In Kenya, on Lake Rudolf there is the island of Envaitenet, which in translation from the language of the Elmolo tribe living on the shores of the lake, means "irrevocable." For more than a dozen years the island has been abandoned: no one wants to settle on it, and I must say, there are reasons for this.
Mysterious disappearance
The first mysterious incident, documented in the archives of the local police, dates back to 1935. At that time, an ethnographic expedition was working on the lake, studying the customs and life of the Elmolo tribe. The expedition was led by the Englishman V. Fush. Once he sent two colleagues to the island - M. Sheflis and B. Dyson. For several days everything was normal: every evening at the agreed time they gave signs with lighted lamps, which meant that everything was in order. Then the signals stopped, and when, two weeks later, worried about the long absence of their comrades, several members of the expedition went to the island, they were surprised to find that Sheflis and Dyson … had disappeared. Moreover: no traces were found indicating that people were here!
The local authorities provided a plane that flew around the island for several days. Then the people of the Elmolo tribe, tempted by a huge reward, literally turned every stone on the island. But neither the remains of the members of the expedition, nor any items that could shed light on their disappearance, were not found.
Unlucky new settlers
Several years passed, the story of the disappearance of people began to be forgotten, and once several families of the Elmolo tribe decided to settle on the island, who were tired of repelling the attacks of warlike nomadic neighbors. For some time, the life of the new settlers flowed quite measuredly: they built a small village, often went to stay with relatives on the coast, exchanged the fish they caught for bread and milk, invited relatives to their place … But once the relatives who came to visit the island found only an empty village, extinct bonfires and decayed fish. Where could several dozen people disappear from a small island? And again this question remained unanswered …
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An island inhabited by monsters
The oldest mention of the "enchanted island" and people disappearing from it dates back to around the 1630s. Then on the island of Envaitenet also settled several families of natives, and among the fertile nature, the population of the village began to increase rapidly. One thing seemed strange: there were no animals or birds on the island. Only the lush vegetation of an unusually bright emerald hue, hills of smooth, as if polished, brown stones that had a "tendency" to appear and disappear, and also … strange sounds that the islanders heard every new moon: eerie, chilling screams whether an animal, or a person, turning into a drawn-out moan, which usually lasted from several minutes to an hour.
Over time, some parts of the island became inaccessible to people: the branches of the trees were tightly intertwined with the neighboring ones and became solid, like stone, forever blocking anyone who wanted to enter the land. But the most frightening were the visions that the villagers had at night. These were bizarre color images of unusual creatures vaguely reminiscent of people: whole scenes were played out over the village, after which people lay for hours as if in a coma, unable to move. The saddest thing is that after such a "performance" with any of the natives, misfortune necessarily happened: people became crippled, being injured literally from scratch, or even died altogether, having been poisoned by completely fresh fish, received blood poisoning from a minor cut or, being excellent swimmers, drowning in the waters of a calm lake.
Over time, the villagers began to think that their island was inhabited by terrible cannibalistic monsters, not similar to any animal that they knew. Such a monster appeared right in front of a person at the most unexpected moment, and here everything was decided by how fast the native runs. As soon as the poor man gape a little, he literally disappeared into thin air with his terrible kidnapper. Several young children disappeared from under the noses of their mothers, and it was not possible to find them.
Life in the once prosperous village was becoming unbearable, besides, its inhabitants found themselves in a kind of isolation: relatives from the coast, who had experienced the delights of the islanders' hospitality, did not rush to visit them. And when, after a few months, several worried Elmolo nevertheless sailed on rafts to the island, it turned out that the village was empty. However, nothing indicated signs of a struggle or an urgent departure of the inhabitants: bows and arrows were neatly stacked in the corner of each hut.
Ruins of the magic city
Local legends also mention a mysterious fire spewing from a certain steep pipe on the island, covered with a “flapping lid”, and corridors going deep into the bowels of the earth … There, according to legends, the giant Wat Usumu Tong dwells, “sowing infection and throwing fire” Duurai.
And also, if you believe the stories of the Elmolo tribe, from time to time, right near the island, a city rises from the fog. It shimmers with all colors, like a night rainbow that has descended to the ground. Walls and towers, amazing and multi-colored, rise above the night lake, as if a handful of jewels were thrown from the starry sky to the earth. However, it is clearly seen that many amazing towers are dilapidated, and only ruins remain of many palaces …
At such moments, it seems that a strange pulsating sound is floating from the direction of the ghost town - a kind of funeral song, rushing over the lake and over this magical city. The sound is sometimes soft and gentle, it becomes piercing and causes a headache.
After such visions, the members of the tribe suffered for a long time with some unknown disease, accompanied by aches in the muscles of the whole body, aversion to food and a sharp decrease in vision. Pregnant women gave birth to freak babies who soon died, and their bodies, despite the tropical climate, were mummified in a matter of hours.
All these miracles did not allow the Elmolo to live in peace, and they were forced to move from the shores of the lake closer to the forest belt.
At the end of the 20th century, hearing about the enchanted island, two private expeditions went there (from Holland and Germany), but both of them disappeared, leaving no traces behind. So the mystery of Envaitenet Island remains unsolved.
Ekaterina Gordeenko