

The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of 
angels: the Lord is among them. 
Gustave Dore, the French artist who has illustrated splendid editions 
of the Bible, has left a beautiful engraving showing these "celestial 
chariots" in the full power of their fantastic flight, speeding above 
the mountains, the clouds, and the abyss. 
A period of the early history of Japan ending about 3000 B.C. has 
received the name "Jomon Era." During that period an important 
artistic activity was the making of earthen statues.4 At first, these 
statues were very simple. Small in size, they were made to represent 
human beings. But in the middle of the period, the artists started to 
make larger statues showing standard features of a drastically 
different design: large chests, arc shaped legs, very 
 

  
short arms, and large heads obviously covered with complete 
helmets. 
On the nature of the helmets archaeologists disagree. In 1924, 
because he thought that its expression looked like that found on a 
wooden mask made in Africa, Dr. Gento Hasebe proposed that the 
headgear was in reality a mourning mask used at burials. In the 
Tohoku area of northern Japan, however, some of the most elaborate 
statues of this kind show something like a pair of "sunglasses": huge 
eyes with an insectlike horizontal slit—a truly remarkable design. 
Supposedly, the statues of the later part of the Jomon Era were first 
made with earth, then copied on rock or soft stone. Those found in 
Komukai, Nambu Province, are carved in rock and show helmets. 
One of them, a Jomon Dogu dated 4300 B.C. and excavated at the 
Amadaki ruins in the Iwatc Prefecture, shows details of the front part 
of the helmet, with a round opening at the base of the nose, below 
what appears to be a large perforated plate. 
The resemblance of the Dogu costume to a pressure suit of the type 
used by divers and astronauts is the relevant factor here. It has led 
some students of the Jomon Era to speculate that the statues might 
indicate the distant memory of visitors from space. The headgear 
with its filter, the large goggles, the necks with wide collars, and the 
one piece suits certainly bear a close resemblance to modern space 
gear. The fact that the sculptors made these figurines hollow is 
another puzzling element. Altogether, the Far East is a rich source of 
reports of supernatural beings and celestial signs, as we shall now 
sec. 



SORCERERS FROM THE CLOUDS. 
It is common belief that the term "flying saucer" was "made in 
America." Was it not coined by an American businessman in 
1947? Was not the first official investigation of the mystery by 
military authorities started in the United States a few weeks later? 
Well, yes. But a farmer from Texas described a dark flying 
object as a "large saucer" as early as January, 1878,5 and ancient 
Japanese records inform us that on October 27, 1180, an unusual 
luminous object described as an "earthenware vessel" flew from 
   
a mountain in the Kii Province beyond the northeast mountain of 
Fukuhara at midnight. After a while, the object changed its course 
and was lost to sight at the southern horizon, leaving a luminous 
trail. 
"In view of the time which has elapsed since the sighting"—as 
U.S. Air Force investigators like to say—it would be difficult to 
obtain additional data today. It is interesting, however, to find a 
medieval Japanese chronicler speaking of flying earthenware. 
The Japanese must also receive credit for having organized the first 
official investigation, and the story is so amusing, and parallels so 
well recent activities of the U.S. Air Force that I cannot resist 
reproducing it here. 
The date was September 24, 1235, seven centuries before our time, 
and General Yontsume was camping with his army. Suddenly, a 
curious phenomenon was observed: mysterious sources of light were 
seen to swing and circle in the southwest, moving in loops until the 
early morning. General Yoritsumc ordered what we would now term 
a "full scale scientific investigation," and his consultants set to work. 
Fairly soon they made their report. "The whole thing is completely 
natural, General," they said in substance. "It is only the wind making 
the stars sway." My source of information for this report, Yusuke J. 
Matsumura, of Yokohama, adds sadly: "Scholars on government pay 
have always made ambiguous statements like this!" 
Celestial phenomena seem to have been so commonplace in the 
Japanese skies during the Middle Ages that they influenced human 
events in a direct way. Panics, riots and disruptive social movements 
were often linked to celestial apparitions. The Japanese peasants had 
the disagreeable tendency to interpret the "signs from heaven" as 
strong indications that their revolts and demands against the feudal 
system or against foreign invaders were just, and as assurance that 
their rebellions would be crowned with success. Numerous examples 
of such situations can be quoted, For instance, on September 12, 
1271, the famous priest Nichircn was about to be beheaded at 
Tatsunokuchi, Kamakura, when there appeared in the sky an object 
like a full moon, shiny and bright. Needless to say, the officials 
panicked and the execulion was not carried out." 
  
On August 3, 989, during a period of great social unrest, three round 
objects of unusual brilliance were observed; later they joined 
together. In 1361, a flying object described as being "shaped like a 
drum, about twenty feet in diameter" emerged from the inland sea 
off western Japan. On January 2, 1458, a bright object resembling 
the full moon was seen in the sky, and this apparition was followed 
by "curious signs" in heaven and earth. People were "amazed." Two 
months later, on March 17, 1458, five stars appeared, circling the 
moon. They changed color three times and vanished suddenly. The 
rulers were utterly distressed and believed that the sign announced a 
great disturbance throughout the land. All the people in Kyoto were 
expecting disasters to follow, and the emperor himself was very 
upset. Ten years later, on March 8, 
1468, a dark object, which made a "sound like a wheel," flew from 
Mt. Kasuga toward the west at midnight. The combination of the 
sound and the darkness of the flying object is difficult to explain in 
natural terms. 
On January 3, 1569, in the evening, a flaming star appeared in the 
sky. It was regarded as an omen of serious changes, announcing the 
fall of the Chu Dynasty. Such phenomena continued during the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For instance, in May, 1606, 
fireballs were continuously reported over Kyoto, and one night a 
whirling ball of fire resembling a red wheel hovered near the Nijo 
Castle and was observed by many of the samurai. The next morning 
the city was filled with rumors and the people muttered: "This must 
be a portent." 
One noon in September, 1702, the sun took on a bloody color 
several days in succession and cottonlike threads fell down, ap
parently falling from the sun itself—phenomena reminiscent of 
the 1917 observations in Fatima, Portugal. 
Chaos spread all over Japan on January 2, 1749, when three 
round objects "like the moon" appeared and were seen for four 
days. Such a state of social unrest developed, and seemed so 
clearly linked with the mysterious "celestial objects," that the 
government decided to act. Riot participants were executed. But 
confusion became total when people observed three "moons" 
aligned in the sky and, several days later, two "suns." 
Undoubtedly the Japanese experienced natural phenomena, 
 
similar to mirages and incorrectly interpreted them in the context of 
social rebellion. From this distance, however, it is impossible to 
separate the reliable observations from the emotional interpretation. 
What matters here is the link between certain unusual phenomena—
observed or imagined—and the alteration of the witnesses' behavior. 
In other words, these accounts show that it is possible to affect the 
lives of many people by showing them displays that arc beyond their 
comprehension, or by convincing them that they have observed such 
phenomena, or by keeping alive the belief that their destiny is 
somehow controlled by occult forces. 
A brief examination of legendary elements in Western Europe in the 
Middle Ages will show that a similar rumor about strange flying 
objects and supernatural manifestations was spreading there, too. 
Indeed, Pierre Boaistuau, in 1575, remarked: 
The face of heaven has been so often disfigured by bearded, hairy 
comets, torches, flames, columns, spears, shields, dragons, 
duplicate moons, suns, and other similar things, that if one wanted 
to tell in an orderly fashion those that have happened since the 
birth of Jesus Christ only, and inquire about the causes of their 
origin, the lifetime of a single man would not be enough.7 
According to the 1594 edition of the same book, this is what 
happened a few miles from Tubingen, Germany, on December 5, 
1577, at 7:00 A.M.: 
About the sun many dark clouds appeared, such as we are wont to 
see during great storms: and soon afterward have come from the 
sun other clouds, all fiery and bloody, and others, yellow as safran. 
Out of these clouds have come forth reverberations resembling 
large, tall and wide hats, and the earth showed itself yellow and 
bloody, and seemed to be covered with hats, tall and wide, which 
appeared in various colors such as red, blue, green, and most of 
them black. .. . It is easy for everyone to think of the meaning of 
this miracle, which is that God wants to induce men to amend their 
lives and make penance. May Almighty God inspire all men to 
recognize Him. Amen.
Especially interesting to us will be the fact that these reports of 
celestial objects are linked with claims of contact with strange 
creatures, a situation parallel to that of modern day UFO 
landings. 



PASSPORT TO MAGONIA. 
Since these rumors have been puzzling to many authorities in the 
Roman Catholic Church, perhaps it is appropriate to begin with a 
quotation from the life of St. Anthony, the Egyptian born founder of 
Christian monasticism who lived about 300 A.D. In the desert, St. 
Anthony met with a strange being of small stature, who fled after a 
brief conversation with him: 
Before long in a small rocky valley shut in on all sides he sees a 
mannikin with hooted snout, horned forehead, and extremities 
like goat's feet. When he "saw this, Anthony like a good soldier 
seized the shield of faith and the helmet of hope: the creature 
none the less began to offer him the fruit of the palm tree to 
support him on his journey and as it were pledges of peace. 
Anthony perceiving this stopped and asked who he was. The 
answer he received from him was this: 
"I am a mortal being and one of the inhabitants of the Desert 
whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of error worship 
under the names of Fauns, Satyrs and Incubi. I am sent to 
represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the 
favour of your Lord, and ours, who, we have learnt, came once to 
save the world, and 'whose sound has gone forth into all the 
earth.' " 
As he uttered such words as these, the aged traveller's cheeks 
streamed with tears, the marks of his deep feeling, which he shed 
in the fulness of his joy, He rejoiced over the Glory of Christ and 
the destruction of Satan, and marvelling all the while that he 
could understand the Satyr's language, and striking the ground 
with his star, he said, 
"Woe to thee, Alexandria, who instead of God worshippest 
monsters! Woe to thee, harlot city, into which have flowed 
together the demons of the whole world! What will you say now? 
Beasts speak of Christ, and you instead of God worship 
monsters." 
He had not finished speaking when, as if on wings, the wild 
creature fled away. 
Let no one scruple to believe this incident; its truth is supported 
by what took place when Constantinc was on the throne, a matter 
of which the whole world was witness. For a man of that kind 
was brought alive to Alexandria and shewn as a wonderful sight 
to the people. Afterwards his lifeless body, to prevent its decay 
through the summer heat, was preserved in salt and brought to 
Antioch that the Emperor might see it. 
Again, with this story, we are faced with an account the truthfulness 
of which it would be futile to question: the lives of the early saints 
are full of amazing miracles that should be taken as 
  
literary figures rather than as scientific observations. The important 
point is that basic religious texts contain such material, giving, so to 
speak, letters of nobility to a category of beings widely believed to 
be of supernatural origin. Such observations as St. Anthony's will 
prove fundamental when religious authorities are faced with the 
problem of evaluating medieval observations of beings from the sky, 
claims of evocation of demons by occult means, and even modern 
miracles. 
The details and the terminology of such observations as St. 
Anthony's are not important to this study. It is enough to note that in 
St. Anthony's account the strange being is indifferently termed a 
satyr and a mannikin, while the saint himself states that the Gentiles 
also use the names faun and incubus. St. Jerome speaks of a "man of 
that kind." Throughout our study of these legends, we shall find the 
same confusion. In the above account, however, it is at least clear to 
St. Anthony that the creature is neither an angel nor a demon. If it 
had been, he would have recognized it immediately! 
In the twenty century old Indian book of primitive astronomy, 
Surya Siddhanta, it is said that "Below the moon and above the 
clouds revolve the Siddhas [perfected men] and the Vidyaharas 
[possessors of knowledge]." According to Andrew Tomas, Indian 
tradition holds that the Siddhas could become "very heavy at will or 
as light as a feather, travel through space and disappear from 
sight."
Observations of beings who flew across the sky and landed are also 
found in the writings of Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, France. 
Agobard, who was born in Spain in 779 and came to France when 
three years old, became archbishop at thirty seven. When he died in 
840, "one of the most celebrated and learned prelates of the ninth 
century," he left an interesting account of a peculiarly significant 
incident: 
We have, however, seen and heard many men plunged in such 
great stupidity, sunk in such depths of folly, as to believe that 
there is a certain region, which they call Magonia, whence ships 
sail in the clouds, in order to carry back to that region those fruits 
of the cartli which arc destroyed by hail and tempests; the sailors 
paying rewards to the storm wizards and themselves receiving 
corn and 
  
other produce. Out of the number of those whose blind folly was 
deep enough to allow them to believe these things possible, I saw 
several exhibiting in a certain concourse of people, four persons in 
bonds—three men and a woman who they said had fallen from 
these same ships; after keeping them for some days in captivity 
they had brought them before the assembled multitude, as we 
have said, in our presence to be stoned. But truth prevailed.11 
We shall see in the following pages that the occultists give a quite 
different interpretation to the same incident.


THE SEVEN VISITORS OF FACIUS CARDAN. 
Throughout medieval times, a major current of thought distinct from 
official religion existed, culminating in the works of the alchemists 
and hermetics. Among such groups were to be found some of the 
early modern scientists and men remarkable for the strength of their 
independent thinking and for their adventurous life, such as 
Paracelsus. The nature of the beings who mysteriously appeared, 
dressed in shiny garments or covered with dark hair, and with whom 
communication was so hard to establish intrigued these men 
intensely. They were the first to relate these strange beings to the 
creatures described in the Bible and in the writings of the early 
cabalists. 
According to biblical writers, the heavenly hierarchy includes 
beings of human form called cherubim, a name that in Hebrew 
means "full of knowledge." Ezekiel describes them in the following 
terms: 
Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the 
appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living crea 
tures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth 
lightning.12 
Are the mysterious creatures who fly through the sky and land in 
their "cloudships"—Agobard's authority notwithstanding—of the 
same race as the angels? asked the old philosophers. No, because 
they are mortal: 
The Hebrews used to call these beings who are between the 
Angels and Man Sadaim, and the Greeks, transposing the letters 
and adding but one syllable, called them Daimonas. Among the 
   
ancient Philosophers these demons were held to be an Aerial 
Race, ruling over the Elements, mortal, engendering, and 
unknown in this century to those who rarely seek Truth in her 
ancient dwelling place, which is to say, in the Cabala and in the 
theology of the Hebrews, who possessed the special art of holding 
communion with that Aerial People and of conversing with all 
these Inhabitants of the Air.13 
Plutarch even had a complete theory on the nature of these beings: 
He thinks it absurd that there should be no mean between the two 
extremes of an immortal and a mortal being; that there cannot be 
in nature so vast a flaw, without some intermedial kind of life, 
partaking of them both. As, therefore, we find the intercourse be 
tween the soul and the body to be made by the animal spirits, so 
between divinity and humanity there is this species of daemons.14 
It is not surprising, then, to find that the "Philosophers" dis
agreed with Agobard on the nature of the three men and the 
woman who were captured by the mob in Lyons: 
In vain does a Philosopher bring to light the falsity of the 
chimeras people have fabricated, and present manifest proofs to 
the contrary. No matter what his experience, nor how sound his 
argument and reasoning, let but a man with a doctor's hood come 
along and write them down as false—experience and 
demonstration count for naught and it is henceforward beyond the 
power of Truth to reestablish her empire. People would rather 
believe in a doctor's hood than in their own eyes. There has been 
in your native France a memorable proof of this popular mania. 
The famous Cabalist Zcdcchias, in the reign of your Pepin, took it 
into his head to convince the world that the Elements are 
inhabited by those peoples whose nature I have just described to 
you. The expedient of which he bethought himself was to advise 
the Sylphs to show themselves in the Air to everybody: They did 
so sumptuously. 
liiese beings were seen in the Air in human form, sometimes in 
battle array marching in good order, halting under arms, or en 
camped beneath magnificent tents. Sometimes on wonderfully 
constructed aerial ships, whose flying squadrons roved at the will 
of the Zephyrs. 
What happened? Do you suppose that ignorant age would so 
much as reason as to the nature of these marvellous spectacles? 
The people Straightaway believed that sorcerers had taken 
possession of the Air for the purpose of raising tempests and 
bringing hail upon 
  
their crops. The learned theologians and jurists were soon of the 
same opinion as the masses. The Emperor believed it as well; and 
this ridiculous chimera went so far that the wise Charlemagne, 
and after him Louis the Debonair, imposed grievous penalties 
upon all these supposed Tyrants of the Air. You may see an 
account of this in the first chapter of the Capitularies of these two 
Emperors. 


The Sylphs seeing the populace, the pedants and even the crowned 
heads thus alarmed against them, determined to dissipate the bad 
opinion people had of their innocent fleet by carrying off men 
from every locality and showing them their beautiful women, their 
Republic and their manner of government, and then setting them 
down again on earth in divers parts of the world. They carried out 

their plan. The people who saw these men as they were 
descending came running from every direction, convinced 
beforehand that they were sorcerers who had separated from their 
companions in order to come and scatter poisons on the fruit and 
in the springs. Carried away by the frenzy with which such fancies 
inspired them, they hurried these innocents off to the torture. The 
great number of them who were put to death by fire and water 
throughout the kingdom is incredible. 
One day, among other instances, it chanced at Lyons that three men and a 
woman were seen descending from these aerial ships. The entire city 
gathered about them, crying out they were magicians and were sent by 
Grimaldus, Duke of Bcneventum, Charlemagne's enemy, to destroy the 
French harvests. In vain the four innocents sought to vindicate 
themselves by saying that they were their own country folk, and had 
been carried away a short time since by miraculous men who had shown 
them unheard of marvels, and had desired to give them an account of 
what they had seen. The frenzied populace paid no heed to their defence, 
and were on the point of casting them into the fire, when the worthy 
Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, who having been a monk in that city had 
acquired considerable authority there, came running at the noise, and 
having heard the accusations of the people and the defence of the 
accused, gravely pronounced that both one and the other were false. That 
it was not true that these men had fallen from the sky, and that what they 
said they had seen there was impossible. 
The people believed what their good father Agobard said rather 
than their own eyes, were pacified, set at liberty the four 
Ambassadors of the Sylphs, and received with wonder the book 
which Ago bard wrote to confirm the judgment which he had 
pronounced. Thus the testimony of these four witnesses was 
rendered vain.
Such stories were so well established during the Middle Ages that 
the problem of communicating with the Elementals became 
   
a major preoccupation of the hermetics and an important part of their 
philosophy. Paracelsus wrote an entire book on the nature of these 
beings, but be took great pains to warn the reader of the dangers of 
an association with them: 
I do not want to say here, because of the ills which might befall 
those who would try it, through which compact one associates 
with these beings, thanks to which compact they appear to us and 
speak to us. 
And in a treatise entitled "Why These Beings Appear to Us," lie 
presented the following ingenious theory: 
Everything God creates manifests itself to Man sooner or later. 
Sometimes God confronts him with the devil and the spirits in 
order to convince him of their existence. From the top of Heaven, 
he also sends the angels, his servants. Thus these beings appear to 
us, not in order to stay among us or become allied to us, but in 
order for us to become able to understand them. These apparitions 
are scarce, to tell the truth. But why should it be otherwise? Is it 
not enough for one of us to see an Angel, in order for all of us to 
believe in the other Angels? 
Paracelsus was probably born in 1491, and in the very same year 
Facius Cardan recorded his observation of seven strange visitors 
directly Tclatcd to the creatures of the elements who were so 
puzzling to the great philosopher. The incident is preserved in the 
writings of his son, Jerome Cardan (1501 to 1576), who is well known 
to us today as a mathematician. 
Jerome Cardan lived in Milan and was not only a mathematician but 
also an occulist and a physician. In his book De Subtilitate, Cardan 
explains that he had often heard his father tell the particular story 
and finally searched for his record of the event, which read as 
follows: 
August 13, 1491. When I had completed the customary rites, at 
about the twentieth hour of the day, seven men duly appeared to 
me clothed in silken garments, resembling Greek togas, and wear 
ing, as it were, shining shoes. The undergarments beneath their 
glistening and ruddy breastplates seemed to be wrought of 
crimson and were of extraordinary glory and beauty. 
Nevertheless all were not dressed in this fashion, but only two 
who seemed to be of nobler rank than the others. The taller of 
them who was of ruddy complexion was attended by two 
companions, and 

the second, who was fairer and of shorter stature, by three. Thus in 
all there were seven. He left no record as to whether their heads 
were covered. They were about forty years of age, but they did not 
appear to be above thirty. When asked who they were, they said 
that they were men composed, as it were, of air, and subject to 
birth and death. It was true that their lives were much longer than 
ours, and might even reach to three hundred years' duration. 
Questioned on the immortality of our soul, they affirmed that 
nothing survives which is peculiar to the individual.., . When my 
father asked them why they did not reveal treasures to men if they 
knew where they were, they answered that it was forbidden by a 
peculiar law under the heaviest penalties for anyone to 
communicate this knowledge to men. They remained with my 
father for over three hours. But when he questioned them as to the 
cause of the universe they were not agreed. The tallest of them 
denied that God had made the world from eternity. On the 
contrary, the other added that God created it from moment to 
moment, so that should He desist for an instant the world would 
perish.. Be this fact or fable, so it stands.10 
Nearly three centuries later, in September, 1768, a young man of 
sixteen was traveling to the University of Leipzig, with two 
passengers from Frankfurt. Most of the journey was accomplished in 
the rain, and the coach sometimes had trouble moving uphill. On 
one occasion when the passengers had left their seats to walk behind 
the horses, the young man noticed a strange luminous object at 
ground level: 
All at once, in a ravine on the right hand side of the way, I saw a 
sort of amphitheatre, wonderfully illuminated. In a funnel shaped 
space there were innumerable little lights gleaming, ranged step 
fashion over one another; and they shone so brilliantly that the eye 
was dazzled. But what still more confused the sight was that they 
did not keep still, but jumped about here and there, as well down 
wards from above as vice versa, and in every direction. The 
greater part of them, however, remained stationary, and beamed 
on. It was only with the greatest reluctance that I suffered myself 
to be called away from the spectacle, which I could have wished to 
examine more closely. The postilion, when questioned, said that 
he knew nothing about such a phenomenon, but that there was in 
the neighborhood an old stone quarry, the excavation of which 
was filled with water. Now, whether this was a pandemonium of 
willo'the wisps, or a company of luminous creatures, I will not 
decide. 
The young man in question was Goethe. You will find this 
   
sighting in the sixth book of his Autobiography, according to 
Kenneth Anger, to whom I am indebted for this very interesting 
discovery. Would the German poet and scientist have had occasion 
to learn more about the "luminous creatures" had he lived in the 
twentieth century? If Paracelsus came back, would he find new 
material for his theories on the nature of the strange and fugitive 
races of beings from the sky? We can safely hypothesize that their 
attention would be immediately directed to the files of UFO 
landings. 
In the next paragraphs, we shall examine some of the recent cases 
they might have found of interest. 
What do they prove? Nothing. They only indicate that, if there ever 
was a time for scientists to bow their heads with awe before the 
variety and power of natural phenomena and human imagination, it 
is to be found in our own age of technology and rational thought, not 
in the confusion of medieval philosophies. 

RETURN OF THE HUMANOIDS. 
One night in January, 1958, a lady whose name I am not authorized 
to publish was driving along the New York State Thruway in the 
vicinity of Niagara Falls, in the midst of a violent snowstorm. The 
exact time was 1:30 A.M. The lady was going to visit her son, then 
in the Army, and she was driving very carefully, trying to find an 
exit, for she believed the Thruway was closed ahead of her. 
Visibility was extremely bad. Hence she had no chance to think 
when she suddenly saw what seemed to be an airplane wreck on the 
center parkway: 
A large shape was visible, and a slim rod at least fifty feet high 
was illuminated and getting shorter as though it were sinking into 
the ground. My motor slowed down and as I came closer my car 
stopped completely. I became panicky and tried desperately to 
start it as I had no lights. 
My first thought was to get out and see what was happening but I 
suddenly saw two shapes rising around that slim pole which was 
still growing shorter. They were suspended but moving about it. 
'Ilicy seemed to be like animals with four legs and a tail but two 
front feelers under the head, like arms. Then, before I could even 
see  things disappeared and the shape rose and I then 
realized 
  
it was a saucer, it spun and zoomed about ten feet off the ground 
and up into the air and I could not even see where it went. 
My lights suddenly came on. I started the car and it was all right. 
I pulled up to that place, got out with a flashlight and walked over 
to where it had been sitting. A large hole was melted in the snow 
about a foot across and grass was showing on it. The grass was 
warm, but nothing was dug up around there. 
The lady, who met only with disbelief when she told her story to her 
family, reported the case in a letter to Otto Binder when his 
syndicated series "Our Space Age" began to appear in a number of 
newspapers.
The most puzzling element in this account is not so much what is 
described but the fact that such stories have become, since 1946, 
rather common in all parts of the world. To a physicist, of course, 
they appear unbelievable, just as the strange mannikin met by St. 
Anthony would appear unbelievable to a biologist. And yet there are 
several cases on record in which similar accounts arc associated 
with traces that can hardly be questioned. 
In the celebrated incident at Socorro, New Mexico, it was a 
policeman, Lonnie Zamora, who reported seeing two small beings, 
dressed in white, close to a shiny egg shaped object, which rested on 
four pads before it took off with a thunderous noise—only to become 
perfectly silent as it flew away. The incident took place on April 
24,1964, and was the occasion for some interesting measurements 
(by local police officials and a Federal Bureau of Investigation man) 
of the traces left by the object, and of some even more interesting 
deductions by William T. Powers on the possible mechanical 
construction of the landing gear. Here again we observe an emotional 
pattern strangely reminiscent of the medieval scene just surveyed: 
the witness in the Socorro case, when he was about to be interviewed 
by Air Force investigators, was so little convinced that he had 
observed a device of human 
construction that he asked to sec a priest before releasing his report 
to the authorities. 
Then, of course, there is the report of the Kentucky family who 
claimed to have been besciged by several "little men," whose ap 
pearance was completely fantastic. The incident occurred on the 
night of April 21, 1955, and was the occasion of many strange 
   
observations of the behavior of the "visitors." One of the creatures 
was seen approaching the farmhouse with both hands raised. When it 
was about twenty feet away, two of the witnesses shot at the intruder. 
It "did a flip" and was lost in the darkness. Then it appeared at the 
window when the men came back inside the house and was again 
shot at. Another creature, seen on the roof, was knocked over by a 
bullet, but instead of falling, it floated to the ground. 
The entities had oversized heads, almost perfectly round, and very 
long arms, terminating in huge hands armed with talons. They wore 
a sort of glowing aluminum suit, which is reminiscent of the sylphs 
of 1491. Their eyes were very large and apparently very sensitive. 
They always approached the house from the darkest corner. The eyes 
had no pupils and no eyelids. The eyes were much larger than human 
eyes and set on the side of the head. The creatures generally walked 
upright, but when shot at, they would run on all fours with extreme 
rapidity, and their arms seemed to provide most of the propulsion. 
On September 10, 1954, in Quarouble, a small French village near 
the Belgian border, at about 10:30 P.M., Marius Dewilde stepped 
outside and was at once intrigued by a dark mass on the railroad 
tracks. Dewilde then heard footsteps in the night. Turning on his 
light, he found himself facing two beings wearing very large helmets 
and what seemed to be heavy diving suits. They had broad 
shoulders, but Dewilde did not see their arms. They were less than 
four feet tall. Dewilde moved toward them with the intention of 
intercepting them, but a light appeared on the side of the dark object 
on the tracks, and Dewilde found he could not make a single move. 
When he regained control of his body, the two visitors had rccntercd 
the supposed machine and flown away. 
This classic observation had a strange sequel, never before pub 
lished. French civilian investigators who studied the case were 
cooperating closely with local police officials, but there were other 
people on the site, notably representatives of the Air Police from 
Paris. When an inquiry was made regarding the analyses performed 
on some stones found calcined at the spot where the saucer had been 
seen by Dewilde, it was discovered that even the 

police could not obtain information as to the results of the analyses. 
In the words of the local police chief: 
The official body working in liaison with the Air Police belongs 
to the Ministry of National Defense. The very name of this Min 
istry excludes the idea of any communication. 
On November 19, 1954, the following facts came to light: the police 
confirmed that Dcwilde had made a second report concerning an 
observation of an object "in the vicinity of his home." (We were 
later to learn that the report in fact described a landing. ) However, 
the police said 
Dewilde and his family have decided, for fear of adverse 
publicity, to take no one in their confidence regarding this second 
occurrence. Therefore you will find no mention of it in local 
newspapers. 
Furthermore, civilian investigators were told—politely but in no 
uncertain terms—that any further information on such incidents 
would be kept confidential by the police. 
Reports continued, however, and some of them would have 
delighted Paracelsus. 

On October 14, 1954, a miner named Starov 
ski claimed to have met, on a country road near Erchin (also in the 
north of France), a strange being of small height and bulky figure 
with large slanted eyes and a fur covered body. The midget, less 
than four feet tall, had a large head and wore a brown skullcap, 
which formed a fillet a few inches above the eyes. The eyes 
protruded, with very small irises; the nose was flat; the lips were 
thick and red. A minor detail: the witness did not claim he had seen 
the creature emerge from a flying saucer or rccnter it. He just 
happened to meet the strange being, who did not wear any kind of 
respiratory device. Before he could think of stopping him, the 
creature had disappeared. 
Six days later, on October 20, 1954, in Parravicino d'Erba, near 
Como, Italy, a man had just put his car in the garage when he saw a 
strange being, covered with a luminous suit, about four feet tall, 
standing near a tree. When he saw the motorist, the creature aimed a 
beam from some sort of flashlight at him, paralyzing the witness 
until a motion he made when clenching the fist holding the garage 
keys seemed to free him. He rushed to attack the stranger, who rose 
from the ground and fled with a soft whirring 
   
sound. The author of this unbelievable story was thirty seven years 
old and was known locally as a trustworthy man. He arrived home 
in a state of great shock and went to bed with a high fever. The 
details of the case were obtained through an investigation by the 
Italian police. 
Eleven years later, the files of landing reports and strange creatures 
associated with them had become very thick indeed. Then a new 
flurry of reports began. On July I, 1965, Maurice Masse, a French 
farmer who lived in Valensolc, had the following experience. As he 
arrived in his field, at 6:00 A.M., and was getting ready to start his 
tractor, he heard an unusual noise. Stepping into the open, he saw a 
machine that had landed in his lavender field. He I bought it must be 
some sort of prototype and walked toward it, with a mind to tell the 
pilots, in no uncertain words, to go find .mother landing spot for 
their contraption. It was only when he was within twenty feet of the 
machine that he came in full view of the scene and realized his 
mistake. 
The object was egg shaped, had a round cockpit, was supported by 
six thin legs and a central pivot, and was not bigger than a car. In 
front, appearing to examine a lavender plant, were the two pilots. 
They were dressed in one piccc, gray greenish suits. On the left side 
of their belts was a small container; a larger one was on I he right 
side. They were less than four feet tall and had human eves, but their 
heads were very large: about three times the volume of a human 
head. They had practically no mouth, only a very small opening, 
without lips. They wore no respiratory device, no headgear, and no 
gloves. They had small, normal hands. When Masse came upon 
them, they seemed to become suddenly aware of his existence, and 
yet it was without any indication of fear or surprise that one of the 
"pilots" took a small tube from its container and pointed it at 
Masse—with the result that the witness found himself suddenly 
incapable of movement. 
For the next sixty seconds or so, the two entities looked at Masse. 
They appeared to be exchanging their impressions vocally in a sort 
of gargle. These sounds came from their throats, insisted I he 
witness, but the mouths did not move. The eyes, in the meantime, 
conveyed human expressions. In private, Masse told a civilian 
investigator that he had not been frightened by their attitude, and that it contained more friendly curiosity than hostility 
toward him. After some time—estimated by Masse, as I have said, as 
about one minute—the creatures went inside the craft. The door 
closed "like the front part of a wooden file cabinet," but Masse could 
see them through the cockpit. They were facing him as the object 
took off in the opposite direction, first hovering a few feet from the 
ground, then rising obliquely with the take oE speed of a jet plane. 
When it was about sixty yards away, it vanished. The witness was 
closely questioned on this last point by French scientists who were 
privately interested by the case, but Masse insisted he could not say 
whether the object went away so fast that the eye could not follow it 
or whether it actually disappeared. He made it quite clear, however, 
that "one moment, the thing was there, and the next moment, it was 
not there anymore." Masse remained alone in his field, paralyzed. 
The word "paralysis" is not properly used in connection with 
incidents of this type. Masse said that he remained conscious during 
the whole observation. His physiological functions (respiration, 
heartbeat) were not hampered. But he could not move. Then he 
became very frightened indeed. Alone in his field, unable even to call 
for help, Masse thought he was going to die. It was only after about 
twenty minutes that he gradually regained voluntary control of his 
muscles and was able to go home. There is a sequel to his experience. 
For several weeks after the incident, Masse was overcome with 
drowsiness, and all his relatives—as well as the investigators—
observed that he needed so much sleep that he found it diEcult to stay 
awake even for four hours at a time. This is another little known 
characteristic of "close proximity" cases. To Masse, who was used to 
working "from sun up to sun down"—as the early hour of his 
observation itself shows—this was a very impressive and disturbing 
consequence of his experience. Another result of the publicity the 
case attracted was the great damage to Masse's field, as crowds of 
tourists gathered to sec the traces left by the craft. At this point, I 
should say that Masse is a man respected in the community. A former 
Resistance fighter, a conscientious and 
   
successful farmer, he is regarded as absolutely trustworthy by the 
police authorities who investigated the case under the direction of 
Captain Valnct, of Digne. Yet this man tells us a story that does not 
simply appear fanciful; it is completely unbelievable. 
What is Masse's impression of the visitors? For some reason, lie 
says, he knows they meant no harm. They were not hostile to him, 
only indifferent. As he stood facing them, during that long minute, 
he suddenly was overcome with the certitude that they were 
"good"—a belief he is unable to rationalize, because at no point did 
he understand their strange language. 
The story is fantastic. Yet it reminds us of the account Barney and 
Betty Hill gave under hypnosis of their alleged abduction in New 
Hampshire. The account involved the same description of an alien 
language, of entities whose expressions were almost human, of an 
overwhelming feeling of confidence, and of not the slightest 
indication that the incident had a meaningful purpose or followed an 
intelligent pattern. Of considerable interest to the psychologist is the 
fact that the entities arc endowed with the same fugitiveness and 
behave with the same ignorance of logical or physical laws as the 
reflection of a dream, the monsters of our nightmares, the 
unpredictable witches of our childhood. Yet their craft do leave deep 
indentations in the ground, according to observers who were fully 
awake and absolutely competent at the time of the sighting. 
What docs it all mean? How can one reconcile these apparently 
contradictor}' facts? Some, in a laudable attempt, question the 
classical search for patterns: "Is it necessarily true," they ask, "that 
we would detect meaningful patterns—in the same sense of our own 
intelligence level—in the behavior of a superior race? Is it not much 
more likely that we would find in their actions only random data and 
incoherent pictures, much as a dog would if confronted with a 
mathematician writing on a blackboard? If so, it is only after new 
concepts have emerged in our consciousness that our vision of the 
world would be suddenly illuminated and that we would truly 
'discover' the meaning of their presence in our environment. And, if 
a superior race does in fact generate what we arc now observing as 
the UFO phenomenon, is it not 
  
precisely with the purpose of changing the course of human destiny 
by presenting us with evidence of our limitations in the technical, as 
well as the mental, realm?" 
This theory, which has been presented in particular by the French 
science writer Aime Michel in several brilliant books and articles, is 
perhaps the most intriguing that has been put forward to date. It does 
not attempt, however, to answer the question of the nature of the 
objects. 
Children of the Unknown—if they are not real, should we see these 
rumors as a sign that something in human imagination has changed, 
bringing into a new light uncharted areas of our "collective 
unconscious"? They may be only children of our fancy, and our love 
for them akin to our love for Batman and Cinderella. But they may 
be real. Modern science rules over a narrow universe, one particular 
variation on an infinite theme. 
In any case, it is important to understand what need these images 
fulfill, why this knowledge is both so exciting and so distressing to 
us. Such is the subject of this book. 
 PASSPOKT TO MAGONIA 
precisely with the purpose of changing the course of human destiny 
by presenting us with evidence of our limitations in the technical, as 
well as the mental, realm?" 
This theory, which has been presented in particular by the French 
science writer Aime Michel in several brilliant books and articles, is 
perhaps the most intriguing that has been put forward to date. It does 
not attempt, however, to answer the question of the nature of the 
objects. 
Children of the Unknown—if they arc not real, should we see these 
rumors as a sign that something in human imagination has changed, 
bringing into a new light uncharted areas of our "collective 
unconscious"? They may be only children of our fancy, and our love 
for them akin to our love for Batman and Cinderella, But they may 
be real. Modern science rules over a narrow universe, one particular 
variation on an infinite theme. 
In any case, it is important to understand what need these images 
fulfill, why this knowledge is both so exciting and so distressing to 
us. Such is the subject of this book. 




CHAPTER TWO,
THE GOOD PEOPLE.

 
Mans imagination, like every known 
power, works by fixed laws, the existence 
and operation of which it is possible to 
trace: and it works upon the same material 
—the external universe, the mental and 
moral constitution of man and his social 
relations. Hence, diverse as may seem at 
first sight the results among the cultured 
Europeans and the debased Hottentots, 
the philosophical Hindoos and the Red 
Indians of the Far West, they present on 
a close examination, features absolutely 
identical. 

Edwin S. Hartland, The Science of 
Fairy Tales—an Inquiry into Fairy 
Mythology 
IT WAS an unusual day for the Food and Drug Laboratory of the 
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, when the Air 
Force requested an analysis of a piece of wheat cake that had been 
cooked , aboard a flying saucer! The human being who had 
obtained the cake was Joe Simonton, a sixty year old chicken 
farmer who lived alone in a small house in the vicinity of Eagle 
River, Wisconsin. He was given three cakes, ate one of them, and 
thought it "tasted like cardboard." The Air Force put it more 
scientifically: 
The cake was composed of hydrogenated fat, starch, buckwheat 
hulls, soya bean hulls, wheat bran. Bacteria and radiation readings 
were normal for this material. Chemical, infra red and other de 
structive type tests were run on this material. The Food and Drug 

 
Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and 
Welfare concluded that the material was an ordinary pancake of 
terrestrial origin. 
Where did it come from? The reader will have to decide for himself 
what he chooses to believe after reading this second chapter. It 
begins with the Eagle River incident because this is a firsthand 
account, given by a man of absolute sincerity. Speaking for the U.S. 
Air Force, Dr. }. Allen Hynck, who investigated the case along with 
Major Robert Friend and an officer from Sawyer Air Force Base, 
stated: "There is no question that Mr. Simonton felt that his contact 
had been a real experience." 
The time was approximately 11:00 A.M. on April 18, 1961, when 
Joe Simonton was attracted outside by a peculiar noise similar to 
"knobby tires on a wet pavement." Stepping into his yard, he faced a 
silvery saucer shaped object "brighter than chrome," which appeared 
to be hovering close to the ground without actually touching it. The 
object was about twelve feet high and thirty feet in diameter. A hatch 
opened about five feet from the ground, and Simonton saw three 
men inside the machine. One of them was dressed in a black two 
piece suit. The occupants were about five feet in height. Smooth 
shaven, they appeared to "resemble Italians." They had dark hair and 
skin and wore outfits with turtleneck tops and knit helmets. 
One of the men held up a jug apparently made of the same material 
as the saucer. His motions to Joe Simonton seemed to indicate that 
he needed water. Simonton took the jug, went inside the house, and 
filled it. As he returned, he saw that one of the men iviside the 
saucer was "frying food on a flameless grill of some sort." The 
interior of the ship was black, "the color of wrought iron." Simonton, 
who could sec several instrument panels, heard a slow whining 
sound, similar to the hum of a generator. When he made a motion 
indicating he was interested in the food that was being prepared, one 
of the men, who was also dressed in black but with a narrow red trim 
along the trousers, handed him three cookies, about three inches in 
diameter and 
perforated with small holes. The whole affair had lasted about five 
minutes. Finally, the man closest to the witness attached a kind of 
belt to a hook in 

his clothing and closed the hatch in such a way that Simonton could 
scarcely detect its outline. Then the object rose about twenty feet 
from the ground before taking off straight south, causing a blast of 
air that bowed some nearby pine trees. 
Along the edge of the saucer, the witness recalls, were exhaust pipes 
six or seven inches in diameter. The hatch was about six feet high 
and thirty inches wide, and although the object has always been 
described as a saucer, its shape was that of two inverted bowls. 
When two deputies sent by Sheriff Schroeder, who had known 
Simonton for fourteen years, arrived on the scene, they could not 
find any corroborative evidence. The sheriff affirmed that the wit 
ness obviously believed the truth of what he was saying and talked 
very sensibly about the incident. 
FOOD FROM FAIRYLAND 
The Eagle River case has never been solved. The Air Force believes 
that Joe Simonton, who lived alone, had a sudden dream while he 
was awake and inserted his dream into the continuum of events 
around him of which he was conscious. I understand several 
psychologists in Dayton, Ohio, are quite satisfied with this 
explanation, and so are most serious amateur ufologists. Alas! 
Ufology, like psychology, has become such a narrow field of 
specialization that the experts have no time left for general culture. 
They are so busy rationalizing the dreams of other people that they 
themselves do not dream anymore, nor do they read fairy talcs. If 
they did, they would perhaps take a much closer look at Joe 
Simonton and his pancakes. They would know about the Gentry and 
the food from fairyland. 
In 1909, an American, Wantz, who wrote a thesis on Celtic 
traditions in Brittany, devoted much time to the gathering of folk 
tales about supernatural beings, their habits, their contacts with men, 
and their food. In his book he gives the story of Pat Fcency, an 
Irishman of whom we know only that "he was well off before the 
hard times," meaning perhaps the famine of 1846 to 1947. One day 
a little woman came to his house and asked for some oatmeal. 
 
Paddy had so little that he was ashamed to offer it, so he offered 
her some potatoes instead, but she wanted oatmeal, and then he 
gave her all that he had. She told him to place it back in the bin 

till she should return for it. This he did, and the next morning the 
bin was overflowing with oatmeal. The woman was one of the 
Gentry. 
It is unfortunate that Paddy did not save this valuable evidence for 
the benefit of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and 
Welfare (Food and Drug Lab.). Perhaps they would have explained 
this miracle of the multiplication of the oatmeal, along with other 
peculiar properties of fairy food; for it is well known in Ireland that 
if you are taken away by the fairies, you must never taste food in 
their palace. Otherwise, you never come back; you become one of 
them. 
It is interesting that the analysis performed for the Air Force did not 
mention the presence of salt in the pancakes given to Simonton. 
Indeed, Wentz was told by an Irishman who was quite familiar with 
the Gentry that "they never taste anything salt, but eat fresh meat 
and drink pure water." Pure water is what the saucer men took from 
Simonton. 
The question of food is one of the points most frequently treated in 
the traditional literature of the Celtic legends, along with the 
documented stories of babies kidnapped by the elves and of the 
terrestrial animals they hunt and take away. Before we study this 
abundant material, however, we should supply some background 
information about the mysterious folks the Irish call the Gentry, and 
the Scots, the Good People (Skagfr Maith): 
The Gentry are a fine large race who live out on the sea and in the 
mountains, and they are all very good neighbors. The bad ones 
are not the Gentry at all, are the fallen angels and they live in the 
woods and the sea, 
says one of Wentz's informers. Patrick Water gives this 
description of a "fairy man": 
A crowd of boys out in the fields one day saw a fairy man with a 
red cap. Except for his height he was like any other man. He was 
about three and a half feet tall. The boys surrounded him, but he 
made such a sputtering talk they let him go. And he disappeared 
as he walked away in the direction of the old fort. 
There were few places where one could still sec fairies, even in 
THE GOOD PEOPLE 
Great Britain or France, after 1850. All the storytellers, all the 
popular almanacs, agree that, as civilization advanced, the little 
folks became increasingly shy. A few untouched places recom 
mended by Wcntz, however, are the Yosemite Valley in California 
and the Ben Bulbcn country and Ross Point in County Sligo, 
Ireland. Dublin seers arc known to have made many trips to Ben 
Bulben, a famous mountain honeycombed with curious grottoes. At 
the very foot of the mountain, "as the heavy white fog banks hung 
over Ben Bulben and its neighbors," Wentz was told, the following 
incident occurred: 
When I was a young man I often used to go out in the mountains 
over there to fish for trout or to hunt. And it was in January on a 
cold, dry day while carrying my gun that I and a friend with me as 
we were walking around Ben Bulben saw one of the Gentry for 
the first time. . This one was dressed in blue with a head dress 
adorned with what seemed to be frills. When he came upon us, he 
said to me in a sweet and silvery voice, 
The seldom you come to this mountain the better, 
Mister, A young lady here wants to take you away. 
Then he told us not to fire our guns, because the Gentry dislike 
being disturbed by the noise. And he seemed to be like a soldier 
of the Gentry on guard. As we were leaving the mountain, he told 
us not to look back and we didn't. 


Wentz then asked for a description of the Gentry, and was told the 
following: 
The folk arc the grandest I have ever seen. They are far superior to us 
and that is why they call themselves the Gentry. They are not a 
working class, but a military aristocratic class, tall and noble 
appearing. They arc a distinct race between our race and that of 
spirits, as they have told me. Their qualifications are tremendous: 
"We could cut off half the human race, but would not," they said, 
"for we are expecting salvation." And I knew a man three or four 
years ago whom they struck down with paralysis. Their sight is so 
penetrating that I think they could see through the earth. They have a 
silvery voice, quick and sweet. 
The Gentry live inside the mountains in beautiful castles, and 
there are a good many branches of them in other countries, and 
especially in Ireland. Some live in the Wicklow Mountains near 
Dublin. Like armies they have their stations and move from one 
to another. My guide and informer said to me once, "I command a 
regiment, Mr.x." 
They travel greatly, and they can appear in Paris, Marseilles, 
Naples, Genoa, Turin or Dublin, like ordinary people, and even in 
crowds. They love especially Spain, Southern France, and the 
South of Europe. 
The Gentry take a great interest in the affairs of men and they 
always stand for justice and right. Sometimes they fight among 
themselves. They take young and intelligent people who are inter 
esting. They take the whole body and soul, transmuting the body 
to a body like their own. 
I asked them once if they ever died and they said, No; "we are 
always kept young, Mr.x." Once they take you and you taste food 
in their palace you cannot come back. They never taste anything 
salt, but eat fresh meat and drink pure water. They marry and 
have children. And one of them could marry a good and pure 
mortal. 
They are able to appear in different forms. One once appeared to 
me and seemed only four feet high, and stoutly built. He said, "I 
am bigger than I appear to you now. We can make the old young, 
the big small, the small big." 
Now that we have refreshed the reader's memory regarding the 
Gentry, perhaps we shall be forgiven for driving the parallel be 
tween fairy faith and ufology a good deal further. The Eagle River 
incident, again, will be the occasion for our reflections. 
The cakes given to Joe Simonton were composed of, among other 
things, buckwheat hulls. And buckwheat is closely associated with 
legends of Brittany, one of the most conservative Celtic areas. In 
that area of France, belief in fairies (fees) is still widespread, 
although Wentz and Paul Sebillot' had great difficulty, about 1900, 
finding Bretons who said that they themselves had seen fees. One of 
the peculiarities of Breton traditional legends is the association of 
the fees or korrigans with a Tacc of beings named /ions. In our 
chapter on the Secret Commonwealth we shall study the fions more 
closely; here I want only to call the reader's attention to one 
particularly pretty legend about fions and magic buckwheat cakes. 
It seems that once upon a time a black cow belonging to little cave 
dwelling fions ruined the buckwheat field of a poor woman, who 
bitterly complained about the damage. The fions made a deal with 
her: they would see to it that she should never run out 
of buckwheat cakes, provided she kept her mouth shut. And indeed 
she and her family discovered that their supply of cakes was 
inexhaustible. Alas! One day the woman gave some of the cake to a 
man who should not have been entrusted with the secret of its 
magical origin, and the family had to go back to the ordinary way of 
making buckwheat cakes. 
I hardly need remind the reader that the Bible, too, gives a few 
examples of magical food supplies, similarly inexhaustible. More 
over, stories narrated by actual people provide close parallels to this 
theme. Witness the following account, given by Hartland: 
A man who lived at Ystradfynlais, in Brecknockshire, going out 
one day to look after his cattle and sheep on the mountain, dis 
appeared. In about three weeks, after search had been made in 
vain for him and his wife had given him up for dead, he came 
home. His wife asked him where he had been for the last three 
weeks. "Three weeks? Is it three weeks you call three hours?" said 
he. Pressed to say where he had been, he told her he had been 
playing his flute (which he usually took with him on the 
mountain) at the Llorfa, a spot near the Van Pool, when he was 
surrounded at a distance by little beings like men, who closed 
nearer and nearer to him until they became a very small circle. 
They sang and danced, and so affected him that he quite lost 
himself. They offered him some small cakes to eat, of which he 
partook; and he had never enjoyed himself so well in his life. 
Wcntz, too, has a few stories about the food from fairyland. I Ic 
gathered them during his trips through the Celtic countries, in the 
first few years of the present century. John Mac Neil of Barra, an old 
man who spoke no English, told Michael Buchanan, who translated 
the story from the Gaelic for Wentz, a pretty talc about a girl who 
was taken by the fairies. 
The fairies, he said, took the girl into their dwelling and set her to 
work baking oat cakes. But no matter how much meal she took from 
the closet, there was always the same amount left on the shelf. And 
she had to keep baking and baking, until the old fairy man took pity 
on her and said, 
I am sure you are wearying of the time and thinking long of 
getting from our premises, and I will direct you to the means by 
which you can get your leave. Whatever remainder of meal falls 
from the cakes after being baked put into the meal closet and that 
will stimulate my wife to give you leave. 
 
Naturally, she did as directed and got away. John Mac Neil, who 
was between seventy and eighty years old, gave no date to the story, 
but since he said he saw the girl after her experience, the event 
probably took place in the second part of the nineteenth century. 
Scientifically inclined people scoff at such stories with a very 
indignant air. A group of UFO students, when contacted about the 
Eagle River incident, stated that they did not intend to analyze the 
cookies, planned no further action, and had much more important 
things to investigate. Two weeks after the sighting, Joe Simonton 
told a United Press International reporter that "if it happened again, I 
don't think I'd tell anybody about it." And indeed, if flying saucers 
are devices used by a super scientific civilization from space, we 
would expect them to be packed inside with electronic gadgetry, 
super radars and a big computerized spying apparatus. But visitors 
in human shape, who breathe our air and zip around in flying 
kitchenettes, that is too much, Mr. Simonton! 
Visitors from the stars would not be human, or humanoid. 
They would not dare come here without receiving a polite invitation from our powerful radio telescopes. For centuries, we would 
exchange highly scientific information through exquisite circuitry 
and elaborate codes. And even if they did come here, surely they 
would land in Washington, D.C., where the President of the 
United States and the "scientific ufologists" would greet them. 
Presents would be exchanged. We would offer books on exobioogy, they would give us photographs of our solar system taken 
through space telescopes. But perforated, cardboard tasting, pancake shaped buckwheat cakes? How terribly rural, Mr. Simonton! 
And yet, there is no question that Joe Simonton believes that 
he saw the flying saucer, the nameless grill, the three men. He 
gave them pure water; they gave him three pancakes. If we re
flect on this very simple event, as the students of folklore have 
reflected on the stories quoted above, we cannot overlook one 
possibility, that the event at Eagle River did happen, and that it 
has the meaning of a simple, yet grandiose, ceremony. 
This latter theory was very well expressed by Hartland, when 
he said, about the exchange of food with fairies: 
Almost all over the Earth, the rite of hospitality has been held to 
confer obligations on its recipient, and to unite him by special ties 
to the giver. And even where the notion of hospitality does not 
enter, to join in a common meal has often been held to symbolize, 
if not to constitute, union of a very sacred kind. 
That such meaning is still attached to a common meal is readily seen 
at weddings and other traditional meetings where food is an 
important constituent, even if the symbolic value of such events is 
lost to most of our contemporaries. Hartland goes as far as to suggest 
that the custom of burying the dead with some food might bear some 
relationship to the widespread belief that one must have a supply of 
terrestrial food when one reaches fairyland, or forsake the earth 
entirely. And indeed, in ancient and recent tradition alike, the abode 
of our supernatural visitors is not always distinct from the world of 
the dead. This is a moot point, however, because the same applies to 
"visitors" from heaven. The theologians, who argue about the nature 
of angels, know it very well. But at least the idea of food provides 
another connection. In the light of Hartland's remarks about the rite 
of hospitality, a passage from the Bible is noteworthy: 
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and 
rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, 
and comfort ye your hearts; after that yc shall pass on: for 
therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as 
thou hast said. 

And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, 
and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree and 
they did eat. 
And according to Genesis 19, Lot took the two angels he met at the 
gate of Sodom to his house "and he made them a feast, and did bake 
unleavened bread, and they did eat." So, after all, Joe Simonton's 
account might be a modern illustration of that biblical 
recommendation: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby 
some have entertained angels unaware." 

RINGS IN THE MOONLIGHT. 
This section is devoted to several types of artifacts claimed by 
popular tradition to be of supernatural origin. Fairy "rings" and 
  
saucer "nests" obviously fall in this category. Although such phe 
nomena are treated as "borderline" cases by specialists in UFO 
investigation, I believe the nests deserve more than passing attention 
and should be considered in the light of specific traditional beliefs 
about the meaning of the "magic circles" that for centuries farmers 
have found in their fields. The literature on this subject is of course 
abundant, and we shall select only a few cases to illustrate the point 
and set the stage for a more detailed discussion in later chapters. 
On Thursday, July 28, 1966, in the evening, Mr. Lacoste and his 
wife were walking in the vicinity of Montsoreau, Maine et Loire, 
France. All of a sudden, they saw a red sphere cross the sky like a 
meteor. It did not behave quite as a meteor, however, because it 
seemed to touch the ground and then rise again— without losing its 
brilliant red color—and hover at mid height for a while before it was 
lost to sight. A check was made for military experiments in the area: 
there were none. 

The next day, a Montsoreau farmer, Alain Rouillet, reported that a 
nine square yard area of his wheat field had been flattened and 
covered with a yellowish, oily substance. Further investigation 
disclosed additional details on the identity of the witnesses and 
substantiated the idea that a peculiar object had indeed landed. 
Lacoste is a photographer in Saumur (unfortunately, he did not carry 
a camera with him at the time). He described the light given off by 
the sphere as being so intense that it lit up the whole countryside. 
The sphere hovered, he said, for a few seconds, then it maneuvered 
close to the ground. The witnesses felt sure it was a guided military 
gadget and walked to a distance of about four hundred yards from 
the object, which went away and was lost to sight behind some 
woods. The whole sighting had lasted four minutes. 
Six months earlier, a rash of similar sightings had made head
lines in Australia. "More flying saucer nests!" was the big news 
on the front page of the Sydney Sun Herald for January 23, 1966. 
Three nests had been discovered in Queensland, circular clearings 
of dead reeds, surrounded by green reeds. Hundreds of sightseers 
were searching for more by the time the reports were published. 
On January 19, 1966, at 9:00 A.M., a twenty seven year old 
banana grower, George Pedley, was driving his tractor in the vicinity 
of a swamp called Horseshoe Lagoon when he suddenly heard a loud 
hissing noise. It "sounded like air escaping from a lire," he said. 
Then, twenty five yards in front of him, he saw a machine rising 
from the swamp. It was blue gray, about twenty live feet across and 
nine feet high. It was spinning and rose to about sixty feet before 
moving off. "It was all over in a few seconds; it moved at terrific 
speed," said Pedley. Then he found I lie first nest, with reeds 
flattened in a clockwise direction. 

The Sydney Sun Herald sent a reporter, Ben Davie, to investigate 
the sighting, and it was discovered that dozens of people in the area 
had seen strange saucerlikc craft similar to the one reported by 
Pedley, most of them before his sighting. Davie found a total of five 
nests and published the following description: 
I saw clearings in the reeds where "they" took off, and it was as 
everyone described it. In a circle roughly thirty feet in diameter 
reeds had been cut and flattened in a clockwise direction. One of 
the nests is a floating platform of clotted roots and weeds, ap 
parently torn by tremendous force from the mud bottom beneath 
five feet of water. 

The second and third nests had been found, respectively, by Tom 
Warren, a cane farmer of Euramo, and Mr. Penning, a Tully 
schoolteacher. They were about twenty five yards from the first one, 
but hidden by dense scrub. In the third nest, which seemed quite 
recent, the reeds were flattened in a counterclockwise direction. All 
the reeds were dead, but they had not been scorched or burned. A 
patch of couch grass, about four feet square and three feet from the 
boundary of the first disk, had been clipped at water level, thereby 
adding a new clement of mystery. Altogether, the rings varied in 
diameter from eight to thirty feet. In all but the smallest, the reeds 
had been flattened in a clockwise direction. 

Needless to say, policemen collected samples for tests, scientists 
came with geiger counters, and the Royal Australian Air Force 
Intelligence people were all over the place. Rumors circulated 
blaming the Soviets for using the vast open spaces of Australia to 
develop scientific ideas one or two centuries ahead of those of flic 
Americans. Why the Soviets could not conduct their secret testing 
in the vast open spaces of Siberia was not disclosed. 
 
Neither was it revealed why the pilots of the super secret com 
munist weapon could not resist the temptation to buzz the tractor of 
a twenty seven year okl banana grower. 

Fortunately, there were several natural explanations for the sighting 
or the nests, although only one hypothesis accounted for both. The 
latter was suggested by a Sydney Sun Herald reader on January 30. 
He believed the "outer space" panic in Queensland was caused by a 
"tall shy bird with a blue body and red markings on the head." It was 
either a type of brolga or a blue heron, but the man did not know the 
correct scientific name. Many times, as he wandered barefooted 
through the bush, he said, he had seen the birds dancing, but they 
flew away at high speed before he could reach them. "They would 
resemble a vaporous blue cloud and would certainly make a whirring 
sound in flight." Unfortunately for this pretty and imaginative theory, 
it got no backing from the Australian Museum. Museum 
ornithologist 
H. J. Disney thought the brolgas could not make circular depres 
sions of symmetrical design. He was similarly skeptical about the 
"bald headed coot theory" advanced by another man, Gooloogong 
resident Ken Adams. "I've never heard of this habit by the bird," 
Disney said. 


Donald Hanlon, one of the best informed specialists in the 
field, has pointed out to me that another explanation for the nests 
has been proposed locally: they are the "playground of crocodiles 
in love." I fully share Hanlon's skepticism about this last explana
tion, because it could hardly apply to the nests found in Ohio, 
which will be discussed in a moment, or to the damaged wheat 
field in Montsorcau. A Queensland resident, Alex Bordujcnko, 
who knows about the crocodiles, claims that the reeds arc too 
thick in Horseshoe Lagoon for crocodiles to move through them. 
So here we are: dancing cranes are held responsible by some 
people for bending reeds that are so thick crocodiles, according 
to other people, cannot move through them. What caused the 
damage? Nobody knows. 
On his way home that Wednesday night, George Pedley decided he 
would tell no one about the "spaceship" in the swamp. He saw 
neither portholes nor antennae on the blue gray object, 

and no sign of life either inside or about it. Furthermore, he had 
always laughed at flying saucer stories. But then he met Albert 
Pennisi, the owner of Horseshoe Lagoon, and disclosed the sighting. 
He was very surprised when Pennisi believed him right away and 
told him he had been dreaming for a week that a flying saucer would 
land on his property. This last detail places the Queensland saucer 
nests in the best tradition of the fairy faith. 
The time: six months before the Queensland experience. The place: 
Delroy, Ohio. On June 28, 1965, a farmer, John Stavano, heard a 
series of explosions. Two days later, he discovered a curious 
formation on the ground. When analyzed, soil and wheat samples 
showed no evidence of explosive cause/1 Wheat plants seemed to 
have been sucked out of the ground, like the uprooted reeds in 
Queensland, or the uprooted grass in a French landing of 1954 in 
Poncey.

The Ohio incident was carefully investigated by A. Candusso and 
Larry Movers of the Flying Saucer Investigating Committee, 
accompanied by Gary Davis. They found the strange circular 
formation on Stavano's farm, which is situated on a high point. At 
the center of the ring was a circular depression about twenty eight 
inches in diameter. It was probed with a pinch bar, but only loose 
soil was found for a depth of nine inches. Much of the wheat had 
been removed, roots and all, and clods of soil a few inches long had 
been disturbed. The wheat was laid down like the spokes of a wheel; 
there was no swirling effect as in the Tully nests. 
If we turn from Australia and Ohio to England, we are faced with 
another incident: 
July 16, 1963 will long be remembered in the annals of British . 
Ufology. Something appeared to have landed on farmer Roy Blan 
chard's field at the Manor Farm, Charlton, Wiltshire. The marks on 
the ground were first discovered by a farmworker, Reg Alexander. 
They overlapped a potato field and a barley field. The marks com 
prised a saucer shaped depression or crater eight feet in diameter 
and about four inches in depth. In the center of this depression 
there was found a three feet deep hole variously described as from 
five inches to one foot in diameter. Radiating from the central hole 
were four slot marks, four feet long and one foot wide. The object 
 
must have landed—if land it did—unseen, but Mr. Leonard 
Joliffe, a dairyman on the farm, reported he heard "a blast one 
morning at approximately 6 A.M."
On July 23, the London Daily Express was to report that nearly two 
weeks earlier, on July 10, Police Constable Anthony Penny had seen 
an orange object flash through the sky and vanish near the Manor 
Farm field. On the basis of this limited information, it would seem 
quite plausible to think that the Charlton crater was caused by a 
meteorite. Indeed, when a small piece of metal was recovered from 
the hole at the center of the crater, British astronomer Patrick Moore 
went to the British Broadcasting Corporation and stated categorically 
that the crater had been caused by a "shrimp sized meteorite/' 
crashing down and turning itself into a very effective explosive. This 
ended the mystery as far as the scientific public was concerned. But 
the true facts of the matter, as they became known to a few scientists 
who pursued the matter further, and to the Army engineers who were 
in charge of the investigation, were altogether different. 
Farmer Roy Blanchard had sent for the police, who, in turn, had 
summoned the Army. Captain John Rodgers, chief of the Army 
bomb disposal unit, was the man who conducted most of the field 
investigations. His preliminary report indicated that there were no 
burn or scratch marks, no trace of an explosion. And while Captain 
Rodgers stated that he and his superiors were baffled, farmer Roy 
Blanchard mack further disclosures: 
There isn't a trace of the potatoes and barley which were growing 
where the crater is now. No stalks, no roots, no leaves. The thing 
was heavy enough to crush rocks and stones to powder? Yet it 
came down gently. We heard no crash and whatever power it uses 
produces no heat or noise. 
Then, on July 19, it was reported that Captain Rodgers had obtained 
permission to sink a shaft. The readings obtained were rather 
unusual. They indicated a metallic object of some size, deeply 
embedded. And it was further learned that "detectors behaved 
wildly," presumably because the metallic piece in question was 
highly magnetic. 
At this stage, it should be pointed out, the investigation was still 
open and aboveboard, possibly because the Army, rather 

than the British Air Ministry, was involved. And the Army Southern 
Command public relations officer at Salisbury told Girvan lli.it the 
object was recovered from the hole. It was sent to a British Museum 
expert and promptly identified as a piece of common ironstone, 
"which could be found buried all over Southcrn England." The 
British Museum suggested that it had been luiried in the ground for 
some time, thus eliminating the idea of ;i hoax. And Dr. F. 
Claringbull, Keeper of the Department of Mineralogy at the 
Museum, destroyed the meteorite explanation ;ind, according to the 
Yorkshire Post of July 27, stated: "There is more in this than meets 
the eye." The last word stayed with Southern Command, however, 
and it commented wisely: "The cause of the Phenomena is still 
unexplained but it is no part of I lie Army's task to unravel such 
mysteries." 

If we try to summarize what we have learned from these incidents—
the Tully nests, the Ohio ring, and the Charlton crater— we: can 
state the following:  public rumor associates sightings nf flying 
saucers with the discovery of circular depressions on the ground;  
when vegetation is present at the site, it exhibits the nction of a 
flattening force which produces cither a stationary pattern ("spokes 
of a wheel") or a rotating pattern (clockwise or counterclockwise); 
 some of the vegetation is usually removed, sometimes with the 
roots, leaves, etc.;  the effect of a very strong vertical force is 
often noticed, as evidenced by earth and plants scattered around the 
site;  strong magnetic activity has been found in one instance, 
where common ironstone was buried close to the center of the 
depression; and  a deep hole, a few inches in diameter, is often 
present at the center. 

Do I need to remind the reader of that celebrated habit of the fairies, 
to leave behind them strange rings in the fields and prairies? 
One Sunday in August, as he wandered over the hills of Howth, 
Wcntz met some local people with whom he discussed these old I 
ales. After he had had tea with the man and his daughter, they look 
him to a field close by to show him a "fairy ring," and while he 
stood in the ring, they told him: 
Yes, the fairies do exist, and this is where they have often been 
  
seen dancing. The grass never gets high in the lines of the ring, 
for it is only the shortest and finest kind that grows there. In the 
middle, fairy mushrooms grow in a circle, and the fairies use 
them to sit on [!]. They are very little people, and are very fond of 
dancing and singing. They wear green coats, and sometimes red 
caps and red coats. 

On November 12, 1968, the Argentine press reported that near 
Necochea, 310 miles south of Buenos Aires, a civilian pilot had re 
ported a strange pattern on the ground and investigated it with 
several military men. Walking to the spotT where a flying saucer 
was earlier alleged to have landed, they found a circle six yards in 
diameter where the earth was calcined. Inside this circle grew eight 
giant white mushrooms, one of them nearly three feet in diameter. In 
Santa Fe province, other extraordinary mushrooms have been 
discovered under similar circumstances. 
Another writer, reporting on Scandinavian legends, noted that elves 
are depicted there as beings with oversized heads, tiny legs, and 
long arms: 

They are responsible for the bright green circles, called elf dans, 
that one sees on the lawns. Even nowadays, when a Danish 
farmer comes across such a ring at dawn, he says that the elves 
have come there during the night to dance. 
It is amusing to note that attempts have been made, in the early days 
of Rationalism, to explain fairy rings as electrical phenomena, a 
consequence of atmospheric effects. P. Marranzino,for example, 
quotes a little couplet by Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of the 
English naturalist, written in 1789: 
So from the dark clouds the playful lightning 
springs, Rives the firm oak or prints the fairy rings. 
And according to Erasmus Darwin: 
There is a phenomenon, supposed to be electric, which is not yet 
accounted for; I mean the fairy rings, as they are called, so often 
seen on the grass. 

At times larger parts or prominences of clouds gradually sinking 
as they move along are discharged on the moister parts of the 
grassy plains. Now this knob or corner of a cloud in being 
attracted to the Earth will become nearly cylindrical, as loose 
wool would do when drawn out into a thread, and will strike the 
earth with a stream 

of electricity perhaps two to ten yards in diameter. Just the 
external part of the cylinder burns the grass. 
The formulation of this idea in terms of modern plasma physics will 
no doubt soon be provided by eager scholars. They would do well, 
however, to note the diameter of the cylinder mentioned by the elder 
Darwin: "two to ten yards"—the diameter of the average flying 
saucer. 



ANGELS OR DEVILS? 
We have already noted several instances connecting unknown beings 
with the theft of agricultural products. Lavender plants, grapes, or 
potatoes seem to have been taken away with equal dexterity by the 
mysterious little men. In story after story, from North and South 
America and from Europe, the creatures are seen ;ilighting from 
their shiny craft, picking up plants, and taking off again before 
amazed witnesses. Such behavior is well designed to make the 
investigators of such stories assume that the visitors are gathering 
samples with all the care and precision of seasoned exobiologists. 
Are we not, after all, designing robots that will accomplish the 
preliminary analysis of the Martian flora when the first rockets reach 
that planet? In a few cases, the visitors even take the time to 
interview the witnesses at length concerning agricultural techniques! 
Such was the case in a landing that, curiously enough, took place in 
Tioga City, New York, on the very day of the Socorro landing, about 
ten hours before Officer Zamora observed the egg shaped, shiny 
object so familiar to us now. 

Gary T. Wilcox, a dairy farmer, was spreading fertilizer in his field. 
Some time before 10:00 A.M., he stopped to check a field 
surrounded by woods, about a mile away from his barn. He wanted 
to see whether ground conditions would allow plowing. As he 
approached the field, however, he saw a shiny object, which lie first 
took to be a discarded refrigerator, then a wing tank or sonic other 
aircraft part. When he drew closer, he realized that the object was 
egg shaped and about twenty by sixteen feet, had the appearance of 
durable metal, and did not look like anything he had ever seen 
before. 
 
He touched it. It was not hot. 
He observed no door or hatch of any kind. And yet two humanlike 
creatures suddenly appeared. They were about four feet tall and 
wore seamless clothing, with headdress and a full face hood, which 
did not allow Wilcox to observe any facial features. They appeared 
to have arms and legs. They talked to him "in smooth English/' but 
their voices did not come from their heads, as far as Wilcox could 
tell, but from their bodies. 

"Do not be alarmed, we have talked to people before. We are from 
what you people refer to as Planet Mars," they said. 
In spite of Gary's conviction that "someone must be playing a gag 
on me," the strange conversation continued. The two beings were 
interested in fertilizers and expressed considerable interest in their 
use. They stated that they grew food on Mars, but that changes in 
the environment were creating problems they hoped to solve by 
obtaining information about our agricultural techniques. Their 
questions were quite childish, and they appeared to have no 
knowledge of the subject whatever. Each one carried a tray filled 
with soil. 

"When they talked about space or the ship, I had difficulty 
in understanding their explanations. They said they could only 
travel to this planet every two years and they arc presently using 
the Western Hemisphere," Wilcox reported. 
They explained that they landed only during daylight hours, 
"because their ship is less readily visible in daylight," and they 
said they were surprised that Wilcox had seen their craft. They 
also volunteered information about space travel. Our astronauts 
would not be successful, they said, because their bodies would not 
adapt to space conditions. Finally, they requested a bag of fertil
izer but, as Gary Wilcox walked away to get it, the craft took off, 
disappearing from sight in very few seconds. The witness left a 
bag of fertilizer at the place; the next day it was gone.
A list, even incomplete, of similar cases would rapidly induce 
tedium. In most of the South American landings, entities have 
been described walking away with soil samples, plants, even boul
ders. Everything in their behavior seems designed to make us believe in the outer space origin of these strange beings and their 
craft. And, indeed, such incidents have greatly influenced the researchers who have "independently" concluded that the UFO's are 
space probes sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. 
On November 1, 1954, Mrs. Rosa Lotti Dainclli, forty years old, was 
going to the cemetery at Poggio d'Ambra, Bucine, near Arezzo, 
Italy. A devout Italian woman, she was carrying a pot containing 
flowers. Her mind at that moment must have been very far indeed 
from science fiction speculation, and yet what happended to her in 
the next minute constitutes perhaps the slnmgest of the entire wave 
of 1954 incidents. 
As Mrs. Lotti Dainelli walked past an open grassy space, she saw a 
vertical, torpedo shaped machine with pointed edges: a machine, in 
other words, shaped like two cones with common hases. In the lower 
cone was an opening through which two small scats were visible. 
The craft looked metallic. It did not resemble anything the witness 
had seen before. 
From behind the object, two beings appeared. They were three ;md a 
half to four feet tall. They looked joyful. Their smiles displayed 
white and very thin teeth. They were wearing gray coveralls and 
reddish leather helmets similar to those used by military drivers. 
They had what seemed to be a "convexity" at the center <>f their 
foreheads. Speaking an incomprehensible language, the two closed 
in on the woman, and one of them took away from her Hie pot 
containing the flowers. 
Mrs. Lotti Dainelli now tried to get her property back, but the two 
beings ignored her and returned to their craft. The witness slarted to 
scream and run away. But she returned to the spot with other 
witnesses, including policemen. Too late. Not a trace of the object 
was left. But it seems that other people saw the craft in flight, 
leaving a red and blue trail. 
These stories would be "amazing" and nothing more if it were not 
for one fact known to students of folklore: a constant feature of one 
class of legends involving supernatural creatures is that the beings 
come to our world to steal our products, our animals, and even—as 
we shall see in a later chapter—human beings. But for I he moment, 
let us concern ourselves only with the "samplegathering" behavior 
of these beings and their requests for terrestrial products. 
In an Algonquin legend embodying all the characteristics of an 
 
excellent saucer story, a hunter beholds a basket that comes down 
from heaven. The basket contains twelve young maidens of ravishing 
beauty. The man attempts to approach them, but the celestial 
creatures quickly reenter the "basket/' which ascends rapidly out of 
sight. However, witnessing the descent of the strange object on 
another day, the same hunter uses a trick to come close to it and 
succeeds in capturing one of the girls, whom he marries and by 
whom he has a son. Nothing, unfortunately, can console his wife for 
loss of the society of her sisters, who have gone away with the flying 
vehicle. So, one day she makes a small basket, and, according to 
Hartland, 
having entered it with her child she sang the charm she and her 
sisters had formerly used, and ascended once more to the star 
from whence she had come. 

She had been back in that heavenly country two years when she was 
told: Thy son wants to see his father; go down therefore, to the earth 
and fetch thy husband, and tell him to bring us specimens of all the animals 
he kills. 
She did so. And the hunter ascended with his wife, saw his son, and 
attended a great feast, at which the animals he had brought were 
served. 
The Algonquin story offers a complex mixture of themes. Some of 
them are present in modern day UFO stories; others derive from 
traditional concepts, such as the exchange of food, which we have 
already discussed. The new elements are:  the desire expressed by 
the celestial beings to receive specimens of all the animals the hunter 
kills, and  the idea that intermarriage between the terrestrial and 
the aerial laces is possible. This latter aspect will be examined 
separately in Chapter Four. 
So far, we have seen our visitors stealing plants and requesting 
various items. But have they actually killed animals themselves? 
Have they taken away cattle? If we are to believe the stories told by 
many witnesses, they have. But the interesting fact is that, here 
again, we find a trait common to both the ufonauts and the Good 
People. On page 53 I shall have occasion to quote, in another 
context, a story describing a crowd of fairies chasing a deer on 
THE GOOD PEOPLE 
the island of Aramore. The storyteller added that, at another time, 
"similar little people chased a horse." And in the same conversation 
with Walter Wcntz, recorded before 1909, the storyteller, "Old 
Patsy," told the following story about a man "who, if still alive, is 
now in America where he went several years ago": 
In the South Island as night was coming on, a man was giving his 
cow water at a well, and, as he looked on the other side of a wall, 
he saw many strange people playing hurley. When they noticed 
him looking at them, one came up and struck the cow a hard blow, 
and turning on the man cut his face and body very badly. The man 
might not have been so badly off, but he returned to the well after 
the first encounter and got four times as bad a beating. 
On November 6, 1957, twelve year old Everett Clark, of Dante, 
Tennessee, opened the door to let his dog, Frisky, out. As he did so, 
he saw a peculiar object in a field a hundred yards or so from the 
house. He thought he was dreaming and went back inside. When he 
called the dog twenty minutes later, he found the object was still 
there, and Frisky was standing near it, along with several dogs from 
the neighborhood. Also near the object were two men and two 
women in ordinary clothing. One of the men made several attempts 
to catch Frisky, and later another dog, but had to give up for fear of 
being bitten. Everett saw the strange people, who talked between 
them "like German soldiers he had seen in movies," walk right into 
the wall of the object, which then took off straight up without sound. 
It was oblong and of "no particular color."" 
In another of the extraordinary coincidences with which UFO 
researchers are now becoming familiar, on the same day another 
attempt to steal a dog was made, this time in Everittstown, New 
Jersey. 
While the Clark case had taken place at 6:30 A.M., it was at dusk 
that John Trasco went outside to feed his dog and saw a brilliant egg 
shaped object hovering in front of his barn. In his path he found a 
being three feet tall "with putty colored face and large frog like 
eyes," who said in broken English: "We are peaceful people, we only 
want your dog." 

The strange being was told in no uncertain terms to go back where 
he belonged. He ran away, and his machine was seen to take off 
straight up some moments later. Mrs. Trasco is said to have 
observed the object itself from the house, but not the entity. She is 
also quoted as saying that when her husband tried to grab the 
creature, he got some green powder on his wrist, but that it washed 
off. The next day he noticed the same powder under his fingernails. 
The ufonaut had been dressed in a green suit with shiny buttons, a 
green tanvo shanter like cap, and gloves with a shiny object at the 
tip of each, according to Coral Lorcezen.
  
We have already explored several aspects of the behavior attributed, 
in modern and ancient folklore, to supernatural beings. Whether the 
creatures come down in flying saucers or musical baskets, whether 
they come out of the sea or the rock, is irrelevant. What is relevant is 
what they say and do: the trace that they leave in the human witness 
who is the only tangible vehicle of the story. This behavior presents 
us with a sample of situations and human reactions that trigger our 
interest, our concern, our laughter. Joe Simonton's pancake story is 
cute; the tales of fairy food aTe intriguing but difficult to trace; the 
rings and the nests are real, but the feeling they inspire is more 
romantic than scientific. Then theTC is the strange beings' peculiarly 
insistent desire to get hold of terrestrial objects: flora and fauna. The 
stories quoted in this connection verge on the ludicrous. But to 
pursue the investigation further leads to horror. This is a facet of the 
phenomenon we can no longer ignore. 



THE HAUNTED LAND 
If human reactions to the vision of a UFO are varied, the opposite 
holds true for animals: their reaction is unmistakably one of terror. 
To the well known question that figures in almost every UFO 
questionnaire, "How was your attention called to the object?", one 
frequently finds the answer: "My dogs seemed terrified." "There was 
a commotion among the cattle." "All the dogs in the neighborhood 
started acting madly." Enough material already exists, in 
documented cases of animal reaction to close exposure to a UFO, for 
an outstanding dissertation on animal psychology. 



THE GOOD PEOPLE. 
On December 30, 1966, an American nuclear physicist was driving 
south with his family along a Louisiana road. The weather was 
overcast, and it was raining. The time was 8:15 P.M. The witness, 
who is a professor of physics and does nuclear research, and who, as 
a result, is a very well qualified witness, had reached a point north of 
Hayncsville when he noticed a pulsating dome of light resembling 
the "glow of a city." Its color went from a dim reddish light to a 
bright orange. At one point, its luminosity rose so much that it 
became brighter than the car headlights. So intense was the white 

illumination that the two children who were sleeping in the back 
woke up and, with the physicist's wife, observed what followed. 
The light was emitted by a source that was stationary and below the 
treetops—at, or close to, ground level—some distance into the 
forest. Concern for his family's safety made the witness drive away. 
But he did make a quick estimate of the amount of energy 
represented by the light, and it turned out to be i fairly impressive 
source of radiation—impressive enough to make him return to the 
location the next day, bearing a scintillometer with him. lie 
determined the probable position of the object, which had been 
about one mile (plus or minus 0.2 mile) from his car at the closest 
point. Then he made some inquiries in the area. 
The investigations had two results. First, while walking in the forest, 
he noticed that for some distance around the spot where the source 
of light had been, animal life had simply vanished. There were no 
squirrels, no birds, even no insects—and as a hunter, he was quite 
familiar with the Louisiana fauna. Second, he gathered several 
reports by local people who had seen the light and claims by farmers 
that important loss of cattle had occurred in the same period. 
Until I heard the physicist's testimony, I had never given much 
credence to reports of stolen cattle. Cows and horses did run away 
sometimes, or were stolen, and the likelihood that a farmer would 
try to place the blame on some supernatural agency remains very 
high even in the twentieth century. 


There is, however, a precedent, which cannot be ignored: the I .eroy, 
Kansas, case where a cow was stolen by the pilots of a living object. 
If that report were dated from 1966, perhaps it could be ignored, lini 
it was recorded and sworn before witnesses  
on April 21, 1897, by one of the most prominent citizens in Kansas, 
Alexander Hamilton. In an affidavit quoted in several recent UFO 
books and journals, Hamilton states that he was awakened by a noise 
among the cattle and went out with two other men. He then saw an 
airship descend gently toward the ground and hover within fifty 
yards of it. 


It consisted of a great cigar shaped portion, possibly three hun 
dred feet long, with a carriage underneath. The carriage was made 
of glass or some other transparent substance alternating with a 
narrow strip of some material. It was brilliantly lighted within and 
everything was plainly visible—it was occupied by six of the 
strangest beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we 
could not understand a word they said. Upon seeing the witnesses, 
the pilots of the strange ship turned 
on some unknown power, and the ship rose about three hundred feet 
above them: 
It seemed to pause and hover directly over a two year old heifer, 
which was bawling and jumping, apparently fast in the fence. 
Going to her, we found a cable about a half inch in thickness 
made of some red material, fastened in a slip knot around her 
neck, one end passing up to the vessel, and the heifer tangled in 
the wire fence. We tried to get it off but could not, so we cut the 
wire loose and stood in amazement to see the ship, heifer and all, 
rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest. Hamilton was so 
frightened he could not sleep that night: 
Rising early Tuesday, I started out by horse, hoping to find some 
trace of my cow. This I failed to do, but coming back in the 
evening found that Link Thomas, about three or four miles west 
of Leroy, had found the hide, legs and head in his field that day. 
He, thinking someone had butchered a stolen beast, had brought 
the hide to town for identification, but was greatly mystified in 
not being able to find any tracks in the soft ground. After 
identifying the hide by my brand, I went home. But every time I 
would drop to sleep I would see the cursed thing, with its big 
lights and hideous people. I don't know whether they are devils or 
angels, or what; but we all saw them, and my whole family saw 
the ship, and I don't want any more to do with them. 
One more case, and the circle will be closed. And it will serve to 
take a case that has been widely reported and discussed among 

UFO students though it has passed practically unnoticed in the 
national press. 


A horse named Snippy, missing for two days, was found on 
September 15, 1967, six miles from the main highway near the Great 
Sand Dunes National Monument, in Colorado. No flesh remained on 
the head, neck and shoulders, the hide was peeled back to expose the 
skull, and the vital organs were gone, according to Snippy's owner, 
Mrs. Berle Lewis, and her brother, Harry King. When they went to 
the site, they also observed what seemed to be fifteen circular 
exhaust marks covering an area about one hundred by fifty yards. A 
chico bush had been flattened, and close to it there were six identical 
holes, two inches wide and four inches deep. 
As the horse lay about a quarter of a mile from a cabin owned by an 
eighty seven year old lady, Mrs. Lewis and King went to interview 
her, and she said that she had seen a large object pass over her home 
at rooftop level on the day Snippy was last seen. She added that, 
without her glasses, she had been unable to determine what the 
object was. 

Alamosa County Sheriff Ben Phillips declined to visit the site, 
stating the horse must have been killed by lightning. A pathologist 
who did go to the site, however, said that "this horse was definitely 
not hit by lightning." A Forestry official who checked the area with a 
gcigcr counter found high readings in the vicinity of the burns, but 
lower readings as he went away from them, toward the horse. 
The reactions to the report and its sequels have been fairly typical. 
The University of Colorado, where Dr. Condon was conducting a 
$500,000 study of UFO's for the U.S. Air Force, sent someone to 
take a look at what was left of Snippy, who had been dead for a 
month. "I find nothing unusual about the death of the horse," he said. 
In Ray Palmer's magazine, Flying Saucers, an American ufologist 
asked in anger: 
He finds nothing unusual? Perhaps the razor sharp, clean incision 
around the horse's neck was the work of a mountain lion? The huge, 
circular indentation and several smaller ones—was that a mon
  
strously fat fine bird, with babies, all suffering with radiation 
sickness? And—four legs?

And the newsletter published by the UFO Investigating Committee 
in Sydney, Australia, drew a most interesting parallel between the 
Snippy case and a more recent report from Canada. 
Terry Goodmurphy of North Livingstone, Ontario, age twenty, and 
his friend Steven Griffon, nineteen, were driving west on Highway 
17 about 9:30 P.M. on November 5, 1967, two months after Snippy's 
death. As they neared the top of Maple Ridge Hill, they saw an 
orange glow in the sky and thought it was caused by a fire. They 
stopped to watch and saw it was moving. They drove on again for 
about three quarters of a mile and then saw the object more clearly 
as it appeared to maneuver at an altitude of about one hundred feet. 
The two boys became frightened, turned around, and notified the 
Ontario Provincial Police. Nothing was to be seen when the police 

investigated. However, that same evening, something happened at 
the Lome Wolgenuth farm in nearby Sowbcry, for on the following 
morning when a standardbred mare, Susie, and another horse usually 
came in from a pasture, only the second horse came to the barn, and 
a long cut was noticed on his neck. Susie was not there. It was only 
after several hours of searching that her owners found her, lying dead 
with her throat and jugular vein cut. 

Perhaps I have now succeeded in evoking in the reader's mind a new 
awareness: the suggestion of a possible parallel between the rumors 
of today and the beliefs that were held by our ancestors, beliefs of 
stupendous fights with mysterious supermen, of rings where magic 
lingered, of dwarfish races haunting the land. Purposely, in this 
second chapter, I have limited the argument to the mere 
juxtaposition of modern and older beliefs. The faint suspicion of a 
giant mystery, much larger than our current preoccupation with life 
on other planets, much deeper than housewives' reports of 
zigzagging lights: Perhaps we can resolve the point by trying to 
understand what these tales, these myths, these legends arc doing to 
us. What images are they designed to convey? What hidden needs 
are they fulfilling? If this is a fabrication, why should it be so 
absurd? Are there precedents in history? Could imagination be a 
stronger force, to shape the 

actions of men, than its expression in dogmas, in political structures, 
in established churches, in armies? If so, could this force be used? Is 
it being used? Is there a science of deception at work here on a grand 
scale, or could the human mind generate its own phantoms, in a 
formidable, collective edification of worldwide mythologies? Is a 
natural force at work here? 
"Man's imagination, like every known power, works by fixed laws." 
These words by Hartland, written in 1891, offer a clue. Yes, there is 
a deep undercurrent to be discovered and mapped behind these 
seemingly absurd stories. Emerging sections of the underlying 
pattern have been discovered and mapped in ages past, by long dead 
scholars. Today we have the unique opportunity to witness the 
reappearance of this current, out in the open —colored, naturally, 
with our new human biases, our preoccupation with "science," our 
longing for the promised land of other planets. 
A new mythology was needed to bridge the stupendous gap beyond 
the meaningless present. They provided it. But who are they? Real 
beings, or the ghosts of our own ridiculous, petty dreams? They 
spoke to us, "in smooth English." They did not speak to our 
scientists; they did not send sophisticated signals in uniquely 
decipherable codes, as alien beings arc supposed to do, if they read 
Walter Sullivan, as any alien being should before daring to penetrate 
our solar system. No, they picked Gary Wilcox instead. And Joe 
Simonton. And Maurice Masse. What did they say? That they were 
from Mars. That they were our neighbors. And, above all, that they 
were superior to us, that we must obey them. That they were good. 
Go to Valensole and ask Masse. He will tell you, perhaps, how 
puzzled he was when suddenly, without warning, he felt inside 
himself a warm, comforting feeling— how good they were, our good 
neighbors. The Good People. They took a great interest in the affairs 
of men, and they always "stood for justice and right." They could 
appear in different forms. 
With them Joe Simonton exchanged food. So in times gone by, did 
Irishmen, who talked to similar beings. In those days, too, they were 
called the Good People and, in Scotland, the Good Neighbors, the 
Sleagh Maith. What did they say, then? 
"We are far superior to you." "We could cut off half the human 
race." 
50  
It does all make sense. These were the facts we have missed, without 
which we could never piece the UFO jigsaw together. Priests and 
scholars left books about the legends of their time concerning these 
beings. These books had to be found, collected, and studied. They 
contained no solutions, only elements of great puzzlement. But this 
puzzlement was documented. Together, these stories presented a 
coherent picture of the appearance, the organization, and the methods 
of our strange visitors. The appearance was—docs this surprise 
you?—exactly that of today's UFO pilots. The methods were the 
same. There was the sudden vision of brilliant "houses" at night, 
houses that could often fly, that contained peculiar lamps, radiant 
lights that needed no fuel. The creatures could paralyze their 
witnesses and translate them through time. They hunted animals and 
took away people. Their organization had a name: the Secret 
Commonwealth. 

In The Magic Casement, a book edited by Alfred Noyes about 
1910,1 find this little poem by William Allingham, which I would 
like all ufologists to learn as a tribute to Joe Simonton: 
Up the airy mountains, 
Down the rushy glen, We 
daren't go a hunting For 
fear of little men; Wee 
folk, good folk, Trooping 
all together; Green 
jacket, red cap, And 
white owl's feather! 
Down along the rocky shore 
Some make their home, 
They live on crispy pancakes Of 
yellow tide foam; Some in the 
reeds Of the black mountain 
lake, With frogs for their watch 
dogs, All night awake. 







CHAPTER THREE. 


To know human life one must go deep beneath 
its sunny exterior; and to know that summer 
sea which is the Fairy Faith one must put on a 
suit of armour and dive beneath its waves and 
behold the rare corals and moving sea palms 
and all the brilliant creatures who moVe in 
and out among those corals and sea palms, 
and the horrible and awful creatures too, 
creatures which would devour the man were 
his armour not of steel—for they all mingle 
together in the depths of that sea , hidden 
from our view as we sail over the surface of its 
sun lit waters only. 

Walter Wcntz, The Fairy Faith in 
Celtic Countries.


THE TELETYPE message arrived in Dayton, Ohio, on September 9, 
1966, through military channels. The full text, about four pages 
long, was quite unintelligible without knowledge of the Air Force 
procedure for the transmission of UFO reports (the message is 
shortened by reference to known, standardized questions that are 
never repeated in the text itself; with the help of the standard 
questionnaire, however, it is generally possible to find out what the 
sender is trying to describe). 

This particular message had originated at Kelly Air Force Base, 
Texas, and was addressed to the Air Force Systems Command, 
Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, and the Secretary. It bore the headline 
UNCLASSIFIED ROUTINE and the title UFO REPORT IS 
SUBMITTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AFR. 

Kelly Air Force Base was sending something very close to a 
ghost story. The report made reference to two separate incidents, 
occurring, respectively, on August 6 and September 3, 1966, in a 
small Texas town. The author of the report is a father of four 
children. We shall call him Robert. His house is located in a fairly 
isolated spot, and he has never discussed the incidents with his 
neighbors. 
On August. 6, the three youngest children (ages six to nine) noticed a 
dark object shaped like an upside down cup. Although it was 
afternoon, the children had not seen the object arrive. It was dark, 
"without color and without lights." Then a square yellow light 
appeared, like a door opening, and a small creature was seen in the 
square of light. The entity, three to four feet tall, was dressed in 
black clothing, which reflected a yellow or gold color. The 
observation lasted several minutes, then the door closed. A low 
humming sound became audible, and the object took off toward the 
northeast, rising sharply but at an unexceptional speed. (These 
details, naturally, were not given spontaneously by the children; the 
story was reconstituted during the investigation.) At no time did the 
object touch the ground: it hovered at a height of about fifteen feet, 
near a tree, which was found undamaged, about thirty five feet from 
the house. 


The second sighting took place on September 3. Most of the family 
had gone away, but the oldest daughter had remained in the house 
with a friend. They were watching television in the afternoon when 
the set "snowed," then went out. The house was lit up with eerie red 
and yellow light, which appeared to be circling or twirling. They 
looked outside and saw an object hovering in the same position, by 
the same tree, as in the first sighting. Its shape, again, was that of an 
upside down cup, with a flat disk beneath, like a saucer. It was 
covered with light and departed shortly afterward. No sign of life 
was apparent inside or outside the craft. 

Two days later, Robert was propped up in bed. Through his door 
and across the hall he could sec a dark doorway leading to his sons' 
bedroom. All of a sudden he saw a small person, three and a half to 
four feet tall, dressed in tight fitting clothes, enter the dark bedroom. 
He assumed it was his small daughter going in to talk to her mother 
who was in the room with his sons 

About ten minutes later he saw something like a "bar of light," 
which appeared to crumble. He got up and went to the room, where 
he found his wife and the boys, who had also seen the bar of light. 
He did not see the person in white leave, and his wife stated their 
daughter had not been in the room at any time. There was no 
physical evidence to substantiate the presence of the small person in 
the house. 

"THE ROCKS WERE FULL OF THEM". 
On the island of Aramorc, a man named "Old Patsy," whom we met 
in Chapter Two, told Walter Wentz a "true story about the fairies": 
Twenty years or so ago around the Bedd of Dermot and Grania, 
just above us on the hill, there were seen many fairies, crowds of 
them and a single deer. They began to chase the deer, and 
followed it right across the island. At another time similar little 
people chased a horse. The rocks were full of them, and they were 
small fellows, 
Another person told Wentz: 
My mother used to tell about seeing the "fair folk" dancing in the 
fields near Cardigan; and other people have seen them around the 
cromlech up there on the hill. They appeared as little children in 
clothes like soldiers' clothes and with red caps, according to some 
accounts. 


While Wentz was recording material in Ireland, he went to Ratra 
with Dr. Hyde, and they were told this story about a "leprechaun": 
One day I was gathering berries along a hedge not far from here 
and something made me turn over a flat stone which I saw in the 
ditch where I stood. And there beneath the stone was the most 
beautiful little creature I have ever seen in my life, and he in a 
hole as smug as could be. He wasn't much larger than a doll and 
he was most perfectly formed with a little mouth and eyes. I 
turned the stone over again and ran as hard as I could to bring my 
mother, but when we got back we couldn't sec a thing of him. 
Now, since we arc getting to the central idea of this book, I will 
quote two more stories, both of them "landing" reports from (he 
richest period, in terms of number of landings reported, autumn, 
1954, in UKO history. Both stories come from France.
 
The first case took place on October 9. Four children living in 
Pournoy la Chetive, Moselle, reported that at about 6:30 P.M., as 
they were roller skating, they suddenly saw something luminous 
near the cemetery: 
It was a round machine, about 2.5 meters in diameter, which was 
standing on three legs. Soon a man came out. He was holding a 
lighted flashlight in his hand and it blinded us. But we could see 
that he had large eyes, a face covered with hair and that he was 
very small, about four feet tall. lie was dressed in a sort of black 
sack like the cassock M. le Cure wears. He looked at us and said 
something we did not understand. He turned off the flashlight. We 
became afraid and ran away. When we looked back we saw 
something in the sky: it was very high, very bright and flew fast. 
The second case is a classic one. It happened on Sunday, September 
26, in Chabcuil, Drome. At about 2:30 P.M., Mrs. Leboeuf was 
gathering blackberries along a hedge—yes, it is almost the exact 
duplication of the leprechaun story—when: 
the dog began to bark and then started howling miserably. She 
looked around and saw the little animal standing at the edge of a 
wheat field, in front of something that she thought at first was a 
scarecrow. But going closer, she saw that the "scarecrow" was 
some kind of small diving suit, made of translucent plastic 
material, three feet tall or a little taller, with a head that was also 
translucent—and suddenly she realized that inside the diving suit 
was a Thing, and that behind the blurred transparency of the 
"helmet" two eyes were looking at her; at least she had the 
impression of eyes, but they seemed larger than human eyes. As 
she realized this, the diving suit began to move toward her, with a 
kind of quick, waddling gait.

At this point, Mrs. Leboeuf fled in terror and hid in a nearby thicket. 
When she tried to locate the entity, there was nothing to be seen, but 
all the dogs in the village were furiously barking. All of a sudden, a 
large metallic, circular object rose from behind some trees and took 
off toward the northeast. People who had heard the witness's cries 
soon gathered around her. At the site where the disk had been seen 
to rise, a circle was found, about ten feet in diameter, where shrubs 
and bushes had been crushed: 
From one of the acacia trees at the edge of this circular imprint 
hung down a branch more than three inches thick, broken by pres 
sure from above. The branch of another acacia, which hung over 
the circular mark eight and a half feet above the ground, was 
entirely stripped of its leaves. The first few yards of wheat, in the 
path of the object as it took off through the field, were flattened out in radi 
ating lines. 


I hardly need underline the similarity between the depression left by 
this object and the various kinds of rings or nests we have already 
studied. 
Let us now return to the pans, the dwarfish race that accompanies the 
korrigans, the fairies of Brittany. They are seen only at twilight or at 
night. Some carry a torch like a Welsh death candle. They have 
swords no bigger than pins. According to Villemarque, a careful 
distinction should be drawn between korrigans and dwarfs. The latter 
are a hideous race of beings with dark or even black hairy bodies, 
with voices like old men and little sparkling black eyes. 
A man who wrote to me after reading Anatomy of a Phenomenon 
pointed out that although be was unconvinced about the existence of 
the unidentified flying objects, he had discovered something he 
thought might be of interest to me. And he continued thus: 
I have spent several years doing research on the Cherokee Indian, 
which is a branch of the Iroquian tribe. When the Cherokees mi 
grated into the hills of Tennessee they came upon a strange race 
of "moon eyed" people who could not see in the daylight. The 
Cherokees being unable to understand "these wretches" expelled 
Them.


Barton in 1797 states "these people were a strange white race, far 
advanced, living in houses," etc. Hcywood, 26 years later, 
states— the invading Cherokees found white people near the head 
of Little Tennessee with forts extending down as far as the 
Chicamauga creek. He gives the location of three of these forts. 
Confirmation of my correspondent's report is found in the excellent 
book Mound Builders of Ancient America—the Archaeology of a 
Myth, where Robert Silverberg quotes Barton's New Views of the 
Origins of the Tribes and Nations of America 
(published in Philadelphia in 1798 and dedicated to Thomas 
Jefferson): 
The Cherokee tell us that when they first arrived in the country 
which they inhabit, they found it possessed by certain "moon eyed 
people" who could not seG in the daytime. These wretches were 
expelled. 

Silverberg adds that Barton "left the clear implication that 
 these albino people were responsible for the Tennessee mounds." 
Let us come to the point now. It would be nice to hold on to the 
common belief that the UFO's are craft from a superior space 
civilization, because this is a hypothesis science fiction has made 
widely acceptable, and because we are not altogether unprepared, 
scientifically and even, perhaps, militarily, to deal with such visitors. 
Unfortunately, however, the theory that flying saucers are material 
objects from outer space manned by a race originating on some other 
planet is not a complete answer. However strong the current belief in 
saucers from space, it cannot be stronger than the Celtic faith in the 
elves and the fairies, or the medieval belief in tutins, or the fear 
throughout the Christian lands, in the first centuries of our era, of 
demons and satyrs and fauns. Certainly, it cannot be stronger than 
the faith that inspired the writers of the Bible—a faith rooted in daily 
experiences with angelic visitation. 

In short, by suggesting that modern UFO sightings might be the 
result of experiments—of a "scientific" or even "super scientific" 
nature—conducted by a race of space travelers, we may be the 
victims of our ignorance, an ignorance that finds its cause in the fact 
that idiots and pedants alike, through a common reaction that 
psychologists could perhaps explain if they were not its first victims, 
have covered the fairy faith with the same ridicule as other idiots 
and pedants cover the UFO phenomenon. The realization that 
rumors of the real meaning of the UFO phenomenon set in motion 
the deepest and most powerful mental mechanisms makes 
acceptance of such facts very difficult, especially since the facts 
ignore frontiers, creeds, and races, defy rational statement, and turn 
around the most logical predictions as if they were mere toys. 
It is difficult to come to grips with the UFO phenomenon; for, 
although it clearly evolves through phases, its effects are diffuse and 
it cannot be dated very precisely. We have to rely on legends, 
hearsay, and extrapolations. Much can be accomplished, however, 
once it is realized that the observational material on hand since 
World War II—the twenty thousand or so clear cut, dated reports of 
UFO's in official and private files—is nothing but a resurgence of a 
deep stream in human culture known in older times under various 
other names. 

Wentz, as we have seen, found several people in Celtic countries 
who had seen the Gentry or had known people who were taken by 
fairies. In Brittany, he had much greater difficulty: 
The general belief in the interior of Brittany is that the fees once 
existed, but that they disappeared as their country was changed by 
modern conditions. In the region of the Mcne and of Erce (Ille et 
Vilaine) it is said that for more than a century there have been no 
fees and on the sea coast where it is firmly believed that the fees 
used to inhabit certain grottoes in the cliffs, the opinion is that 
they disappeared at the beginning of the last century. The oldest 
Bretons say that their parents or grand parents often spoke about 
having seen fees, but very rarely do they say that they themselves 
have seen fees. 

M. Paul Sebillot found only two who had. One was an old needle 
woman of Saint Cast, who had such fear of fees that if she was on 
her way to do some sewing in the country and it was night she 
always took a long circuitous route to avoid passing near a field 
known as the Couvent des Fees, The other was Marie Chehu, a 
woman 88 years old.* 

The central question in the analysis of the UFO phenomenon has always been that of the controlling intelligence behind the objects' 
apparently purposeful behavior. In stating the problem in such terms, 
I am not assuming that the objects are real—contrary to the 
implications someone might draw if he read this book too fast. Yet in 
no way am I excluding the possibility that this controlling 
intelligence is human, and I shall elaborate on this idea in later 
chapters. For the time being, let me simply state again my basic 
contention: the modern, global belief in flying saucers and their 
occupants is identical to an earlier belief in the fairy faith. The 
entities described as the pilots of the craft arc indistinguishable from 
the elves, sylphs, and lutins of the Middle Ages. Through the 
observations of unidentified flying objects, we arc concerned with an 
agency our ancestors knew well and regarded with terror: we are 
prying into the affairs of the Secret Commonwealth. 

* In undertaking research into beliefs in fairies, Gentry—call them what 
you will—confusion arises from the great variety of names and classifica 
tions given the different races of beings. In Lower Brittany alone, Paul 
Sebillot has found and classified fifty different names given to lutins and 
korrigans, while latins themselves are the same as the elvish people: pixies 
in Cornwall, robin good fellows in England, gohlim in Wales, goublins in 
Norimmrfv, and brownies in Scotland. 
 
Can we establish with certainty that the two beliefs are indeed 
identical? I believe we can. In earlier chapters, I have already given 
several examples of the means of transportation used by the sylphs. 
The ability of the fairies to cross the continents cannot have escaped 
the reader's attention. In later chapters, I have several rather striking 
tales to tell about Indian beliefs in flying races and the aerial ships 
used by the Gentry taking part in medieval wars. But I have not yet 
drawn from popular folklore the stories that support most directly the 
idea that strange flying objects have been seen throughout history in 
connection with the Little People. But let us clear up this point now. 


AERIAL RACES: FARFADETS AND SLEAGH MAITH. 
As late as 1850, one race of lutins survived in France, in the region 
of Poitou, which has been in recent years a favorite landing area for 
flying saucers. The lutins of Poitou were known as farfadets, and the 
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains several delightful accounts 
of their mischievous deeds. 

What were the main characteristics of the fadets or farfadets?4 They 
were little men, very black and hairy. All day long they lived in 
caves, and at night they liked to get close to the farms. Usually their 
favorite pastime was to play tricks on terrified women. Their 
dwellings were located with some precision. C. Puichaud, for 
instance, has reported in a lecture that farfadets lived for a long time 
at La Boulardierc near Troves, Deux Sevres, in underground tunnels 
they had dug themselves.5 At La Boissiere, the inhabitants describe 
the fadets as hairy dwarfs who played all sorts of pranks.* 
One night in the 1850's, near the shore of the Egray River, a group 
of women talked outside until about midnight. As they were 
returning to the village—they had just crossed a bridge— they heard 
a terrible noise and saw something that froze their 
* The verb "lutincr," which means "to behave like a lutin," has survived in 
the French language. It is used to describe childish pranks or harmless 
tricks played on the girls. Indeed, the fadets were known to bother pretty 
girls by pulling their hats, hiding their needles, etc. 1 would not claim that 
the lutins deserved all the credits for such actions. 

Some objects,which, for lack of a better term, they called a 
chariot with whining wheels—was speeding up the hill with a 
marvelous velocity. Naturally, it was pulled by the farfadets. The 
terrified women hung together as they saw the apparition. One of 
them, although half dead with fear, made the sign of the cross. The 
strange chariot leaped up over the vineyard and was lost in the night. 
The women hurried home and told the story to their husbands, who 

decided to investigate. They wisely awaited dawn, however, and 
then bravely went to the spot as soon as the sun was up. Of course, 
there was nothing left to be seen. 
We have already been told of the traveling habits of the Good 
People. What has not yet been mentioned is the belief, especially in 
Ireland, that conditions among humans arc related to the travels of 
the fairies. Wentz says that, according to John Glynn, town clerk of 
Tuam: 
During 1846 to 47 the potato crop in Ireland was a failure and very 
much suffering resulted. At the time, the country people in these 
parts attributed the famine to disturbed conditions in the fairy 
world. Old Tedhy Stead once told me about the conditions then 
prevailing, "Sure, we couldn't be any other way; and I saw the 
Good People and hundreds besides me saw them fighting in the 
sky over Knock Magh and on towards Galway." And I heard 
others say they saw the fighting too. 
According to another popular Irish belief, the elves have two great 
feasts each year. The first one takes place at the beginning of spring, 
when the hero O'Donoglme, who used to reign over the earth, rises 
through the sky on a white horse, surrounded by the brilliant 
company of the elves. Lucky is he, indeed, the Irishman who sees 
him rise from the depths of the Lake of Killarney! 
In January, 1537, the people of Franconia, between Pabcnberp and 
the forest of Thuringia, saw a star of marvelous size. It came lower 
and lower and appeared as a large white circle from which 
whirlwinds and patches of fire came forth. Falling to earth, the 
pieces of fire melted spear heads and ironwork, without causing 
harm to human beings or their houses. 
The favorite abode of the Gentry, however, was not always an aerial 
one. In many talcs related by the students of folklore, as in 
the literature of UFO's, the strange beings often come from the sea. 
Thus Wentz learned: 
There is an invisible island , between Innismurray and the coast 
opposite Grange, on which part of the Gentry is supposed to 
reside. When it is visible it is only visible for a short time. 
In the legends of Europe, it is between the eighth and the tenth 
centuries that celestial prodigies were most often visible. But the 
books on magic and demonology associate supernatural beings with 
celestial signs. A strange category of devils called "Friday Demons" 
is described in The Magical Works of Henri Corneille Agrippa. 
These devils are of medium height, rather handsome. Their arrival is 
preceded by a brilliant star. According to the Western cabalists, the 
sylphs flew through the air with the speed of lightning, riding a 
"peculiar cloud." It is noteworthy, too, that in France some fairies arc 
supposed to bear a luminous stone, an object that is often part of the 
equipment of flying saucer occupants. Many a "little man" has a 
light on either his belt, chest, or helmet. In a French tradition that 
survives in modern novels,6 the fortunate mortal who can steal the 
fairy's luminous stone is sure of lifelong happiness. 
On June 17, 1790, near Alencon, France, there was an apparition so 
strange and so disturbing that Police Inspector Liabeuf was 
instructed to make a thorough investigation. His report reads thus, 
in part: 
At 5 A.M. on June 12th, several farmers caught sight of an 
enormous globe which seemed surrounded with flames. First they 
thought it was perhaps a balloon that had caught fire, but the great 
velocity and the whistling sound which came from that body in 
trigued them. 
The globe slowed down, made some oscillations and precipitated 
itself towards the top of a hill, unearthing plants along the slope. 
The heat which emanated from it was so intense that soon the 
grass and the small trees started burning. The peasants succeeded 
in controlling the fire which threatened to spread to the whole 
area. 
In the evening this sphere was still warm and an extraordinary 
thing happened, not to say an incredible thing. The witnesses 
were; two mayors, a doctor and three other authorities who 
confirm my report, in addition to the dozens of peasants who were 
present. 
This sphere, which would have been large enough to contain a 

carriage, had not suffered from all that flight. It excited so much 
curiosity that people came from all parts to see it. Then all of a 
sudden a kind of door opened and, there is the interesting thing, a 
person like us came out of it, but this person was dressed in a strange 
way, wearing a tight fitting suit and, seeing all that crowd, said some 
words which were not understood and fled into the wood. Instinc 
tively, the peasants stepped back, in fear, and this saved them be 
cause soon after that the sphere exploded in silence, throwing pieces 
everywhere, and these pieces burned until they were reduced to 
powder. 
Researches were initiated to find the mysterious man, but he 
seemed to have dissolved. 
Let us follow the strange beings across the world now, to Mexico, 
where an American anthropologist, Brian Stross, from Berkeley, 
reports that the Tzeltal Indians have strange legends of their own. 
One night, Stross and his Indian assistant discussed these legends, of 
the ?ihk'dls or ikals, the little black beings, after seeing a strange 
light wandering about in the Mexican sky. 
The ikals are three foot tall, hairy, black humanoids whom the 
natives encounter frequently, and Stross learned: 
About twenty years ago, or less, there were many sightings of this 
creature or creatures, and several people apparently tried to fight it 
with machetes. One man also saw a small sphere following him 
from about five feet. After many attempts he finally hit it with his 
machete and it disintegrated, leaving only an ash like substance. 
The beings were observed in ancient times. They fly, they attack 
people, and, in the modern reports, they carry a kind of rocket on 
their backs and kidnap Indians. Occasionally, Stross was told, people 
have been "paralyzed" when they came upon the ikals, who are said 
to live in caves, which the natives are careful not to enter. 
Gordon Creighton, a staff member of the Flying Saucer Review and 
a former linguistic expert with the British foreign service, had 
occasion to study Indian folklore during several visits in Latin 
America. Commenting upon Stross's report, Creighton pointed out 
that words such as ik and ikal were found in all the dialects of the 
Maya Soke linguistic group: 
The Tzeltal words ihk and ihk'al (the adjective form) simply mean 
black being or "black." .. . In the Maya language, we find 

that ik means air or wind, and ikal means a spirit, while ek means 
black. The Kekchi Maya, in the Alta Vera Paz region of 
Guatemala, talk of a kek. The kek (meaning black in the Kekchi 
dialect of Maya) is said to be a centaur like being that guards his 
patron's house at night, and frightens people at dusk. Black, ugly, 
hairy, he is half human, with human hands but the hooves of a 
horse. 
We shall return to the ikals, or wendis, as they are called in British 
Honduras, in a later chapter, in connection with another feature of 
their behavior. For the time being, however, the Mexican legends 
show, quite conclusively, that many, perhaps every, region of the 
world has its own traditions about such creatures and associates 
them very definitely with the idea of aerial, or even cosmic, origin. 
In the Tzeltal cosmology, the earth is flat and supported on four 
columns. At the base of these columns lives a race of black dwarfs, 
and Creighton points out that their blackness is due—so runs the 
Indian theory—to the fact that they are scorched by the sun when he 
passes close to them every night as he travels through the 
underworld. 

According to the Paiute Indians, California was once populated by a 
superior civilization, the Hav Musuvs. Among other interesting 
devices, they used "flying canoes," which were silvery and had 
wings. They flew in the manner of eagles and made a whirring noise. 
They were also using a very strange weapon: a small tube that could 
be held in one hand and would stun their enemies, producing lasting 
paralysis and a feeling similar to a shower of cactus needles." , 
How could primitive tribes better describe electrocution? 
It is interesting to gather such tales in America, but Europeans hardly 
have to go as far as that to find similarly interesting and forgotten 
episodes. The archives of the Roman Catholic Church are full of 
such incidents, and it cannot be doubted that many an accusation of 
witchcraft stemmed from the belief in strange beings who could fly 
through the air and approached humans at dusk or at night. 
Occasionally, these "demons" were seen in full daylight by many 
people. And in this context, I am not referring to the vague 
confessions obtained under torture from the poor men and women 
who fell into the clutches of the Inquisition 

(although this material would be quite worthy of a parallel study). I 
am quoting official records of the time, gathered from witnesses by 
clerics and policemen, of which sort of report the following account 
is fairly typical. 
In the early seventeenth century, the cathedral at Quimper Corentin, 
France, bad on its roof a pyramid covered with lead. On February 1, 
1620, between 7:00 and 8:00 P.M., thunder fell on that pyramid, and 
it caught fire, exploded, and fell down with a stupendous noise. 
People rushed to the cathedral from all parts of the town and saw, in 
the midst of the lightning and smoke, a demon, of a green color, with 
a long green tail, doing his best to keep the fire going! 
This account, which was published in Paris, is supplemented by a 
more complete version printed in Rennes. This latter version adds 
that the demon "was seen clearly by all, inside the fire, sometimes 
green, sometimes blue and yellow."

 
What were the authorities to do? They threw into the roaring fire a 
quantity of Agni Dei, close to one hundred and fifty buckets of 
water, and forty or fifty cartloads of manure—to no avail. The 
demon was still there, and the fire kept happily burning. Something 
drastic had to be done: a consecrated host was placed inside a loaf of 
bread and thrown into the flames, and then blessed water was mixed 
with milk given by a nurse of above reproach conduct and spread 
over the demon and the burning pyramid. This the visitor could not 
stand; he whistled in a most horrible fashion and flew away. 
I can only recommend the recipe to the U.S. Air Force. 
Eight hundred years earlier (that is, about 8.30) in the days of 
Emperor Lothaire, creatures similar to the Elementals were seen very 
often in the northern parts of the Netherlands. According to Corneil 
Van Kempen, they were called "Dames Blanches" (White Ladies). 
He compares them to the nymphs of antiquity. They lived in caves, 
and they would attack people who traveled at night. The shepherds 
would also be harassed. And the women who had newly born babies 
had to be very careful, for they were quick in stealing the children 
away. In their lair, one could hear all sorts of strange noises, 
indistinct words that no one could understand, and musical sounds. 



64  
In the last half of the seventeenth century, a Scottish scholar 
gathered all the accounts he could find about the Sleagh Maith and, 
in 1691, wrote a manuscript bearing the title: The Secret 
Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies.™ The Secret Com 
monwealth was the first systematic attempt to describe the methods 
and organization of the strange creatures that plagued the farmers of 
Scotland. The author, Reverend Kirk, of Aberfoyle, studied theology 
at St. Andrews and took his degree of professor at Edinburgh. Later 
he served as minister for the parishes of Balquedder and Abcrfoyle 
and died in 1692. 
It is impossible to quote the entire text of Kirk's treatise on the 
Secret Commonwealth, but we can summarize his findings about 
elves and other aerial creatures in the following way: 

1. They have a nature that is intermediate between man and the 
angels. 

2. Physically, they have very light and "fluid" bodies, which are 
comparable to a condensed cloud. They are particularly visible 
at dusk. They can appear and vanish at will. 

3. Intellectully, they are intelligent and curious. 

4. They have the power to carry away anything they like, 

5. They live inside the earth in caves, which they can reach through 
any crevice or opening where air passes. 

6. When men did not inhabit most of the world, they used to live 
there and had their own agriculture. Their civilization has left 
traces on the high mountains; it was flourishing at a time when 
the whole countryside was nothing but woods and forests. 

7. At the beginning of each three month period, they change 
quarters because they are unable to stay in one place. Besides, 
they like to travel. It is then that men have terrible encounters 
with them, even on the great highways.* 

8. Their chameleonlike bodies allow them to swim through the air 
with all their household. 

9. They are divided into tribes. Like us, they have children, 

* Kirk notes that the Scots avoid all travel during those four periods of the 
year, and he adds that some country folk go to church on the first Sunday 
of every three month period to have their family, crops, and cattle blessed 
in order to keep away the elves who steal plants and animals. 
nurses, marriages, burials, etc., unless they just do this to mock our 
own customs, or to predict terrestrial events. 
1.	 Their houses are said to be wonderfully large and beautiful, but 
under most circumstances they are invisible to human eyes. Kirk 
compares them to enchanted islands. The houses are equipped 
with lamps that burn forever and fires that need no fuel. 
2.	 They speak very little. When they do so, when they talk among 
themselves, their language is a kind of whistling sound. 
3.	 Their habits and their language when they talk to humans are 
similar to those of local people. 
4.	 Their philosophical system is based on the following ideas: 
nothing dies; all things evolve cyclically in such a way that at 
every cycle they are renewed and improved. Motion is the 
universal law. 
5.	 They are said to have a hierarchy of leaders, but they have no 
visible devotion to God, no religion. 
6.	 They have many pleasant and light books, but also serious and 
complex books, rather in the Rosicrucian style, dealing with 
abstract matters. 
7.	 They can be made to appear at will before us through magic. 

The similarities between these observations and the story related by 
Facius Cardan, which antedates Kirk's manuscript by exactly two 
hundred years, are clear. Both Cardan and Paracelsus write, like 
Kirk, that a pact can be made with these creatures, and that they can 
be made to appear and answer questions at will. Paracelsus did not 
care to reveal what that pact was "because of the ills that might 
befall those who would try it." Kirk is equally discreet on this point. 
And, of course, to go deeper into this matter would open the whole 
field of witchcraft, which is beyond my purpose in this book. 
Kirk's conclusion is that every age has left a secret to be discovered. 
Sooner than we think, he says, the relations with the aerial beings 
will be as natural to us as, say, microscopy or the printing press, 
navigation—all things that caused considerable surprise when they 
were first introduced. We can only follow him in this and give a 
humble salute to a man who managed to gather such a complete 
description of our visitors. 
 
It is remarkable that one cannot find a single writer who claims he 
knows the physical nature of the fairies.14 They give us their 
personal opinions on the subject or report on the various theories 
held during their time, but they do not assure us they have a final 
answer. To Kirk, the Good People have bodies so 
plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that 
they can make them appear or disappear at Pleasure. Some have 
Bodies or Vehicles so spungions, thin, and defecat, that they are 
fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous liquors, that pierce 
the pure Air. 


According to medieval occultists, all invisible beings can be divided 
into four classes: the angels, the gods of the ancients; the devils or 
demons, the fallen angels; the souls of the dead; and the elemental 
spirits, which correspond to Kirk's Secret Commonwealth. In the 
fourth group are the gnomes, who inhabit the earth and correspond to 
mine haunting fairies, goblins, pixies, korrigans, leprechauns, and 
the domovoys of Russian legends, and the sylphs, who inhabit the 
air. These subdivisions are obviously arbitrary, and Paracelsus 
himself will admit it is extremely difficult to provide definitions for 
these various classes. 
The bodies of the Elementals arc "of an elastic semi material 
essence, ethereal enough so as not to be detected by the physical 
sight, and they may change their forms according to certain laws." 
To start from this basis would naturally open the way to far reaching 
speculations. From John Mac Neil of Barra, Wentz learned: 
The old people said they didn't know if fairies were flesh and 
Hood or spirits. They saw them as men of more diminutive 
stature than our own race. I heard my father say that fairies used 
to come and speak to natural people and then vanish while one 
was looking at them. Fairy women used to go into houses and talk 
and then vanish. The general belief was that the fairies were 
spirits who could make themselves seen or not seen at will. And 
when they took people they took body and soul together. 
Another man interviewed by Wentz insisted that "the fairies of the 
air are different from those in the rocks." Similarly, in Brittany, 
popular tradition divides the fairies into two groups: pygmy sized 
entities endowed with magic powers and the science 

of prophecy, on one hand; and white, aerial fairies, on the other. 
Beings in the first category are black, hairy; their hands terminate in 
talons. They have old faces and hollow eyes, small and bright like 
burning coals. Their voices arc low as if "broken by age." 
With the remark about prophecy, we are led again to consider the 
relationship between the actions of the Secret Commonwealth and 
the affairs of men. Wentz, noting this relationship in ancient poetry, 
says that during the last fight of the great hero of Ulster, Cuchulainn 
(who was a favorite of the sidhe or fairies), one of these beings 
named Morrigu flew over Cuchulainn s head as he fought in his war 
chariot. Similarly, the fairies took part in the Battle of Clontarf (April 
23, 1014), providing what would be called, in modern military 
language, "air support" for the Irish side. Before the battle, a fairy 
woman came to Dunlang O'Hartigan and begged him not to fight; 
she knew the issue could only be death (and here we find the 
prophetic powers of fairies again). lie assured her that he was ready 
to die for Ireland. The two armies met near Dublin: 
It will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate the 
description of this tremendous onset. There arose a wild, im 
petuous, precipitate, mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, 
merciless, combative, contentious Badb which was shrieking and 
fluttering over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs and 
sprites , and destroying demons of the air and firmament, and 
the demoniac phantom host.

This is only one of many references to the flying hosts of the fairies. 
We shall have occasion to study them more closely in a later 
chapter, But, first, let us return to UFO's. 
Can we study modern UFO reports without reopening the entire 
problem of apparitions? To most UFO writers, the answer is yes. 
Unidentified flying objects, they argue, leave physical traces and 
behave like space probes. It is obvious to them that UFO's are 
scientific devices having nothing to do with the mystico rcligious 
context of medieval apparitions, and nothing to do with the creatures 
studied by Kirk, since—as we have just seen —these latter could 
appear and vanish at will. 
This view is no longer tenable. The reports of recent observa
tions do describe objects that appear and vanish. It is just that 
 
such reports are not publicized. Students of UFO's are reluctant to 
publish them. And the witnesses themselves are not eager to come 
forward with stories they know are unbelievable. During a 
discussion with Aime Michel on this subject, he pointed out the 
negative reactions of scientists to his analysis of the French sight 
ings. They argued that such fantastic stories could only come from 
deranged minds. "What would these people have said," he remarked, 
"if I had published all the data!" 


Among the cases that deserve close examination, but which were 
"swept under the rug" by UFO students themselves, is the sighting 
at Nouatre, Indre et Loire, France, near Marcilly sur Vienne on 
September 30, 1954. About 4:30 P.M. Georges Gatay, head of a 
team of eight construction workers, found himself walking away 
from the other workers. He felt a "peculiar drowsiness" and 
suddenly wondered where he was going. Then, without warning, he 
found himself facing the strangest apparition. 
Less than thirty feet away, above him on the slope, was a man: his 
head was covered with an opaque glass helmet with a visor coming 
down to his chest. He wore gray coveralls and short boots. In his 
hand he held an elongated object: "It could have been a pistol, or it 
could have been a metal rod." On his chest was a light projector. The 
strange man was standing in front of a large shining dome, which 
"floated" about three feet above the ground. Above the cupola of the 
machine were objects like rotating wings or blades. Then 
suddenly, the strange man vanished, and I couldn't explain how he 
did, since he did not disappear from my field of vision by walking 
away, but vanished like an image one erases suddenly. 
Then I heard a strong whistling sound which drowned the noise 
of our excavators; the saucer rose by successive jerks, in a vertical 
direction, and then it too was erased in a sort of blue haze, as if 
by miracle. 
As soon as he saw the object and the entity, Gatay tried to run, but 
he found himself helplessly nailed to the spot. He was thus 
"paralyzed" during the whole observation. So were his seven co 
workers, in a unique case of collective physiological reaction. None 
of them had previously believed in the reality of the so called 
saucers. 
 

As soon as he was able to move again, Gatay rushed back to his men 
and cried: "Have you seen something?" 
Mr. Beurrois told him: "Yes , a flying saucer!" And the man who 
was the driver of the excavator, Mr. Lubanovic, added: "There was a 
man dressed like a diver in front of it." 
Four others—Messrs. Scchct, Villcneuve, Rougicr, and Amiraut, a 
truck driver—confirmed all the details of the sighting. 
It must be pointed out that the incident took place in a remote rural 
region. At the time—the end of September—the French wave of 
reports was just beginning. But Gatay, who fought during the war 
with the Resistance and was wounded in Luxembourg, said that he is 
not used to flights of fancy. Following the incident, he suffered from 
insomnia, strong headaches, and loss of appetite for a week. 
Ironically, the eight men are still not convinced that flying saucers 
were from another world. They feel sure they are a secret 
development by a terrestrial nation—probably France! 
In Jalapa, Mexico, early in September, 1965, a hovering object with 
luminous slits in its circumference and a black clad being with eyes 
gleaming like a cat's, holding a shining metal rod, were seen. The 
entity vanished suddenly while under observation in a Jalapa street 
by a local reporter, two taxi drivers, and a bullfighter. 
In the Carazinho case of July 26, 1965, five dwarfs dressed in 
dark uniforms and small boots were seen. We are told that "one 
of them had in his right hand a brilliantly luminous object like 
a wand." 
There was a sudden flash of lightning about 1:45 P.M. on January 28, 1967, on Studham Common, near Whipsnade Park Zoo, 
an isolated spot up in the Chiltern Hills, in England. Rain was 
falling and the atmosphere was heavy, reports R. H. B. Winder, 
who investigated this case for the Flying Saucer Review.1" Seven 
boys were on their way to school in the vicinity of the Dell—a 
shallow valley and an ideal spot for playing hidc and seck. Alex 
Butler ase ten, was looking south over the Dell when he saw 
clearly, in the open, "a little blue man with a tall hat and a 
beard." 
He called his friend, and they ran toward the figure. They were 
about twenty yards away when it "disappeared in a puff of smoke." 
The boys were very much surprised, naturally, but nothing in the 
 
attitude of the strange figure had inspired fear or suggested threat, so 
they kept looking for the "little blue man" and saw him again on the 
opposite side of the bushes from where he was first standing. They 
went toward him. He vanished once more, reappearing at the bottom 
of the Dell. This time, they heard "voices" in nearby bushes and 
became slightly afraid. The voices reminded them of "foreign 
sounding babble." Finally, they saw the man a fourth time before 
they were summoned to school by the whistle. 
Their teacher, Miss Newcomb, noticed how excited they were and, in 
spite of their warnings that "she would never believe them," 
immediately separated them and made each of the seven boys write 
down his experience, each in his own words. The essays were then 
gathered into a book called The Little Blue Man on Studham 
Common, which, notes Winder, makes fascinating reading and no 
doubt "will occupy an honoured place in the archives of the Studham 
Village Primary School." 
Investigation by Winder, Moulster, Bowen, and Creighton disclosed 
a number of local sightings—among them two landings in the 
vicinity of the spot—within a few months of the January sighting. 
Naturally, the investigators were most interested in hearing the boys 
themselves give details on the appearance of the creature. They 
interviewed them in the presence of their teacher, and Winder 
reports: 
They estimate the little man as 3 ft. tall (by comparison with 
themselves) with an additional 2 ft. accounted for by a hat or 
helmet best described as a tall brimless bowler, i.e. with a 
rounded top. The blue colour turned out to be a dim greyish blue 
glow tending to obscure outline and detail. They could, however, 
discern a line which was either a fringe of hair or the lower edge 
of the hat, two round eyes, a small seemingly flat triangle in place 
of a nose, and a one piece vestment extending down to a broad 
black belt carrying a black box at the front about six inches 
square. The arms appeared short and were held straight down 
close to the side at all times. The legs and feet were indistinct. 
As for the "puff of smoke," it apparently was a whirling cloud of 
yellowish blue mist shot toward the pursuers. I hardly need to quote 
more cases. 

THE MAGIC CASEMENT.
The Reverend Robert Kirk makes no bones about it: the elves did at 
one time occupy the land. Today it is still a common belief in the 
north of Scotland that the sith or fairy people existed once —a belief 
that survives in their title "Good Neighbors," although they could 
occasionally be hostile to man: 
While the Sith had no inborn antagonism towards human beings, 
and were occasionally known to do good turns to their favourites, 
they were very quick to take offence, capricious in their behavior 
and delighted in playing tricks on their mortal neighbors. These 
cantrips had to be patiently endured, as resistance or hostility 
might lead to dreadful reprisals—the kidnapping of children or 
even adults. An attitude of passive friendliness on the human side 
was therefore assumed to be eminently desirable.  
Scott refers to this when Bailie Nicol Jarvie, in Rob Roy, tells his 
companion, as they pass a fairy hill near Aberfoylc: 
They ca'them , Daoine Sith, which signifies, as I understand, 
men of peace: meaning thereby to make their gudewill. And we 
may e'en as well ca'them that too, Mr. Osbaldistone, for there's 
nae gude in speaking ill o'the laird within his ain bounds. 
A Gaelic scholar, Campbell, minister of Tiree, published a story 
called "Na Amhuisgean—The Dwarfs or Pigmies," in which he 
remarks: 
The existence of pigmies in some unknown region bordering 
upon, if not forming part of, the "kingdom of coldness" is of 
interest as indicating some of the connection between smallness of 
person and cold climate, and so leading to the speculations as to 
the first dispersion of the human race and connection of tribes that 
are now far removed from each other in appearance, dress, mode 
of life, and dialects. 
Although the connection between climate and size is not a tenable 
hypothesis, Campbell's remarks do open the way to interesting 
speculations. He notes that the term Lapanach applies to a certain 
"little, thick set, insignificant man" who figures in many tales, and 

he adds: 
There arc many traditional tales in the Highlands of much interest 
 
in which little men of dwarfish, and even pigmy, size, figure 
as good bowmen, slaying men of large size, and powerful make, 
by their dexterity in the use of the bow and arrow.
In spite of their small size, they are understood to have been of very 
considerable strength. They were not "undersized in the same way 
that children arc, but full grown individuals, undersized and 
sinew}', or muscular." 
These dwarfs or pygmies are called Na Amhuisgean or, more 
correctly, Amhuisgean. The English phonetics for the Gaelic 
"amhuisg" would be "awisk." The same beings are sometimes found 
under the names Tamhasg and Amhuish, and these words uniformly 
designate dwarfs. It is ironic, therefore, that in one talc (''The Lad 
with the Skin Garments," quoted by Mac Dougall) the awisks 
address a human intruder as "O little man" while he in turn calls 
them "big men all." 
Now one point must absolutely be cleared up. Were there or were 
there not races of dwarfs living among the West and Middle 
Europeans of antiquity? Were the legends about the fairies and the 
elves based on the fact that the ancient inhabitants of the northern 
parts of the British Isles were such a race? Historical and 
archaeological researchers definitely say no, and we must agree with 
them. Yet several writers, such as David MacRitchic, claim there arc 
indications in this direction, and of course such indications would be 
crucial to any theory concerning the nature of the humanoids." 
In a book published in London in 1894, Tyson's Essay Concerning 
the Pygmies of the Ancients, Professor Windle, of Birmingham, 
remarks that a race of dwarfs supplied the "best warriors" and 
bodyguard of several kings. Tyson made an extensive study of the 
dwarf races and quotes the Greek historian Ctesias: 
Middle India has black men, who are called Pygmies, using the 
same language as the other Indians. .. . Of these Pygmies, the king 
of the Indians has three thousand in his train; for they are very 
skillful archers. 
And he adds: 
There seem to have been near lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito [pygmy 

black] tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed 
the historic black guard of the ancient kings of Susania. 
Tyson's work, to which Windle provided the Preface, was written in 
the seventeenth century. After calling attention to the remark by 
Ctesias, it goes on: 
Talentonius and Bartholine think that what Ctesias relates of the 
Pygmies, as their being very good archers, very well illustrates 
this Text of Ezekiel. 
The Ezekiel text in question appears thus in the King James Bible: 
The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round 
about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers. 
The Genevan translation printed in Edinburgh in 1579 also has 
"Gammadims" glossed "valorous men." In the Vulgate, however, it 
runs thus: 
Filii Arvad cum Exercitu tuo supra Muros tuos per circuitum, et 
Pygmaei in Turribus tuis fuerunt. 
And indeed, the English Bishops' Bible of 1572 and 1575 does not 
have "Gammadims" but "Pygmenians." Without going into further 
detail, it is clear that the Gaelic story of a guard of dwarf warriors is 
not an isolated case. 
If we return now to David MacRitchic's quotation from the Flemish 
folklore journal Ons Volksleven, we can learn more: 
The Fenlanders [a race dwelling in our country prior to the Kelts] 
were little, but strong, dexterous, and good swimmers, they lived 
by hunting and fishing. Adam of Bremen in the eleventh century 
thus pictures their descendants or race: "They had large heads, flat 
faces, flat noses, and large mouths. They lived in caves of the 
rocks, which they quitted in the night time for the purpose of 
committing sanguinary outrages." The Keltic people, and later 
those of German race, so tall and strong, could hardly look upon 
such little folk as human beings. They must have regarded them 
as strange, mysterious creatures. And when these negroes or 
Fenlanders had lived for a long enough time hidden, for fear of 
the new people, in their grottoes, especially when they at length 
fell into decay through poverty, or died out, they became changed 
in the imagination of the dreamy Germans into mysterious beings, 
a kind of ghosts or gods. 
 
In a footnote, MacRitchie states that he is "not aware on what 
grounds this author speaks of them as black people," but he admits 
that these dwarfish Fenlanders might be regarded as the originals of 
the awisks of the Gaelic legend. 
Now we seem to be getting somewhere. There is a tradition in the 
Orkney Isles that offers a parallel to the above story. Sometime in 
the first part of the fifteenth century, Bishop Thomas Tulloch of 
Orkney gave details, in De Orcadibus Insulis, of the tradition that 
the archipelago had been inhabited six centuries earlier by the Papae 
and a race of dwarfs. The Papae, according to many scholars, were 

the Irish priests. And the dwarfs were the Picts. In this, MacRitchie 
follows Barry's Orkney, where we read: 
they are plainly no other than the Peiths, Picts, or Piks, . The 
Scandinavian writers generally call the Piks Peti, or Pets: one of 
them uses the term Petia, instead of Pictland (Saxo Gram.); and 
besides, the firth that divides Orkney from Caithness is usually 
denominated Petland Fiord in the Icelandic Sagas or histories. 
The consistency running through these ancient accounts, Mac 
Ritchie says, is indeed remarkable. 
The Irish priests followed St. Columba, who himself was a great 
grandson of Conall Gulban, who, tradition states, had fierce battles 
with a race of dwarfs. Conall Gublan's fights with the dwarfs, 
indeed, are the origin of a series of tales sometimes attributed to 
other legendary heroes. If we try to get as close as possible to the 
original story, this is what we get: 
Conail Gulban was the son of the famous Neil (or Nial), the ancestor 
of the O'Neills of Ulster. He was the paternal grandfather of 
Fedlimidh, the father of St. Columba, and his adventures begin in 
the northwest of Ireland, "somewhere in the dawn of the fifth 
century." After various experiences, Gulban landed in the "realm of 
Lochlann," generally believed to be Scandinavia, which itself had a 
rather vague meaning at the time. 
There Gulban was intrigued by a strange construction and asked his 
guide: "What pointed house is there, Duanach?" "That is the house 
of the Tamhaisg, the best warriors that are in the realm of Lochlann," 
Duanach, the guide, replied. "I heard my grandfather speaking about 
the Tamhaisg," said Conall, "but I have never seen them. I will go to 
see them." 

"It were not my counsel to thee!" were Duanach's last words. 
This advice, naturally, Conall Gulban disregarded. He went 
straight to the palace of the King of Lochlann and challenged him 
to combat. He was told that 
he should get no fighting at that time of night, but he should get 
lodging in the house of the amhusg [awisks], where there were 
eighteen hundred amhusg, and eighteen score. . He went, and he 
went in, and there were none of the amhuish within that did not 
grin. When he saw that they had made a grin, he himself made 
two. 
"What was the meaning of your grinning at us?" said the amhusg. 
"What was the meaning of your grinning at me?" said Conall. 
Said they, "Our grinning at thee meant that thy fresh royal blood 
will be ours to quench our thirst, and thy fresh royal flesh to 
polish our teeth." And, said Conall, "The meaning of my grinning 
is, that I will look out for the one with the biggest knob and 
slenderest shanks, and knock out the brains of the rest with that 
one, and his brains with the knobs of the rest." 
At this point, each of the awisks put a "stake of wood against the 
door," and Conall asked them why they had done so. 
"We have never seen coming here [one] a gulp of whose blood, 
or a morsel of whose flesh could reach us, but thou thyself, 
except one other man, and he fled from us. And now every one is 
doubting the other in case thou shouldest flee." 
"That was the thing that made me do it myself likewise, since I 
have got yourselves so close as you are," answered Conall, who 
had followed their lead in this action. 
Then he went and he began upon them. "I feared to be chasing 
you from hole to hole, and from hill to hill, and I did that." Then 
he gazed at them, from one to two, and he seized on the one of 
the slenderest shanks and the fattest head; he drove upon the rest 
sliochd! slachd! till he had killed every one of them; and he had 
not a jot of the one with whom he was working at them, but what 
was in his hands of the shanks. 
The tale of Conall Gulban, recorded by Campbell of Islay,
continues with many wonderful fights in other lands. In France, 
for example, Conall wins in the same absurd way over "the house 
of the Tamhaisg, the best warriors that the King of France had." 
MacRitchie concluded: 

it is of course to be understood that the passage as it stands is as 
impossible as it is ludicrous. But this docs not interfere with the 

assumption that the basis of the story actual 
encounter between men of tall stature and a race of dwarfs; the 
excessive number of the latter, and the case, wil li which the hero 
swings them about, being merely the embroidering of talc lellcrs 
in later times. 
As for the seeming impossibility that a tflle could be transmitted 
for fifteen centuries and yet be historical, MacRitchie adds: 
it ought to be remembered that the or:il transmission of history 
and genealogy, with the most careful attention In language and 
details, was a perfect science among the Gaelic speaking 
peoples.
But, then, what became of the dwarfish race? According to 
MacRitchie, the dwarfs were destroyed or went into hiding toward 
the sixth century, when Columba and his followers carried on a 
religious war against the Picts. At the same time, he says, the 
Irishmen were also using force against the same people in the north 
of Ireland. And since the new owners of the land felt for their ancient 
enemies a mixture of guilt and fear, numerous rumors were born 
concerning the ghosts of the Picts, still roaming through the land. 
And this in turn led to the elves and fairies. 
This theory—generally referred to as the "Pygmy theory"—is, 
however, now no longer tenable in the face of the evidence his 
torians have gathered about the Picts. 
The name "Picti" (according to Wainwright") appears first in 297 
A.D., and from that time on, it is applied to all the peoples who lived 
north of the Antonine Wall and were not Scots. In earlier times, we 
are really concerned with the predecessors of the Picts, who formed 
various groups called "Proto Picts." Could MacRitchie's pygmies 
have figured among the Proto Picts? Wainwright gives the following 
translation of a passage from the Historic hlorwegiae already 
referred to above: 
These islands were first inhabited by the Picts and the Papae. Of 
these, one race, the Picts, little exceeded pigmies in stature; they 
did marvels, in the morning and in the evening, in building 
[walled] towns, but at mid day they entirely lost all their strength, 
and lurked through fear in little underground houses. 
And Wainwright comments: 
The story is interesting in that it brings together Picts, souterrains, 
and perhaps brochs, at once explaining the common belief that 
the 

Picts were a pigmy people and providing an early example of the 
mistaken equations implicit in the names "Picts' houses" (souter 
rains) and "Pictish Towers" (brochs). 
Should we believe that, among the Proto Picts, there were dwarfs 
who were mistaken for a native people? And, then, where did they 
come from? MacRitchie's theory offers only confusion, and it is 
amusing to observe his .embarrassment when he must report that the 
Fenlanders were not only dwarfish, but black, too. Could it be that 
there were ikals in Northern Europe at the dawn of recorded history? 
I believe we have at least established that there were open questions 
in the minds of the scholars of all epochs concerning such beings, 
and on this point Ilartland docs not disagree with MacRitchie: 
"Nothing is more likely than the transfer to the mythical beings of 
Celtic superstition of some features derived from alien races." 
In his conclusion to his discussion of the Pygmy theory, which he 
rejects as Hartland does, Wentz remarks that it leaves all the 
problems of the historical origins of the fairy faith unsolved, since it 
is clearly global, not limited to the Celtic lands. Thus A. Lang, in his 
Introduction to the 1922 edition of Kirk's book, states that "to my 
mind at least, the subterranean inhabitants of Mr. Kirk's book are 
not so much a traditional recollection of a real dwarfish race living 
underground (a hypothesis of Sir Walter Scott's) as a lingering 
memory of the chthonian beings, the Ancestors." 


FOLKLORE IN THE MAKING. 
No matter how interesting it may be to speculate on the origin of 
these ancient beliefs, the opportunity to observe folklore "in the 
making" is even more attractive to those with an inclination toward 
research. When modern rumors appear to fall into the very same 
patterns that have puzzled generations of scientists, theologians, and 
literary scholars, the feeling one gets is a mixture of gratitude and 
enthusiasm. When the phone rings in Wright Paterson Air Force 
Base, and a local intelligence officer transmits the observation of a 
motorist who has just been "buzzed" by what he describes as a flying 
saucer, we arc really witnessing the unique 
  
conjunction of the modern world—with its technology—and ancient 
terrors—with all the power of their sudden, fugitive, irrational 
nature. We are in a very privileged position. Neither Wentz nor 
Hartland was able to interview people who had just observed the 
phenomena they studied. Most of their witnesses spoke of days gone 
by, of stories heard by the fireplace. We feel, on the other hand, that 
we can almost reach out into the night and grab those lurking 
entities. We are hot on their trail; the air is still vibrating with 
excitement, the smell of sulphur is still there when the story is 
recorded. 
Take, for instance, the story of the Air Force colonel who was 
driving at night on a lonely Illinois road when he noticed that a 
strange object was flying above his car. It looked, he said, like a 
bird, but it was the size of a small airplane. It flapped its wings and 
flew away. This is the type of horror story adolescent girls 
sometimes tell their mothers when they come home late and a bit 
nervous. But an Air Force colonel? 
During November December, 1966, West Virginia was plagued by a 
similar "bird," called "The Mothman" by imaginative reporters. One 
witness, twenty five yeaT old Thomas Ury, who lives in Clarksburg, 
met the creature at 7:15 A.M. on November 25,1966, in the vicinity 
of Point Pleasant. It was a large gray thing which rose from a nearby 
field. "It came up like a helicopter and veered over my car," he told 
John Keel, who spent many days in the area investigating the 
reports. He accelerated up to 75 M.P.H., but the "bird" was still there, 
casually circling the car. It appeared to be about six feet long, with a 
wingspread of eight to ten feet. According to other witnesses quoted 
by Keel, the figure had large, round, glowing red eyes. 
On January 11, 1967, Mrs. McDaniel saw the "Bird" herself in 
broad daylight. She was outside her home when she observed 
what appeared to be a small plane flying down the road almost at 
tree top level. As it drew closer she realized it was a man shaped 
object with wings. It swooped low over her head and circled a 
nearby restaurant before going out of sight. 
Mrs. McDaniel, who works in the Point Pleasant Unemployment 
Office, is known in the community as a rational and responsible 
person. 
79 
Now consider this report: 
The intruder was tall, thin and powerful. He had a prominent 
nose, and bony fingers of immense power which resembled claws. 
He was incredibly agile. He wore a long, flowing cloak, of the 
sort affected by opera goers, soldiers and strolling actors. On his 
head was a tall, metallic seeming helmet. Beneath the cloak were 
close fitting garments of some glittering material like oilskin or 
metal mesh. There was a lamp strapped to his chest. Oddest of all: 
the creature's ears were cropped or pointed like those of an 
animal, 
Was it a prankster in a Batman dress? It seems entirely possible. 
Especially when we take into account the fact that the "bird" was 
carrying something on its back and made incredible leaps—actually 
flying, on one occasion—above the heads of would be captors. 
There is only one trouble with this explanation: the latter episode 
took place not in West Virginia in 1966 but in the dark lanes of a 
London suburb, in November, 1837. Like The Mothman of Point 
Pleasant, the mysterious flying man of London was ignored by 
authorities as long as possible. Finally, a resident of Pcckham wrote 
a letter to the Lord Mayor, and the censorship could no longer be 
maintained. Nightly, horse patrols searched the countryside; Admiral 
Codrington set up a reward fund (still unclaimed, by the way). And 
J. Vyncr, in a remarkable article about the mystery, informs us that 
even "The old Duke of Wellington himself set holsters at his saddle 
bow and rode out after dark in search of Springheel Jack." 
On February 20, 1838, a girl of eighteen, Jane Alsop, of Old Ford, 
near Bow, London, heard a violent ringing of the front door bell. 
Going out, she faced the "most hideous appearance" of Springheel 
Jack. He wore shining garments and a flashing lamp on his chest. 
His eyes resembled glowing balls of fire! When Miss Alsop uttered a 
cry, the intruder grabbed her arm in clawlike fingers, but the girl's 
sister rushed to her rescue. The visitor spurted a fiery gas in Jane's 
face, and she dropped unconscious. Then Jack fled, dropping his 
cloak, which was picked up at once by another shadow who ran after 
him. 
Two days earlier, though not revealed until after the Old Ford 
incident had made headlines, a Miss Scales, of Limehouse, was 
walking through Green Dragon Alley. The alley was a dim lit passage beside a public house, and when she saw a tall figure lurking 
in the shadows Miss Scales hesitated, waiting for her sister who had 
fallen behind. 
The sister, who described the loiterer as "tall, thin and (save the 
mark) gentlemanly," came up in time to see his long cloak thrown 
aside, and a lantern flashing on the startled girl. There was no time 
to scream; Jack's weird blue flame spurted into his victim's face 
and she dropped to the ground in a deep swoon. Whereupon, Jack 
walked away calmly. 
Vyner suggests that Jack had a rendezvous in Green Dragon Alley 
and wanted to get rid of witnesses. A week after the Old Ford 
incident, he knocked on the door of Mr. Ashworth's house in Turner 
Street and inquired for him. The servant who opened the door 
screamed the place down. Jack fled. He was never seen again, in the 
London neighborhood at least. Had a contact been made? It is 
strange indeed, as Vyner remarks, that Springheel Jack should have 
paid two visits within two days to houses less than a mile apart, 
whose owners were named Alsop and Ashworth, respectively. Two 
of the main witnesses, as in West Virginia, were young girls. With 
them, in the two cases, were their sisters. There seems to be a 
pattern here. But, rather typically, it is once again an absurd one. 
In 1877, wearing tight garments and shining helmet, Jack was seen 
again at Aldershot, Hampshire, England. On that occasion he flew 
above two sentries, who fired at him. He answered with a burst of 
blue fire, which left them stunned, and vanished, Vyner believes 
that Jack was again to blame for the scare in late August, 1944, in 
Mattoon, Illinois. He was seen at night peering through windows 
"as in search for someone known to him by sight." Most of the 
witnesses were women; some of them reported falling unconscious 
after a device was pointed at them by the visitor, who left a strange 
cloying smell. 
In the spring of 1960, Italian jeweler Salvatore Cianci was driving 
in Sicily, near Syracuse, when a small being in shining clothes 
wearing a diving helmet appeared in the beam of the headlights. It 
had no arms but two "little wings." Mr. Cianci suEered a nervous 
shock. 
On Saturday, November 16, 1963, four teen agers were walking 
near Sandling Park, near Hythe, Kent, England. One of the four, 

seventeen year old John Flaxton, describes how they were frightened by an object which they first had taken to be a star: 
"It was uncanny. The reddish yellow light was coming out of the 
sky at an angle of sixty degrees. As it came towards the ground it 
seemed to hover more slowly." 
A bright light, golden in color, suddenly appeared in the field near 
them after the first object had been hidden by some trees: 
"It was about eighty yards away, floating about ten feet above the 
ground. It seemed to move along with us, stopping when we stopped 
as if it was observing us. The light was oval, about fifteen to twenty 
feet across with a bright, solid core. 
"It disappeared behind trees and a few seconds later a dark figure 
shambled out. It was all black, about the size of a human but with
out a head. It seemed to have wings like a bat on either side and 
came stumbling towards us. We didn't wait to investigate."
Folklore in the making. . From the farfadets, we have drifted to 
modern times, with Springheel Jack and The Mothman. And we 
have seen our visitors' arsenal become more precise. Jack's lantern 
and ray gun have survived in modern tales, in twentieth century 
comic books, in television series. But the real question is: Could all 
this be real? And if not, how can we explain the consistency of these 
descriptions, at a time when there were no comics and no television? 
The Italian artist R. L. Johannis had a remarkable experience in 
1947, at a time when the name "flying saucer" was already popular 
in the United States, but when the now abundant documentation 
about the landings was nonexistent. The date was, as he recalls, 
August 14. He was hiking alone, following a small stream in the 
mountainous region between Italy and Yugoslavia. Among some 
rocks, he suddenly saw a large, brilliant red, lens shaped object, 
about ten yards in diameter. Close to it, he discovered two people, 
whom he first regarded as "kids" until he realized they were 
dwarfs—of a type he had never seen before. 
The two beings were under three feet tall; their heads were larger 
than a man's head. They had no hair, eyelashes, or eyebrows. Their 
faces were greenish, their noses straight, their mouths wide slits, 
giving them something of the appearance of a fish, Their eyes were 
huge, round, and prominent, their color 

 
yellow green. The skin around their eyes formed rings rather than 
eyelids. As Johannis moved, one of the beings touched his belt. At 
once, from the center of the belt something like a ray and a puff of 
vapor were emitted. Johannis experienced something like an elec 
trical discharge and found himself on the ground, helpless and very 
weak. It took all his energy to turn his head around and observe the 
two beings as they walked away. A moment later they were gone. In 
1965 a case very similar to Johannis's was reported to the 
U.S. Air Force, and we tried in vain to get an active investigation of 
it by Project Blue Book. Finally the case was "leaked," at my 
suggestion, to a civilian group, which conducted a speedy and 
careful study of the testimony given by the only witness, a Mr. S. 
The details of the testimony arc available in an excellent book by the 
leaders of the civilian group, the Lorenzens,al so I need not discuss 
all the circumstances of the observation. Some remarks concerning 
the case (called by the Lorenzens the "most spectacular report we 
have examined") are relevant in the present context, however. 
The incident took place on September 4, 1964, in the mountains of 
northern California, about eight miles from Cisco Grove. Mr. S. had 
been hunting when he became separated from the party and lost his 
way. Night was falling, so he lighted some fires to call attention to 
his position. 
Soon lie observed a light in the sky, which he thought was a 
helicopter looking for him. When it stopped and hovered silently 
nearby, however, he realized it was an unusual object and climbed a 
large tree to observe the situation from that vantage point. The light 
circled the tree. S. saw a flash and a dark object falling to the 
ground. Next he noticed one figure crashing through the woods 
below him and another moving in from a slightly different direction. 
Both figures approached the tree and looked at him. They were a 
little over five feet tall, the witness estimates, and clothed in a 
silvery uniform that covered their heads. A third creature appeared 
later, behaving more like a mechanical being than an animal or a 

man, It was darker and had two reddish 
orange "eyes." It had no mouth, but rather a slitlikc opening that 
would "drop" open like an oven door. 
For the rest of the time S. was conscious, the entities used a variety 
of means to try to get him to fall from his tree. He managed to keep 
them away by throwing lighted bits of paper and clothing at them, to 
which they reacted in fear. The main weapon used against him was a 
very curious one. If we arc to believe this report, the "robot like" 
entity would let its lower "jaw" drop, then place its "hand" inside the 
rectangular cavity thus revealed, and emit a puff of smoke in S.'s 
direction. The smoke would spread like a mist, and upon reaching 
him, it would make him lose consciousness for a certain time. The 
effect of it was comparable to being suddenly deprived of oxygen, S. 
said. 
It is hard to believe the story: Would not such beings as he describes 
be able to climb a tree? If they came out of a flying saucer, why 
could they not fly up to his refuge? But it is equally difficult to 
prove that he simply had a nightmare. The witness is not given to 
such behavior, and when he woke up at dawn, still tied to the tree 
with his belt, all the objects he had dropped in an effort to get rid of 
the intruders were still lying around. Furthermore, there is the 
description of the strange, powerful gas, which plays such an 
important role in the story, as it does in the incidents related to 
Springheel Jack, the Johannis sighting, and the Sonny Desvergers 
case of August, 1952. 
According to Captain Ruppelt's report of his investigations in 
Florida,32 Desvergers, a scoutmaster who went into a wood to 
investigate a strange light and faced, he said, a horrible being who 
looked at him from the turret of a flying machine unlike anything he 
had ever seen, found himself breathing the same peculiar gas. 
He froze where he stood and noticed a small ball of red fire began 
to drift toward him. As it floated down it expanded into a cloud of 
red mist. He dropped his light and machete, and put his arms over 
his face. As the mist enveloped him, lie passed out. 
This is confirmed by the unpublished memorandum written by 
Ruppclt on September 12, 1952, upon his return from West Palm 
Beach. Captain Ruppclt and Lieutenant R. M. Olsson began their 

investigation by a conference with Captain Corney, Wing Intel 
ligence OEcer with the 1707th Air Base Wing, on the morning of 
September 9. 
A conference was held with Capt. Corney to determine whether or 
not there had been any late developments in this case that the two 
ATIC officers were not familiar with. Capt. Corney stated that to 
his knowledge there was nothing outstanding that had happened. 
He was asked about the facts of supposedly anonymous 
threatening telephone calls that Mr. Desvergers had received. He 
stated that Desvergcrs had called him approximately two weeks 
ago and stated that he had been receiving anonymous threatening 
telephone calls while at work in the establishment in which he is 
employed. The gist of the calls was telling Desvergers to lay off 
of his story and that if he didn't he would be sorry and several 
other things. 
Not much attention was given to this claim, however, and Ruppclt 
continued his investigations by interviewing people who knew the 
scoutmaster, and especially the members of the scout group who 
were with him in the car when he decided to go into the woods: 
He gave the boys instructions to go get help if he wasn't back in 
ten minutes and started in the woods. The boys claimed that they 
could see his flashlight going back into the woods. From this 
point on, the boys' stories varied to a certain degree. 
The first boy states 
that he did not sec the first light that Desvergers saw, however, 
shortly afterwards, after Desvergers had got out, made the state 
ment about flying saucers, and got back into the automobile, he 
looked out of the window and saw a semi circle of white lights 
about three inches in diameter [sic] going down at an angle of 45 
degrees into the trees. None of the other boy scouts saw this. He 
then states that he saw Desvergers go back into the woods and 
that the next thing that he saw was a series of red lights in the 
clearing. .. . As soon as he saw the red lights he claims that he saw 
Sonny "stiffen up" and fall. 
According to two other boys: 
They both saw Desvergers going through the woods, could sec 
flashlights flashing on the trees and then he disappeared for a few 
seconds, at least the light disappeared. The next thing they saw 
was a series of red lights. They said they looked a lot like flares or 
sky 

rockets. The lights were not making any definite pattern, some of 
them were going up, some of them were going down, or going 
around and around in all directions. It just seemed to be a type of 
six or eight red lights going in all directions. This time they ran 
down the road to get help. 
Here we have confirmation from witnesses of the observation of red 
lights. The witnesses were not close enough, however, to experience 
the lights effects, but it is interesting to remark that the lights kept 
"going around and around" after the scoutmaster (according to his 
own account of the incident) was already unconscious. 
It is also interesting to note, in this connection, that over a century 
ago Leroux dc Lincy, in his Livre des Legendes, had this to say 
about the elves: 
If a mortal being dares come near them, they open their mouth 
and, struck by the breath which escapes from it, the imprudent 
fellow dies poisoned. 
On October 7, 1954, Mr. Margaillon saw an object which had landed 
in a field in Montcux, France. It was shaped like a hemisphere, about 
two and a half yards in diameter. The witness gasped for air and felt 
paralyzed during the observation. The sudden lack of air noted in the 
Cisco Grove case is not infrequently reported by witnesses of 
landings. Nor arc the peculiar eyes of the small entities: reddish 
orange, glowing in the dark. 
On October 9, 1954, in Lavoux, Vienne, France, a farmer who was 
riding his bicycle suddenly stopped as he saw a figure, dressed in a 
sort of "diving suit," aiming a double light beam at him. The 
individual, who seemed to have "boots without heels," very bright 
eyes, and a very hairy chest, carried two "headlights," one below the 
other, on the front of his suit. 
Nine days later, in Fontcnay Torcy, also in France, a man and his 
wife reported that they saw a red cigar shaped object in the sky. All 
of a sudden, it dived toward them, leaving a reddish trail, and landed 
behind some bushes. Upon reaching the top of a hill, the witnesses 
found themselves confronted by a bulky individual, human in 
appearance but only about three feet tall. He wore a helmet, and his 
eyes glowed with an orange light. One of the witnesses lost 
consciousness. Four other people saw the object in 

flight from another spot. A third group of independent witnesses in 
another town, Sansoivla~Poterie7 saw the craft fly away at tre 
mendous speed, in a westerly direction. The countryside was 
illuminated over an area one to two miles wide. 
It is indeed appropriate to tell the man who investigates such cases 
(in the words of Robert Herrick): 
Her eyes the Glow worme lend thee, 
The Shooting Starres attend thee; 
And the Elves also, 
Whose little eyes glow 
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 


TO MAGONIA AND BACK! 
The mind of a person coming out of Fairy 
Land is usually blank as to what has been 
seen and done there. 
Walter Wentz, The Fairy Faith in 
Celtic Countries 
THE MIND of Private First Class Gerry Irwin was blank when he woke 
up on March 2, 1959, in Cedar City Hospital. He had been 
unconscious for twenty three hours, at times mumbling incoherently 
something about a "jacket on the bush." When he became conscious 
his first question was: "Were there any survivors?" 
The story of Private Irwin is a mysterious one, and very little has 
been done to clarify it. It has been mentioned only once in UFO 
literature, by James Lorenzen, director of the APRO group, and has 
not, to the best of my knowledge, been the subject of subsequent 
investigation. Such an investigation, however, would throw light on 
some aspects of the UFO problem now gaining considerable 
publicity and causing some concern to those who follow the 
development of the sociological context of UFO reports. Perhaps, as 
Lorenzen suggests, there was a military investigation that has been 
kept secret. If so, secrecy on the part of the authorities, if they arc 
really concerned with the nation's peace of mind, is not the best 
course, as the following review of the few well established facts of 
the Irwin case, which serves as an introduction to a discussion of the 
problem of "contact," makes clear. 
Late on February 28, 1959, Gerry Irwin, a Nike missile technician, 
was driving from Nampa, Idaho, back to his barracks at Fort Bliss, 
El Paso, Texas. He was returning from military leave. 
 
He had reached Cedar City, Utah, and turned southeast on Route 14 
when he observed an unusual phenomenon, six miles after the 
turnoff. The landscape brightened, and a glowing object crossed the 
sky from right to left. Irwin stopped the car and got out. He had time 
to watch the object as it continued in an easterly direction until 
hidden from view by a ridge. 
The witness decided that he might have seen an airliner on fire 
attempting a forced landing, in which case there was no time to lose. 
Consequently, instead of resuming his journey, Irwin wrote a note 
("Have gone to investigate possible plane crash. Please call law 
enforcement officers.") and placed it on the steering wheel of his car. 
Using shoe polish, he wrote STOP on the side of his car, to make 
sure people would find his note, and then started out on foot. 
Approximately thirty minutes later, a fish and game inspector did 
stop. He took the note to the Cedar City sheriff, Otto Pfief, who 
gathered a party of volunteers and returned to the site. Ninety 
minutes after he had sighted the strange "object," Gerry Irwin was 
discovered unconscious and taken to the hospital. No trace of an 
airplane crash was found. 
At the hospital, Dr. Broadbent observed that Irwin's temperature and 
respiration were normal. He seemed merely to be asleep, but he 
could not be awakened. Dr. Broadbent diagnosed hysteria. Then, 
when Irwin did wake up, he felt "fine" although he was still puzzled 
by the object he had seen. He was also puzzled by the disappearance 
of his jacket: he was assured that he was not wearing it when he was 
found by the search party. Irwin was flown back to Fort Bliss and 
placed under observation at William Beaumont Army Hospital for 
four days, after which period he returned to duty. His security 
clearance, however, was revoked. 
Several days later, Irwin fainted while walking in the camp, but he 
recovered rapidly. Several days afterward, on Sunday, March 15, he 
fainted again in an El Paso street and was taken to Southwest 
General Hospital. There his physical condition was found similar to 
that observed in Cedar City. He woke up about 
2:00 A.M. on Monday and asked: "Were there any survivors?" He 
was told that the date was not February 28 but March 16. Once 
more, he was taken to William Beaumont Hospital and 
placed under observation by psychiatrists. He remained there over 
one month. Lorenzen reports that, according to a Captain Valentine, 
the results of the tests indicated that he was normal. He was 
discharged on April 17. 
The next day, following an unidentifiable but very powerful urge, he 
left the fort without leave, caught a bus in El Paso, arrived in Cedar 
City Sunday afternoon (April 19), walked ,to the spot where he had 
seen the object, left the road, and w^nt back through the hills—right 
to a bush where his jacket lay. There was a pencil in a buttonhole 
with a piece of paper wound tightly around it. He took the paper and 
burned it. Then he seemed to come out of a trance. He had to look 
for the road. Not understanding why he had come there, he turned 
himself in and thus met Sheriff Otto Pfief, who gave him the details 
of the first incident. 
The Lorenzens contacted Irwin after he had returned to Fort Bliss 
and undergone a new psychological examination, as futile as the 
previous one. His case came to the attention of the Inspector General, 
who ordered a new examination. On July 10, Irwin rccntered 
William Beaumont Army Hospital. On August 1, he failed to report 
for duty. One month later he was listed as a deserter. He was never 
seen again. 




NEW HAMPSHIRE REVISITED 
The Irwin case is reminiscent of another incident that has become 
one of the standards of modern American folklore: the report by 
Betty and Barney Hill and their examination under hypnosis by Dr. 
Benjamin Simon, which has been documented at length by John 
Fuller in his excellent book, The Interrupted Journey. The reader 
must carry in mind the main features of the Irwin and Hill cases in 
order to follow the discussion that is the object of the present 
chapter, so those already familiar with the cases must forgive me if I 
repeat what is already well known to them. But in so doing, I hope 
some observations will come to light that have not previously been 
published. 
Report No. 100 61, in the files of the 100th Bomb Wing, 
Strategic Air Command, Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, 
was prepared by Major Paul W. Henderson. The only official 
document concerning the Hill case, it apparently has never before 
been published. Yet it contains a detail of which both Dr. Simon and 
John Fuller were unaware: the object seen by the Hills had been 
detected by military radar: 
During a casual conversation on 22 Sept 61 between Major 
Gardiner B. Reynolds,  and Captain Robert O. 
Daughaday, Commander 1917 2 AACS DIT, Pease AFB, NH, it 
was revealed that a strange incident occurred at 0214 local on 20 
Sept. 
No importance was attached to the incident at the time. Subse 
quent interrogation failed to bring out any information in addition 
to the extract of the "Daily Report of Controller." 
The visual sighting itself is summarized as follows: 
On the night of 19 20 Sept , Mr. & Mrs. Hill were traveling south on route 3 near Lincoln, NH when 
they observed, through the windshield of their car, a strange 
object in the sky. They noticed it because of its shape and the 
intensity of its lighting as compared to the stars in the sky. The 
weather and sky was clear at the time. 
In the report itself, under Paragraph E: Location and Details, we 
read Betty Hill's account of the sighting as reported by Pease Air 
Force Base officials: 
The observers were traveling by car in a southerly direction on Route 
3 south of Lincoln, N.H, when they noticed a brightly lighted object 
ahead of their car at an angle of elevation of approximately 45°. It 
appeared strange to them because of its shape and the intensity of its 
lights compared to the stars in the sky. Weather and sky were clear. 
They continued to observe the object from their moving car for a few 
minutes then stopped. After stopping the car they used binoculars at 
times. 
They report that the object was traveling north very fast. They 
report it changed directions rather abruptly and then beaded 
South. Shortly thereafter it stopped and hovered in the air. There 
was no sound evident up to this time. Both observers used the 
binoculars at this point. While hovering, objects began to appear 
from the body of the "object" which they describe as looking like 
wings which made a V shape then extended. The "wings" had red 
lights on the tips. At this point they observed it to appear to swoop 
down in the general direction of their auto. The object continued 
to descend until it appeared to be only a matter of "hundreds of 
feet" above their car. At this point they decided to get out of that 
area, and fast. 
Mr. Hill was driving and Mrs. Hill watched the object by sticking 
her head out of the window. It departed in a generally North 
westerly direction but Mrs. Hill was prevented from observing its 
full departure by her position in the car. 
They report that while the object was above them after it had 
"swooped down" they heard a series of short loud "buzzes" which 
they described as sounding like someone had dropped a tuning fork. 
They report that they could feel these buzzing sounds in their auto. 
No further visual observations were made of this object. They con 
tinued on their trip and when they arrived in the vicinity of Ashland, 
N.H., about thirty miles from Lincoln, they again heard the "buzzing" 
sound of the "object"; however, they did not sec it at this time. 
Mrs. Hill reported the flight pattern of the "object" to be erratic, 
changed directions rapidly, that during its flight it ascended and 
descended numerous times very rapidly. Its flight was described 
as jerky and not smooth. 
Mr. Hil] is a Civil Service employee in the Boston Post Office and 
doesn't possess any technical or scientific training. Neither docs 
his wife. 


During a later conversation with Mr. Hill, he volunteered the ob 
servation that he did not originally intend to report this incident but 
inasmuch as he and his wife did in fact see this occurrence he decided 
to report it. lie says that on looking back he feels that the whole thing 
is incredible and he feels somewhat foolish—he just cannot believe 
that such a thing could or did happen. He says, on the other hand, that 
they both saw what they reported and this fact gives it some degree of 
reality. 


Information contained herein was collected by means of telephone 
conversation between the observers and the preparing individual. 
The reliability of the observer cannot be judged and while his 
apparent honesty and seriousness appears to be valid it cannot be 
judged at this time. 


This report is remarkable for what it does not contain. In this respect, 
it is probably typical of a large class of Air Force records (most of 
those involving close proximity to a UFO) where either witness 
reluctance or lack of adequate follow up eliminated the most 
significant information. In the present case, the witnesses failed to 
give the Air Force any information as to the beings they could see 
aboard the craft during their observation with binoculars. And proper 
investigation would have disclosed an element Of which they were 
not immediately aware: they could not ac
count for a time gap of two hours between the two periods of 
buzzing sounds. In fact, they could not recall how they had driven 
the thirty five miles between Indian Head and Ashland so casually 
mentioned in the Air Force report. 


What happened after their story became known is well documented 
in John Fuller's book. Both witnesses had a scries of strange 
nightmares. The dreams led them to see a psychiatrist who used 
hypnosis to discover the root of the problem, and it was only then 
found that the origin of the nightmares could be traced to those 
missing two hours. Under separate hypnosis, Betty and Barney Hill 
said they had been taken by the strange beings into the UFO. 
I have been privileged to hear the portion of the tapes covering the 
"abduction" of Betty and Barney Hill. Further discussion with the 
witnesses, and with Dr. Simon and John Fuller, leads me to regard 
the case, not as an individual event to be investigated and treated as 
such, but, on the contrary, as an indication of a general pattern that 
cannot be separated from the total phenomenon. 


First, it is interesting to note that, as further details came to the Hills' 
memories after treatment, the case took on more of the features 
present in other UFO landings, of which the Hills could not have 
heard. One such detail is the recollection by Betty Hill that, after 
their car was stopped and a group of "men" had come toward them, 
the creatures had opened the door of the vehicle and pointed a small 
device at her. When I asked her to what usual object she could 
compare it, she told me, "It could have been a pencil." 
It is not necessary to repeat the descriptions given by the Hills of the 
manner in which they were abducted or of the conditions inside the 
object. It is enough to say that the statements made under hypnosis 
by Betty and Barney are in general agreement. And it is also useful 
to study the detailed accounts of the entities given by the witnesses: 
Betty states: 
Most of the men are my height, . None is as tall as Barney, so I 
would judge diem to be 5' to 5'4". Their chests are larger than 
ours; their noses were larger [longer] than the average size 
although I have seen people with noses like theirs—like Jimmy Durante. 
Their complexions were of a gray tone; like a gray paint with a 
black base; their lips were of a bluish tint. Hair and eyes were 
very dark, possibly black? 
In a sense, they looked like mongoloids, . This sort of round 
face and broad forehead, along with a certain type of coarseness. 
The surface of their skin seemed to be a bluish gray, but probably 
whiter than that. Their eyes moved, and they had pupils. 
Somehow, I had the feeling they were more like cats' eyes.4 
Barney, on the other hand, says this: 
The men had rather odd shaped heads, with a large cranium, di 
minishing in size as it got toward the chin. And the eyes continued 
around to the sides of their heads, so that it appeared that they 
could see several degrees beyond the lateral extent of our vision. 
This was startling to me, . [The mouth] was much like when 
you draw one horizontal line with a short perpendicular line on 
each end. This horizontal line would represent the lips without the 
muscle that we have. And it would part slightly as they made this 
mumumumming sound. The texture of the skin, as I remember it 
from this quick glance, was grayish, almost metallic looking. I 
didn't notice any hair —or headgear for that matter. I didn't notice 
any proboscis, there just seemed to be two slits that represented 
the nostrils. 
There are some obvious contradictions between the two descriptions. 
Betty speaks of very dark hair; Barney did not notice any. The men 
described by Barney do not exactly evoke in my mind the picture of 
Jimmy Durante! On the other hand, the creatures are strikingly 
reminiscent of the UFO operators of a large number of stories 
unknown outside a very small group of specialists. 
Apart from disagreement on the nose and lips, Betty's statement 
matches the description made by Barney of the shape of the head and 
the color and appearance of the skin. Another remark by Betty is 
significant in this respect: "I got the impression that the leader and 
the examiner were different from the crew members. But this is hard 
to say, because I really didn't want to look at the men." 
Two other elements are outstanding in this case. One of them is the 
manner of communication with the strange beings. They 
communicated among themselves through an audible language, 
which was definitely not understandable to the witnesses. Yet 
when they communicated with the Hills, their thoughts came through 
in English. Betty thinks that they spoke English "with an accent," 
while Barney feels that the words and the presence of the entity were 
two separate things: 
I did not hear an actual voice. But in my mind, I knew what he 
was saying. It wasn't as if he were talking to me with my eyes 
open, and he was sitting across the room from me. It was more as 
if the words were there, a part of me, and he was outside the 
actual creation of the words themselves. 
This very remarkable statement, an excellent description of the 
mechanism that triggered the communication, may well be a clue to 
the entire episode, and it certainly places the case in the domain of 
the Theory of Apparitions—as it is treated, for instance, by Tyrrell in 
his celebrated 1942 Myers Lectures before the British Society for 
Psychical Research. Thus it is noteworthy that the apparent absurdity 
of the sequence of actions constituting the episode should be 
reducible to the triggering of high level perception patterns within 
the witness's brain, and not necessarily through an actual normal 
physical process. And this characteristic, in its turn, is reminiscent 
both of neurophysiological experiments and of reports by the most 
reliable observers of "ghosts," although, of course, ghosts are 
distinguished from the class of phenomena we are studying here by 
the absence of material traces— which makes their interpretation a 
good deal simpler. And while it is probable that a complete theory of 
ghosts could confine the phenomena to parameters within the human 
nervous system, the same is not true of UFO's. For this reason, 
therefore, it is crucial to pursue the investigation of cases of 
apparitions in older times, in relation to reports such as that of the 
Hills. 
The recognition of a strong psychological (or psychic, if you prefer) 
component in UFO manifestations makes such a study imperative. If 
the phenomena are to be ascribed to psychological causes, then the 
causes must have manifested themselves during all epochs, although 
naturally sociologists could give various reasons to expect a 
considerable increase in such manifestations since World War II. On 
the other hand, if the phenomenon 


is not wholly psychological in nature, then the discovery of his 
torical antecedents would be a valuable clue to its nature. 
The "experiment" performed on Betty Hill by the entities is therefore 
quite remarkable. It will be recalled that while she was in the craft, 
Betty was submitted to a simulated medical test. Under hypnosis, she 
reported that a long needle was inserted into her navel, that she felt 
pain, and that the pain stopped when the leader made a certain 
gesture with his hand in front of her eyes. A fifteenth century French 
calendar, the Kalendrier des Bergiers, shows the tortures inflicted by 
demons on the people they have taken: the demons are depicted 
piercing their victims' abdomens with long needles. In fact, the 
psychological invariable in all these stories is unmistakable. The 
problem, then, is not to identify it, but to relate it in a rational manner 
to the physical features encountered during the observations—for 
example, the tracking by military radar operators of the UFO seen by 
the Hills. 
Perhaps we should illustrate the difficulty of this problem by using a 
case that is less well known than the Hills incident, though it is quite 
as dramatic. It has never appeared in English UFO literature and 
therefore cannot have influenced American UFO lore. Even in 
France it is practically unknown. The incident took place on May 20, 
1950, at about 4:00 P.M. I cannot reveal the name of the witness or 
the exact location. I can say, however, that the witness was a woman, 
and that the episode took place in the central region of France, near 
the Loire River. An official investigation by French local police has 
substantiated the physical traces mentioned in this report, which can 
be translated thus: 
I was hurrying back home to prepare dinner. I was happy and 
content and I was singing some popular tune. Everything was 
calm and still, without any breeze or wind; I was alone on the 
path. 
Suddenly, I found myself within a brilliant, blinding light, and I 
saw two huge black hands appear in front of me. Each one had 
five fingers, of a black color with a yellowish tint, somewhat like 
copper. The fingers were roughly formed, slightly vibrating, or 
quivering. These hands did not come from behind me, but from 
above, as if they had been hanging over my head awaiting the 
proper time to catch me. The black hands did not immediately 
apply themselves to my head. I probably took two or three steps 
before they touched me. The hands had no visible arms! The two 
black hands were ap
plied to my face with violence and squeezed my head, as a bird of prey 
rushes on its unfortunate, helpless victim. They pulled my head back 
against a very hard chest—one that seemed to be made of iron; I felt the 
cold through my hair and behind my neck, but no contact with clothes. 
The hands were squeezing my head like a formidable vice, not abruptly, 
but gradually. They were very cold, and their touch made me think that 
they were not made of flesh. The big fingers were placed on my eyes, 
and I could not see anymore, on my nose so that I could not breathe, and 
also on my mouth, to prevent me from crying out. 
When I was surrounded by the strong, blinding light, I had the feeling I 
had been paralyzed, and when the hands touched me, I had the very 
distinct impression of a strong electric discharge, as if I had been shaken 
by a lightning bolt. My whole body was annihilated, helpless, without 
reflexes. I was like a broken toy between the inhuman hands of my 
unknown aggressor. For a little over a minute, I felt his hands tightening 
very strongly on either side of my throat. It was horribly painful. Then 
he began to swing me forward and backward several times, still fiercely 
squeezing my head against his chest. I had the distinct impression that 
this being wore armor or a steel carapace, or some very hard and cold 
material. I felt his two [invisible] arms pressing heavily on my 
shoulders. 
It was at that moment that I heard his laugh, a strange laugh I could not 
explain; it was as if I heard him through some water, and yet it seemed 
quite close, above my head. At first it sounded rough and hushed, then 
rather strong and rolling. It made me shudder and hurt me. After a few 
seconds the laugh stopped, suddenly cut off. Then a knee hit me in the 
back, hurting me very much, as if it were made of steel. That made me 
think my aggressor was completely covered with steel. This blow made 
me fall back, and the unknown aggressor made me lie down, still 
squeezing my head against his chest. Then he dragged me along the 
path, by my head, and he seemed in a great hurry. I did not hear him 
breathe. 
He pulled me into a bush full of brambles and nettles and acacias, still 
going backward at an incredible speed, holding my head. At that 
moment I heard his voice above me, and it said: "There she is. We've got 
her." As if he were talking to someone else, some accomplice who had 
stayed inside the bush; this voice, like the laugh, seemed close by, 
although hushed by some obstacle, and it was short, rough, sharply cut. 
I was choking, and I felt I was going to die; I thought of my family 
waiting for me at home, and my whole life passed before me in a few 
seconds. My aggressor pulled me through the bushes until we reached a 
small pasture, and suddenly he stopped! Why? Ilis hands had gradually 
slipped down my face, and I tried to call 
 
for help but I had no voice left but a tiny, shrill cry. After a while I was able to sit 
among the brambles. I had a very hard time breathing. My bag was still in my 
hand, with the money it contained. At last I was able to get up in spite of my 
weakness, and then I heard some noise to my left inside the bushes. I thought I 
was going to see my aggressors and recognize their faces, but I saw nothing! 
Only the branches moved, waving in the air; I saw and heard the brambles 
scratching the empty space, and the grass being pressed as if under the steps of 
some invisible being. I was terrified. Softly, I took to the path again, walking 
with difficulty. My legs were lacerated by the brambles and bleeding; I felt a 
strange sensation of nervous exhaustion, indefinable, as if I had been electrified 
by a strong current. In my mouth was a sickening, metallic, bitter taste; my 
muscles did not obey me. Over my shoulders I felt something like a bar, and in 
my back a painful heat, as if I had been exposed to flames or to a burning ray. At times I still felt as if I was being brushed by an invisible brush. I must have walked like that for five or six minutes. At the end of the path there was a turn, and from there I could see houses, and then the pains decreased a little bit. 


Everything had lasted a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and it 
seemed that I had lived in an unreal world. Abruptly I heard a great 
noise, like a violent wind during a storm, a sudden displacement of warm 
air or a violent whirlwind. I saw the trees bending as if under a sudden 
storm, and I was nearly thrown down. Almost simultaneously, there was 
a strong, blinding white light. I had the feeling something flew through 
the air very fast, but I saw nothing. Soon everything became calm again. 
I felt discomfort and nausea. I reached the house of the lock keeper and 
when I opened the door they came toward me and asked me what had 
happened, because they too had seen a light from their house. The lock 
keeper's wife asked me what was wrong. When I was able to speak at 
last, they told me all the fingers were still deeply marked in the flesh of 
my face, making large red bars. They applied peroxide to the scratches 
on my legs, and an ointment, and bathed my face with cold water. My 
hands were badly hurt. 


After a long lapse of time I started again toward to buy a few things, 
without saying anything to anyone, and I came back home laboriously, 
by another path. 
After I told my mother, and my father and my brother, too, what had 
happened to me, they filed a complaint with the gendarmerie. The police 
came and interviewed me at length; they examined me and observed the 
marks of large fingers on my face. I was still swollen, and felt pains at 
several places. They concluded there had been an abduction attempt and 
told me that it was very strange, mysterious. They took me to the spot to 
continue their investigation there. They noted that at some places the brambles were black and 
scorched; at some other places they were only pressed and 
flattened. The acacias too had been burned in places, and they 
were broken too. The fences in the pasture, which were made of 
wooden posts and barbed wire, had suffered also. Some posts 
were burned, others pulled out; the barbed wire had been 
wrenched away and broken. 



The previous day (May 19), in the evening, the witness in this case 
had observed a "kind of shooting star," which stopped abruptly, then 
appeared to go up and stay among the other stars for a while, then to 
grow bigger and take on a kind of swinging motion, its light 
alternately on and off. Suddenly it left, on a curved trajectory, and 
reached the horizon at very high speed. She had dismissed the 
incident from her mind at the time. The official investigation got 
nowhere and was dropped. The case is still carried as an unsolved 
abduction attempt. 
What can we say about such reports? They are neither more nor less 
believable than other UFO sightings; they are in line with some of 
the most dramatic stories of older days, which inspired the fairy 
tales; they are also in line, as we shall see, with the visions of the 
1897 airship and the incidents that followed it. But it is too early to 
theorize. It is better, at this time, merely to inspect the documents, 
though I must confess that I have previously regarded many such 
cases as worthless (even if their documentation is not inferior to that 
of the more believable cases we study). Take another abduction 
case, one that allegedly occurred on August 21, 1915: 
Gallipoli, August 28, 1915. 


The following is an account of a strange incident that happened . 
in the morning, during the severest and final days of the fighting, 
which took place at "Hill 60," Suvla Bay, "ANZAC" [Australian 
and New Zealand Army Corps]. 
The day broke clear, without a cloud in sight, as any beautiful 
Mediterranean day could be expected to be. The exception, how 
ever, was a number of perhaps six or eight "loaf of bread" shaped 
clouds— all shaped exactly alike—which were hovering over 
"Hill 60." It was noticed that, in spite of a four or five mile an 
hour breeze from the south, these clouds did not alter their 
position in any shape or form, nor did they drift away under the 
influence of the breeze. They were hovering at an elevation of 
about 60 degrees as seen from our observation point 500 ft. up. 
Also stationary and resting on the 

ground right underneath this group of clouds was a similar cloud in 
shape, measuring about 800 ft. in length, 200 ft. in height, and 200 ft. in 
width. This cloud was absolutely dense, almost solid looking in 
structure, and positioned about 14 to 18 chains from the fighting in 
British held territory. All this was observed by twenty two men of No. 3 
Section of No. 1 Field Company, N.Z.E., including myself, from our 
trenches on Rhododendron Spur, approximately 2500 yards south west 
of the cloud on the ground. Our vantage point was overlooking "Hill 60" 
by about 300 ft. As it turned out later, this singular cloud was straddling 
a dry creek bed or sunken road (Kaiajik Dere) and we had a perfect view 
of the cloud's sides and ends as it rested on the ground. Its colour was a 
light grey, as was the colour of the other clouds. 


A British Regiment, the First Fourth Norfolk, of several hundred men, 
was then noticed marching up this sunken road or creek towards "Hill 
60." It appeared as though they were going to reinforce the troops at 
"Hill 60." However, when they arrived at this cloud, they marched 
straight into it, with no hesitation, but no one ever came out to deploy 
and fight at "Hill 60." About an hour later, after the last of the file had 
disappeared into it, this cloud very unobtrusively lifted off the ground 
and, like any fog or cloud would, rose slowly until it joined the other 
similar clouds which were mentioned in the beginning of this account. 
On viewing them again, they all looked alike "as peas in a pbd." All this 
time, the group of clouds had been hovering in the same place, but as 
soon as the singular "ground" cloud had risen to their level, they all 
moved away northwards, i.e. towards Thrace (Bulgaria). In a matter of 
about three quarters of an hour they had all disappeared from view. 
The Regiment mentioned is posted as "missing" or "wiped out" and 
on Turkey surrendering in 1918, the first thing Britain demanded of 
Turkey was the return of this regiment. Turkey replied that she had 
neither captured this Regiment, nor made contact with it, and did not 
know that it existed. A British Regiment in 1914 18 consisted of any 
number between 800 and 4000 men. Those'who observed this 
incident vouch for the fact that Turkey never captured that Regiment, 
nor made contact with it. 
We, the undersigned, although late in time, that is at the 50th 
Jubilee of the ANZAC landing, declare that the above described 
incident is true in every word. 
Signed by witnesses: Sapper F. 57 King St., Cambridge. 
 
TAKEN BY THE WIND. 
We have now examined several stories of abductions and attempts at 
kidnappings by the occupants of flying saucers. These episodes are 
an integral part of the total UFO problem and cannot be solved 
separately. Historical evidence, gathered by Wentz, moreover, once 
more points in the same direction. 
This sort of belief in fairies being able to take people was very 
common and exists yet in a good many parts of West Ireland, . 
The Good People are often seen there (pointing to Knoch Magh) 
in great crowds playing hurley and ball. And one often sees 
among them the young men and women and children who have 
been taken. 
Not only are people taken, but—as in flying saucer stories—they are 
sometimes carried to faraway spots by aerial means. Such a story is 
told by the Prophet Ezekiel, of course, and by other religious writers. 
But an ordinary Irishman, John Campbell, also told Wentz: 
A man whom I have seen, Roderick Mac Neil, was lifted by the 
hosts and left three miles from where he was taken up. The hosts 
went at about midnight. 
Rev. Kirk gives a few stories of similar extraordinary kidnap pings, 
but the most fantastic legend of all is that attached to Kirk himself: 
the good reverend is commonly believed to have been taken by the 
fairies. 
Mrs. J. MacGregor who keeps the key to the old churchyard 
where there is a tomb to Kirk, though many say there is nothing 
in it but a coffin filled with stones, told me Kirk was taken into 
the Fairy Knoll, which she pointed to just across a little valley in 
front of us, and is there yet, for the hill is full of caverns and in 
them the "good people" have their homes. And she added that 
Kirk appeared to a relative of his after he was taken. 
Wentz, who reports this interesting story, made further inquiries 
regarding the circumstances of Kirk's death. He went to 
see the successor to Kirk in Abcrfoyle, Rev. Taylor, who clarified 
the story: 
At tlie time of his disappearance people said he was taken because 
the fairies were displeased with him for disclosing their secrets in 
so public a manner as he did. At all events, it seems likely that 
Kirk was taken ill very suddenly with something like apoplexy 
while on the Fairy Knoll, and died there. I have searched the 
presbyter books and find no record of how Kirk's death really 
took place, but of course there is not the least doubt of his body 
being in the grave. 
Kirk believed in the ability of the Good People to perform 
kidnappings and abductions, and this idea was so widespread that it 
has come down to us through a variety of channels. We can therefore 
examine in detail four aspects of fairy lore that directly relate to our 
study:  1. the conditions and purpose of the abductions; (2) the cases 
of release from Elfland and the forms taken by the elves' gratitude 
when the abducted human being had performed some valuable 
service during his stay in Elfland; (3) the belief in the kidnapping 
activities of the fairy people; and (4) what I shall call the relativistic 
aspects of the trip to Elfland. 
Hartland reports that a Swedish book published in 1775 contains a 
legal statement, solemnly sworn on April 12, 1671, by the husband 
of a midwife who was taken to fairyland to assist a troll's wife in 
giving birth to a child. The author of the statement seems to have 
been a clergyman named Peter Rahm. 
On the authority of this declaration we are called on to believe 
that the event recorded actually happened in the year 1660. Peter 
Rahm alleges that he and his wife were at their farm one evening 
late when there came a little man, swart of face and clad in grey, 
who begged the declarant's wife to come and help his wife then in 
labour. The declarant, seeing that they had to do with a Troll, 
prayed over his wife, blessed her, and bade her in God's name go 
with the stranger. She seemed to be borne along by the wind. 
It is reported that she came home "in the same manner," having 
refused any food offered to her while in the troll's company. 
In another tale, the midwife's husband accompanies her through the 
forest. They arc guided by the "earthman"—the gnome who has 
requested their help. They go through a moss door, then a wooden 
door, and later through a door of shining 
 
metal. A stairway leads them inside trie earth, to a magnificent 
chamber where the "earthwife" is resting. Kirk reports that in a case 
whose principals he personally knew the abducted woman found the 
home of the Little People filled with light, although she could not 
see any lamp or fire. 
Rev. Kirk also says that later, in the company of another clergyman, 
he visited a woman, then forty years old, and asked her questions 
concerning her knowledge of the fairies. It was rumored that for a 
number of years she had taken almost no nourishment, and that she 
often stayed very late in the fields looking after her sheep, that she 
met there and talked with people she did not know, and that one 
night she had fallen asleep on a hill and had been carried away into 
another place before sunrise. This woman, says Kirk, was always 
melancholy and silent. 
The physical nature of Magonia, as it appears in such tales, is quite 
noteworthy. Sometimes, it is a remote country, an invisible island, 
some faraway place one can reach only by a long journey. Indeed, in 
some tales, it is a celestial country, as in the Indian story quoted 
earlier. This parallels the belief in the extraterrestrial origin of UFO's 
so popular today. A second—and equally wide spread—theory, is 
that Elfland constitutes a sort of parallel universe, which coexists 
with our own. It is made visible and tangible only to selected people, 
and the "doors" that lead through it are tangential points, known only 
to the elves. This is somewhat analogous to the theory, sometimes 
found in the UFO literature, 
concerning what some authors like to call the "fourth dimension" 
•—although, of course, this expression makes much less physical 
sense than does the theory of a parallel Elfland. (It does sound more 
scientific, however!) 
Hartland gives tales that illustrate the theory of "tangential 
universes," such as the following: 
In Nithsdale a fairy rewards the kindness of a young mother, to 
whom she had committed her babe to suckle, by raking her on a 
visit to Fairyland. A door opened in a green hillside, disclosing a 
porch which the nurse and her conductor entered. There the lady 
dropped three drops of a precious dew on the nurse's left eyelid, 
and they were admitted to a beautiful land watered with meandering rivulets and yellow with corn, where the trees were laden with 

fruits which dropped honey. The nurse was here presented with 
magical gifts, and when a green dew had baptized her right eye she 
was enabled to behold further wonders. On returning the fairy 
passed her hand over the woman's eye and restored its natural 
powers. 
This tale brings us to our second point, that of the gratitude shown 
by the elves in return for services performed by humans, and the 
form such gratitude takes. The gratitude itself is evidenced by many 
stories of elvish gifts in Scandinavian and Northern European talcs, 
such as this one: 
A German midwife, who was summoned by a Waterman, or Nix, 
to aid a woman in labor, was told by the latter: "I am a Christian 
woman as well as you; and I was carried off by a Waterman, who 
changed me. When my husband comes in now and offers you 
money, take no more from him than you usually get, or else he 
will twist your neck. Take good care!" 
In another story, the midwife is asked how much she wants. She 
answers she will not take more from them than from other people, 
and the elf replies: "That's lucky for thec. Hadst thou demanded 
more, it would have gone ill with thee!" In spite of that, she received 
her apron full of gold.
In a Pomeranian story, the midwife similarly replies to the same 
question, and the mannikin says, "Now then, lift up thy apron!" and 
fills it with rubbish that lay in the corner of the room. He then takes 
his lantern and politely escorts her home. But when she shakes out 
her apron, pure gold falls on the floor. 
Elvish gifts have a magical character, which will take very special 
meaning in the next chapter. Their magical quality could be 
illustrated with tales from practically any country. Chinese folklore, 
in particular, gives numerous examples of it. In one tale, the dwarf 
fills the woman's apron with something she must not look at before 
she reaches her house. Naturally she takes a look as soon as the dwarf 
has vanished, and sees that she is carrying black coals. Angered, she 
throws them away, retaining two as evidence of the dwarf's bad 
treatment. She arrives home and discovers the black coals have 
turned into precious stones. But when she goes back to find the other 
coals, they are all gone. 
There are, in fact, numerous stories in folklore of humans who 
 
have gone to fairyland of their own will, either taking a message, or 
bringing one back, or performing some service for the supernatural 
beings who live there. But—and this is my third point— we also 
have numerous accounts of abductions by the fairies. They take men 
and women, especially pregnant women or young mothers, and they 
also are very active in stealing young children. Sometimes, they 
substitute a false child for the real one, leaving in place of the real 
child a broom with rugs wrapped around it or one of their children, a 
changeling: 
By the belief in changelings I mean a belief that fairies and other 
imaginary beings are on the watch for young children or .. . 
sometimes even for adults, that they may, if they can find them 
unguarded, seize and carry them off, leaving in their place one of 
them. 
This belief is not confined to Europe. It is found in regions as 
remote from Europe as China and the American Pacific coast.But, 
in any case, once the parents have recognized their child has been 
taken, what should they do? Hartland says that a 
method in favour in the North of Scotland is to take the suspected 
elf to some known haunt of its race, generally, we are told, some 
spot where peculiar soughing sounds are heard, or to some 
barrow, or stone circle, and lay it down. An offering of bread, 
butter, milk, cheese, eggs and flesh or fowl must accompany the 
child. 
The parents then retire for an hour or two. If their gifts have 
vanished when they come back, then their own child will be 
returned. 
But sometimes more radical methods have been used, and we can 
only pity the poor children who have been ill treated because their 
superstitious parents thought they looked like elves! As late as May 
17, 1884, it was reported in the London Daily Telegraph, two 
women were arrested at Clonmel and charged with cruelty toward a 
child three years old. They thought he was a changeling and, by ill 

treating him, hoped to obtain the "real child" from the fairies! And 
there is no question that in medieval times the same superstition has 
led to the death of children who had congenital defects. Sometimes 
the same treatment applies to adults who have been changed, and 
Hartland gives a very funny example of such a case: 
 
A tale from Badenoch represents the man as discovering the fraud 
from finding his wife, a woman of unruffled temper, suddenly 
turned a shrew. So he piles up a great fire and threatens to throw 
the occupant of the bed upon it unless she tells him what has 
become of his own wife. She then confesses that the latter has 
been carried off, and she has been appointed successor. But by his 
determination he happily succeeds in recapturing his own at a 
certain fairy knoll near Inverness. 
Of course, the UFO myth has not yet reached such romantic 
proportions, but we are perhaps not quite far from it, at least in 
certain rural areas, where strange flying objects have become a 
source of terror to people traveling at night, and where the rumor that 
"invaders" might be around has gained interest, if not support. A 
recent television scries has capitalized on this aspect of UFO lore. In 
the show, the human race has been infiltrated by extraterrestrials who 
differ from humans in small details only. This is not a new idea, as 
the belief in changelings shows. And there is a well known passage 
in Martin Luther's Table Talk, in which he tells the Prince of Anhalt 
that he should throw into the Moldau a certain man who is, in his 
opinion, such a changeling— or killcrop, as they were called in 
Germany. 
What was the purpose of such fairy abductions? The idea advanced 
by students of folk talcs is again very close to a current theory about 
UFO's: that the purpose of such contact is a genetic one. According 
to Hartland: 
The motive assigned to fairies in northern stories is that of pre 
serving and improving their race, on the one hand by carrying off 
human children to be brought up among the elves and to become 
united with them, and on the other hand by obtaining the milk and 
fostering care of human mothers for their own offspring. 
{We shall see below what parallels can be found in recent UFO 
cases.) 
However, such is not always the purpose of abduction, and people 
are often returned by the elves after nothing more than a dance or a 
game. But a strange phenomenon often takes place: the people who 
have spent a day in Elfland come back to this world one year, or 
more, older! 
This is our fourth point, and quite a remarkable one. Time 
does not pass there as it does here. And we have in such stories the 
first idea of the relativity of time. How did this idea come to the 
storytellers, ages ago? What inspired them? No one can answer such 
questions. But it is a fact that the dissymmetry of the time element 
between Elfland and our world is present in the tales from all 
countries. 
Discussing this supernatural lapse of time in fairyland, Hart land 
relates the true story of Rhys and Llewellyn, recorded about 1825 in 
the Vale of Ncath, Wales. Rhys and Llewellyn were fellow servants 
to a farmer. As they went home one night, Rhys told his friend to 
stop and listen to the music. Llewellyn heard no music. But Rhys 
had to dance to the tune he had heard a hundred times. He begged 
Llewellyn to go ahead with the horses, saying that he would soon 
overtake him, but Llewellyn arrived home alone. The next day, he 
was suspected of murdering Rhys and jailed. But a farmer "who was 
skilled in fairy matters" guessed the truth. Several men gathered—
among them the narrator of the story—and took Llewellyn to the 
spot where he said his companion had vanished. Suddenly, "Hush!" 
cried Llewellyn. "I hear music, I hear sweet harps." 
All listened but could hear nothing. Llewellyn's foot was on the 
outer edge of the fairy ring. He told the narrator to place his foot on 
his, and then he too heard the sounds of many harps and saw a 
number of Little People dancing in a circle twenty feet or so in 
diameter. After him, each of the party did the same and observed the 
same thing. Among the dancing Little Folk was Rhys. Llewellyn 
caught him by his smock frock as he passed close to them and pulled 
him out of the circle. At once Rhys asked, "Where are the horses?" 
and asked them to let him finish the dance, which had not lasted 
more than five minutes. And he could never be persuaded of the time 
that had elapsed. He became melancholy, fell ill, and soon after died. 
Such stories can be found in Keightlcy's The Fairy Mythology and 
other books, although of course the story of Rhys and Llewellyn is 
remarkable because it dates from the nineteenth century, thus 
providing a measure of continuity between fairy and UFO lore. In 
the tales of this type, several modes of recovery of the persons taken 
are offered. One of them consists in touching the 
 
abducted man with a piece of iron, and the objection of super 
natural beings to this metal is one of the themes of fairy lore. 
Near Bridgcnd, Wales, is a place where it is reported that a woman 
who had been taken by the fairies came back ten years later and 
thought she had not been away more than ten days. Hartland gives 
another charming story on the same theme, concerning a boy named 
Gitto Bach, or Little Griffith, a farmer's son who disappeared: 
During two whole years nothing was heard of him; but at length 
one morning when his mother, who had long and bitterly mourned 
for him as dead, opened the door, whom should she see sitting on 
the threshold but Gitto with a bundle under his arm. He was 
dressed and looked exactly as when she last saw him, for he had 
not grown a bit. "Where have you been all this time?" asked his 
mother. "Why, it was only yesterday I went away," he replied; and 
opening the bundle he showed her a dress the "little children" as 
he called them, had given him for dancing with them. The dress 
was of white paper without seam. With maternal caution she put it 
into the fire. 
The best known stories where time relativity is the main theme are 
of course of the "Rip van Winkle" type, patterned after numerous 
folk stories that allegedly concern actual events. Strangely enough, 
we again find the identical theme in ages old Chinese folklore. 
Witness the story of Wang Chih, one of the holy men of the Taoists. 
One day, as Wang Chih wandered through the mountains of Kii 
Chow gathering firewood, he saw a grotto where some old men were 
playing chess. He came in to watch their game and laid down his ax. 
One of the old men gave him something like a date stone and 
instructed him to place it on his mouth. "No sooner had he done so 
than hunger and thirst passed away." Some time later, one of the 
aged players told him, "It is long since you came here; you should go 
home now." But as he turned to pick up his ax, Wang Chih found 
that the handle had turned into dust. He reached the valley, but found 
not hours or days but centuries had passed, and nothing remained of 
the world as he had known it. 
A similar tradition exists in Denmark. For instance, in a tale which is 
typical of the pattern, a bride thoughtlessly walked through the fields 

during the festivities of her wedding day and 
passed a mound "where the elves were making merry." (Again, we 
have here a description of the Little People close to the magical 
object sometimes described as a large, flat, round table, sometimes as 
a hillock. A disk or a large cone resting on the ground would fit that 
description. In describing the fairy knoll, Hartland writes: "The 
hillock was standing, as is usual on such occasions, on red pillars!") 
The "wee folk" offered the bride to be a cup of wine, and she joined 
in a dance with them. Then she hastened back home, where she 
could not find her family. Everything had changed in the village. 
Finally, on hearing her cries, a very old woman exclaimed: "Was it 
you, then, who disappeared at my grandfather's brother's wedding, a 
hundred years ago?" 


At these words, the poor girl fell down and expired. It is fascinating 
indeed to find such talcs, which antedate Einstein's and Langcvin's 
rclativistic traveler by centuries! 
The supernatural lapse of time in fairyland is often allied to the 
theme of love between the abducted human being and one of the 
fairies. Such is the pattern of the story of Ossian, or Oisin: 
Once, when he was a young man, Oisin fell asleep under a tree. He 
woke up suddenly and found a richly dressed lady "of more than 
mortal beauty" looking at him. She was the queen of the legendary 
land of Tir na n'Og, and she invited him to share her palace. Oisin 
and the queen were in love and happy, but the hero was warned not 
to go into the palace gardens or to stand on a certain flat stone. 
Naturally, he transgressed the order, and when he stood upon the 
stone, he beheld his native land, suffering from oppression and 
violence, lie went to the queen and told her he must return. "How 
long do you think you have been with me?" she asked. "Thrice seven 
days," said he. "Thrice seven years," was the answer. But he still 
wanted to go back. She then gave him a black horse from whose 
back he must not alight during his trip in the other world, for fear of 
seeing the power of time suddenly fall on him. But he forgot the 
warning when an incident induced him to dismount, and at once he 
became a feeble, blind, and helpless old man. 
It is not necessary to spend time here to point out in detail the 

parallel traditions of the island of Avalon, Morgan the Fay, the 
legend of Ogier the Dane, and the magical travels of King Arthur. 
All these traditions insist on the peculiar nature of time in the "other 
world." Nor is this limited to European history, as Hart land again 
points out: 
Many races having traditions of a Culture God—that is, of a 
superior being who has taught them agriculture and the arts of life, 
and led them to victory over their enemies—add that he has gone 
away from them for awhile, and that he will some day come back 
again. Quctzalcoatl and Viracocha, the culture gods of Mexico and 
Peru, arc familiar instances of this. 
Similarly, Vishnu has yet a tenth incarnation to accomplish the final 
destruction of this world's wicked. At the end of the present age, he 
will be revealed in the sky, seated on a white horse and holding a 
blazing sword. 
Such great traditions are common knowledge, like the abductions of 
Enoch, Ezekiel, Elijah and others in the Bible. What is not 
commonly known is that such legends have been built on the popular 
belief in numerous actual stories of the less glorious, more ordinary 
and "personal," type we have reviewed here. For instance, while all 
the books about Mexico mention Quetzalcoatl, they usually ignore 
the local beliefs in little black beings, the ikals, whose pranks we 
have already mentioned, and who, while their relationship with 
modern Latin American UFO lore is clear, also provide an obvious 
parallel to the fairy faith. 
In his study of the tales of Tenejapa, Brian Stross reports 
they are believed to be beings from another world, and some have 
been seen flying with some kind of rocket like thing attached to 
the back. With this rocket they are said occasionally to have 
carried off people. 
Similarly, Gordon Creighton reports: 
The ikal of the Tzotzils flies through the air. Sometimes he steals 
women, and the women so taken are remarkably prolific, and may 
bear a child once a week, or once a month, or even daily. The off 
spring are black, and they learn the art of flying inside their 
father's cave.
Brian Stross's Indian informants reported that a flurry of ikals 
was sighted "about twenty years ago"—which would take us back to 
1947, a very important year in UFO history. 
On June 5, 1968, the press reported that a Buenos Aires couple, Mr. 
and Mrs. Vidal, had a very strange adventure while driving between 
Chascomus and Maipu. They were surrounded by a thick cloud of 
mist and fell asleep. When they woke up, their car was on a dirt road 
they did not know, and they found out to their dismay that they were 
in Mexico! The paint on their car, a Peugeot 403, had entirely 
vanished. 

The Vidals went to the Argentine consulate in Mexico, and from 
there called some friends of theirs in Buenos Aires to make 
arrangements for their return. The consulate has refused to comment 
on the incident. The Vidals' car has been taken to the United States 
for investigation, and Mrs. Vidal has been hospitalized in an 
Argentina clinic, in a state of nervous depression. Forty eight hours 
in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Vidal cannot be accounted for. 

BEYOND REASON. 
In the past twenty years, UFO reports have been studied not 
only in a sensational light by people with journalistic motives and 
methods but also by serious persons who have tried to place them 
within the framework of space science, modern physics, psychol
ogy, or the history of superstition. An increasing number of re
searchers—best identified with the Flying Saucer Review in Great 
Britain and with the groups such as APRO and NICAP14 in the 
United States—have made systematic efforts at responsible data 
gathering, at the same time attempting to discover one or several 
consistent "patterns" in the reports. But these efforts at rational
ization of the UFO phenomenon have so far failed. 
The most appealing of the theories proposed, which would 
regard the UFO's as probes from another planet, falls short 
of explaining the phenomena in their historical development. 
Present day saucers cannot be evaluated without reference to the 
1897 airship or to earlier sightings of similar objects. Then, too, 
the theory of simple visitation must be combined with the as
sumption that the visitors know far more physics than we do— 

so much more, in fact, that an interpretation in terms of physical 
concepts known to us is bound to end up in failure and contradiction. 
A second major flaw in all the theories proposed so far is found in 
the description of the entities and their behavior. Any theory can 
account for some of these reports, but only at the expense of 
arbitrary rejection of a much larger group. 
The recognition of a parallel between UFO reports and the main 
themes of fairy lore is the first indication I have found that a way 
might exist out of this dilemma. And although it is still too early for 
us to pick up the scattered pieces of our old theories in a new attempt 
at explanation, I would like to conclude this chapter with a more 
precise review of the most difficult cases we have before us. Of the 
"reasonable" sightings there is little that can be said. The real 
problem begins when we find witnesses who are typical of the 
average population and who tell a story that, though not inconsistent 
with the spectrum of UFO reports, still stands out because of a few 
specific details that are so unbelievable that our first reaction is to 
reject the entire story. 
The thought that the story must be disregarded because it is a 
challenge to our reason is a reaction I am very familiar with, and it 
has led me in the past to select for analysis only those sightings that 
seem amenable to scientific criticism. Similarly, major groups such 
as NICAP or APRO and the official investigators working for 
Project Blue Book have devised some more or less conscious 
standards for the automatic rejection of "unbelievable" stories. To be 
sure, many of these reports do deserve the "crackpot" label, but such 
stories are usually accompanied by numerous signs of the witness's 
lack of mental balance. But when no such psychological context is 
evident, we must appraise the story very carefully. 
October 12, 1963. It was raining hard between Monte Maiz and Isla 
Verde, in Argentina, as Eugenio Douglas drove his truck loaded with 
coal along the road. Dawn was coming. Suddenly, Douglas saw a 
bright spot on the road ahead, like the headlights of an approaching 
vehicle, except that it was a single, blinding light. To avoid a 
collision, Douglas slowed down. The light became so intense he had 
to lower his head and move to the side. he stopped the truck and 
got out. The light had disappeared. 
  
Through the rain, Eugenio Douglas could now see a circular metallic 
craft, about thirty five feet high. An opening became visible, making 
a second area of light, less intense, and three figures appeared. They 
looked like men, but they were wearing strange headdresses with 
things like antennae attached to the headpieces. They were over 
twelve feet tall. There was nothing repulsive about the entities, said 
Douglas, but he was terribly scared. 
As soon as he was seen by the figures, a ray of red light flashed to 
the spot where he stood and burned him. Grabbing a revolver, he 
fired at the three entities and ran off toward Monte Maiz. But the 
burning red light followed him as far as the village, where it 
interfered with the street lights, turning them violet and green. 
Douglas could smell a pungent gas. The beauty and dramatic 
character of that scene is impressive, and in a screen illustration of 
the UFO saga this is probably the sighting that would best carry its 
total meaning. 

Douglas ran to the first house and shouted for help. Ribas, the 
owner, had died the previous night, but his family, gathered around 
the body, reported that at the same time they heard Douglas's call the 
candles in the room and the electric lights in the house turned green, 
and the same strange smell was noticed. They rushed to open the 
door: there was Douglas in the pouring rain, his overcoat over his 
head and a gun in his hand. The street lights had changed color. It 
must have been one of the most fantastic scenes in the rich archives 
of ufology. 
Eugenio Douglas was taken to the police station, where the burns on 
his face and hands were clearly seen. The police, it turned out, had 
received a number of calls about the lights' color change, but they 
had attributed the change to irregularities in the local power plant—
which, however, would hardly account for the change in the candle 
lights, if that particular observation was not an illusion. Douglas was 
examined by a doctor, who stated the burns had been caused by a 
radiation similar to ultraviolet (according to Douglas, he had felt a 
burn when exposed to a red beam). When villagers went to the site 
where the truck was still parked, they found large footprints, nearly 
twenty inches long, but they were shortly afterward washed away by 
rain. 



In late August, 1963, near the town of Sagrada Famila, Brazil, three 
boys, Fernando Eustagio, eleven, his brother Ronaldo, nine, and a 
neighbor named Marcos, went into the Eustagio garden and started to 
draw water from the well. Suddenly they became aware of a 
hovering sphere above the trees. They could even sec four or five 
TOWS of people inside the sphere. An opening under the sphere 
became visible, and two light rays shot downward. A slender, ten 
foot tall being came down, as if gliding on the two beams of light. 
He alighted in the garden and walked for twenty feet or so in an odd 
fashion: his back seemed stiff, his legs were open, and his arms 
outstretched. He swung his body from left to right as if trying to find 
his balance and then sat down on a rock. 
The three boys observed that the giant wore a transparent helmet and 
had in the middle of his forehead what they described as a dark 
"eye." He wore tall boots, each of which was equipped with a 
strange triangular spike, which made a peculiar impression in the 
soft ground and could be seen for several days afterward. His 
garment was shiny and had inflated as soon as the entity had touched 
the ground. The trousers seemed to be fastened tightly to the boots. 
He had a peculiar square pack on his chest, which emitted flashes of 
light in an intermittent manner. 
Inside the sphere, still hanging motionless above the garden, the 
three boys could see occupants behind control panels "turning knobs 
and flicking switches." 

When the giant in the garden made a motion as if to grab one of the 
boys, Fernando picked up a stone—only to find himself unable to do 
anything with it as the spaceman looked straight into his eyes. The 
giant then returned to the sphere, still using the light beams as an 
"elevator" but holding his arms close to his body this time. The boys 
were no longer afraid, although they could not account for their new 
feeling. As the sphere left, they were sure the giant spaceman had 
not come to hurt them, and somehow, in the same irrational fashion, 
they knew he would come back again. 
In Brazil, six years earlier, an incident had taken place that has 
gained in UFO literature the place it certainly deserves, thanks to an 
excellent investigation by the late Professor Olavo 

Fontes, of the National School of Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, who 
interviewed and examined the witness, A. Villas Boas, of Sao 
Francisco de Salles, Minas Gerais. 
On the night of October 5, 1957, Antonio and his brother went to 
bed about 11:00 P.M. The night was hot, and as he opened the 
window, Antonio saw a silvery light in the corral similar to the spot 
made by a powerful searchlight. Later that night, the two brothers 
observed the light was still there. Then it moved toward the house, 
sweeping the roof before going away. 

About 10:00 P.M. on October 14, Antonio was plowing with his 
tractor when he saw a blinding white light at the northern end of the 
field. Every time Antonio tried to approach it, the light moved away. 
This happened about twenty times, though the light always appeared 
to "wait for him." His second brother was watching the scene as 
Antonio finally gave up. The light simply vanished. 
The next evening Antonio was alone at the same spot. The night was 
cold, clear, and starry. At 1:00 A.M. he saw something like a red 
star, which grew larger and became an egglikc, bright object, which 
hovered above his tractor, then landed softly. Antonio tried to drive 
away, but the engine of the tractor died. He jumped down and took 
two steps, but someone caught his arm. After a short struggle, four 
men carried him inside the craft. The beings communicated among 
themselves in slowly emitted growls, unlike any sound the witness 
could reproduce, although they were "neither high pitched nor too 
low." In spite of his resistance, the creatures stripped him, washed 
his body with something like a wet sponge, and took him into 
another room through a strangely lettered door. 

It is not my purpose here to record all the details of the experience 
reported by Villas Boas: they have been adequately documented 
first in the Flying Saucer Review by Fontes and Creighton and later 
by the Lorenzcns, who provide a complete reprint of the testimony 
as recorded by Fontes and J. Martins, along with the professional 
opinion of Dr. Fontes after his medical examination of the witness, 
in their book Flying Saucer Occupants, Fontes's conclusion that 
Villas Boas is not mentally unbalanced and that he is sincere in 
reporting his story is what prompts me 
 
to include the story here. And the story docs provide a link between 
such tales as the story of Ossian and the general question of the 
genetic context of the UFO myth, which will be the object of the 
next section of this chapter. 
Antonio remained alone in the room for what seemed to him a very 
long time. When he heard a noise at the door, he turned and received 
a "terrible shock": the door was open and a woman came in, as naked 
as he was. Her hair was blonde, with a part in the center. She had 
blue eyes, rather longer than round, slanted outward. Her nose was 
straight, her cheekbones prominent. Her face looked very wide, 
"wider than that of an Indio native." It ended in a pointed chin. Her 
lips were very thin, nearly invisible, in fact. Her ears were small but 
ordinary. She was much shorter than he was, her head only reaching 
his shoulder. She quickly made clear to him what the purpose of her 
visit was. Soon after, in fact, another man came in and beckoned to 
the woman, who, pointing to her belly, smiled, pointed at the sky, 
and followed the man out.

The men came back with Antonio's clothes, then took him to a room 
where the other crew members were sitting, growling among 
themselves. The witness, who felt sure no harm would come to him 
now, carefully observed his surroundings. Among other things—all 
his remarks here are of interest—he noticed a box with a glass top 
that had the appearance of an "alarm clock." The "clock" had one 
hand and several marks that would correspond to the 3, 6, 9, and 12 
of an ordinary clock. However, although time passed, the hand did 
not move, and Antonio concluded that it was no clock.
The symbolism in this remark by Villas Boas is clear. We are 
reminded of the fairy tales quoted above, of the country where time 
does not pass, and of that great poet who had in his room a huge 
white clock without hands, bearing the word "It is later than you 
think." It is the poetic quality of such details in many UFO sightings 
that catches the attention—in spite of the irrational, or obviously 
absurd, character of the tale—and makes it so similar to a dream. 
Antonio must have thought so, because he reflected that he must 
bring some evidence back and tried to str;i! the "clock." At once, one 
of the men shoved him to the side  
angrily. This attempt to secure evidence is a constant feature of fairy 
tales, and we are also reminded of the efforts by Betty Hill to 
convince her captors to let her take a peculiar "book" she saw inside 
their craft. As in the Villas Boas incident, the men denied her the 
opportunity to convince the world that the experience had been real. 
As last, one of the men motioned Antonio to follow him to a circular 
platform. He was then given a detailed tour of the machine, taken to 
a metal ladder, and signaled to go down. Antonio watched all the 
details of the preparation for take off and observed the craft as it 
rose from the ground and flew away in a matter of seconds. He 
noticed that the time was 5:30; he had spent over four hours inside 
the strange machine. 

It must be noted that the witness volunteered information about the 
sighting in general terms when a notice appeared in a newspaper 
calling for UFO reports. He was extremely reluctant to discuss the 
more personal aspects of his experience and related them only when 
questioned with insistence by Fontes and Martins. Like Maurice 
Masse, Villas Boas suffered from excessive sleepiness for about a 
month after the incident. 

DAEMONIALITAS. 
When folklore becomes degraded to a minor literary form, as the 
fairy faith was degraded to the fairy tales we know today, it 
naturally loses much of its content: precisely those "adult" details 
that cannot be allowed to remain in children's books. The direct 
result of the censorship of spicy details in these marvelous stories is 
that they really become mere occasions for amazement. The Villas 
Boas case is hardly appropriate for nursery school reading, but to 
eliminate the little lady from the story would turn it into a tale 
without deep symbolic or psychological value. The sexual context is 
precisely what gives such accounts their literary influence. It is what 
provides impact to the fairy faith. 
Without the sexual context—without the stories of changelings, 
human midwives, intermarriage with the Gentry, of which we never 
hear in modern fairy tales—it is doubtful that the tradition about fairies would have survived through the ages. Nor is that 
true only of fairies: ihe most remarkable cases of sexual contact with 
nonhumans are not found in spicy saucer books, nor in fairy legends; 
they rest, safely stored away, in the archives of the Catholic Church. 
To find them, one must first learn Latin and gain entrance into the 
few libraries where these unique records are preserved. But the 
accounts one finds there make the Villas Boas case pale by 
comparison, as I believe the reader will agree before the end of this 
chapter. 
Let us first establish clearly that the belief in the possibility of 
intermarriage between man and the nonhuman races we arc studying 
is a corollary to the apparitions in all historical contexts. 
This is so obvious in biblical stories that I hardly need elaborate. The 
sex of the angels is not the most difficult—on the contrary, it is the 
clearest—of all theological questions. In Anatolc France's Revolt of 
the Angels it is Arcade, one of the celestial beings, who says: 
There's nothing like having sound references. In order to assure 
yourself that I am not deceiving you, Maurice, on this subject of 
the amorous embraces of angels and women, look up Justin, 
Apologies I and II; Flavins Joscphus, Jewish Antiquities, Book I, 
Chapter III; Athcnagoras, Concerning the Resurrection; 
Lactantius, Book II, Chapter XV; Tertullian, On the Veil of the 
Virgins; Marcus of Ephesns in Psellus; Eusebius, Praeparatio 
Evangelica, Book V, Chapter IV; Saint Ambrose, in his book on 
Noah and the Ark, Chapter V; Saint Augustine in his City of God, 
Book XV, Chapter XXIII; Father Meldonat, the Jesuit, Treatise on 
Demons, page 248. 
Thus spoke Arcade, his guardian angel, to poor Maurice, as he tried 
to apologize for having stolen his mistress, pretty Madam Gilberte. 
And he added shamelessly, 
It was bound to be so; all the other angels in revolt would have 
done as I did with Gilberte. "Women, saith the Apostle, should 
pray with their heads covered, because of the angels."w 
This is clear enough. But fairies and elves? Are they subject to such 
carnal desires? Consider the following facts. 
 
In the Preface of the Saga of Hrolf, Torfeus, a seventeenth century 
Danish historian, records statements made about the elves by Einard 
Gusmond, the Icelandic scholar: 
I am convinced they really do exist, and they are creatures of 
God; that they get married like we do, and have children of either 
sex: we have a proof of this in what we know of the love of some 
of their women with simple mortals. 
William Grant Stewart, in The Popular Superstitions and Festive 
Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland, devotes the second part 
of his discussion to fairies. In a chapter entitled "Of the Passions and 
Propensities of the Fairies," he has this to say on sexual intercourse 
with them: 
The fairies are remarkable for the amorousness of their disposi 
tions, and are not very backward in forming attachments and con 
nections with the people that cannot with propriety be called their 
own species. 


This is a beautiful example of convoluted phraseology. Stewart is 
less obviously embarrassed when he reports that such events no 
longer seem to take place between men and fairies: 
We owe it, in justice to both the human and the fairy commu 
nities of the present day, to say, that such intercourse as that de 
scribed to have taken place betwixt them is now extremely rare; 
with the single exception of a good old shoemaker, now or lately 
living in the village of Tomantoul, who confesses having had 
some dalliances with a "lanan shi" in his younger days, we do not 
know personally any one who has carried matters this length. 
If Stewart came back today, he would have to revise this statement 
after reading UFO material. Kirk stated.the case more clearly when 
he said: "In our Scotland there are numerous and beautiful creatures 
of that aerial order, who frequently assign meetings to lascivious 
young men as succubi, or as joyous mistresses and prostitutes, who 
are called Leannain Sith or familiar spirits." I hardly need to remind 
the reader of the importance of such "familiar spirits" in medieval 
occultism, particularly in Rosicrucian theories. Nor do I need to 
mention the number of accused witches who were condemned to 
death on the evidence that they had such familiar spirits. 

There is no gap between the fairy faith and ufology regarding the 
sexual question. This is apparent from the study made by Wentz, 
who records, for example, the following story: 
My grandmother Catherine Mac Innis used to tell about a man 
named Laughlin, whom she knew, being in love with a fairy 
woman. The fairy woman made it a point to see Laughlin every 
night, and he being worn out with her began to fear her. Things 
got so bad at last that he decided to go to America to escape the 
fairy woman. As soon as the plan was fixed and he was about to 
emigrate, women who were milking at sunset out in the meadows 
heard very audibly the fairy woman singing this song: 
What will the brown haired woman 
do When Lachie is on the billows? 

Lachic emigrated to Cape Breton, landing at Pictu, Nova Scotia; 
and in his first letter home to his friends he stated that the same 
fairy woman was haunting him there in America. 
The comments by Wentz on this case are extremely important: 
To discover a tale so rare and curious as this .. . is certainly of all 
our evidence highly interesting. And aside from its high literary 
value, it proves conclusively that the fairy women who entice 
mortals to their love in modern times are much the same, if not 
the same, as the succubi of middle age mystics. 
This allows us to return to the religious records mentioned above, 
one of which offers one of the most remarkable cases of apparition I 
have ever come across. It is difficult to believe that stories exist that 
surpass, for their amazing contents or shocking features, some of the 
reports we have already studied, such as the Hills case or the Villas 
Boas report. But, remarkable as they are, these latter two accounts 
refer only to one aspect of the total phenomenon; they can be 
interpreted only after being placed within the continuum of hundreds 
of lesser known cases, which provide the necessary background. 
The following case stands alone, and it is unique in that it relates the 
apparition of an incubus with the poltergeist phenomenon. 
The authority upon which the case rests is that of Fr. Ludovicus 
Maria Sinistrari dc Amcno, who reports and discusses it in his 
manuscript De Daemonialitate, et lncubis, et Succnbis,22 written in 
the second half of the seventeenth century. Who is Fr. Sinistrari? A theologian scholar born in Ameno, Italy, on February 26, 
1622, he studied in Pavia and entered the Franciscan Order in 1647. 
He devoted his life to teaching philosophy and theology to numerous 
students attracted to Pavia by his fame as an eminent scholar. He 
also served as Councilor to the Supreme Tribunal of the Inquisition 
and as Theologian attached to the Archbishop of Milan. In 1688 he 
supervised the compilation of the statutes of the Franciscan Order. 
He died in 1701. 


Among other books, Fr. Sinistrari published a treatise called De 
Delictis et Poenis, which is an exhaustive compilation "tractatus 
absolutissimus" of all the crimes and sins imaginable. In short, Fr. 
Sinistrari was one of the highest authorities on human psychology 
and religious law to serve the Catholic Church in the seventeenth 
century. Compared to his De Daemonialitate, Playboy is a rather 
innocent gathering of mild reveries. The good father writes: 
About twenty five years ago while I was a professor of Sacred 
Theology at the Holy Cross Convent in Pavia, there lived in that 
city a married woman of excellent morality. All who knew her, 
and particularly the clergy, had nothing but the highest praises for 
her. Her name was Hieronyma, and she lived in the St. Michael 
Parish. 


One day, Hieronyma prepared some bread and brought it to the 
baker's to have it baked. He brought it back to her, and at the 
same time he brought her a large pancake of a very peculiar 
shape, made with butter and Venetian pastes, such as they use to 
make cakes in that city. She refused it, saying she had not 
prepared anything like it. 
"But," said the baker, "I have not had any bread to bake today but 
yours. The pancake must come from your house too; your mem 
ory probably fails you." 
The good lady allowed herself to be convinced; she took the pan 
cake and ate it with her husband, her three year old daughter, and 
a servant girl. 

During the following night, while she was in bed with her husband 
and both were asleep, she found herself awakened by an extremely 
fine voice, somewhat like a high pitched whistling sound. It was 
softly saying in her ear some very clear words: "How did you like 
the cake?" In fear, our good lady began to use the sign of the cross 
and to invoke in succession the names of Jesus and Mary. 
"Fear naught," said the voice. "I mean no harm to you. On the 
contrary, there is nothing I would not do in order to please you. 
I am in love with your beauty, and my greatest desire is to enjoy 
your embraces." 

At the same time, she felt that someone was kissing her cheeks, but 
so softly and gently that she might have thought it was only the finest 
cotton down touching her. She resisted, without answering anything, 
only repeating many times the names of Jesus and Mary and making 
the sign of the cross. The temptation lasted thus about half an hour, 
after which time the tempter went away. 
In the morning, the lady went to her confessor, a wise and knowl 
edgeable man, who confirmed her in the ways of the faith and 
appealed to her to continue her strong resistance, and to use some 
holy relics. 

The following nights: similar temptations, with words and kisses of the 
same kind; similar opposition, too, from the lady. However, as she was 
tired of such lasting trials, she took the advice of her confessor and other 
serious men and asked to be examined by trained exorcists to decide 
whether or not she was possessed. The exorcists found nothing in her to 
indicate the presence of the evil spirit. They blessed the house, the 
bedroom, the bed, and gave the incubus orders to discontinue his 
importunities. All was in vain: he went on tempting her, pretending he 
was dying with love, and crying, moaning, in order to invoke the lady's 
pity. With God's help, she remained unmoved. 
Then the incubus used a different approach: he appeared to her in the 
figure of a young boy or small man with golden, curling hair, with a 
blond beard gleaming like gold and sea green eyes. To add to his 
power of seduction, he was elegantly dressed in Spanish vestments. 
Besides, he kept appearing to her even when she was in company; he 
would complain, as lovers do; he would send her kisses. In a word, he 
used all the means of seduction to obtain her favors. Only she saw 
and heard him; to all others, there was nothing. 
Tin's excellent woman had kept her unwavering determination for 
several months when the incubus had recourse to a new kind of 
persecution. 

First, he took from her a silver cross full of holy relics and a blessed 
wax or papal Iamb of Pope Pius V, which she always had on her. 
Then, rings and other jewels of gold and silver followed. He stole 
them without touching the locks of the casket in which they were 
enclosed. Then he began to strike her cruelly, and after each series of 
blows one could see on her face, arm, or other areas of her body 
bruises and marks, which lasted one or two days, then vanished 
suddenly, quite unlike natural bruises, which go away by degrees. 
Sometimes, as she suckled her daughter, lie took the child from 
her knees and carried her to the roof, placing her at the edge of 
the 
 
gutter. Or else he would hide her, but without ever causing her harm. 
He would also upset the household, sometimes breaking to pieces 
the plates and earthenware. But in the blink of an eye he also re 
stored them to their original state. 
One night, as she lay in bed with her husband, the incubus, appearing to 
her under his usual form, energetically demanded that she give herself 
up. She refused, as usual. Furious, the incubus went away, and a short 
time later he returned with an enormous load of those flat stones that 
inhabitants of Genoa, and of Liguria in general, use to cover their 
houses. With these stones he built around the bed such a high wall that it 
reached almost to the ceiling, and the couple had to send for a ladder in 
order to come out. This wall was built without lime. It was pulled down 
and the stones were stored in a corner, where they were exposed to 
everyone's sight. But after two days they vanished. 
On the day of St. Stephen, the lady's husband had invited several 
military friends to dine with him. To honor his guests he had pre 
pared a respectable dinner. While they were washing their hands 
according to the custom—hop!—suddenly the table vanished, 
along with the dishes, the cauldrons, the plates, and all the 
earthenware in the kitchen, the jugs, the bottles, the glasses too. 
You can imagine the amazement, the surprise, of the guests. 
There were eight of them, among them a Spanish infantry captain 
who told them: 
"Do not be afraid. It is only a trick. But there used to be a table 
here, and it must still be here. I am going to find it." 
Having said that, he went around the room with outstretched 
hands, attempting to seize the table. But after he had made many 
turns, seeing he was only touching air, the others laughed at him. 
And since dinner time had passed, everyone took his coat and 
started for home. They had already reached the door with the 
husband, who was politely accompanying them, when they heard 
a great noise in the dining room. They stopped to find out what it 
was, and the servant girl ran and told them the kitchen was full of 
new plates loaded with food, and the table had come back in the 
dining room. 

The table was now covered with napkins, dishes, glasses, and 
silverware that were not the original ones. And there were all kinds 
of precious cups full with rare wines. In the kitchen, too, there were 
new jugs and utensils; they had never been seen there before. The 
guests, however, were hungry, and they ate this strange meal, which 
they found very much to their taste. After dinner, as they were 
talking by the fireplace, everything vanished, and the old table came 
back with the untouched dishes on it. 

But, oddly enough, no one was hungry any longer, so that nobody 
wanted to have supper after such a magnificent dinner—which 
shows that the dishes which had been substituted for the original 
ones were real and not imaginary. 
This persecution had been going on for several months, the lady 
consulted the Blessed Bernardino of Felter, whose body is the object 
of veneration in St. James Church, some distance outside the city 
walls. And at the same time, she vowed to wear for a whole year a 
gray monk's gown, with a rope as a belt, like those used by the minor 
brothers in the order to which Bernardino belonged. She hoped, 
through his intercession, that she would be freed from the persecu 
tions of the incubus. 

Indeed, on September 28,which is the Vigil of the Dedication of 
Archangel St. Michael and the Feast of the Blessed Bernardino— 
she took the votive dress. The next morning was the Feast of St. 
Michael. Our afflicted lady went to the church of that saint, which 
was, as I have said, her own parish. It was about ten o'clock, and a 
very large crowd was going to mass. Now, the poor woman had 
no sooner put her foot on the church ground than all of a sudden 
her vestments and ornaments fell to the ground and were carried 
away by the wind, leaving her as naked as the hand. Very 
fortunately, it so happened that among the crowd were two 
knights of mature age who saw the thing and hurriedly removed 
their coats, to hide as well as they could that woman's nudity. And 
having put her in a coach, they drove her home. As for the 
vestments and jewels stolen by the incubus, he returned them six 
months later. 

To make a long story short, although there are many other tricks 
that this incubus played on her, and some amazing ones, suffice it 
to say that he kept tempting her for many years. But, at last, per 
ceiving he was wasting his efforts, he discontinued these unusual 
and bothersome vexations. 
As a theologian, Fr. Sinistrari was as puzzled by such reports as 
most modern students of UFO lore are by the Villas Boas case. 
Observing that the fundamental texts of the Church gave no clear 
opinion on such cases, Sinistrari wondered how they should be 
judged by religious law. A great part of his manuscript is devoted to 
a detailed examination of this question. The lady in the above 
example did not allow the incubus to have intercourse with her. But 
there arc numerous other cases in the records of the Church 
(especially in witch trials) in which there was intercourse. From the 
Church's point of view, says Fr. Sinistrari, there arc several 
problems. First, how is such intercourse 
  
physically possible? Second, how does demoniality differ from 
bestiality? Third, what sin is committed by those who engage in 
such intercourse? Fourth, what should their punishment be? 
The earliest author who uses the word "demonialitas" is J. 
Caramuel, in his Theologia Fundamentalis. Before him, no one 
made a distinction between demoniality and bestiality. All the 
moralists, following St. Thomas Aquinas, understood by bestiality 
"any kind of carnal intercourse with an object of a different species." 
Yet, a few centuries earlier, the best minds saw in similar accounts an 
occasion to increase their knowledge of human nature and did not feel it 
was beneath their dignity as philosophers to spend considerable time in 
this study. If, as a twentieth century scientist, I need an apology to write 
the present book, this should be as good a precedent as any. 
 
The act of love, writes Sinistrari, has for an object human 
generation. Unnatural semination, that is, intercourse that cannot be 
followed by generation, constitutes a separate type of sin against 
nature. But it is the subject of that semination that distinguishes the 
various sins under that type. If demoniality and bestiality were in the 
same category, a man who had copulated with a demon could simply 
tell his confessor: "I have committed the sin of bestiality." And yet 
he obviously has not committed that sin. 
Considerable problems arose, however, when one had to identify the 
physical process of intercourse with demons. This is clearly a most 
difficult point (as difficult as that of identifying the physical nature 
of flying saucers!), and Sinistrari gives a remarkable discussion of it. 
Pointing out that the main object of the discussion is to determine the 
degree of punishment these sins deserve, he tries to list all the 
different ways in which the sin of demoniality can be committed. 
First he remarks: 
There are quite a few people, over inflated with their little knowl 
edge, who dare deny what the wisest authors have written, and 
what everyday experience demonstrates: namely, that the demon, 
either incubus or succubus, has carnal union not only with men 
and women but also with animals. 
Sinistrari docs not deny that some young women often have visions 
and imagine that they have attended a sabbat. Similarly, ordinary 
erotic dreams have been classified by the Church quite separately 
from the question we are studying. Sinistrari does not mean such 
psychological phenomena when he speaks of demoniality; he refers 
to actual physical intercourse, such as the basic texts on witchcraft 
discuss. Thus in the Compendium Mateficarum, Gnaccius gives 
eighteen case histories of witches who have had carnal contact with 
demons. All cases are vouched for by scholars whose testimony is 
above question. Besides, St. Augustine himself says in no uncertain 
terms: 
It is a widespread opinion, confirmed by direct or indirect testi 
mony of trustworthy persons, that the Sylvans and Fauns, com 
monly called Incubi, have often tormented women, solicited and 
obtained intercourse with them. There are even Demons, which 
are called Duses [i.e., hitins] by the Gauls, who are quite 
frequently usin^ JUCh impure practices: this is vouched for by 
so numerous and so lii^li authorities that it would be impudent to 
deny it.

Now, the devil makes use of two ways in these carnal contacts. One 
he uses with sorcerers and witches; the other with men and women 
perfectly foreign to witchcraft. 
This is a point of paramount importance. What Sinistraii is saying is 
that two kinds of people may come in contact with the beings he 
calls demons: those who have made a formal pact with them—and 
he gives the details of the process for making this pact—and those 
who simply happen to be "contacted" by them. The implications of 
this fundamental statement to occultism for the interpretation of the 
fairy faith and of modern UFO stories should be obvious to the 
reader. 
The devil does not have a body. Then, how does he manage to have 

intercourse with men and women? How can women have children 
from such unions if they specifically express the desire? All the 
theologians answer that the devil borrows the corpse of a human 
being, either male or female, or else he forms with other materials a 
new body for this purpose. Indeed, we find here the same theory as 
that expressed by one of the Gentry and quoted by Wentz: "We can 
make the old young, the big small, the small big." 
The devil then is said to proceed in one of two ways. Either 
he first takes the form of a female succubus and then has inter
course with a man. Or else, the succubus induces lascivious 
dreams in a sleeping man and makes use of the resulting "pollu
tion" to allow the devil to perform the second part of the op
eration. This is the theory taught by Gnaccius, who gives a great 
number of examples. Likewise, Hector Boethius, in Historia 
Scotorum, documents the case of a young Scot who, for several 
months, was visited in his bedroom, the windows and doors of 
which were closed, by a succubus of the most ravishing beauty. 
She did everything she could to obtain intercourse with him, but 
he did not yield to her caresses and entreaties. 
One point intrigued Sinistrari greatly: such demons do not 
obey the exorcists. They have no fear of relics and other holy 
objects, and thus they do not fall into the same category as the 
devils by which people are possessed, as the story quoted above 
certain shows. But then, are they really creatures of the devil? 
Should not we place them in a separate category, with the fairies 
 
and the Elementals they so closely resemble? And then, if such 
creatures have their own bodies, does the traditional theory— that 
incubi and succubi are demons who have borrowed human corpses—
hold? Could it explain how children are born from such unions? 
What are the physical characters of such children? If we admit that 
the UFO reports we have quoted earlier in this chapter indicate the 
phenomenon has genetic contents, then the above questions are 
fundamental, and it is important to see how Sinistrari understood 
them. Therefore, I give in the following a complete translation of his 
discussion of the matter. 

To theologians and philosophers, it is a fact, that from the copulation of 
humans (man or woman) with the demon, human beings are sometimes 
born. It is by this process that Antichrist must be born, according to a 
number of doctors:* Bellarmin, Suarez, Maluenda, etc. Besides, they 
observe that as the result of a quite natural cause, the children generated 
in this manner by the incubi are tall, very strong, very daring, very 
magnificent and very wicked, . Malucnda confirms what has been said 
above, proving by the testimony of various classical authors that it is to 
such unions that the following owe their birth: 
Romulus and Remus, according to Livy and Plutarch. Servius Tullius, 
sixth king of the Romans, according to Denys of Halicarnassus and 
Pliny. Plato the philosopher, according to Diogenes Laertius and St. 
Jerome. Alexander the Great, according to Plutarch and Quinte Curce. 
Seleucus, king of Syria, according to Justin and Applian. Scipio the African, 
according to Livy. The Emperor Caesar Augustus, according to Suetonius. 
Aristomenes of Messenia, the illustrious Greek general, according 
ro Strabo and Pausanias. 
Let us add the English Merlin or Melchin, born of an incubus and a nun, the 
daughter of jCharlemagne. And finally, as writes Cocleus, quoted by 
Maluenda^^frTaTtlamned heresiarch whose name is Martin Luther. 

However, in spite of all the respect I owe so many great doctors, I do not 
see how their opinion can stand examination. Indeed, as 
he Brim's comment throws more light: "If the body of these children is 
tints different from the bodies of other children, their soul will certainly 
have qualities that will not he common to others: that is why Cardinal 
Bellarmin thinks Antichrist will he horn of a woman having Had 
intercourse with tin incubus."
 
Pererius observes very well in Commentary on Genesis, Chapter Six, 
all the strength, all the power of the human sperm, comes from 
spirits that evaporate and vanish as soon as they issue from the 
genital cavities where they were warmly stored. The physicians agree 
on this. Therefore, it is not possible for the demon to keep the sperm 
he has received in a sufficient state of integrity to produce genera
tion; for, no matter what the vessel where he could attempt to keep 
it is, this vessel would have to have a temperature equal to the 
natural temperature of human genital organs, which is found no
where but in those same organs. Now, in a vessel where the warmth 
is not natural, but artificial, spirits are resolved, and no generation 
is possible. A second objection is that generation is a vital act through 
which man, from his own substance, introduces sperm through the 
use of natural organs, into a place proper for generation. To the 
contrary, in the special case we are now considering, the introduc
tion of the sperm cannot be a vital act of the generating man, since 
it is not by him that it is introduced into the matrix. And, for the 
same reason, it cannot be said that the man to whom the sperm 
belonged has engendered the fetus that is procreated. Neither can 
we consider the incubus as the father, since the sperm is not of his 
own substance. Thus here is a child who is born and has no father— 
which is absurd. Third objection: when the father engenders natur
ally, there is a concourse of two causalities: a material one, for he 
provides the sperm that is the material of generation; and an efficient 
one, for he is the main agent in the generation, according to the 
common opinion of philosophers. But, in our case, the man who 
does nothing but provide the sperm simply gives material, without 
any action tending toward generation. Therefore he could not be 
regarded as the child's father, and this is contrary to the notion 
that the child engendered by an incubus is not his child, but the 
child of the man whose sperm was borrowed by the incubus, . 
We also read in the Scriptures (Genesis 6:4) that giants were born as 
a result of intercourse between the sons of God and the daughters of 
Man: this is the very letter of the sacred text. Now, these giants were 
men of tall stature, as it is said in Baruch 3:26, and far superior to 
other men. Besides their monstrous size, they called attention by 
their strength, their plunders, their tyranny, And it is to the crimes of 
these giants that we must attribute the main and primary cause of the 
Flood, according to Cornelius a Lapide in his Commentary on 
Genesis. 
Some state that under the name of sons of God we must under 
stand the sons of Seth, and, under that of daughters of men, the 
daughters of Cain, because the former practiced piety, religion, 
and all other virtues while the latter, the children of Cain, did 
exactly the opposite. But, with all the respect we owe 
Chrysostom, Cyril, 
 
and others who share this view, it will be recognized it is in disagree 
ment with the obvious meaning of the text. What do the Scriptures 
say? That from the conjunction of the above were born men of 
monstrous corporeal proportions. Therefore, these giants did not 
exist previously, and if their birth was the result of that union, it is 
not admissible to attribute it to the intercourse between the sons of 
Scth and the daughters of Cain who, of ordinary size themselves, 
could have children only of ordinary size. 


Consequently, if the intercourse in question has given birth to 
beings of monstrous proportions, we must see there not the 
ordinary intercourse of men with women but the operation of the 
incubi who, owing to their nature, can very well be called sons of 
God. This opinion is that of the Platonist philosophers and of 
Francois George of Venice, and it is not in contradiction with that 
of Josephus the historian, Philo, St. Justin Martyr, Clement of 
Alexandria, and Tertullian, according to whom these incubi could 
be angels who had allowed themselves to commit the sin of luxury 
with women. Indeed, as we shall show, there is nothing there but a 
single opinion under a double appearance. 
What we have here is a complete theory of contact between our race 
and another race, nonhuman, different in physical nature, but 
biologically compatible with us. Angels, demons, fairies, creatures 
from heaven, hell, or Magonia: they inspire our strangest dreams, 
shape our destinies, steal our desires. But who are they? 









CHAPTER FIVE, 

 They are fairies; he that speaks to 
them shall die: I'll wink and 
couch: no man their works must 
eye. 
William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor.

 
"THEY SPEAK all the languages of the earth. They know all about the 
past and future of the human race—of any human being." 
This statement was made in 1968 by a Spanish clerk who claims he 
has been in contact with extraterrestrials since 1954. "The 
inhabitants of planet Wolf 424 [sic] are among us in human form 
and with false identities. They are far superior to us and very peace 
loving. I am in permanent contact with them: they either write to me 
or call me. We have meetings." 
How did he contact these superior entities? It seems that in 
1954 a saucer threw a stone covered with hieroglyphics into the 
University Gardens, Madrid. Fernando Sesma copied the sym
bols down, and soon two way communication began. 
In Great Britain also, fantastic rumors are spreading. British 
scientists, some people claim, have been contacted by a mys
terious source through radio and have become involved in under
cover activities at the request of extraterrestrials. Some of these 
scientists have disappeared. Through such contacts, so the story 
goes, the extraterrestrials hope to control our history. For what 
purpose? I myself have received letters from individuals claiming 
to be members of secret organizations whose headquarters arc, 
quite literally, "out of this world." These correspondents in
formed me that the purpose of these groups is to prevent man
kind from reaching other worlds in space. Of course, other "contactees" make exactly opposite claims. The fact remains, however, 
that belief in nonhuman control of terrestrial destinies is as old as 
politics. 


Thus a Madrid newsman, Armando Puente, claims that Sesma 
warned him three months before Robert Kennedy was assassinated 
that the senator would be killed, Sesma similarly "predicted" the 
wave of UFO sightings in Argentina (a much easier task!). 
Moreover, the same power attributed to saucer people— namely, that 
of influencing human events—was once the exclusive property of 
fairies. This was true in the beliefs of ignorant medieval peasants and 
of the scholars as well. Thus, one of the first questions put to Joan of 
Arc by her inquisitors was "if she had any knowledge or if she had 
not assisted at the assemblies held at the fountain of the fairies, near 
Domremy, around which dance malignant spirits." And another 
question and answer was thus recorded: "Asked whether she did not 
believe—prior to the present day—that fairies WCTC malignant 
spirits, [she] answered she did not know."


To pursue this line further would involve reopening the entire 
problem of witchcraft, which is obviously beyond the purpose of this 
book. It is important, however, to note the continuum of beliefs, for 
the continuum leads directly from primitive magic, through mystical 
experience, the fairy faith, and religion, to modern flying saucers. 
The study of witchcraft has shown these subjects to be closely 
interrelated, and from the point of view of modern psychiatry, they 
must be treated together. And while we are not concerned with 
individual beliefs in this chapter, we are interested in the social 
implications of such rumors, which have seldom been faced by the 
students of the phenomenon. 
In the Soviet Union, not so long ago, a leading plasma physicist died 
in strange circumstances: he was thrown under a Moscow subway 
train by a mentally deranged woman. It is noteworthy that she 
claimed a "voice from space" had given her orders to kill that 
particular man—orders she could not resist. Soviet criminologists, I 
have been reliably informed, are worried by the increase of such 
cases in recent years. Madmen rushing through the streets because 
they think the Martians arc after 

them have always been commonplace.' But the current wave of 
mental unbalance that can be specifically tied to the rise and de 
velopment of the contactee myth is an aspect of the UFO problem 
that must be considered with special care. 
It was to be hoped that the recent scientific investigations of the UFO 
phenomenon would have treated this problem with the attention it 
deserved. Unfortunately, they have not done so. This leads me to 
offer, in the present chapter, all the information 1 can provide on this 
matter, with the hope that sociologists will tackle the problem with 
more than passing amusement. Of course, some details relevant to 
this aspect of the UFO phenomenon cannot be published. This docs 
not mean, however, that they should remain the exclusive property of 
a few bureaucrats concerned only with the preservation of their 
peace of mind and the stability of their administrations. To let UFO 
speculation grow unchecked would only make the public an easy and 
defenseless prey to charlatans of all kind. It would mean that any 
organized group bent upon the destruction of our society could 
undermine it by skillful use of the saucer mythology; they could take 
us to Magonia with the blessing of all the "rationalists." 

A GREAT SIGN IN HEAVEN. 
Knock is a tiny village in the west of Ireland. But something took 
place there on August 21, 1879, something no student of the human 
mind should ignore;1 The weather had been growing steadily worse 
all day long. At 7:00 P.M. rain was pouring down on the village as 
Archdeacon Cavanagh returned home. Mary McLoughlin, his 
housekeeper, lighted a good turf fire and then, at 8:307 went out to 
visit her friend, Mrs. Margaret Bcirne. As she passed the church, she 
noticed several strange figures in a field and something "like an 
altar" with a white light, but she dismissed the sight from her mind 
and continued on her way. Rain was still falling heavily, and she 
was not tempted to investigate, although she did "find the matter 
very strange." Two other parishioners had seen the figures before 
her and had reacted in similar fashion. 
Later on, when it was still not yet dark and as rain continued 

to fall, Mary McLoughlin went back past the church, accompanied 
by Mrs. Bcirne. At one point, between the church building and the 
two women, lay an uncut meadow. And in the meadow on top of the 
grass, three persons appeared to be standing, surrounded by an 
extraordinarily bright light and forming "such a sight as you never 
saw in your life." The central figure was Our Lady, that on her right 
was St. Joseph. The third one was identified by Mary Bcirne as St. 
John the Evangelist, because it resembled very much a statue of the 
saint she had seen in another village—except that now he wore'; a 
miter) A few minutes later, eighteen parishioners were assembled 
before the apparitions. 
When a diocesan commissior investigated the phenomenon, fourteen 
witnesses (three men, two hildren, three teenagers, and six women), with 
ages between six and seventy five, described what they had seen. 

Three witnesses reported noticing her bare feet. One woman, 
Bridget Trench, was so carried away by the sight that she fervently 
went to the apparitions to embrace the Virgin's feet. But her arms 
closed on empty air. 
I felt nothing in the embrace but the wall, yet the figures appeared 
so full and so lifelike and so lifesizc that I could not understand it 
and wondered why my hands could not feel that was so plain and 
distinct to my sight.
 
Bridget also remarked how heavily the rain was then falling, but, she 
added: I felt the ground carefully with my hands, and it was perfectly 
dry. The wind was blowing from the south, right against the gable, 
but no rain fell on that portion of the gable where the figures were. 
St. John was standing at an angle to the other figures. Dressed as a 
bishop, he was holding a large open book in his left hand. The 
fingers of his right hand were raised in a gesture of teaching. One of 
the witnesses, Patrick Hill, went close enough to see the lines and 
letters in the book. 

When the parish priest was told of the apparitions, he said it might 
be a reflection from the stained glass windows of the church and 
quietly spent the rest of the evening at home. The phenomenon 
lasted several hours. Their clothes soaked through, all the witnesses 
went home before midnight. The next morning nothing was left to 
be seen. 

Ten days after the incident, a deaf child was cured and a man born 
blind saw after his pilgrimage to Knock. Soon seven or eight cures a 
week were reported: 
A dying man, so ill that he vomited blood most of the way while 
being carried to Knock and received the Last Sacraments from the 
Archdeacon on his arrival, was cured instantaneously after 
drinking some water in which a scrap of cement from the gable 
wall had been dissolved. 
All this came at an unfortunate time for the Catholic Church in 
Ireland. Most of Archdeacon Cavanagh's fellow priests doubted and 
disapproved. The Knock church had been built 

only fifty years earlier, when Irish Catholics had emerged from 
hiding, and much as in Lourdes in the early days, the clergy tried not 
to get involved in the pilgrimages. Local and national papers were 
asked by the clergy to refrain from giving the apparition publicity, 
while some papers hostile to Catholicism printed derisive articles 
about it. 
Attempts to explain the phenomenon by physical means were made. 
A science professor from Maynooth performed tests for the official 
commission of inquiry appointed by the Archbishop of Tuam. He 
used a magic lantern to project photographic images on the gable 
wall in the presence of twenty priests and testified that the tests ruled 
out the possibility that the apparition had been a product of a 
photographic hoax. 
A correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph made his own tests 
at a later date and reported that "however the reported apparitions 
were caused, they could not have been due to a magic lantern." 
It is not irreverent to point out that many features in this report are 
identical to those in UFO phenomena: the strange globe of light of 
varying intensity, the luminous entities within or close to the light, 
the absence of rain at the site of the apparition and, finally, the 
alleged miraculous cures. All these features arc present in the 
current UFO mythology in America. 

To those who have not closely followed the specialized UFO 
literature in the last few years, the assertion that UFO sightings 
involve mysterious "cures" will come as a surprise. They will find 
several cases in the Appendix; for instance, the Damon, Texas, 
report of September 3, 1965, where a policeman was allegedly cured 
of a wound on his hand when exposed to the light from a hovering 
object (Case 694). Or the Petropolis, Brazil, report of October 25, 
1957, in which we are told that a girl dying from cancer was saved 
by a fantastic operation performed by two men who came from the 
sky (Case 415). Clearly we are dealing here with a pattern 
reminiscent of medieval mysticism. 

The Knock case is not the most remarkable instance of a similarity 
between religious apparitions and UFO sightings. And although it 
took place in Ireland, the miracle aspect is not the inos! reminiscent 
of the standard features of the fairy faith. 
  
An incident occurring at daybreak, on Saturday, December 9, 1531, 
in Mexico, however, does represent the culmination of all the 
superstitions we have discussed.5 Of tremendous sociological and 
psychological impact, it has left physical traces that can still be 
seen—and, indeed, are still an object of much devotion—today. 
On that long ago morning, a fifty sevcn year old Aztec Indian 
whose Nahuatl name was Singing Eagle and whose Spanish name 
was Juan Diego was going to the church of Tlaltclolco, near Mexico 
City. Suddenly he froze in his tracks as he heard a concert of singing 
birds, sharp and sweet. The air was bitterly cold: no bird in its right 
mind would sing at such hour, and yet the harmonious music went 
on, stopping abruptly. Then someone with a woman's voice called 
Juan Diego's name. The voice was coming from the top of the hill, 
which was hidden in "a frosty mist, a brightening cloud." And when 
he climbed the hill, he saw her. 

The sun wasn't above the horizon, yet Juan saw her as if against 
the sun because of the golden beams that rayed her person from 
head to feet. She was a young Mexican girl about fourteen years 
old and wonderfully beautiful. 

So far, we have a perfect beginning for a standard fairy apparition. 
But in the ensuing dialogue, Juan Diego was told that the girl was 
Mary, and that she desired a temple at that particular place: "So run 
now to Tcnochtitlan [Mexico City] and tell the Lord Bishop all that 
you have seen and heard." 

This was easier to say than to accomplish. Poor Indians were 
not in the habit of going to the Spanish section of the city, and 
even less to the bishop's palace. Bravely, however, Juan ran down 
the mountain and begged Don Fray Juan de Zumarraga to hear 
his story. Naturally, the bishop, although he was kind to the 
Indian, did not believe a word of his tale, so Juan went back 
through the mountains and met the lady a second time. He ad
vised her to send the bishop a more suitable messenger, and he 
was quite frank about it. 

"Listen, little son," was the answer. "There are many I could send. 
But you are the one I have chosen for this task. So, tomorrow 
morning, go back to the Bishop. Tell him it is the Virgin Mary 
who sends you, and repeat to him my great desire for a church in 
this place." 

The next morning, Juan Diego returned to Mexico City and met 
again with the patient bishop. Juan Diego was so adamant and 
seemed so honest in telling his story that Fray Juan de Zumarraga 
was shaken. He told Juan to ask the apparition for a tangible sign, 
and he instructed two servants to follow the Indian and watch his 
actions. They tracked him through the city, observed that he spoke to 
no one, saw him climb the hills , and then he vanished. They 
searched the area without finding a trace of him! The perfect fairy 
tale. But Juan had gone to the hill. He gave the apparition the 
bishop's answer, and she said: 
"Very well, little son. Come back tomorrow at daybreak. I will 
give you a sign for him. You have taken much trouble on my ac 
count, and I shall reward you for it. Go in peace, and rest." 
The next morning, Juan did not come. His uncle—his only 
relative—was dying. Juan spent the day trying to relieve his suf 
ferings and left him only on Tuesday, to get a priest. As he was 
running to Tlaltelolco, however, the apparition again barred his way. 
Embarrassed, he told her why he had not followed her instructions, 
and she said: 
"My little son, do not be distressed and afraid. Am I not here who 
am your Mother? Arc you not under my shadow and protection? 
Your uncle will not die at this time. This very moment his health 
is restored. There is no reason now for the errand you set out on, 
and you can peacefully attend to mine. Go up to the top of the 
hill; cut the flowers that are growing there and bring them to me." 
There were no flowers on the top of the hill, as Juan Diego knew 
very well. In the middle of December, there could be no flower there, 
and yet upon reaching the place, he found Castilian roses, "their 
petals wet with dew." He cut them and, using his long Indian cape—
his tihna—to protect them from the bitter cold, carried them back to 
the apparition. She arranged the flowers he had dropped in the wrap, 
then tied the lower corners of the tihna behind his neck so that none 
of the roses would fall. She advised him not to let anybody but the 
bishop sec the sign she had given him and then disappeared. Juan 
Diego never met her again. 
At the bishop's palace several servants made fun of the Indian 
visionary. They "pushed him around" and tried to snatch the flowcis. 
But when they observed how the roses seemed to dissolve 
when they reached for them, they were astonished and let him go. 
Juan was taken once more to the bishop. 
Juan Diego put up both hands and untied the corners of crude 
cloth behind his neck. The looped up fold of the tilma fell; the 
flowers he thought were the precious sign tumbled out and lay in 
an untidy heap on the floor. Alas for the Virgin's careful arrangement! 


But Juan's confusion over this mishap was nothing to what he felt 
immediately after it. Inside of seconds the Bishop had risen from 
his chair and was kneeling at Juan's feet, and inside of a minute all 
the other persons in the room had surged forward and were also 
kneeling, 
The bishop was kneeling before Juan's tilma, and, as Ethel Cook 
Eliot remarks, "millions of people have knelt before it since," for it 
has been placed over the high altar in the basilica of Our Lady of 
Guadalupe, in Mexico City. The tilma consists of two pieces, woven 
of maguey fibers and sewn together and measuring sixty six by 
forty one inches. On this coarse material, whose color is that of 
unbleached linen, a lovely figure can be seen, fifty six inches tall. 
Surrounded by golden rays, it emerges as from a shell of light, 
clear cut and lovely in every detail of line and color. The head is 
bent slightly and very gracefully to the right, just avoiding the 
long seam. The eyes look downward, but the pupils are visible. 
This gives an unearthly impression of lovingness and lovablcness. 
The mantle that covers the head and falls to the feet is greenish 
blue with a border of purest gold, and scattered through with 
golden stars. The tunic is rose colored, patterned with a lacc likc 
design of golden flowers. Below is a crescent moon, and beneath 
it appear the head and arms of a cherub. 

In the six years that followed the incident, over eight million Indians 
were baptized. In recent times, sonic fifteen hundred persons kneel 
before Juan Diego's tilma (still intact with the image's radiant 
colors) ever}' day. 
Juan's uncle was cured. As he was awaiting the priest, too weak 
even to drink the medicine his nephew had prepared, he saw his 
room suddenly filled with soft light. A luminous figure, that of a 
young woman, appeared near him. She told him he would get well 
and informed him of Juan Diego's mission. She also said, 
 
"Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe"—or so the 
message was understood. 
But was this the intended meaning? Following the research of Helen 
Bchrcns, Ethel Cook Eliot suggests that the Indian word used by the 
apparition was Tetlcoatlaxopeuh, which could be transcribed 
phonetically as Deguatlashupee. To Spanish ears, this would 
naturally sound like "De Guadalupe." But the apparition spoke the 
same Indian dialect as Juan Diego and his uncle— she even looked 
like "a young Indian girl"—and she had no reason to use the Spanish 
term ascribed to her. Tetlcoatlaxopeuh means "Stone Serpent 
Trodden on." Helen Bchrcns assumes that the apparition was thus 
announcing that she had supplanted Ouctzalcoatl, whom the Indians 
had idolized as a feathered serpent. 

This impressive story contains a magnificent symbolism. Not only 
docs it bring us back, through the stone serpent, to the Maya 
monuments we discussed at the beginning of this book, but it also 
reminds us, in several important aspects, of the many talcs of fairies 
we have reviewed: the mysterious, sweet music announcing that the 
fairy draws near; the flowers (roses once again) that grow in an 
impossible place; and the sign given to the human messenger, which 
changes nature as he goes away, like the coals given to human 
midwives by the gnomes that changed to gold; the numerous similar 
symbols found in countless talcs;* and finally, the cosmic 
symbolism, the crescent moon under the Virgin's feet, as in the lines 
of Revelation: 
And there appeared a great sign in heaven; a woman clothed with 
the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and upon her head a 
crown of twelve stars.



 
"LOOK BUT DO NOT TOUCH". 
It was a very great wonder, a sign, in heaven indeed, the marvelous 
airship that flew over the United States in the spring of 
* Indeed, we cannot help but recall here the words of llartland in his 
Science of Fairy Talcs: "This gift of an object apparently worthless, which 
turns out, on the conditions being observed, of the utmost value, is a com 
monplace of fairy transactions. It is one of the most obvious manifestations 
of superhuman power," 
  
1897. And the rediscovery of the remarkable wave of reports it 
generated has provided a crucial missing link between the appari 
tions of older days and modern saucer stories. 
On Donald Hanlon's map reproduced with the photographs, all the 
airship reports have been plotted, with a special sign to denote 
landings. This map perhaps gives a measure both of the volume of 
data the students of American folklore have been missing and of the 
amount of work done in the last three years by researchers such as 
Hanlon, Jerome Clark, and Lucius Farish. The result of their 
investigations is astonishing. 
In California, in November, 1896, hundreds of residents of the San 
Francisco area saw a large, elongated, dark object, which carried 
brilliant searchlights and was capable of flying against the wind. 
Between January and March, 1897, it vanished entirely. And 
suddenly a staggering number of observations of an identical object 
were made in the Midwest. Earlier in the book, we have seen how 
Alexander Hamilton described it: a craft with turbine wheels and a 
glass section with strange beings aboard looking down, a description 
not unlike that given by Barney Hill. In March, an object of even 
stranger appearance was seen by Robert Hibbard, a farmer living 
fifteen miles north of Sioux City, Iowa. Ilibbard not only saw the 
airship, but an anchor hanging from a rope attached to the 
mysterious craft caught his clothes and dragged him several dozen 
feet, until he fell back to earth. 
To present in an orderly fashion all the accounts of that period 
would itself take a book. My object here is only to review the most 
detailed observations of the behavior of the airship's occupants 
on the ground. But first, how did the object itself behave? It 
maneuvered very much in the way UFO's are said to maneuver, 
except that airships were never seen flying in formation or per
forming "aerial dances." Usually, an airship flew rather slowly 
and majestically—of course, such an object, in 1897, ran no risk 
of being pursued—except in a few close proximity cases when it 
was reported to depart "as a shot out of a gun." Another difference 
from modern UFO's lies in the fact that its leisurely trajectory 
often took it over large urban areas. Omaha, Milwaukee, Chicago, 
and other cities were thus visited; each time, large crowds gathered 
to watch the object. Otherwise, the airship exhibited all the 
typical activities of UFO's: hovering, dropping "probes"—on 
Newton, Iowa, on April 10, for example—changing course abruptly, 
changing altitude at great speed, circling, landing and taking off, 
sweeping the countryside with powerful light beams. 
The occupants of the airship were as variously described as arc UFO 
operators. Several reports could be interpreted to mean that dwarfs 
were among them, but it was not—to my present knowledge, at 
least—stated in so many words by witnesses. Alexander Hamilton 
says that the beings were the strangest he had ever seen, and that he 
did not care to sec them again. I am not aware of any detailed portrait 
of the creatures by the witnesses in the Leroy case. They were 
"hideous people": two men, a woman, and three "children," jabbering 
together. 
All the operators who engaged in discussions with human witnesses 
were indistinguishable from the average American population of the 
time, This, for instance, is the experience related by Captain James 
Hooton (described in the Arkansas Gazette as "the well known Iron 
Mountain railroad conductor").
I had gone down to Texarkana to bring back a special, and knowing 
that I would have some eight to ten hours to spend in Texarkana, I 
went to I Ionian (Arkansas) to do a little hunting. It was about 3 
o'clock in the afternoon when I reached that place. The sport was 
good, and before I knew it, it was after 6 o'clock when I started to 
make my way back toward the railroad station. As I was tramping 
through the bush my attention was attracted by a familiar sound, a 
sound for all the world like the working of an air pump on a 
locomotive. 
I went at once in the direction of the sound, and there in an open 
space of some five or six acres, I saw the object making the noise. 
To say that I was astonished would but feebly express my 
feelings. I decided at once that this was the famous airship seen by 
so many people about the country. 
There was a medium size looking man aboard and I noticed that he 
was wearing smoked glasses. lie was tinkering around what seemed 
to be the hack end of the ship, and as I approached I was too 
dumbfounded to speak. He looked at me in surprise, and said: "Good 
day, sir; good day." I asked: "Is this the airship?" And he replied: 
"Yes, sir," whereupon three or four other men came out of what was 
apparently the keel of the ship. 
A close examination showed that the keel was divided into two 
parls, terminating in front like the sharp edge of a knife like 
edge, 
  
while the side of the ship bulged gradually toward the middle, and 
then receded. There were three large wheels upon each side made 
of some bending metal and arranged so that they became concave 
as they moved forward. 
"I beg your pardon, sir," I said, "the noise sounds a great deal like 
a Westinghouse air brake." "Perhaps it does, my friend: we are 
using condensed air and aeroplanes, but you will know more later 
on." 
"All ready, sir," someone called out, when the party all 
disappeared below. I observed that just in front of each wheel a 
two inch tube began to spurt air on the wheels and they 
commenced revolving. The ship gradually arose with a hissing 
sound. The aeroplanes suddenly sprang forward, turning their 
sharp end skyward, then the rudders at the end of the ship began 
to veer to one side and the wheels revolved so fast that, one could 
scarcely see the blades. In less time than it takes to tell you, the 
ship had gone out of sight. 
Captain Hooton adds that he could discover no bell or bell 
rope about the ship and was greatly shocked by this detail, since 
he thought "every well regulated air locomotive should have one." 
He left a detailed drawing of the machine. We next look at the 
testimony of Constable Sumpter and Deputy Sheriff McLemore, of 
Hot Springs, Arkansas: 
While riding north west: from this city on the night of May 6, 
1897, we noticed a brilliant light high in the heavens. Suddenly it 
disappeared and we said nothing about it, as we were looking for 
parties and did not want to make any noise. After riding four or 
five miles around through the hills we again saw the light, which 
now appeared to be much nearer the earth. We stopped our horses 
and watched it coming down, until all at once it disappeared 
behind another hill. We rode on about half a mile further, when 
our horses refused to go further. About a hundred yards distant we 
saw two persons moving around with lights. Drawing our 
Winchesters— for we were now thoroughly aroused to the 
importance of the situation—we demanded: "Who is that, and 
what are you doing?" 
A man with a long dark beard came forth with a lantern in his 
hand, and on being informed who we were proceeded to tell us 
that he and the others—a young man and a woman—were 
travelling through the country in an airship. We could plainly 
distinguish the outlines of the vessel, which was cigar shaped and 
about sixty feet long, and looking just like the cuts that have 
appeared in the papers recently. It was dark and raining and the 
young man was filling a big sack with water about thirty yards 
away, and the woman was 
 
particular to keep back in the dark. She was holding an umbrella 
over her head. The man with the whiskers invited us to take a ride, 
saying thar he could take us where it was not raining. We told him 
we believed we preferred to get wet. 
Asking the man why the brilliant light was turned on and off so 
much, he replied that the light was so powerful that it consumed a 
great deal of his motive power. He said he would like to stop off 
in Hot Springs for a few days and take the hot baths, but his time 
was limited and he could not. He said they were going to wind up 
at Nashville, Tenn., after thoroughly seeing the country. Being in a 
hurry we left and upon our return, about forty minutes later, 
nothing was to be seen. We did not hear or sec the airship when it 
departed. 


In the Chicago Chronicle of April 13, 1897, appeared the fol 
lowing, under the headline "AIRSHIP SEEN IN IOWA": 
Fontancllc, Iowa, April 12. The airship was seen here at 8:30 
tonight, and was viewed by the whole population. It came from 
the south cast, and was not over 200 feet above the tree tops and 
moved very slowly, not to exceed ten miles an hour. The machine 
could be plainly seen, and is described as being sixty feet in 
length, and the vibration of the wings could be plainly seen. It 
carried the usual coloured lights, and the working of the 
machinery could be heard, as also could the strains of music, as 
from an orchestra. It was hailed, bur passed on to the north, 
seeming to increase its speed, and disappeared. There is no doubt 
in Fontanelle that it was the real thing, and is testified to by the 
most prominent citizens, etc. 
Here the airship, which had appeared to Captain Hooton as a 
typically mechanical contraption, takes on a more fairylike ap 
pearance. The parallel becomes even more striking in the following 
report, as pointed out by Hanlon. It is extracted from the April 28 
edition of the Houston Daily Post: 
Merkel, Texas, April 26. Some parties returning from church last 
night noticed a heavy object dragging along with a rope attached. 
They followed it until, in crossing the railroad, it caught on a rail. 
On looking up they saw what they supposed was the airship. It 
was not near enough to get an idea of the dimensions. A light 
could be seen protruding from several windows; one bright light 
in front like the headlight of a locomotive. 
After some ten minutes, a man was seen descending the rope. He 
came near enough to be plainly seen; he wore a light blue sailor 
suit and was small in size. lie stopped when he discovered parties 
  
at the anchor, and cut the rope below him and sailed off in a 
northeast direction. The anchor is now on exhibition at the 
blacksmith shop of Elliot and Miller and is attracting the attention 
of hundreds of people. 
"This sounds much too familiar to be taken lightly," comments 
Hanlon, who reminds his readers of the Sioux City incident— when 
Robert Hibbard was dragged by an anchor hanging from an 
airship—and of Drake's and Wilkins's account of two incidents that 
took place about 1211 A.D. or earlier. According to the Irish story: 
There happened in the borough of Cloera, one Sunday, while the 
people were at Mass, a marvel. In this town is a church dedicated 
to St. Kinarus. It befell that an anchor was dropped from the sky, 
with a rope attached to it, and one of the flukes caught in the arch 
above the church door. The people rushed out of the church and 
saw in the sky a ship with men on board, floating before the 
anchor cable, and they saw a man leap overboard and jump down 
to the anchor, as if to release it. lie looked as if he were swimming 
in water. The folk rushed up and tried to seize him: but the Bishop 
forbade the people to hold the man, for it might kill him, he said. 
The man was freed, and hurried up to the ship, where the crew cut 
the rope and the ship sailed out of sight. But the anchor is in the 
church, and has been there ever since, as a testimony. 
In Gervasc of Tilbury's Otis Imperialia, the same account is related 
as having taken place in Gravescnd, Kent, England. An anchor from 
a "cloudship" became fastened in a mound of stones in the 
churchyard. The people heard voices from above, and the rope was 
moved as if to free the anchor, to no avail. A man was then seen to 
slide clown the Tope and cut it. In one account, he then climbed 
back aboard the ship; in another, he died of suffocation. 
The Houston Post of April 22, 1897, has a further report: 
Rockland: Mr. John M. Barclay, living near this place, reports that 
last night about 11 o'clock, after having retired, he heard his dog 
barking furiously, together with a whining noise. He went to the door 
to ascertain the trouble and saw something, he says, that made his 
eyes bulge out and but for the fact that he had been reading of an 
airship that was supposed to have been in or over Texas, he would 
have taken to the woods. 
It was a peculiar shaped body, with an oblong shape, with wings 
 
and side attachments of various sizes and shapes. There were brilliant 
lights, which appeared much brighter than electric lights. When he first 
saw it, it seemed perfectly stationary about five yards from the ground. It 
circled a few times and gradually descended to the ground in a pasture 
adjacent to his house. He took his Winchester and went down to 
investigate. As soon as the ship, or whatever it might be, alighted, the 
lights went out. The night was bright enough for a man to be 
distinguished several yards, and when within about thirty yards of the 
ship he was met by an ordinary mortal, who requested him to lay his gun 
aside as no harm was intended. Whereupon the following conversation 
ensued: Mr. Barclay enquired: "Who are you and what do you want?" 
"Never mind about my name, call it Smith. I want some lubricating oil 
and a couple of cold chisels if you can get them, and some bluestone. I 

suppose the saw mill hard by has the two former articles and the 
telegraph operator has the bluestone. Here is a ten dollar bill: take it and 
get us these articles and keep the change for your trouble." 
Mr. Barclay said: "What have you got down there? Let me go and 
see it." He who wanted to be called Smith said: "No, we cannot 
permit you to approach any nearer, but do as we request you and 
your kindness will be appreciated, and we will call you some 
future day and reciprocate your kindness by taking you on a trip." 
Mr. Barclay went and procured the oil and cold chisels, but could 
not get the bluestone. They had no change and Mr. Barclay 
tendered him the ten dollar bill, but same was refused. The man 
shook hands with him and thanked him cordially and asked that 
he not follow him to the vessel. As he left Mr. Barclay called him 
and asked him where he was from and where he was going. He 
replied, "From anywhere, but we will be in Greece day after 
tomorrow." He got on board, when there was again the whirling 
noise, and the thing was gone, as Mr. Barclay expresses it, like a 
shot out of a gun. Mr. Barclay is perfectly reliable. 
The same night, half an hour later (according to the Houston Post of 
April 26 and reported independently): 
Josserand: Considerable excitement prevails at this writing in this 
usually quiet village of Josserand, caused by a visit of the noted 
airship, which has been at so many points of late. Mr. Frank 
Nichols, a prominent farmer living about two miles east of here, 
and a man of unquestioned veracity, was awakened night before 
last near the hour of twelve by a whirring noise similar to that 
made by machinery. Upon looking out he was startled upon 
beholding brilliant lights streaming from a ponderous vessel of 
strange proportions, which rested upon the ground in his 
cornfield. 
  
Having read the despatches, published in the Post of the noted 
aerial navigators, the truth at once flashed over him that he was 
one of the fortunate ones and with all the bravery of Priam at the 
siege of Troy [sic] Mr. Nichols started out to investigate. Before 
reaching the strange midnight visitor he was accosted by two men 
with buckets who asked permission to draw water from his well. 
Thinking he might be entertaining heavenly visitors instead of 
earthly mortals, permission was readily granted. Mr. Nichols was 
kindly invited to accompany them to the ship. He conversed 
freely with the crew, composed of six or eight individuals about 
the ship. The machinery was so complicated that in his short 
interview he could gain no knowledge of its workings. However, 
one of the crew told him the problem of aerial navigation had 
been solved. The ship or car is built of a newly discovered 
material that has the property of self sustenance in the air, and the 
motive power is highly condensed electricity. He was informed 
that five of these ships were built at a small town in Iowa. Soon 
the invention will be given to the public. An immense stock 
company is now being formed and within the next year the 
machines will be in general use. Mr. Nichols lives at Josserand, 
Trinity County, Texas, and will convince any incredulous one by 
showing the place where the ship rested. 
In the Flying Saucer Review, Jerome Clark observes that "the 1897 
wave indicates the futility of any attempt to divorce flying objects 
from the general situation in which they operate." This makes the 
study of such objects infinitely broader than the simple 
investigation, in scientific terms, of a new phenomenon; for if the 
appearance and behavior of the objects arc functions of our inter 
pretation at any particular time in the development of our culture, 
then what chances can we have of ever knowing the truth? 
In Chalcix, Dordognc, France, on October 4, 1954, Mr. Garreau, a 
man who is regarded as trustworthy by local residents, saw a round 
flying object, the size of a small truck, shaped somewhat like a 
cauldron. It landed in his field, and a door slid open. Two "normal" 
men in brown coveralls came out. They looked like Europeans and 
shook hands with Garreau. Then they asked: "Paris? North?" The 
poor farmer was so taken aback that he did not answer. The two men 
stroked bis dog and flew away. 
On October 20, that same year, a forty year old Czech worker who 
lives in France was going to work at 3:00 A.M. near Raonl'Etape, 
Vosgcs, when a quarter of a mile from his house he met a heavy set 
man, of medium height, wearing a gray jacket with 
 
insignias on the shoulders and a motorcyclist's helmet and carrying a 
gun. The stranger spoke an unknown language. The witness, Lazlo 
Ujvari,8 knew some Russian and tried that language. The man, who 
spoke in a high pitched voice, understood him at once and asked: 
"Where am I? In Italy, in Spain?" Then he wanted to know how far 
he was from the German border and what time it was. Ujvari told 
him it was about 2: 30, and the man pulled out a watch, which said 
four o'clock. The visitor then told the witness to move along. Soon, 
Ujvari came into view of a craft that had apparently landed on the 
road. It was shaped like two saucers glued together, about five feet in 
diameter and three feet high. Ujvari came within thirty feet of it, but 
the unknown individual told him to move away, and soon he saw the 
object rise vertically, "with the noise of a sewing machine." 
October 12, 1954. At about 10:30 P.M. at Sainte Maric d'Herblay, 
on the Atlantic coast of France, thirteen year old Gilbert Lelay" was 
walking around outside, about half a mile away from his parents' 
home, when he saw, in a pasture, a machine he describes as a 
"phosphorescent cigar." Close to the object was a man wearing a 
gray suit, boots, and a gray hat. In a familiar gesture, the man put his 
hand on Gilbert's shoulder and told him in French: "Look but don't 
touch." In his other hand, the man held a sphere from which purple 
rays were emitted. Shortly thereafter, he climbed aboard the craft 
and shut the door with a clapping sound. Gilbert had time to see 
something like a control console with numerous colored lights on it. 
The craft arose vertically, made a couple of loops while throwing 
light in all directions, and vanished. 
A foggy morning, June, 1968: Argentina. An artist, seventyycar old 
Benjamin Solari Parravicini, was walking outside when he was 
confronted by a tall blond man with clear eyes, who addressed him 
in an unknown language. Thinking he was some insane character, 
the witness went on his way, but then he lost consciousness. He 
woke up inside a strange craft, where he was told, among other 
things, that the saucer people were keeping watch on the earth to 
avoid a catastrophe. 
July 18, 1967: Boardman, Ohio. Rev. Anthony de Polo was 
awakened by a strong sound similar to the background music of a 
 
science fiction television show. He thought that someone was telling 
him to go downstairs. He did so and looked outside: there, between 
his house and the next one, he saw a figure wearing a luminous suit. 
De Polo went outside. The sound started again, then he received the 
message: "You have nothing to fear. I shall not hurt you, and I know 
you will not harm me," De Polo came closer. The sound started 
again, and he received a third message: "Danger. I must leave." De 
Polo saw a light, or rather a kind of glow, in the sky. When he 
lowered his eyes, the strange entity had vanished. 
March 23, 1966: Temple, Oklahoma. W. E. Laxson,fifty seven, a 
civilian instructor with the U.S. Air Force, was driving south toward 
Sheppard Air Force Base at 5:00 A.M. when he found the road 
blocked by a large object, the size of a Douglas C 124 Globemaster 
without wings or engines, resting on pads. A man dressed in 
coveralls, with a kind of baseball cap on his head, appeared to be 
examining something on the underside of the craft. When asked how 
this man looked, Laxson replied: 
He was just a plain old G.I. mechanic,. or a crew chief or what 
ever he might happen to be on that crew. He had a flashlight in his 
hand and he was almost kneeling on his right knee with his left 
hand touching the bottom of the fuselage which was about three 
feet from the pavement. 
And he added: 
People wonder if they looked as "an outer space deal" .. . I told 
them I didn't know what "an outer space deal" looked like, but I 
do know this was made in America, I am sure. It had a plain old 
G.I. in it, I know that much, I would know the man if I saw him 
in Chicago tomorrow. 
On October 18, 1954, at 10:45 P.M., near the lake of Saint Point, in 
the east of France, a Miss Bourriot saw a bright light on the road 
and stopped her bicycle. She saw a man, average in size, close to the 
light. With him were two dwarfs. 
THE FUNCTIONING LIE 
What does it all mean? Is it reasonable to draw a parallel between 
religious apparitions, the fairy faith, the reports of dwarf 
NURSI.INGS OF IMMORTALITY 
like beings with supernatural powers, the airship tales in the United 
States in the last century, and the present stories of UFO landings? 
I would strongly argue that it is—for one simple reason: the 
mechanisms that have generated these various beliefs are identical. 
Their human context and their effect on humans arc constant. And it 
is my conclusion that the observation of this very deep mechanism is 
a crucial one. It has little to do with the problem of knowing whether 
UFO's are physical objects or not. Attempting to understand the 
meaning, the purpose of the so called flying saucers, as many people 
are doing today, is just as futile as was the pursuit of the fairies, if 
one makes the mistake of confusing appearance and reality. The 
phenomenon has stable, invariant features, some of which we have 
tried to identify and label clearly. But we have also had to note 
carefully the chameleonlikc character of the secondary attributes of 
the sightings: the shapes of the objects, the appearances of their 
occupants, their reported statements, vary as a function of the 
cultural environment into which they arc projected. 
The airship stories are especially relevant in this connection. As we 
have seen, a good number of bearded characters alighted in the 
Midwest and elsewhere in 1897, to request water from a well, 
bluestoncs, or other similar things. The stories they told were be 
lievable, if somewhat astounding, to American farmers of the time. 
The airship itself corresponded to the popular concept of an 
elaborate flying machine; it had wheels, turbines, wings, powerful 
lights. There is only one detail not yet dealt with: the fact that the 
airship, though it was believable to the witnesses of 1897, is no 
longer credible to us. We know very well that the device as 
described could not possibly fly, unless its outside appearance was 
designed to deceive potential witnesses. But if so, why? And what 
was it? What was its purpose? 
Perhaps the airship, like the fairy tricks, the flying saucers, was a lie, 
so well engineered that its image in human consciousness could sink 
very deep indeed and then be forgotten—as UFO landings are 
forgotten, as the appearance of supernatural beings in the Middle 
Ages are forgotten. But, then, are they really forgotten? 
  
Human actions are based on imagination, belief, and faith, not on 
objective observation—as military and political experts know well. 
Even science, which claims its methods and theories are rationally 
developed, is really shaped by emotion and fancy, or by fear. And to 
control human imagination is to shape mankind's collective destiny, 
provided the source of this control is not identifiable by the public. 
And indeed it is one of the objectives of any government's policies to 
prepare the public for unavoidable changes or to stimulate its activity 
in some desirable direction. 
Thus the Soviets have skilfully employed the services of science 
fiction writers to supply the emotional support of their space effort 
among the young people. In the Western world, control over our 
imaginations is more diffuse, and many sources compete for it. But it 
is significant that intelligence agencies and advertising companies 
alike should be so highly interested in folklore. Not only are Batman 
and the Jolly Green Giant instances of experiments in this direction; 
the Vietnam war has seen similar appeals to public imagination 
through the use of local superstition. Recent discussions in Congress 
regarding the advisability of military experimentation with 
witchcraft in black Africa is also a case in point.* 
I am not saying, of course, that the UFO phenomenon is pro
duced by a similar trick. But I do say that, beyond the question 
of the physical nature of the objects, we should be studying the 
deeper problem of their impact on our imagination and culture. 
Whatever they are, a lot of books about them have been written, 
sold, and read. How the UFO phenomena will affect, in the long 
run, our views about science, about religion, about the exploration 
of space, it is impossible to measure. But to those who follow the 
situation closely, the UFO phenomenon docs appear to have a 
real effect. And a peculiar feature of this mechanism is that it 
affects equally those who "believe" and those who oppose the 
reality of the phenomenon in a physical sense. 
For the time being the only positive statement we can make, 
without fear of contradiction, is that: it is possible to make large 
* A century ago, the French were using magicians to impress African 
leaders. 

sections of any population believe in the existence of supernatural 
races, in the possibility of flying machines, in the plurality of in 
habited worlds, by exposing them to a few carefully engineered 
scenes the details of which are adapted to the culture and super 
stitions of a particular time and place. 
Could the meetings with UFO entities be such artificial con 
structions? Consider their changing character. In the United States, 
they appear as science fiction monsters. In South America, they are 
sanguinary and quick to get into a fight. In France, they behave like 
rational, Cartesian, peace loving tourists. The Irish Gentry, if we 
believe its spokesmen, was an "aristocratic race" organized 
somewhat like a religious military order. The airship pilots were 
strongly individualistic characters with all the features of the 
American farmer. 
Now consider the following case, which I regard as the "perfect 
landing." The date is October 23, 1954, and the place near Tripoli, 
Libya. About 3:00 A.M. an Italian farmer saw a flying craft land a 
few dozen yards from him. It was shaped like an egg laid 
horizontally. The upper half was transparent and flooded with very 

white light; the lower half appeared to be metallic. The fore part had 
two side ports; the central part an external ladder. The hind part had 
two vertically disposed wheels, one above the other, and two 
cylindrical protruding tubes. While descending, the craft made a 
noise similar to that of a compressor "like those used for inflating car 
tires." No propeller was visible. The fuselage was surmounted by two 
antennae, one behind the other, and bore a kind of undercarriage with 
six wheels (two pairs in the fore part of the craft, one pair behind). 
The machine was about six yards long and three yards wide. 
Inside it were six men in yellowish coveralls wearing gas masks. 
One of them took his mask off in order to blow into a sort of tube: 
his face appeared to be that of a normal human being. 
When the witness got close to the object and put a hand on the 
ladder in order to climb it, a strong electric shock threw him to the 
ground. One of the occupants made gestures as if to warn him, for 
his sake, to keep away from the craft. Another occupant pulled Out 
a wheel and again put it back where it formerly was. Then, pushing 
a button, he caused a kind of half container to 
  
cover the wheel. Inside the cockpit, a kind of radio set, complete 
with wires and operated by a man with earphones, was visible. All 
six pilots were busy on their instrument panels. 
The incident lasted about twenty minutes. Then the object silently 
took off and reached an altitude of fifty yards. Then it went away at 
a dizzying speed, toward the east. 
The imprints left by the undercarriage's wheels on the soft ground 
have been photographed. They resembled those of normal rubber 
wheels. Their length was only about two feet. 
If it were possible to make three dimensional holograms with mass, 
and to project them through time, I would say this is what the farmer 
saw. And with that theory we could explain many of the apparitions: 
in numerous UFO cases and in some religious miracles, the beings 
appeared as three dimensional images whose feet did not actually 
touch the ground. But what about the other physical actions, such as 
the electric shocks? 
As we read the account of the Libyan landing case, it is tempting to 
assume that the farmer, far from witnessing by chance the 
maneuvers of interplanetary visitors, was deliberately exposed to a 
scene designed to be recorded by him and transmitted to us. Hence, 
the gas masks, the instrument panels, and the radio set— "complete 
with wires." 
The same is true with the following Italian case, which took 
place in Abbiate Guazzone, near Varese, on April 24, 1950: 
At 10:00 P.M., Bruno Facchini heard and saw sparks which he 
attributed to a storm, but he soon discovered a dark mass hovering 
between a pole and a tree two hundred yards from his house. A 
man dressed in tight fitting clothes and wearing a helmet 
appeared to be making repairs. There were three other figures 
working around the huge craft. This work being over, a trap 
through which light had been shining was closed, and the thing 
took off. Other details were as follows: the object made a sound 
similar to that of a giant beehive and the air seemed strangely 
warm around it. Two of the men were standing on the ground 
near a ladder; the third one was on a telescopic elevator, the base 
of which touched the ground, and was holding something near a 
group of pipes: this produced the sparks seen by Facchini. They 
were about five feet nine inches tall, dressed in gray diving suits 
with an oval transparent glass in front of their faces, which were 
concealed behind gray masks. From the fore portion of the masks 
a flexible pipe emerged at the level of the mouth. 
 
They wore earphones. Inside the craft could be seen a series of 
oxygen type containers and many dials. When Facchini offered his 
help, the men talked among themselves in guttural sounds, and one of 
them took a cameralike device from around his neck and projected a 
beam of light on Facchini, who tumbled away for several yards. He 
was then caught by a rush of air and thrown again to the ground. 
They subsequently ignored him as they recovered the elevator and 
brought it inside the craft, which took off. 
After a sleepless night, Facchini returned to the site and found 
some metal fragments left by the soldering operation, also four 
circular imprints and patches of scorched grass. He revealed the 
observation only ten days later, when his doctor treated him for 
the pains and bruises resulting from his fall and advised him to 
call police. Ministry of Defense technicians who examined the 
metal samples found them to consist of an "anti friction material 
very 	resistant to heat." The incident had other witnesses, who testified 
privately. 
1 ^ Had Mr. Facchini been exposed deliberately to a faked appari4; <* tion 
of "space beings"? What could be the purpose of such a worldwide 
elaborate 
hoax? Who can afford to contrive such a complex scheme, for so 
little apparent result? Is human imagination alone capable of 2 ;f 
playing such tricks on itself? Or should we hypothesize that an 
advanced race somewhere in the universe and sometime in the 
future has been showing us three dimensional space operas for 
the last two thousand years, in an attempt to guide our civilization? If so, they certainly do not deserve our congratulations! Are 
we dealing instead with a parallel universe, where there are  races 
living, and where we may go at our expense, never 
return to the present? Are these races only semi human, so that 
order to maintain contact with us, they need crossbreeding 

with men and women of our planet? Is this the origin of the many 
tales and legends where genetics plays a great role: the symbolism 
f the Virgin in occultism and religion, the fairy tales involving 
human midwives and changelings, the sexual overtones of the flying 
saucer reports, the biblical stories of intermarriage between the Lord's 
angels and terrestrial women, whose offspring were giants? From that 
mysterious universe, have objects that can materialize and 
"dematcrialize" at will been projected? Are the UFO's "windows" 
rather than "objects"? There is nothing to 
  
support these assumptions, and yet, in view of the historical continuity of the phenomenon, alternatives are hard to find, unless we 
deny the reality of all the facts, as our peace of mind would indeed 
prefer. 
The problem cannot be solved today. If we absolutely must have 
something to believe, then we should join one of the numerous 
groups of people who have all the "answers." Read Menzel's books 
or the Condon Report, that fine piece of scientific recklessness. Or 
subscribe to the magazines that "prove" that "flying saucers are real 
and from outer space." I have not written this book for such people, 
but for those few who have gone through all this and have graduated 
to a higher, clearer level of perception of the total meaning of that 
tenuous dream that underlies the many nightmares of human history, 
for those who have recognized, within themselves and in others, the 
delicate levers of imagination and will not be afraid to experiment 
with them. 


CONJECTURES. 
It may seem useless to conjecture about a phenomenon that, 
according to all authorities, remains unidentified. But this book has 
shown that it has left a clear series of marks in the beliefs and 
attitudes of our contemporaries, in a pattern not only identifiable but 
also by no means unprecedented. Hence it is not necessarily 
pointless to try to devise critical tests, both sociological and physical 
in nature, to determine whether or not purposeful design is involved 
in the phenomena the witnesses describe. If the answer is yes, the 
problem of deducing the identity of the intelligence that generates it 
is not necessarily a solvable one. This latter fact should therefore be 
the basis of any future attempt at theoretical interpretation. 
Whenever a set of unusual circumstances is presented, it is in 
the nature of the human mind to analyze it until a rational pattern 
is encountered at some level. But it is quite conceivable that na
ture should present us with circumstances so deeply organized 
that our observational and logical errors would entirely mask the 
pattern to be identified. To the scientist, there is nothing new 
here. The history of science consists in dual progress: the refine 
 
ment of observational techniques and the improvement of analytical 
methods. On the other hand, the proposition that the universe might 
contain intelligent creatures exhibiting such an organization that no 
model of it could be constructed on the basis of currently classified 
concepts is also theoretically plausible. The behavior of such beings 
would then necessarily appear random or absurd, or would go 
undetected, especially if they possessed physical means of retiring at 
will beyond the human perceptual range. It is interesting, but only 
incidental, to observe that such physical actions would appear on 
scientific records as mere random accidents, easily ascribablc to 
instrumental error or to a variety of natural causes. 
Considering the UFO phenomenon as a special instance of that more 
fundamental question, we are presented with the dual possibility of 
very long term unsolvability and of continued manifestation, and 
this is true whether the phenomenon is natural or artificial in nature. 
This being the case, the development of a new myth feeding upon 
this duality is entirely predictable. In the absence of a rational 
solution to the mystery, and public interest in the matter being 
intense, it is quite likely that in the coming years every new brand of 
charlatanism will use it as a base, although it is not possible to 
predict its exact form. We may very well be living the early years of 
a new mythological movement, and it may eventually give our 
technological age its Olympus, its fairyland, or its Walhalla, whether 
we regard such a development as an asset or as a blow to our culture. 
Because many observations of UFO phenomena appear self 
consistent and at the same time irreconcilable with scientific 
knowledge, a logical vacuum has been created that human 
imagination tries to fill with its own fantasies. Such situations have 
been frequently observed in the past, and they have given us both the 
highest and the basest forms of religious, poetic, and political 
activity. It is entirely possible that the phenomenon we study here 
will give rise to similar developments, because its manifestations 
coincide with a renewal of interest in the human value of technology. 
There currently is considerable puzzlement among the public, and 
especially among the young, whenever the attitude of scien
 
tists confronted with such phenomena is discussed. Sometimes their 
questions contain a note of anguish. Typically, they ask the 
following: "How can we react to the flood of absurd, incoherent 
stories about flying saucers?" "What is the use of pursuing a study of 
science if it cannot be applied to the rational analysis of such 
phenomena?" "In a time when the young are encouraged to follow 
with enthusiasm the progress of space exploration, why should the 
subject of life in the universe be a forbidden topic?" "Several 
organizations exist in the United States devoted to the investigation 
of this problem. They seem to have the support of some reputable 
scientists, and they often allege that the government is convinced 
that the phenomena have an intelligent origin; but that it hides the 
truth from the public. Should we not join such organizations to gain 
knowledge of the subject?" 
A tentative answer could perhaps be formulated as follows. First, it is 
a mistake to believe in Authority, or to put blind faith in official 
reports, scientific theses, or the theory of a particular author, 
whenever a point of research is discussed. As objective as my reader 
perhaps thinks I am, I cannot help but have a general image in mind 
as I write this book, and so do all writers, even writers on subjects as 
amenable to objective analysis as chemistry or geometry—no matter 
how loudly they deny being biased. Therefore one must borrow from 
books only those elements that appear properly documented, and 
they must be confronted with a larger human context. A good 
researcher should not be afraid to change his mind; he should not feel 
desperate because his comforting beliefs leave him as soon as he 
begins to think critically. If he applies these rules, he may not solve 
all the problems he attacks, but at least he will be less likely to fall 
victim of every delusion or fad that is associated with them. 
Just as some cheap magazines are deliberately written to gencrate 
fear in the public and to capitalize on that fear, some scientific 
reports arc deliberate hoaxes designed to reinforce the credibility of 
our scientific, political, or military establishments. This is a fact of 
life, and it should not discourage one from the study of science. It 
does not necessarily mean that anybody is hiding some formidable 
truth. If the idea that science knows nothing about certain 
phenomena is unacceptable to the public, why should it he more 
easily acceptable to professional scientists? 

Those groups of enthusiasts who advocate a crash study of flying 
saucers by specially hired scientific consultants forget that a given 
discipline can make progress only if competent professionals are 
genuinely and sufficiently interested in it to direct their efforts 
toward its solution, and this is not done by money alone, or by act of 
Congress. Either there is no scientific value at all in the many UFO 
observations that have accumulated over the years, in which case no 
amount of publicity will have any effect on its solution, or these 
observations contain scientific paydirt, in which case that residue 
will be recognized and exploited by direct research, and will result in 
novel developments that current methods are by definition incapable 
of predicting. A young researcher should keep in mind that he will 
never make a serious contribution to the study of this problem, or of 
any problem, unless he first develops his own competence to the 
point where he can select an aspect of it and cover it by himself, 
without relying on the emotional form of thinking which 
characterizes the enthusiast. 
It is precisely because science is the process through which 
unsolvable emotional arguments can be transformed into organized 
sets of sub problems amenable to rational analysis that the UFO 
phenomenon is interesting. Therefore, to say that UFO's are not a 
scientific problem, or even to pose the question, is to utter an 
absurdity. There is no such thing as a scientific problem: it is the 
man who looks at the problem who is scientific in his approach or 
who is not. Science is an object in the mind of man, not a 
characteristic we are at liberty either to bestow upon or to withdraw 
from every funny looking contraption that happens to cross our 
skies. 
For a scientist, the only valid question, in this context, is to decide 
whether the phenomenon can be studied by itself, or whether it is an 
instance of a deeper problem. This book has attempted to illustrate, 
and only to illustrate, the latter approach. And the conclusion is that, 
through the UFO phenomenon, we have the unique opportunity to 
observe folklore in the making, and to gather scientific material at 
the deepest source of human imagination. We will be the object of 
much contempt by future students of our civilization if we allow this 
material to be lost, for "tradition is a meteor which, once it falls, 
cannot be rekindled." 
The manner in which observations are gathered should lie of 
 
interest to the sociologist because it exhibits certain amusing 
features. There is a tendency among the believers to gather into 
large, very formal organizations, where they waste all their energy 
and, sometimes, a good deal of money, with practically no visible 
result. It is clear that such organizations answer a psychological need 
rather than a genuine desire to discover the answer to an interesting 
intellectual problem. Maintaining such a group implies a tremendous 
overhead—mailing lists, bookkeeping, etc.— and experience shows 
that research is always the last activity it can afford. Instead, these 
groups generate so much internal bitterness and so many 
intcrorganizational feuds that they prove to be serious obstacles to 
independent researchers who are simply trying to get firsthand data 
and do not care to support one particular 
personality or theory against another. There are so many such 
groups now that their publications no longer reach the scientists, 
who can hardly be expected to read fifteen or twenty specialized 
magazines every month. 
If people really wanted to get at the root of the UFO phenomenon, 
they should simply constitute a laTge number of small, informal 
circles, the only objective of which would be the gathering of 
firsthand reports. It should be obvious that professional scientists are 
not in a position to do this. They know the problem only through the 
daily press, which does not give information on reports made outside 
a small area. When it does, the witness account is so biased that the 
information becomes worthless. And even if the article is accurate, 
there is no way to measure the reliability of the witnesses or to learn 
their standing in the community. Only local residents can evaluate 
such an odd occurrence as a UFO sighting at its true weight. 
The creation of a network of active but informal groups would also 
help solve the problem of documentation and publication. When the 
main organized groups do conduct investigations, they bury them in 
their files or publish only biased, heavily edited summaries, thus 
screwing down the lid on the observational material they precisely 
set out to reveal. 
To summarize: neither a crash program staffed with twenty Nobel 
prize winners, nor computer correlations of millions of poorly 
observed parameters, nor mental telepathy with superior 
 
space beings, nor the organization of hundreds of people into 
observation squads, scanning the heavens every night with binoculars 
and a pure heart, will easily dispose of a problem that has eluded our 
radar, aircraft, astronomers, and physical theories for so long. The 
only thing that might help us make some progress toward an 
understanding of the phenomenon is the publication of good reports. 
They must be firsthand reports. They must be gathered fast and 
published fast. They must circulate freely. In the United States, 
unfortunately, there is not a single serious journal whose columns are 
open to private researchers for the publication of such investigations, 
but there are several respected periodicals in other parts of the world, 
notably the Flying Saucer Review, of London, often quoted here, 
which is becoming a major source of material for the student of 
folklore. In French, the GEPA Bulletin and Lumieres dans la Nuit are 
two sources whose honesty this writer has found indisputable. But 
none of these publications has the answer to the UFO problem. 
The material for many years of very constructive study lies about us 
unnoticed; it is only when witnesses come forward with the type of 
observation discussed in this book that we realize that never in 
history has the human mind been so productive, so secret, and so 
fascinating. 
We must finally address ourselves to the question: "If we reject the 
naive theory that the UFO phenomenon is caused by friendly visitors 
from Mars, what alternatives can we suggest?" It is amusing to try to 
answer this question. Imaginative science fiction buffs could perhaps 
look into the following lines of speculation: 
1. There exists a natural phenomenon whose manifestations border 
on both the physical and the mental. There is a medium in which 
human dreams can be implemented, and this is the mechanism by 
which UFO events are generated, needing no superior intelligence to 
trigger them. This would explain the fugitivity of UFO 
manifestations, the alleged contact with friendly occupants, and the 
fact that the objects appear to keep pace with human technology and 
to use current symbols. The theory explains the behavior of the 
"visitors": aggressive in Latin America, "Cartesian" in France, "alien 
monsters" in the United States, etc. 
 
It also, naturally, explains the totality of religious miracles as well 
as ghosts and other so called supernatural phenomena. 
1.	 The same result would be obtained if we could hypothesize mental 
entities, which would be simultaneously perceptible to groups of 
independent witnesses. Unfortunately it would stop short of 
explaining the traces left by such phenomena. 
2.	 We could also imagine that for centuries some superior intelligence 
has been projecting into our environment (chosen for reasons best 
known to that intelligence) various artificial objects whose creation is 
a pure form of art. Perhaps it enjoys our puzzlement, or perhaps it is 
trying to teach us some new concept. Perhaps it is acting in a purely 
gratuitous effort, and its creations are as impossible for us to 
understand as is the Picasso sculpture in Chicago to the birds that 
perch on it. Like Picasso and his art, the great UFO Master shapes our 
culture, but most of us remain unaware of it. 

Unfortunately, none of these attractive theories has a scientific leg to 
stand upon! I must apologize for presenting them here, but I only 
wanted to show how quickly one could be carried into pure fantasy 
as soon as the hard lesson of the facts was ignored. Clearly, a 
hundred or a thousand such theories could be enumerated at very 
little expense, and every one of them could serve as the basis for a 
very nice new myth, religion, or pseudo scientific fad. 
If we decide to avoid extreme speculation, but to make certain 
basic observations from the existing data, five principal facts stand 
out rather clearly: 
Fact L There has been among the public, in all countries, since 
the middle of 1946, an extremely active generation of colorful 
rumors. They center on a considerable number of observations of 
unknown machines close to the ground in rural areas, the physical 
traces left by these machines, and their various effects on humans 
and animals.
Fact 2. When the underlying archetypes are extracted from these 
rumors, the saucer myth is seen to coincide to a remarkable degree 
with the fairy faith of Celtic countries, the observations of the 
scholars of past ages, and the widespread belief among all peoples 
concerning entities whose physical and psychological descriptions 
place them in the same category as the present day ufonauts. 
 
Fact 3, The entities human witnesses report to have seen, heard, i° 
and touched fall into various biological types. Among them are A 
beings of giant stature, men indistinguishable from us, winged  £ 
creatures, and various types of monsters. Most of the so called jf"pilots, 
however, are dwarfs and form two main groups: (1) dark, 
hairy beings—identical to the gnomes of medieval theory—with V 
small, bright eyes and deep, rugged, "old" voices; and (2) beings I —
who answer the description of the sylphs of the Middle Ages u^or the 
elves of the fairy faith—with human complexions, over pj£ sized heads, 
and silvery voices. All the beings have been described and without 
breathing apparatus. Beings of various cate
have been reported together. 

Fact 4. The entities' reported behavior 
is as consistently absurd ^a s the appearance of their craft is ludicrous. 
In numerous instances 
'I of verbal communication with them, their assertions have been ,"•* 
systematically misleading. This is true for all cases on record, O£ from 
encounters with the Gentry in the British Isles to conversa.^•tions with 
airship engineers during the 1897 Midwest flap and . ^discussions with 
the alleged Martians in Europe, North and South ^ America, and 
elsewhere. This absurd behavior has had the effect ^ of keeping 
professional scientists away from the area where that 
 activity was taking place. It has also served to give the saucer 
myth its religious and mystical overtones. 


Fact 5. The mechanism of 
the apparitions, in legendary, historical, and modern times, is standard 
and follows the model of religious miracles. Several cases, which bear 
the official stamp of the Catholic Church fFatima, Guadalupe, etc.), are 
in fact—if one applies the definitions strictly—nothing more than UFO 
phenomena where the entity has delivered a message having to do with 
religious beliefs rather than with fertilizers or engineering. Given the 
above five facts I believe the following three propositions to be true: 
Proposition 1. The behavior of nonhuman visitors to our planet, or the 
behavior of a superior race coexisting with us on this planet, would not 
necessarily appear purposeful to a human observer. Scientists who 
brush aside UFO reports because "obviously intelligent visitors would 
not behave like that" simply have not given serious thought to the 
problem of nonhunian intelligence. 
162  
Observation and deduction agree, in fact, that the organized action 
of a superior race must appear absurd to the inferior one. That this 
does not preclude contact and even cohabitation is an obvious fact of 
daily life on our planet, where humans, animals, and insects have 
interwoven activities in spite of their different levels of nervous 
system organization. 
Proposition 2. If we recognize that the structure and nature of time is 
as much of a puzzle to modern physicists as it was to Reverend Kirk, 
then it follows that any theory of the universe that does not take our 
ignorance in this respect into account is bound to remain an 
academic exercise. In particular, such a theory could never be 
invoked seriously in a discussion of the constraints placed on 
possible visitors to our planet. 
Proposition 3. The entire mystery we are discussing contains all the 
elements of a myth that could be utilized to serve political or 
sociological purposes, a fact illustrated by the curious link between 
the contents of the reports themselves and the progress of human 
technology, from aerial ships to dirigibles to ghost rockets to flying 
saucers—a link that has never received a satisfactory interpretation 
in a sociological framework. 
With respect to the last point, I find it remarkable that the first 
instance of a blackout caused by a UFO should be found in Twilight 
Bar, a play written by Arthur Kocstler in 1933. During the play, 
which takes place on a small unnamed island where a civil war is 
about to break out, an enormous "meteor" flies over the town with a 
high pitched whistling sound as all the lights go out. The craft 
plunges into the sea, and two beings, dressed in white coveralls and 
moving as if in a trance, come ashore and introduce themselves as 
messengers sent to warn mankind that it has three days in which to 
mend its ways. Otherwise, the creatures say, mankind will be 
destroyed and the earth will be repopulated by a superior race. 
Similarly, I am indebted to Donald Hanlon for pointing out that 
the first reference to UFO effects on car ignition came in a novel 
written in 1950 by Bernard Newman and entitled The Flying 
Saucer. It is true that when Newman's book was written, some 
UFO reports involving magnetic disturbances (of the compass) 
were circulating. Even in 1944, the military had already amassed 
 
considerable information about unidentified flying objects, the first 
large scale scientific investigation having been done the previous 
year. But the fact remains that the coincidence between these works 
of imagination and the actual details of the reports that came from 
the public is a remarkable one, and it opens the way to unlimited 
speculation. Unfortunately, this is precisely the point where we must 
stop speculating. 
To conclude, let us remark that the density (timewise) of UFO 
manifestations is not decreasing. Let us also note that knowledge of 
the structure of time would imply superior knowledge of destiny (I 
am using the word "destiny" to designate not the fate of individuals 
but the mechanism through which physical events unfold and the 
canvas upon which they are implemented). Perhaps I should remind 
the reader of two points we have touched upon earlier: (1) the 
relativity of time in Magonia, a theory passed on to us in numerous 
tales we have reviewed; and 
(2) that astonishing little remark made by a sylph to Facius Cardan, 
which antedates quantum theory by four centuries: "He added that 
God created [the universe] from moment to moment, so that should 
He desist for an instant the world would perish." 
As Jerome Cardan says, "Be this fact or fable, so it stands." I cannot 
offer the key to this mystery. I can only repeat: the search may be 
futile; the solution may lie forever beyond our grasp; the apparent 
logic of our most elementary deductions may evaporate. Perhaps 
what we search for is no more than a dream that, becoming part of 
our lives, never existed in reality. We cannot be sure that we study 
something real, because we do not know what reality is; we can only 
be sure that our study will help us understand more, far more, about 
ourselves. This is not a worthless task, and this idea gives me 
comfort, as I leave you with the lines of Milton: 
I took it for a faery vision Of some gay creatures of 
the element That in the colours of the rainbow live 
And play i the plighted clouds. I was awestruck 
And as I passed, I worshipped; if those you seek It 
were a journey like the path to heaven To help you 
find them. 
APPENDIX 
A CENTURY OF UFO LANDINGS 
(1868 1968) 
To COMPILE a catalogue is to invite criticism. Catalogues are obtained by 
integrating information over a variety of sources, but not every piece of 
information has an identifiable source; information drawn from a single 
source is always questionable; information gathered from several sources is 
generally contradictory. To compile a catalogue, then, is to weigh 
alternatives and to make difficult choices. In classical fields (in astronomy, 
for instance), the original sources are people scientifically trained in the 
same discipline as the man who conducts the compilation. Both follow 
common rules and observe a common ethic. They each provide many 
entries, so that personal bias can be estimated with some degree of 
accuracy. A general validity measure can be given for the catalogue as a 
whole. 
None of these guarantees exists in the present domain. The study of UFO's 
is more than a descriptive analysis of folklore, but it has not developed into 
a scientific field. It differs from folklore in two respects: the individuals at 
the source of the rumor are, for most of them, still alive; and physical 
effects are, in a significant number of cases, available to the analyst. What 
is lacking to bring the matter into the realm of science is a proper definition 
of the phenomenon to be studied, along with a set of criteria to determine 
the significance of any particular report. In the absence of a general 
presentation of outstanding cases, it is naturally impossible to ascribe 
meaning to an individual sighting, taken out of context. Criteria that are 
proposed under those conditions remain purely philosophical exercises, and 
definitions are similarly void of interest. For these reasons, it was felt that a 
catalogue of unsolved landings might be useful to those currently engaged 
in a serious study of the problem. 
The sample of observers, earlier studies have shown, is a true cross 
section of the rural population: all ages and all nations are represented. 

These observers witnessed an event that, to them, was unique, and it was 
not always reported to authorities, but spread through the public or was 
given to the newspapers. Such accounts we shall find worded very loosely. 
Specialized magazines that record the data seldom bother to check them. 
Typically, they add errors of their own, giving the date of the newspaper as 
the date of the sighting or failing to recognize obviously duplicated versions 
of the same case. All those who have investigated claims of UFO sightings 
know well the frustration caused by journalistic inaccuracy. Fortunately, 
official sources can be consulted as a check on the reported events. Such 
sources often provide precise data not only on the phenomenon itself but 
also on the conditions of the observation. 
To compile a catalogue of UFO sightings, we must start with a number of 
books, magazines, and private files from which a general index is built. In 
doing so, we find that many writers do not quote their sources, so that we 
must either take their story at face value (reaction of the average reader) or 
reject it summarily (reaction of the average scientist). A third solution 
exists, but it is costly and extremely time consuming; it involves cross 
indexing every available source with all others, so that the path of the 
information through the reporting network can be traced back to the origin. 
Naturally, the attempt is not always successful. The publication of a 
catalogue such as this, however, may well stimulate new studies into cases 
we have failed to clarify either because we had to rely on a single source of 
data or because fresh field investigation would have been the only way to 
arrive at the truth. 
It is impossible to work alone when compiling such a catalogue, but the 
problem is complicated rather than simplified when people from different 
continents must cooperate to prepare a list of events that they see from 
different angles and know from different versions—which in turn reflect 
the biases of local authors, translation errors, etc. Lack of official 
recognition makes it very difficult to organize meetings or to exchange 
extensive files, in view of the costs involved in such operations. A 
compromise must therefore be found between completeness, accuracy, and 
practicality. The method we used in the preparation of the present catalogue 
represents such a compromise. 
The construction of a cross index of sources of UFO literature was begun 
by our group in 1961. We started with the French literature on the subject 
and extended it gradually to the Anglo Saxon literature, then to that of the 
rest of the world. We were fortunate, coming into the field at that relatively 
late date, to benefit from the work of several predecessors who had already 
gathered in a systematic fashion exten
 
sive files covering one particular region or period. Foremost among these 
were the files of Aime Michel and official data in Europe and in the United 
States. Correlation and overlap between the main sources have been studied 
in an effort to strengthen the validity of the whole, and it is from this index 
of sightings that the present catalogue of landings (which is but a small 
fraction of the general list) has been extracted. Draft versions were 
produced and circulated among a handful of people who have gained 
special knowledge of this subject either through personal interest or in an 
official capacity. They were thus able to contribute comments and additions 
to the list, which is finally presented here for the examination of a wider 
public. It is our hope that this preliminary work will encourage anyone who 
possesses relevant information and understands the need for the 
centralization of descriptions of such phenomena to come forward and join 
this continuing effort. 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION 
It must be realized that a complete study of even the existing files— not to 
mention field investigation and active follow up—would require full time 

attention and a permanent staff. Speaking solely from the point of view of 
data gathering, a serious examination of the sighting reports that have 
accumulated in recent years cannot be conducted until a major institution 
seriously devotes some of its facilities to this task. It would be unreasonable 
to expect a powerful stream of rumors such as those surrounding the UFO 
phenomenon to be susceptible to analysis in a few months, while many 
universities must devote considerable time and effort in the understanding 
of classical folklore themes (such as Indian tribal rites and artifacts), which 
present no unsolved technological riddle and affect a much smaller and 
much more localized series of sources, 
This fact being granted, considerable clarification can be brought by the 
students of the phenomenon, provided they select an area small enough to 
be covered with some degree of reliability in spite of the inadequate 
facilities at their disposal. And, indeed, excellent work of this type is not 
lacking: Richard Hall with UFO Evidence (1964), Hanlon, Clark, and 
Farish with their important articles about the 1897 wave, and Ted Bloecher 
with his authoritative Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, to cite only a few, 
have published such works. But a general catalogue of landings from 
international sources has been sorely needed. To provide adequate 
historical perspective while preserving homogeneity of the material, we decided to focus our attention on 
the reports of the period 1868 1968. 


Before discussing our sources in detail, we should pay tribute to a 
researcher who compiled not only a list of landings but also a general 
catalogue of sightings of all categories, as early as 1961: Guy Quincy, 
whose catalogues have unfortunately never been published. In France they 
circulated in manuscript form and have served as a base for our earliest 
index. Since 1961 we have found independent sources that provided cross 
references for most items in these listings, but a few cases were never 
confirmed in this fashion, and our source in such cases will be indicated 
thus (Quincy). Original references, unfortunately, were not given in his 
catalogues. 
At the end of 1963, when we compiled preliminary statistics on occupant 
reports, we were able to gather only 80 such cases.* It is a measure of the 
remarkable research done by many individuals in the last few years that in 
the present catalogue the number should have quadrupled, since 35 per cent 
of all landing accounts indexed here include descriptions of occupants. 
A third and very significant step toward an up to date reference was taken 
in 1966 when Charles Bowen, the present editor of the Flying Saucer 
Review, agreed to serve as the chairman of an international team of 
contributors and to devote a special issue of his publication to "The 
Humanoids." That special issue remains an outstanding document on the 
question of the occupants, along with Michel's Flying Saucers and the 
Straight Line Mystery. "The Humanoids" was of special interest not only 
because it listed over three hundred landing reports but also because it 
contained for the first time extensive bibliographies and sources. This will 
allow us to give it as unique reference for many cases in the present list. 
The notation  will therefore refer the reader to page 34 of 
the Flying Saucer Review special issue for a detailed discussion and 
bibliography. Within the scope of this catalogue, it was impossible to give 
adequate treatment of the many interpretations that had been offered for 
each sighting, and we felt our role was simply to provide in all cases the 
reference to the most complete and most readily accessible authority. 
Descriptions of landings can be found in specialized journals and in many 
books in addition to those quoted above. Charles Fort mentions a few such 
incidents in his works, and we quote from the Holt edition 
* Vnllec, "A Descriptive Study of the Entities Associated with the Type 1 
Sighting," Flying Saucer Review, X, 1 (January February, 1964), and june, 1964). 
 
by Tiffany Thayer. An American researcher, Orvil Hartle, has published 
several accounts of early twentieth century landings in his privately printed 
book, A Carbon Experiment. Similar cases have been noted during the 
1947 1952 period: Captain Ruppelt, who was in charge of the U.S. Air 
Force's investigations in 1952, considered himself to be plagued by reports 
of landings, as he writes in his The Report on UFO's, and his team 
conscientiously eliminated them. But it is only when dedicated civilian 
researchers such as Leonard Stringfield (author of Inside Saucer Post) and 
Coral Lorenzen of APRO started independent investigations of the matter 
that proper light was cast on the American sightings. Another American 
researcher, George D. Fawcett, regularly publishes sighting summaries in 
Ray Palmer's magazine, Flying Saucers. 



Between 1963 and 1967, I have reexamined the totality of the general files 
of the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) and have extracted 
from them reports that had fallen into oblivion. In some cases, I was able to 
initiate new investigations into some of the most remarkable incidents, 
published here for the first time with this reference: (Atic). The official 
procedure demanded that we delete the names of the witnesses from such 
reports. In one case we had to delete the name of the town itself. 
Although we recognize as futile an attempt at the exhaustive compilation of 
report: from all countries in the last one hundred years, we did try to 
achieve the complete tabulation of French and Italian cases for that period, 
paying very special attention to the year 1954. The landings of 1954 have 
long appeared as the natural nucleus of any study of this problem, for 
several reasons. First, most of the sightings were made over rural areas of 
Western Europe, where a network of hamlets and small towns exists that 
has no counterpart in more recently developed regions of the world. A large 
number of detailed reports was thus generated when a major wave swept 
from Belgium and northern France to Sicily and northern Africa in the last 
four months of 1954. These reports were often made by independent 
witnesses in neighboring towns. The observers were well known locally, so 
that reliability could be easily ascertained. The stories were told with 
considerable naivete, because the reporters were country people who had 
never heard of flying saucers. Valuable details, firsthand documents, and 
personal interviews were promptly centralized by able researchers, such as 
Charles Garreau, a professional newspaperman with La Bourgogne 
Republicaine, a daily newspaper sold in the east of France. 
In a pilot study of the 1954 observations done for the Flying Saucer 

Review special issue in 1966, we chose to limit our analysis to two 
hundred sightings. About forty more cases will be found here for that 
single year, and we feel this is by far the best documented section of 
the catalogue. Not only have all cases been reexamined for possible 
errors, but the dates, times, exact places, number and names of wit
nesses have been ascertained with a new degree of precision. I have 
benefited here from the assistance of several researchers in France and 
Italy, who must remain anonymous but to whom I here express my 
gratitude. 

The basic references for that period have been extracted from the files of 
Aime Michel, who had himself worked from collections of newspapers and 
files of letters from readers of the Paris press, made available by the news 
media. We also used the collection gathered before 1958 by such pioneers 
as; Raymond Veillith, the publisher of Lumieres dans la Nuit, Charles 
Garreau, and Roger Vervisch. The early compilation of similar data by the 
team of Ouranos under the direction of Marc Thirouin was also most 
useful. The book by Car rouges, Les Apparitions de Martiens, provided 
additional details, as did the two books by Harold T. Wilkins. 
For the post 1954 sightings the scene is entirely different. The Flying 
Saucer Review was founded in 1955 and published articles by private 
researchers such as B. Lc Poer Trench and Gordon W. Creighton, who 
gathered and translated reports from the entire world, many of which were 
later included in the book World Round Up. Many South American 
sightings reached the APRO group through Olavo Fontes. Mrs. Coral 
Lorenzen has published these documents in her books The Great Flying 
Saucer Hoax (1962) and Flying Saucer Occupants (1966) while recent 
developments will be found in the third Lorenzen book, UFOs over the 
Americas (1968). In Australia, Andrew Tomas, an early pioneer of the field, 
gathered well organized collections with the outstanding team of the 
Australian Flying Saucer Review. In South America, groups such as 
CODOVNI and SBEDV, working respectively in Argentina and Brazil, 
publish regular information bulletins that cannot be neglected. Similar 
societies are active in Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Norway, Japan, New 
Zealand, and Germany. They have all contributed sightings to our list, 
either directly or indirectly. 

These sources provide continuity in the study for the entire period until the 
recent dramatic rise in the number of reports, i.e., until the end of 1965. Up 
to that date, we believe the catalogue contains a clear majority of all 
reports in print, in national papers or in official files, and the near totality 
of the observations of occupants that have con
 
tribnted to the emotional reaction of the public associated with the UFO 
phenomenon. After 1966, a similar statement would be meaningless. 
Conversation with policemen in practically any small town in the United 
States will disclose reports of unidentified objects, including, of course, 
landings, about the reality of which we shall never know the truth. In the 
present catalogue, a few cases selected from the files of the last three years 
have been given in order to encourage the continuation of this effort, but 
we have not published details of sightings still under investigation, and we 
have made no attempt at a systematic data gathering effort. The reader 
should therefore be warned that the apparent leveling off of the number of 
entries has no relationship whatsoever to actual reality.

 
PRESENTATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS. 
The following list has been prepared under several severe constraints: all 
pertinent information (to the extent that it can be defined in the present 
state of our ignorance) must be present, and yet one should be able to use it 
for quick reference. It must not become boring to the reader who simply 
wants to gain a general view of the diversity of reports. The journalist, the 
physicist, and the social scientist should find data relevant to their various 
studies in this common source. And it should also provide a useful link to 
the general literature of the field whenever possible. This meant certain 
rules had to be made and strictly followed for the presentation of the 
reports. 
1.	 It was decided to regard as essential data: the date, local time, exact place of 
sighting; number and names of witnesses; the altitude and size of the object, 
and its distance from observers; appearance and behavior of object; the 
number and reported behavior of the creatures associated with it. 
2.	 Other data were summarized to a varying degree. When the case had enjoyed 
nationwide or worldwide publicity and was presently available in books and 
journals, we felt it was enough to give adequate references and a summary. 
When we had been able to obtain new information, or to find a more solid 
interpretation of previously doubtful details, this was included. 
3.	 As a majority of the observations come from outside the United States or 
Britain, all measures of distance have been expressed in the metric system. 
Weights, when given, were converted to kilograms or tons. 
4.	 We have tried to remove subjective interpretation of the phenomena while preserving indications of the emotions of the witness during 
the observation. Naturally we cannot claim we were always successful in 
increasing the objectivity of the report. But at least the reader should be 
aware of the fact that we have tried to select words from a limited 
vocabulary in order to provide for all entries a measure of consistency, 
without reducing the sightings to arbitrarily chosen patterns, types, or 
categories. 
1.	 Every sighting has a source listed, generally selected as "the most 
readily available publication which gives more detailed references on 
the case." The only exceptions are (Quincy) for reasons explained 
above and (Personal), the latter being applied only when we have used 
documents that I am not authorized to quote in detail, or whose exact 
reference I myself do not know. 
2.	 All reports which met our earlier definitions for Typef sightings were 
candidates for inclusion here. We have rejected: (1) all cases for which 
a conventional explanation has been found to our satisfaction; 

(2) all those for which the month or year or place of observation was 
missing, except for some early cases; (3) all reports accompanied by 
photographs offered as material evidence and that have been proven to be 
fakes. It can be argued that in the latter case, it does not necessarily follow 
that no valid sighting has been made, or that the incident is not relevant to 
the UFO rumor in general. Such faked evidence, however, throws 
considerable doubt on the character and truthfulness of the witness and 
would carry the discussion into an altogether different province. 
Furthermore, such reports have received a wide coverage in the press and 
will be found without difficulty by those who wish to extend the present 
list. A sample of rejected cases may be published separately at a later date, 
along with the reason for rejection so that notable omissions can be 
justified. 


A WARNING. 
We shall not apologize for the inclusion of reports that may with reason be 
regarded as unbelievable or ludicrous. We are not claiming that any of the 
reports in the list relates to a real physical event. We are compiling not a 
table of controlled laboratory experiments but only a general guide for a 
study of the abundant literature of this intriguing subject. It would be an 
unfair procedure and a grave misunderstanding of our purpose to assume 
that all cases in the list stand at the same level of reliability, or to claim 
that the presence of this or that particular case either supports or weakens 
by itself the credibility of any other. We  
cannot accept responsibility for the mistakes of those who ignore this 
warning. 



End.

Footnotes not red here, and see the pdf book online to get it all.