LEPRECAT in the Eighties

           LEPRECAT number 7: containing the 80s and 90s. 
We're creeping up on the modern world now, and maybe Faery will fade away. "We" certainly don't seem to have much belief in them anymore. But you and I keep the faith, right? So, let's put on our bravest faces and see if "they" still sneak out and show themselves from time to time.

 So, there aren't a lot of them there above, but we might have a few keepers. ... at least some "somethings" to hold onto. ... and I have a few non-illustrated ones for later. We are heavily dependent upon our trustworthy natures this time, as five of the ten cases above are Fairy Census reports. The other five include newspaper stories and websites. Let's begin with the five Fairy Census encounters. (In no order.) 

1. SCOTLAND. 1980s. A female witness in her 30s. Fairy Census case #177. 
    She was out very early in the "morning" (c. 3am) walking in a woodland. She was staring at the plants growing at her feet, when she bumped into an invisible barrier. The environment became utterly silent (The OZ Effect.) Looking up, she saw a figure on a horse. It was life-sized. There was no motion, as if this was a statue. The horse was white, and the figure was green --- a shining green as if all of this was made of light. The horse and rider then faded into the air. The witness interpreted this as a fairy vision, as she had spent time cleaning this area of debris from a rubbish tip nearby, and felt a peacefulness as if thanked by the spirit(s) of the place. 

Certainly an interesting tale. Seems more "apparition" than fairy, and the OZ portends (more and more for me) some penetration of two realities (ours and one other "X") which could include all those apparitional pictures and filmstrips from the past. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about here.

2. HAMPSTEAD HEATH, UK. 1987. A female witness of 18. Fairy Census case #82.
    She and many others were camping on the heath. Awakened by the morning sun streaming into the makeshift tent, she saw much movement outside. Also, a strange silence had overcome the forest sounds (OZ Effect again.) A sudden unexplained chill hit her. A morning mist hung in the trees where dozens of small fairy beings moved in the branches. There were 50 or 60 of these "dryads" scurrying about. They were an almost transparent pale green with yellow wings. No clothes. High energy. (size is not stated but must be bird-sized small or not much bigger.) She watched these beings for a long time (disappearance is not stated.) This witness claims a second fairy experience, possibly in her home in Melbourne --- likely the Derbyshire village, not the Australian Melbourne. In this second encounter, the "fairies" were Balls-of-Light buzzing around her living room "for a few hours." 

What to make of this? OZ again is interesting. This case is a rare Wings case. The witness obviously likes the ideas associated with fairies, and calls the first group "dryads" despite them not being much like classic tree and plant spirits. I'm always uncomfortable with the "just-woke-up" encounters. 

3. LINCOLNSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his teens. Fairy Census case #78.
    The witness was in his family's back garden wherein grew a willow tree. He was sitting beneath it. Looking over his shoulder he sensed motion and felt an electric tingle. Five very tiny humanoid beings (less than a foot tall and slender compared to dwarves). But they had a classic dress for gnome cases: Brown to dark green clothes, tights, sturdy boots, smock-like top. But even though they had gnomish wrinkled faces, their features were more angular and having narrow eyes. They stared at one another (the witness felt that they had an understanding about each other) and then marched off beneath a bush. The witness was certain that these creatures were "physical" (though he could not have known that really.) The persons had voices, very light and small of pitch like in the range a kitten might make. The witness rejected the idea that these were things like ghosts/apparitions etc. 

Neat case. Close to a classic gnome encounter. Intelligent witness. Beings sort of small tweeners of gnomes vs elves. 

4. ESSEX MOORS, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #49. 
    The witness was camping with a group near the moors. One evening he had a "call of nature" and moved slightly away from camp to answer it. He walked over to a hedgerow. Before he could begin his task, he was confronted by a largish hole in the hedge from which came an amount of light. Standing in that light, in silhouette but clearly outlined, was a two to three foot tall entity standing with hands on hips. The witness got the impression (without verbal communication) that the being was seriously angry about what he was about to do. As this sort of "emotional surprise" can cancel one's desire along this line, the witness, being now well scared, abandoned his mission and scurried off. The next morning, he had renewed courage and went back to the spot. There was now no hole in that hedge. 

Though many will find all of that humorous, I could do without the "humanity" part of the story (which WAS told simply without dwelling on things at least.) The part that DOES intrigue me was the lighted opening no longer there in real world time the next day. A "Portal?" 

5. OXFORDSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #108.
    This witness views himself as sort of a counter-culture character, but his narrative gives me some hope that he is basically a "free spirit" without an agenda. Anyway, we join him as he's sitting meditating in a prehistoric tomb chamber (you see what I mean.)  He's meditating by looking down the passageway of the tomb, and appearing in that passageway is a two-foot tall figure. He had a round face full of fine wrinkles. He had on a pure white pointed conical hat of apparently brushed wool. Clothing was vague in memory. The figure seemed inquisitive with a benevolent attitude. He then just vanished. The witness later heard that several others had seen such a being in the area.  He thought of this as a gnome and nature spirit. He then said something which could be important for credibility: "The strange thing for me was that it wasn't how I imagined such beings." 

In some ways (small gnomish figure, instant vanishment, association with prehistoric site), this incident strikes a resonant chord. 
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The other five:
6. CRIEFF, Scotland. 1980s. An adult and four kids witnessed this. From Janet Bord's Fairies.
    The witnesses were walking along a path on a Sunday. Ahead of them was coming what appeared to be an old lady. "Unfortunately" as she got nearer, she was seen to have no feet, and was floating above the ground. She continued to disappear from her feet upwards, while making a sound, interpreted either as "tee hee" or as " taigh shidhe". Taigh Shidhe has been translated as "fairy mound." Ms. Bord interprets this as possibly establishing a link between ghosts and faery. 

Well, I'm ready to be wrong, but I don't. The case seems VERY apparitional. And the witnesses cannot assert with any assurance that the voice said anything in Celtic. Even if that latter was true, there's a difficult task to connect an apparition with a Celtic phrase with Fairies. I bother to argue against Janet Bord (one of my heroes) here for a simple reason: the old people separated ghosts from Faery cleanly. When the going gets tough, I'm sticking with the Old Folks. 

7. NEW BRUNSWICK. 1986. A young girl of about six witnessed this. Website report.
    The witness' family ran a potato farm. It was full of potato storage barns. One day the girl saw a figure standing in the entryway of one of the barns. She initially thought it was a farm hand and called out to him. It wasn't. She had begun running towards "him" but she then saw that this was a tall male figure with no facial features. He/it was "transparent" having a liquid like appearance. Much later in her life, she saw the movie The Terminator, and was stunned to see what she saw so long ago. At the time, she halted when the thing seemed to beckon to her, and she ran away. Years later, unable to express her feelings then, she said "It was like looking through Time." She admitted that she couldn't explain why she felt that way. 

What can we say about this? It seems to stand alone. An utter mystery to me.

8. WINCHESTER JUNCTION, Hampshire. 1980. 2 witnesses adults. Paranormal database.
    There was a dis-used piece of railroad track near Worthy Down. A husband and wife were walking there taking photos. Twelve-fifteen feet in front of them, something rose from the tracks. It was a small two to three foot tall (child-sized) being dressed in a muddy-colored coat. It had a hood and showed the face of a child. It had, however, slanted dark eyes. The husband held his wife's hand, stepped forward and said "Hello." The being turned to its left and vanished. 

VERY classic gnomish/elfin encounter but VERY brief report. This is another example of a potentially super case with way too little for the researcher to go on. 

9. FLAG STOP, Nome, AK. 1988. Group of young men witnessed. Newspaper report.
    Several teenagers out driving after midnight. See a "?" ahead. Coming nearer they see that this is a little man glowing green. Thinking that this is a fun thing, they try to race with this entity who runs the road at 50mph. It was two to three foot tall. Something happened and they ran over the being, but it seemed just to "flatten out" with no bump. They panicked and drove into town, but they picked up more kids and went back out. They found the little greenish man again in a different area. The thing changed color from green to silver. Two of the boys tried to run it down on foot. The being reversed the roles and chased them. Finally all was over. But the next night something similar happened again. Apparently that night even adults saw the thing. On a third night three of the beings showed up, and more chasing and observation occurred. More color shifting happened. 

I'm completely boggled, even more than usual on this one. This is a combination of full-of-action yet low on detail. BIG need for better data. If true, one of the very few repetitive and highly paranormal incidents around. 

10. NOME, AK area. somewhat earlier than the above. One adult male witness. Newspaper case.
     This is very much more in the Native American traditions of the Alaskan cultures than the previous case. Here a village fisherman was in an isolated situation where the environment was rough. This fisherman was visited by a group of several little men (two to three foot tall?) He welcomed them and they conversed in "eskimo" (content undescribed). The Little People all had backpacks, and were dressed as if on a hunt. Sealskins pants, mukluks, white skin parkas. They had facial hair. Their manner was friendly. 

This, at least, has all the earmarks of a normal-paranormal encounter. 

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All that was hard work at the old panning stream with few nuggets to show for it. The five Fairy Census cases were interesting and for all we know, good ones, but ... The same thing can be said of the second Nome case. So, I'll try to add a little something to this 80s post, by adding a few non-illustrated incidents. 

(Hmmmm... a few cartoon drawings just showed up for some 80s cases. Three try to illustrate some of the last five, and there are three others. Since blogging is supposed to be fun, why not put them up here?) 

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As to the general group of the whole post: 
These cases have some possibilities as to truth. The real value of these sorts of claims is whether they help constitute a genuine pile of respectable incidents, which has enough coherence to support a pattern. All our explorations here through these posts have been with the hope that either enough rock solid credibility cases will arise to make a stand-alone argument for some sort of paranormal reality, or that a lesser but not insignificant number of strong cases will arise to serve as foundationstones for a much greater pile of "just maybe" quality cases, which together make almost a statistical case for the anomaly. As I've said: this is not like UFO research. We don't have the overwhelming firepower. But we seem to have SOMETHING which can be presented without embarrassment. There seems to be a lot of flawed evidence here which can be anchored by the fewer Rocks that we have upturned. 

Next time will be a try at the 1990s.

 

FAIRIES IN THE 70s, too?

We're battling with a difficult subject. The Gold from the rough ore is rare. But we find some now and then. The consequences of uncovering that such a non-textbook reality exists and has done so all along should be important to our view of our existence. So ... on that not really overstated opening remark ... let's go down to the mountainside creek bed and pan for nuggets awhile. There is at least one "gem" today, and (I intuit) at least a half dozen others. ... and sure, Mr. Scientist out there, we're not "proving" anything. Instead let's just enjoy letting some fresh air into those old gray dismally un-alive spaces.

 The crude version of the color code is this: I like the orange; I like the yellow and the green almost as much with some variations within the group; I'm bolixed by the purple, and wonder if the pink is reported correctly. The white is weak. And then there's the Dover Demon --- was it even a thing? (I was disappointed initially with the information quality on the general net about this (given it's publicity). But I have my own file somewhere which I haven't seen for a while, so ... Right now I've decided to just start writing about the others, and when finished, go back to the reports and make up some kind of opinion on this later --- so, at this moment, consider it a blank slate.) Let's start with The King:

WOLLATON PARK, Nottingham. 1979. Kids --- but a lot of them, and quick reporting to and questioning (even separated) by adults, and then continued questioning in later days --- plus what looks to be an independent support for the claims. Credibility: pretty good. 

THE ACTION: this takes place in a large park grounds, and you can look at some of it below.

Four kids were playing near a swampy area in the park near dusk. (there might have been a fifth child (these kids were ages 8 to 10) as a later report came in about this event.) While there, the kids were excited by the appearance of upwards of 60 little men, described like classic gnomes. These little men were whizzing about the woods in miniature cars; the cars apparently not touching the ground, but following the park paths. 

The little gnomes were apparently having a blast, joyfully blitzing about two to a car, seemingly chasing and racing. The kids tried chasing also, but could never get close enough to touch them. The little men looked quite a bit like my original drawing above, which is based on a drawing by one of the students. The kids watched (joyfully for them, too) for 15 minutes. The beings were about two feet tall. The kids told their parents and then their teacher, who "interviewed" them separately and received coherent stories. 

These are two of the Leprecat pages for this case. Alongside the drawing is a report that came into Simon Young for his Fairy Census (he actually received several.) This addendum to the regular Wollaton seems to come from a fifth person (age 13 or 14) who was also enjoying the park that day,  sitting in a tree at the time. His descriptions correlate with the other children's (whom he did not know.) Another letter to the census reported a second late 70s case of a Little Man (one and a half foot tall) which appeared as a very bright white light formed like a human. 

You and I are not of the same explorative "minds" almost certainly. So you probably disagree. But for me this is a really good case in support of the existence of gnomic creatures which might still manifest in our modern world. The only thing that I've ever experienced which gives me the feel of the "action" here is watching landscape guys on fast lawn mowing mini-tractors, having a blast zipping over slopes of low hills. But the rest of this is nothing like any of that. 

On the more "fun" side, I wonder about the little cars --- instead of horse-and-carriage which were the standard format in older times. 
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The other probable Good One: DULUTH, MN. 1979. This case was not formally reported for many years, but when it was, it was reported to a UFO organization in Minnesota, and by the original witness. So it got a UFO investigation interview. That report, unlike most fairy materials available, was several pages long --- this sort of thing is VERY welcome, even if the other material doesn't seem greatly germane. This witness by the way was a lady who regularly kept a journal. She had kept a record of this incident and still had it. 

The evening was around dusk, and she and her friend were driving back from a bridal shower. They had the lights on for added security as they drove. Up ahead of them they saw three persons (or so they thought) who seemed to be on bikes of some kind because they were rapidly zig-zagging from side to side on the road. The reporting witness told her friend that she hoped that these "kids" were paying attention, because their car was catching up. As their car closed the gap, two of the beings (who now were seen as not having bikes at all, but flying down the highway a few feet off the ground) took a sharp left over the roadside ditch and "parked" in the field. The third stayed in the road "dead center to our right headlight." The driver came to a stop, and they stared at the being. 

This thing was four foot tall. Whereas arms and legs were sort of proportional to the torso, the head was huge, maybe 18 inches in diameter. wrinkles all over the face, small slit for a mouth, no hair on head. It was the feeling of the witness that the creatures did not have clothes, but were rather like a featureless clay with little color. The witnesses noted that the one in the road showed no sign of moving aside, so the driver slowly inched by it (nearly causing the passenger seat witness to faint) and drove off as fast as possible. The witnesses told their encounter to their family members and friends, but fear of a bad reception made them not report to the police. 
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The "Yellow" Cases:

East Hull, UK. 1977. This is an incident reported in Fortean Times. 

An Army pc was watching an unusual fog lying across some recreational fields sometime after midnight. He was worried that perhaps it was caused by a fire. As he moved into the field, he saw within the fog cloud, three figures. They were one male and two females dressed in mediaeval clothing. The figures were dancing in a circle, one arm raised as if they were doing an old revel around a maypole, although no such pole was visible. He had a very good look at these three as he grew close, but at a distance of 50 feet, the entirety of the action vanished. This so startled the witness that he was rattled and ran back to where his car was parked and drove off. Once calming down, he reported the incident to his sergeant. The story was passed on to the press with the statement that the witness planned to return to that field the next day and further investigate, but the press heard nothing more. 

Well, the witness seems earnest at least. The event likely happened at least somewhat as he said. The experience falls between the apparitional and Faery --- faery is in play because we have these normal to near normal sized persons in stories of fairy fairs and revels which then vanish. It is also of course reminiscent of "time slip" type mediaeval replays of the past. Fairy is also in play here because the competitor (apparitions) often have histories of being known as places of hauntings, and there is no mention of such here. So, as usual, who knows? We DO know that the old people distinguished "philosophically" quite strongly between Faery and Apparition, asserting that the two were NOT related things. 
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Corozal, Puerto Rico. 1977. This is a report from Flying Saucer Review.

An elderly farmer was just sitting and relaxing during a quiet mid-afternoon period, when he heard what sounded like a flash of lightening. A long blue upright "candle" of light appeared. The thing slowly approached making a growing sound. Once beside him, it settled and turned into a little dwarf. (Yep. THAT sure happens a lot.) Three foot tall. Long pointy ears. Round ugly face. Nose with big nostrils, but a small mouth despite big lips. His skin-tone was "muddy" and he wore a jacket with a little tie. 

He had something hanging around his neck, which wasn't a stethoscope, but he came over to the witness and began using it like a doctor would one. He "checked" feet, knees, chest, back, ears, temples, and then looked inside the witness' mouth. Apparently satisfied with his "work", he then jumped back, announced that he was an extraterrestrial, and that he thought that Puerto Rico was a very nice place. Then, making the same noise that the blue candle had made, he zoomed off through the branches of an avocado tree and was gone. 

Weird as all that was, it was reported quickly and frankly and even got to the FSR fast. And again, even as weird as that was, it's in the neighborhood of Faery Trickster goofing around behavior. One COULD choose to believe the Little Gnome that he was extraterrestrial, but he sure doesn't look like it, is far more lively and interactive, and physical beyond apparitions. So the two best guesses here are: liar vs Faery Gnome Trickster. 
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There are four "greens" which interest me. Three of these are reports coming into Simon Young's Fairy Census, which I have to judge on their narrative quality, details, "humility", etc alone (since as said before, there are no investigations.) These three cases pass muster as to what we can so judge. The fourth case is a Ron Quinn case, which is only slightly better off in that he talked to the witness though not face-to-face. But I do like them. They "fit" both as to rough pattern and as to intuitive "feel." So, flawed as that is, here in brief they are: 

A. Cornwall, UK. 1970s. A young teenage girl was vacationing in Cornwall (near Polperro) and she and her family were out on a rural path with unkempt hedges to either side. She was gamboling on just ahead of the rest. There, by the side of the path sat a gnome. The being had all the classic features. It was just over a foot tall, and had a "nut-brown, wizened face", with a smirking grin on it. She got a very good look at him. 

" He had a mossy brown beard and dark brown shining eyes. He was wearing a peaked hat (brown) and a shiny jacket and trousers in shades of brown and ochre. I'd say he was about twelve to fourteen inches tall. .... Looked like a gnome, I suppose .... natural wood/leaf colors. Wearing a soft pointed hat that wasn't sticking up - the 'point' rested on his shoulder; a brown jacket and brown trousers. The material looked shiny - not wet, just like shiny old leather, I think. I can't remember shoes." 

It's impossible for me to transmit this, but this sort of a description (in my history of reading UFO witness reports) is about as good as it gets --- detailed; not overly elaborated; with a witness "humility" about what she could or could not remember about the encounter. Bells of GOOD CASE are ringing loudly. But still there was no face-to-face, so I must be conservative.

The end of the encounter was equally wonderful. As the witness stood stunned, the gnome cocked his head ("cheekily") then turned his back on her and "melted/transmogrified?" into an old tree stump. (Uhhhhh !!!!!! Yow). Your present editor here (while also being stunned) wonders if our cheeky gnome was merely (merely, hah!) sitting in front of that stump and faded back into the Faery "realm/dimension" rather than transmogrifying. 

The witness' reflective response to this whole affair is also valuable to hear: "It was a breathtaking experience. ... I really believed I had witnessed a spirit of nature, or a gnome, or something  but I also felt stupid. Like a trick had been played on me, and I had fallen for it. I felt like the joke was on me and the gnome was having a laugh about it." 

Given my growing views on the core area of this phenomenon, these remarks are so coherent with them that they dangerously accentuate my prejudices. So I say to myself: OK. You LOVE this case. But DANGER my friend. Don't get too cocky. 

... but it's hard not to.
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B. County Wicklow, Ireland. 1970s. As lengthy as the previous case was, this one is brief. Fortunately the correspondent didn't waste words uselessly, so there is just enough here to include it. 

Three teenage girls were walking  in rural Wicklow in fields which contained areas of thick gorse. On top of that gorse (literally skipping across the tops of the plants in denial of gravity) was a "pixie" dancing. This was no tinkerbell --- no wings and about three foot tall (the size of a five to six year old child.) Dress is not described except to say that it was "traditional pixie dress including a tall pointed hat." 

Oh for an investigator to draw the details of THIS out!
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C. Yorkshire, UK. 1970s. Two young girls were walking near the woods which were bordered by a very large stream (almost a "small river" in size.)  Out in that mini-river was a small island (if we threw in a misty fog, we could say that we've been here before.) Walking by, they saw on the island a group of ponies. "Shetland Ponies" they seemed. But the difference was that they weren't the correct colors for proper ponies. They were Red ... Green ... Lilac ... etc. (Almost as if The Horse of a Different Color in the OZ books had settled down here and created a herd of
colored baby horses.) The ponies were peacefully eating some plants that looked like cabbages. The witnesses stared for a while, but nothing changed. So they walked on to the next farm. On their way back, the ponies were gone.  

Well, that's different ... and cute ... and simply, humbly told (the witness asks that anyone reading her story who had anything similar please let her know.) 
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 D. Catskill Mts, NY. 1977.  A correspondent to Ron Quinn tells him about another "slippage" between worlds in this incident. This encounter occurred to a frequent hiker, who was extremely familiar with the mountainous country within which he was hiking that day in June 1977. Our witness was in the far end of the western Catskills with his truck parked along an overgrown dirt road that was just a path. He got out and began hiking into the woods. 


About a hundred yards in, he passed a large rock formation and coincidentally felt some kind of tingling in his body. He ignored it as it quickly passed. As he kept on, he noted that the weather was different (sunny not overcast). Oh well, weather changes. But other things were subtly different: the forest seemed greener than he remembered. And the plants seemed a bit different too, even to the point that some of them were species that he hadn't noticed in this forest before. Now the area seemed more "open" than it should have been from memory, and he saw a large canyon, strange to him. He decided that he was lost. 


He walked on up the narrow bed of that canyon, and several yards in began to hear music ahead. (Uh Oh.) Sneaking up now, as he peered around the corner of some rocks, he saw "four little men playing haunting music on flutes." They were sitting on boulders near a little waterfall while a fifth person was filling a water jug at the stream. Our witness was shocked but kept his head. He dragged his camera out of his backpack and shot several pictures. (Now here's where we needed an investigator: the witness does not describe the Little People except in those words. BOO!!) After the jug is filled and the flutes go silent, the five "little guys" walk off away from the witness and are gone.


Attempting now to get un-lost, he began trying to retrace steps. It took him about an hour to regain sight of the truck. Coincidentally, he felt another tingling, a subtle change in the vegetation, and the sky was now overcast "again". He noted that his watch, though seeming to be working fine, had apparently malfunctioned as it had clocked his three hour trip at only thirty minutes. Worse than that, back home (where even his wife wouldn't believe him) the photos in the camera all turned out perfectly EXCEPT for the little guys photos. Those pictures were nothing but foggy shadows. 


Intriguing stuff to say the least. Badly need a UFO investigator-type interview and follow-up here. Who is the witness personally? (He is named in the book), and what kind of guy is he? Did he report it to anyone other than his wife (and later Ron Quinn?) Have a responsible job? Background? Sounds like detective prying, yes, but how else can we get any real confidence for a rampantly anomalous tale such as this? 
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The remaining "green" case from the Fairy Census: Devon, UK. 1970s. A teenage witness who had just awakened in her bedroom. (there are big problems here already.) The case is very charming, but just-woke-up cases are dangerous. 

This is a teenage girl who woke up at midnight (if indeed she fully woke up or woke up at all --- that's the big question number one.) She felt that there was a profound silence (what is being called The OZ Effect, though we don't at all understand it.) She heard a "PING" as if an orchestral triangle had been struck, and with that a Ball of Light appeared from the bathroom. This BOL is not described (even surprisingly as to size.) I have been left with no way whatever to guess this. The BOL, and the fairy inside it, could have been anywhere from three feet (roughly the width of the doorway) to a half a foot (the dimension necessary to see any real detail of anything inside --- since the BOL did not come up close.) 

Inside the BOL was a form made up of very tiny stars of light. It was a female with long hair and beautiful wings --- not quite a tinkerbell this, as the form is made of points of light. She had a pretty face and pointed ears. Her eyes were silver-gray, and the wings were like butterflies down to the markings. They were effervescent white. The witness took this as an opportunity to make a wish would hopefully come true (she wished not to be bullied at school.) She then said "I don't believe in Fairies!" and the BOL popped like a soap bubble, and the experience was over. The witness admitted that she had seen fairies before "in meditations" with trees, but that they were not as pretty. 

As I said: LOTS of troubles with this case (particularly with the possibility of a hypnopompic state illusion by a young person who despite her comment DID believe in fairies and was having school girl stress.) BUT, it is a rare if unconventional claim of wings on a fairy, so I include it. 
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Remnants: 
X1 The case at Gateshead, UK. "1979." A possibly interesting tale, or pair of tales, but to my knowledge very poorly reported and likely off in dates by at least a decade. Little green-clad men digging on top of a haystack would be fun, but .... no "beef" in the case.

X2 The case of the large winged weirdos of Rowley Regis, UK. 1979. I can't even get a foothold on this thing. It doesn't fit anything. It's like some random recipe of ingredients picked out of a crazy hat and made into a story. Single witness, plus far outlier = ???? 

X3 The case from Dunn, NC. 1976. Little coke-bottle-sized man, but not described the same by two different witnesses at different times. Small footprints. No UFO. Two instances two weeks apart might not be same phenomenon. Young boy could be print-making culprit? Befuddled.

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LAST: The DOVER DEMON. Dover, MA. 1977. 

Above: The primary witness' drawing and my own redraw to add the peach coloration. 


The encounters are claimed to be three: all by teenagers. These occurred within a few days and to the different people. all encounters are brief, and the third was fuzzy as to details. But the first two cases seem to be vivid enough that if the tellers are telling true, we are dealing with a very anomalous set of experiences. There is little "action" in the encounters. The incident pictured above was of an immobile standing creature. It is the first encounter. The second encounter is confusing at first then there is a second look at the thing which looks similar to the above. These two witnesses described what appears to be the same extremely weird thing, and it is on appearance alone that these reports enter the realm of the inexplicable. The third report is a lot less sharply defined, but could well be of the creature as well. 


The being was about three and a half to four foot tall. Huge head with glowing eyes and no noticeable facial features. Spindly arms and legs with odd fingers and toes which could shape themselves around the surfaces of objects such as stones or tree trunks. Nothing well-known looks like this naturally. 

Some speculator thought that this might be a young moose seen in tough lighting conditions and reflecting headlights. We could imagine why someone might try to imagine this (due to the big sort of oval head and spindly legs) but the overall appearance would take a LOT of alteration to meet this explanation. The "odds" here seem to favor a true anomaly and NOT a UFO one nor an apparition. 

For me the biggest impact of the case came as soon as I looked at my file on it. Whereas most cases have single pages (or a couple if I'm lucky) this case file is twenty-some pages long. WHY? When I opened this file, I was suddenly back in true research land --- true investigations by a great investigator. The opening salvo in my file was an almost twenty page "monograph" by one of UFO's finest researchers, Walter Webb. (Walt had lots of help from to-be-famous cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, who did the original interviews, Joe Nyman, and Ed Fogg.) The monograph is pure Walt. EVERYTHING is covered: interviews, character checks, weather conditions, police checks, alternate explanations, site visits, size measurements, time measurements etc etc ... thrown back into ufology's finest after the scrapping around with tiny bits that we get in Fairy incidents almost shook me. Without publishing Walt's monograph so you can read it, I can't convey how different this is to you. Just trust me; we are dealing with horribly inadequate reports generally. 

Walt ends up by discovering the Native American little people traditions of the area. He found that the local of-old Cree traditions  contained a being called Mannegishi: "Little people with round heads and no noses who live with only one purpose: to play jokes on travelers." 

Do we have a Mannegishi here? If the witness reports were of greater time extent and finer detail, I'd (with humble bow towards a UFOlogy legend) rate this encounter as a good (if not normal) entity of our presumed fairy world. 
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We didn't do badly this session. Nine of our sixteen are not bad at all. And we have The Great Wollaton to marvel at. I feel a bit more than Glass-half-full this time. As we go to the modern years, we might get thinner gruel, but let's plough ahead and then we shall see. 

Till next time stay safe and filled with wonder. We have good reason to feel that way. 
 





 

Faery in the Seventies???

LEPRECAT SIX: the 1970s. For no known reasons (to me anyway) the 1970s were richer in total numbers of Little People reports than the sixties. Some of this MIGHT have been from UFO research, in which field "everybody" was seeing humanoid entities whether there was a good UFO around or not. Anyway, I'll start with a first dozen, and we can go from there.

The above shows a large variety of entity types, not all of which seem obviously Faery in nature. BUT --- since it's all utterly mysterious, who knows if we are dealing with Faery, UFOs, apparitions or some unthought of weirdness. 

Color code: pink/salmon --- good researched case. genuine possibility for Faery.
                    yellow/gold --- pretty strong credibility. odd entities. But not "normals." 
                    green --- lacking desired credibility, but very possibly Faery. 
                    violet --- two really strange things, but I think not Faery. 
                    light violet --- things probably leaning to the apparitional.
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CASE 1: Springfield, IL. 1973.  This is a John Timmerman case, which means that you have a personal interview and a permanent record on tape to listen to. The "personal-ness" of this sort of evidence gets you as close as you can to being with the witness yourself. (It also helps me that I knew John so well in person.) The encounter is not "classic fairy" but it isn't much like anything else. 

The witness lived in a rural setting and had a dog which she cared for. She had a pattern to her life, and it was that time in the evening to go outside and retrieve the dog's water pan. She was a tough country person and this was the time for bringing in the water pan, and, by gum, that's what she was going to do. Things went normally for the first several feet of the trip (although a light moved by high in the sky), {typical effort to try to cram a UFO in here somewhere}, but then, beside her, hanging/floating in the air, was a little man. He was about a foot away and a foot off the ground. 

This odd person was about four foot tall and dressed all in close-fitting black. Only his face showed. The outfit seemed one-piece, and his toes seemed pointed. His face had a pallor to it, and he generally scared the hell out of the witness. But she refused to show it. 

"He looked over at me and I was scared. And I thought, well, I've got to get that water pan; I've got to get it. Because I needed it. Well, he had a smirk smile on his face and he had a different color on his face than we have, and he kept giving me that look, but anyway I kept on going. When I reached for that water pan, he just disappeared just like that ... in thin air; I don't know where he went." 

The floating-pacing-staring lasted a minute or slightly less, but quite a bit of time in the witness' eyes. She was being stared at all the way and felt uncomfortable if not menaced. 

I can't help it; I love this case. The witness is as down-home simple as you can get, and John did the perfect-gentleman interview. What WAS this? This is "interactive" and doesn't feel apparitional. There is no good UFO connection, nor does the being fit well with other such claims in that field. The action here is very like the meddling tricksters that we run into in our stories, so that is "who" I'm going with. The size is in our common range even if the clothing is idiosyncratic (though we get dark cloaked weirdos now and then.) 
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CASE 2: Albany, OH. 1973. This is another incident that I'm 99% sure happened, because the investigator is another good friend, former CUFOS treasurer, George Eberhart, who is probably the most knowledgeable encyclopedic cryptozoologist in the world. Translation: George is really smart about this stuff. There is a line drawing of the entity for this case, which I've re-done. I like the way it turned out (more so than my typical cartoons) so I'm featuring it here. (the entity is unique and therefore the illustration helps.) 

The encounter has a prequel: The witness was returning home after a night class. She saw a ghostly lightform about four foot in size floating about some three football fields away. Then a BOL sailed into the area. It was a big one, about 20 feet in diameter. It bounced about, seeming to possibly be interested in her. That scared her, but the thing retreated into a field and faded out. She continued on to her house trailer, saw her husband, and began to make supper. Her husband went outside leaving the door ajar. That's when she had her encounter. 

One time she turned and saw a small two and a half foot tall being or thing peering around the edge of their door. It was as if a bunch of aqua-colored electricity had formed into (roughly) a human shape. "It was like the Electric man" (then popular on electrical co-op signs.) It had a sort-of face, with spiky discharge like things emerging. There were eyes and a mouth and maybe a nose. It had stumpy arms. It didn't try to communicate, just stared for maybe ten seconds. Its solidity was such that the witness felt that she could almost see through it. "It didn't look like a monster ... it looked like a friendly little thing." Then it just disappeared back behind the door. 

George is a careful person, so his report will be pretty good. But what the heck is it about? Once again, this has no real UFO connections historically or even at that moment. It doesn't therefore feel UFO to me. It isn't like apparitional figures either, nor does it resemble other past Earthly objects/lifeforms which one might imagine trapped in some visionary playback filmstrip from old times. It seems wedged between some electrostatic weirdness and some Will O' the Wisp Faeryworld manifestation. Having a "personality" feature, I'm not happily going for some misinterpreted Ball Lightning (these sorts of things don't act at all like physics textbook ball lightning anyway, so I wish that red herring would stop being floated. If skeptics want to speculate on a distant cousin of ball lightning [currently totally unexplained] which is low energy density and yet long time persistent [like Allen Hynek's hoped for "nocturnal meandering lights"], then OK --- humbly toss that out there.) 

So, where am I? Boggled of course. I'm sort of "in" for a "living" creature of some paranormal kind, but, if Faery in nature, it's almost never encountered. It's nothing like water or ground folklore entities. What do "salamanders" look like? What do "sylphs"? It doesn't seem to have a category at all. ... but it seems to have been real. Did the witness just make it up? (this is the classic way to get rid of an outlier.) If she had, I think that George would have suspected so.
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CASE 3: Wauwatosa, WI. 1975.  I haven't a close friend in this game. But, the newspaper reporter who covered the incident seems to have done a much better than usual job, and the article report is substantial and full of quotes. The couple reporting the encounter are an older husband and wife (c. ages 60) who called in the police promptly after the incident. The comfort zone on this is pretty good, except that the policeman didn't take them seriously and refused to write up the "complaint." The couple remained in touch with the police investigation for several days after. The entities involved here are not as weird as the little electric man, but are definitely not classic gnomes either (even though one of the witnesses used the word "gnome" in trying to describe them.) So, do I write the report off because the police didn't want to put in writing something that they did not understand at all, or give the witnesses a break because they seemed quite earnest in their interest? I'm cutting them some slack. (to start)

A husband and wife are in their home when the doorbell rings. The date is November the 10th (a fact which might or might not be of significance.) the wife went to answer but peeked through the window first. She saw a "man" (who had apparently stepped back from the door to the sidewalk) who looked strange. She opened the door, but locked the intervening screen. She asked "Yes?" twice with no response. Her husband then showed up, looked at the weird appearance, and said: "What the hell is this? Something left over from trick or treat?" He unlocked and opened the screen door, ready to do something "masculine", but his wife grabbed his suspenders and pulled him back. 

The being was roughly normal sized, but with shocking facial features. It was like an ugly "gnome"with a very tiny mouth hole, and a face liked smoked meat with deep grooves. Its hair was scraggly, and peeked out beneath a narrow brimmed hat. The chin was pointed. The thing carried a five foot long white cane held in its left hand, which it tapped in three time intervals. Each tapping seemed to coincide with the thing floating (three inches off the ground) away from the house door. The couple during this time noticed four other essentially identical beings further out in the street. The motions away were in little looping jumps a la astronauts on the Moon. The witnesses went back inside as the original being raised a hand with fingers slightly like claws. Intention could not be read into this, but they were not unhappy to see the group go. 

OK. What is this? When I look closely at the descriptions here, and given that it wasn't that far past Halloween, I'd spend little interest on this if it wasn't for one bit of high strangeness --- the floating above the ground and looping motion. I'm not sure that the ugly looks on a normal sized being can't be explained by make-up and masks. The certainty of the witnesses that the faces were inhuman "could" be explained by shock and excitement. But the floating above the surface --- that's the kicker. Such a phenomenon is not fake-able for a Halloween prank. So, for me, the incident turns on this one claim. 

If the phenomenology is as described, then we have a case which could be apparitional or perhaps some other paranormality. The being seemed very interaction-oriented. Most apparitions that are of unknown personalities are not particularly interaction-oriented. So I lean towards something else. This seems to me to be either a two-person error or something Boggart-like from the fairy world. There ARE menacing uglys (and even friendly ones) from that alleged area of reality. I'd LIKE to side with two normal seemingly earnest witnesses who reported to police immediately.  But I don't know WHAT I'm siding with.
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CASE 4: I'm going to take these four "greenies" together (that is in briefer description.) They are all intriguing and three of the four are classic gnomish encounters. They lack an investigation (mostly) but could well be good. the fourth "green" case is a bit different but has for me similar intrigue. 
4A: Unnamed forest area, USA. 1971 (from About.com website). Witness looks out window to view nature as was his habit. Saw a little gnome. Brown tightly curled hair with hat. Two foot tall. Walked about as if floating (like anti-gravity.) When talking about this later with an older brother, the brother admitted that he too had seen the same or similar entity when he was a child, but this time inside the house. 
4B: Lexington, MA. 1974. (from an article in FATE Magazine.) Two girlfriends were walking to their high school. Off to their left is a patch of weeds within which is sitting a little man who looked to them like a leprechaun. The creature was only ten inches tall. He was dressed only in green with a floppy hat. He carried a traditional large curved golden pipe. Both girls described him the same way. One of the two girls thought that she (with another friend) saw a group of fairies dancing among flowers in a field in 1975. These creatures were very small, only five inches tall.
4C: near Liberty, NY. 1976. (a Ron Quinn radio call in case.) A sixty seven year old bird watcher was walking on a forest path, when he heard voices, shouting at one another as if in anger. He cautiously approached within about 100 feet and saw two little men, about two feet tall. The details were few: All green dress and floppy wrinkled hats. Each had a beard and were quite like gnomes. The two were wildly gesticulating when a third joined them, and all three began shouting and bumping into one another "like the Three Stooges." Shortly all three turned away and walked off. 
4D: Middleburg, South Africa. 1972. (A "UFO report" from the Flying Saucer Review.) A husband and wife (he the senior local post office official) were at home watching a light hanging above a nearby mountain. They decided to go to the police station. While going there, they saw another light flash. Then there was nearby an "object" not described --- it sounds like it was a bright light, out of which stepped two small red men. These three foot tall entities were glowing bright red and had knapsacks on their backs. Each red man carried a bright light of some kind in his hand. As they seemed to be ready to approach, the entire lighted complex shut off like a light switch.
========================================================================= I don't find the remaining cases particularly interesting for this topic, but I'll mention one of them since it's a Bill Chalker case --- and that means a good investigator was involved. This is The MT. BUTLER, NSW 1972 incident. I don't believe that it has anything to do with Faery but it is indeed HIGH strangeness. In this event, a witness in the presence of others was confronted by a normal sized "monkish" entity. This monk came up to the primary witness and ENTERED the witness' body (!!!) After a time period of "possession" during which the witness was very ill at ease, a group of horses came near, and the entity jumped from the witness into one of the horses. Well, Wow. Pure Bible. Not much like Faery, though.
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What if any was our harvest in this lot? Honestly not much. The Timmerman case is a good encounter, but not classic fairy. There are three cases which look like classic fairy, but not strong enough credibility (though not negative either.) There are the good Eberhart and FSR South Africa cases, but they are not classic either. 





When faced with such results, I'm a half-full sort of person. I look back at all the encounters we've perused from Leprecats 1-6 and say: sure, a lot of weak cases, but one by one we're putting together some higher grade ones. This isn't ufology. I can't hope for the abundance of powerhouse incidents with corresponding investigations. This is a much rawer albeit at least as fascinating subject. It's worth the work, hard as it is. I have the hope that somewhere in the British Isles there are people bringing the UFO investigating attitude to these occurrences. If there is, we'll see many more foundationstones  laid. 

 There are several 70s cases to go, and then four more whole notebooks worth of Leprecat. It will be more low grade ore generally, but there will surely be gems. 

Till next time.

Did anyone visit from Faery in the Sixties?

This posting is about the cases in the Leprecat catalog for the 1960s. That catalog is not my favorite as far as good incidents. But there are a few worth noting. 

Let's try to look a little closer at this bunch. Some are pretty good. Others are weaker in appeal to our confidence, but intriguing in their claims. The two strongest encounters are the two Scandinavian ones (Kolmarden, SWE and Luumaki, FIN.) Those of you who have been reading these entries understand that this means "credibility" strength --- the interpersonal direct investigation involved by the people who ultimately reported the case. 

  
The relatively solid cases are in pink above. The second tier of cases are in gold. The cases where I'd like to believe the details (and have a little confidence gained by the sound of the narratives alone), are "romantically" included as possibles in green. The three incidents in gray violet are OK in credibility but my guts take me more towards UFO or Apparition-like  explanations. 

The Incidents: 

LUUMAKI, FINLAND. 1965. Encounter was investigated by Finnish UFO investigators. There were two witnesses. Their event went this way: several people were on a berry-picking trip (which seems to be quite the common activity in Scandinavia as we have a pretty good CE3 early, 1954, case involving berry-pickers as well.) One of the pickers saw a being on a rise ahead. It was small, about three-foot tall. The two stared at one another and the being began to walk closer. The closest approach was about 30 feet. 

This entity had a somewhat enlarged head and shoulders. More strangely, the being was colored carrot-red, and dressed in close-fitting green clothes. The being then took a sharp angle, walked towards a bog, and simply vanished. While observing this entity, the witness either could not alert the others or was "entranced" to the point he didn't think of it. A second witness later saw the entity also, and that time the being simply vanished as well. 

None of the investigators thought that this was ufological, but the thought that it was like a Scandinavian troll immediately arose.
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KOLMARDEN, SWEDEN. 1967. This incident was investigated by a good well-known Swedish UFO researcher (Sven Schalin.) The witnesses were two 15 year olds, a boy and a girl. Schalin saw the witnesses at two different interviews, and found that they were quite conservative and shy. The two were interviewed separately. The stories matched. 

The youngsters were walking in the evening. They noticed low hanging red light over and down into the forest. Nothing came of this. Further on in their walk, the red glow persisted in their vicinity. This coming and going began to creep them out and they decided to retreat into an abandoned cabin beside the road. Inside, some poltergeist-like actions occurred (yellow lights and thumping noise.) Another outside light moved about (the UFO researcher tried to see this in UFO terms but it is far more like the folkloric fairy-led will o' the wisp phenomenon.) This freaked the two even more and they hurried home. 

That house was currently empty. The next house (one of the witness' sisters,) was also empty. Near that house hung a glowing ball of light about ten feet in diameter. This looked like the light of a large diameter flashlight, but was a ball. A whistling occurred at the same time but not coming from the BOL. The witnesses heard what they thought might be footsteps. They got out of there and took another forest path. Something jumped out behind bushes close by. This could have been a prodigious leap, as they focused on a short "man" now standing 35 feet away. 

The creature was four foot and a few inches tall. The girl didn't see this first glance clearly and thought that it might be another schoolmate and began to go toward it. It then straightened up, turned and raised its arms. The boy yelled a warning. The head was very large. Above the eyes was a dark mass, probably hair but maybe a hat or hood. Eyes were much bigger than mouth and nose. Thin arms and legs. Dark clothing. Seemed to shimmer. The thing carried something in its hands; a box shape with a tube sticking out (when reading this I noted that the UFO researcher was seeing this as something technological, but it seemed more to me like "a box with a handle".) Supposedly it had a shining line along this handle. Similar lines of shining light existed down below near the ankles. 

Although the "intent" of this being was impossible to ascertain, (it had not done anything aggressive), the youngsters became terrorized and ran. The next day, going to the site in daylight, they found small (six-inch) footprints of bare three-toed feet. 

Strange stuff indeed. Good investigation though. UFOnaut with a Ball-of Light? or Troll of the Scandinavian sort with a Jack O' Lantern? 
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Those are the best two investigations. There are four others which are softer, but could well be real interactions. I'll go briefly on with those:

1. COLERAINE, QUEBEC. 1968. Several children, and then one or two adults (description here of one party doesn't make this clear, )saw a strange being on three successive days. The being was like a dwarf, four foot tall, with very red skin. The skin was "horny" as if belonging to a reptile. This entity had normally proportioned structure otherwise (head and torso) with a bald head and dark black beard. The being simply vanished before their eyes. Sort of coincidentally, the boys said there was a red, white, and blue "vessel" of some sort in the air. This was not connected with the ground story in any obvious way, as it did not occur at the same time --- UFO researchers of course want to connect it. 

2. St. ASAPH, WALES. 1961. The claim here is that the reporter is a well known person. (there is/was a well known person by the name of Richard Holland at the time, but ...?). The incident is: A man was walking his dog in muddy conditions, when he stopped near a road sign. He tapped his walking stick on the metal sign to clean it --- three times. At the third tap, a little man appeared beside the sign post. The little man looked angered, as if this tapping had irritated him in some way. The creature had an ugly brownish face (gnomish/brounie-ish?) and was dressed all in green. He stood three feet tall. The dog didn't like the little man either and growled and raised hackles. After a staring stand-off, the gnome suddenly vanished. That's "good old fashioned gnome encountering." 

3. south of LONDON, UK rural farm area. Several incidents in 1960s. These are reports sent to Gordon Creighton at Flying Saucer Review for his follow-up. He reports them briefly. Many of the incidents were about machinery malfunction and other breakages that were being attributed to little people. The area however actually WANTED to retain their presence, as they also had been associated with boons. Witnesses, both male and female adults, had reported seeing gnomes messing about in the farm fields and even inside, dancing on tables. These creatures were described as having "classic gnome features" and being about three feet tall. Of particular interest to me was the claim that locals didn't want academics coming in there and spoiling the area as a home of the fairies. "They feared that the fairies might go away if too much prying went on." 

4. NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA. 1967. [I could use some help from someone on this report. I've lost my primary "piece of paper" wherein I noted the case and where it came from. I'm still reporting it here because my brief notes on this were in a category of incidents where I judged them to be pretty good possibilities. ... I'm not beating myself up too badly on this since there have been hundreds of references and pages to keep track of, and a move from a house with luxurious workspace to this retirement apartment's cramped facility. SO ... if any of you know exactly where this one comes from, please post it here. ... I also enjoy reading your own cases and even other non-you cases that you feel are important --- so feel free to share.] But back to my notes on this one:

The witness described walking somewhere and seeing ahead the approach of an "old elf" (a gnome?) dressed in a farmer's outfit. (blue clothes and suspenders) and having a brown tall hat. The entity was only one and a half foot tall. It carried an ax over its shoulder, and simply walked on past the witness, whistling to itself, and apparently taking no notice. There was no instant vanishing in this case, merely continuing to walk away. 

These four cases could be good ones. The entities are close to standard looking gnomish beings ranging from 1 and 1/2 to 4+ foot tall. Two Canadian (Eastern) and two UK.
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I'd like to end this elf-tour of the 60's with three reports that I like on non-scientific grounds --- that is, I cannot make a credibility case for these because two of them are from Simon Young's Fairy Census and therefore give me no interpersonal closeness to the witness to aid me in believing those claims. (I'm including them anyway, because they fit certain prejudices that are forming in me from the other cases as to "how things might really be.") The third of these things is really high strangeness and from a site claiming to be a research site. The problem that I have with that is that this site is not very sharing of information --- and I REALLY HATE THAT. If I could get over the latter, I'd have to say that the provenance is good in that the site owner speaks of personal interviews. So FWIW (for what it's worth in neo-web-language) here are these last three incidents. First the website case:
======================================================================== MINI-Tolkien-ENT?   SECHETT, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 1960s. Two people are on a forest walk in the southern Pacific Northwest coastal forest zone. It's Douglas fir country and sort of magical with or without Little Folk. Nevertheless they get one. Suddenly, just three to four feet away, one such being steps into their path. It itself is about 3 and 1/2 feet tall and appears to be a combination of a gnome and a Tolkien tree-man (though obviously much smaller.)  The head and face are old, the witnesses saying "wizened." This sort of thing is described often with these solitary gnomish beings. The body color is brown, apparently tree or root brown, as it looks toned but "sinewy" all over, with arms and legs looking like they are more akin to tree roots than flesh. He raises and shakes his hand apparently in anger at them. then he slips back to where (behind bushes?) they can no longer see him. All of this took place in just a few seconds, but the young man and woman agreed that the experience was so intense that they had no doubts as to what they saw. 

... Maybe this is what the Olde People meant when they referred to a Dryad male. 
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CLASSIC GNOME in ARKANSAS? 1960s. A young girl was walking from their back lot towards the family house. In that lot there was an old peach tree. From the vicinity of that tree she heard a noise. When she looked, she saw a little man that she said reminded her of a leprechaun. This being was two foot tall and looked old --- white hair, facial wrinkles, and a gray-white beard. He was dressed in browns and greens. His clothes were layered, but just how was not remembered. His shoes were more like moccasins than, say, boots or brogues. He had a sack slung over his shoulder (curiously this is an odd feature of some leprechaun sightings in old Ireland.) The witness and the "leprechaun" stood motionless staring at one another for a few minutes. Then the folk creature turned and "shot toward the peach tree and disappeared down a hole close to the trunk." The witness had played many many times at that old tree and knew that no hole was there. Later she went over to it and tried to reach into it. Her grandmother, who apparently knew about these beings, cautioned her NOT to do this and "leave the little people alone." The witness lay in wait many times thereafter to see the little man again, but never did he return. 

... despite being a believe me or not Fairy Census case, the narrative is both realistically stated, and coherent with other encounter reports. (We BADLY need fairylore field investigators to anchor such potentially walloping good cases, as to witness credibility.) 
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ELF QUEEN in the CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINS? 1960s. Another Fairy Census case and frankly my favorite. Since this is a believe me or not case AND my favorite, I am in particularly deep biased water here --- just so you know. Also, I have written up this experience elsewhere so I'd like to just use that self-plagiarized write-up. 

(Hopefully that's not too small to enlarge.) What this story says to me, if true, is that the full force of Faery can still be experienced if you're in the right sort of environment, right state of mind, AND right state of "Soul." This was a person with not only an open mind, but a deep feeling of communion with Nature --- what might be phrased as a deep and good Green Spirit. She allowed herself to BE in the environment, and the environment opened to her. 


I'd really like that one to be true.


And I really don't have much of a clue as to whether it was. 


I'll try the 70s next time.

FAERY/UFO Crossover Addendum

Once upon a time I made a partial list of oddities at the fringe of ufology. Who knows what to make of them. Some of the cases below are already mentioned in this series of posts, as you will recognize. Some (most) will be new. Think of it as popcorn.

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Tryptolemus: the Olde Minor god now reduced to Faery in his winged Chariot in the GoodOldDays. (To most people, the guy holding up the painting is much scarier.)