Empire unusual suggested

24 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
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
THE GOOD PEOPLE 25
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 witness
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, Wcntz, 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. 1 In his book he gives the story of Pat
Fcency, an Irishman of whom we know only that "he was welloff
before the hard times," meaning perhaps the famine of 1846—
1H47. One day a little woman came to his house and asked for
some oatmeal.