The Little People That Come Out at Night

[00:00:00] Nicole was born and raised in Indiana, but when she met Javier, 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 trees around.

[00:00:23] 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.

[00:00:39] Chenta was carved into the mud. She stared at it, trying to figure out what it meant. She didn't know Spanish, only a few words. She didn't recognize it.

[00:00:49] She was in deep thought when her 13-year-old yelled for her. When she got to him, he pointed to the right.

[00:00:56] Look at the tiny people. There they were. Five of them, like her son said. Each less than two feet tall. They were all wearing white, with white pointy hats on their hands.

[00:01:11] There was one just a little taller than the rest, and this one was wearing black.

[00:01:17] They walked out of the grass, stood in front of the rest, and stared at Nicole. She was frozen. Not in fear, but for some unknown reason, she was unable to move.

[00:01:28] 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.

[00:01:38] She was in the grass. She was in the grass. She stared until the last hat disappeared into the forest.

[00:01:47] The tallest one, in black, turned around to look at her, just before it followed the rest.

[00:01:54] And then suddenly, she could move again. But both of her kids were in some sort of trance.

[00:01:59] So she shook them and pulled them by their hands, and then they all ran down the dirt road until they were finally back home.

[00:02:06] 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.

[00:02:14] 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.

[00:02:25] They walked back to the house in silence until her sister-in-law told her,

[00:02:30] I've seen these before. Back in Mexico.

[00:02:34] They call them duendes.

[00:02:37] After this day, the incidents around the house began. Their shoes would go missing. The broom, too.

[00:02:43] They would open the fridge and all the food would fall out.

[00:02:47] They would find tiny footprints on the kitchen floor. And the footprints always led to the wall and then vanished.

[00:02:55] One night, Nicole woke up to the sound of pitter-patter, like something was running around the hallway.

[00:03:01] So she got up, walked to the door and took a peek.

[00:03:04] She saw small bare feet and ran after them.

[00:03:08] He ran into her son's room.

[00:03:10] And then, into his closet.

[00:03:14] By the time she got there, only her son's things were inside.

[00:03:17] The hangers were still swaying back and forth though, like something had just bumped into them.

[00:03:22] And these incidents shook her up.

[00:03:24] But the worst one was a family dog.

[00:03:27] The dog was a part of the family for over five years, until they found him dead.

[00:03:32] There were small bloody footprints right next to the dog.

[00:03:35] And they led to the kitchen window.

[00:03:37] And then disappeared.

[00:03:40] The neighbors all said that the land was cursed because it was located in the Palo Alto battlefield.

[00:03:45] But Nicole's sister-in-law thought it was something else.

[00:03:48] Whenever Nicole told her about a new incident, she said the same thing.

[00:03:53] It's the Duendes.

[00:03:56] And in this episode, I'll be exploring a cryptid known all around the world by different names.

[00:04:02] But I know it.

[00:04:03] That's a Duende.

[00:04:06] My name is Edwin.

[00:04:08] And here's a horror story.

[00:04:15] Gnomes, elves, goblins, little people, duendes.

[00:04:19] All these are different names for what seems to be a similar creature.

[00:04:22] Tales of these beings span across different cultures in different times.

[00:04:26] But in most legends, they are less than two feet tall and love playing tricks on people.

[00:04:32] Different indigenous tribes in North America have passed on stories of a race they call little people.

[00:04:37] They are said to live in the woods, near sandy hills and rocks.

[00:04:41] They're described as hairy-faced dwarves that play pranks.

[00:04:45] They love children and protect them from abusive parents.

[00:04:49] They help kids that were lost in the woods by themselves.

[00:04:54] There is a very old story from the Iroquois tribe,

[00:04:57] from before the little people and the indigenous were driven away from their lands.

[00:05:03] Little Morningstar lived with her dad in the wigwam by the river.

[00:05:07] She was always up before him with the sun and her face was always so bright.

[00:05:12] Every morning when she woke up, she would run down the river to where the Great Rocks lived.

[00:05:18] That was the best spot for her fishing basket.

[00:05:21] Before going to bed, she made sure to place the basket in the narrow space between the rocks and the river.

[00:05:27] And while Morningstar and her father, Little Wolf, slept, fish would swim through and get stuck in the basket.

[00:05:33] And then, in the morning, she would take the basket full of fish back to the wigwam.

[00:05:39] She would try to fry the fish over hot coals and that was breakfast for them.

[00:05:44] One morning, Morningstar ran down the river, thanking the Great Spirit for a new day.

[00:05:49] She ran all the way to the Great Rocks, ready to pick up her basket.

[00:05:54] That's when she saw a tribe of little people gathered around it.

[00:05:57] They were about two feet tall.

[00:05:59] Some of them were laughing and singing.

[00:06:02] Others were picking up the fish and throwing them back into the river.

[00:06:06] The rest were opening parts of her basket to let the fish slip through.

[00:06:11] Morningstar knew that the little people existed.

[00:06:14] The stories her family told referred to them as the Jogao.

[00:06:18] Everyone said that they were friends of the fish.

[00:06:21] She begged them to not let all the fish free.

[00:06:24] But the little chief told her,

[00:06:26] Fish, like little girls, like to be alive.

[00:06:30] And he turned around and told the rest of the Jogao to keep on setting the fish free.

[00:06:35] So she ran to the basket and when she reached it, there were still a few fish inside.

[00:06:40] She put her hand out to take more back from the little people.

[00:06:44] They were gone.

[00:06:47] The fish and the little people were nowhere to be seen.

[00:06:51] She heard them laugh, deep within the spaces between the rocks.

[00:06:54] The fish that were supposed to be her and her father's breakfast were leaping far down the river,

[00:07:00] probably happy to be alive.

[00:07:03] She took her empty basket back to the wigwam.

[00:07:05] She made corn cakes for them to eat.

[00:07:09] Later, she saw fish in the water and thought of the little people.

[00:07:16] Morningstar encountered the little people in the Great Lakes around Michigan.

[00:07:20] But the Great Lakes span across the Canada-US border and stories like these are found all over this group of waters.

[00:07:28] Among the First Nations, there are tales of little people called opcini.

[00:07:33] It's said that they splash at the edge of the water and laugh in the darkness.

[00:07:37] Sometimes they climb on the roofs of cabins and knock on the walls.

[00:07:42] Not too far from where she saw the little people in the rocks, to the west, in the prior mountains of Montana and Wyoming,

[00:07:48] Lewis and Clark had their own encounter.

[00:07:51] If you know a bit about U.S. history, then you know who they are.

[00:07:54] But just in case, they were Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark.

[00:07:58] In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, a special army unit that went from Missouri to Oregon.

[00:08:06] They set off on May 14, 1804 and didn't return until September 23, 1806.

[00:08:13] Three months into their expedition, they saw the little people.

[00:08:17] Lewis, Clark and ten other men were on the Vermilion River in modern-day South Dakota.

[00:08:23] The Lakota people that were with the expedition had warned them of the beings because they were approaching the mountain of the little people.

[00:08:30] They described them as devils that carried sharp arrows which could strike from long distances.

[00:08:35] They killed anyone who approached their mountain.

[00:08:38] The Maha, Oto, Lakota and Dakota people avoided going near the Spirit Mound.

[00:08:45] There was a story that was passed down.

[00:08:47] In it, a band of 350 warriors approached the mountain and almost all of them were wiped out by the little people.

[00:08:55] The survivors were never the same and made sure to warn others.

[00:09:00] Captain Lewis wrote the following in his journal.

[00:09:05] This river is about 30 yards wide and runs through a plain or prairie in its whole course.

[00:09:10] 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.

[00:09:20] By the different nations of Indians in this quarter, it is supposed to be the residents of devils.

[00:09:26] They are in human form with remarkably large heads and about 18 inches high.

[00:09:31] They are very watchful and are armed with sharp arrows with which they can kill at a great distance.

[00:09:37] They are said to kill all persons who are so hardy as to attempt to approach the hill.

[00:09:43] They state that tradition informs them that many Indians have suffered by these little people.

[00:09:47] Among others, three Omaha men fell a sacrifice to their merciless fury not many years since.

[00:09:57] Although most tribes talk about these beings with fear, the Crow believe that this mountain is sacred.

[00:10:03] They describe the little people as knee-high, between 14 to 18 inches tall, with giant heads, short arms and legs, and little to no neck.

[00:10:12] They are said to be extremely strong and have sharp, canine-like teeth.

[00:10:17] They are known to rip out the hearts of their enemies' horses and to have created stone arrowheads.

[00:10:22] The Crow left them yearly offerings to keep them happy, because otherwise they are known to steal children, food, medicine, and tobacco.

[00:10:31] If anyone tried to play a trick on the little people, they, and their family, would be destroyed.

[00:10:40] If the Crow had to pass through the mountains, there was one path they could use.

[00:10:45] They would need to shoot arrows as an offering to the little people.

[00:10:49] This path is known as a prior gap now, but used to be called hits with the arrows.

[00:10:56] Beads, cloth, and tobacco could be left for safe passage through the home of the little people.

[00:11:02] One legendary Crow chief named Pleniku had a good encounter with the little people.

[00:11:08] When he was 11, he and other young men were challenged to go into the hills to seek visions.

[00:11:13] He walked and fasted for two days straight, and still had no vision.

[00:11:19] He returned a few days later, fasted more, and took sweat baths.

[00:11:23] Then he decided he needed to do something more, a sacrifice.

[00:11:28] He cut off the tip of his left index finger as an offering to the spirit.

[00:11:32] And then, he had a vision.

[00:11:35] The chief of the little people introduced Pleniku to a buffalo man.

[00:11:39] The buffalo man led him underground, down to a tunnel in the prior mountains.

[00:11:45] He and the buffalo man traveled for two days, and then the man showed him a vision.

[00:11:50] In it, bison kept coming out of a hole in the ground, but kept disappearing.

[00:11:56] Pleniku saw himself as an old man, near the medicine rocks.

[00:12:00] The forest that was once there, was gone.

[00:12:03] Only a chickadee was there.

[00:12:05] The voice told him the days of their people in the plains were ending,

[00:12:09] and that the white men would swarm over the land like buffalo.

[00:12:13] Only the chickadee remained, because it is a good listener and survived through its wits.

[00:12:19] Pleniku went to the elders for advice about what his vision meant.

[00:12:24] They told him the buffalo would disappear and be replaced by white men's cattle.

[00:12:28] The crow would survive if they developed their minds and listening skills.

[00:12:33] The crow were guided by Pleniku's vision, and they did survive.

[00:12:37] The crow reservation is not far from where he encountered the little people chief that gave him the vision.

[00:12:46] Stories of little people seem to be pretty mixed.

[00:12:49] In some, they are evil.

[00:12:50] In others, they just play pranks, and sometimes they're sacred.

[00:12:54] It's a common theme all over the world.

[00:12:57] But here's where we get into the eeriness of it all.

[00:12:59] And I'll tell you all about them up next.

[00:13:06] In most of Latin America, they're called duendes.

[00:13:09] The word comes from dueño de la casa, meaning owner of the house.

[00:13:13] And that's because duendes are said to live in the walls of every home.

[00:13:17] They hide your things, play tricks on you, and annoy you.

[00:13:20] Though sometimes they are said to scare children or cut their fingernails if they're too long.

[00:13:25] Sometimes they take kids, and they are said to be small, but with the face of an old person.

[00:13:31] If you give them offerings, then they take care of your land.

[00:13:34] But if they don't like you, it's much worse.

[00:13:39] The Marquez family moved to a small farm in Tabasco, Mexico.

[00:13:43] They had gotten the land for an amazing price, which was actually surprising.

[00:13:47] It was pretty isolated.

[00:13:49] The next rancho was miles away.

[00:13:52] It was just them and their animals.

[00:13:54] Not long after moving in, they all noticed something very odd.

[00:13:58] Their chicks kept dying.

[00:14:00] They would find them with their necks twisted, or they would fall over, unable to get up.

[00:14:05] They didn't know what was causing this, so they started to worry that it was brujería,

[00:14:10] witchcraft, or some sort of curse.

[00:14:13] They went to a local shaman to see if he could tell them what was going on with their animals.

[00:14:18] The shaman performed a ritual, and when he was done, he went to the family.

[00:14:22] He told them that this was not a curse, but it was the duendes.

[00:14:27] Their newly purchased farm was on the land of the duendes, and they wanted it back.

[00:14:32] He told them that they would never have peace here, and that they should leave.

[00:14:37] The family didn't want to, but things got worse.

[00:14:40] Soon they had no chicks, chickens, or any animals.

[00:14:44] They were all dead.

[00:14:46] The family fled, and to this day, this land, Rancho El Guanal, is abandoned.

[00:14:52] And only the duendes remained.

[00:14:55] There are other stories of different kinds of duendes, like galuches or chaneques.

[00:15:01] They are said to be protectors of nature and mostly keep to themselves.

[00:15:05] They only scare or harm people when they need to.

[00:15:12] Jose grew up in Yucatan and was always told that the jungle was dangerous.

[00:15:16] That's where the aluches lived, and humans should never disturb them.

[00:15:20] If they do, then they should leave offerings for them.

[00:15:24] He still needed to go into the jungles because part of his job was to go on hunting expeditions.

[00:15:29] Since he was a boy, he stayed in the truck while the men journeyed past the trees.

[00:15:33] It was usually an hour or two at most.

[00:15:36] He just locked the doors to the truck and would wait.

[00:15:40] One night, he did just that.

[00:15:42] Just like always.

[00:15:44] The hours passed and the men had not returned.

[00:15:48] He got more nervous as the minutes passed.

[00:15:51] Then he heard a sound.

[00:15:52] He turned to look out the windows, checking every single one.

[00:15:56] He thought that the group was back.

[00:16:00] There was no one there.

[00:16:02] He heard it again.

[00:16:04] It sounded like whispers in a language he didn't know.

[00:16:07] He looked out the window again.

[00:16:09] No one.

[00:16:12] Then the truck started to rock back and forth, and there was another whisper.

[00:16:15] And then a laugh that did not sound human.

[00:16:20] Jose grabbed the blanket that was in the truck and hid under it.

[00:16:23] After some time, the rocking stopped and the laugh turned into a distant whisper.

[00:16:29] Silence followed.

[00:16:30] But he stayed under the blanket until the men returned.

[00:16:33] And when they did come back, they were tired and empty handed.

[00:16:38] This was not normal.

[00:16:40] They always found something during their hunt.

[00:16:42] This time, they left in a rush and forgot to bring an offering.

[00:16:46] The Aluces were not happy that they were hunting that night.

[00:16:50] From that day on, Jose and his family never forgot an offering.

[00:16:58] You never know what a duende wants, and there is no time for an offering sometimes.

[00:17:03] This takes place in Puebla, Mexico.

[00:17:05] My mom's side of the family.

[00:17:07] They all live there.

[00:17:09] Like most of Mexico, there's a lot of stories of ghosts and creatures in Puebla.

[00:17:13] My aunt, this was when she was a kid.

[00:17:16] She woke up, went to the kitchen to get a snack, and she turned on the candle.

[00:17:21] She's getting a snack in the kitchen, and in the front of the door, she sees this very small creature.

[00:17:28] This description sounds similar to others from all over the world.

[00:17:31] It looked like a very old person, but with a small body.

[00:17:36] And that small creature had a hat.

[00:17:39] For some reason, she wasn't scared.

[00:17:41] She didn't try to scream when she saw the duende.

[00:17:43] She walks towards it, and that creature walks outside of the backyard.

[00:17:48] She follows. It's night outside.

[00:17:50] There's no one outside.

[00:17:53] And at some point, they reach a tree.

[00:17:56] They're standing next to a tree.

[00:17:57] This duende, instead of talking, it communicated telepathically.

[00:18:02] It told her to climb the tree.

[00:18:05] She doesn't know why she's climbing the tree, but she's climbing the tree.

[00:18:08] When she gets to, not the very top, but in the mid-level, there started to be more duendes.

[00:18:13] They started to come out of the shadows.

[00:18:15] They formed a circle around the tree.

[00:18:19] She doesn't know what to do.

[00:18:21] Then all these duendes started to pick up rocks.

[00:18:25] And then they threw these rocks at her.

[00:18:26] She fell down.

[00:18:29] She was screaming.

[00:18:30] My uncle, my tío, he was walking by in the distance.

[00:18:34] He heard the commotion.

[00:18:36] My uncle went towards the tree just to see what was going on.

[00:18:41] And my uncle sees my aunt on the ground crying.

[00:18:46] He didn't see the duendes or the gnomes.

[00:18:48] He heard voices of these small children.

[00:18:50] It's dark outside.

[00:18:52] My uncle, he has a machete next to him.

[00:18:55] And he takes out the machete and tries to scare away these creatures, these things, these voices.

[00:19:01] And when he does, that's when my uncle sees my aunt crying and they walk back home to the house.

[00:19:13] One night, my uncle who was sick, he was in his room.

[00:19:18] He started to feel like there were people inside of the room.

[00:19:23] He didn't see anything visibly, but he could feel it.

[00:19:26] Next day, my other uncle, the one who's not sick, he was upstairs in the living room, sleeping.

[00:19:33] He sees the door open.

[00:19:35] He didn't see anything visible, but when he tilt his eyes downward, he saw this small creature.

[00:19:41] He got up from the bed and turned on the light.

[00:19:44] When he turned on the light, he saw this creature with these small clothes, green outfits, a small hat.

[00:19:51] He got a quick look at it, one or two seconds.

[00:19:54] Then this thing just zoomed away and ran.

[00:19:59] Miguel shared his story with us.

[00:20:01] And these encounters were years apart in the same house in Puebla.

[00:20:05] It makes me wonder what the duendes wanted with them.

[00:20:08] Miguel himself stayed at the house for months.

[00:20:11] He never saw the duendes, but he made sure to leave them offerings to keep them happy.

[00:20:15] He left them candy, but anything like tobacco, small bottles of alcohol, food, and candles can be used.

[00:20:24] In the 1990s, in Yucatan, there was an archaeology expedition that was supposed to happen near the jungles.

[00:20:30] Before any digging took place, the university in charge of the project asked the Aluces for permission.

[00:20:36] It brought in local spiritual leaders who performed a ritual as an offering for the creatures.

[00:20:41] The project went smoothly.

[00:20:44] In Bolivia, there's a soda called Papaya Salvietti.

[00:20:48] And according to legend, the owner of the soda fell on hard times.

[00:20:54] And then he ran into a duende.

[00:20:56] The duende told him that if he put his image on the soda bottle, he would have success.

[00:21:01] The owner did it, and for decades, it was the most popular drink in Bolivia.

[00:21:07] When the owner passed away, the company changed logos and they almost went bankrupt.

[00:21:12] A few years ago, they put the duende on the logo again.

[00:21:15] And since then, the company has been okay.

[00:21:20] In the Philippines, duendes are believed to be evil and to live in the trees.

[00:21:25] If you have to go near them, you should say,

[00:21:27] Tabi Tabipo.

[00:21:29] Excuse me, please, as a sign of respect.

[00:21:31] If you don't, they can and will curse you.

[00:21:37] The very first story on my first show ever called Scary Story Podcast.

[00:21:41] I tell the story of a time when I came across a man, a potato farmer named Eddie,

[00:21:46] who warned me about the little people because it was getting dark

[00:21:49] and I was still having to find a place to stay for the night.

[00:21:52] I thought he was joking, but his expression was serious.

[00:21:56] He was concerned.

[00:21:58] It always made me wonder if they were real.

[00:22:01] And from all the encounters that people swear by, it's definitely possible.

[00:22:06] But could such creatures exist among us?

[00:22:08] Living in our homes?

[00:22:10] Playing pranks?

[00:22:12] Making our lives more difficult?

[00:22:14] Or, like some of the stories you heard,

[00:22:18] are they trying to get rid of us?

[00:22:25] This episode of Horror Story was researched by Madeline Guerra,

[00:22:29] with script and pre-production by Cristina Lomagui,

[00:22:31] with additional production by me, Edwin Covarrubias.

[00:22:34] A special thank you to Miguel for sharing his accounts with us.

[00:22:38] And thank you for supporting our shows.

[00:22:40] And if you want to join us on Scary Plus to listen without ads,

[00:22:43] check out the link in the description of this episode.

[00:22:46] Thank you very much for listening.

[00:22:48] Keep it scary, everyone.

[00:22:50] See you soon.