Cabasson entity encounter — 1954

Maxime Pignatelli, a hunter in his sixties, reportedly encountered an unusual object while out with his dog near the Durance River and an irrigation canal in October 1954. Although catalogues often call the case Cabasson, family-based research places the landscape inland near Corbières and Les Iscles rather than coastal Cabasson in the Var. The account describes a low, dark oval object approximately three to four metres across, with two small heads visible above its upper edge. Pignatelli allegedly fled into a ditch. His dog approached the object and returned howling and dragging its hind legs; he also reportedly felt drowsy. Later catalogues give more definite helmets, bodily emergence and physiological explanations than the family's recollections securely support. Researchers interviewed relatives around 1970, after the witness had died. Sources disagree about whether the date was October 17 or earlier in the month, and published times range from afternoon to evening. No recovered veterinary or medical examination establishes the cause of the alleged symptoms. The plate therefore uses month-level dating, shows only the limited visible heads rather than invented full bodies, and represents an earlier phase with the dog still beside the hunter rather than combining subsequent distress with the initial sighting.