We recently talked about encounters with creatures uncharacteristic in our country - gnomes. But, if one can easily find analogies for them in neighboring countries, then it is extremely difficult to determine the “species identity” of other creatures encountered by the informants. For example, in 2014, in the village of Gozha, Grodno district, there was an interesting and extremely atypical case of observing unclassified folklore characters.
Information about the incident was received by us by chance in June 2016 from F. S. (an eyewitness wished not to indicate his personal data), born in 1967. In one of the summer months of 2014, F. brought the builders to his summer cottage in Gozha, and leaving them at the dacha, at about 11 a.m., he returned to the highway on his usual road. Further, according to an eyewitness:
“And before reaching this place I see clearly about 50 meters, such triangles go along the road, damn it. Rather, they do not go, but one saw from here, somewhere he crossed this whole road in 3 steps, 3-4 steps. And by itself it is 2.5-3 meters tall. I put on the gas to catch up with him, drove up here and already wanted to jump out of the car to go see where this miracle had gone, but I didn't see anything else there. I saw him here from the forest and saw how he hid in the forest. I left here, and I no longer saw him. Somewhere where he went, no idea. I stopped, walked, and no one was there."
Together with F. on July 8, 2016 we went to the place of observation of a strange creature. Additional questions were answered. For example, it turned out that an eyewitness described the creature as triangles, because “when he is walking, he looks like a triangle. Flat from the ground, these two legs and a head on top. " The stilt walker was colored, it was clearly visible against the background of the forest, but F. S.'s exact color was difficult to determine. He behaved as if the observer did not exist at all: “Exactly, clearly. I rearranged my clubs and went there. " Observation of the mysterious creature lasted a maximum of 3-4 seconds - about how long it took him to cross the road and disappear into her right "pocket".
An eyewitness on the spot shows where a mysterious creature was observed
The size and physique of the creature that F. saw is of considerable interest:
"You say the head was elongated, how is that?" An egg like that, like that. She was small, she was an egg. The clown's face seemed to be there. Yes, like a clown face. "Clown? How was this manifested? " Sharp features, round and some kind of such an idiotic smile, maybe something like that. Maybe I've already finished drawing it in my head, damn it. But at least the egg was on top and the legs were. "That is, it was like an egg on top and two such hockey sticks, what do you call stilts?" Yes. Well, maybe there was something like a torso. I looked, paid attention to what was moving more, to these legs. Now, two years later, it's hard for me to say what I saw there. But this creature I observed.
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The eyewitness emphasized that he was driving, i.e. was clear-minded and absolutely sober: “Yes, I was terribly interested in what I could see. I even drove home, thinking about it. I told all my acquaintances that I saw it. Well, who laughed, who should have a snack…”.
Over time, the eyewitness forgot this story. But then, having once seen a video with similar creatures on the Internet, he was convinced that it was not a hallucination.
A still from a video footage seen by an eyewitness. The video was uploaded on April 6, 2011 by user Sierraparahunter and was allegedly captured by a security camera in Yosemite National Park, near Fresno, California
In the United States, these strange creatures are called nightcrawlers and are described similarly - as creatures without a torso and arms, with a small head and long legs. They are associated with wooden sculptures located in the surrounding California forests. Their first video recording allegedly dates back to November 2007 and is positioned as a recording from a surveillance camera, made on the lawn in front of the owner's house, from whom someone tried to steal something from the yard last time. On the night the video was filmed, the owner was awakened by the unusual barking of his dogs. He stood up, looked at the security monitor, and saw "creatures" about 2–3 feet (70–90 cm) high moving across the lawn. The owner of the lawn grabbed a video camera and made a recording from the monitor screen.
These videos were analyzed in the well-known Western TV show "Fact or Fake: Paranormal Files" and were deemed inexplicable. However, we cannot consider the authenticity of these videos to be reliably established. Actually, all the information available today about these creatures is based on these two videos - 2007 and 2011.
However, in spite of the similarity of the “Belarusian nightcroller” with its American counterpart, the differences are easily detected. Firstly, the size - the "domestic" nightcrawler is about 2.5 times higher, and secondly, contrary to the English-language name of this creature, which classifies it as a night "inhabitant", daytime observation contradicts this version.
Of the features of the observation site, it is worth noting the presence of an observation tower nearby (20–30 meters away) and in the immediate vicinity - an underground cable passage.
What are the possible versions of what happened?
One could consider the observation of an eyewitness a hallucination, however, the presence of a driver's license (which can be obtained only after passing the driver's commission, including a mandatory examination by a psychiatrist-narcologist) and the fact that the eyewitness was driving, contradict this version, and also practically exclude the possibility alcoholic intoxication. We also considered it as a possible option that the observation tower in the forest was mistaken for a "creature on stilts", however, from the place from where the creature was seen, the indicated tower, if located behind the wheel of a car, is not visible, and the fact is not explained its movement, in addition, the tower has 4 supports, which are covered by trees.
Tower, in the area of the observation site
In the Ufokom archive there was only one story that can be partially correlated with this observation. It should be noted that the coincidence here concerns only a few details. This is an incident investigated at the end of the 1980s by the Bioelectronics Laboratory at the Minsk Regional Society of Radio Electronics and Communications of the Scientific Technical Society. Archival materials on this case were given to us by E. K. Ageenkova, who once headed this group. One credible but completely improbable case also turned out to be "tied" to a cable laid along the road.
The witness was also driving in the direction of Minsk on the morning of July 5, 1989 and observed a moose calf running along the road. Suddenly an eyewitness noticed that the grass behind the calf had fallen strangely. He looked up and noticed that a body was moving above the calf, reminiscent of a railway tank, only flatter. It moved in jerks, in time with the leaps of the calf. When the UFO descended lower, approximately to the height of the treetops, the engine of the car stalled, and the calf, over which the body was twitching, jumped convulsively in one place. Then steam began to form at the calf's feet, which gradually covered the entire calf and began to rise towards the UFO. When all the steam rose up, the calf was not in place. During the observation period, the witness opened the car window and tried to look outside, but immediately felt a resilient blow to the head. A pigment spot later developed at the site of the impact, which then gradually disappeared. The UFO departed and the car's engine started up again. A few hours later, the witness returned to the place that had been trampled by a calf, stuck his leg into it and felt a strong blow. It turned out to be reliably known only that a high-frequency communication cable was laid in this place. The place where the moose calf jumped is lower and more humid and, possibly, the appearance of steam is connected with this factor. Perhaps the calf and the witness were simply electrocuted in this place due to a violation of the cable insulation. Subsequently, it was found out that no anomalies in the operation of the cable were observed that day.which was trampled by a calf, stuck his leg into it and felt a strong blow. It turned out to be reliably known only that a high-frequency communication cable was laid in this place. The place where the moose calf jumped is lower and more humid and, possibly, the appearance of steam is connected with this factor. Perhaps the calf and the witness were simply electrocuted in this place due to a violation of the cable insulation. Subsequently, it was found out that no anomalies in the operation of the cable were observed that day.which was trampled by a calf, stuck his leg into it and felt a strong blow. It turned out to be reliably known only that a high-frequency communication cable was laid in this place. The place where the moose calf jumped is lower and more humid and, possibly, the appearance of steam is connected with this factor. Perhaps the calf and the witness were simply electrocuted in this place due to a violation of the cable insulation. Subsequently, it was found out that no anomalies in the operation of the cable were observed that day. The calf and the witness were simply electrocuted in this place due to the violation of the cable insulation. Subsequently, it was found out that no anomalies in the operation of the cable were observed that day. The calf and the witness were simply electrocuted in this place due to the violation of the cable insulation. Subsequently, it was found out that no anomalies in the operation of the cable were observed that day.
Thus, the observed observation very poorly fits into the framework of any classifications. Taking into account all these data, we made another attempt to explain the described incident, namely: we assumed that an eyewitness witnessed the training of stilt walkers - artists on stilts, whose height (3 meters) is just right (sometimes stilts walk in masks). However, it remained unclear how the stilt-walker could get out of the forest, where trees impede movement, and at the same time disappear instantly and completely without a trace, because the right "pocket" of the road, into which the creature entered, has a length of about 15 meters and ends with an earthen rampart about 1 meter high.
To find out the possibilities of the artists on stilts, we turned to the assistant to the head of the Grodno fire theater “Ergo Bibamus” Tatiana Erema for qualified advice. It turned out that in 2014 a lot of groups could "hang out" in Gozh, as there is a wonderful training ground and picturesque surroundings, which are often rented for events, although the participation of Grodno stilt-walkers in these events has not been established.
Tatyana Erema also commented on the video footage from the United States: “The camera is installed on top - this means that the image is distorted and the object may seem lower than it really is. It could be a very thin person, covered with cloth from head to base in such a way as to create the "illusion of a stick". It is technically possible to do this. It is noticeable that with more active walking the leg of the second “creature” bends and protrudes slightly where the leg is - in this place the leg (foot) is attached to the stilts, the height of the stilt is about 70–80 cm, taking into account the distortion of the image. Also in the video there is a man showing himself near the fence. Technically, if you set a goal, you can, based on the height of the showing person in relation to the fence, calculate the height of the fence and the approximate height of the stilt. At higher magnification, the video clearly shows the classic gait of a stilt-walker - presentation of the legs, wide steps, bends in certain places, body movement / mobility, etc. It is clearly seen (on the fluttering trousers at the bottom) that this is a white (light) FABRIC! In another video at 2:28 it is noticeable that for convenience and not clinging to the legs, they are gathered at the bottom of the stilt with an accordion, and at 6:41, two folds are visible: in the area of a person's knee and in the area of attachment of the stilts on the foot. "41 - two folds are visible: in the area of the knee of a person and in the area of attachment of the stilt on the foot”.41 - two folds are visible: in the area of the knee of a person and in the area of attachment of the stilt on the foot”.
Tatiana also pointed out that the difference in the size of the American and Belarusian "nightcrawlers" may be due solely to the size of the stilt:
“There are a lot of stilts who perform tricks on stilts, the height of which is from three meters (it is much easier to walk and perform tricks on smaller stilts). And this is not only walking, but also running, jumping, somersaults, etc. Foreign stilt-walkers (and Americans in particular) tend to "walk" at night in order to make sure that the excitement and correct reaction of people to the costume (which should evoke certain emotions: fear, joy, bewilderment, horror, laughter, etc.). Most often, performances are evening or nightly, especially if stilt walkers work with a fire show. The choice of the color of the suit is also determined by the night time - mainly light or shiny, so that even without illumination it could be seen."
The problem of the appearance and disappearance of a “creature” in the Gorz copse, as it turned out, is also quite solvable: “trees do not always impede walking, the main thing is to choose the right place where to put your foot. Nowadays stilt-walkers in the midst of the crowd in nightclubs are a common occurrence. Therefore, walking in the forest is a piece of cake for them. The sudden hiding of the character is explained by the fact that he could simply go into the thicket of the forest and sit down to take off his shoes or relax in a location where he will not be visible. The work of stilt-walkers is to evoke emotional attachment to the image. The man saw two years ago, and still remembers…”.
Summing up the above, it can be considered quite probable that the eyewitness F. S. really witnessed the "walking the character" of the stilt walker, just as it happened in America, judging by the assessment of the video recordings by a specialist, but while it would be too hasty to make an unambiguous conclusion about the nature of what FS was seen, one should only accumulate observation statistics, comparing them with street theater event schedules.
Author: Vadim Aleksinsky, Olga Tarasenko