Fernand Lagarde was a ufologist for 20 years, and a collaborator of the "Lumières Dans La Nuit" (LDLN) ufology magazine, when he edited this summary in the collaborative book he published with LDLN:
This text was entirely reproduced in "Premières Enquêtes sur les Humanoïdes Extraterrestres", book by Henry Durrant (pseudonym of Didier Serre), with the proper credit ans source reference, on pp 35-41, Robert Laffont publisher, France, 1977.
127
With this story we will get in touch with the relationship of a testimony describing the presence of small beings and a craft. We chose it rather than another because we have under our eyes three successive investigations by three groups of different investigators. This is for the reader an additional insurance on the reality of the investigation and the veracity of the story.
Paris-Jour back then and Radio Luxembourg had reported the observation of two young children who were guarding the flock of family cows in a meadow, in Cussac. This information triggered the series of investigations whose known protagonists are:
128
Cussac is a small village of the Cantal in the Massif Central administratively dependent of Saint-Flour, located at 19 km. It has 282 inhabitants, 72 homes, the dictionary of communes tells us.
It is located 1045 meters above sea level, on a somewhat marshy plateau where the Ternes creek starts; which joins in the East the Truyère after passing the town of Alleuze.
The site reminds an "Alesian" site, such as described by Mr. Xavier Guichard in in Eleusis-Alesia (1), by the presence of the close villages that bear the names of Alleuzet and Alleuze, of the river of the Ternes, of a village, the Salesse, suggesting the presence of a salt spring. In the vicinity there are many menhirs and dolmens.
We are in August 22, 1967, the day is sunny with very few clouds, a gentle west wind, at 10 hours 30 the temperature is approximately 15° [C].
In the farm of Mr. [X] in Cussac, François, 13 and a half years old, his sister Anne-Marie, 9 years old (in school holidays), accompanied by their dog Médor, went from 8 a.m. on to lead ten cows in the pasture at a place called "Les Tuiles", approximately 800 meters west of Cussac, along the road D.57 linking Les Ternes to Pont-Farin.
They lead the cows, but also survey them, and in the morning play cards to pass the time. The road, on the edge, is not deserted at this time of the year, at 10:30 twenty cars had passed by, at 10 am it was a relative's car that they had hailed when it passed by.
At one time, the cows they were missioned to keep were about to cross a wall separating a nearby pasture, where there were about thirty cows belonging to a neighbor. François, sitting on the meadow, then stands up to call his dog,
129
so he diverts the beasts of their goal. In doing so, he sees on the other side of the D. 57, behind a fence of dry stone, lined with shrubs and some bushes, about 60 meters away, what it thinks were four children that he could not recognize. Intrigued, he alerts his sister Anne-Marie, who was a little behind, and already happy about a possible diversion, advances in the meadow toward them and shouts: "Would you play with us?"
The unknowns, who were had apparently been unaware of the presence of two children sitting quietly in their meadow, had not moved. Behind them, half hidden by the fence, François and Anne-Marie distinguish a shining apparatus from 2 meters to 2.50 in diameter, painful to watch because of its bright light, a silver metallic color. They will say later that they did not see any opening on it.
Two of the unknowns were standing to the left of the apparatus relative to the two witnesses, and standing showing their profile they seemed to look at each other. The third showed his back, he was in the middle, kneeling and appearing to "scrape" the ground. The fourth, standing on the right, was looked in their direction. He was holding what they called a mirror; which was a rectangular object that might have measured 20x30 cm appearing to have two sides. Its brilliance blinded the children, and it seemed to them than behind it, it cast a bright light that came to the right side of the craft.
Although the size of the unknowns was between 1 m and 1.20 m, the two witnesses realize that they were not dealing with children like them, but to what they called "little black men".
They were of long and slender proportion. Their elongated head (pointed skull, said one investigator), the pointed nose, the pronounced chin (pointy, said one investigator), the arms longer in proportion than those of a man, the legs were thin and short. A bulge near the ears gave them like a "puffy beard."
"Hairs" and a black "beard" appeared to cover the neck and chin. Their bodies seemed covered in a black outfit, tight fitting, much like that of a diver or better, "like that of a mechanic", said François (of a brilliant aspect he also said).
They did not seem to have the same size, those on the left appearing smaller (1 meter) than the one on the right (1.20 m). The hands have not been described. Do not forget that our witnesses were 60 meters away.
Receiving no response to his question, and intrigued by
130
what he saw, François then climbs on the low wall that borders the field, along the road D 57, to better observe the unknowns, and from that moment on, things are happening very fast.
Seeming to take suddenly notice of this close presence, the unknowns regain their craft. First the two of the left, then the one who was kneeling, and finally the being who had the mirror.
But their boarding of the machine (no visible opening) is neither classical nor normal. They propel themselves by climbing vertically, arms close to the body, and penetrate through the top, face first, plunging into the upper part of the sphere where they disappear, after following in the air a 180° turn. The fourth, who began its ascent, seems to have forgotten something on the ground, he goes back to the ground, then up to catch the ball; which had taken off in a spiral, being already higher than the surrounding trees (6 to 10 meters high).
It was during this climb that new details were noticed.
When the second being (or one of them, we do not exactly know when reading the reports, whether it is the 2nd, the 3rd or 4th, but that's a detail), went up to the top of the sphere and the children both were able to observe the very special shape of the feet. They found they were "webbed" of a kind of palm broader than that used by the scuba divers. When the 3rd was seen diving, its webbed feet, like ducks', were well seen. "I showed it to Anne-Marie," says François to Mr. de Saint-Etienne.
Anne-Marie mentions pointed nose; and she signals the presence of a tripod under the craft with crutches estimated to be 1 meter long. François had not seen these crutches, he is not certain that his sister is not mistaking and confused by tree branches. In flight, Anne-Marie has not noticed this tripod, it is not known when it would have disappeared.
After the return of the latest being, the craft still follows some spirals, then a shrill and soft whistling sound is heard; one perceives the sound of a gush of air; the craft becomes dazzling, blinding, "I could not watch it any longer, I had sore eyes, I was crying...", François said, and the ball goes straight into the sky towards the north west, towards the Plomb du Cantal.
The dog, meanwhile, was barking; the cows which he was keeping had begun to moo, those of the neighbor leaving their own meadow had joined in the mooing the herd of François
131
and a smell of sulfur filled the air.
"So I took care of the cows, and we returned home immediately that day," says François.
Before, however, he went to ask for the time to Mr. [V], who was working on a tractor, 300 meters away. Mr. [V] had not seen nor heard anything, and it was 10:30 then. He is surprised: François had a "watch that functioned perfectly well before." The reason for his asking the time was not investigated.
Upon leaving the dog is absent, he had returned alone to the house before his masters, something that had never happened to him before.
François and Anne-Marie fall in tears, bringing the herd back, and their father listening to their story immediately notifies the police of Saint-Flour who came around for their investigation, the same day, within hours.
The police noticed nothing unusual, no trace, except that lingering smell of "sulfur".
According to statements from the parents, Anne-Marie and François had a restless sleep for several nights. François had watery eyes, especially at night, near the electric light.
François led our investigators at Mr. [D]'s, constable. At the time of the incident he was working in his attic, and he told us he heard "like a whistling sound" at that time. He does not think it could have been a plane or a helicopter.
Continuing their investigation our investigators found a farmer who said he saw the cows of the neighboring meadow hastily join the herd kept by the children, but he did not see the craft and its occupants that were hidden to him by shrubs. He requested anonymity.
These are all the facts that the three groups of investigators were able to gather about this observation.
***
This observation provides an obvious interest by the many details it has, it is not necessary to emphasize its strangeness. If the fact that it was told by two young children can be a weakness in the eyes of some, we know that in three years their statement has never varied.
You must put yourself in the place of the father who knows his children (there are two others children in the family) and he educates them firmly.
132
At the story told to him, does not doubt for a second, and without hesitation he alerts the police. If this is not a guarantee of truth there is in this process the indication of a very strong presumption. He read the report made by Mr. de Saint-Etienne, and in the text that he sent us, we can read. "Read and approved I authorize the magazine "Lumières Dans la Nuit" to publish the text above in an upcoming issue. Cussac August 4, 1968". Signed: Pierre [X].
Knowing the mistrust of men from the countryside to sign documents, it is clear to Mr. [X] that his two children were telling the truth.
If the physical evidence of this observation, without a trace, do not provide us with clear evidence there is a whole series of facts that indicate that something unusual has occurred that day: the early return and tears of the two children, the dog who returned alone, the smell of sulfur (which could be something other than sulfur), Mr. [V], the noise heard by Mr. [D], the anonymous witness on the behavior of the cows, the restless sleep the children...
All investigators that followed are unanimous in saying that the two witnesses were telling the truth, personally and we are convinced that they have honestly reported what they saw.
From this certainty we might be tempted to go on about lifting techniques, from the gathered knowledge, but that is not our goal, being also convinced of the futility of such researches on our human level, as long as the nature of the phenomenon is not known.
The honesty of these two children being in no case at issue, one might indeed wonder, pushing research to the extreme, if the materiality of the facts is really indisputable, and if it could not have been an inner vision, caused by an unknown phenomenon, responsible also for other side effects. The hypothesis does not seem to us to be one to reject a priori, but "how this vision was caused" only shifts the problem on a different level and it is not the least of the mysteries we face.
We leave the reader think about this investigation, asking him to put then in our place thinking that thousands of observations fit this one, stating the same equally irrational facts, equally difficult to refute, and conclude whether or not there are phenomena which deserve further attention.
