British explorer Percy Fawcett is primarily known for disappearing without a trace in 1925 during an expedition into the jungles of Brazil in search of the ancient lost city of Z, allegedly built by survivors of Atlantis.
Fawcett had two sons – Jack and Brian. The elder, Jack, went in search of the city of Z with his father and also disappeared. The younger, Brian, was also obsessed with South America and its ancient civilizations, even attempting to find his lost father and brother but later worked as an engineer on the railway in Peru.
In 1958, Brian Fawcett released a book about ancient Indian settlements in the Amazon called “Ruins in the Sky,” in which he described how he saw little men about half a meter tall with his own eyes.
Moreover, the place where this happened was not far from the then highest railway station in the world in the Andes.
“One winter evening, in twilight, I lingered in the snows at the top of the main track, checking supplies… A blizzard was raging, and the fallen snow reflected light from the still bright sky.
I was returning from inspecting used brake pads scattered along the path inside the Galera tunnel when a small human figure accompanied by some kind of animal strode across the tracks about ten yards ahead of me.
Their two silhouettes were only partially visible against the light, but some details were clearly distinguishable. The figure was a humanoid about 2 feet tall with slit eyes, dressed like ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (apparently in animal skins).
The animal walking alongside him resembled a large rat or marmot, the size of a cat, but I could only briefly see it because the little man immediately noticed me and fled. The traces they left in the snow looked like simple pits and didn’t tell me anything…”
A few days later, Brian Fawcett encountered these creatures again. This time, there were two little men, each accompanied by what seemed to be a rat-like animal. This happened when Fawcett got off the train at the same high-altitude station and stood there, waiting for another train.
“The ragged mist obscured the surrounding peaks, occasionally giving only a weak visibility at ground level, but in a moment of partial visibility, I noticed two of these dwarfs, resembling ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ with their rat-like companions near a small puddle among the rocks. It lasted only a second, and then they were hidden by the mist again.”
Later, Fawcett spoke with Indians working in the mines at the Ticlio pass in the Andes near the railway junction. When he gained their trust, they told him about dwarves called “muquis” living in some old mines from the time of the Spanish conquistadors.
When they described the habits and appearance of these creatures, Fawcett thought they were very similar to the tommyknockers – small green men inhabiting the mines of Cornwall, England, according to local folklore. Which, in turn, bear some resemblance to Irish leprechauns.
According to the Indians, these “muquis” are quite friendly to people if they are not disturbed. And sometimes they start knocking in the mines right where rich mineral deposits are found, for which the miners are very grateful.
