Week 43, October 27, 2013
Science gone wrong! - A Halloween tale
It started years ago when I was in college and had the opportunity to travel with an archeology professor to Peru. While there, like any tourist, I roamed the small shops looking for unusual souvenirs and interesting people to photograph. It was there an ancient-looking man whispered to me, “¿Ha oído la leyenda de la pequeña gente? My Spanish was only fair, but I figured it out. He had asked, “Have you heard the legend of the little people?”
¿Perdóneme? ¿Pequeñas personas? (Pardon me? Little people?), I asked.
“Sí, los gnomos,” (“Yes, the gnomes”) he replied. I’d heard the legends of things like leprechauns, gnomes, fairies and other tiny beings from many cultures, but figured they were just that..fanciful tales. But he was about to change my mind.
After some discussion he led me to the back of his dark and dusty shop and produced a jar which contained what appeared to be a pickled skeleton, very human-like, but only about six-inches tall. Surely I’d find no souvenir that could compare and before long, we found a price.
That was 38 years ago. The jar had sat in a desk drawer since then. Until this past month. The rest of the story follows in photos.
Read on… if you dare! (Click the photos to see them larger and read the captions)
It started years ago when I was in college and had the opportunity to travel with an archeology professor to Peru. While there, like any tourist, I roamed the small shops looking for unusual souvenirs and interesting people to photograph. It was there an ancient-looking man whispered to me, “¿Ha oído la leyenda de la pequeña gente? My Spanish was only fair, but I figured it out. He had asked, “Have you heard the legend of the little people?”
¿Perdóneme? ¿Pequeñas personas? (Pardon me? Little people?), I asked.
“Sí, los gnomos,” (“Yes, the gnomes”) he replied. I’d heard the legends of things like leprechauns, gnomes, fairies and other tiny beings from many cultures, but figured they were just that..fanciful tales. But he was about to change my mind.
After some discussion he led me to the back of his dark and dusty shop and produced a jar which contained what appeared to be a pickled skeleton, very human-like, but only about six-inches tall. Surely I’d find no souvenir that could compare and before long, we found a price.
That was 38 years ago. The jar had sat in a desk drawer since then. Until this past month. The rest of the story follows in photos.
Read on… if you dare! (Click the photos to see them larger and read the captions)