As it neared dark, Mr. Hart was coming across the downs when he encountered a 'fairy ring', whereupon he witnessed,
...an innumerable quantitie of pigmies or very small people, dancing rounde and rounde, and singing, and making all maner of small odd noyses...kept there in a kind of enchantment...these little creatures pinch'd him all over...made a sorte of quick humming noyse all the time...(italics added)This description reminds me of a television doc I once saw about Dr. Michael Persinger and his experiments with electromagnetism and its effects on humans. The host of the program volunteered to don Dr. Persinger's homemade electromagnetic headgear and undergo some brainwave tampering. In the midst of the experiment, she described a mob of little people surrounding the chair she was reclining in and if I recall, they were pinching her. She eventually became so freaked out, they had to discontinue the experiment.
The other relevant detail in this story is the odd, humming noise the creatures made. Humming, buzzing, indistinguishable babbling and other audio affects accompany many reports of Them.
