Mike Dunham: An intriguing e-mail hit Bush Alaska in May. In it, a hunter from Marshall recounted how he found a boy alleged to have been abducted by the ircenrraat. Ircenrraat (singular: ircenrraq; say "irr-chin-hhak" with a harsh hh and you"re getting close) are a recurring theme in traditional Yup"ik teachings and legends, "little people" who dwell in the tundra, usually underground. They disorient, discomfort and trap unwary humans. City folk usually dismiss ircenrraat as superstition. Those who havelived in Yup"ik country for any period of time tend to be a little more inclined to listen.
For one thing, the stories are persistent and often come from respectable observers. For another, when you"re by yourself in the middle of nowhere, things happen that are hard to explain. For instance, a few years back, on a very remote solo kayak trip in the lower Yukon region, I swear I heard rocks tossed in my direction by unseen hands or whatever. Big rocks. Whoosh. Plunk. Weird. A little scary -- and not particularly on target, assuming they were trying to hit me. A close inspection of the presumed point of originshowed no evidence of anything. There was nowhere for anything bigger than a squirrel to hide. I can"t say it was an ircenrraaq, but neither can I absolutely refute those who suggest it was. Yup"ik descriptions of the "little people" resemble those in widespread stories shared by many cultures around the world. A conference on such creatures is held every year in Twisp, Wash.
Fancy owning a piece of Fortean history? Cottingley is forever in our minds courtesy of Arthur Conan Doyle and the fairy photographs of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths from 1917 and 1920. There are so many Fortean aspects and indeed cliches in this case that I shall not rehash them here. Cottingley is currently experiencing a bit of a building boom and new streets are being added, streets with names such as Oberon Way, Lysander Way and Goodfellow Close. There is already a Fairy Dell there. But Main Street survives. This is the street where the girls were staying at the time, specifcially in number 31.Number 31 was sold in July of 2000, for £57 000.
But it now appears that next door is up for sale. A mere snip at £154 995 The estate agent description inlcudes mention of the fairies: "Access to the garden from the rear of the property which has a history as the garden featured in the Cottingley Fairies Story. In July 1917, two young girls claimed to have taken photographs of real life fairies at the bottom of their garden. When the genius behind the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, presented the pictures to the public as evidence of the existence of fairies, the tale of the two little girls in Cottingley was immortalised. Like a pebble dropped into the middle of a pond, the Cottingley tale travelledacross the globe and debated by millions. Every few years, the story is resurrected and once again enchants a generation. Despite the confession in her twilight years, Frances Griffiths added another twist to the story when she insisted that although the photos were faked, she really did see fairies and played with them at the Beck. Indeed, even today, many people believe in fairies and refute the evidence held against the photos which were later admitted to have been fabricated by the girls themselves.
Many people are willing and even longing to believe in the existence of fairies. The Little People are so bound up with happy memories of childhood that they are recalled with delight as part of a less materialistic world. But, to most of us, they stand as a lost illusion. Not so with everyone, fortunately.For I, amongst others, have seen all kinds of fairies for as long as I can remember, and I still see them daily. By seeing I mean that they are as much outside me as trees, and are seen just as objectively.In the following pages, I propose to make these delightful beings as much a reality for you as I can. It is best that I try at the outset to make it clear why I have some specialadvantages for this enterprise.
For one thing, having been born in the East, I have never been discouraged in my observations of fairies, because there are many people there who do see -- and very many more who believe in -- fairies. For this and other reasons, the not uncommon power among children to see them has in me persisted.
Then, I have
had the good fortune to fall, in this life, among family and friends
who included several who could also see; and travel has enlarged the
list. Therefore, what I have here set down is not the imagination of an
isolated child. It is information gathered from many contacts and
conversations with fairies all over the world in circumstances
perfectly natural, however unusual. One can communicate with these
beings in just as definite a manner as we human beings talk to one
another -- more so, for though the method (which Ishall describe
shortly) is slightly different, it is more rapid than speech, and, in
some ways at least, it is a more accurate exchange.
It is important to mention
these things, for once we see the world from the fairy point of view,
we get a glimpse of a new universe. So many things that matter very
much to us do not seem to matter at all to them. Life and death, for
instance, are things that they know all about; to them there is no
uncertainty and no tragedy involved. Human beings so often shrink from
life and fear death. Fairies actually see the flow of life through all
things. We live in a world of form without understanding the life force
beneath the forms. To us the loss of the form means the end of the
life, but fairies are never deceived in this way. They have a
penetrating and powerful lesson for us.
Submitted by MountainLegend: Days ago, the Municipality of Merlo, at the request of local residents, trimmed a hundred-year old eucalyptus that is next to the Leopoldo Lugones Library in Piedra Blanca, on a tight curve by Avenida de los Incas. The large branches obscured visibility for motorists and jeopardized light and telephone wires on windy days.While the trimming operations took place on the avenue, adjacent to a stream, traffic was interrupted and once restored, locals driving through the area, lighting it with their car headlights, claimed to have seen the strangefigures.
They reportedly saw “some little men coming out of the amputated tree and walking single file toward the library. Most witnesses did not offer details, but one woman described their clothing as having a brownish hue,” said Cecillia de Gabrele, an employee at the library who fielded several phone calls at her workplace from locals who sought confirmation for what they had seen nearby. However, neither the employee nor her coworkers noticed anything unusual.Cecilia added that for many years there have been stories of “imp” sightings for many years in that district. “Thats where Aguaribay Street begins, which has abundant native flora, and many claim having seen tiny beingsbetween the branches and shadows.”Once the trimming operation was over in what some believe may have been the dwelling of these little people, the landscape “was devastating”, according to De Gabriele. The eucalyptus has a reddish wood and after being trimmed, this shade became visible. Faced with the bizarre scene, some have gone as far as to suggest that “the strong coloring gave the impression that the tree was bleeding.”
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Mike Dunham: An intriguing e-mail hit Bush Alaska in May. In it, a hunter from Marshall recounted how he found a boy alleged to have been abducted by the ircenrraat. Ircenrraat (singular: ircenrraq; say "irr-chin-hhak" with a harsh hh and you"re getting close) are a recurring theme in traditional Yup"ik teachings and legends, "little people" who dwell in the tundra, usually underground. They disorient, discomfort and trap unwary humans. City folk usually dismiss ircenrraat as superstition. Those who havelived in Yup"ik country for any period of time tend to be a little more inclined to listen. 
View: Full Article | Source: Anchorage Daily News 
Fancy owning a piece of Fortean history? Cottingley is forever in our minds courtesy of Arthur Conan Doyle and the fairy photographs of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths from 1917 and 1920. There are so many Fortean aspects and indeed cliches in this case that I shall not rehash them here. Cottingley is currently experiencing a bit of a building boom and new streets are being added, streets with names such as Oberon Way, Lysander Way and Goodfellow Close. There is already a Fairy Dell there. But Main Street survives. This is the street where the girls were staying at the time, specifcially in number 31.Number 31 was sold in July of 2000, for £57 000. 
Submitted by MountainLegend: Days ago, the Municipality of Merlo, at the request of local residents, trimmed a hundred-year old eucalyptus that is next to the Leopoldo Lugones Library in Piedra Blanca, on a tight curve by Avenida de los Incas. The large branches obscured visibility for motorists and jeopardized light and telephone wires on windy days.While the trimming operations took place on the avenue, adjacent to a stream, traffic was interrupted and once restored, locals driving through the area, lighting it with their car headlights, claimed to have seen the strangefigures. 
