I was reading the story of the lady who saw fireballs and I couldn't help posting this. I grew up in the islands where these things are common. Coming from the islands, however, we never discussed these things with Americans.
There were two encounters that I can remember; they happened to my friends. One happened to an older friend of mine. He lived on a hill and was walking up the hill to get home. The sun was setting. He said that from a distance he saw this ball of fire. Soon, his brothers, who were ahead of him, pointed it out. The ball of fire suddenly swooped down the hill, and before he knew it he was face to face with it.
He said it stood in front of him for a few seconds and he could see something like three black holes (for eyes and mouth) and it had wings that flapped like a hummingbird (making a helicopter sound). He said he was scared for his life. Then, just like that, it zoomed away.
My other friend was asleep one night and when her fan went off, that caused her to awaken. The islands can be very hot, and people would sleep with their fans directly on them. Her fan went off because the electricity went off (happens often in the islands). So she's lying in bed waiting for the electricity to come back on when all of a sudden the thing appeared outside her window (one floor up). She couldn't see it because her curtains were very thick, but what she did see was light around her curtains and heard this fluttering noise. This thing hovered there for a while, and she froze.
Eventually it left, but it seemed like it went around the house and came back to her window. It floated outside her window and then flew off. Shortly after that, she heard their dog making a strange cry.
The next morning she got up, went down to the family store and didn't mention anything to anyone. She did notice the dog had dried blood by his ears. She found that strange, but still didn't say anything.
Then her brother come down to the store and said, "Y'all din hear that sookinyah last night?" (Not sure if I spelled that correctly.) When her brother said that, she started to laugh and asked him if he heard it too? She then went on to tell him about the dog.
There was an elderly lady who would sit in front of their store every day - all day. She turned and said, when the sookinyah doesn't find its target, it will suck any available animal. To islanders, that ball of fire is known as a sookinyah. A sookinyah is created from voodoo/black magic. If someone in the island is envious of you, they would send this thing to suck the blood from your body. It is said that this thing that's flying around has shed its human skin. It is also said that if you find this skin and pour salt in it, the person on re-entering will die. These are the thing I grew up knowing and fearing. There is a lot more that I could go into, but wouldn't.
