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a high fever. The details of the case were obtained through an investigation by the Italian police. Eleven years later a new flurry of reports began. On July 1, 1965, Maurice Masse, a French farmer who lived in Valensole, arrived in his field at 6:00 A.M. and was getting ready to start his tractor when he heard an unusual noise. Stepping into the open, he saw that a machine had landed in his lavender field. He thought it must be some sort of prototype and walked toward it, with a mind to tell the pilots, in no uncertain words, to go find another landing spot for their contraption. It was only when he was within twenty feet of the machine that he came in full view of the scene and realized his mistake. The object was egg-shaped, had a round cockpit, was supported by six thin legs and a central pivot, and was not bigger than a car. In front, appearing to examine a plant, were the two pilots. They were dressed in one-piece, gray-greenish suits. On the left side of their belts was a small container; a larger one was on the right side. They were less than four feet tall and had human eyes, but their heads were very large. They had partically no mouth, only a very small opening, without lips. They wore no respiratory device, no headgear, and no gloves. They had small, normal hands. When Masse came upon them, they seemed to become suddenly aware of his existence, and yet it was without any indication of fear or surprise that one of the "pilots" took a small tube from its container and pointed it at Masse — with the result that the witness found himself suddenly incapable of movement. The two entities looked at Masse and appeared to be exchanging their impressions vocally in a sort of gargle. These sounds came from their throats, insisted the witness, but the mouths did not move. The eyes, in the meantime, conveyed human expressions. In private, Masse told me that he had not been frightened by their attitude and that it contained more friendly curiosity than hostility toward him. After some time — estimated by Masse at about one minute — the creatures went inside the craft. The door closed "like the front part of a wooden file cabinet," but Masse could still see them through the cockpit. They were facing him as the object took off in the opposite direction, first hovering a few feet from the ground, then rising obliquely with the take-off speed of a jet plane. When it was about sixty yards away, it vanished. I closely questioned the witness on this last point, but Masse insisted he could not say whether the object went away so fast that the eye could not follow it or whether it actually disappeared. He made it quite clear, however, that "one moment, the thing was there, and the next moment, it was not there anymore." Masse remained alone in his field, paralyzed. The word paralysis is not properly used in connection with incidents of this type. Masse said that he was conscious during the whole observation. His physiological functions (respiratory, heartbeat) were not hampered. But he could not move. Then he became very frightened indeed. Alone in his field, unable even to call for help, Masse thought he was going to die. It was only after about twenty minutes that he gradually regained voluntary control of his muscles and was able to go home. There is a sequel to his experience. For several weeks after the incident, Masse was overcome with drowsiness, and all his relatives — as well as the investigators — observed that he needed so much sleep that he found it difficult to stay awake even for four hours at a time. This is another little- known characteristic of close-proximity cases. To Masse, who was used to working "from sunup to sundown," this was a very impressive and disturbing consequence of his experience. Another result of the publicity the case attracted was the great damage to Masse's field, as crowds of tourists gathered to see the traces left by the craft. At this point, I should say that Masse is a man respected in the community. A former Resistance fighter, a conscientious and successful farmer, he is regarded as absolutely trustworthy by the police authorities who investigated the case under the direction of Captain Valnet, of Digne. Yet this man tells us a story that does not simply appear fanciful; it is completely unbelievable. What is Masse's impression of the visitors? For some reason, he says, he knows they meant no harm. They were not hostile to him, only indifferent. As he stood facing them, during that long minute, he suddenly was overcome with the certitude that they were good — a belief he is unable to rationalize, because at no point did he understand their strange language.