| Whatever our current, modern thought on Little People | | | | Kirk is not the only person who has claimed to have |
| and fairies, the fact legends and stories exist of them | | | | gone where these beings live. He called it "The Lands |
| in cultures around the world is hard to dispute. No other | | | | Beneath" and said the fairies lived inside the Earth. In |
| area is a attached to these creatures as England, | | | | the sightings and stories I've read through there seems |
| Ireland, and Scotland possessing some amazing stories | | | | to be at least a few where people report two |
| of these beings. Sightings of Little People and fairies | | | | different things, or call them different things, but may |
| continue to this day, and perhaps even some of our | | | | be the same phenomena. A common one over time is |
| modern sightings of things we don't understand could | | | | the nature spirit. In the eyes of the witnesses the |
| be this phenomena as well. Here an example of a | | | | beings share a lot of smilarities. But can we trust our |
| recent sighting from the book Fairies: Real Encounters | | | | eyes with this area of the paranormal? |
| With Little People by Janet Bord: | | | | Both of the above books suggest that fairies, or some |
| "Quite recently, probably in the early 1990s, | | | | races of them, can shapeshift. They sometimes use |
| fifteen-year-old Brian Collins was on holiday in the Aran | | | | what's called "glamor" to change their appearance, |
| Islands off west Donegal. While out walking early one | | | | perhaps letting us see what we think we should be |
| morning he saw two little men fishing from a bank | | | | seeing. This is also a common believe in fairy lore and |
| overlooking the sea. They were about 3 and a half | | | | seems to be lending itself to modern studies and |
| feet tall, dressed in green with brown boots. One had a | | | | researchers trying their best to define something that |
| grey beard and a flat hat. They were laughing and | | | | may not be definable and simply look how our mind |
| talking in Irish, and suddenly they jumped over the bank. | | | | tells us it should look. Over the centuries many |
| When Brian went to look for them, they had gone, but | | | | common threads can be found with these beings, |
| they had left a pipe behind. He took it back to the | | | | glamor and shapeshifting are among them. People |
| house where he was staying, but while there | | | | seeing them dissappear into thin air is also concurrent |
| dissappeared from a locked drawer. When Brian saw | | | | with lots of sightings. |
| the little men again, he tried to photograph them and | | | | The very nature of these beings makes proving their |
| tape-record their conversation, but nothing came out." | | | | existence next to impossible. Do we really have to |
| The point of the modern day sighting is to really show | | | | prove if they exist or not to get the bottom of other |
| these events still happen. Fairies vary in size, shape | | | | things though? We already have mountains of |
| and appearance, but when seen the person involved in | | | | information on them going back the last few hundred |
| the sighting is aware of what they're looking at. As the | | | | years. It may be time to use the fantastic to help |
| above sighting shows our movie and storybooks | | | | provide clues and missing pieces to other areas of the |
| depicting these beings as small, sometimes bearded, | | | | fantastic. Other cultures besides the Scottish and Irish |
| and commonly dressed in green or brown may be | | | | thought them to be fact, such as the Cherokee Indians |
| based on sightings and reports of them. The classic | | | | designating a name for them. Perhaps Little People |
| book The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and | | | | and fairies should be filed under Cryptozoology to |
| Fairies by Reverend Robert Kirk details the life and | | | | make things a little simpler. A couple fairy beliefs and |
| culture of these beings. It was believed he got his | | | | abilities seen and reported by these creatures overlap |
| information from local folklore and tales where he | | | | with other areas of the paranormal. |
| grew up in Aberfoyle, Scotland. A diary of his has | | | | I don't know what the entire picture of this is supposed |
| since been found directly regarding this subject matter | | | | to look like, but I hope I'm not the only one looking. In this |
| called The Secret Lives of Elves and Fairies; From | | | | area one sometimes has to stretch their beliefs and |
| The Private Journal of The Reverend Robert Kirk | | | | believe for a second something might be possible. Fact |
| where, if you can believe it, he says he conversed and | | | | is often stranger than things fiction could dream up. |
| visited these beings where they dwell in the Fairy | | | | Maybe you really did see a small being in the corner of |
| Realm. | | | | your eye. |