October 28, 2024 • 22 mins
Explore the chilling world of Duendes, mysterious beings whose legends echo across cultures. Known by many names—gnomes, elves, little people, and more. These creatures are feared and revered from North and Central America to South America. We'll hear stories from eerie footprints left around rural homes to ominous encounters in dense jungles. Join us as we dive into encounters and hear from those who claim to have felt the unsettling presence of these trickster spirits.
You can find Edwin social media as @edwincov
You can get these ad-free through ScaryPlus.com free for 14 days, then 4.99 per month. Cancel anytime.
Find out more about Horror Story on HorrorStory.com
Research by Madeline Guerra, producer and scriptwriting by Cristina Lumague.
Join our community:
Facebook.com/scarypod
Instagram.com/scarypod
You can find Edwin social media as @edwincov
You can get these ad-free through ScaryPlus.com free for 14 days, then 4.99 per month. Cancel anytime.
Find out more about Horror Story on HorrorStory.com
Research by Madeline Guerra, producer and scriptwriting by Cristina Lumague.
Join our community:
Facebook.com/scarypod
Instagram.com/scarypod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nichole was born and raised in Indiana, but when she
met Chavier, she was in love. She would do anything
for him. They got married, had kids, and moved to
South Texas to his hometown. They built a house down
the road from his brother and sister. It was the
last one on the street. After that, the dirt road
went on for miles and miles. There was nothing but
(00:21):
trees around. One morning, she decided to take her boys
for a walk down the lonely dirt road. For the
first few minutes, it was nice. Her youngest pointed at
all the trees and flowers with excitement. Then she saw
something on the ground ahead of them. Chentha was carved
into the mud. She stared at it, trying to figure
(00:44):
out what it meant. She didn't know Spanish, only a
few words. She didn't recognize it. She was in deep
thoughts when her thirteen year old yelled for her. When
she got to him, he pointed to the right. Look
at the tiny people. There. They were five of them,
like her son said, each less than two feet tall.
(01:07):
They were all wearing white with white pointy hats on
their heads. There was one just a little taller than
the rest, and this one was wearing black. It walked
out of the grass, stood in front of the rest
and stared at Nicole. She was frozen, not in fear,
but for someone known reason. She was unable to move.
(01:28):
She tried to look at her kids, she couldn't turn
her head. She felt an overwhelming sense of fear, but
it wasn't her own. It just didn't make any sense.
And then the little creatures all got in a single
file line and began walking into the grass. She stared
until the last hat disappeared into the forest. The tallest
one in black turned around to look at her just
(01:52):
before it followed the rest, and then suddenly she could
move again, but both of her kids were in some
sort of trance. Shook them and pulled them by their hands,
and then they all ran down the dirt road until
they were finally back home. As soon as they were inside,
Nicole told her sister in law what they saw out there,
and her sister in law laughed she couldn't believe it.
(02:15):
Nicole told her to follow her outside so she could
see it too, and when they got there, there were
only trees and grass and tiny footprints in the mud.
They walked back to the house in silence until her
sister in law told her, I've seen these before back
in Mexico. We called them duendes. After this day, the
(02:38):
incidents around the house began. Their shoes would go missing,
the broom too. They would open the fridge and all
the food would fall out. They would find tiny footprints
on the kitchen floor, and the footprints always led to
the wall and then vanished. One night, Nicole woke up
to the sound of pitter patter, like something was running
(02:59):
around the hallway, so she got up, walked to the
door and took a peek. She saw small bare feet
and ran after them. It ran into her son's room
and then into his closet. By the time she got there,
only her son's things were inside. The hangars were still
swaying back and forth though, like something had just bumped
(03:21):
into them. And these incidents shook her up. But the
worst one was a family dog. The dog was a
part of the family for over five years until they
found him dead. There were small, bloody footprints right next
to the dog, and they led to the kitchen window
and then disappeared. The neighbors all said that the land
(03:41):
was cursed because it was located in the Palo Alto Battlefield,
but Nicole's sister in law thought it was something else.
Whenever Nicole told her about a new incident, she said
the same thing. It's the the Wind this and in
this episode, I'll be exploring a cryptid known all around
the world by different names, but I know it. That's
(04:04):
the Wind.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Day.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
My name is Edwin. And here's a horror story. Gnomes, elves, goblins,
little people when all these are different names for what
seems to be a similar creature. Tales of these beings
span across different cultures in different times, but in most legends,
(04:27):
they are less than two feet tall and love playing
tricks on people. Different indigenous tribes in North America have
passed on stories of a race they call little People.
They are said to live in the woods near Sandy
Hills and Rocks. They're described as hairy faced dwarfs that
play pranks. They love children and protect them from abusive parents.
(04:49):
They help kids that were lost in the woods by themselves.
There is a very old story from the Iroquois tribe
from before the little people and the indigenous were driven
away from their lands. Little morning Star lived with her
dad in a wigwam by the river. She was always
up before him with the sun, and her face was
(05:11):
always so bright. Every morning, when she woke up, she
would run down the river to where the Great Rocks lived.
That was the best spot for her fishing basket. Before
going to bed, she made sure to place the basket
in the narrow space between the rocks and the river,
and while morning Star and her father, Little Wolf slept,
fish would swim through and get stuck in the basket.
(05:34):
And then in the morning she would take the basket
full of fish back to the wigwam. She would try
to fry the fish over hot coals, and that was
breakfast for them. One morning, morning Star ran down the river,
thanking the Great Spirit for a new day. She ran
all the way to the Great Rocks, ready to pick
up her basket. That's when she saw a tribe of
(05:55):
little people gathered around it. They were about two feet tall.
Some of them were laughing and singing. Others were picking
up the fish and throwing them back into the river.
The rest were opening parts of her basket to let
the fish slip through. Morning Star knew that the little
people existed. The stories her family told referred to them
(06:16):
as the joga Oh. Everyone said that they were friends
of the fish. She begged them to not let all
the fish free, but the little chief told her fish
like little girls, liked to be alive, and he turned
around and told the rest of the Jogaoh to keep
on setting the fish free. So she ran to the basket,
(06:37):
and when she reached it, there were still a few
fish inside. She put her hand out to take more
back from the little people. They were gone. The fish
and the little people were nowhere to be seen. She
heard them laugh deep within the spaces between the rocks.
The fish that were supposed to be her and her
father's breakfast were leaping far down the river, probably happy
(07:01):
to be alive. She took her empty basket back to
the Wigwam. She made corn cakes for them to eat. Later,
she saw a fish in the water and thought of
the little people. Morning Star encountered the little people in
the Great Lakes around Michigan. But the Great Lakes span
(07:22):
across the Canada U s border, and stories like these
are found all over this group of waters. Among the
First nations, there are tales of little people called op Chiney.
It said that they splash at the edge of the
water and laugh in the darkness. Sometimes they climb on
the roofs of cabins and knock on the walls. Not
(07:42):
too far from where she saw the little people in
the rocks, to the west, in the prior mountains of
Montana and Wyoming, Lewis and Clark had their own encounter.
If you know a bit about US history, then you
know who they are. But just in case, they were
Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark. In eighteen o three,
d President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, a
(08:03):
special army unit that went from Missouri to Oregon. They
set off on May fourteenth, eighteen o four, and didn't
return until September twenty third, eighteen o six. Three months
into their expedition, they saw the little People. Lewis, Clark,
and ten other men were on the Vermilion River in
modern day South Dakota. The Lakota people that were with
(08:25):
the expedition had warned them of the beings because they
were approaching the Mountain of the Little People. They described
them as devils that carried sharp arrows which could strike
from long distances. They killed anyone who approached their mountain.
The Maha, Otto, Lakota and Dakota people avoided going near
the Spirit Mound. There was a story that was passed
(08:47):
down In it, a band of three hundred and fifty
warriors approached the mountain and almost all of them were
wiped out by the little people. The survivors were never
the same and made sure to warn others. Captain Lewis
wrote the following in his journal. This river is about
thirty yards wide and runs through a plain or prairie
(09:09):
in its whole course in a northerly direction. From the
mouth of this creek, in an immense plain, a high
hill is situated and appears of a conic form by
the different nations of Indians in this quarter. It is
supposed to be the residence of devils. They are in
human form, with remarkably large heads and about eighteen inches high.
(09:31):
They are very watchful and are armed with sharp arrows
with which they can kill at a great distance. They
are set to kill all persons who are so hearty
as to attempt to approach the hill. They state that
tradition informs them that many Indians have suffered by these
little people. Among others, three Omaha men fell a sacrifice
to their merciless fury not many years since. Although most
(09:58):
tribes talk about these beings, Fear the Crow, believe that
this mountain is sacred. They described the little people as
knee high between fourteen to eighteen inches tall, with giant heads,
short arms and legs, and little to no neck. They
are said to be extremely strong and have sharp canine
like teeth. They are known to rip out the hearts
(10:19):
of their enemies horses, and to have created stone arrowheads.
The crow left them yearly offerings to keep them happy,
because otherwise they are known to steal children, food, medicine,
and tobacco. If anyone try to play a trick on
the little people, they and their family would be destroyed.
(10:41):
If the Crow had to pass through the mountains, there
was one path they could use. They would need to
shoot arrows as an offering to the little people. This
pass is known as a prior gap now but used
to be called hits. With the arrows, beads, cloth, and
tobacco could be left for safe passage through the home
of the little people. One legendary crow chief named Plnicoup
(11:06):
had a good encounter with the little people when he
was eleven, He and other young men were challenged to
go into the hills to seek visions. He walked and
fasted for two days straight and still had no vision.
He returned a few days later, fasted more and took
sweat baths. Then he decided he needed to do something
more a sacrifice. He cut off the tip of his
(11:29):
left index finger as an offering to the spirit, and
then he had a vision. The chief of the little
people introduced Plentycoup to a buffalo man. The buffalo man
led him underground down to a tunnel in the prior mountains.
He and the buffalo man traveled for two days, and
then the man showed him a vision. In it, bison
(11:52):
kept coming out of a hole in the ground, but
kept disappearing. Plenicou saw himself as an old man near
the medicine rocks. The forest that was once there is gone.
Only a chickadee was there. The voice told him the
days of their people in their plains were ending, and
that the white men would swarm over the land like buffalo.
(12:14):
Only the chickadee remained because it is a good listener
and survived through its wits. Planicou went to the elders
for advice about what his vision meant. They told them
the buffalo would disappear and be replaced by white men's cattle.
The crow would survive if they'd developed their minds and
listening skills. The crow were guided by Planycoo's vision, and
(12:36):
they did survive. The Crow Reservation is not far from
where he encountered the Little People chief. It gave him
the vision. Stories of little people seem to be pretty mixed,
and some they are evil, in others they just played pranks,
and sometimes they are sacred. It's a common theme all
(12:56):
over the world. But here's where we get into the
eeriness of it all, and I'll tell you all about
them up next. In most of Latin America, they are
called dwendes. The word comes from dueno de la casa,
meaning owner of the house, and that's because dwendys are
set to live in the walls of every home. They
(13:17):
hide your things, play tricks on you, and annoy you.
Though sometimes they are set to scare children or cut
their finger nails of they're too long. Sometimes they take kids,
and they are set to be small, but with the
face of an old person. If you give them offerings
and they take care of your land. But if they
don't like you, it's much worse. The Marquess family moved
(13:41):
to a small farm in Tabasco, Mexico. They had gotten
the land for an amazing price, which was actually surprising.
It was pretty isolated. The next rancho was miles away.
It was just them and their animals. Not long after
moving in, they all noticed something very odd. Their chicks
kept on They would find them with their necks twisted,
(14:03):
where they would fall over unable to get up. They
didn't know what was causing this, so they started to
worry that it was brucheria, witchcraft or some sort of curse.
They went to a local shaman to see if he
could tell them what was going on with their animals.
The shamen performed a ritual and when he was done,
he went to the family. He told them that this
(14:24):
was not a curse, but it was the duin this.
Their newly purchased farm was on the land of the
duind this, and they wanted it back. He told them
that they would never have peace here, that they should leave.
The family didn't want to, but things got worse soon
They had no chicks, chickens, or any animals. They were
(14:45):
all dead. The family fled and to this day this
land Brancho el Uanal is abandoned and only the duind
this remain. There are other stories of different kinds of
the wind this like Glusis or Chanekis. They are said
to be protectors of nature and mostly keep to themselves.
(15:05):
The only scare or harm people when they need to.
Hose grew up in Yukatan and was always told that
the jungle was dangerous. That's where the Alushis lived and
humans should never disturb them. If they do, then they
should leave offerings for them. He still needed to go
into the jungles because part of his job was to
(15:27):
go on hunting expeditions. Since he was a boy, He
stayed in the truck while the men journeyed past the trees.
It was usually an hour or two at most. He
just locked the doors to the truck and would wait.
One night he did just that, just like always. The
hours passed and the men had not returned. He got
(15:49):
more nervous as the minutes passed, and then he heard
a sound. He turned to look out the windows, checking
every single one. He thought that the group was back,
but there was no one there. He heard it again.
It sounded like whispers in the language he didn't know.
He looked out the window again, no one. Then the
(16:12):
truck started to rock back and forth, and there was
another whisper and then a laugh that did not sound human.
Cosea grabbed a blanket that was in the truck and
hid under it. After some time, the rocking stopped and
the laugh turned into a distant whisper. Silence followed, but
he stayed under the blanket until the men returned. And
(16:34):
when they did come back, they were tired and empty handed.
This was not normal. They always found something during their hunt.
This time they left in a rush and forgot to
bring an offering. The Alushes were not happy that they
were hunting that night. From that day on, Cosel and
his family never forgot an offering. You never know what
(16:59):
of the wind they were, and there is no time
for an offering.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Sometimes this takes place in Puebla, Mexico, my mom's side
of the family. They all live there.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Like most of Mexico, there's a lot of stories of
ghosts and creatures in Pueblin.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
My aunt this was when she was a kid. She
woke up, went to the kitchen to get a snack,
and she turned on the candle. She's getting a snack
in the kitchen and in the front of the door
she sees this very small creature.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
This description sounds similar to others from all over the world.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It looked like a very old person, but with a
small body, and that small creature had a hat.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
For some reason, she wasn't scared. She didn't try to scream.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
When she's helped Wendy, Yeah, walks towards it, and that
creature walks outside of the backyard. She follows. It's night outside,
there's no one outside, and at some point they reach
a tree. They're standing next to a tree. This d wende,
instead of talking, communicated telepathically. It told her to climb
(18:04):
the tree. She doesn't know why she's climbing the tree,
but she's climbing the tree. And when she gets to
not the very top, but in the mid level, there
started to be more dwendas. They started to come out
of the shadows. They formed a circle around the tree.
She doesn't know what to do. Then all these dundas
started to pick up rocks, and then they threw these
(18:26):
rocks at her. She fell down she was screaming. My uncle,
my theo. He was walking by from the distance, he
heard the commotion. My uncle once towards the tree just
to see what was going on, and my uncle sees
my aunt on the ground crying. He didn't see the
(18:47):
dwindas or the gnomes. He heard voices of these small children,
but it's dark outside. My uncle he has a machete
next to him, and he takes out the machete and
tries to scare away these creatures's things, these voices, And
when he does, that's when my uncle sees my aunt crying.
And they walked back home to the house. One night,
(19:15):
my uncle, who was sick, he was in his room.
He started to feel like there were people inside of
the room. He didn't see anything visibly, but he could
feel it. The next day, my other uncle, the one
who's not sick, he was upstairs in the living room sleeping.
He sees the door opened. He didn't see anything visible,
(19:37):
but when he tilts his eyes downward, he saw this
small creature. He got off from the bed. He turned
on the light. When he turned on the light, he
saw this creature with these small clothes, green outfits, a
small hat. He got a quick look at it one
or two seconds. Then this thing just zoomed away and ran.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I all shared a story with us. And these encounters
were years apart in the same house in Pueblac. Makes
me wonder whether the wind this wanted with them. Miguel
himself stayed at the house for months. He never saw
the wend This, but he made sure to leave them
offerings to keep them happy. He left them candy, but
anything like tobacco, small bottles of alcohol, food and candles
(20:21):
can be used. The nineteen nineties, in Yucatan, there was
an archaeology expedition that was supposed to happen near the Jungles.
Before any digging took place, the university in charge of
the project asked the Alusis for permission. They brought in
local spiritual leaders who performed a ritual as an offering
for the creatures, and the project went smoothly. In Bolivia,
(20:45):
there's a soda called Babaya s Aalvietti, and according to legend,
the owner of the soda fell on hard times and
then he ran into with Wendy the Wind. They told
him that if he put his image on the soda bottle,
he would have success. The owner did it, and for
decades it was the most popular drink in Bolivia. When
(21:07):
the owner passed away, the company changed logos and they
almost went bankrupt. A few years ago they put the
duende on the logo again and since then the company
has been okay. In the Philippines, the Wendays are believed
to be evil and to live in the trees. If
you have to go near them, you should say tabi
(21:28):
tabi po, excuse me please, as a sign of respect.
If you don't, they can and will curse you. The
very first story on my first show ever called Scary
Story Podcast, I tell the story of a time when
I came across a man, a potato farmer named Eddie,
who warned me about the little people because it was
(21:49):
getting dark and I was still having to find a
place to stay for the night. I thought it was joking,
but its expression was serious. He was concerned. It always
made me one if they were real, and from all
the encounters that people swear by, it's definitely possible. Book
at such creatures exist among us, living in our homes,
(22:10):
playing pranks, making our lives more difficult, or like some
of the stories you heard are they trying to get
rid of us. This episode of horror Story was researched
by madel Inguera, with script and pre production by Christina Lomagi,
(22:31):
with additional production by me Edwin Kovarubiez. A special thank
you to Miguel for sharing his accounts with us, and
thank you for supporting our shows. And if you want
to join us on Scary Plus to listen without ads,
check out the link in the description of this episode.
Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone,
see as soon
Nichole was born and raised in Indiana, but when she
met Chavier, she was in love. She would do anything
for him. They got married, had kids, and moved to
South Texas to his hometown. They built a house down
the road from his brother and sister. It was the
last one on the street. After that, the dirt road
went on for miles and miles. There was nothing but
(00:21):
trees around. One morning, she decided to take her boys
for a walk down the lonely dirt road. For the
first few minutes, it was nice. Her youngest pointed at
all the trees and flowers with excitement. Then she saw
something on the ground ahead of them. Chentha was carved
into the mud. She stared at it, trying to figure
(00:44):
out what it meant. She didn't know Spanish, only a
few words. She didn't recognize it. She was in deep
thoughts when her thirteen year old yelled for her. When
she got to him, he pointed to the right. Look
at the tiny people. There. They were five of them,
like her son said, each less than two feet tall.
(01:07):
They were all wearing white with white pointy hats on
their heads. There was one just a little taller than
the rest, and this one was wearing black. It walked
out of the grass, stood in front of the rest
and stared at Nicole. She was frozen, not in fear,
but for someone known reason. She was unable to move.
(01:28):
She tried to look at her kids, she couldn't turn
her head. She felt an overwhelming sense of fear, but
it wasn't her own. It just didn't make any sense.
And then the little creatures all got in a single
file line and began walking into the grass. She stared
until the last hat disappeared into the forest. The tallest
one in black turned around to look at her just
(01:52):
before it followed the rest, and then suddenly she could
move again, but both of her kids were in some
sort of trance. Shook them and pulled them by their hands,
and then they all ran down the dirt road until
they were finally back home. As soon as they were inside,
Nicole told her sister in law what they saw out there,
and her sister in law laughed she couldn't believe it.
(02:15):
Nicole told her to follow her outside so she could
see it too, and when they got there, there were
only trees and grass and tiny footprints in the mud.
They walked back to the house in silence until her
sister in law told her, I've seen these before back
in Mexico. We called them duendes. After this day, the
(02:38):
incidents around the house began. Their shoes would go missing,
the broom too. They would open the fridge and all
the food would fall out. They would find tiny footprints
on the kitchen floor, and the footprints always led to
the wall and then vanished. One night, Nicole woke up
to the sound of pitter patter, like something was running
(02:59):
around the hallway, so she got up, walked to the
door and took a peek. She saw small bare feet
and ran after them. It ran into her son's room
and then into his closet. By the time she got there,
only her son's things were inside. The hangars were still
swaying back and forth though, like something had just bumped
(03:21):
into them. And these incidents shook her up. But the
worst one was a family dog. The dog was a
part of the family for over five years until they
found him dead. There were small, bloody footprints right next
to the dog, and they led to the kitchen window
and then disappeared. The neighbors all said that the land
(03:41):
was cursed because it was located in the Palo Alto Battlefield,
but Nicole's sister in law thought it was something else.
Whenever Nicole told her about a new incident, she said
the same thing. It's the the Wind this and in
this episode, I'll be exploring a cryptid known all around
the world by different names, but I know it. That's
(04:04):
the Wind.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Day.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
My name is Edwin. And here's a horror story. Gnomes, elves, goblins,
little people when all these are different names for what
seems to be a similar creature. Tales of these beings
span across different cultures in different times, but in most legends,
(04:27):
they are less than two feet tall and love playing
tricks on people. Different indigenous tribes in North America have
passed on stories of a race they call little People.
They are said to live in the woods near Sandy
Hills and Rocks. They're described as hairy faced dwarfs that
play pranks. They love children and protect them from abusive parents.
(04:49):
They help kids that were lost in the woods by themselves.
There is a very old story from the Iroquois tribe
from before the little people and the indigenous were driven
away from their lands. Little morning Star lived with her
dad in a wigwam by the river. She was always
up before him with the sun, and her face was
(05:11):
always so bright. Every morning, when she woke up, she
would run down the river to where the Great Rocks lived.
That was the best spot for her fishing basket. Before
going to bed, she made sure to place the basket
in the narrow space between the rocks and the river,
and while morning Star and her father, Little Wolf slept,
fish would swim through and get stuck in the basket.
(05:34):
And then in the morning she would take the basket
full of fish back to the wigwam. She would try
to fry the fish over hot coals, and that was
breakfast for them. One morning, morning Star ran down the river,
thanking the Great Spirit for a new day. She ran
all the way to the Great Rocks, ready to pick
up her basket. That's when she saw a tribe of
(05:55):
little people gathered around it. They were about two feet tall.
Some of them were laughing and singing. Others were picking
up the fish and throwing them back into the river.
The rest were opening parts of her basket to let
the fish slip through. Morning Star knew that the little
people existed. The stories her family told referred to them
(06:16):
as the joga Oh. Everyone said that they were friends
of the fish. She begged them to not let all
the fish free, but the little chief told her fish
like little girls, liked to be alive, and he turned
around and told the rest of the Jogaoh to keep
on setting the fish free. So she ran to the basket,
(06:37):
and when she reached it, there were still a few
fish inside. She put her hand out to take more
back from the little people. They were gone. The fish
and the little people were nowhere to be seen. She
heard them laugh deep within the spaces between the rocks.
The fish that were supposed to be her and her
father's breakfast were leaping far down the river, probably happy
(07:01):
to be alive. She took her empty basket back to
the Wigwam. She made corn cakes for them to eat. Later,
she saw a fish in the water and thought of
the little people. Morning Star encountered the little people in
the Great Lakes around Michigan. But the Great Lakes span
(07:22):
across the Canada U s border, and stories like these
are found all over this group of waters. Among the
First nations, there are tales of little people called op Chiney.
It said that they splash at the edge of the
water and laugh in the darkness. Sometimes they climb on
the roofs of cabins and knock on the walls. Not
(07:42):
too far from where she saw the little people in
the rocks, to the west, in the prior mountains of
Montana and Wyoming, Lewis and Clark had their own encounter.
If you know a bit about US history, then you
know who they are. But just in case, they were
Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark. In eighteen o three,
d President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, a
(08:03):
special army unit that went from Missouri to Oregon. They
set off on May fourteenth, eighteen o four, and didn't
return until September twenty third, eighteen o six. Three months
into their expedition, they saw the little People. Lewis, Clark,
and ten other men were on the Vermilion River in
modern day South Dakota. The Lakota people that were with
(08:25):
the expedition had warned them of the beings because they
were approaching the Mountain of the Little People. They described
them as devils that carried sharp arrows which could strike
from long distances. They killed anyone who approached their mountain.
The Maha, Otto, Lakota and Dakota people avoided going near
the Spirit Mound. There was a story that was passed
(08:47):
down In it, a band of three hundred and fifty
warriors approached the mountain and almost all of them were
wiped out by the little people. The survivors were never
the same and made sure to warn others. Captain Lewis
wrote the following in his journal. This river is about
thirty yards wide and runs through a plain or prairie
(09:09):
in its whole course in a northerly direction. From the
mouth of this creek, in an immense plain, a high
hill is situated and appears of a conic form by
the different nations of Indians in this quarter. It is
supposed to be the residence of devils. They are in
human form, with remarkably large heads and about eighteen inches high.
(09:31):
They are very watchful and are armed with sharp arrows
with which they can kill at a great distance. They
are set to kill all persons who are so hearty
as to attempt to approach the hill. They state that
tradition informs them that many Indians have suffered by these
little people. Among others, three Omaha men fell a sacrifice
to their merciless fury not many years since. Although most
(09:58):
tribes talk about these beings, Fear the Crow, believe that
this mountain is sacred. They described the little people as
knee high between fourteen to eighteen inches tall, with giant heads,
short arms and legs, and little to no neck. They
are said to be extremely strong and have sharp canine
like teeth. They are known to rip out the hearts
(10:19):
of their enemies horses, and to have created stone arrowheads.
The crow left them yearly offerings to keep them happy,
because otherwise they are known to steal children, food, medicine,
and tobacco. If anyone try to play a trick on
the little people, they and their family would be destroyed.
(10:41):
If the Crow had to pass through the mountains, there
was one path they could use. They would need to
shoot arrows as an offering to the little people. This
pass is known as a prior gap now but used
to be called hits. With the arrows, beads, cloth, and
tobacco could be left for safe passage through the home
of the little people. One legendary crow chief named Plnicoup
(11:06):
had a good encounter with the little people when he
was eleven, He and other young men were challenged to
go into the hills to seek visions. He walked and
fasted for two days straight and still had no vision.
He returned a few days later, fasted more and took
sweat baths. Then he decided he needed to do something
more a sacrifice. He cut off the tip of his
(11:29):
left index finger as an offering to the spirit, and
then he had a vision. The chief of the little
people introduced Plentycoup to a buffalo man. The buffalo man
led him underground down to a tunnel in the prior mountains.
He and the buffalo man traveled for two days, and
then the man showed him a vision. In it, bison
(11:52):
kept coming out of a hole in the ground, but
kept disappearing. Plenicou saw himself as an old man near
the medicine rocks. The forest that was once there is gone.
Only a chickadee was there. The voice told him the
days of their people in their plains were ending, and
that the white men would swarm over the land like buffalo.
(12:14):
Only the chickadee remained because it is a good listener
and survived through its wits. Planicou went to the elders
for advice about what his vision meant. They told them
the buffalo would disappear and be replaced by white men's cattle.
The crow would survive if they'd developed their minds and
listening skills. The crow were guided by Planycoo's vision, and
(12:36):
they did survive. The Crow Reservation is not far from
where he encountered the Little People chief. It gave him
the vision. Stories of little people seem to be pretty mixed,
and some they are evil, in others they just played pranks,
and sometimes they are sacred. It's a common theme all
(12:56):
over the world. But here's where we get into the
eeriness of it all, and I'll tell you all about
them up next. In most of Latin America, they are
called dwendes. The word comes from dueno de la casa,
meaning owner of the house, and that's because dwendys are
set to live in the walls of every home. They
(13:17):
hide your things, play tricks on you, and annoy you.
Though sometimes they are set to scare children or cut
their finger nails of they're too long. Sometimes they take kids,
and they are set to be small, but with the
face of an old person. If you give them offerings
and they take care of your land. But if they
don't like you, it's much worse. The Marquess family moved
(13:41):
to a small farm in Tabasco, Mexico. They had gotten
the land for an amazing price, which was actually surprising.
It was pretty isolated. The next rancho was miles away.
It was just them and their animals. Not long after
moving in, they all noticed something very odd. Their chicks
kept on They would find them with their necks twisted,
(14:03):
where they would fall over unable to get up. They
didn't know what was causing this, so they started to
worry that it was brucheria, witchcraft or some sort of curse.
They went to a local shaman to see if he
could tell them what was going on with their animals.
The shamen performed a ritual and when he was done,
he went to the family. He told them that this
(14:24):
was not a curse, but it was the duin this.
Their newly purchased farm was on the land of the
duind this, and they wanted it back. He told them
that they would never have peace here, that they should leave.
The family didn't want to, but things got worse soon
They had no chicks, chickens, or any animals. They were
(14:45):
all dead. The family fled and to this day this
land Brancho el Uanal is abandoned and only the duind
this remain. There are other stories of different kinds of
the wind this like Glusis or Chanekis. They are said
to be protectors of nature and mostly keep to themselves.
(15:05):
The only scare or harm people when they need to.
Hose grew up in Yukatan and was always told that
the jungle was dangerous. That's where the Alushis lived and
humans should never disturb them. If they do, then they
should leave offerings for them. He still needed to go
into the jungles because part of his job was to
(15:27):
go on hunting expeditions. Since he was a boy, He
stayed in the truck while the men journeyed past the trees.
It was usually an hour or two at most. He
just locked the doors to the truck and would wait.
One night he did just that, just like always. The
hours passed and the men had not returned. He got
(15:49):
more nervous as the minutes passed, and then he heard
a sound. He turned to look out the windows, checking
every single one. He thought that the group was back,
but there was no one there. He heard it again.
It sounded like whispers in the language he didn't know.
He looked out the window again, no one. Then the
(16:12):
truck started to rock back and forth, and there was
another whisper and then a laugh that did not sound human.
Cosea grabbed a blanket that was in the truck and
hid under it. After some time, the rocking stopped and
the laugh turned into a distant whisper. Silence followed, but
he stayed under the blanket until the men returned. And
(16:34):
when they did come back, they were tired and empty handed.
This was not normal. They always found something during their hunt.
This time they left in a rush and forgot to
bring an offering. The Alushes were not happy that they
were hunting that night. From that day on, Cosel and
his family never forgot an offering. You never know what
(16:59):
of the wind they were, and there is no time
for an offering.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Sometimes this takes place in Puebla, Mexico, my mom's side
of the family. They all live there.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Like most of Mexico, there's a lot of stories of
ghosts and creatures in Pueblin.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
My aunt this was when she was a kid. She
woke up, went to the kitchen to get a snack,
and she turned on the candle. She's getting a snack
in the kitchen and in the front of the door
she sees this very small creature.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
This description sounds similar to others from all over the world.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It looked like a very old person, but with a
small body, and that small creature had a hat.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
For some reason, she wasn't scared. She didn't try to scream.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
When she's helped Wendy, Yeah, walks towards it, and that
creature walks outside of the backyard. She follows. It's night outside,
there's no one outside, and at some point they reach
a tree. They're standing next to a tree. This d wende,
instead of talking, communicated telepathically. It told her to climb
(18:04):
the tree. She doesn't know why she's climbing the tree,
but she's climbing the tree. And when she gets to
not the very top, but in the mid level, there
started to be more dwendas. They started to come out
of the shadows. They formed a circle around the tree.
She doesn't know what to do. Then all these dundas
started to pick up rocks, and then they threw these
(18:26):
rocks at her. She fell down she was screaming. My uncle,
my theo. He was walking by from the distance, he
heard the commotion. My uncle once towards the tree just
to see what was going on, and my uncle sees
my aunt on the ground crying. He didn't see the
(18:47):
dwindas or the gnomes. He heard voices of these small children,
but it's dark outside. My uncle he has a machete
next to him, and he takes out the machete and
tries to scare away these creatures's things, these voices, And
when he does, that's when my uncle sees my aunt crying.
And they walked back home to the house. One night,
(19:15):
my uncle, who was sick, he was in his room.
He started to feel like there were people inside of
the room. He didn't see anything visibly, but he could
feel it. The next day, my other uncle, the one
who's not sick, he was upstairs in the living room sleeping.
He sees the door opened. He didn't see anything visible,
(19:37):
but when he tilts his eyes downward, he saw this
small creature. He got off from the bed. He turned
on the light. When he turned on the light, he
saw this creature with these small clothes, green outfits, a
small hat. He got a quick look at it one
or two seconds. Then this thing just zoomed away and ran.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I all shared a story with us. And these encounters
were years apart in the same house in Pueblac. Makes
me wonder whether the wind this wanted with them. Miguel
himself stayed at the house for months. He never saw
the wend This, but he made sure to leave them
offerings to keep them happy. He left them candy, but
anything like tobacco, small bottles of alcohol, food and candles
(20:21):
can be used. The nineteen nineties, in Yucatan, there was
an archaeology expedition that was supposed to happen near the Jungles.
Before any digging took place, the university in charge of
the project asked the Alusis for permission. They brought in
local spiritual leaders who performed a ritual as an offering
for the creatures, and the project went smoothly. In Bolivia,
(20:45):
there's a soda called Babaya s Aalvietti, and according to legend,
the owner of the soda fell on hard times and
then he ran into with Wendy the Wind. They told
him that if he put his image on the soda bottle,
he would have success. The owner did it, and for
decades it was the most popular drink in Bolivia. When
(21:07):
the owner passed away, the company changed logos and they
almost went bankrupt. A few years ago they put the
duende on the logo again and since then the company
has been okay. In the Philippines, the Wendays are believed
to be evil and to live in the trees. If
you have to go near them, you should say tabi
(21:28):
tabi po, excuse me please, as a sign of respect.
If you don't, they can and will curse you. The
very first story on my first show ever called Scary
Story Podcast, I tell the story of a time when
I came across a man, a potato farmer named Eddie,
who warned me about the little people because it was
(21:49):
getting dark and I was still having to find a
place to stay for the night. I thought it was joking,
but its expression was serious. He was concerned. It always
made me one if they were real, and from all
the encounters that people swear by, it's definitely possible. Book
at such creatures exist among us, living in our homes,
(22:10):
playing pranks, making our lives more difficult, or like some
of the stories you heard are they trying to get
rid of us. This episode of horror Story was researched
by madel Inguera, with script and pre production by Christina Lomagi,
(22:31):
with additional production by me Edwin Kovarubiez. A special thank
you to Miguel for sharing his accounts with us, and
thank you for supporting our shows. And if you want
to join us on Scary Plus to listen without ads,
check out the link in the description of this episode.
Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone,
see as soon
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