Impassable field
One morning in July 1854 plantation owner named Williamson, living six miles from Selma, Alabama, was sitting with his wife and child on the front porch of his house. Right in front of the house is a lawn is about 50 yards (450 square meters) between the house and the public road, or, as it was called, "highway." The road stretched pasture, smooth and without a single tree, stone, or other natural or man-made object on the surface. In another field for grazing dozen slaves worked under the supervision of the overseer.

Discard the rest cigar plantation owner stood up and said, "I forgot to tell Andrew about those horses." Andrew was the overseer.

Williamson walked slowly along the path, gravel, pulled on the way a flower, crossed the road and walked through the pasture, stopping for a short time to close the gate leading there, greeted a passing Armour Wren, owner of a neighboring plantation. Mr. Ren was riding in an open carriage with his son James, a 13 year old teenager. When they drove about two hundred yards (180 meters) from the venue, Wren senior told his son: "I forgot to tell Mr. Williamson about those horses."

Mr. Ren sold to Mr. Williamson horses which were to bring on the day, but for whatever reason that is, now no one can remember, we decided to take them to the next day. Ordered the driver to go back, and as soon as the crew turned, all three saw Williamson, who slowly walked down the pasture. At that moment one of the harnessed horses stumbled and nearly fell. She had not yet completely to normal pitch as James Ren shouted "What is it, father, what has become of Mr. Williamson?"

The answer to this question is not the purpose of this narrative

What follows is a strange report on the incident, Mr Rehn this affidavit in the official hearing on the incident.

"Exclamation my son made me look at the place, where I had just seen the deceased (Note - Here and annotated. Aut.), But he was not there, it generally was not there. I can not say that at the moment I was very scared, or that came to me the essence of what happened, even though I thought it was quite unusual. However, my son was terribly excited and kept asking the question in different ways, until we arrived at the gate. My black boy Sam also impressed, and maybe more, but I think more so, as my son was behaving, not by what he has seen. (This phrase was deleted from the testimony.) As long as we got out of the carriage on the field at the gate and Sam tied (pay attention!) horses to the fence, the track ran Mrs. Williamson with a baby, followed by a few servants, in great excitement shouting:

"It's gone, it's gone! Oh, my God! What a mess! "And similar exclamations, which I remember with great difficulty. According to him I got the impression that they meant something more than just the disappearance of her husband, even when you consider that it happened in front of her. She was acting violently, but, I think, not as much as possessed by the circumstances. I have no reason to believe that she had moved on reason. I never saw Mr. Williamson had not heard of him. "

Testimony, as expected, confirmed almost up to the last details other witnesses (if the term is appropriate) - boys James. Mrs. Williamson mad, and the servants, of course, were not allowed to testify. The boy James Wren at first claimed that he saw the disappearance, but nothing like this in his testimony in court. None of the slaves who worked in the fields, and was directed to Mr. Williamson, he had never seen, and the most that neither is a thorough examination of the entire plantation and adjoining areas also did not give investigators the slightest clue. The most incredible stories about the incident went to this part of the state for many years and is likely to go so far, but what is described here, the only thing known for certain about the case. The court decided that Williamson was dead, and his estate was sold at auction in accordance with the law.

July 30, 1889 the British newspaper "The Daily Chronicle" reported that 13 of the same month, Mr. McMillan, who belonged to the family of the owner of the famous publishing house "Macmillan", reached the top of Mount Olympus (Greece). Saw him waving from the top, and then disappeared. Despite a thorough search and offered a reward to find him failed.

In 1899, Sabine Baring Gould writes in his book "History of strangeness," Mr. Bathurst, coming out of the beer cellar, went to his coach. "He went up to the horses, and more of it has not been seen."

In December 1900, the island of Lewis, Hebrides, UK, on ​​the island Flannanskie sailed boat, to replace workers distant lighthouse, but they were not there.

Pilots of the British Royal Air Force Day and Stewart made an emergency landing in the Iraqi desert in 1924. Their tracks were clearly visible on the sand at a distance from the plane, and then dropped. No one has seen the pilots.

When you can not give a rational explanation for what is happening, as in the cases described above, inevitably are born different superstitious submission. They talk about the evil doings, especially when the man disappears, who lived wickedly. For example, the disappearance of an Englishman Owen Parfit in 1769, explains: devil took what belonged to him. Parfitt was once a pirate and live out their days in Shepton Mallet, Somerset village in the county. He was paralyzed. One relative who took care of him, wrapped him in a blanket and sat in a chair in front of the house, that he breathed the fresh air, and she went for some cases. When she returned, the chair cushion, which was put under the back, and blanket are in place, and the old man had disappeared without a trace. Not far from the house were at this time mowers. They assured me that no one was passing the lonely house and did not hear anything unusual.

Tricks of the devil can not explain the disappearance of the people who were good life, and there is another version: "They took away the angels directly into heaven?" However, most of the missing "not good enough" for either angels or the devil, it is difficult to assume that they summoned God or the devil. Therefore such disappearances attributed to some magical mysterious force, which no one really can not say.

There is a belief that people are kidnapped various supernatural creatures. However, many of the mysterious disappearance can not be explained and it. Dr. Moore, for example, what it was drawn by an unseen force, which no one saw, but which he appeared in the form of a certain group of people. At a time when most people believed in magic, this force was identified with the sorcerers if such happened today, not in the Middle Ages, laid the blame for what happened to the flying saucers and those who govern them. However, in our time, people who suddenly disappeared, and then come back often tell stories full of uncertain strength, not necessarily related to the wizards, fairies or even a UFO. Description of this species cited in the "Review of the UFO" in November 1975. It happened near the Argentine city Pahia Blanca. The young waiter named Carlos Diaz went home early the morning of 4 January 1975. Suddenly, he was paralyzed by a strong beam of light that streamed from t

on top. The air around him began to buzz and vibrate, and he felt that he was an unknown force raised himself about three feet, and then he lost consciousness and did not remember anything else. Approximately four hours later Diaz woke up lying on the grass beside the road. With him was his bag with work clothes and newspaper, which he had bought in the morning in his home town. However, as it turned out, Diaz was 500 miles from home, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where he was hospitalized and administered first aid.

In order to explain where he was all the time that elapsed between his disappearance and return, Diaz told the story that is easy to find in the literature as mythological, and in the literature related to the UFO, though his story had its specific details. After Diaz lost consciousness, he was in the clear area in the company of three strange creatures that resembled people, but they were green and are easily pulled out without pain in his hair. At the hospital, where Diaz studied, came to the conclusion that he really lost a bit of hair that fell out, although their roots remain intact.

Nobody saw Diaz disappeared. And just because he's back, the story became known. (Interestingly, could tell who is said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and never returned.)

Described several cases of people disappearing almost as Diaz. For example, you can bring the story of an unusual case of French children from the village of clave, of whom 13 January 1843 the British "Times". Two little girls were raised in the air, as though caught in the air funnel. The parents are nearby, the air flow did not work, and they pulled it back to earth girls.

There is a description of a number of events that once occurred frequently: how fairies abducting children and replace them some sort of strange babies. Before, when everywhere was common belief in the real existence of fairies, such stories circulated quite widely. Now little fairies who believe. In the book, Waldron "History of the Isle of Man," published in 1845, which is referenced in Halivell "to illustrate the magic of mythology," is the story of a woman whose children disappeared soon after birth. After she disappeared third born child, she told me that she saw him raised some sort of invisible force, she screamed, ran her husband and showed her that the baby is about her, but it was not her child, it was what Something strange wrinkled creature, unlike her baby. From nowhere who undertook child lived for several years, he did not say not to go and ate nothing but grass.

Sykes leads a Birt another story, referring to a book called "The English Ghost". Janet Francis, who lived in Fort Valley Ebvi in ​​Wales woke up one night and felt that she had taken away her child. She screamed and began to pray, and the child was with her. In this story, there is one detail that is of interest. It is said that those who are exposed to teleport, that is transferred from one place to another is unknown what forces will specially "marked." And in fact, when the child grew up, he became a famous preacher.

In earlier times, when the fairies, wizards or witches ascribed the ability to abduct creatures existed and means to counter them. In folk tales, numerous recipes for rescuing stolen or spoofed children.

The old belief that the missing or abducted person can return to the anniversary of the disappearance, forced to recall the case described in the paper "Scottish Daily Express' of 27 December 1971. Early in the morning of New Year 1966 19 year old Alex Cleghorn Govanroud walking down the street in Glasgow with two older brothers. Alex suddenly disappeared, and they never saw him again. The first in January 1972 the two brothers decided to again, as six years ago, to pass on the same street, past the place where Alex was gone, "in the hope that maybe he'll be back." We do not know whether their expectations were justified.