The Little People And Their Demon Ships

Pottawattamie: Recently, while delving through my grandfather's things, I discovered notes that he had made concerning a disturbing experience of my grandfater's grandfather, Shamus Loomis. Edgar Loomis the First was very interested in family history and was the great record keeper of the family. Shamus was something of the Loomis family's American Patriarch, being the first to come over from the shining Emerald Ilse. He arrived in the United States in the very early 1800's and then travelled to Iowa, where he met and married an indian woman. The story which Old Shamus told, and my grandfather recorded, regards the appearance of what the old Irishman called 'Demon Ships'. Manned by 'leprachans', Shamus claimed these ships had been making irregular visits to Galway Bay since 1161 A.D., and in fact had followed him across the ocean and were a considerable nuisance to him here in America.

     In one portion of my grandfather's notes Shamus says: "Fantastical Ships, they are to be sure, piloted by wee folk who resemble us men but are surely none of God's created creatures - loinger demnacda - better to be calling them, for they are of the devil and diabolic in the extreme! The first time I be seeing the ships, one was rising ground near the mountain of Cruach-Patrick. It was on a serene evening in the autumn of 1798. There were at least several hundred who seen it with me, I say, and all were certain of its otherworldly nature....if nature there be on other worlds. We were told by the authorities that what we seen was nothing but the fleet of Admiral Warren, then in pursuit of a French squadron, off the west coast of Ireland, but t'were no mirage and I don't believe that any of the good Admiral's ships were capable of flight."

     Shamus then leaves his discussion of airships for a time and has a rather robust critique of governments, kings, the navy, whiskey, women, and bad meat, all of which he claims nearly drove him mad. What drove him to the United States as a stowaway, however, was the "incessant inspection of my insides and brain by them little devils that live in the sky'.

     It was reading that passage which led me to consult with the Iowa UFO Research Network to discuss the possibility that my great great grandfather had been a multiple abductee. Together with Charles Williams I went over every detail in Old Shamus' story. He states rather plainly that he bleieved the 'little devils' were following him. For purposes of conserving space, I will summarize his account. The 'little people" so dogged his days and filled his nights that he was afraid to do any important business out of doors or to 'expose his private parts to the light'. He only rarely left his cottage, and never without a gun. Each time he was alone in the open air, by light of sun or moon, the craft would appear above him and attach itself by anchor to a nearby structure or tree branch. Down the anchor rope would slide the little devils. While he stood frozen in time and unable to move, they would subject him to all manner of investigation and torture. He was so desperate to elude them that he had himself crated and delivered to the dock as a package to be shipped to the United States. Once on board ship, he forced his way out of the box and onto the deck for air. To his horror, he saw hovering behind the clipper the glowing shape of the demon ship pursuing him. He turned himself in to the captain whereupon he was locked below deck and forced to pay a bribe to be allowed off the ship in Boston.

     Terrified he travelled west, finally settling in what was then part of the Wisconsin territory. He had a robust life and took an Pottawattami woman as his wife, then went on to found what would become the small Iowa town of Miller's Hollow, and helped to lead the drive which led to Iowa statehood in 1846. Through these many years he had no trouble with the little devils, but Grandpa Loomis reports that Shamus met up with them again on the night of April 30th, 1858, near the church in the town he had helped create:

     "Aye, I were wandering through the streets as was my well accustomed practice at that time, and coming very low over the houses and trees was an eerie light in the sky. At first I didn't recognize it, but when I did, my blood became ice and I couldn't move nor blink as it hovered above the church steeple. I knew it then, that demon ship that had so haunted me in my youth was now tormenting me again. There it sat in the sky a mockery of natural laws.

     "At the stern was another large ball of metal, supported in a strong framework, and connected to the shaft of the propeller at the stern was a similar mechanism attached to each propeller and smaller balls attached to a point of metal that extended from each side of the vessel and from the prow. Connected to each ball was a thin strip of metal. The balls commenced to revolve with intense rapidity and as they revolved intense lights, stronger than any arc light I ever saw, shone out from the points at the sides and at the prow, but they were different colors. The one at the prow was an intense white light. On one side was green and on the other red.

     "A shimmering anchor of some kind was attached to the steeple and down this line scurried two or three little men, while from the ship itself exited the most beautiful being I ever beheld. She was tiny as your hand, but of exquisite form and features. She was wholly naked in the moonlight, and her golden hair, wavy and glossy, hung to her waist, unconfined except by a band of glistening jewels that bound it back from her forehead...She moved through the air around my head as though she were swimming in the air, while she made exclamations of delight in a language I could not understand. Her voice was like low, silvery bells and her laughter rang out like their chimes. The little men seemed not capapble of independent flight, for they clung to the rope and than crawled down the wall of the church and scampered over to my legs. They were ugly, like deformed children or bald headed dwarves. Their eyes were the eyes of insects, and a man might lose his soul just by looking in those devlish orbs. They felt of my clothing, looked at my gray hair with surprise, perhaps wondering how I had changed so much since the last time they had me in their foul clutches. The familiar poking and prodding began then, as the lady cooed around my ears these devils of hers sent wires up my private parts, and into each of my nostils, there was blood coming from my anus when they were done and vanished into the starlight. I also found freshly healed scars on my neck, legs and belly. I can't say what all of mine they took that night, but I know what they took from me the last time we met...for they come to me no more since my daughter was taken. Taken by them, in a great flash of light, into the sky and never to return.

     "I pray ye, Edgar, aye Edgar Loomis the first, I pray ye and all ye Loomis children to spring from your loins, be on the lookout, and never trust anything what comes out of the sky. Trust not the faeries, nor in them place any faith or hope. Nay, kill them, if ye can. Kill the little devils and always carry a gun with which to blast their devil ships from the sky."

     So far, no one else in my family has reported being plagued by the little people. Perhaps my Great Great Aunt provided them with all they required of the Loomis line.