"Nearly a year ago the people living along the riverfront near Preston were set agog by the appearance in the woods of a strange being in human form. When discovered by a party of hunters on his all fours pawing and neighing like a horse, their attention was first attracted by what they took to be the whining of a startled horse in the undergrowth.
When advanced upon, the strange being ran off on his hands and feet but the pursuers gained upon him so rapidly he sprang to his feet and quickly covering the short distance to the river, plunged headlong from a rather high bank into the water and swam to the Indian side. When he reached that bank he stood up, shook himself like a horse just out of a bath, and with what might really be called a horse laugh ran off into the woods. Some months later he was seen under much the same conditions but this time west of Woodville, on the Indian side.
Only a few weeks ago a man crawled across the road in plain view of several people not far from where the horse-man was first seen but disappeared, the pursuit being somewhat tardy. Since Sunday last the people living near Colbert, ten miles east of Preston, Grayson County Texas, have been hunting for a strangely acting man who crawled about like a snake until pursued, when he would jump to his feet and outrun the fastest horses ridden after him. Others who pursued him on foot say they shot at him at close range but the bullets, if they struck their target, seemed to have no effect.
As late as last evening children claim to have seen the crawling man again near the Varner place, six miles from Colbert. A phone message from Colbert this afternoon confirms previous reports sent out from Durant about the state of excitement and the gathering of several parties for pursuit, but states that public interest has received something of a chill because some of the parties who were present when the close range shots were tired say that although the peculiar being was in the open and very close, that he disappeared with the smoke of the powder.
At the Varner place, he crawled into the henhouse. It is stated that out in the field a dead chicken, bitten in the neck, and from which there was the appearance of the blood having been drawn, was found.
Though with somewhat reduced enthusiasm the people of the Varner neighborhood are preparing for another big roundup this afternoon and tonight.
Source: The Dallas Morning News, September 3, 1905
NOTE: Could this have been a shapeshifter, possibly a centaur being? There are recorded sightings by the Navajo people, beings that are half horse/half man, that have supernatural abilities. Lon
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