Wild Child

That quote has also been misattributed to Benjamin Franklin, but it's true origins date back to the nineteenth century. The lesson is clear, though. After something is repeated enough times, the truth tends to be ignored. It's enough to drive one well. You know. It didn't matter how often the Brazilian people told their stories either, their truths were also ignored.

Take what happened to topographer Jose Higgins in Salpallo. While standing in a field in nineteen forty seven, Higgins and several workers watched as a round object landed several feet away from their location. Everyone except Higgins was scared off, but the topographers stayed put, watching as three human like creatures left the strange craft. He tried communicating with them for almost an hour. Neither Higgins nor these alien creatures could understand each other, so they boarded their UFO and

flew away. Five years later, another incident occurred in Rio de Janeiro when a journalist and his photographer spotted a similarly shaped object flying overhead. The photographer took pictures and had them published in a Brazilian magazine. UFOs and alien encounters have been reported all over Brazil for the last seventy years. Five individual incidents were said to have occurred in the nineteen fifties alone, in hooting one where a fragment of a ship was recovered after it exploded over

a beach in Uba, Tuba. But perhaps the greatest number of encounters happened in ninety seven in Cholaris in northern Brazil. Locals noted all kinds of discs, orbs, and cigar shaped spacecraft flying overhead. Some had glowing lights, while others looked like they were on fire. However, the objects didn't remain in the sky. According to the stories, the people in Cholaris were attacked. The ships would chase them and shoot lasers that burned their skin. In some cases, the creatures

inside would suck the blood from their human prey. A Brazilian fishing boat was said to have been attacked from overhead. The beams of light that were fired down injured many fishermen and allegedly killed one. Another. Vivid account of an alien attack came from a man named Carlos Cartosa de Paula, who watched as a ball of light came into his house and flew around his room until it stopped just above his legs. It hovered over his lower half and

gave off intense heat. Carlos screamed, and the light quickly disappeared. He would later theorize that the glowing orb was looking for a vein so it could harvest his blood. But theories aside. Whatever was behind these attacks was leaving a trail of injured men and women in their wake. Hospitals filled up with people suffering from burns, nausea, dehydration, and yes, a severe loss of blood. Recovery sometimes took days, even weeks,

although some didn't recover at all. One woman was attacked and actually got a good look at one of her assailants. She said it had the appearance of a man wearing something like a diving suit. It carried a kind of weapon that fired out a beam of light, causing burns all over her chest. She couldn't run or scream, she was frozen, and she suffered side effects from the encounter for the rest of her life. The Brazilian Air Force was eventually called in as the reports had grown to

be too similar and too common to ignore. However, rather than calm the locals with the truth behind what could be causing these attacks, the air force also fell victim to the burning lights. After a few encounters, they left the cholars without so much as a goodbye. They would not say definitively that they were scared off by extraterrestrial life forms, but well, optics are everything. Of course, After nineteen seventy eight, the reports of alien attacks slowed down.

In nineteen seventy nine, Antonio Carlos Fierra was abducted from the factory where he worked by three humanoid creatures. They had pointy ears and red hair, and injected him with a yellow liquid before returning him to Earth. Another series of sightings and encounters occurred again in nineteen eighty nineteen eighty six, nineteen ninety six and well into the two thousand's. Almost none of the subsequent encounters were as direct or as violent as those that occurred in the late seventies.

Perhaps the aliens had gotten all the biological evidence they needed, or maybe they realized humans were more of a threat than they had previously thought. Just as with misattributed quotes, the constant repetition and of the truth didn't really matter. The military and the rest of the world had made up their minds. They refused to acknowledge any of the activity, even with photographic and physical proof. But the people of

Brazil know what happened to them. They just don't know why the aliens have targeted them for so long, or if the ships will ever show up again in the future, or maybe they're already here and waiting. On a secluded island in the Indian Ocean, there lives a tribe that is untouched by modern civilization. The Sentinel Ease tribe of Northern Sentinel Island live isolated from the rest of mankind.

They fire arrows at helicopters that fly too close, and have been known to kill anyone unlucky enough to step foot on their shores. For them, it's all about survival. They have lived alone on this island for generations and are considered some of the healthiest human beings on the planet, mainly because they do not allow disease ridden outsiders to commingle with their people. They build boats, hunt and fish

using tools and weapons that they have made themselves. They have survived without the need for any of today's modern conveniences. Poto and Cabengo were also survivors. They weren't part of the Sentinelist tribe, though they were sisters who were found in the late nineteen seventies who had been living in a small tribe of their own. They spoke a language that until then had never been heard by outsiders. For example, the phrase liba cabango at its translated to dear cabango eat,

and la moa poto meant here more poto. The girls hadn't been formally educated. They were watched over each day by an elder who made sure that they were fed and clothed, but didn't spend much time with them otherwise, and their parents were away from the morning until late at night. But these girls didn't live on some isolated island in the middle of the ocean. They grew up a lot closer to home in Georgia. Their real names were Grace and Virginia Kennedy. Poto and Cabango were just

the names they had given themselves. Grace and Virginia were born in nineteen seventy, and though their birth went smoothly, doctors felt that something was wrong. The twins suffered seizures from birth. A surgeon at the hospital told their father that the girls would have trouble finding their way in the world due to their developmental disabilities. Rather than help them, though their parents left them to their own devices. The Kennedy's were impoverished, and Mr. And Mrs Kennedy both worked

all day. They spent most of the day outside the home. Her daughters were looked after by a grandmother who gave them food and tended to their basic needs, but didn't interact with them in any meaningful way. Grace and Virginia almost never left the house, and there were no other kids around for them to play with. As a result, the girls spent nearly all of their time together, pulling bits and pieces of their grandmother's German and mixing it

together with the creole tinged English their parents spoke. The result was an entirely new language that only they knew. Mr. And Mrs Kennedy thought the girls had invented their language because they were mentally unable to learn English, but linguists and speech therapists who worked with the twins discovered otherwise. It had actually been their isolation and neglect that had allowed their private language to supersede their parents English. The

girls were not developmentally challenged, according to their doctors. They were of average intelligence. They had just never been given a chance to grow. Over the years, the girls became the subjects of numerous studies, journal articles, and news pieces. Doctors also discovered the girls were not as mentally disadvantaged as previously thought. They could learn if they had been given the time and training they needed when they were younger.

Over time, speech therapists helped them learn English, which still bore some of the traits of their private language, such as its speed and choppy nature. Their father also made sure they never spoke their native tongue in the house again. Eventually, Grace and Virginia were reintroduced to society. They attended school together, but took separate classes so they couldn't cheat by talking in their secret language during the day. As adults, they

were able to find employment and live normal lives. Grace and Virginia had come a long way from their isolated childhood and made up language, and it was all thanks to the doctors and therapists who did the one thing the girl's parents couldn't do. They cared. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the

show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious one