On 14th September, 1994, a UFO streaked across the sky over Southern Africa. Several witnesses reported what they had seen, but two days later something even more weird happened.
It was the morning of the 16th September at Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. The teachers had just begun their morning meeting and outside 62 children were playing unsupervised in the schoolyard on their morning recess.
Suddenly some of the children stopped playing and looked up into the sky. There they saw 3 approaching lights. These objects would appear and disappear in the sky. The strange objects got closer and closer until finally they landed in a bushy area next to the schoolyard, about 100 meters from the children.
(There is some controversy as to whether the object landed on the ground or hovered above it.)
As the children watched in astonishment, a small man, only about a meter in height appeared on the top of one of the objects. He was described as having a scrawny neck, long jet black hair coming below his shoulders and huge eyes. The little man was dressed in a tight-fitting black suit which was ‘shiny’ according to an 11 year old girl.
He started moving across the ground towards them.Suddenly he looked up at the children and vanished, only to reappear behind the ‘UFO’. A few seconds passed and the man vanished again and the object took off and vanished into the sky.
Clip from ‘Sightings’ about this case
The terrified children called for help. They thought that the small man was a ‘tokoloshe’ (click here to see my previous article) who would kidnap them and eat them. By the time the adults arrived, the object had disappeared. The whole encounter had taken about 15 minutes.
The following day, UFO investigator Cynthia Hind contacted the school and asked the headmaster, Colin Mackie, to get the children to draw pictures of what they had seen. When she arrived at the school, she had a collection of 35 pictures waiting.
One small girl told Cynthia: ‘I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth.’ Continue reading »
In the early twentieth century, there was an outburst of unexplained infant deaths in Albania. At the time little was known about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and in this undeveloped country, the finger was immediately pointed at the shtriga.
In Albanian folklore the shtriga is a vampiric witch which sucks the blood of infants during the night. Afte she has had her fill, she would then turn into a small flying insect (typically a moth, bee or fly) and make her escape.
She would also sometimes take adult victims by sucking out their ‘spirtus vitaé’, the living force, while they slept. However she preferred to drink from infants and young children as their force was stronger.
On a rare occasion, the shtriga would cure those she had drained by spitting in their mouths. The children who remain uncured will get extremely sick, go into comas, and then ultimately die.
The Albanian shtriga was typically seen as a woman who lived in secret within the community. A common telltale sign was that of a young girl whose hair was turning white. Other people believe that the Shtriga is a flying demon who would only attack at night.
There were ways to catch and expose a shtriga. The easiest way was to wait until the community gathered in a church. A person would then nail a cross made out of pig bone to the door of the church. When the people left the church, the shtriga would be unable to pass through the door, thus trapping her inside the church. Continue reading »
La Llorona is the legend of a woman who drowned her children, and who can be heard, and sometimes seen, weeping in the night for her dead offspring.
La Llorona (meaning “She who weeps” in Spanish) is in most stories said to be Mexican. However stories of her are told also in USA, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and Chile. It is often stated to be the number one Latin American urban legend. Sometimes La Llorona is also known as the ‘Woman in White’ or the’Weeping Woman’.
As with most urban legends, there are many variations of La Llorona, but the central plot remains intact: The woman has lost her children, usually because she herself has killed them because she wants to marry a man who doesn’t want any children.
She is so guilt-ridden and distressed by these unfortunate circumstances that she kills herself as well, and is therefore doomed to roam her native land forever, weeping and wringing her hands. Often she is seen along rivers and streams.
Although the legends vary, the apparition is said to act without hesitation or mercy. The tales of her cruelty depends on the version of the legend you hear. Some say that she kills indiscriminately, taking men, women, and children. Others say that she is kills only children, dragging them screaming down to a watery grave.
No one really knows when the legend of La Llorona began or from where it originated. There are accounts which suggest that the legend was already in common circulation at the time of the conquistadores.
Here is a typical version of the La Llorona legend:
Maria (La Llorona) thought she was very beautiful, and she wanted the handsomest man to marry. So she got what she wanted. Once they were married, they had three children, first a son, then a daughter, lastly another son. Continue reading »
In St. Francisville, Louisiana, there is an inn which is reputed to be the most haunted place in the USA. Exactly how many ghosts are said to haunt The Myrtles plantation is unknown, but it seems that the number is around 12 to 15 of them.
According to legend, the plantation house was built in 1794 by General David Bradford on top of an old Indian burial ground. General Bradford is also reportedly the first person to have seen a ghost in the house. It is said that he saw the ghost of a naked Indian girl, which is still seen on occasion today. When the General died, the management of the estate passed on to his daughter, Sarah and her husband, Judge Clark Woodruffe. Together, he and Sarah had three children, Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia. Judge Woodruffe eventually bought out the plantation from his mother-in-law before she died in 1830.
Judge Woodruffe was apparently not very faithful to his wife, taking on a mistress. Her name was Chloe and she was one of the plantation slaves. After some time the Judge tired of his mistress and she began to worry about her eventual fate. She started listening at keyholes to try and hear what would happen. One night the General caught her eavesdropping and as punishment cut off her ear. Due to the disfigurement, Sara took to wearing a turban to hide her mutilated ear.
Chloe decided to try and ensure her continued place in the home by pretending to save the family from harm. She decided to poison a cake with Oleander leaves and then nurse the family back to health – thus becoming the hero. Unfortunately her plans went awry and Sara and her two daughters died from the poison. The Judge did not eat the cake so was spared an agonising death.
Chloe was terrified that she would get found out and rather than face the wrath of the community, she fled to the safety of other slaves. When the other slaves heard what had happened, they turned on Chloe, dragging her out of hiding and hanging her from a tree. They then weighed down her body and disposed of it in the Mississippi river. Since then the ghost of Chloe has often been seen wandering around the Myrtle plantation.
According to the present owners, Teeta and John Moss, Chloe helps to keep their children safe, but also often peers in at guests while they are sleeping. No one knows who she is looking for but they all agree that Chloe is not a bad spirit, she seems to be wanting redemption by watching over the kids.
The murder of Sara and her daughters are not the only murders to have occured at the plantation. Since the building of the house, there have been at least 10 other homicides or suicides on the property.
In 1834, the plantation was purchased by Ruffin Grey Stirling. From that time the family was often the victim of great tragedies. Four years after buying the property, Stirling died of consumption. Of nine children, only four of them lived to be old enough to marry. His oldest son, Lewis, died the same year as his father. His daughter’s husband was murdered in the same year on the front porch. Their ghosts are said to still haunt the homestead. Continue reading »
