The Garglers at the Gates of Dawn

Early Risers

According to medieval English folklore, planting lavender around your home will help keep evil spirits away. But judging from the experience of Valensole farmer Maurice Masse, it probably won't deter UFO entities. Indeed, it may even attract them.

Masse's close encounter occurred at 5:45 am on July 1st, 1965. He had already been working in the fields for an hour, and was smoking a cigarette in the shelter of a pile of rocks when he heard a shrill whistling sound.

Looking round, he found that a small egg-shaped craft had appeared in his lavender crop. It stood on six thin legs "like an enormous spider" and was topped by a transparent cupola containing two seats, back to back.

Beside the craft, two child-sized figures in grey overalls were bending down to pick the lavender. Masse dropped his cigarette and furtively crept towards them. He had recently found his plants inexplicably damaged on several occasions, and now it seemed he had a chance to catch the vandals in the act.

He was within fifteen feet of them when one of the figures spun around and aimed a small metal tube at him, instantly paralysing him.

The Lavender Lovers

Unable to move, the Masse could only stare in astonishment at the unearthly intruders. They were 4-ft-tall humanoids with bald oversized heads and large almond-shaped eyes. They wore green one-piece jumpsuits and had smooth chalk-white skin.

The entities regarded the farmer with "friendly curiosity" and appeared to be discussing him between themselves. They communicated by making inhuman gargling sounds, which originated from their throats rather than their tiny lipless mouths.

"They were looking at me and must have been making fun of me," Masse said. "Nevertheless, their facial expressions were not ill-natured but very much the reverse."

The entities turned and moon-walked back to their craft, "falling and rising in space like bubbles in a bottle without apparent support". The landing gear retracted and the machine rose slowly into the air with an ear-piercing whistle. At a height of sixty feet, it simply vanished.

"One moment the thing was there, and the next moment, it was not," Masse declared.

Aftershock

Standing alone in the field, Masse was horrified to find himself still immobilised. It took twenty minutes for the paralysis to wear off sufficiently for him to stumble home.

He felt utterly drained of strength. For months afterwards, he needed twice his usual amount of sleep. The patch of land where the craft had landed was soaked with moisture, and no crop would grow there for ten years afterwards.

Despite the unpleasant side-effects, Masse told Ufologist Jacques Vallee that he felt sure the entities were benevolent and meant him no harm.

A Mystery Within A Mystery

Masse hinted that during his encounter he had learnt - or been told - a mysterious and profound truth. However, he flatly refused to share it with investigators.

"I have not told anybody, not even my wife," he declared. "And nobody will make me tell of it".

Sources

Ralph & Judy Blum: Beyond Earth: Man's Contact With UFOs, pp179-181.
Lynn Picknett: The Mammoth Book of UFOs, pp83-84.
Jacques Vallee: Dimensions, pp26-27.
Orbis Publishing: The Paranormal Files, pp164-168.
Alan Baker: True Life Encounters: UFO Sightings, pp82-84.
John Spencer: UFOs: The Definitive Casebook, p89.
Peter Brookesmith: UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue, p83.