Empire unusual suggested

44 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
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 Lorcnzen. 14
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 45
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