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When men did not inhabit most of the world, the creatures used to live there and had their own agriculture. Their civilization has left traces on the high mountains; it was flourishing at a time when the whole countryside was nothing but woods and forests. 7. At the beginning of each three-month period, they change quarters because they are unable to stay in one place. Besides, they like to travel. It is then that men have terrible encounters with them, even on the great highways. They are divided into tribes. Like us, they have children, nurses, marriages, burials, etc., unless they just do this to mock our own customs or to predict terrestrial events. 10. Their houses are said to be wonderfully large and beautiful, but under most circumstances they are invisible to human eyes. Kirk compares them to enchanted islands. The houses are equipped with lamps that burn forever and fires that need no fuel. 11. They speak very little. When they do talk among themselves, their language is a kind of whistling sound. people. 13. Their philosophical system is based on the following ideas: nothing dies; all things evolve cyclically in such a way that at every cycle they are renewed and improved. Motion is the universal law. 14. They are said to have a hierarchy of leaders, but they have no visible devotion to God, no religion. 15. They have many pleasant and light books, but also serious and complex books dealing with abstract matters. The similarities between these observations and the story related by Facius Cardan, which antedates Kirk's manuscript by exactly two hundred years, are clear. Both Cardan and Paracelsus write, like Kirk, that a pact can be made with these creatures and that they can be made to appear and answer questions at will. Paracelsus did not care to reveal what that pact was "because of the ills that might befall those who would try it." Kirk is equally discreet on this point. And, of course, to go deeper into this matter would open the whole field of witchcraft and ceremonial magic, which is beyond my purpose in the present book. Kirk's conclusion is that every age has left a secret to be discovered. Sooner than we think, he says, the relations with the aerial beings will be as natural to us as, say, the printing press or navigation — all things that caused considerable surprise when they were first introduced. We can only follow him in this and give a humble salute to a man who managed to gather such a complete description of our strange visitors. It is remarkable that one cannot find a single writer who claims he knows the physical nature of the creatures. They give us their personal opinions or report on the various theories held during their time, but they do not assure us they have a final answer. To Kirk, the Good People have bodies so Their chameleon-like bodies allow them to swim through the air with all their household. 12. Their habits and their language when they talk to humans are similar to those of local 16. They can be made to appear at will before us through magic. plyable through the Subtlety of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear