MOUNT EBULO, Indonesia (Sapa-AP) -- Nellis Kua is too old to remember his exact age, but his eyes light up when he talks of the gang of hobbit-like creatures his grandparents told him once lived in the forest on the slopes of this still smoking Indonesian volcano.
"They had these big eyes, hair all over their body and spoke in a strange language," said Kua, his skin leathered by a lifetime tending coffee and chilli pepper crops under the harsh tropical sun.
"They stole our crops, our fruit and moonshine. They were so greedy they even ate the plates!"
Kua and other elders said the creatures, known locally as the "Ebu Gogo" or the "Grandmother who eats everything", were last seen on the central Indonesian island of Flores around 300 years ago.
The story had previously been dismissed as a legend - along with other tales of "little people" living in isolated rainforests that are common elsewhere in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
But a stunning archaeological find deep in a limestone cave on Flores has meant sceptics are having to take the tales more seriously.
