Do Gnomes Really Exist?
Numerous Native American tribes in the western United States and Canada tell stories of little men who go to specific lakes and rivers to fetch water. The Irish have always spoken of little men in tight, green or brown clothing, who frequent lakes and rivers near certain places. Beyond beliefs about gnomes, elves, and fairies, there is an impressive number of books and collections of documents that report on the multiple sightings of these tiny and elusive beings who, according to legend, would live underground. Could these be a "Second Race" of humans who, in ancient times, while we developed and progressed on the surface, retreated into the isolation of natural underground cavities, later becoming the subject of myths and legends through their appearances? History reminds us that some prehistoric individuals of small stature inhabited Europe before the arrival of the Celts from the north.
They were a Mongoloid race devoted to flintworking and flourished during the polished stone age. These peoples, the Turanids, Picts, and Mediterraneans, were destroyed or enslaved by the Celts at the beginning of the Bronze Age. The same fate then befell the Celts at the hands of the Teutonic tribes. Since then, stories have circulated that not all the little creatures had been exterminated. Some had hidden in caves from which they would only emerge at night to steal provisions and retaliate against their tormentors, seizing their small animals and even their children in their sleep. Are these just tales, or can we accept the idea that the extermination of these "little people" by the Celts was not total? One of the most fascinating discoveries about the little beings occurred in 1932 in the state of Wyoming, USA.
While two gold prospectors were working in a ravine at the base of the Pedro Mountains, believing they had located a gold vein on one of the walls, they detonated it with dynamite. They soon realized they had uncovered a cave that was 1.2 meters high and 4.5 meters deep. Peering inside, the two prospectors were astonished to see on a ledge, a tiny mummified figure of a seated man, with his arms and legs crossed. The mummy was dark bronze in color, very wrinkled, and no taller (estimated while alive) than 35 cm. Scientists who examined it were incredulous; through X-ray analysis, they determined that the creature weighed about 5.5 kg in life, was male, had a complete set of teeth, and was about 65 years old at the time of death. The mummy weighed only 350 grams, had a very low forehead, a flattened nose with wide, dilated nostrils, and a very wide mouth with thin lips. Official science added that "the small corpse belonged to an extremely remote era, and its stature, type, and origin were completely unknown to us." Indeed, the mummy was much smaller than any human type known to date. Some locals suggested to the scholars that the man was merely a member of a race of small beings that once populated the region.
Overcoming initial skepticism, further research began, and ancient documents were consulted. The Arapaho and Shoshone Indians in their legends assert that when they arrived in those places, they found small beings living in hidden canyons and that they fought against them. On the walls of Dinwoody Canyon, petroglyphs (engraved drawings) have been found that do not belong to the Indian tradition and apparently have no justification. So thousands and thousands of years ago, and perhaps even in more recent epochs, not only giants existed on Earth but also pygmies, not belonging to the species we already know. Did they inhabit the entire planet? Do they exist today? These are questions that still have no answer. In addition to the mummy, the discovery cave itself was subjected to thorough investigations, but scientists found neither evidence of human residence, nor crafted tools, graffiti, or any other trace of writing, nothing except the small rock ledge on which the little creature had sat for millennia. Only one other mummified gnome came to our knowledge from the United States, around 1925. It is another small creature, with red hair, also found on a rock ledge inside Mammoth Cave, in the state of Kentucky.
In this case, the little man was 99 cm tall when alive, and upon investigation by scientists, was found to have died no more than six or seven centuries earlier. How the two "little men" came to be in their tombs remains a mystery. Just as mysterious is the mummy found in 1921 by the Englishman Mike Mitchell-Edges on the island of San Blas off Panama.
The tiny mummy was jealously guarded by the indigenous Chucumaque as a fetish to which they attributed supernatural powers. Science stated that the small macrocephalic corpse was that of a fetus removed from the mother's womb at 5 or 6 months of pregnancy. Its state of preservation is excellent, with the skin still intact. This fetus presents a cranial shape completely unknown and has not undergone any fumigation treatment, with alcohol, or sun drying. The preservation of this embryo demonstrates a high level of scientific knowledge starkly contrasting with the living conditions of the primitive Chucumaque. Some researchers have hypothesized that in all three cases mentioned, the creatures could be from other worlds. At the moment, the only certainty is that they belong neither to the Homo sapiens species nor to any other known human forms.
