In East Africa, in northern Kenya, in the middle of Lake Rudolf lies the mysterious island of Envaitenet. Its name, translated from the language of the Elmolo tribe living on the shores of this lake, means "irrevocable".
The mysterious island has been uninhabited for several decades. People do not want to settle on it and this is not just good fears of the legends of their ancestors, but a well-considered decision.
In 1935, an ethnographic expedition worked on the lake, studying the customs and life of the Elmolo tribe living in these parts. The expedition was headed by the Englishman V. Fush.
One day, on a routine mission, his colleagues M. Sheflees and B. Dyson were landed on Envaitenet. They carried out research and every night they gave symbols with lighted lamps, which meant that they were all right. But suddenly the signals stopped. The other members of the expedition did not attach much importance to this, since the small island did not pose any threat, they assumed that the scientists simply went deep into the thickets and got carried away with work.
But when the signals still did not appear for two weeks, V. Fush, worried about the long absence of his comrades, sent a rescue group there. They didn’t find Sheflis and Dyson, they didn’t find any traces of the people.
The time has come for drastic measures, but the survey of the island from the plane did not bring success in the search for scientists. Then more than 50 local residents were hired, who “combed” the entire Envaitenet for a huge fee. Neither human remains nor any items that could reveal the secret of their disappearance were found.
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As time went on, years later the story of the mysterious disappearance of people was completely forgotten. In the 1950s, several families of the Elmolo tribe decided to settle on the island, who were tired of fighting with their nomadic neighbors.
Gradually, a small village appeared on the island. People exchanged fish for bread and milk, invited their fellow tribesmen to visit, but when relatives took advantage of the invitation, they found only an abandoned village: empty huts, long extinct fireplaces and the remains of rotten fish. Where could several dozen people disappear from a small island?
In historical reports, the first mention of the disappearance of people on the "enchanted island" dates back to around 1630. Then several natives families also settled on the mystical island. Everything was fine, the village grew gradually. But the settlers were a little alarmed that there were no animals or birds on the island, only lush vegetation of a very bright emerald hue and clusters of smooth, as if polished, brown stones, which appeared and disappeared.
And every new moon, strange sounds were heard: eerie, chilling screams, turning into a drawn-out moan, which usually lasted from several minutes to an hour. After some time, some parts of the island became inaccessible to people, as the branches of the trees standing next to each other were tightly intertwined and became solid, like stone, forever blocking the entrance to some parts of the island.
But the most terrible were the mysterious visions that appeared among the villagers at night. They were bizarre creatures that only vaguely resembled humans. After such visions, the islanders lay for hours as if in a coma, unable to move, and a day later, someone was inevitably in misfortune: people became crippled, getting injured literally from scratch, died from food poisoning, which they had eaten many times before; got blood poisoning from a small cut or drowned in the waters of a completely calm lake, despite the fact that they were great swimmers.
After some time, the villagers began to think that some terrible monsters lived on their island, ready to destroy them at any second. They appeared right in front of a person at the most unexpected moment, and here everything depended on how fast the native ran. Several children disappeared literally in front of their mothers, and it was not possible to find them.
Life in a once prosperous village was becoming unbearable, besides, the inhabitants found themselves in a kind of isolation, since their relatives, having heard about the strange events on the island, completely stopped visiting this bad place.
And when, after several months of "silence," some Elmolo nevertheless sailed to the island, it turned out that the village was empty. Nothing indicated signs of a struggle or an urgent departure of people: weapons were neatly stacked in the corner of each hut, clothes and dishes were intact.
In local legends there is a mention of a mysterious fire that spews out of a pipe on the island, and corridors leading deep into the bowels of the earth … There, according to these legends, lives "sowing infection and throwing fire" giant Wat Usumu Tong Duurai.
And also, if you believe the stories of the Elmolo tribe, sometimes a city glowing with multi-colored lights rises near the island right out of the fog. It is clearly seen that many beautiful towers have been destroyed, and only ruins remain of the palaces … At the same time, it seems that some strange funeral song rushing over the lake is heard from the city.
After such visions, members of the tribe for a long time felt a severe headache, weakness, aversion to food, a sharp decrease in vision. Pregnant women gave birth to ugly babies who soon died.
At the end of the 18th century, two private expeditions from Germany and Holland went to the "cursed island", but both disappeared without leaving any traces. The mystery of the island of Envaitenet still remains unsolved.