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diff --git a/12621.txt b/12621.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a41c71b --- /dev/null +++ b/12621.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8798 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Book of Dreams and Ghosts + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: June 14, 2004 [eBook #12621] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF DREAMS AND GHOSTS*** + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +THE BOOK OF DREAMS AND GHOSTS + + + + + +PREFACE TO THE NEW IMPRESSION + + +Since the first edition of this book appeared (1897) a considerable +number of new and startling ghost stories, British, Foreign and +Colonial, not yet published, have reached me. Second Sight abounds. +Crystal Gazing has also advanced in popularity. For a singular series +of such visions, in which distant persons and places, unknown to the +gazer, were correctly described by her, I may refer to my book, The +Making of Religion (1898). A memorial stone has been erected on the +scene of the story called "The Foul Fords" (p. 269), so that tale is +likely to endure in tradition. + +July, 1899. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION + + +The chief purpose of this book is, if fortune helps, to entertain +people interested in the kind of narratives here collected. For the +sake of orderly arrangement, the stories are classed in different +grades, as they advance from the normal and familiar to the undeniably +startling. At the same time an account of the current theories of +Apparitions is offered, in language as free from technicalities as +possible. According to modern opinion every "ghost" is a +"hallucination," a false perception, the perception of something which +is not present. + +It has not been thought necessary to discuss the psychological and +physiological processes involved in perception, real or false. Every +"hallucination" is a perception, "as good and true a sensation as if +there were a real object there. The object happens _not_ to be there, +that is all." {0a} We are not here concerned with the visions of +insanity, delirium, drugs, drink, remorse, or anxiety, but with +"sporadic cases of hallucination, visiting people only once in a +lifetime, which seems to be by far the most frequent type". "These," +says Mr. James, "are on any theory hard to understand in detail. They +are often extraordinarily complete; and the fact that many of them are +reported as _veridical_, that is, as coinciding with real events, such +as accidents, deaths, etc., of the persons seen, is an additional +complication of the phenomenon." {0b} A ghost, if seen, is undeniably +so far a "hallucination" that it gives the impression of the presence +of a real person, in flesh, blood, and usually clothes. No such +person in flesh, blood, and clothes, is actually there. So far, at +least, every ghost is a hallucination, "_that_" in the language of +Captain Cuttle, "you may lay to," without offending science, religion, +or common-sense. And that, in brief, is the modern doctrine of +ghosts. + +The old doctrine of "ghosts" regarded them as actual "spirits" of the +living or the dead, freed from the flesh or from the grave. This +view, whatever else may be said for it, represents the simple +philosophy of the savage, which may be correct or erroneous. About +the time of the Reformation, writers, especially Protestant writers, +preferred to look on apparitions as the work of deceitful devils, who +masqueraded in the aspect of the dead or living, or made up phantasms +out of "compressed air". The common-sense of the eighteenth century +dismissed all apparitions as "dreams" or hoaxes, or illusions caused +by real objects misinterpreted, such as rats, cats, white posts, +maniacs at large, sleep-walkers, thieves, and so forth. Modern +science, when it admits the possibility of occasional hallucinations +in the sane and healthy, also admits, of course, the existence of +apparitions. These, for our purposes, are hallucinatory appearances +occurring in the experience of people healthy and sane. The +difficulty begins when we ask whether these appearances ever have any +provoking mental cause outside the minds of the people who experience +them--any cause arising in the minds of others, alive or dead. This +is a question which orthodox psychology does not approach, standing +aside from any evidence which may be produced. + +This book does not pretend to be a convincing, but merely an +illustrative collection of evidence. It may, or may not, suggest to +some readers the desirableness of further inquiry; the author +certainly does not hope to do more, if as much. + +It may be urged that many of the stories here narrated come from +remote times, and, as the testimony for these cannot be rigidly +studied, that the old unauthenticated stories clash with the analogous +tales current on better authority in our own day. But these ancient +legends are given, not as evidence, but for three reasons: first, +because of their merit as mere stories; next, because several of them +are now perhaps for the first time offered with a critical discussion +of their historical sources; lastly, because the old legends seem to +show how the fancy of periods less critical than ours dealt with such +facts as are now reported in a dull undramatic manner. Thus (1) the +Icelandic ghost stories have peculiar literary merit as simple +dramatic narratives. (2) Every one has heard of the Wesley ghost, Sir +George Villiers's spectre, Lord Lyttelton's ghost, the Beresford +ghost, Mr. Williams's dream of Mr. Perceval's murder, and so forth. +But the original sources have not, as a rule, been examined in the +ordinary spirit of calm historical criticism, by aid of a comparison +of the earliest versions in print or manuscript. (3) Even ghost +stories, as a rule, have some basis of fact, whether fact of +hallucination, or illusion, or imposture. They are, at lowest, "human +documents". Now, granting such facts (of imposture, hallucination, or +what you will), as our dull, modern narratives contain, we can regard +these facts, or things like these, as the nuclei which our less +critical ancestors elaborated into their extraordinary romances. In +this way the belief in demoniacal possession (distinguished, as such, +from madness and epilepsy) has its nucleus, some contend, in the +phenomena of alternating personalities in certain patients. Their +characters, ideas, habits, and even voices change, and the most +obvious solution of the problem, in the past, was to suppose that a +new alien personality--a "devil"--had entered into the sufferer. + +Again, the phenomena occurring in "haunted houses" (whether caused, or +not, by imposture or hallucination, or both) were easily magnified +into such legends as that of Grettir and Glam, and into the +monstrosities of the witch trials. Once more the simple hallucination +of a dead person's appearance in his house demanded an explanation. +This was easily given by evolving a legend that he was a spirit, +escaped from purgatory or the grave, to fulfil a definite purpose. +The rarity of such purposeful ghosts in an age like ours, so rich in +ghost stories, must have a cause. That cause is, probably, a +dwindling of the myth-making faculty. + +Any one who takes these matters seriously, as facts in human nature, +must have discovered the difficulty of getting evidence at first hand. +This arises from several causes. First, the cock-sure common-sense of +the years from 1660 to 1850, or so, regarded every one who had +experience of a hallucination as a dupe, a lunatic, or a liar. In +this healthy state of opinion, eminent people like Lord Brougham kept +their experience to themselves, or, at most, nervously protested that +they "were sure it was only a dream". Next, to tell the story was, +often, to enter on a narrative of intimate, perhaps painful, domestic +circumstances. Thirdly, many persons now refuse information as a +matter of "principle," or of "religious principle," though it is +difficult to see where either principle or religion is concerned, if +the witness is telling what he believes to be true. Next, some +devotees of science aver that these studies may bring back faith by a +side wind, and, with faith, the fires of Smithfield and the torturing +of witches. These opponents are what Professor Huxley called +"dreadful consequences argufiers," when similar reasons were urged +against the doctrine of evolution. Their position is strongest when +they maintain that these topics have a tendency to befog the +intellect. A desire to prove the existence of "new forces" may beget +indifference to logic and to the laws of evidence. This is true, and +we have several dreadful examples among men otherwise scientific. But +all studies have their temptations. Many a historian, to prove the +guilt or innocence of Queen Mary, has put evidence, and logic, and +common honesty far from him. Yet this is no reason for abandoning the +study of history. + +There is another class of difficulties. As anthropology becomes +popular, every inquirer knows what customs he _ought_ to find among +savages, so, of course, he finds them. In the same way, people may +now know what customs it is orthodox to find among ghosts, and may +pretend to find them, or may simulate them by imposture. The white +sheet and clanking chains are forsaken for a more realistic rendering +of the ghostly part. The desire of social notoriety may beget wanton +fabrications. In short, all studies have their perils, and these are +among the dangers which beset the path of the inquirer into things +ghostly. He must adopt the stoical maxim: "Be sober and do not +believe"--in a hurry. + +If there be truth in even one case of "telepathy," it will follow that +the human soul is a thing endowed with attributes not yet recognised +by science. It cannot be denied that this is a serious consideration, +and that very startling consequences might be deduced from it; such +beliefs, indeed, as were generally entertained in the ages of +Christian darkness which preceded the present era of enlightenment. +But our business in studies of any kind is, of course, with truth, as +we are often told, not with the consequences, however ruinous to our +most settled convictions, or however pernicious to society. + +The very opposite objection comes from the side of religion. These +things we learn, are spiritual mysteries into which men must not +inquire. This is only a relic of the ancient opinion that he was an +impious character who first launched a boat, God having made man a +terrestrial animal. Assuredly God put us into a world of phenomena, +and gave us inquiring minds. We have as much right to explore the +phenomena of these minds as to explore the ocean. Again, if it be +said that our inquiries may lead to an undignified theory of the +future life (so far they have not led to any theory at all), that, +also, is the position of the Dreadful Consequences Argufier. Lastly, +"the stories may frighten children". For children the book is not +written, any more than if it were a treatise on comparative anatomy. + +The author has frequently been asked, both publicly and privately: +"Do you believe in ghosts?" One can only answer: "How do you define +a ghost?" I do believe, with all students of human nature, in +hallucinations of one, or of several, or even of all the senses. But +as to whether such hallucinations, among the sane, are ever caused by +psychical influences from the minds of others, alive or dead, not +communicated through the ordinary channels of sense, my mind is in a +balance of doubt. It is a question of evidence. + +In this collection many stories are given without the real names of +the witnesses. In most of the cases the real names, and their owners, +are well known to myself. In not publishing the names I only take the +common privilege of writers on medicine and psychology. In other +instances the names are known to the managers of the Society for +Psychical Research, who have kindly permitted me to borrow from their +collections. + +While this book passed through the press, a long correspondence called +"On the Trail of a Ghost" appeared in The Times. It illustrated the +copious fallacies which haunt the human intellect. Thus it was +maintained by some persons, and denied by others, that sounds of +unknown origin were occasionally heard in a certain house. These, it +was suggested, might (if really heard) be caused by slight seismic +disturbances. Now many people argue, "Blunderstone House is not +haunted, for I passed a night there, and nothing unusual occurred". +Apply this to a house where noises are actually caused by young +earthquakes. Would anybody say: "There are no seismic disturbances +near Blunderstone House, for I passed a night there, and none +occurred"? Why should a noisy ghost (if there is such a thing) or a +hallucinatory sound (if there is such a thing), be expected to be more +punctual and pertinacious than a seismic disturbance? Again, the +gentleman who opened the correspondence with a long statement on the +negative side, cried out, like others, for scientific publicity, for +names of people and places. But neither he nor his allies gave their +own names. He did not precisely establish his claim to confidence by +publishing his version of private conversations. Yet he expected +science and the public to believe his anonymous account of a +conversation, with an unnamed person, at which he did not and could +not pretend to have been present. He had a theory of sounds heard by +himself which could have been proved, or disproved, in five minutes, +by a simple experiment. But that experiment he does not say that he +made. + +This kind of evidence is thought good enough on the negative side. It +certainly would not be accepted by any sane person for the affirmative +side. If what is called psychical research has no other results, at +least it enables us to perceive the fallacies which can impose on the +credulity of common-sense. + +In preparing this collection of tales, I owe much to Mr. W. A. +Craigie, who translated the stories from the Gaelic and the Icelandic; +to Miss Elspeth Campbell, who gives a version of the curious Argyll +tradition of Ticonderoga (rhymed by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, who +put a Cameron where a Campbell should be); to Miss Violet Simpson, who +found the Windham MS. about the Duke of Buckingham's story, and made +other researches; and to Miss Goodrich Freer, who pointed out the +family version of "The Tyrone Ghost". + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Arbuthnot on Political Lying. Begin with "Great Swingeing +Falsehoods". The Opposite Method to be used in telling Ghost Stones. +Begin with the more Familiar and Credible. Sleep. Dreams. Ghosts +are identical with Waking Dreams. Possibility of being Asleep when we +think we are Awake. Dreams shared by several People. Story of the +Dog Fanti. The Swithinbank Dream. Common Features of Ghosts and +Dreams. Mark Twain's Story. Theory of Common-sense. Not Logical. +Fulfilled Dreams. The Pig in the Palace. The Mignonette. Dreams of +Reawakened Memory. The Lost Cheque. The Ducks' Eggs. The Lost Key. +Drama in Dreams. The Lost Securities. The Portuguese Gold-piece. +St. Augustine's Story. The Two Curmas. Knowledge acquired in Dreams. +The Assyrian Priest. The Deja Vu. "I have been here before." Sir +Walter's Experience. Explanations. The Knot in the Shutter. +Transition to Stranger Dreams. + +Arbuthnot, in his humorous work on Political Lying, commends the Whigs +for occasionally trying the people with "great swingeing falsehoods". +When these are once got down by the populace, anything may follow +without difficulty. Excellently as this practice has worked in +politics (compare the warming-pan lie of 1688), in the telling of +ghost stories a different plan has its merits. Beginning with the +common-place and familiar, and therefore credible, with the thin end +of the wedge, in fact, a wise narrator will advance to the rather +unusual, the extremely rare, the undeniably startling, and so arrive +at statements which, without this discreet and gradual initiation, a +hasty reader might, justly or unjustly, dismiss as "great swingeing +falsehoods". + +The nature of things and of men has fortunately made this method at +once easy, obvious, and scientific. Even in the rather fantastic +realm of ghosts, the stories fall into regular groups, advancing in +difficulty, like exercises in music or in a foreign language. We +therefore start from the easiest Exercises in Belief, or even from +those which present no difficulty at all. The defect of the method is +that easy stories are dull reading. But the student can "skip". We +begin with common every-night dreams. + +Sleeping is as natural as waking; dreams are nearly as frequent as +every-day sensations, thoughts, and emotions. But dreams, being +familiar, are credible; it is admitted that people do dream; we reach +the less credible as we advance to the less familiar. For, if we +think for a moment, the alleged events of ghostdom--apparitions of all +sorts--are precisely identical with the every-night phenomena of +dreaming, except for the avowed element of sleep in dreams. + +In dreams, time and space are annihilated, and two severed lovers may +be made happy. In dreams, amidst a grotesque confusion of things +remembered and things forgot, we _see_ the events of the past (I have +been at Culloden fight and at the siege of Troy); we are present in +places remote; we behold the absent; we converse with the dead, and we +may even (let us say by chance coincidence) forecast the future. All +these things, except the last, are familiar to everybody who dreams. +It is also certain that similar, but yet more vivid, false experiences +may be produced, at the word of the hypnotiser, in persons under the +hypnotic sleep. A hypnotised man will take water for wine, and get +drunk on it. + +Now, the ghostly is nothing but the experience, when men are awake, or +_apparently_ awake, of the every-night phenomena of dreaming. The +vision of the absent seen by a waking, or apparently waking, man is +called "a wraith"; the waking, or apparently waking, vision of the +dead is called "a ghost". Yet, as St. Augustine says, the absent man, +or the dead man, may know no more of the vision, and may have no more +to do with causing it, than have the absent or the dead whom we are +perfectly accustomed to see in our dreams. Moreover, the +comparatively rare cases in which two or more waking people are +alleged to have seen the same "ghost," simultaneously or in +succession, have _their_ parallel in sleep, where two or more persons +simultaneously dream the same dream. Of this curious fact let us give +one example: the names only are altered. + +THE DOG FANTI + +Mrs. Ogilvie of Drumquaigh had a poodle named Fanti. Her family, or +at least those who lived with her, were her son, the laird, and three +daughters. Of these the two younger, at a certain recent date, were +paying a short visit to a neighbouring country house. Mrs. Ogilvie +was accustomed to breakfast in her bedroom, not being in the best of +health. One morning Miss Ogilvie came down to breakfast and said to +her brother, "I had an odd dream; I dreamed Fanti went mad". + +"Well, that _is_ odd," said her brother. "So did I. We had better +not tell mother; it might make her nervous." + +Miss Ogilvie went up after breakfast to see the elder lady, who said, +"Do turn out Fanti; I dreamed last night that he went mad and bit". + +In the afternoon the two younger sisters came home. + +"How did you enjoy yourselves?" one of the others asked. + +"We didn't sleep well. I was dreaming that Fanti went mad when Mary +wakened me, and said she had dreamed Fanti went mad, and turned into a +cat, and we threw him into the fire." + +Thus, as several people may see the same ghost at once, several people +may dream the same dream at once. As a matter of fact, Fanti lived, +sane and harmless, "all the length of all his years". {4} + +Now, this anecdote is credible, certainly is credible by people who +know the dreaming family. It is nothing more than a curiosity of +coincidences; and, as Fanti remained a sober, peaceful hound, in face +of five dreamers, the absence of fulfilment increases the readiness of +belief. But compare the case of the Swithinbanks. Mr. Swithinbank, +on 20th May, 1883, signed for publication a statement to this effect:-- + +During the Peninsular war his father and his two brothers were +quartered at Dover. Their family were at Bradford. The brothers +slept in various quarters of Dover camp. One morning they met after +parade. "O William, I have had a queer dream," said Mr. Swithinbank's +father. "So have I," replied the brother, when, to the astonishment +of both, the other brother, John, said, "I have had a queer dream as +well. I dreamt that mother was dead." "So did I," said each of the +other brothers. And the mother had died on the night of this +dreaming. Mrs. Hudson, daughter of one of the brothers, heard the +story from all three. {5a} + +The distribution of the fulfilled is less than that of the unfulfilled +dream by three to five. It has the extra coincidence of the death. +But as it is very common to dream of deaths, some such dreams must +occasionally hit the target. + +Other examples might be given of shared dreams: {5b} they are only +mentioned here to prove that all the _waking_ experiences of things +ghostly, such as visions of the absent and of the dead, and of the +non-existent, are familiar, and may even be common simultaneously to +several persons, in _sleep_. That men may sleep without being aware +of it, even while walking abroad; that we may drift, while we think +ourselves awake, into a semi-somnolent state for a period of time +perhaps almost imperceptible is certain enough. Now, the peculiarity +of sleep is to expand or contract time, as we may choose to put the +case. Alfred Maury, the well-known writer on Greek religion, dreamed +a long, vivid dream of the Reign of Terror, of his own trial before a +Revolutionary Tribunal, and of his execution, in the moment of time +during which he was awakened by the accidental fall of a rod in the +canopy of his bed, which touched him on the neck. Thus even a +prolonged interview with a ghost may _conceivably_ be, in real time, a +less than momentary dream occupying an imperceptible tenth of a second +of somnolence, the sleeper not realising that he has been asleep. + +Mark Twain, who is seriously interested in these subjects, has +published an experience illustrative of such possibilities. He tells +his tale at considerable length, but it amounts to this:-- + +MARK TWAIN'S STORY + +Mark was smoking his cigar outside the door of his house when he saw a +man, a stranger, approaching him. Suddenly he ceased to be visible! +Mark, who had long desired to see a ghost, rushed into his house to +record the phenomenon. There, seated on a chair in the hall, was the +very man, who had come on some business. As Mark's negro footman +acts, when the bell is rung, on the principle, "Perhaps they won't +persevere," his master is wholly unable to account for the +disappearance of the visitor, whom he never saw passing him or waiting +at his door--except on the theory of an unconscious nap. Now, a +disappearance is quite as mystical as an appearance, and much less +common. + +This theory, that apparitions come in an infinitesimal moment of +sleep, while a man is conscious of his surroundings and believes +himself to be awake was the current explanation of ghosts in the +eighteenth century. Any educated man who "saw a ghost" or "had a +hallucination" called it a "dream," as Lord Brougham and Lord +Lyttelton did. But, if the death of the person seen coincided with +his appearance to them, they illogically argued that, out of the +innumerable multitude of dreams, some _must_ coincide, accidentally, +with facts. They strove to forget that though dreams in sleep are +universal and countless, "dreams" in waking hours are extremely rare-- +unique, for instance, in Lord Brougham's own experience. Therefore, +the odds against chance coincidence are very great. + +Dreams only form subjects of good dream-stories when the vision +coincides with and adequately represents an _unknown_ event in the +past, the present, or the future. We dream, however vividly, of the +murder of Rizzio. Nobody is surprised at that, the incident being +familiar to most people, in history and art. But, if we dreamed of +being present at an unchronicled scene in Queen Mary's life, and if, +_after_ the dream was recorded, a document proving its accuracy should +be for the first time recovered, then there is matter for a good +dream-story. {8} Again, we dream of an event not to be naturally +guessed or known by us, and our dream (which should be recorded before +tidings of the fact arrive) tallies with the news of the event when it +comes. Or, finally, we dream of an event (recording the dream), and +that event occurs in the future. In all these cases the actual +occurrence of the unknown event is the only addition to the dream's +usual power of crumpling up time and space. + +As a rule such dreams are only mentioned _after_ the event, and so are +not worth noticing. Very often the dream is forgotten by the dreamer +till he hears of or sees the event. He is then either reminded of his +dream by association of ideas or _he has never dreamed at all_, and +his belief that he has dreamed is only a form of false memory, of the +common sensation of "having been here before," which he attributes to +an awakened memory of a real dream. Still more often the dream is +unconsciously cooked by the narrator into harmony with facts. + +As a rule fulfilled dreams deal with the most trivial affairs, and +such as, being usual, may readily occur by chance coincidence. Indeed +it is impossible to set limits to such coincidence, for it would +indeed be extraordinary if extraordinary coincidences never occurred. + +To take examples:-- + +THE PIG IN THE DINING-ROOM + +Mrs. Atlay, wife of a late Bishop of Hereford, dreamed one night that +there was a pig in the dining-room of the palace. She came +downstairs, and in the hall told her governess and children of the +dream, before family prayers. When these were over, nobody who was +told the story having left the hall in the interval, she went into the +dining-room and there was the pig. It was proved to have escaped from +the sty after Mrs. Atlay got up. Here the dream is of the common +grotesque type; millions of such things are dreamed. The event, the +pig in the palace, is unusual, and the coincidence of pig and dream is +still more so. But unusual events must occur, and each has millions +of dreams as targets to aim at, so to speak. It would be surprising +if no such target were ever hit. + +Here is another case--curious because the dream was forgotten till the +corresponding event occurred, but there was a slight discrepancy +between event and dream. + +THE MIGNONETTE + +Mrs. Herbert returned with her husband from London to their country +home on the Border. They arrived rather late in the day, prepared to +visit the garden, and decided to put off the visit till the morrow. +At night Mrs. Herbert dreamed that they went into the garden, down a +long walk to a mignonette bed near the vinery. The mignonette was +black with innumerable bees, and Wilburd, the gardener, came up and +advised Mr. and Mrs. Herbert not to go nearer. Next morning the pair +went to the garden. The air round the mignonette was dark with +_wasps_. Mrs. Herbert now first remembered and told her dream, +adding, "but in the dream they were _bees_". Wilburd now came up and +advised them not to go nearer, as a wasps' nest had been injured and +the wasps were on the warpath. + +Here accidental coincidence is probable enough. {10} There is another +class of dreams very useful, and apparently not so very uncommon, that +are veracious and communicate correct information, which the dreamer +did not know that he knew and was very anxious to know. These are +rare enough to be rather difficult to believe. Thus:-- + +THE LOST CHEQUE + +Mr. A., a barrister, sat up one night to write letters, and about +half-past twelve went out to put them in the post. On undressing he +missed a cheque for a large sum, which he had received during the day. +He hunted everywhere in vain, went to bed, slept, and dreamed that he +saw the cheque curled round an area railing not far from his own door. +He woke, got up, dressed, walked down the street and found his cheque +in the place he had dreamed of. In his opinion he had noticed it fall +from his pocket as he walked to the letter-box, without consciously +remarking it, and his deeper memory awoke in slumber. {11a} + +THE DUCKS' EGGS + +A little girl of the author's family kept ducks and was anxious to +sell the eggs to her mother. But the eggs could not be found by eager +search. On going to bed she said, "Perhaps I shall dream of them". +Next morning she exclaimed, "I _did_ dream of them, they are in a +place between grey rock, broom, and mallow; that must be 'The Poney's +Field'!" And there the eggs were found. {11b} + +THE LOST KEY + +Lady X., after walking in a wood near her house in Ireland, found that +she had lost an important key. She dreamed that it was lying at the +root of a certain tree, where she found it next day, and her theory is +the same as that of Mr. A., the owner of the lost cheque. {11c} + +As a rule dreams throw everything into a dramatic form. Some one +knocks at our door, and the dream bases a little drama on the noise; +it constructs an explanatory myth, a myth to account for the noise, +which is acted out in the theatre of the brain. + +To take an instance, a disappointing one:-- + +THE LOST SECURITIES + +A lady dreamed that she was sitting at a window, watching the end of +an autumn sunset. There came a knock at the front door and a +gentleman and lady were ushered in. The gentleman wore an old- +fashioned snuff-coloured suit, of the beginning of the century; he +was, in fact, an aged uncle, who, during the Napoleonic wars, had been +one of the English detenus in France. The lady was very beautiful and +wore something like a black Spanish mantilla. The pair carried with +them a curiously wrought steel box. Before conversation was begun, +the maid (still in the dream) brought in the lady's chocolate and the +figures vanished. When the maid withdrew, the figures reappeared +standing by the table. The box was now open, and the old gentleman +drew forth some yellow papers, written on in faded ink. These, he +said, were lists of securities, which had been in his possession, when +he went abroad in 18--, and in France became engaged to his beautiful +companion. + +"The securities," he said, "are now in the strong box of Messrs. ---;" +another rap at the door, and the actual maid entered with real hot +water. It was time to get up. The whole dream had its origin in the +first rap, heard by the dreamer and dramatised into the arrival of +visitors. Probably it did not last for more than two or three seconds +of real time. The maid's second knock just prevented the revelation +of the name of "Messrs. ---," who, like the lady in the mantilla, were +probably non-existent people. {13} + +Thus dream dramatises on the impulse of some faint, hardly perceived +real sensation. And thus either mere empty fancies (as in the case of +the lost securities) or actual knowledge which we may have once +possessed but have totally forgotten, or conclusions which have passed +through our brains as unheeded guesses, may in a dream be, as it were, +"revealed" through the lips of a character in the brain's theatre-- +that character may, in fact, be alive, or dead, or merely fantastical. +A very good case is given with this explanation (lost knowledge +revived in a dramatic dream about a dead man) by Sir Walter Scott in a +note to The Antiquary. Familiar as the story is it may be offered +here, for a reason which will presently be obvious. + +THE ARREARS OF TEIND + +"Mr. Rutherford, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the +Vale of Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the +accumulated arrears of teind (or tithe) for which he was said to be +indebted to a noble family, the titulars (lay impropriators of the +tithes). Mr. Rutherford was strongly impressed with the belief that +his father had, by a form of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, +purchased these teinds from the titular, and, therefore, that the +present prosecution was groundless. But, after an industrious search +among his father's papers, an investigation among the public records +and a careful inquiry among all persons who had transacted law +business for his father, no evidence could be recovered to support his +defence. The period was now near at hand, when he conceived the loss +of his law-suit to be inevitable; and he had formed the determination +to ride to Edinburgh next day and make the best bargain he could in +the way of compromise. He went to bed with this resolution, and, with +all the circumstances of the case floating upon his mind, had a dream +to the following purpose. His father, who had been many years dead, +appeared to him, he thought, and asked him why he was disturbed in his +mind. In dreams men are not surprised at such apparitions. Mr. +Rutherford thought that he informed his father of the cause of his +distress, adding that the payment of a considerable sum of money was +the more unpleasant to him because he had a strong consciousness that +it was not due, though he was unable to recover any evidence in +support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the paternal +shade. 'I did acquire right to these teinds for payment of which you +are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction are in the +hands of Mr. ---, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired from +professional business and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He was +a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason, but +who never on any other occasion transacted business on my account. It +is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. --- may have +forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call +it to his recollection by this token, that when I came to pay his +account there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of +gold and we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.' + +"Mr. Rutherford awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision +imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to walk across the +country to Inveresk instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he +came there he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream--a very +old man. Without saying anything of the vision he inquired whether he +ever remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased +father. The old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance +to his recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold the +whole returned upon his memory. He made an immediate search for the +papers and recovered them, so that Mr. Rutherford carried to Edinburgh +the documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of +losing." + +The story is reproduced because it is clearly one of the tales which +come round in cycles, either because events repeat themselves or +because people will unconsciously localise old legends in new places +and assign old occurrences or fables to new persons. Thus every one +has heard how Lord Westbury called a certain man in the Herald's +office "a foolish old fellow who did not even know his own foolish old +business". Lord Westbury may very well have said this, but long +before his time the remark was attributed to the famous Lord +Chesterfield. Lord Westbury may have quoted it from Chesterfield or +hit on it by accident, or the old story may have been assigned to him. +In the same way Mr. Rutherford may have had his dream or the following +tale of St. Augustine's (also cited by Scott) may have been attributed +to him, with the picturesque addition about the piece of Portuguese +gold. Except for the piece of Portuguese gold St. Augustine +practically tells the anecdote in his De Cura pro Mortuis Habenda, +adding the acute reflection which follows. {16} + +"Of a surety, when we were at Milan, we heard tell of a certain person +of whom was demanded payment of a debt, with production of his +deceased father's acknowledgment, which debt, unknown to the son, the +father had paid, whereupon the man began to be very sorrowful, and to +marvel that his father while dying did not tell him what he owed when +he also made his will. Then in this exceeding anxiousness of his, his +said father appeared to him in a dream, and made known to him where +was the counter acknowledgment by which that acknowledgment was +cancelled. Which when the young man had found and showed, he not only +rebutted the wrongful claim of a false debt, but also got back his +father's note of hand, which the father had not got back when the +money was paid. + +"Here then the soul of a man is supposed to have had care for his son, +and to have come to him in his sleep, that, teaching him what he did +not know, he might relieve him of a great trouble. But about the very +same time as we heard this, it chanced at Carthage that the +rhetorician Eulogius, who had been my disciple in that art, being (as +he himself, after our return to Africa, told us the story) in course +of lecturing to his disciples on Cicero's rhetorical books, as he +looked over the portion of reading which he was to deliver on the +following day, fell upon a certain passage, and not being able to +understand it, was scarce able to sleep for the trouble of his mind: +in which night, as he dreamed, I expounded to him that which he did +not understand; nay, not I, but my likeness, while I was unconscious +of the thing and far away beyond sea, it might be doing, or it might +be dreaming, some other thing, and not in the least caring for his +cares. In what way these things come about I know not; but in what +way soever they come, why do we not believe it comes in the same way +for a person in a dream to see a dead man, as it comes that he sees a +living man? both, no doubt, neither knowing nor caring who dreams of +their images, or where or when. + +"Like dreams, moreover, are some visions of persons awake, who have +had their senses troubled, such as phrenetic persons, or those who are +mad in any way, for they, too, talk to themselves just as though they +were speaking to people verily present, and as well with absent men as +with present, whose images they perceive whether persons living or +dead. But just as they who live are unconscious that they are seen of +them and talk with them (for indeed they are not really themselves +present, or themselves make speeches, but through troubled senses +these persons are wrought upon by such like imaginary visions), just +so they also who have departed this life, to persons thus affected +appear as present while they be absent, and are themselves utterly +unconscious whether any man sees them in regard of their image." {18} + +St. Augustine adds a similar story of a trance. + +THE TWO CURMAS + +A rustic named Curma, of Tullium, near Hippo, Augustine's town, fell +into a catalepsy. On reviving he said: "Run to the house of Curma +the smith and see what is going on". Curma the smith was found to +have died just when the other Curma awoke. "I knew it," said the +invalid, "for I heard it said in that place whence I have returned +that not I, Curma of the Curia, but Curma the smith, was wanted." But +Curma of the Curia saw living as well as dead people, among others +Augustine, who, in his vision, baptised him at Hippo. Curma then, in +the vision, went to Paradise, where he was told to go and be baptised. +He said it had been done already, and was answered, "Go and be truly +baptised, for _that_ thou didst but see in vision". So Augustine +christened him, and later, hearing of the trance, asked him about it, +when he repeated the tale already familiar to his neighbours. +Augustine thinks it a mere dream, and apparently regards the death of +Curma the smith as a casual coincidence. Un esprit fort, le Saint +Augustin! + +"If the dead could come in dreams," he says, "my pious mother would no +night fail to visit me. Far be the thought that she should, by a +happier life, have been made so cruel that, when aught vexes my heart, +she should not even console in a dream the son whom she loved with an +only love." + +Not only things once probably known, yet forgotten, but knowledge +never _consciously_ thought out, may be revealed in a dramatic dream, +apparently through the lips of the dead or the never existent. The +books of psychology are rich in examples of problems worked out, or +music or poetry composed in sleep. The following is a more recent and +very striking example:-- + +THE ASSYRIAN PRIEST + +Herr H. V. Hilprecht is Professor of Assyriology in the University of +Pennsylvania. That university had despatched an expedition to explore +the ruins of Babylon, and sketches of the objects discovered had been +sent home. Among these were drawings of two small fragments of agate, +inscribed with characters. One Saturday night in March, 1893, +Professor Hilprecht had wearied himself with puzzling over these two +fragments, which were supposed to be broken pieces of finger-rings. +He was inclined, from the nature of the characters, to date them about +1700-1140 B.C.; and as the first character of the third line of the +first fragment seemed to read KU, he guessed that it might stand for +Kurigalzu, a king of that name. + +About midnight the professor went, weary and perplexed, to bed. + +"Then I dreamed the following remarkable dream. A tall thin priest of +the old pre-Christian Nippur, about forty years of age, and clad in a +simple abba, led me to the treasure-chamber of the temple, on its +south-east side. He went with me into a small low-ceiled room without +windows, in which there was a large wooden chest, while scraps of +agate and lapis lazuli lay scattered on the floor. Here he addressed +me as follows:-- + +"'The two fragments, which you have published separately upon pages 22 +and 26, _belong together_'" (this amazing Assyrian priest spoke +American!). {20} "'They are not finger-rings, and their history is as +follows:-- + +"'King Kurigalzu (about 1300 B.C.) once sent to the temple of Bel, +among other articles of agate and lapis lazuli, an inscribed votive +cylinder of agate. Then the priests suddenly received the command to +make for the statue of the god Nibib a pair of ear-rings of agate. We +were in great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at +hand. In order to execute the command there was nothing for us to do +but cut the votive cylinder in three parts, thus making three rings, +each of which contained a portion of the original inscription. The +first two rings served as ear-rings for the statue of the god; the two +fragments which have given you so much trouble are parts of them. If +you will put the two together, you will have confirmation of my words. +But the third ring you have not found yet, and you never will find +it.'" + +The professor awoke, bounded out of bed, as Mrs. Hilprecht testifies, +and was heard crying from his study, "It is so, it is so!" Mrs. +Hilprecht followed her lord, "and satisfied myself in the midnight +hour as to the outcome of his most interesting dream". + +The professor, however, says that he awoke, told his wife the dream, +and verified it next day. Both statements are correct. There were +two sets of drawings, one in the study (used that night) one used next +day in the University Library. + +The inscription ran thus, the missing fragment being restored, "by +analogy from many similar inscriptions":-- + +TO THE GOD NIBIB, CHILD +OF THE GOD BEL, +HIS LORD +KURIGALZU, +PONTIFEX OF THE GOD BEL +HAS PRESENTED IT. + +But, in the drawings, the fragments were of different colours, so that +a student working on the drawings would not guess them to be parts of +one cylinder. Professor Hilprecht, however, examined the two actual +fragments in the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. They lay in two +distinct cases, but, when put together, fitted. When cut asunder of +old, in Babylon, the white vein of the stone showed on one fragment, +the grey surface on the other. + +Professor Romaine Newbold, who publishes this dream, explains that the +professor had unconsciously reasoned out his facts, the difference of +colour in the two pieces of agate disappearing in the dream. The +professor had heard from Dr. Peters of the expedition, that a room had +been discovered with fragments of a wooden box and chips of agate and +lapis lazuli. The sleeping mind "combined its information," reasoned +rightly from it, and threw its own conclusions into a dramatic form, +receiving the information from the lips of a priest of Nippur. + +Probably we do a good deal of reasoning in sleep. Professor +Hilprecht, in 1882-83, was working at a translation of an inscription +wherein came Nabu--Kudurru--usur, rendered by Professor Delitzsch +"Nebo protect my mortar-board". Professor Hilprecht accepted this, +but woke one morning with his mind full of the thought that the words +should be rendered "Nebo protect my boundary," which "sounds a deal +likelier," and is now accepted. I myself, when working at the MSS. of +the exiled Stuarts, was puzzled by the scorched appearance of the +paper on which Prince Charlie's and the king's letters were often +written and by the peculiarities of the ink. I woke one morning with +a sudden flash of common-sense. Sympathetic ink had been used, and +the papers had been toasted or treated with acids. This I had +probably reasoned out in sleep, and, had I dreamed, my mind might have +dramatised the idea. Old Mr. Edgar, the king's secretary, might have +appeared and given me the explanation. Maury publishes tales in which +a forgotten fact was revealed to him in a dream from the lips of a +dream-character (Le Sommeil et les Reves, pp. 142-143. The curious +may also consult, on all these things, The Philosophy of Mysticism, by +Karl du Prel, translated by Mr. Massey. The Assyrian Priest is in +Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 14). + +On the same plane as the dreams which we have been examining is the +waking sensation of the deja vu. + +"I have been here before, +But when or how I cannot tell." + +Most of us know this feeling, all the circumstances in which we find +ourselves have already occurred, we have a prophecy of what will +happen next "on the tip of our tongues" (like a half-remembered name), +and then the impression vanishes. Scott complains of suffering +through a whole dinner-party from this sensation, but he had written +"copy" for fifty printed pages on that day, and his brain was breaking +down. Of course psychology has explanations. The scene _may_ have +really occurred before, or may be the result of a malady of +perception, or one hemisphere of the brain not working in absolute +simultaneousness with the other may produce a double impression, the +first being followed by the second, so that we really have had two +successive impressions, of which one seems much more remote in time +than it really was. Or we may have dreamed something like the scene +and forgotten the dream, or we may actually, in some not understood +manner, have had a "prevision" of what is now actual, as when Shelley +almost fainted on coming to a place near Oxford which he had beheld in +a dream. + +Of course, if this "prevision" could be verified in detail, we should +come very near to dreams of the future fulfilled. Such a thing-- +verification of a detail--led to the conversion of William Hone, the +free-thinker and Radical of the early century, who consequently became +a Christian and a pessimistic, clear-sighted Tory. This tale of the +deja vu, therefore, leads up to the marvellous narratives of dreams +simultaneous with, or prophetic of, events not capable of being +guessed or inferred, or of events lost in the historical past, but, +later, recovered from documents. + +Of Hone's affair there are two versions. Both may be given, as they +are short. If they illustrate the deja vu, they also illustrate the +fond discrepancies of all such narratives. {24} + +THE KNOT IN THE SHUTTER + +"It is said that a dream produced a powerful effect on Hone's mind. +He dreamt that he was introduced into a room where he was an entire +stranger, and saw himself seated at a table, and on going towards the +window his attention was somehow or other attracted to the window- +shutter, and particularly to a knot in the wood, which was of singular +appearance; and on waking the whole scene, and especially the knot in +the shutter, left a most vivid impression on his mind. Some time +afterwards, on going, I think, into the country, he was at some house +shown into a chamber where he had never been before, and which +instantly struck him as being the identical chamber of his dream. He +turned directly to the window, where the same knot in the shutter +caught his eye. This incident, to his investigating spirit, induced a +train of reflection which overthrew his cherished theories of +materialism, and resulted in conviction that there were spiritual +agencies as susceptible of proof as any facts of physical science; and +this appears to have been one of the links in that mysterious chain of +events by which, according to the inscrutable purposes of the Divine +will, man is sometimes compelled to bow to an unseen and divine power, +and ultimately to believe and live." + +"Another of the Christian friends from whom, in his later years, +William Hone received so much kindness, has also furnished +recollections of him. + +" . . . Two or three anecdotes which he related are all I can +contribute towards a piece of mental history which, if preserved, +would have been highly interesting. The first in point of time as to +his taste of mind, was a circumstance which shook his confidence in +_materialism_, though it did not lead to his conversion. It was one +of those mental phenomena which he saw to be _inexplicable_ by the +doctrines he then held. + +"It was as follows: He was called in the course of business into a +part of London quite new to him, and as he walked along the street he +noticed to himself that he had never been there; but on being shown +into a room in a house where he had to wait some time, he immediately +fancied that it was all familiar, that he had seen it before, 'and if +so,' said he to himself, 'there is a very peculiar knot in this +shutter'. He opened the shutter and found the knot. 'Now then,' +thought he, 'here is something I cannot explain on my principles!'" + +Indeed the occurrence is not very explicable on any principles, as a +detail not visible without search was sought and verified, and that by +a habitual mocker at anything out of the common way. For example, +Hone published a comic explanation, correct or not, of the famous +Stockwell mystery. + +Supposing Hone's story to be true, it naturally conducts us to yet +more unfamiliar, and therefore less credible dreams, in which the +unknown past, present, or future is correctly revealed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Veracious Dreams. Past, Present and Future unknown Events "revealed". +Theory of "Mental Telegraphy" or "Telepathy" fails to meet Dreams of +the unknowable Future. Dreams of unrecorded Past, how alone they can +be corroborated. Queen Mary's Jewels. Story from Brierre de +Boismont. Mr. Williams's Dream before Mr. Perceval's Murder. +Discrepancies of Evidence. Curious Story of Bude Kirk. Mr. +Williams's Version. Dream of a Rattlesnake. Discrepancies. Dream of +the Red Lamp. "Illusions Hypnagogiques." The Scar in the Moustache. +Dream of the Future. The Coral Sprigs. Anglo-Saxon Indifference. A +Celtic Dream. The Satin Slippers. Waking Dreams. The Dead Shopman. +Dreams in Swoons. + +Perhaps nothing, not even a ghost, is so staggering to the powers of +belief as a well-authenticated dream which strikes the bull's eye of +facts not known to the dreamer nor capable of being guessed by him. +If the events beheld in the dream are far away in space, or are remote +in time past, the puzzle is difficult enough. But if the events are +still in the future, perhaps no kind of explanation except a mere +"fluke" can even be suggested. Say that I dream of an event occurring +at a distance, and that I record or act on my dream before it is +corroborated. Suppose, too, that the event is not one which could be +guessed, like the death of an invalid or the result of a race or of an +election. This would be odd enough, but the facts of which I dreamed +must have been present in the minds of living people. Now, if there +is such a thing as "mental telegraphy" or "telepathy," {28} my mind, +in dream, may have "tapped" the minds of the people who knew the +facts. We may not believe in "mental telegraphy," but we can +_imagine_ it as one of the unknown possibilities of nature. Again, if +I dream of an unchronicled event in the past, and if a letter of some +historical person is later discovered which confirms the accuracy of +my dream, we can at least _conceive_ (though we need not believe) that +the intelligence was telegraphed to my dreaming mind from the mind of +a _dead_ actor in, or witness of the historical scene, for the facts +are unknown to living man. But even these wild guesses cannot cover a +dream which correctly reveals events of the future; events necessarily +not known to any finite mind of the living or of the dead, and too +full of detail for an explanation by aid of chance coincidence. + +In face of these difficulties mankind has gone on believing in dreams +of all three classes: dreams revealing the unknown present, the +unknown past, and the unknown future. The judicious reasonably set +them all aside as the results of fortuitous coincidence, or revived +recollection, or of the illusions of a false memory, or of imposture, +conscious or unconscious. However, the stories continue to be told, +and our business is with the stories. + +Taking, first, dreams of the unknown past, we find a large modern +collection of these attributed to a lady named "Miss A---". They were +waking dreams representing obscure incidents of the past, and were +later corroborated by records in books, newspapers and manuscripts. +But as these books and papers existed, and were known to exist, before +the occurrence of the visions, it is obvious that the matter of the +visions _may_ have been derived from the books and so forth, or at +least, a sceptic will vastly prefer this explanation. What we need is +a dream or vision of the unknown past, corroborated by a document _not +known to exist_ at the time when the vision took place and was +recorded. Probably there is no such instance, but the following tale, +picturesque in itself, has a kind of shadow of the only satisfactory +sort of corroboration. + +The author responsible for this yarn is Dr. Gregory, F.R.S., Professor +of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. After studying for many +years the real or alleged phenomena of what has been called mesmerism, +or electro-biology, or hypnotism, Dr. Gregory published in 1851 his +Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism. + +Though a F.R.S. and a Professor of Chemistry, the Doctor had no more +idea of what constitutes evidence than a baby. He actually mixed up +the Tyrone with the Lyttelton ghost story! His legend of Queen Mary's +jewels is derived from (1) the note-book, _or_ (2) a letter +containing, or professing to contain, extracts from the note-book, of +a Major Buckley, an Anglo-Indian officer. This gentleman used to +"magnetise" or hypnotise people, some of whom became clairvoyant, as +if possessed of eyes acting as "double-patent-million magnifiers," +permeated by X rays. + +"What follows is transcribed," says the Doctor, "from Major Buckley's +note-book." We abridge the narrative. Major Buckley hypnotised a +young officer, who, on November 15, 1845, fell into "a deeper state" +of trance. Thence he awoke into a "clairvoyant" condition and said:-- + +QUEEN MARY'S JEWELS + +"I have had a strange dream about your ring" (a "medallion" of Anthony +and Cleopatra); "it is very valuable." + +Major Buckley said it was worth 60 pounds, and put the ring into his +friend's hand. + +"It belonged to royalty." + +"In what country?" + +"I see Mary, Queen of Scots. It was given to her by a man, a +foreigner, with other things from Italy. It came from Naples. It is +not in the old setting. She wore it only once. The person who gave +it to her was a musician." + +The seer then "saw" the donor's signature, "Rizzio". But Rizzio +spelled his name Riccio! The seer now copied on paper a writing which +in his trance he saw on vellum. The design here engraved (p. 32) is +only from a rough copy of the seer's original drawing, which was made +by Major Buckley. + +[Picture of vellum as described in the text - images/rizzo.gif] + +"Here" (pointing to the middle) "I see a diamond cross." The +smallest stone was above the size of one of four carats. "It" (the +cross) "was worn out of sight by Mary. The vellum has been shown in +the House of Lords." {31} + +" . . . The ring was taken off Mary's finger by a man in anger and +jealousy: he threw it into the water. When he took it off, she was +being carried in a kind of bed with curtains" (a litter). + +Just before Rizzio's murder Mary was enceinte, and might well be +carried in a litter, though she usually rode. + +The seer then had a view of Sizzle's murder, which he had probably +read about. + +Three weeks later, in another trance, the seer finished his design of +the vellum. The words + +A +M +DE LA PART + +probably stand for a Marie, de la part de-- + +The thistle heads and leaves in gold at the corners were a usual +decoration of the period; compare the ceiling of the room in Edinburgh +Castle where James VI. was born, four months after Rizzio's murder. +They also occur in documents. Dr. Gregory conjectures that so +valuable a present as a diamond cross may have been made not by +Rizzio, but through Rizzio by the Pope. + +It did not seem good to the doctor to consult Mary's lists of jewels, +nor, if he had done so, would he have been any the wiser. In 1566, +just before the birth of James VI., Mary had an inventory drawn up, +and added the names of the persons to whom she bequeathed her +treasures in case she died in child-bed. But this inventory, hidden +among a mass of law-papers in the Record Office, was not discovered +till 1854, nine years after the vision of 1845, and three after its +publication by Dr. Gregory in 1851. Not till 1863 was the inventory +of 1566, discovered in 1854, published for the Bannatyne Club by Dr. +Joseph Robertson. + +Turning to the inventory we read of a valuable present made by David +Rizzio to Mary, a tortoise of rubies, which she kept till her death, +for it appears in a list made after her execution at Fotheringay. The +murdered David Rizzio left a brother Joseph. Him the queen made her +secretary, and in her will of 1566 mentions him thus:-- + +"A Josef, pour porter a celui qui je luy ay dit, une emeraude emaille +de blanc. + +"A Josef, pour porter a celui qui je luy ai dit, dont il ranvoir +quittance. + +"Une bague garnye de vingt cinq diamens tant grands que petis." + +Now the diamond cross seen by the young officer in 1845 was set with +diamonds great and small, and was, in his opinion, a gift from or +through Rizzio. "The queen wore it out of sight." Here in the +inventory we have a bague (which may be a cross) of diamonds small and +great, connected with a secret only known to Rizzio's brother and to +the queen. It is "to be carried to one whose name the queen has +spoken in her new secretary's ear" (Joseph's), "but dare not trust +herself to write". "It would be idle now to seek to pry into the +mystery which was thus anxiously guarded," says Dr. Robertson, editor +of the queen's inventories. The doctor knew nothing of the vision +which, perhaps, so nearly pried into the mystery. There is nothing +like proof here, but there is just a presumption that the diamonds +connected with Rizzio, and secretly worn by the queen, seen in the +vision of 1845, are possibly the diamonds which, had Mary died in +1566, were to be carried by Joseph Rizzio to a person whose name might +not safely be written. {35a} + +We now take a dream which apparently reveals a real fact occurring at +a distance. It is translated from Brierre de Boismont's book, Des +Hallucinations {35b} (Paris, 1845). "There are," says the learned +author, "authentic dreams which have revealed an event occurring at +the moment, or later." These he explains by accidental coincidence, +and then gives the following anecdote, as within his own intimate +knowledge:-- + +THE DEATHBED + +Miss C., a lady of excellent sense, religious but not bigoted, lived +before her marriage in the house of her uncle D., a celebrated +physician, and member of the Institute. Her mother at this time was +seriously ill in the country. One night the girl dreamed that she saw +her mother, pale and dying, and especially grieved at the absence of +two of her children: one a cure in Spain, the other--herself--in +Paris. Next she heard her own Christian name called, "Charlotte!" +and, in her dream, saw the people about her mother bring in her own +little niece and god-child Charlotte from the next room. The patient +intimated by a sign that she did not want _this_ Charlotte, but her +daughter in Paris. She displayed the deepest regret; her countenance +changed, she fell back, and died. + +Next day the melancholy of Mademoiselle C. attracted the attention of +her uncle. She told him her dream; he pressed her to his heart, and +admitted that her mother was dead. + +Some months later Mademoiselle C., when her uncle was absent, arranged +his papers, which he did not like any one to touch. Among these was a +letter containing the story of her mother's death, with all the +details of her own dream, which D. had kept concealed lest they should +impress her too painfully. + +Boismont is staggered by this circumstance, and inclined to account +for it by "still unknown relations in the moral and physical world". +"Mental telegraphy," of course, would explain all, and even chance +coincidence is perfectly conceivable. + +The most commonly known of dreams prior to, or simultaneous with an +historical occurrence represented in the vision, is Mr. Williams's +dream of the murder of Mr. Perceval in the lobby of the House of +Commons, May 11, 1812. Mr. Williams, of Scorrier House, near Redruth, +in Cornwall, lived till 1841. He was interested in mines, and a man +of substance. Unluckily the versions of his dream are full of +discrepancies. It was first published, apparently, in The Times +during the "silly season" of 1828 (August 28). According to The +Times, whose account is very minute, Mr. Williams dreamed of the +murder thrice before 2 a.m. on the night of May 11. He told Mrs. +Williams, and was so disturbed that he rose and dressed at two in the +morning. He went to Falmouth next day (May 12), and told the tale to +every one he knew. On the evening of the 13th he told it to Mr. and +Mrs. Tucker (his married daughter) of Tremanton Castle. Mr. Williams +only knew that the _chancellor_ was shot; Mr. Tucker said it must be +the Chancellor of the Exchequer. From the description he recognised +Mr. Perceval, with whom he was at enmity. Mr. Williams had never been +inside the House of Commons. As they talked, Mr. William's son +galloped up from Truro with news of the murder, got from a traveller +by coach. Six weeks later, Mr. Williams went to town, and in the +House of Commons walked up to and recognised the scene of the various +incidents in the murder. + +So far The Times, in 1828. But two forms of a version of 1832 exist, +one in a note to Mr. Walpole's Life of Perceval (1874), "an attested +statement, drawn up and signed by Mr. Williams in the presence of the +Rev. Thomas Fisher and Mr. Charles Prideaux Brune". Mr. Brune gave it +to Mr. Walpole. With only verbal differences this variant corresponds +to another signed by Mr. Williams and given by him to his grandson, +who gave it to Mr. Perceval's great-niece, by whom it was lent to the +Society for Psychical Research. + +These accounts differ toto coelo from that in The Times of 1828. The +dream is _not_ of May 11, but "about" May 2 or 3. Mr. Williams is +_not_ a stranger to the House of Commons; it is "a place well known to +me". He is _not_ ignorant of the name of the victim, but "understood +that it was Mr. Perceval". He thinks of going to town to give +warning. We hear nothing of Mr. Tucker. Mr. Williams does _not_ +verify his dream in the House, but from a drawing. A Mr. C. R. Fox, +son of one to whom the dream was told _before_ the event, was then a +boy of fourteen, and sixty-one years later was sure that he himself +heard of Mr. Williams's dream _before_ the news of the murder arrived. +After sixty years, however, the memory cannot be relied upon. + +One very curious circumstance in connection with the assassination of +Mr. Perceval has never been noticed. A rumour or report of the deed +reached Bude Kirk, a village near Annan, on the night of Sunday, May +10, a day before the crime was committed! This was stated in the +Dumfries and Galloway Courier, and copied in The Times of May 25. On +May 28, the Perth Courier quotes the Dumfries paper, and adds that +"the Rev. Mr. Yorstoun, minister of Hoddam (ob. 1833), has visited +Bude Kirk and has obtained the most satisfactory proof of the rumour +having existed" on May 10, but the rumour cannot be traced to its +source. Mr. Yorstoun authorises the mention of his name. The Times +of June 2 says that "the report is without foundation". If Williams +talked everywhere of his dream, on May 3, some garbled shape of it may +conceivably have floated to Bude Kirk by May 10, and originated the +rumour. Whoever started it would keep quiet when the real news +arrived for fear of being implicated in a conspiracy as accessory +before the fact. No trace of Mr. Williams's dream occurs in the +contemporary London papers. + +The best version of the dream to follow is probably that signed by Mr. +Williams himself in 1832. {39a} + +It may, of course, be argued by people who accept Mr. Williams's dream +as a revelation of the future that it reached his mind from the +_purpose_ conceived in Bellingham's mind, by way of "mental +telegraphy". {39b} + +DREAM OF MR. PERCEVAL'S MURDER + +"SUNDHILL, December, 1832. + +"[Some account of a dream which occurred to John Williams, Esq., of +Scorrier House, in the county of Cornwall, in the year 1812. Taken +from his own mouth, and narrated by him at various times to several of +his friends.] + +"Being desired to write out the particulars of a remarkable dream +which I had in the year 1812, before I do so I think it may be proper +for me to say that at that time my attention was fully occupied with +affairs of my own--the superintendence of some very extensive mines in +Cornwall being entrusted to me. Thus I had no leisure to pay any +attention to political matters, and hardly knew at that time who +formed the administration of the country. It was, therefore, scarcely +possible that my own interest in the subject should have had any share +in suggesting the circumstances which presented themselves to my +imagination. It was, in truth, a subject which never occurred to my +waking thoughts. + +"My dream was as follows:-- + +"About the second or third day of May, 1812, I dreamed that I was in +the lobby of the House of Commons (a place well known to me). A small +man, dressed in a blue coat and a white waistcoat, entered, and +immediately I saw a person whom I had observed on my first entrance, +dressed in a snuff-coloured coat with metal buttons, take a pistol +from under his coat and present it at the little man above-mentioned. +The pistol was discharged, and the ball entered under the left breast +of the person at whom it was directed. I saw the blood issue from the +place where the ball had struck him, his countenance instantly +altered, and he fell to the ground. Upon inquiry who the sufferer +might be, I was informed that he was the chancellor. I understood him +to be Mr. Perceval, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. I further +saw the murderer laid hold of by several of the gentlemen in the room. +Upon waking I told the particulars above related to my wife; she +treated the matter lightly, and desired me to go to sleep, saying it +was only a dream. I soon fell asleep again, and again the dream +presented itself with precisely the same circumstances. After waking +a second time and stating the matter again to my wife, she only +repeated her request that I would compose myself and dismiss the +subject from my mind. Upon my falling asleep the third time, the same +dream without any alteration was repeated, and I awoke, as on the +former occasions, in great agitation. So much alarmed and impressed +was I with the circumstances above related, that I felt much doubt +whether it was not my duty to take a journey to London and communicate +upon the subject with the party principally concerned. Upon this +point I consulted with some friends whom I met on business at the +Godolphin mine on the following day. After having stated to them the +particulars of the dream itself and what were my own feelings in +relation to it, they dissuaded me from my purpose, saying I might +expose myself to contempt and vexation, or be taken up as a fanatic. +Upon this I said no more, but anxiously watched the newspapers every +evening as the post arrived. + +"On the evening of the 13th of May (as far as I recollect) no account +of Mr. Perceval's death was in the newspapers, but my second son, +returning from Truro, came in a hurried manner into the room where I +was sitting and exclaimed: 'O father, your dream has come true! Mr. +Perceval has been shot in the lobby of the House of Commons; there is +an account come from London to Truro written after the newspapers were +printed.' + +"The fact was Mr. Percival was assassinated on the evening of the +11th. + +"Some business soon after called me to London, and in one of the +print-shops I saw a drawing for sale, representing the place and the +circumstances which attended Mr. Perceval's death. I purchased it, +and upon a careful examination I found it to coincide in all respects +with the scene which had passed through my imagination in the dream. +The colours of the dresses, the buttons of the assassin's coat, the +white waistcoat of Mr. Perceval, the spot of blood upon it, the +countenances and attitudes of the parties present were exactly what I +had dreamed. + +"The singularity of the case, when mentioned among my friends and +acquaintances, naturally made it the subject of conversation in +London, and in consequence my friend, the late Mr. Rennie, was +requested by some of the commissioners of the navy that they might be +permitted to hear the circumstances from myself. Two of them +accordingly met me at Mr. Rennie's house, and to them I detailed at +the time the particulars, then fresh in my memory, which form the +subject of the above statement. + +"I forbear to make any comment on the above narrative, further than to +declare solemnly that it is a faithful account of facts as they +actually occurred. + +(Signed) "JOHN WILLIAMS." {42} + +When we come to dreams of the future, great historical examples are +scarce indeed, that is, dreams respectably authenticated. We have to +put up with curious trivialities. One has an odd feature. + +THE RATTLESNAKE + +Dr. Kinsolving, of the Church of the Epiphany in Philadelphia, dreamed +that he "came across a rattlesnake," which "when killed had _two_ +black-looking rattles and a peculiar projection of bone from the tail, +while the skin was unusually light in colour". Next day, while +walking with his brother, Dr. Kinsolving nearly trod on a rattlesnake, +"the same snake in every particular with the one I had had in my +mind's eye". This would be very well, but Dr. Kinsolving's brother, +who helped to kill the unlucky serpent, says "_he had a single +rattle_". The letters of these gentlemen were written without +communication to each other. If Mr. Kinsolving is right, the real +snake with _one_ rattle was _not_ the dream snake with _two_ rattles. +The brothers were in a snaky country, West Virginia. {43} + +The following is trivial, but good. It is written by Mr. Alfred +Cooper, and attested by the dreamer, the Duchess of Hamilton. + +THE RED LAMP + +Mr. Cooper says: "A fortnight before the death of the late Earl of L--- +in 1882, I called upon the Duke of Hamilton, in Hill Street, to see +him professionally. After I had finished seeing him, we went into the +drawing-room, where the duchess was, and the duke said, 'Oh, Cooper, +how is the earl?' + +"The duchess said, 'What earl?' and on my answering 'Lord L---,' she +replied: 'That is very odd. I have had a most extraordinary vision. +I went to bed, but after being in bed a short time, I was not exactly +asleep, but thought I saw a scene as if from a play before me. The +actors in it were Lord L--- as if in a fit, with a man standing over +him with a red beard. He was by the side of a bath, over which a red +lamp was distinctly shown. + +"I then said: 'I am attending Lord L--- at present; there is very +little the matter with him; he is not going to die; he will be all +right very soon'. + +"Well he got better for a week and was nearly well, but at the end of +six or seven days after this I was called to see him suddenly. He had +inflammation of both lungs. + +"I called in Sir William Jenner, but in six days he was a dead man. +There were two male nurses attending on him; one had been taken ill. +But when I saw the other, the dream of the duchess was exactly +represented. He was standing near a bath over the earl, and strange +to say, his beard was red. There was the bath with the red lamp over +it. It is rather rare to find a bath with a red lamp over it, and +this brought the story to my mind. . . ." + +This account, written in 1888, has been revised by the late Duke of +Manchester, father of the Duchess of Hamilton, who heard the vision +from his daughter on the morning after she had seen it. + +The duchess only knew the earl by sight, and had not heard that he was +ill. She knew she was not asleep, for she opened her eyes to get rid +of the vision, and, shutting them, saw the same thing again. {45a} + +In fact, the "vision" was an illusion hypnagogique. Probably most +readers know the procession of visions which sometimes crowd on the +closed eyes just before sleep. {45b} They commonly represent with +vivid clearness unknown faces or places, occasionally known faces. +The writer has seen his own in this way and has occasionally "opened +his eyes to get rid of" the appearances. In his opinion the pictures +are unconsciously constructed by the half-sleeping mind out of blurs +of light or dark seen with closed eyes. Mr. Cooper's story would be +more complete if he had said whether or not the earl, when visited by +him, was in a chair as in the vision. But beds are not commonly found +in bathrooms. + +THE SCAR IN THE MOUSTACHE + +This story was told to the writer by his old head-master, the Rev. Dr. +Hodson, brother of Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, a person whom I never +heard make any other allusion to such topics. Dr. Hodson was staying +with friends in Switzerland during the holidays. One morning, as he +lay awake, he seemed to see into a room as if the wall of his bedroom +had been cut out. In the room were a lady well known to him and a man +whom he did not know. The man's back was turned to the looker-on. +The scene vanished, and grew again. Now the man faced Dr. Hodson; the +face was unfamiliar, and had a deep white scar seaming the moustache. +Dr. Hodson mentioned the circumstance to his friends, and thought +little of it. He returned home, and, one day, in Perth station, met +the lady at the book-stall. He went up to accost her, and was +surprised by the uneasiness of her manner. A gentleman now joined +them, with a deep white scar through his moustache. Dr. Hodson now +recalled, what had slipped his memory, that the lady during his +absence from Scotland had eloped with an officer, the man of the +vision and the railway station. He did not say, or perhaps know, +whether the elopement was prior to the kind of dream in Switzerland. + +Here is a dream representing a future event, with details which could +not be guessed beforehand. + +THE CORAL SPRIGS + +Mrs. Weiss, of St. Louis, was in New York in January, 1881, attending +a daughter, Mrs. C., who was about to have a child. She writes:-- + +"On Friday night (Jan. 21) I dreamed that my daughter's time came; +that owing to some cause not clearly defined, we failed to get word to +Mr. C., who was to bring the doctor; that we sent for the nurse, who +came; that as the hours passed and neither Mr. C. nor the doctor came +we both got frightened; that at last I heard Mr. C. on the stairs, and +cried to him: 'Oh, Chan, for heaven's sake get a doctor! Ada may be +confined at any moment'; that he rushed away, and I returned to the +bedside of my daughter, who was in agony of mind and body; that +suddenly I seemed to know what to do, . . . and that shortly after Mr. +C. came, bringing a tall young doctor, having brown eyes, dark hair, +ruddy brun complexion, grey trousers and grey vest, and wearing a +bright blue cravat, picked out with coral sprigs; the cravat attracted +my attention particularly. The young doctor pronounced Mrs. C. +properly attended to, and left." + +Mrs. Weiss at breakfast told the dream to Mr. C. and her daughter; +none of them attached any importance to it. However, as a snowstorm +broke the telegraph wires on Saturday, the day after the dream, Mrs. +Weiss was uneasy. On Tuesday the state of Mrs. C. demanded a doctor. +Mrs. Weiss sent a telegram for Mr. C.; he came at last, went out to +bring a doctor, and was long absent. Then Mrs. Weiss suddenly felt a +calm certainty that _she_ (though inexperienced in such cares) could +do what was needed. "I heard myself say in a peremptory fashion: +'Ada, don't be afraid, I know just what to do; all will go well'." +All did go well; meanwhile Mr. C. ran to seven doctors' houses, and at +last returned with a young man whom Mrs. Weiss vaguely recognised. +Mrs. C. whispered, "Look at the doctor's cravat". It was blue and +coral sprigged, and then first did Mrs. Weiss remember her dream of +Friday night. + +Mrs. Weiss's story is corroborated by Mr. Blanchard, who heard the +story "a few days after the event". Mrs. C. has read Mrs. Weiss's +statement, "and in so far as I can remember it is quite correct". Mr. +C. remembers nothing about it; "he declares that he has no +recollection of it, _or of any matters outside his business_, and +knowing him as I do," says Mrs. Weiss, "I do not doubt the assertion". + +Mr. C. must be an interesting companion. The nurse remembers that +after the birth of the baby Mrs. C. called Mr. C.'s attention to "the +doctor's necktie," and heard her say, "Why, I know him by mamma's +description as the doctor she saw in her dreams". {48} + +The only thing even more extraordinary than the dream is Mr. C.'s +inability to remember anything whatever "outside of his business". +Another witness appears to decline to be called, "as it would be +embarrassing to him in his business". This it is to be Anglo-Saxon! + +We now turn to a Celtic dream, in which knowledge supposed to be only +known to a dead man was conveyed to his living daughter. + +THE SATIN SLIPPERS + +On 1st February, 1891, Michael Conley, a farmer living near Ionia, in +Chichasow county, Iowa, went to Dubuque, in Iowa, to be medically +treated. He left at home his son Pat and his daughter Elizabeth, a +girl of twenty-eight, a Catholic, in good health. On February 3 +Michael was found dead in an outhouse near his inn. In his pocket +were nine dollars, seventy-five cents, but his clothes, including his +shirt, were thought so dirty and worthless that they were thrown away. +The body was then dressed in a white shirt, black clothes and satin +slippers of a new pattern. Pat Conley was telegraphed for, and +arrived at Dubuque on February 4, accompanied by Mr. George Brown, "an +intelligent and reliable farmer". Pat took the corpse home in a +coffin, and on his arrival Elizabeth fell into a swoon, which lasted +for several hours. Her own account of what followed on her recovery +may be given in her own words:-- + +"When they told me that father was dead I felt very sick and bad; I +did not know anything. Then father came to me. He had on a white +shirt" (his own was grey), "and black clothes and slippers. When I +came to, I told Pat I had seen father. I asked Pat if he had brought +back father's old clothes. He said 'No,' and asked me why I wanted +them. I told him father said he had sewed a roll of bills inside of +his grey shirt, in a pocket made of a piece of my old red dress. I +went to sleep, and father came to me again. When I awoke I told Pat +he must go and get the clothes"--her father's old clothes. + +Pat now telephoned to Mr. Hoffman, Coroner of Dubuque, who found the +old clothes in the back yard of the local morgue. They were wrapped +up in a bundle. Receiving this news, Pat went to Dubuque on February +9, where Mr. Hoffman opened the bundle in Pat's presence. Inside the +old grey shirt was found a pocket of red stuff, sewn with a man's +long, uneven stitches, and in the pocket notes for thirty-five +dollars. + +The girl did not see the body in the coffin, but asked about the _old_ +clothes, because the figure of her father in her dream wore clothes +which she did not recognise as his. To dream in a faint is nothing +unusual. {50} + +THE DEAD SHOPMAN + +Swooning, or slight mental mistiness, is not very unusual in ghost +seers. The brother of a friend of my own, a man of letters and wide +erudition, was, as a boy, employed in a shop in a town, say Wexington. +The overseer was a dark, rather hectic-looking man, who died. Some +months afterwards the boy was sent on an errand. He did his business, +but, like a boy, returned by a longer and more interesting route. He +stopped as a bookseller's shop to stare at the books and pictures, and +while doing so felt a kind of mental vagueness. It was just before +his dinner hour, and he may have been hungry. On resuming his way, he +looked up and found the dead overseer beside him. He had no sense of +surprise, and walked for some distance, conversing on ordinary topics +with the appearance. He happened to notice such a minute detail as +that the spectre's boots were laced in an unusual way. At a crossing, +something in the street attracted his attention; he looked away from +his companion, and, on turning to resume their talk, saw no more of +him. He then walked to the shop, where he mentioned the occurrence to +a friend. He has never during a number of years had any such +experience again, or suffered the preceding sensation of vagueness. + +This, of course, is not a ghost story, but leads up to the old tale of +the wraith of Valogne. In this case, two boys had made a covenant, +the first who died was to appear to the other. He _did_ appear before +news of his death arrived, but after a swoon of his friend's, whose +health (like that of Elizabeth Conley) suffered in consequence. + +NOTE + +"PERCEVAL MURDER." Times, 25th May, 1812. + +"A Dumfries paper states that on the night of Sunday, the 10th +instant, _twenty-four hours before the fatal deed was perpetrated_, a +report was brought to Bude Kirk, two miles from Annan, that _Mr. +Perceval was shot on his way to the House of Commons, at the door or +in the lobby of that House_. This the whole inhabitants of the +village are ready to attest, as the report quickly spread and became +the topic of conversation. A clergyman investigated the rumour, with +the view of tracing it to its source, but without success." + +The Times of 2nd June says, "Report without foundation". + +Perth Courier, 28th May, quoting from the Dumfries and Galloway +Courier, repeats above almost verbatim. " . . . The clergyman to +whom we have alluded, and who allows me to make use of his name, is +Mr. Yorstoun, minister of Hoddam. This gentleman went to the spot and +carefully investigated the rumour, but has not hitherto been +successful, although he has obtained the most satisfactory proof of +its having existed at the time we have mentioned. We forbear to make +any comments on this wonderful circumstance, but should anything +further transpire that may tend to throw light upon it, we shall not +fail to give the public earliest information." + +The Dumfries and Galloway Courier I cannot find! It is not in the +British Museum. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Transition from Dreams to Waking Hallucinations. Popular Scepticism +about the Existence of Hallucinations in the Sane. Evidence of Mr. +Francis Galton, F.R.S. Scientific Disbelief in ordinary Mental +Imagery. Scientific Men who do not see in "the Mind's Eye". Ordinary +People who do. Frequency of Waking Hallucinations among Mr. Gallon's +friends. Kept Private till asked for by Science. Causes of such +Hallucinations unknown. Story of the Diplomatist. Voluntary or +Induced Hallucinations. Crystal Gazing. Its Universality. +Experience of George Sand. Nature of such Visions. Examples. +Novelists. Crystal Visions only "Ghostly" when Veracious. Modern +Examples. Under the Lamp. The Cow with the Bell Historical Example. +Prophetic Crystal Vision. St. Simon The Regent d'Orleans. The +Deathbed of Louis XIV. References for other Cases of Crystal Visions. + +From dreams, in sleep or swoon, of a character difficult to believe in +we pass by way of "hallucinations" to ghosts. Everybody is ready to +admit that dreams do really occur, because almost everybody has +dreamed. But everybody is not so ready to admit that sane and +sensible men and women can have hallucinations, just because everybody +has not been hallucinated. + +On this point Mr. Francis Galton, in his Inquiries into Human Faculty +(1833), is very instructive. Mr. Galton drew up a short catechism, +asking people how clearly or how dimly they saw things "in their +mind's eye". + +"Think of your breakfast-table," he said; "is your mental picture of +it as clearly illuminated and as complete as your actual view of the +scene?" Mr. Galton began by questioning friends in the scientific +world, F.R.S.'s and other savants. "The earliest results of my +inquiry amazed me. . . . The great majority of the men of science to +whom I first applied, protested that _mental imagery was unknown to +them_, and they looked on me as fanciful and fantastic in supposing +that the words 'mental imagery' really expressed what I believed +everybody supposed them to mean." One gentleman wrote: "It is only +by a figure of speech that I can describe my recollection of a scene +as a 'mental image' which I can 'see' with 'my mind's eye'. I do not +see it," so he seems to have supposed that nobody else did. + +When he made inquiries in general society, Mr. Galton found plenty of +people who "saw" mental imagery with every degree of brilliance or +dimness, from "quite comparable to the real object" to "I recollect +the table, but do not see it"--my own position. + +Mr. Galton was next "greatly struck by the frequency of the replies in +which my correspondents" (sane and healthy) "described themselves as +subject to 'visions'". These varied in degree, "some were so vivid as +actually to deceive the judgment". Finally, "a notable proportion of +sane persons have had not only visions, but actual hallucinations of +sight at one or more periods of their life. I have a considerable +packet of instances contributed by my personal friends." Thus one +"distinguished authoress" saw "the principal character of one of her +novels glide through the door straight up to her. It was about the +size of a large doll." Another heard unreal music, and opened the +door to hear it better. Another was plagued by voices, which said +"Pray," and so forth. + +Thus, on scientific evidence, sane and healthy people may, and "in a +notable proportion _do_, experience hallucinations". That is to say, +they see persons, or hear them, or believe they are touched by them, +or all their senses are equally affected at once, when no such persons +are really present. This kind of thing is always going on, but "when +popular opinion is of a matter-of-fact kind, the seers of visions keep +quiet; they do not like to be thought fanciful or mad, and they hide +their experiences, which only come to light through inquiries such as +those that I have been making". + +We may now proceed to the waking hallucinations of sane and healthy +people, which Mr. Galton declares to be so far from uncommon. Into +the _causes_ of these hallucinations which may actually deceive the +judgment, Mr. Galton does not enter. + +STORY OF THE DIPLOMATIST {56a} + +For example, there is a living diplomatist who knows men and cities, +and has, moreover, a fine sense of humour. "My Lord," said a famous +Russian statesman to him, "you have all the qualities of a +diplomatist, but you cannot control your smile." This gentleman, +walking alone in a certain cloister at Cambridge, met a casual +acquaintance, a well-known London clergyman, and was just about +shaking hands with him, when the clergyman vanished. Nothing in +particular happened to either of them; the clergyman was not in the +seer's mind at the moment. + +This is a good example of a solitary hallucination in the experience +of a very cool-headed observer. The _causes_ of such experiences are +still a mystery to science. Even people who believe in "mental +telegraphy," say when a distant person, at death or in any other +crisis, impresses himself as present on the senses of a friend, cannot +account for an experience like that of the diplomatist, an experience +not very uncommon, and little noticed except when it happens to +coincide with some remarkable event. {56b} Nor are such +hallucinations of an origin easily detected, like those of delirium, +insanity, intoxication, grief, anxiety, or remorse. We can only +suppose that a past impression of the aspect of a friend is recalled +by some association of ideas so vividly that (though we are not +_consciously_ thinking of him) we conceive the friend to be actually +present in the body when he is absent. + +These hallucinations are casual and unsought. But between these and +the dreams of sleep there is a kind of waking hallucinations which +some people can purposely evoke. Such are the visions of _crystal +gazing_. + +Among the superstitions of almost all ages and countries is the belief +that "spirits" will show themselves, usually after magical ceremonies, +to certain persons, commonly children, who stare into a crystal ball, +a cup, a mirror, a blob of ink (in Egypt and India), a drop of blood +(among the Maoris of New Zealand), a bowl of water (Red Indian), a +pond (Roman and African), water in a glass bowl (in Fez), or almost +any polished surface. The magical ceremonies, which have probably +nothing to do with the matter, have succeeded in making this old and +nearly universal belief seem a mere fantastic superstition. But +occasionally a person not superstitious has recorded this experience. +Thus George Sand in her Histoire de ma Vie mentions that, as a little +girl, she used to see wonderful moving landscapes in the polished back +of a screen. These were so vivid that she thought they must be +visible to others. + +Recent experiments have proved that an unexpected number of people +have this faculty. Gazing into a ball of crystal or glass, a crystal +or other smooth ring stone, such as a sapphire or ruby, or even into a +common ink-pot, they will see visions very brilliant. These are often +mere reminiscences of faces or places, occasionally of faces or places +sunk deep below the ordinary memory. Still more frequently they +represent fantastic landscapes and romantic scenes, as in an +historical novel, with people in odd costumes coming, going and +acting. Thus I have been present when a lady saw in a glass ball a +man in white Oriental costume kneeling beside a leaping fountain of +fire. Presently a hand appeared pointing downwards through the flame. +The _first_ vision seen pretty often represents an invalid in bed. +Printed words are occasionally read in the glass, as also happens in +the visions beheld with shut eyes before sleeping. + +All these kinds of things, in fact, are common in our visions between +sleeping and waking (illusions hypnagogiques). The singularity is +that they are seen by people wide awake in glass balls and so forth. +Usually the seer is a person whose ordinary "mental imagery" is +particularly vivid. But every "visualiser" is not a crystal seer. A +novelist of my acquaintance can "visualise" so well that, having +forgotten an address and lost the letter on which it was written, he +called up a mental picture of the letter, and so discovered the +address. But this very popular writer can see no visions in a crystal +ball. Another very popular novelist can see them; little dramas are +acted out in the ball for his edification. {58} + +These things are as unfamiliar to men of science as Mr. Galton found +ordinary mental imagery, pictures in memory, to be. Psychology may or +may not include them in her province; they may or may not come to be +studied as ordinary dreams are studied. But, like dreams, these +crystal visions enter the domain of the ghostly only when they are +_veracious_, and contribute information previously unknown as to past, +present or future. There are plenty of stories to this effect. To +begin with an easy, or comparatively easy, exercise in belief. + +UNDER THE LAMP + +I had given a glass ball to a young lady, who believed that she could +play the "willing game" successfully without touching the person +"willed," and when the person did not even know that "willing" was +going on. This lady, Miss Baillie, had scarcely any success with the +ball. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a large, square, old- +fashioned red sofa covered with muslin, which she found in the next +country house she visited. Miss Baillie's brother, a young athlete +(at short odds for the amateur golf championship), laughed at these +experiments, took the ball into the study, and came back looking "gey +gash". He admitted that he had seen a vision, somebody he knew "under +a lamp". He would discover during the week whether he saw right or +not. This was at 5.30 on a Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, Mr. Baillie +was at a dance in a town some forty miles from his home, and met a +Miss Preston. "On Sunday," he said, "about half-past five you were +sitting under a standard lamp in a dress I never saw you wear, a blue +blouse with lace over the shoulders, pouring out tea for a man in blue +serge, whose back was towards me, so that I only saw the tip of his +moustache." + +"Why, the blinds must have been up," said Miss Preston. + +"I was at Dulby," said Mr. Baillie, as he undeniably was. {60a} + +This is not a difficult exercise in belief. Miss Preston was not +unlikely to be at tea at tea-time. + +Nor is the following very hard. + +THE COW WITH THE BELL + +I had given a glass ball to the wife of a friend, whose visions proved +so startling and on one occasion so unholy that she ceased to make +experiments. One day my friend's secretary, a young student and +golfer, took up the ball. + +"I see a field I know very well," he said, "but there is a cow in it +that I never saw; brown, with white markings, and, this is odd in +Scotland, she has a bell hanging from her neck. I'll go and look at +the field." + +He went and found the cow as described, bell and all. {60b} + +In the spring of 1897 I gave a glass ball to a young lady, previously +a stranger to me, who was entirely unacquainted with crystal gazing, +even by report. She had, however, not infrequent experience of +spontaneous visions, which were fulfilled, including a vision of the +Derby (Persimmon's year), which enriched her friends. In using the +ball she, time after time, succeeded in seeing and correctly +describing persons and places familiar to people for whom she +"scried," but totally strange to herself. In one case she added a +detail quite unknown to the person who consulted her, but which was +verified on inquiry. These experiments will probably be published +elsewhere. Four people, out of the very small number who tried on +these occasions, saw fancy pictures in the ball: two were young +ladies, one a man, and one a schoolboy. I must confess that, for the +first time, I was impressed by the belief that the lady's veracious +visions, however they are to be explained, could not possibly be +accounted for by chance coincidence. They were too many (I was aware +of five in a few days), too minute, and too remote from the range of +ingenious guessing. But "thought transference," tapping the mental +wires of another person, would have accounted for every case, with, +perhaps, the exception of that in which an unknown detail was added. +This confession will, undoubtedly, seem weakly credulous, but not to +make it would be unfair and unsportsmanlike. My statement, of course, +especially without the details, is not evidence for other people. + +The following case is a much harder exercise in belief. It is +narrated by the Duc de Saint Simon. {62} The events were described to +Saint Simon on the day after their occurrence by the Duc d'Orleans, +then starting for Italy, in May, 1706. Saint Simon was very intimate +with the duke, and they corresponded by private cypher without +secretaries. Owing to the death of the king's son and grandson (not +seen in the vision), Orleans became Regent when Louis XIV. died in +1714. Saint Simon is a reluctant witness, and therefore all the +better. + +THE DEATHBED OF LOUIS XIV. + +"Here is a strange story that the Duc d'Orleans told me one day in a +tete-a-tete at Marly, he having just run down from Paris before he +started for Italy; and it may be observed that all the events +predicted came to pass, though none of them could have been foreseen +at the time. His interest in every kind of art and science was very +great, and in spite of his keen intellect, he was all his life subject +to a weakness which had been introduced (with other things) from Italy +by Catherine de Medici, and had reigned supreme over the courts of her +children. He had exercised every known method of inducing the devil +to appear to him in person, though, as he has himself told me, without +the smallest success. He had spent much time in investigating matters +that touched on the supernatural, and dealt with the future. + +"Now La Sery (his mistress) had in her house a little girl of eight or +nine years of age, who had never resided elsewhere since her birth. +She was to all appearance a very ordinary child, and from the way in +which she had been brought up, was more than commonly ignorant and +simple. One day, during the visit of M. d'Orleans, La Sery produced +for his edification one of the charlatans with whom the duke had long +been familiar, who pretended that by means of a glass of water he +could see the answer to any question that might be put. For this +purpose it was necessary to have as a go-between some one both young +and innocent, to gaze into the water, and this little girl was at once +sent for. They amused themselves by asking what was happening in +certain distant places; and after the man had murmured some words over +the water, the child looked in and always managed to see the vision +required of her. + +"M. le duc d'Orleans had so often been duped in matters of this kind +that he determined to put the water-gazer to a severe test. He +whispered to one of his attendants to go round to Madame de Nancre's, +who lived close by, and ascertain who was there, what they were all +doing, the position of the room and the way it was furnished, and +then, without exchanging a word with any one, to return and let him +know the result. This was done speedily and without the slightest +suspicion on the part of any person, the child remaining in the room +all the time. When M. le duc d'Orleans had learned all he wanted to +know, he bade the child look in the water and tell him who was at +Madame de Nancre's and what they were all doing. She repeated word +for word the story that had been told by the duke's messenger; +described minutely the faces, dresses and positions of the assembled +company, those that were playing cards at the various tables, those +that were sitting, those that were standing, even the very furniture! +But to leave nothing in doubt, the Duke of Orleans despatched Nancre +back to the house to verify a second time the child's account, and +like the valet, he found she had been right in every particular. + +"As a rule he said very little to me about these subjects, as he knew +I did not approve of them, and on this occasion I did not fail to +scold him, and to point out the folly of being amused by such things, +especially at a time when his attention should be occupied with more +serious matters. 'Oh, but I have only told you half,' he replied; +'that was just the beginning,' and then he went on to say that, +encouraged by the exactitude of the little girl's description of +Madame de Nancre's room, he resolved to put to her a more important +question, namely, as to the scene that would occur at the death of the +king. The child had never seen any one who was about the court, and +had never even heard of Versailles, but she described exactly and at +great length the king's bedroom at Versailles and all the furniture +which was in fact there at the date of his death. She gave every +detail as to the bed, and cried out on recognising, in the arms of +Madame de Ventadour, a little child decorated with an order whom she +had seen at the house of Mademoiselle la Sery; and again at the sight +of M. le duc d'Orleans. From her account, Madame de Maintenon, Fagon +with his odd face, Madame la duchesse d'Orleans, Madame la duchesse, +Madame la princesse de Conti, besides other princes and nobles, and +even the valets and servants were all present at the king's deathbed. +Then she paused, and M. le duc d'Orleans, surprised that she had never +mentioned Monseigneur, Monsieur le duc de Bourgogne, Madame la +duchesse de Bourgogne, nor M. le duc de Berri, inquired if she did not +see such and such people answering to their description. She +persisted that she did not, and went over the others for the second +time. This astonished M. le duc d'Orleans deeply, as well as myself, +and we were at a loss to explain it, but the event proved that the +child was perfectly right. This seance took place in 1706. These +four members of the royal family were then full of health and +strength; and they all died before the king. It was the same thing +with M. le prince, M. le duc, and M. le prince de Conti, whom she +likewise did not see, though she beheld the children of the two last +named; M. du Maine, his own (Orleans), and M. le comte de Toulouse. +But of course this fact was unknown till eight years after." + +Science may conceivably come to study crystal visions, but veracious +crystal visions will be treated like veracious dreams. That is to +say, they will be explained as the results of a chance coincidence +between the unknown fact and the vision, or of imposture, conscious or +unconscious, or of confusion of memory, or the fact of the crystal +vision will be simply denied. Thus a vast number of well- +authenticated cases of veracious visions will be required before +science could admit that it might be well to investigate hitherto +unacknowledged faculties of the human mind. The evidence can never be +other than the word of the seer, with whatever value may attach to the +testimony of those for whom he "sees," and describes, persons and +places unknown to himself. The evidence of individuals as to their +own subjective experiences is accepted by psychologists in other +departments of the study. {66} + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Veracious Waking Hallucinations not recognised by Science; or +explained by Coincidence, Imposture, False Memory. A Veracious +Hallucination popularly called a Wraith or Ghost. Example of +Unveracious Hallucination. The Family Coach. Ghosts' Clothes and +other Properties and Practices; how explained. Case of Veracious +Hallucination. Riding Home from Mess. Another Case. The Bright +Scar. The Vision and the Portrait. Such Stories not usually +believed. Cases of Touch: The Restraining Hand. Of Hearing: The +Benedictine's Voices; The Voice in the Bath-room. Other "Warnings". +The Maoris. The Man at the Lift. Appearances Coincident with Death. +Others not Coincident with Anything. + +In "crystal-gazing" anybody can make experiments for himself and among +such friends as he thinks he can trust. They are hallucinations +consciously sought for, and as far as possible, provoked or induced by +taking certain simple measures. Unsought, spontaneous waking +hallucinations, according to the result of Mr. Galton's researches, +though not nearly so common as dreams, are as much facts of _sane_ +mental experience. Now every ghost or wraith is a hallucination. You +see your wife in the dining-room when she really is in the drawing- +room; you see your late great-great-grandfather anywhere. Neither +person is really present. The first appearance in popular language is +a "wraith"; the second is a "ghost" in ordinary speech. Both are +hallucinations. + +So far Mr. Galton would go, but mark what follows! Everybody allows +the existence of dreams, but comparatively few believe in dream +stories of _veracious_ dreams. So every scientific man believes in +hallucinations, {68} but few believe in _veracious_ hallucinations. A +veracious hallucination is, for our purpose, one which communicates +(as veracious dreams do) information not otherwise known, or, at +least, not known to the knower to be known. The communication of the +knowledge may be done by audible words, with or without an actual +apparition, or with an apparition, by words or gestures. Again, if a +hallucination of Jones's presence tallies with a great crisis in +Jones's life, or with his death, the hallucination is so far veracious +in that, at least, it does not seem meaningless. Or if Jones's +appearance has some unwonted feature not known to the seer, but +afterwards proved to be correct in fact, that is veracious. Next, if +several persons successively in the same place, or simultaneously, +have a similar hallucination not to be accounted for physically, that +is, if not a veracious, a curious hallucination. Once more, if a +hallucinatory figure is afterwards recognised in a living person +previously unknown, or a portrait previously unseen, that (if the +recognition be genuine) is a veracious hallucination. The vulgar call +it a wraith of the living, or a ghost of the dead. + +Here follow two cases. The first, The Family Coach, {69a} gave no +verified intelligence, and would be styled a "subjective +hallucination". The second contributed knowledge of facts not +previously known to the witness, and so the vulgar would call it a +ghost. Both appearances were very rich and full of complicated +detail. Indeed, any ghost that wears clothes is a puzzle. Nobody but +savages thinks that clothes have ghosts, but Tom Sawyer conjectures +that ghosts' clothes "are made of ghost stuff". + +As a rule, not very much is seen of a ghost; he is "something of a +shadowy being". Yet we very seldom hear of a ghost stark naked; that +of Sergeant Davies, murdered in 1749, is one of three or four examples +in civilised life. {69b} Hence arises the old question, "How are we +to account for the clothes of ghosts?" One obvious reply is that there +is no ghost at all, only a hallucination. We do not see people naked, +as a rule, in our dreams; and hallucinations, being waking dreams, +conform to the same rule. If a ghost opens a door or lifts a curtain +in our sight, that, too, is only part of the illusion. The door did +not open; the curtain was not lifted. Nay, if the wrist or hand of +the seer is burned or withered, as in a crowd of stories, the ghost's +hand did not produce the effect. It was produced in the same way as +when a hypnotised patient is told that "his hand is burned," his fancy +then begets real blisters, or so we are informed, truly or not. The +stigmata of St. Francis and others are explained in the same way. {70} +How ghosts pull bedclothes off and make objects fly about is another +question: in any case the ghosts are not _seen_ in the act. + +Thus the clothes of ghosts, their properties, and their actions +affecting physical objects, are not more difficult to explain than a +naked ghost would be, they are all the "stuff that dreams are made +of". But occasionally things are carried to a great pitch, as when a +ghost drives off in a ghostly dogcart, with a ghostly horse, whip and +harness. Of this complicated kind we give two examples; the first +reckons as a "subjective," the second as a veracious hallucination. + +THE OLD FAMILY COACH + +A distinguished and accomplished country gentleman and politician, of +scientific tastes, was riding in the New Forest, some twelve miles +from the place where he was residing. In a grassy glade he discovered +that he did not very clearly know his way to a country town which he +intended to visit. At this moment, on the other side of some bushes a +carriage drove along, and then came into clear view where there was a +gap in the bushes. Mr. Hyndford saw it perfectly distinctly; it was a +slightly antiquated family carriage, the sides were in that imitation +of wicker work on green panel which was once so common. The coachman +was a respectable family servant, he drove two horses: two old ladies +were in the carriage, one of them wore a hat, the other a bonnet. +They passed, and then Mr. Hyndford, going through the gap in the +bushes, rode after them to ask his way. There was no carriage in +sight, the avenue ended in a cul-de-sac of tangled brake, and there +were no traces of wheels on the grass. Mr. Hyndford rode back to his +original point of view, and looked for any object which could suggest +the illusion of one old-fashioned carriage, one coachman, two horses +and two elderly ladies, one in a hat and one in a bonnet. He looked +in vain--and that is all! + +Nobody in his senses would call this appearance a ghostly one. The +name, however, would be applied to the following tale of + +RIDING HOME FROM MESS + +In 1854, General Barter, C.B., was a subaltern in the 75th Regiment, +and was doing duty at the hill station of Murree in the Punjaub. He +lived in a house built recently by a Lieutenant B., who died, as +researches at the War Office prove, at Peshawur on 2nd January, 1854. +The house was on a spur of the hill, three or four hundred yards under +the only road, with which it communicated by a "bridle path," never +used by horsemen. That path ended in a precipice; a footpath led into +the bridle path from Mr. Barter's house. + +One evening Mr. Barter had a visit from a Mr. and Mrs. Deane, who +stayed till near eleven o'clock. There was a full moon, and Mr. +Barter walked to the bridle path with his friends, who climbed it to +join the road. He loitered with two dogs, smoking a cigar, and just +as he turned to go home, he heard a horse's hoofs coming down the +bridle path. At a bend of the path a tall hat came into view, then +round the corner, the wearer of the hat, who rode a pony and was +attended by two native grooms. "At this time the two dogs came, and +crouching at my side, gave low frightened whimpers. The moon was at +the full, a tropical moon, so bright that you could see to read a +newspaper by its light, and I saw the party above me advance as +plainly as if it were noon-day; they were above me some eight or ten +feet on the bridle road. . . . On the party came, . . . and now I had +better describe them. The rider was in full dinner dress, with white +waistcoat and a tall chimney-pot hat, and he sat on a powerful hill +pony (dark-brown, with black mane and tail) in a listless sort of way, +the reins hanging loosely from both hands." Grooms led the pony and +supported the rider. Mr. Barter, knowing that there was no place they +could go to but his own house, cried "Quon hai?" (who is it?), adding +in English, "Hullo, what the devil do you want here?" The group +halted, the rider gathered up the reins with both hands, and turning, +showed Mr. Barter the known features of the late Lieutenant B. + +He was very pale, the face was a dead man's face, he was stouter than +when Mr. Barter knew him and he wore _a dark Newgate fringe_. + +Mr. Barter dashed up the bank, the earth thrown up in making the +bridle path crumbled under him, he fell, scrambled on, reached the +bridle path where the group had stopped, and found nobody. Mr. Barter +ran up the path for a hundred yards, as nobody could go _down_ it +except over a precipice, and neither heard nor saw anything. His dogs +did not accompany him. + +Next day Mr. Barter gently led his friend Deane to talk of Lieutenant +B., who said that the lieutenant "grew very bloated before his death, +and while on the sick list he allowed the fringe to grow in spite of +all we could say to him, and I believe he was buried with it". Mr. +Barter then asked where he got the pony, describing it minutely. + +"He bought him at Peshawur, and killed him one day, riding in his +reckless fashion down the hill to Trete." + +Mr. Barter and his wife often heard the horse's hoofs later, though he +doubts if any one but B. had ever ridden the bridle path. His Hindoo +bearer he found one day armed with a lattie, being determined to +waylay the sound, which "passed him like a typhoon". {74} Here the +appearance gave correct information unknown previously to General +Barter, namely, that Lieutenant B. grew stout and wore a beard before +his death, also that he had owned a brown pony, with black mane and +tail. Even granting that the ghosts of the pony and lieutenant were +present (both being dead), we are not informed that the grooms were +dead also. The hallucination, on the theory of "mental telegraphy," +was telegraphed to General Barter's mind from some one who had seen +Lieutenant B. ride home from mess not very sober, or from the mind of +the defunct lieutenant, or, perhaps, from that of the deceased pony. +The message also reached and alarmed General Barter's dogs. + +Something of the same kind may or may not explain Mr. Hyndford's view +of the family coach, which gave no traceable information. + +The following story, in which an appearance of the dead conveyed +information not known to the seer, and so deserving to be called +veracious, is a little ghastly. + +THE BRIGHT SCAR + +In 1867, Miss G., aged eighteen, died suddenly of cholera in St. +Louis. In 1876 a brother, F. G., who was much attached to her, had +done a good day's business in St. Joseph. He was sending in his +orders to his employers (he is a commercial traveller) and was smoking +a cigar, when he became conscious that some one was sitting on his +left, with one arm on the table. It was his dead sister. He sprang +up to embrace her (for even on meeting a stranger whom we take for a +dead friend, we never realise the impossibility in the half moment of +surprise) but she was gone. Mr. G. stood there, the ink wet on his +pen, the cigar lighted in his hand, the name of his sister on his +lips. He had noted her expression, features, dress, the kindness of +her eyes, the glow of the complexion, and what he had never seen +before, _a bright red scratch on the right side of her face_. + +Mr. G. took the next train home to St. Louis, and told the story to +his parents. His father was inclined to ridicule him, but his mother +nearly fainted. When she could control herself, she said that, +unknown to any one, she had accidentally scratched the face of the +dead, apparently with the pin of her brooch, while arranging something +about the corpse. She had obliterated the scratch with powder, and +had kept the fact to herself. "She told me she _knew_ at least that I +had seen my sister." A few weeks later Mrs. G. died. {75} + +Here the information existed in one living mind, the mother's, and if +there is any "mental telegraphy," may thence have been conveyed to Mr. +F. G. + +Another kind of cases which may be called veracious, occurs when the +ghost seer, after seeing the ghost, recognises it in a portrait not +previously beheld. Of course, allowance must be made for fancy, and +for conscious or unconscious hoaxing. You see a spook in Castle +Dangerous. You then recognise the portrait in the hall, or elsewhere. +The temptation to recognise the spook rather more clearly than you +really do, is considerable, just as one is tempted to recognise the +features of the Stuarts in the royal family, of the parents in a baby, +or in any similar case. + +Nothing is more common in literary ghost stories than for somebody to +see a spectre and afterwards recognise him or her in a portrait not +before seen. There is an early example in Sir Walter Scott's +Tapestried Chamber, which was told to him by Miss Anna Seward. +Another such tale is by Theophile Gautier. In an essay on Illusions +by Mr. James Sully, a case is given. A lady (who corroborated the +story to the present author) was vexed all night by a spectre in +armour. Next morning she saw, what she had not previously observed, a +portrait of the spectre in the room. Mr. Sully explains that she had +seen the portrait _unconsciously_, and dreamed of it. He adds the +curious circumstance that other people have had the same experience in +the same room, which his explanation does not cover. The following +story is published by the Society for Psychical Research, attested by +the seer and her husband, whose real names are known, but not +published. {76} + +THE VISION AND THE PORTRAIT + +Mrs. M. writes (December 15, 1891) that before her vision she had +heard nothing about hauntings in the house occupied by herself and her +husband, and nothing about the family sorrows of her predecessors +there. + +"One night, on retiring to my bedroom about 11 o'clock, I thought I +heard a peculiar moaning sound, and some one sobbing as if in great +distress of mind. I listened very attentively, and still it +continued; so I raised the gas in my bedroom, and then went to the +window on the landing, drew the blind aside, and there on the grass +was a very beautiful young girl in a kneeling posture, before a +soldier in a general's uniform, sobbing and clasping her hands +together, entreating for pardon, but alas! he only waved her away from +him. So much did I feel for the girl that I ran down the staircase to +the door opening upon the lawn, and begged her to come in and tell me +her sorrow. The figures then disappeared gradually, as in a +dissolving view. Not in the least nervous did I feel then; went again +to my bedroom, took a sheet of writing-paper, and wrote down what I +had seen." {77} + +Mrs. M., whose husband was absent, began to feel nervous, and went to +another lady's room. + +She later heard of an old disgrace to the youngest daughter of the +proud family, her predecessors in the house. The poor girl tried in +vain to win forgiveness, especially from a near relative, a soldier, +Sir X. Y. + +"So vivid was my remembrance of the features of the soldier, that some +months after the occurrence [of the vision] when I called with my +husband at a house where there was a portrait of him, I stepped before +it and said, 'Why, look! there is the General!' And sure enough it +_was_." + +Mrs. M. had not heard that the portrait was in the room where she saw +it. Mr. M. writes that he took her to the house where he knew it to +be without telling her of its existence. Mrs. M. turned pale when she +saw it. Mr. M. knew the sad old story, but had kept it to himself. +The family in which the disgrace occurred, in 1847 or 1848, were his +relations. {78} + +This vision was a veracious hallucination; it gave intelligence not +otherwise known to Mrs. M., and capable of confirmation, therefore the +appearances would be called "ghosts". The majority of people do not +believe in the truth of any such stories of veracious hallucinations, +just as they do not believe in veracious dreams. Mr. Galton, out of +all his packets of reports of hallucinations, does not even allude to +a veracious example, whether he has records of such a thing or not. +Such reports, however, are ghost stories, "which we now proceed," or +continue, "to narrate". The reader will do well to remember that +while everything ghostly, and not to be explained by known physical +facts, is in the view of science a hallucination, every hallucination +is not a ghost for the purposes of story-telling. The hallucination +must, for story-telling purposes, be _veracious_. + +Following our usual method, we naturally begin with the anecdotes +least trying to the judicial faculties, and most capable of an +ordinary explanation. Perhaps of all the senses, the sense of touch, +though in some ways the surest, is in others the most easily deceived. +Some people who cannot call up a clear mental image of things seen, +say a saltcellar, can readily call up a mental revival of the feeling +of touching salt. Again, a slight accidental throb, or leap of a +sinew or vein, may feel so like a touch that we turn round to see who +touched us. These familiar facts go far to make the following tale +more or less conceivable. + +THE RESTRAINING HAND + +"About twenty years ago," writes Mrs. Elliot, "I received some letters +by post, one of which contained 15 pounds in bank notes. After +reading the letters I went into the kitchen with them in my hands. I +was alone at the time. . . . Having done with the letters, I made an +effort to throw them into the fire, when I distinctly felt my hand +arrested in the act. It was as though another hand were gently laid +upon my own, pressing it back. Much surprised, I looked at my hand +and then saw it contained, not the letters I had intended to destroy, +but the bank notes, and that the letters were in the other hand. I +was so surprised that I called out, 'Who's here?'" {80a} + +Nobody will call this "the touch of a vanished hand". Part of Mrs. +Elliot's mind knew what she was about, and started an unreal but +veracious feeling to warn her. We shall come to plenty of Hands not +so readily disposed of. + +Next to touch, the sense most apt to be deceived is hearing. Every +one who has listened anxiously for an approaching carriage, has often +heard it come before it came. In the summer of 1896 the writer, with +a lady and another companion, were standing on the veranda at the back +of a house in Dumfriesshire, waiting for a cab to take one of them to +the station. They heard a cab arrive and draw up, went round to the +front of the house, saw the servant open the door and bring out the +luggage, but wheeled vehicle there was none in sound or sight. Yet +all four persons had heard it, probably by dint of expectation. + +To hear articulate voices where there are none is extremely common in +madness, {80b} but not very rare, as Mr. Galton shows, among the sane. +When the voices are veracious, give unknown information, they are in +the same case as truthful dreams. I offer a few from the experience, +reported to me by himself, of a man of learning whom I shall call a +Benedictine monk, though that is not his real position in life. + +THE BENEDICTINE'S VOICES + +My friend, as a lad, was in a strait between the choice of two +professions. He prayed for enlightenment, and soon afterwards heard +an _internal_ voice, advising a certain course. "Did you act on it?" +I asked. + +"No; I didn't. I considered that in my circumstances it did not +demand attention." + +Later, when a man grown, he was in his study merely idling over some +books on the table, when he heard a loud voice from a corner of the +room assert that a public event of great importance would occur at a +given date. It did occur. About the same time, being abroad, he was +in great anxiety as to a matter involving only himself. Of this he +never spoke to any one. On his return to England his mother said, +"You were very wretched about so and so". + +"How on earth did you know?" + +"I heard ---'s voice telling me." + +Now --- had died years before, in childhood. + +In these cases the Benedictine's own conjecture and his mother's +affection probably divined facts, which did not present themselves as +thoughts in the ordinary way, but took the form of unreal voices. + +There are many examples, as of the girl in her bath who heard a voice +say "Open the door" four times, did so, then fainted, and only escaped +drowning by ringing the bell just before she swooned. + +Of course she might not have swooned if she had not been alarmed by +hearing the voices. These tales are dull enough, and many voices, +like Dr. Johnson's mother's, when he heard her call his name, she +being hundreds of miles away, lead to nothing and are not veracious. +When they are veracious, as in the case of dreams, it may be by sheer +accident. + +In a similar class are "warnings" conveyed by the eye, not by the ear. +The Maoris of New Zealand believe that if one sees a body lying across +a path or oneself on the opposite side of a river, it is wiser to try +another path and a different ford. + +THE MAN AT THE LIFT + +In the same way, in August, 1890, a lady in a Boston hotel in the dusk +rang for the lift, walked along the corridor and looked out of a +window, started to run to the door of the lift, saw a man in front of +it, stopped, and when the lighted lift came up, found that the door +was wide open and that, had she run on as she intended, she would have +fallen down the well. Here part of her mind may have known that the +door was open, and started a ghost (for there was no real man there) +to stop her. Pity that these things do not occur more frequently. +They do--in New Zealand. {82} + +These are a few examples of useful veracious waking dreams. The sort +of which we hear most are "wraiths". A, when awake, meets B, who is +dead or dying or quite well at a distance. The number of these +stories is legion. To these we advance, under their Highland title, +_spirits of the living_. + + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Spirits of the Living." Mistakes of Identity. Followed by Arrival +of Real Person. "Arrivals." Mark Twain's Phantom Lady. Phantom +Dogcart. Influence of Expectant Attention. Goethe. Shelley. The +Wraith of the Czarina. Queen Elizabeth's Wraith. Second Sight. Case +at Ballachulish. Experiments in sending Wraiths. An "Astral Body". +Evidence discussed. Miss Russell's Case. "Spirits of the Dying." +Maori Examples. Theory of Chance Coincidence. In Tavistock Place. +The Wynyard Wraith. Lord Brougham's Wraith Story. Lord Brougham's +Logic. The Dying Mother. Comparison with the Astral Body. The +Vision of the Bride. Animals as affected by the supposed Presence of +Apparitions. Examples. Transition to Appearances of the Dead. + +"Spirits of the living" is the Highland term for the appearances of +people who are alive and well--but elsewhere. The common Highland +belief is that they show themselves to second-sighted persons, very +frequently before the arrival of a stranger or a visitor, expected or +unexpected. Probably many readers have had the experience of meeting +an acquaintance in the street. He passes us, and within a hundred +yards we again meet and talk with our friend. When he is of very +marked appearance, or has any strong peculiarity, the experience is +rather perplexing. Perhaps a few bits of hallucination are sprinkled +over a real object. This ordinary event leads on to what are called +"Arrivals," that is when a person is seen, heard and perhaps spoken to +in a place to which he is travelling, but whither he has not yet +arrived. Mark Twain gives an instance in his own experience. At a +large crowded reception he saw approaching him in the throng a lady +whom he had known and liked many years before. When she was near him, +he lost sight of her, but met her at supper, dressed as he had seen +her in the "levee". At that moment she was travelling by railway to +the town in which he was. {85a} + +A large number of these cases have been printed. {85b} In one case a +gentleman and lady from their window saw his brother and sister-in-law +drive past, with a horse which they knew had not been out for some +weeks. The seers were presently joined by the visitors' daughter, who +had met the party on the road, she having just left them at their +house. Ten minutes later the real pair arrived, horse and all. {85c} + +This last affair is one of several tales of "Phantom Coaches," not +only heard but seen, the coach being a coach of the living. In 1893 +the author was staying at a Highland castle, when one of the ladies +observed to her nephew, "So you and Susan _did_ drive in the dogcart; +I saw you pass my window". "No, we didn't; but we spoke of doing it." +The lady then mentioned minute details of the dress and attitudes of +her relations as they passed her window, where the drive turned from +the hall door through the park; but, in fact, no such journey had been +made. Dr. Hack Tuke published the story of the "Arrival" of Dr. Boase +at his house a quarter of an hour before he came, the people who saw +him supposing him to be in Paris. {86} + +When a person is seen in "Arrival" cases before he arrives, the affair +is not so odd if he is expected. Undoubtedly, expectation does +sometimes conjure up phantasms, and the author once saw (as he +supposed) a serious accident occur which in fact did not take place, +though it seemed unavoidable. + +Curiously enough, this creation of phantasms by expectant attention +seems to be rare where "ghosts" are expected. The author has slept in +several haunted houses, but has never seen what he was led to expect. +In many instances, as in "The Lady in Black" (infra), a ghost who is a +frequent visitor is never seen when people watch for her. Among the +many persons who have had delusions as to the presence of the dead, +very few have been hoping, praying for and expecting them. + +"I look for ghosts, but none will force + Their way to me: 'Tis falsely said +That there was ever intercourse + Between the living and the dead, +For surely then I should have sight +Of him I wait for day and night +With love and longings infinite." + +The Affliction of Margaret has been the affliction of most of us. +There are curious historical examples of these appearances of the +living. Goethe declares that he once met himself at a certain place +in a certain dress, and several years later found himself there in +that costume. Shelley was seen by his friends at Lerici to pass along +a balcony whence there was no exit. However, he could not be found +there. The story of the wraith of Catherine the Great is variously +narrated. We give it as told by an eye-witness, the Comte de +Ribaupierre, about 1862 to Lady Napier and Ettrick. The Count, in +1862, was a very old man, and more than thirty years have passed since +he gave the tale to Lady Napier, whose memory retains it in the +following form:-- + +THE WRAITH OF THE CZARINA + +"In the exercise of his duties as one of the pages-in-waiting, +Ribaupierre followed one day his august mistress into the throne-room +of the palace. When the Empress, accompanied by the high officers of +her court and the ladies of her household, came in sight of the chair +of state which she was about to occupy, she suddenly stopped, and to +the horror and astonished awe of her courtiers, she pointed to a +visionary being seated on the imperial throne. The occupant of the +chair was an exact counterpart of herself. All saw it and trembled, +but none dared to move towards the mysterious presentment of their +sovereign. + +"After a moment of dead silence the great Catherine raised her voice +and ordered her guard to advance and fire on the apparition. The +order was obeyed, a mirror beside the throne was shattered, the vision +had disappeared, and the Empress, with no sign of emotion, took the +chair from which her semblance had passed away." It is a striking +barbaric scene! + +"Spirits of the living" of this kind are common enough. In the +Highlands "second sight" generally means a view of an event or +accident some time before its occurrence. Thus an old man was sitting +with a little boy on a felled tree beside a steep track in a quarry at +Ballachulish. Suddenly he jerked the boy to one side, and threw +himself down on the further side of the tree. While the boy stared, +the old man slowly rose, saying, "The spirits of the living are strong +to-day!" He had seen a mass of rock dashing along, killing some +quarrymen and tearing down the path. The accident occurred next day. +It is needless to dwell on second sight, which is not peculiar to +Celts, though the Highlanders talk more about it than other people. + +These appearances of the living but absent, whether caused by some +mental action of the person who appears or not, are, at least, +_unconscious_ on his part. {88} But a few cases occur in which a +living person is said, by a voluntary exertion of mind, to have made +himself visible to a friend at a distance. One case is vouched for by +Baron von Schrenck-Notzig, a German psychologist, who himself made the +experiment with success. Others are narrated by Dr. Gibotteau. A +curious tale is told by several persons as follows:-- + +AN "ASTRAL BODY" + +Mr. Sparks and Mr. Cleave, young men of twenty and nineteen, were +accustomed to "mesmerise" each other in their dormitory at Portsmouth, +where they were students of naval engineering. Mr. Sparks simply +stared into Mr. Cleave's eyes as he lay on his bed till he "went off". +The experiments seemed so curious that witnesses were called, Mr. +Darley and Mr. Thurgood. On Friday, 15th January, 1886, Mr. Cleave +determined to try to see, when asleep, a young lady at Wandsworth to +whom he was in the habit of writing every Sunday. He also intended, +if possible, to make _her_ see _him_. On awaking, he said that he had +seen her in the dining-room of her house, that she had seemed to grow +restless, had looked at him, and then had covered her face with her +hands. On Monday he tried again, and he thought he had frightened +her, as after looking at him for a few minutes she fell back in her +chair in a kind of faint. Her little brother was in the room with her +at the time. On Tuesday next the young lady wrote, telling Mr. Cleave +that she had been startled by seeing him on Friday evening (this is an +error), and again on Monday evening, "much clearer," when she nearly +fainted. + +All this Mr. Sparks wrote to Mr. Gurney in the same week. He was +inviting instructions on hypnotic experiments, and "launched a letter +into space," having read something vague about Mr. Gurney's studies in +the newspapers. The letter, after some adventures, arrived, and on +15th March Mr. Cleave wrote his account, Mr. Darley and Mr. Thurgood +corroborating as to their presence during the trance and as to Mr. +Cleave's statement when he awoke. Mr. Cleave added that he made +experiments "for five nights running" before seeing the lady. The +young lady's letter of 19th January, 1886, is also produced (postmark, +Portsmouth, 20th January). But the lady mentions her _first_ vision +of Mr. Cleave as on last _Tuesday_ (not Friday), and her second, while +she was alone with her little brother, at supper on Monday. "I was so +frightened that I nearly fainted." + +These are all young people. It may be said that all five were +concerned in a complicated hoax on Mr. Gurney. Nor would such a hoax +argue any unusual moral obliquity. Surtees of Mainsforth, in other +respects an honourable man, took in Sir Walter Scott with forged +ballads, and never undeceived his friend. Southey played off a hoax +with his book The Doctor. Hogg, Lockhart, and Wilson, with Allan +Cunningham and many others, were constantly engaged in such +mystifications, and a "ghost-hunter" might seem a fair butt. + +But the very discrepancy in Miss ---'s letter is a proof of fairness. +Her first vision of Mr. Cleave was on "Tuesday last". Mr. Cleave's +first impression of success was on the Friday following. + +But he had been making the experiment for five nights previous, +including the Tuesday of Miss ---'s letter. Had the affair been a +hoax, Miss --- would either have been requested by him to re-write her +letter, putting Friday for Tuesday, or what is simpler, Mr. Sparks +would have adopted her version and written "Tuesday" in place of +"Friday" in his first letter to Mr. Gurney. The young lady, +naturally, requested Mr. Cleave not to try his experiment on her +again. + +A similar case is that of Mrs. Russell, who tried successfully, when +awake and in Scotland, to appear to one of her family in Germany. The +sister corroborates and says, "Pray don't come appearing to me again". +{91a} + +These spirits of the living lead to the subject of spirits of the +dying. No kind of tale is so common as that of dying people appearing +at a distance. Hundreds have been conscientiously published. {91b} +The belief is prevalent among the Maoris of New Zealand, where the +apparition is regarded as a proof of death. {91c} Now there is +nothing in savage philosophy to account for this opinion of the +Maoris. A man's "spirit" leaves his body in dreams, savages think, +and as dreaming is infinitely more common than death, the Maoris +should argue that the appearance is that of a man's spirit wandering +in his sleep. However, they, like many Europeans, associate a man's +apparition with his death. Not being derived from their philosophy, +this habit may be deduced from their experience. + +As there are, undeniably, many examples of hallucinatory appearances +of persons in perfect health and ordinary circumstances, the question +has been asked whether there are _more_ cases of an apparition +coinciding with death than, according to the doctrine of chances, +there ought to be. Out of about 18,000 answers to questions on this +subject, has been deduced the conclusion that the deaths do coincide +with the apparitions to an extent beyond mere accident. Even if we +had an empty hallucination for every case coinciding with death, we +could not set the coincidences down to mere chance. As well might we +say that if "at the end of an hour's rifle practice at long-distance +range, the record shows that for every shot that has hit the bull's +eye, another has missed the target, therefore the shots that hit the +target did so by accident." {92} But as empty hallucinations are more +likely to be forgotten than those which coincide with a death; as +exaggeration creeps in, as the collectors of evidence are naturally +inclined to select and question people whom they know to have a good +story to tell, the evidence connecting apparitions, voices, and so on +with deaths is not likely to be received with favour. + +One thing must be remembered as affecting the theory that the +coincidence between the wraith and the death is purely an accident. +Everybody dreams and out of the innumerable dreams of mankind, a few +must hit the mark by a fluke. But _hallucinations_ are not nearly so +common as dreams. Perhaps, roughly speaking, one person in ten has +had what he believes to be a waking hallucination. Therefore, so to +speak, compared with dreams, but a small number of shots of this kind +are fired. Therefore, bull's eyes (the coincidence between an +appearance and a death) are infinitely less likely to be due to chance +in the case of waking hallucinations than in the case of dreams, which +all mankind are firing off every night of their lives. Stories of +these coincidences between appearances and deaths are as common as +they are dull. Most people come across them in the circle of their +friends. They are all very much alike, and make tedious reading. We +give a few which have some picturesque features. + +IN TAVISTOCK PLACE {93} + +"In the latter part of the autumn of 1878, between half-past three and +four in the morning, I was leisurely walking home from the house of a +sick friend. A middle-aged woman, apparently a nurse, was slowly +following, going in the same direction. We crossed Tavistock Square +together, and emerged simultaneously into Tavistock Place. The +streets and squares were deserted, the morning bright and calm, my +health excellent, nor did I suffer from anxiety or fatigue. A man +suddenly appeared, striding up Tavistock Place, coming towards me, and +going in a direction opposite to mine. When first seen he was +standing exactly in front of my own door (5 Tavistock Place). Young +and ghastly pale, he was dressed in evening clothes, evidently made by +a foreign tailor. Tall and slim, he walked with long measured strides +noiselessly. A tall white hat, covered thickly with black crape, and +an eyeglass, completed the costume of this strange form. The +moonbeams falling on the corpse-like features revealed a face well +known to me, that of a friend and relative. The sole and only person +in the street beyond myself and this being was the woman already +alluded to. She stopped abruptly, as if spell-bound, then rushing +towards the man, she gazed intently and with horror unmistakable on +his face, which was now upturned to the heavens and smiling ghastly. +She indulged in her strange contemplation but during very few seconds, +then with extraordinary and unexpected speed for her weight and age +she ran away with a terrific shriek and yell. This woman never have I +seen or heard of since, and but for her presence I could have +explained the incident: called it, say, subjection of the mental +powers to the domination of physical reflex action, and the man's +presence could have been termed a false impression on the retina. + +"A week after this event, news of this very friend's death reached me. +It occurred on the morning in question. From the family I learned +that according to the rites of the Greek Church and the custom of the +country he resided in, he was buried in his evening clothes made +abroad by a foreign tailor, and strange to say, he wore goloshes over +his boots, according also to the custom of the country he died in. . . +. When in England, he lived in Tavistock Place, and occupied my rooms +during my absence." {95a} + +THE WYNYARD WRAITH {95b} + +"In the month of November (1785 or 1786), Sir John Sherbrooke and +Colonel Wynyard were sitting before dinner in their barrack room at +Sydney Cove, in America. It was duskish, and a candle was placed on a +table at a little distance. A figure dressed in plain clothes and a +good round hat, passed gently between the above people and the fire. +While passing, Sir J. Sherbrooke exclaimed, 'God bless my soul, who's +that?' + +"Almost at the same moment Colonel W. said, 'That's my brother John +Wynyard, and I am sure he is dead'. Colonel W. was much agitated, and +cried and sobbed a great deal. Sir John said, 'The fellow has a +devilish good hat; I wish I had it'. (Hats were not to be got there +and theirs were worn out.) They immediately got up (Sir John was on +crutches, having broken his leg), took a candle and went into the +bedroom, into which the figure had entered. They searched the bed and +every corner of the room to no effect; the windows were fastened up +with mortar. . . . + +"They received no communication from England for about five months, +when a letter from Mr. Rush, the surgeon (Coldstream Guards), +announced the death of John Wynyard at the moment, as near as could be +ascertained, when the figure appeared. In addition to this +extraordinary circumstance, Sir John told me that two years and a half +afterwards he was walking with Lilly Wynyard (a brother of Colonel W.) +in London, and seeing somebody on the other side of the way, he +recognised, he thought, the person who had appeared to him and Colonel +Wynyard in America. Lilly Wynyard said that the person pointed out +was a Mr. Eyre (Hay?), that he and John Wynyard were frequently +mistaken for each other, and that money had actually been paid to this +Mr. Eyre in mistake." + +A famous tale of an appearance is Lord Brougham's. His Lordship was +not reckoned precisely a veracious man; on the other hand, this was +not the kind of fable he was likely to tell. He was brought up under +the regime of common-sense. "On all such subjects my father was very +sceptical," he says. To disbelieve Lord Brougham we must suppose +either that he wilfully made a false entry in his diary in 1799, or +that in preparing his Autobiography in 1862, he deliberately added a +falsehood--and then explained his own marvel away! + +LORD BROUGHAM'S STORY + +"December 19, 1799. + +" . . . At one in the morning, arriving at a decent inn (in Sweden), +we decided to stop for the night, and found a couple of comfortable +rooms. Tired with the cold of yesterday, I was glad to take advantage +of a hot bath before I turned in. And here a most remarkable thing +happened to me--so remarkable that I must tell the story from the +beginning. + +"After I left the High School, I went with G---, my most intimate +friend, to attend the classes in the University. . . . We actually +committed the folly of drawing up an agreement, written with our +blood, to the effect that whichever of us died the first should appear +to the other, and thus solve any doubts we had entertained of 'the +life after death'. G--- went to India, years passed, and," says Lord +Brougham, "I had nearly forgotten his existence. I had taken, as I +have said, a warm bath, and while lying in it and enjoying the comfort +of the heat, I turned my head round, looking towards the chair on +which I had deposited my clothes, as I was about to get out of the +bath. On the chair sat G---, looking calmly at me. How I got out of +the bath I know not, but on recovering my senses I found myself +sprawling on the floor. The apparition, or whatever it was that had +taken the likeness of G---, had disappeared. . . . So strongly was I +affected by it that I have here written down the whole history, with +the date, 19th December, and all the particulars as they are now fresh +before me. No doubt I had fallen asleep" (he has just said that he +was awake and on the point of leaving the bath), "and that the +appearance presented so distinctly to my eyes was a dream I cannot for +a moment doubt. . . ." + +On 16th October, 1862, Lord Brougham copied this extract for his +Autobiography, and says that on his arrival in Edinburgh he received a +letter from India, announcing that G--- had died on 19th December. He +remarks "singular coincidence!" and adds that, considering the vast +number of dreams, the number of coincidences is perhaps fewer than a +fair calculation of chances would warrant us to expect. + +This is a concession to common-sense, and argues an ignorance of the +fact that sane and (apparently) waking men may have hallucinations. +On the theory that we _may_ have inappreciable moments of sleep when +we think ourselves awake, it is not an ordinary but an extraordinary +coincidence that Brougham should have had that peculiar moment of the +"dream" of G--- on the day or night of G---'s death, while the +circumstance that he had made a compact with G--- multiplies the odds +against accident in a ratio which mathematicians may calculate. +Brougham was used to dreams, like other people; he was not shocked by +them. This "dream" "produced such a shock that I had no inclination +to talk about it". Even on Brougham's showing, then, this dream was a +thing unique in his experience, and not one of the swarm of visions of +sleep. Thus his including it among these, while his whole language +shows that he himself did not really reckon it among these, is an +example of the fallacies of common-sense. He completes his fallacy by +saying, "It is not much more wonderful than that a person whom we had +no reason to expect should appear to us at the very moment we had been +thinking or speaking of him". But Lord Brougham had _not_ been +speaking or thinking of G---; "there had been nothing to call him to +my recollection," he says. To give his logic any value, he should +constantly when (as far as he knew) awake, have had dreams that +"shocked" him. Then _one_ coincidence would have had no assignable +cause save ordinary accident. + +If Lord Brougham fabled in 1799 or in 1862, he did so to make a +"sensation". And then he tried to undo it by arguing that his +experience was a thoroughly commonplace affair. + +We now give a very old story, "The Dying Mother". If the reader will +compare it with Mr. Cleave's case, "An Astral Body," in this chapter, +he will be struck by the resemblance. Mr. Cleave and Mrs. Goffe were +both in a trance. Both wished to see persons at a distance. Both +saw, and each was seen, Mrs. Goffe by her children's nurse; Mr. Cleave +by the person whom he wished to see, but _not_ by a small boy also +present. + +THE DYING MOTHER {101} + +"Mary, the wife of John Goffe of Rochester, being afflicted with a +long illness, removed to her father's house at West Mulling, about +nine miles from her own. There she died on 4th June, this present +year, 1691. + +"The day before her departure (death) she grew very impatiently +desirous to see her two children, whom she had left at home to the +care of a nurse. She prayed her husband to 'hire a horse, for she +must go home and die with the children'. She was too ill to be moved, +but 'a minister who lives in the town was with her at ten o'clock that +night, to whom she expressed good hopes in the mercies of God and a +willingness to die'. 'But' said she, 'it is my misery that I cannot +see my children.' + +"Between one and two o'clock in the morning, she fell into a trance. +One, widow Turner, who watched with her that night, says that her eyes +were open and fixed and her jaw fallen. Mrs. Turner put her hand upon +her mouth and nostrils, but could perceive no breath. She thought her +to be in a fit; and doubted whether she were dead or alive. + +"The next morning the dying woman told her mother that she had been at +home with her children. . . . 'I was with them last night when I was +asleep.' + +"The nurse at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms, and says +she will take her oath on't before a Magistrate and receive the +sacrament upon it, that a little before two o'clock that morning she +saw the likeness of the said Mary Goffe come out of the next chamber +(where the elder child lay in a bed by itself) the door being left +open, and stood by her bedside for about a quarter of an hour; the +younger child was there lying by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth +went, but she said nothing. The nurse, moreover, says that she was +perfectly awake; it was then daylight, being one of the longest days +in the year. She sat up in bed and looked steadfastly on the +apparition. In that time she heard the bridge clock strike two, and a +while after said, 'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, what +art thou?' Thereupon the apparition removed and went away; she +slipped on her clothes and followed, but what became on't she cannot +tell. + +"Mrs. Alexander then walked out of doors till six, when she persuaded +some neighbours to let her in. She told her adventure; they failed to +persuade her that she had dreamed it. On the same day the neighbour's +wife, Mrs. Sweet, went to West Mulling, saw Mrs. Goffe before her +death, and heard from Mrs. Goffe's mother the story of the daughter's +dream of her children, Mrs. Sweet not having mentioned the nurse's +story of the apparition." That poor Mrs. Goffe walked to Rochester +and returned undetected, a distance of eighteen miles is difficult to +believe. + +Goethe has an obiter dictum on the possibility of intercommunion +without the aid of the ordinary senses, between the souls of lovers. +Something of the kind is indicated in anecdotes of dreams dreamed in +common by husband and wife, but, in such cases, it may be urged that +the same circumstance, or the same noise or other disturbing cause, +may beget the same dream in both. A better instance is + +THE VISION OF THE BRIDE + +Colonel Meadows Taylor writes, in The Story of my Life (vol. ii., p. +32): "The determination (to live unmarried) was the result of a very +curious and strange incident that befel me during one of my marches to +Hyderabad. I have never forgotten it, and it returns to this day to +my memory with a strangely vivid effect that I can neither repel nor +explain. I purposely withhold the date of the year. In my very early +life I had been deeply and devotedly attached to one in England, and +only relinquished the hope of one day winning her when the terrible +order came out that no furlough to Europe would be granted. + +"One evening I was at the village of Dewas Kudea, after a very long +afternoon and evening march from Muktul, and I lay down very weary; +but the barking of village dogs, the baying of jackals and over- +fatigue and heat prevented sleep, and I was wide awake and restless. +Suddenly, for my tent door was wide open, I saw the face and figure so +familiar to me, but looking older, and with a sad and troubled +expression; the dress was white and seemed covered with a profusion of +lace and glistened in the bright moonlight. The arms were stretched +out, and a low plaintive cry of 'Do not let me go! Do not let me go!' +reached me. I sprang forward, but the figure receded, growing fainter +and fainter till I could see it no more, but the low plaintive tones +still sounded. I had run barefooted across the open space where my +tents were pitched, very much to the astonishment of the sentry on +guard, but I returned to my tent without speaking to him. I wrote to +my father. I wished to know whether there were any hope for me. He +wrote back to me these words: 'Too late, my dear son--on the very day +of the vision you describe to me, A. was married'." + +The colonel did not keep his determination not to marry, for his Life +is edited by his daughter, who often heard her father mention the +incident, "precisely in the same manner, and exactly as it is in the +book". {103} + +If thinking of friends and lovers, lost or dead, could bring their +forms and voices before the eye and ear of flesh, there would be a +world of hallucinations around us. "But it wants heaven-sent moments +for this skill," and few bridal nights send a vision and a voice to +the bed of a wakeful lover far away. + +Stories of this kind, appearances of the living or dying really at a +distance, might be multiplied to any extent. They are all capable of +explanation, if we admit the theory of telepathy, of a message sent by +an unknown process from one living man's mind to another. Where more +than one person shares the vision, we may suppose that the influence +comes directly from A to B, C and D, or comes from A to B, and is by +him unconsciously "wired" on to B and C, or is "suggested" to them by +B's conduct or words. + +In that case animals may be equally affected, thus, if B seems +alarmed, that may frighten his dog, or the alarm of a dog, caused by +some noise or smell, heard or smelt by him, may frighten B, C and D, +and make one or all of them see a ghost. + +Popular opinion is strongly in favour of beasts seeing ghosts. The +people of St. Kilda, according to Martin, held that cows shared the +visions of second-sighted milk-maids. Horses are said to shy on the +scene of murders. Scott's horse ran away (home) when Sir Walter saw +the bogle near Ashiestiel. In a case given later the dog shut up in a +room full of unexplained noises, yelled and whined. The same dog (an +intimate friend of my own) bristled up his hair and growled before his +master saw the Grey Lady. The Rev. J. G. Wood gives a case of a cat +which nearly went mad when his mistress saw an apparition. Jeremy +Taylor tells of a dog which got quite used to a ghost that often +appeared to his master, and used to follow it. In "The Lady in +Black," a dog would jump up and fawn on the ghost and then run away in +a fright. Mr. Wesley's mastiff was much alarmed by the family ghost. +Not to multiply cases, dogs and other animals are easily affected by +whatever it is that makes people think a ghost is present, or by the +conduct of the human beings on these occasions. + +Absurd as the subject appears, there are stories of the ghosts of +animals. These may be discussed later; meanwhile we pass from +appearances of the living or dying to stories of appearances of the +dead. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Transition to Appearances of the Dead. Obvious Scientific +Difficulties. Purposeless Character of Modern Ghosts. Theory of Dead +Men's Dreams. Illustrated by Sleep-walking House-maid. Purposeful +Character of the Old Ghost Stories. Probable Causes of the Difference +between Old and New Ghost Stories. Only the most Dramatic were +recorded. Or the Tales were embellished or invented. Practical +Reasons for inventing them. The Daemon of Spraiton. Sources of Story +of Sir George Villier's Ghost. Clarendon. Lilly, Douch. Wyndham. +Wyndham's Letter. Sir Henry Wotton. Izaak Walton. Anthony Wood. A +Wotton Dream proved Legendary. The Ghost that appeared to Lord +Lyttleton. His Lordship's Own Ghost. + +APPEARANCES OF THE DEAD + +We now pass beyond the utmost limits to which a "scientific" theory of +things ghostly can be pushed. Science admits, if asked, that it does +not know everything. It is not _inconceivable_ that living minds may +communicate by some other channel than that of the recognised senses. +Science now admits the fact of hypnotic influence, though, sixty years +ago, Braid was not allowed to read a paper on it before the British +Association. Even now the topic is not welcome. But perhaps only one +eminent man of science declares that hypnotism is _all_ imposture and +malobservation. Thus it is not wholly beyond the scope of fancy to +imagine that some day official science may glance at the evidence for +"telepathy". + +But the stories we have been telling deal with living men supposed to +be influencing living men. When the dead are alleged to exercise a +similar power, we have to suppose that some consciousness survives the +grave, and manifests itself by causing hallucinations among the +living. Instances of this have already been given in "The Ghost and +the Portrait," "The Bright Scar" and "Riding Home after Mess". These +were adduced as examples of _veracity_ in hallucinations. Each +appearance gave information to the seer which he did not previously +possess. In the first case, the lady who saw the soldier and the +suppliant did not know of their previous existence and melancholy +adventure. In the second, the brother did not know that his dead +sister's face had been scratched. In the third, the observer did not +know that Lieutenant B. had grown a beard and acquired a bay pony with +black mane and tail. But though the appearances were _veracious_, +they were _purposeless_, and again, as in each case the information +existed in living minds, it _may_ have been wired on from them. + +Thus the doctrine of telepathy puts a ghost of the dead in a great +quandary. If he communicates no verifiable information, he may be +explained as a mere empty illusion. If he does yield fresh +information, and if that is known to any living mind, he and his +intelligence may have been wired on from that mind. His only chance +is to communicate facts which are proved to be true, facts which +nobody living knew before. Now it is next to impossible to +demonstrate that the facts communicated were absolutely unknown to +everybody. + +Far, however, from conveying unknown intelligence, most ghosts convey +none at all, and appear to have no purpose whatever. + +It will be observed that there was no traceable reason why the girl +with a scar should appear to Mr. G., or the soldier and suppliant to +Mrs. M., or Lieutenant B. to General Barker. The appearances came in +a vague, casual, aimless way, just as the living and healthy clergyman +appeared to the diplomatist. On St. Augustine's theory the dead +persons who appeared may have known no more about the matter than did +the living clergyman. It is not even necessary to suppose that the +dead man was dreaming about the living person to whom, or about the +place in which, he appeared. But on the analogy of the tales in which +a dream or thought of the living seems to produce a hallucination of +their presence in the minds of other and distant living people, so a +dream of the dead may (it is urged) have a similar effect if "in that +sleep of death such dreams may come". The idea occurred to +Shakespeare! In any case the ghosts of our stories hitherto have been +so aimless and purposeless as to resemble what we might imagine a dead +man's dream to be. + +This view of the case (that a "ghost" may be a reflection of a dead +man's dream) will become less difficult to understand if we ask +ourselves what natural thing most resembles the common idea of a +ghost. You are reading alone at night, let us say, the door opens and +a human figure glides into the room. To you it pays no manner of +attention; it does not answer if you speak; it may trifle with some +object in the chamber and then steal quietly out again. + +_It is the House-maid walking in her Sleep_. + +This perfectly accountable appearance, in its aimlessness, its +unconsciousness, its irresponsiveness, is undeniably just like the +common notion of a ghost. Now, if ordinary ghosts are not of flesh +and blood, like the sleep-walking house-maid, yet are as irresponsive, +as unconscious, and as vaguely wandering as she, then (if the dead are +somewhat) a ghost _may_ be a hallucination produced in the living by +the _unconscious_ action of the mind of the dreaming dead. The +conception is at least conceivable. If adopted, merely for argument's +sake, it would first explain the purposeless behaviour of ghosts, and +secondly, relieve people who see ghosts of the impression that they +see "spirits". In the Scotch phrase the ghost obviously "is not all +there," any more than the sleep walker is intellectually "all there". +This incomplete, incoherent presence is just what might be expected if +a dreaming disembodied mind could affect an embodied mind with a +hallucination. + +But the good old-fashioned ghost stories are usually of another type. +The robust and earnest ghosts of our ancestors "had their own purpose +sun-clear before them," as Mr. Carlyle would have said. They knew +what they wanted, asked for it, and saw that they got it. + +As a rule their bodies were unburied, and so they demanded sepulture; +or they had committed a wrong, and wished to make restitution; or they +had left debts which they were anxious to pay; or they had advice, or +warnings, or threats to communicate; or they had been murdered, and +were determined to bring their assassins to the gibbet. + +Why, we may ask, were the old ghost stories so different from the new? +Well, first they were not all different. Again, probably only the +more dramatic tales were as a rule recorded. Thirdly, many of the +stories may have been either embellished--a fancied purpose being +attributed to a purposeless ghost--or they may even have been invented +to protect witnesses who gave information against murderers. Who +could disobey a ghost? + +In any case the old ghost stories are much more dramatic than the new. +To them we turn, beginning with the appearances of Mr. and Mrs. Furze +at Spraiton, in Devonshire, in 1682. Our author is Mr. Richard Bovet, +in his Pandaemonium, or the Devil's Cloister opened (1683). The +motive of the late Mr. Furze was to have some small debts paid; his +wife's spectre was influenced by a jealousy of Mr. Furze's spectre's +relations with another lady. + +THE DAEMON OF SPRAITON IN DEVON {111} ANNO 1682 + +"About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish of +Spraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr. +Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling-house of his said +master, there appeared unto him the _resemblance_ of an _aged +gentleman_ like his master's father, with a pole or staff in his hand, +resembling that he was wont to carry when living to kill the moles +withal. The _spectrum_ approached near the young man, whom you may +imagin not a little surprized at the _appearance_ of one that he knew +to be dead, but the _spectrum bid him not be afraid of him, but tell +his master_ (who was his son) that several _legacies which by his +testament he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one +and ten shillings to another, both which persons he named_ to the +young man, who replyed that the party he last named was dead, and so +it could not be paid to him. The ghost answered _he knew that, but it +must be paid to the next relation_, whom he also named. The spectrum +likewise ordered him to carry twenty shillings to a gentlewoman, +sister to the deceased, living near Totness in the said county, and +promised, if these things were performed, to trouble him no further; +but at the same time the _spectrum_, speaking of his _second wife_ +(who was also dead) _called her wicked woman_, though the gentleman +who writ the letter knew her and esteemed her a very good woman. And +(having thus related him his mind) the spectrum left the young man, +who according to the _direction_ of the _spirit_ took care to see the +small legacies satisfied, and carried the twenty shillings that was +appointed to be paid the gentlewoman near Totness, but she utterly +refused to receive it, being sent her (as she said) from the devil. +The same night the young man lodging at her house, the aforesaid +spectrum appeared to him again; whereupon the young man challenged his +_promise not to trouble him any more_, saying he had performed all +according to his appointment, but that the gentlewoman, his sister, +would not receive the money. + +"_To which the spectrum replied that was true indeed_; but withal +_directed_ the young man to ride to Totness and buy for her _a ring of +that value, which the spirit said she would accept of_, which being +provided accordingly, she received. Since the performance of which +the ghost or apparition of the old gentleman hath seemed to be at +rest, having never given the young man any further trouble. + +"But the next day after having delivered the ring, the young man was +riding home to his master's house, accompanyed by a servant of the +gentlewoman's near Totness, and near about the time of their entrance +(or a little before they came) into the parish of Spraiton aforesaid, +there appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man, the +resemblance of the _second wife_ of the old gentleman spoken of +before. + +"This daemon often threw the young man off his horse, and cast him +with such violence to the ground as was great astonishment, not only +to the gentlewoman's servant (with him), but to divers others who were +spectators of the frightful action, the ground resounding with great +noise by reason of the incredible force with which he was cast upon +it. At his coming into his master's yard, the horse which he rid, +though very poor and out of case, leaped at one spring twenty-five +foot, to the amazement of all that saw it. Soon after the she-spectre +shewed herself to divers in the house, viz., the aforesaid young man, +_Mistress Thomasin Gidly, Ann Langdon_, born in that parish, and a +little child, which, by reason of the troublesomeness of the spirit, +they were fain to remove from that house. She appeared sometimes in +her own shape, sometimes in forms very horrid; now and then like a +monstrous dog belching out fire; at another time it flew out at the +window, in the shape of a horse, carrying with it only one pane of +glass and a small piece of iron. + +"One time the young man's head was thrust into a very strait place +betwixt a bed's head and a wall, and forced by the strength of divers +men to be removed thence, and that not without being much hurt and +bruised, so that much blood appeared about it: upon this it was +advised he should be bleeded, to prevent any ill accident that might +come of the bruise; after bleeding, the ligature or binder of his arm +was removed from thence and conveyed about his middle, where it was +strained with such violence that the girding had almost stopp'd his +breath and kill'd him, and being cut asunder it made _a strange and +dismal noise_, so that the standers by were affrighted at it. At +divers other times he hath been in danger to be strangled with cravats +and handkerchiefs that he hath worn about his neck, which have been +drawn so close that with the sudden violence he hath near been +choaked, and hardly escaped death. + +"The spectre hath shewed great offence at the perriwigs which the +young man used to wear, for they are often torn from his head after a +very strange manner; one that he esteemed above the rest he put in a +small box, and that box he placed in another, which he set against the +wall of his chamber, placing a joint-stool with other weight a top of +it, but in short time the boxes were broken in sunder and the perriwig +rended into many small parts and tatters. Another time, lying in his +master's chamber with his perriwig on his head, to secure it from +danger, within a little time it was torn from him and reduced into +very small fragments. At another time one of his shoe-strings was +observed (without the assistance of any hand) to come of its own +accord out of its shoe and fling itself to the other side of the room; +the other was crawling after it, but a maid espying that, with her +hand drew it out, and it strangely _clasp'd_ and _curl'd_ about her +hand like a living _eel_ or _serpent_; this is testified by a lady of +considerable quality, too great for exception, who was an eye-witness. +The same lady shewed Mr. C. one of the young man's gloves, which was +torn in his pocket while she was by, which is so dexterously tatter'd +and so artificially torn that it is conceived a cutler could not have +contrived an instrument to have laid it abroad so accurately, and all +this was done in the pocket in the compass of one minute. It is +further observable that if the aforesaid young man, or another person +who is a servant maid in the house, do wear their own clothes, they +are certainly torn in pieces on their backs, but if the clothes belong +to any other, they are not injured after that manner. + +"Many other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the said +daemon or spirit in the view of divers persons; a barrel of salt of +considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room to room +without any human assistance. + +"An hand-iron hath seemed to lay itself cross over-thwart a pan of +milk that hath been scalding over the fire, and two flitches of bacon +have of their own accord descended from the chimney where they were +hung, and placed themselves upon the hand-iron. + +"When the spectre appears in resemblance of her own person, she seems +to be habited in the same cloaths and dress which the gentlewoman of +the house (her daughter-in-law) hath on at the same time. Divers +times the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been so +entangled about his neck that he hath been loosed with great +difficulty; sometimes they have been so twisted about the frames of +chairs and stools that they have hardly been set at liberty. But one +of the most considerable instances of the malice of the spirit against +the young man happened on Easter Eve, when Mrs. C. the relator, was +passing by the door of the house, and it was thus:-- + +"When the young man was returning from his labour, he was taken up by +the _skirt_ of his _doublet_ by this _female daemon_, and carried a +height into the air. He was soon missed by his Master and some other +servants that had been at labour with him, and after diligent enquiry +no news could be heard of him, until at length (near half an hour +after) he was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire, where +they found him in a kind of trance or _extatick fit_, to which he hath +sometimes been accustomed (but whether before the affliction he met +with from this spirit I am not certain). He was affected much after +such sort, as at the time of those _fits_, so that the people did not +give that _attention_ and _regard_ to what he said as at other times; +but when he returned again to himself (which was about an hour after) +he solemnly protested to them that the daemon had carried him so high +that his master's house seemed to him to be but _as a hay-cock_, and +_that during all that time he was in perfect sense, and prayed to +Almighty God not to suffer the devil to destroy him_; and that he was +suddenly set down in that quagmire. + +The workmen found one shoe on one side of his master's house, and the +other on the other side, and in the morning espied his perriwig +hanging on the top of a tree; by which it appears he had been carried +a considerable height, and that what he told them was not a fiction. + +"After this it was observed that that part of the young man's body +which had been on the mud in the quagmire was somewhat benummbed and +seemingly deader than the other, whereupon the following _Saturday_, +which was the day before _Low Sunday_, he was carried to _Crediton, +alias Kirton_, to be bleeded, which being done accordingly, and the +company having left him for some little space, at their return they +found him in one of his fits, with his _forehead_ much _bruised_, and +_swoln_ to a _great bigness_, none being able to guess how it +happened, until his recovery from that _fit_, when upon enquiry he +gave them this account of it: _that a bird had with great swiftness +and force flown in at the window with a stone in its beak, which it +had dashed against his forehead, which had occasioned the swelling +which they saw_. + +"The people much wondering at the strangeness of the accident, +diligently sought the stone, and under the place where he sat they +found not such a stone as they expected but a weight of brass or +copper, which it seems the daemon had made use of on that occasion to +give the poor young man that hurt in his forehead. + +"The persons present were at the trouble to break it to pieces, every +one taking a part and preserving it in memory of so strange an +accident. After this the spirit continued to molest the young man in +a very severe and rugged manner, often handling him with great +extremity, and whether it hath yet left its violences to him, or +whether the young man be yet alive, I can have no certain account." + +I leave the reader to consider of the extraordinary strangeness of the +relation. + +The reader, considering the exceeding strangeness of the relation, +will observe that we have now reached "great swingeing falsehoods," +even if that opinion had not hitherto occurred to his mind. But if he +thinks that such stories are no longer told, and even sworn to on +Bible oath, he greatly deceives himself. In the chapter on "Haunted +Houses" he will find statements just as hard narrated of the years +1870 and 1882. In these, however, the ghosts had no purpose but +mischief. {118} + +We take another "ghost with a purpose". + +SIR GEORGE VILLIERS' GHOST. + +The variations in the narratives of Sir George Villiers' appearance to +an old servant of his, or old protege, and the warning communicated by +this man to Villiers' son, the famous Duke of Buckingham, are curious +and instructive. The tale is first told in print by William Lilly, +the astrologer, in the second part of a large tract called Monarchy or +No Monarchy in England (London, 1651), twenty-three years after +Buckingham's murder. But while prior in publication, Lilly's story +was probably written after, though independent of Lord Clarendon's, in +the first book of his History of the Rebellion, begun on 18th March, +1646, that is within eighteen years of the events. Clarendon, of +course, was in a position to know what was talked of at the time. +Next, we have a letter of Mr. Douch to Glanvil, undated, but written +after the Restoration, and, finally, an original manuscript of 1652. + +Douch makes the warning arrive "some few days" before the murder of +Buckingham, and says that the ghost of Sir George, "in his morning +gown," bade one Parker tell Buckingham to abandon the expedition to La +Rochelle or expect to be murdered. On the third time of appearing the +vision pulled a long knife from under his gown, as a sign of the death +awaiting Buckingham. He also communicated a "private token" to +Parker, the "percipient," Sir George's old servant. On each occasion +of the appearance, Parker was reading at midnight. Parker, _after_ +the murder, told one Ceeley, who told it to a clergyman, who told +Douch, who told Glanvil. + +In Lilly's version the ghost had a habit of walking in Parker's room, +and finally bade him tell Buckingham to abstain from certain company, +"or else he will come to destruction, and that suddenly". Parker, +thinking he had dreamed, did nothing; the ghost reappeared, and +communicated a secret "which he (Buckingham) knows that none in the +world ever knew but myself and he". The duke, on hearing the story +from Parker, backed by the secret, was amazed, but did not alter his +conduct. On the third time the spectre produced the knife, but at +_this_ information the duke only laughed. Six weeks later he was +stabbed. Douch makes the whole affair pass immediately before the +assassination. "And Mr. Parker died soon after," as the ghost had +foretold to him. + +Finally, Clarendon makes the appearances set in six months before +Felton slew the duke. The percipient, unnamed, was in bed. The +narrative now develops new features; the token given on the ghost's +third coming obviously concerns Buckingham's mother, the Countess, the +"one person more" who knew the secret communicated. The ghost +produces no knife from under his gown; no warning of Buckingham's +death by violence is mentioned. A note in the MS. avers that +Clarendon himself had papers bearing on the subject, and that he got +his information from Sir Ralph Freeman (who introduced the unnamed +percipient to the duke), and from some of Buckingham's servants, "who +were informed of much of it before the murder of the duke". Clarendon +adds that, in general, "no man looked on relations of that sort with +less reverence and consideration" than he did. This anecdote he +selects out of "many stories scattered abroad at the time" as "upon a +better foundation of credit". The percipient was an officer in the +king's wardrobe at Windsor, "of a good reputation for honesty and +discretion," and aged about fifty. He was bred at a school in Sir +George's parish, and as a boy was kindly treated by Sir George, "whom +afterwards he never saw". On first beholding the spectre in his room, +the seer recognised Sir George's costume, then antiquated. At last +the seer went to Sir Ralph Freeman, who introduced him to the duke on +a hunting morning at Lambeth Bridge. They talked earnestly apart, +observed by Sir Ralph, Clarendon's informant. The duke seemed +abstracted all day; left the field early, sought his mother, and after +a heated conference of which the sounds reached the ante-room, went +forth in visible trouble and anger, a thing never before seen in him +after talk with his mother. She was found "overwhelmed with tears and +in the highest agony imaginable". "It is a notorious truth" that, +when told of his murder, "she seemed not in the least degree +surprised." + +The following curious manuscript account of the affair is, after the +prefatory matter, the copy of a letter dated 1652. There is nothing +said of a ghostly knife, the name of the seer is not Parker, and in +its whole effect the story tallies with Clarendon's version, though +the narrator knows nothing of the scene with the Countess of +Buckingham. + +CAVALIER VERSION {121} + +"1627. Since William Lilly the Rebells Jugler and Mountebank in his +malicious and blaspheamous discourse concerning our late Martyred +Soveraigne of ever blessed memory (amongst other lyes and falsehoods) +imprinted a relation concerning an Aparition which foretold several +Events which should happen to the Duke of Buckingham, wherein he +falsifies boeth the person to whom it appeared and ye circumstances; I +thought it not amis to enter here (that it may be preserved) the true +account of that Aparition as I have receaved it from the hande and +under the hande of Mr. Edmund Wyndham, of Kellefford in the County of +Somersett. I shall sett it downe (ipsissimis verbis) as he delivered +it to me at my request written with his own hande. + +WYNDHAM'S LETTER + +"Sr. According to your desire and my promise I have written down what +I remember (divers things being slipt out of my memory) of the +relation made me by Mr. Nicholas Towse concerning the Aparition wch +visited him. About ye yeare 1627, {122} I and my wife upon an +occasion being in London lay att my Brother Pyne's house without +Bishopsgate, wch. was ye next house unto Mr. Nicholas Towse's, who was +my Kinsman and familiar acquaintance, in consideration of whose +Society and friendship he tooke a house in that place, ye said Towse +being a very fine Musician and very good company, and for ought I ever +saw or heard, a Vurtuous, religious and wel disposed Gentleman. About +that time ye said Mr. Towse tould me that one night, being in Bed and +perfectly waking, and a Candle burning by him (as he usually had) +there came into his Chamber and stood by his bed side an Olde +Gentleman in such an habitt as was in fashion in Q: Elizebeth's tyme, +at whose first appearance Mr. Towse was very much troubled, but after +a little tyme, recollecting himselfe, he demanded of him in ye Name of +God what he was, whether he were a Man. And ye Aparition replyed No. +Then he asked him if he were a Divell. And ye answer was No. Then +Mr. Towse said 'in ye Name of God, what art thou then?' And as I +remember Mr. Towse told me that ye Apparition answered him that he was +ye Ghost of Sir George Villiers, Father to ye then Duke of Buckingham, +whom he might very well remember, synce he went to schoole at such a +place in Leicestershire (naming ye place which I have forgotten). And +Mr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition had perfectly ye resemblance of +ye said Sr George Villiers in all respects and in ye same habitt that +he had often seene him weare in his lifetime. + +"The said Apparition then tould Mr. Towse that he could not but +remember ye much kindness that he, ye said Sr George Villiers, had +expressed to him whilst he was a Schollar in Leicestershire, as +aforesaid, and that as out of that consideration he believed that he +loved him and that therefore he made choyce of him, ye sayde Mr. +Towse, to deliver a message to his sonne, ye Duke of Buckingham; +thereby to prevent such mischiefe as would otherwise befall ye said +Duke whereby he would be inevitably ruined. And then (as I remember) +Mr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition instructed him what message he +should deliver unto ye Duke. Vnto wch. Mr. Towse replyed that he +should be very unwilling to goe to ye Duke of Buckingham upon such an +errand, whereby he should gaine nothing but reproach and contempt, and +to be esteemed a Madman, and therefore desired to be exscused from ye +employment, but ye Apparition pressd him wth. much earnestness to +undertake it, telling him that ye Circumstances and secret Discoveries +which he should be able to make to ye Duke of such passages in ye +course of his life which were known to none but himselfe, would make +it appeare that ye message was not ye fancy of a Distempered Brayne, +but a reality, and so ye Apparition tooke his leave of him for that +night and telling him that he would give him leave to consider till +the next night, and then he would come to receave his answer wheather +he would undertake to deliver his message or no. + +"Mr. Towse past that day wth. much trouble and perplexity, debating +and reasoning wth. himselfe wether he should deliver his message or +not to ye Duke but, in ye conclusion, he resolved to doe it, and ye +next night when ye Apparition came he gave his answer accordingly, and +then receaved his full instruction. After which Mr. Towse went and +founde out Sr. Thomas Bludder and Sr. Ralph Freeman, by whom he was +brought to ye Duke of Buckingham, and had sevarall private and lone +audiences of him, I my selfe, by ye favoure of a freinde (Sr. Edward +Savage) was once admitted to see him in private conference with ye +Duke, where (although I heard not there discourses) I observed much +earnestnessse in their actions and gestures. After wch. conference +Mr. Towse tould me that ye Duke would not follow ye advice that was +given him, which was (as I remember) that he intimated ye casting of, +and ye rejecting of some Men who had great interest in him, which was, +and as I take it he named, Bp. Laud and that ye Duke was to doe some +popular Acts in ye ensuing Parliament, of which Parliament ye Duke +would have had Mr. Towse to have been a Burgesse, but he refused it, +alleadging that unlesse ye Duke followed his directions, he must doe +him hurt if he were of ye Parliament. Mr. Towse then toalde that ye +Duke of Buckingham confessed that he had toalde him those things wch. +no Creature knew but himself, and that none but God or ye Divell could +reveale to him. Ye Duke offered Mr. Towse to have ye King knight him, +and to have given him preferment (as he tould me), but that he refused +it, saying that vnless he would follow his advice he would receave +nothing from him. + +"Mr. Towse, when he made me this relation, he tolde me that ye Duke +would inevitably be destroyed before such a time (wch. he then named) +and accordingly ye Duke's death happened before that time. He +likewise tolde that he had written downe all ye severall discourses +that he had had wth. ye Apparition, and that at last his coming was so +familiar that he was as litle troubled with it as if it had beene a +friende or acquayntance that had come to visitt him. Mr. Towse told +me further that ye Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London, +Dr. Laud, should by his Councells be ye authoure of very great +troubles to ye Kingdome, by which it should be reduced to ye extremity +of disorder and confusion, and that it should seeme to be past all +hope of recovery without a miracle, but when all people were in +dispayre of seeing happy days agayne, ye Kingdome should suddenly be +reduced and resettled agayne in a most happy condition. + +"At this tyme my father Pyne was in trouble and comitted to ye +Gatehouse by ye Lords of ye Councell about a Quarrel betweene him and +ye Lord Powlett, upon which one night I saide to my Cosin Towse, by +way of jest, 'I pray aske your Appairition what shall become of my +father Pyne's business,' which he promised to doe, and ye next day he +tolde me that my father Pyne's enemyes were ashamed of their malicious +prosecution, and that he would be at liberty within a week or some few +days, which happened according. + +"Mr. Towse, his wife, since his death tolde me that her husband and +she living at Windsor Castle, where he had an office that Sumer that +ye Duke of Buckingham was killed, tolde her that very day that the +Duke was sett upon by ye mutinous Mariners att Portesmouth, saying +then that ye next attempt agaynst him would be his Death, which +accordingly happened. And att ye instant ye Duke was killed (as she +vnderstood by ye relation afterwards) Mr. Towse was sitting in his +chayre, out of which he suddenly started vp and sayd, 'Wyfe, ye Duke +of Buckingham is slayne!' + +"Mr. Towse lived not long after that himselfe, but tolde his wife ye +tyme of his Death before itt happened. I never saw him after I had +seen some effects of his discourse, which before I valued not, and +therefore was not curious to enquire after more than he voluntaryly +tolde me, which I then entertayned not wth. these serious thoughts +which I have synce reflected on in his discourse. This is as much as +I can remember on this business which, according to youre desire, is +written by + +"Sr. Yor., &c., + +"EDMUND WINDHAM. + +"BOULOGNE, 5th August, 1652." + +* * * * * + +This version has, over all others, the merit of being written by an +acquaintance of the seer, who was with him while the appearances were +going on. The narrator was also present at an interview between the +seer and Buckingham. His mention of Sir Ralph Freeman tallies with +Clarendon's, who had the story from Freeman. The ghost predicts the +Restoration, and this is recorded before that happy event. Of course +Mr. Towse may have been interested in Buckingham's career and may have +invented the ghost (after discovering the secret token) {127} as an +excuse for warning him. + +The reader can now take his choice among versions of Sir George +Villiers' ghost. He must remember that, in 1642, Sir Henry Wotton +"spent some inquiry whether the duke had any ominous presagement +before his end," but found no evidence. Sir Henry told Izaak Walton a +story of a dream of an ancestor of his own, whereby some robbers of +the University chest at Oxford were brought to justice. Anthony Wood +consulted the records of the year mentioned, and found no trace of any +such robbery. We now approach a yet more famous ghost than Sir +George's. This is Lord Lyttelton's. The ghost had a purpose, to warn +that bad man of his death, but nobody knows whose ghost she was! + +LORD LYTTELTON'S GHOST + +"Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "it is the most extraordinary thing that has +happened in my day." The doctor's day included the rising of 1745 and +of the Wesleyans, the seizure of Canada, the Seven Years' War, the +American Rebellion, the Cock Lane ghost, and other singular +occurrences, but "the most extraordinary thing" was--Lord Lyttelton's +ghost! Famous as is that spectre, nobody knows what it was, nor even +whether there was any spectre at all. + +Thomas, Lord Lyttelton, was born in 1744. In 1768 he entered the +House of Commons. In 1769 he was unseated for bribery. He then +vanishes from public view, probably he was playing the prodigal at +home and abroad, till February, 1772, when he returned to his father's +house, and married. He then went abroad (with a barmaid) till 1773, +when his father died. In January, 1774, he took his seat in the House +of Lords. In November, 1779, Lyttelton went into Opposition. On +Thursday, 25th November, he denounced Government in a magnificent +speech. As to a sinecure which he held, he said, "Perhaps I shall not +keep it long!" + +_Something had Happened_! + +On the night before his speech, that of Wednesday, 24th November, +Lyttelton had seen the ghost, and had been told that he would die in +three days. He mentioned this to Rowan Hamilton on the Friday. {129a} +On the same day, or on Friday, he mentioned it to Captain Ascough, who +told a lady, who told Mrs. Thrale. {129b} On the Friday he went to +Epsom with friends, and mentioned the ghost to them, among others to +Mr. Fortescue. {129c} About midnight on 28th November, Lord Lyttelton +died suddenly in bed, his valet having left him for a moment to fetch +a spoon for stirring his medicine. The cause of death was not stated; +there was no inquest. + +This, literally, is all that is _known_ about Lord Lyttelton's ghost. +It is variously described as: (1) "a young woman and a robin" (Horace +Walpole); (2) "a spirit" (Captain Ascough); (3) a bird in a dream, +"which changed into a woman in white" (Lord Westcote's narrative of +13th February, 1780, collected from Lord Lyttelton's guests and +servants); (4) "a bird turning into a woman" (Mrs. Delany, 9th +December, 1779); (5) a dream of a bird, followed by a woman, Mrs. +Amphlett, in white (Pitt Place archives after 1789); (6) "a fluttering +noise, as of a bird, followed by the apparition of a woman who had +committed suicide after being seduced by Lyttelton" (Lady Lyttelton, +1828); (7) a bird "which vanished when a female spirit in white +raiment presented herself" (Scots Magazine, November-December, 1779). + +Out of seven versions, a bird, or a fluttering noise as of a bird (a +common feature in ghost stories), {130a} with a woman following or +accompanying, occurs in six. The phenomena are almost equally +ascribed to dreaming and to waking hallucination, but the common-sense +of the eighteenth century called all ghosts "dreams". In the Westcote +narrative (1780) Lyttelton explains the dream by his having lately +been in a room with a lady, Mrs. Dawson, when a robin flew in. Yet, +in the same narrative, Lyttelton says on Saturday morning "that he was +very well, and believed he should bilk the _ghost_". He was certainly +in bed at the time of the experience, and probably could not be sure +whether he was awake or asleep. {130b} + +Considering the remoteness of time, the story is very well recorded. +It is chronicled by Mrs. Thrale before the news of Lyttelton's death +reached her, and by Lady Mary Coke two days later, by Walpole on the +day after the peer's decease, of which he had heard. Lord Lyttelton's +health had for some time been bad; he had made his will a few weeks +before, and his nights were horror-haunted. A little boy, his nephew, +to whom he was kind, used to find the wicked lord sitting by his bed +at night, because he dared not be alone. So Lockhart writes to his +daughter, Mrs. Hope Scott. {131} He had strange dreams of being in +hell with the cruel murderess, Mrs. Brownrigg, who "whipped three +female 'prentices to death and hid them in the coal-hole". Such a man +might have strange fancies, and a belief in approaching death might +bring its own fulfilment. The hypothesis of a premeditated suicide, +with the story of the ghost as a last practical joke, has no +corroboration. It occurred to Horace Walpole at once, but he laid no +stress on it. + +Such is a plain, dry, statistical account of the most extraordinary +event that happened in Dr. Johnson's day. + +However, the story does not end here. On the fatal night, 27th +November, 1779, Mr. Andrews, M.P., a friend of Lyttelton's was +awakened by finding Lord Lyttelton drawing his curtains. Suspecting a +practical joke, he hunted for his lordship both in his house and in +the garden. Of course he never found him. The event was promptly +recorded in the next number of the Scots Magazine, December, 1779. +{132} + + + + + +CHAPTER VII +More Ghosts With A Purpose + + +The Slaying of Sergeant Davies in 1749. The Trial. Scott's Theory. +Curious recent Corroboration of Sir Walter's Hypothesis. Other Trials +involving Ghostly Evidence. Their Want of Authenticity. "Fisher's +Ghost" criticised. The Aylesbury Murder. The Dog o' Mause. The +Ghosts of Dogs. Peter's Ghost. + +Much later in time than the ghost of Sir George Villiers is the ghost +of Sergeant Davies, of Guise's regiment. His purpose was, first, to +get his body buried; next, to bring his murderers to justice. In this +latter desire he totally failed. + +THE SLAYING OF SERGEANT DAVIES + +We now examine a ghost with a purpose; he wanted to have his bones +buried. The Highlands, in spite of Culloden, were not entirely +pacified in the year 1749. Broken men, robbers, fellows with wrongs +unspeakable to revenge, were out in the heather. The hills that +seemed so lonely were not bare of human life. A man was seldom so +solitary but that eyes might be on him from cave, corry, wood, or den. +The Disarming Act had been obeyed in the usual style: old useless +weapons were given up to the military. But the spirit of the clans +was not wholly broken. Even the old wife of Donald Ban, when he was +"sair hadden down by a Bodach" (ghost) asked the spirit to answer one +question, "Will the Prince come again?" The song expressed the +feelings of the people:-- + +The wind has left me bare indeed, +And blawn my bonnet off my heid, +But something's hid in Hieland brae, +The wind's no blawn my sword away! + +Traffickers came and went from Prince Charles to Cluny, from Charles +in the Convent of St. Joseph to Cluny lurking on Ben Alder. Kilt and +tartan were worn at the risk of life or liberty, in short, the embers +of the rising were not yet extinct. + +At this time, in the summer of 1749, Sergeant Arthur Davies, of +Guise's regiment, marched with eight privates from Aberdeen to Dubrach +in Braemar, while a corporal's guard occupied the Spital of Glenshee, +some eight miles away. "A more waste tract of mountain and bog, rocks +and ravines, without habitations of any kind till you reach +Glenclunie, is scarce to be met with in Scotland," says Sir Walter. + +The sergeant's business was the general surveillance of the country +side. He was a kindly prosperous man, liked in the country, fond of +children, newly married, and his wife bore witness "that he and she +lived together in as great amity and love as any couple could do, and +that he never was in use to stay away a night from her". + +The sergeant had saved fifteen guineas and a half; he carried the gold +in a green silk purse, and was not averse to displaying it. He wore a +silver watch, and two gold rings, one with a peculiar knob on the +bezel. He had silver buckles to his brogues, silver knee-buckles, two +dozen silver buttons on a striped lute-string waistcoat, and he +carried a gun, a present from an officer in his regiment. His dress, +on the fatal 28th of September, was "a blue surtout coat, with a +striped silk vest, and teiken breeches and brown stockings". His +hair, of "a dark mouse colour," was worn in a silk ribbon, his hat was +silver laced, and bore his initials cut in the felt. Thus attired, "a +pretty man," Sergeant Davies said good-bye to his wife, who never saw +him again, and left his lodgings at Michael Farquharson's early on +28th September. He took four men with him, and went to meet the +patrol from Glenshee. On the way he met John Growar in Glenclunie, +who spoke with him "about a tartan coat, which the sergeant had +observed him to drop, and after strictly enjoining him not to use it +again, dismissed him, instead of making him prisoner". + +This encounter was after Davies left his men, before meeting the +patrol, it being his intention to cross the hill and try for a shot at +a stag. + +The sergeant never rejoined his men or met the patrol! He vanished as +if the fairies had taken him. His captain searched the hill with a +band of men four days after the disappearance, but to no avail. +Various rumours ran about the country, among others a clatter that +Davies had been killed by Duncan Clerk and Alexander Bain Macdonald. +But the body was undiscovered. + +In June, one Alexander Macpherson came to Donald Farquharson, son of +the man with whom Davies had been used to lodge. Macpherson (who was +living in a sheiling or summer hut of shepherds on the hills) said +that he "was greatly troubled by the ghost of Sergeant Davies, who +insisted that he should bury his bones, and that, he having declined +to bury them, the ghost insisted that he should apply to Donald +Farquharson". Farquharson "could not believe this," till Macpherson +invited him to come and see the bones. Then Farquharson went with the +other, "as he thought it might possibly be true, and if it was, he did +not know but the apparition might trouble himself". + +The bones were found in a peat moss, about half a mile from the road +taken by the patrols. There, too, lay the poor sergeant's mouse- +coloured hair, with rags of his blue cloth and his brogues, without +the silver buckles, and there did Farquharson and Macpherson bury them +all. + +Alexander Macpherson, in his evidence at the trial, declared that, +late in May, 1750, "when he was in bed, a vision appeared to him as of +a man clothed in blue, who said, '_I am Sergeant Davies_!'". At first +Macpherson thought the figure was "a real living man," a brother of +Donald Farquharson's. He therefore rose and followed his visitor to +the door, where the ghost indicated the position of his bones, and +said that Donald Farquharson would help to inter them. Macpherson +next day found the bones, and spoke to Growar, the man of the tartan +coat (as Growar admitted at the trial). Growar said if Macpherson did +not hold his tongue, he himself would inform Shaw of Daldownie. +Macpherson therefore went straight to Daldownie, who advised him to +bury the bones privily, not to give the country a bad name for a rebel +district. While Macpherson was in doubt, and had not yet spoken to +Farquharson, the ghost revisited him at night and repeated his +command. He also denounced his murderers, Clerk and Macdonald, which +he had declined to do on his first appearance. He spoke in Gaelic, +which, it seems, was a language not known by the sergeant. + +Isobel MacHardie, in whose service Macpherson was, deponed that one +night in summer, June, 1750, while she lay at one end of the sheiling +(a hill hut for shepherds or neatherds) and Macpherson lay at the +other, "she saw something naked come in at the door, which frighted +her so much that she drew the clothes over her head. That when it +appeared it came in in a bowing posture, and that next morning she +asked Macpherson what it was that had troubled them in the night +before. To which he answered that she might be easy, for it would not +trouble them any more." + +All this was in 1750, but Clerk and Macdonald were not arrested till +September, 1753. They were then detained in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh +on various charges, as of wearing the kilt, till June, 1754, when they +were tried, Grant of Prestongrange prosecuting, aided by Haldane, Home +and Dundas, while Lockhart and Mackintosh defended. It was proved +that Clerk's wife wore Davies's ring, that Clerk, after the murder, +had suddenly become relatively rich and taken a farm, and that the two +men, armed, were on the hill near the scene of the murder on 28th +September, 1749. Moreover, Angus Cameron swore that he saw the murder +committed. His account of his position was curious. He and another +Cameron, since dead, were skulking near sunset in a little hollow on +the hill of Galcharn. There he had skulked all day, "waiting for +Donald Cameron, _who was afterwards hanged_, together with some of the +said Donald's companions from Lochaber". No doubt they were all +honest men who had been "out," and they may well have been on Cluny's +business of conveying gold from the Loch Arkaig hoard to Major Kennedy +for the prince. + +On seeing Clerk and Macdonald strike and shoot the man in the silver- +laced hat, Cameron and his companion ran away, nor did Cameron mention +the matter till nine months later, and then only to Donald (not he who +was hanged). Donald advised him to hold his tongue. This Donald +corroborated at the trial. The case against Clerk and Macdonald +looked very black, especially as some witnesses fled and declined to +appear. Scott, who knew Macintosh, the counsel for the prisoners, +says that their advocates and agent "were convinced of their guilt". +Yet a jury of Edinburgh tradesmen, moved by Macintosh's banter of the +apparition, acquitted the accused solely, as Scott believes, because +of the ghost and its newly-learned Gaelic. It is indeed extraordinary +that Prestongrange, the patron of David Balfour, allowed his witnesses +to say what the ghost said, which certainly "is not evidence". Sir +Walter supposes that Macpherson and Mrs. MacHardie invented the +apparition as an excuse for giving evidence. "The ghost's commands, +according to Highland belief, were not to be disobeyed." Macpherson +must have known the facts "by ordinary means". We have seen that +Clerk and Macdonald were at once suspected; there was "a clatter" +against them. But Angus Cameron had not yet told his tale of what he +saw. Then who _did_ tell? Here comes in a curious piece of evidence +of the year 1896. A friend writes (29th December, 1896):-- + +"DEAR LANG, + +"I enclose a tradition connected with the murder of Sergeant +Davies, which my brother picked up lately before he had read the +story in your Cock Lane. He had heard of the event before, both in +Athole and Braemar, and it was this that made him ask the old lady +(see next letter) about it. + +"He thinks that Glenconie of your version (p. 256) must be +Glenclunie, into which Allt Chriostaidh falls. He also suggests +that the person who was chased by the murderers may have got up the +ghost, in order to shift the odium of tale-bearing to other +shoulders. The fact of being mixed up in the affair lends some +support to the story here related." + +Here follows my friend's brother's narrative, the name of the witness +being suppressed. + +CONCERNING THE MURDER OF SERGEANT DAVIES + +There is at present living in the neighbourhood of --- an old lady, +about seventy years of age. Her maiden name is ---, {140} and she is +a native of Braemar, but left that district when about twenty years +old, and has never been back to it even for a visit. On being asked +whether she had ever heard the story of Sergeant Davies, she at first +persisted in denying all knowledge of it. The ordinary version was +then related to her, and she listened quietly until it was finished, +when she broke out with:-- + +"That isn't the way of it at all, for the men _were_ seen, and it was +a forbear of my own that saw them. He had gone out to try to get a +stag, and had his gun and a deer-hound with him. He saw the men on +the hill doing something, and thinking they had got a deer, he went +towards them. When he got near them, the hound began to run on in +front of him, and at that minute _he saw what it was they had_. He +called to the dog, and turned to run away, but saw at once that he had +made a mistake, for he had called their attention to himself, and a +shot was fired after him, which wounded the dog. He then ran home as +fast as he could, never looking behind him, and did not know how far +the men followed him. Some time afterwards the dog came home, and he +went to see whether it was much hurt, whereupon it flew at him, and +had to be killed. They thought that it was trying to revenge itself +on him for having left it behind." + +At this point the old lady became conscious that she was telling the +story, and no more could be got out of her. The name of the lady who +keeps a secret of 145 years' standing, is the name of a witness in the +trial. The whole affair is thoroughly characteristic of the +Highlanders and of Scottish jurisprudence after Culloden, while the +verdict of "Not Guilty" (when "Not Proven" would have been stretching +a point) is evidence to the "common-sense" of the eighteenth century. +{141} + +There are other cases, in Webster, Aubrey and Glanvil of ghosts who +tried more successfully to bring their murderers to justice. But the +reports of the trials do not exist, or cannot be found, and Webster +lost a letter which he once possessed, which would have been proof +that ghostly evidence was given and was received at a trial in Durham +(1631 or 1632). Reports of old men present were collected for +Glanvil, but are entirely too vague. + +The case of Fisher's Ghost, which led to evidence being given as to a +murder in New South Wales, cannot be wholly omitted. Fisher was a +convict settler, a man of some wealth. He disappeared from his +station, and his manager (also a convict) declared that he had +returned to England. Later, a man returning from market saw Fisher +sitting on a rail; at his approach Fisher vanished. Black trackers +were laid on, found human blood on the rail, and finally discovered +Fisher's body. The manager was tried, was condemned, acknowledged his +guilt and was hanged. + +The story is told in Household Words, where Sir Frederick Forbes is +said to have acted as judge. No date is given. In Botany Bay, {142} +the legend is narrated by Mr. John Lang, who was in Sydney in 1842. +He gives no date of the occurrence, and clearly embellishes the tale. +In 1835, however, the story is told by Mr. Montgomery Martin in volume +iv. of his History of the British Colonies. He gives the story as a +proof of the acuteness of black trackers. Beyond saying that he +himself was in the colony when the events and the trial occurred, he +gives no date. I have conscientiously investigated the facts, by aid +of the Sydney newspapers, and the notes of the judge, Sir Frederick +Forbes. Fisher disappeared at the end of June, 1826, from +Campbeltown. Suspicion fell on his manager, Worral. A reward was +offered late in September. Late in October the constable's attention +was drawn to blood-stains on a rail. Starting thence, the black +trackers found Fisher's body. Worral was condemned and hanged, after +confession, in February, 1827. Not a word is said about _why_ the +constable went to, and examined, the rail. But Mr. Rusden, author of +a History of Australia, knew the medical attendant D. Farley (who saw +Fisher's ghost, and pointed out the bloody rail), and often discussed +it with Farley. Mr. Souttar, in a work on Colonial traditions, proves +the point that Farley told his ghost story _before_ the body of Fisher +was found. But, for fear of prejudicing the jury, the ghost was kept +out of the trial, exactly as in the following case. + +THE GARDENER'S GHOST + +Perhaps the latest ghost in a court of justice (except in cases about +the letting of haunted houses) "appeared" at the Aylesbury Petty +Session on 22nd August, 1829. On 25th October, 1828, William Edden, a +market gardener, was found dead, with his ribs broken, in the road +between Aylesbury and Thame. One Sewell, in August, 1829, accused a +man named Tyler, and both were examined at the Aylesbury Petty +Sessions. Mrs. Edden gave evidence that she sent five or six times +for Tyler "to come and see the corpse. . . . I had some particular +reasons for sending for him which I never did divulge. . . . I will +tell you my reasons, gentlemen, if you ask me, in the face of Tyler, +even if my life should be in danger for it." The reasons were that on +the night of her husband's murder, "something rushed over me, and I +thought my husband came by me. I looked up, and I thought I heard the +voice of my husband come from near my mahogany table. . . . I thought +I saw my husband's apparition, and the man that had done it, and that +man was Tyler. . . . I ran out and said, 'O dear God! my husband is +murdered, and his ribs are broken'." + +Lord Nugent--"What made you think your husband's ribs were broken?" + +"He held up his hands like this, and I saw a hammer, or something like +a hammer, and it came into my mind that his ribs were broken." Sewell +stated that the murder was accomplished by means of a hammer. + +The prisoners were discharged on 13th September. On 5th March, 1830, +they were tried at the Buckingham Lent Assizes, were found guilty and +were hanged, protesting their innocence, on 8th March, 1830. + +"In the report of Mrs. Edden's evidence (at the Assizes) no mention is +made of the vision." {144} + +Here end our ghosts in courts of justice; the following ghost gave +evidence of a murder, or rather, confessed to one, but was beyond the +reach of human laws. + +This tale of 1730 is still current in Highland tradition. It has, +however, been improved and made infinitely more picturesque by several +generations of narrators. As we try to be faithful to the best +sources, the contemporary manuscript version is here reprinted from +The Scottish Standard-Bearer, an organ of the Scotch Episcopalians +(October and November, 1894). + +THE DOG O' MAUSE + +Account of an apparition that appeared to William Soutar, {145a} in +the Mause, 1730. + +[This is a copy from that in the handwriting of Bishop Rattray, +preserved at Craighall, and which was found at Meikleour a few years +ago, to the proprietor of which, Mr. Mercer, it was probably sent by +the Bishop.--W. W. H., 3rd August, 1846.] + +"I have sent you an account of an apparition as remarkable, perhaps, +as anything you ever heard of, and which, considered in all its +circumstances, leaves, I think, no ground of doubt to any man of +common-sense. The person to whom it appeared is one William Soutar, a +tenant of Balgowan's, who lives in Middle Mause, within about half a +mile from this place on the other side of the river, and in view from +our windows of Craighall House. He is about thirty-seven years of +age, as he says, and has a wife and bairns. + +"The following is an account from his own mouth; and because there are +some circumstances fit to be taken in as you go along, I have given +them with reference at the end, {145b} that I may not interrupt the +sense of the account, or add anything to it. Therefore, it begins:-- + +"'In the month of December in the year 1728, about sky-setting, I and +my servant, with several others living in the town (farm-steading) +heard a scratching (screeching, crying), and I followed the noise, +with my servant, a little way from the town (farm-steading +throughout). We both thought we saw what had the appearance to be a +fox, and hounded the dogs at it, but they would not pursue it. {146a} + +"'About a month after, as I was coming from Blair {146b} alone, about +the same time of the night, a big dog appeared to me, of a dark +greyish colour, between the Hilltown and Knockhead {146c} of Mause, on +a lea rig a little below the road, and in passing by it touched me +sonsily (firmly) on the thigh at my haunch-bane (hip-bone), upon which +I pulled my staff from under my arm and let a stroke at it; and I had +a notion at the time that I hit it, and my haunch was painful all that +night. However, I had no great thought of its being anything +particular or extraordinary, but that it might be a mad dog wandering. +About a year after that, to the best of my memory, in December month, +about the same time of the night and in the same place, when I was +alone, it appeared to me again as before, and passed by me at some +distance; and then I began to think it might be something more than +ordinary. + +"'In the month of December, 1730, as I was coming from Perth, from the +Claith (cloth) Market a little before sky-setting, it appeared to me +again, being alone, at the same place, and passed by me just as +before. I had some suspicion of it then likewise, but I began to +think that a neighbour of mine in the Hilltown having an ox lately +dead, it might be a dog that had been at the carrion, by which I +endeavoured to put the suspicion out of my head. + +"'On the second Monday of December, 1730, as I was coming from +Woodhead, a town (farm) in the ground of Drumlochy, it appeared to me +again in the same place just about sky-setting; and after it had +passed me as it was going out of my sight, it spoke with a low voice +so that I distinctly heard it, these words, "Within eight or ten days +do or die," and it thereupon disappeared. No more passed at that +time. On the morrow I went to my brother, who dwells in the Nether +Aird of Drumlochy, and told him of the last and of all the former +appearances, which was the first time I ever spoke of it to anybody. +He and I went to see a sister of ours at Glenballow, who was dying, +but she was dead before we came. As we were returning home, I desired +my brother, whose name is James Soutar, to go forward with me till we +should be passed the place where it used to appear to me; and just as +we had come to it, about ten o'clock at night, it appeared to me again +just as formerly; and as it was passing over some ice I pointed to it +with my finger and asked my brother if he saw it, but he said he did +not, nor did his servant, who was with us. It spoke nothing at that +time, but just disappeared as it passed the ice. + +"'On the Saturday after, as I was at my own sheep-cots putting in my +sheep, it appeared to me again just after daylight, betwixt day and +skylight, and upon saying these words, "Come to the spot of ground +within half an hour," it just disappeared; whereupon I came home to my +own house, and took up a staff and also a sword off the head of the +bed, and went straight to the place where it used formerly to appear +to me; and after I had been there some minutes and had drawn a circle +about me with my staff, it appeared to me. And I spoke to it saying, +"In the name of God and Jesus Christ, what are you that troubles me?" +and it answered me, "I am David Soutar, George Soutar's brother. +{148a} I killed a man more than five-and-thirty years ago, when you +was new born, at a bush be-east the road, as you go into the Isle." +{148b} And as I was going away, I stood again and said, "David Soutar +was a man, and you appear like a dog," whereupon it spoke to me again, +saying, "I killed him with a dog, and therefore I am made to speak out +of the mouth of a dog, and tell you you must go and bury these bones". +Upon this I went straight to my brother to his house, and told him +what had happened to me. My brother having told the minister of +Blair, he and I came to the minister on Monday thereafter, as he was +examining in a neighbour's house in the same town where I live. And +the minister, with my brother and me and two or three more, went to +the place where the apparition said the bones were buried, when +Rychalzie met us accidentally; and the minister told Rychalzie the +story in the presence of all that were there assembled, and desired +the liberty from him to break up the ground to search for the bones. +Rychalzie made some scruples to allow us to break up the ground, but +said he would go along with us to Glasclune {149a}; and if he advised, +he would allow search to be made. Accordingly he went straight along +with my brother and me and James Chalmers, a neighbour who lives in +the Hilltown of Mause, to Glasclune, and told Glasclune the story as +above narrated; and he advised Rychalzie to allow the search to be +made, whereupon he gave his consent to it. + +"'The day after, being Friday, we convened about thirty or forty men +and went to the Isle, and broke up the ground in many places, +searching for the bones, but we found nothing. + +"'On Wednesday the 23rd December, about twelve o'clock, when I was in +my bed, I heard a voice but saw nothing; the voice said, "Come away". +{149b} Upon this I rose out of my bed, cast on my coat and went to the +door, but did not see it. And I said, "In the name of God, what do +you demand of me now?" It answered, "Go, take up these bones". I +said, "How shall I get these bones?" It answered again, "At the side +of a withered bush, {150} and there are but seven or eight of them +remaining". I asked, "Was there any more guilty of that action but +you?" It answered, "No". I asked again, "What is the reason you +trouble me?" It answered, "Because you are the youngest". Then said +I to it, "Depart from me, and give me a sign that I may know the +particular spot, and give me time". [Here there is written on the +margin in a different hand, "You will find the bones at the side of a +withered bush. There are but eight of them, and for a sign you will +find the print of a cross impressed on the ground."] On the morrow, +being Thursday, I went alone to the Isle to see if I could find any +sign, and immediately I saw both the bush, which was a small bush, the +greatest stick in it being about the thickness of a staff, and it was +withered about half-way down; and also the sign, which was about a +foot from the bush. The sign was an exact cross, thus X; each of the +two lines was about a foot and a half in length and near three inches +broad, and more than an inch deeper than the rest of the ground, as if +it had been pressed down, for the ground was not cut. On the morrow, +being Friday, I went and told my brother of the voice that had spoken +to me, and that I had gone and seen the bush which it directed me to +and the above-mentioned sign at it. The next day, being Saturday, my +brother and I went, together with seven or eight men with us, to the +Isle. About sun-rising we all saw the bush and the sign at it; and +upon breaking up the ground just at the bush, we found the bones, +viz., the chaft-teeth (jaw-teeth-molars) in it, one of the thigh +bones, one of the shoulder blades, and a small bone which we supposed +to be a collar bone, which was more consumed than any of the rest, and +two other small bones, which we thought to be bones of the sword-arm. +By the time we had digged up those bones, there convened about forty +men who also saw them. The minister and Rychalzie came to the place +and saw them. + +"'We immediately sent to the other side of the water, to Claywhat, +{151} to a wright that was cutting timber there, whom Claywhat brought +over with him, who immediately made a coffin for the bones, and my +wife brought linen to wrap them in, and I wrapped the bones in the +linen myself and put them in the coffin before all these people, and +sent for the mort-cloth and buried them in the churchyard of Blair +that evening. There were near an hundred persons at the burial, and +it was a little after sunset when they were buried.'" + +"This above account I have written down as dictated to me by William +Soutar in the presence of Robert Graham, brother to the Laird of +Balgowan, and of my two sons, James and John Rattray, at Craighall, +30th December, 1730. + +"We at Craighall heard nothing of this history till after the search +was over, but it was told us on the morrow by some of the servants who +had been with the rest at the search; and on Saturday Glasclune's son +came over to Craighall and told us that William Soutar had given a +very distinct account of it to his father. + +"On St. Andrew's Day, the 1st of December, this David Soutar (the +ghost) listed himself a soldier, being very soon after the time the +apparition said the murder was committed, and William Soutar declares +he had no remembrance of him till that apparition named him as brother +to George Soutar; then, he said, he began to recollect that when he +was about ten years of age he had seen him once at his father's in a +soldier's habit, after which he went abroad and was never more heard +of; neither did William ever before hear of his having listed as a +soldier, neither did William ever before hear of his having killed a +man, nor, indeed, was there ever anything heard of it in the country, +and it is not yet known who the person was that was killed, and whose +bones are now found. + +"My son John and I went within a few days after to visit Glasclune, +and had the account from him as William had told him over. From +thence we went to Middle Mause to hear it from himself; but he being +from home, his father, who also lives in that town, gave us the same +account of it which Glasclune had done, and the poor man could not +refrain from shedding tears as he told it, as Glasclune told us his +son was under very great concern when he spoke of it to him. We all +thought this a very odd story, and were under suspense about it +because the bones had not been found upon the search. + +"(Another account that also seems to have been written by the bishop +mentions that the murderer on committing the deed went home, and on +looking in at the window he saw William Soutar lying in a cradle-- +hence it was the ghaist always came to him, and not to any of the +other relations.)" + +Mr. Hay Newton, of Newton Hall, a man of great antiquarian tastes in +the last generation, wrote the following notes on the matter:-- + +"Widow M'Laren, aged seventy-nine, a native of Braemar, but who has +resided on the Craighall estate for sixty years, says that the +tradition is that the man was murdered for his money; that he was a +Highland drover on his return journey from the south; that he arrived +late at night at the Mains of Mause and wished to get to Rychalzie; +that he stayed at the Mains of Mause all night, but left it early next +morning, when David Soutar with his dog accompanied him to show him +the road; but that with the assistance of the dog he murdered the +drover and took his money at the place mentioned; that there was a +tailor at work in his father's house that morning when he returned +after committing the murder (according to the custom at that date by +which tailors went out to make up customers' own cloth at their own +houses), and that his mother being surprised at his strange +appearance, asked him what he had been about, to which inquiry he made +no reply; that he did not remain long in the country afterwards, but +went to England and never returned. The last time he was seen he went +down by the Brae of Cockridge. A man of the name of Irons, a +fisherman in Blairgowrie, says that his father, who died a very old +man some years ago, was present at the getting of the bones. Mr. +Small, Finzyhan, when bringing his daughter home from school in +Edinburgh, saw a coffin at the door of a public house near Rychalzie +where he generally stopped, but he did not go in as usual, thinking +that there was a death in the family. The innkeeper came out and +asked him why he was passing the door, and told him the coffin +contained the bones of the murdered man which had been collected, upon +which he went into the house. + +"The Soutars disliked much to be questioned on the subject of the Dog +of Mause. Thomas Soutar, who was tenant in Easter Mause, formerly +named Knowhead of Mause, and died last year upwards of eighty years of +age, said that the Soutars came originally from Annandale, and that +their name was Johnston; that there were three brothers who fled from +that part of the country on account of their having killed a man; that +they came by Soutar's Hill, and having asked the name of the hill, +were told 'Soutar,' upon which they said, 'Soutar be it then,' and +took that name. One of the brothers went south and the others came +north." {155a} + +The appearance of human ghosts in the form of beasts is common enough; +in Shropshire they usually "come" as bulls. (See Miss Burne's +Shropshire Folklore.) They do not usually speak, like the Dog o' +Mause. M. d'Assier, a French Darwinian, explains that ghosts revert +"atavistically" to lower forms of animal life! {155b} + +We now, in accordance with a promise already made, give an example of +the ghosts of beasts! Here an explanation by the theory that the +consciousness of the beast survives death and affects with a +hallucination the minds of living men and animals, will hardly pass +current. But if such cases were as common and told on evidence as +respectable as that which vouches for appearances of the dead, +believers in these would either have to shift their ground, or to +grant that + +Admitted to that equal sky, +Our faithful dog may bear us company. + +We omit such things as the dripping death wraith of a drowned cat who +appeared to a lady, or the illused monkey who died in a Chinese house, +after which he haunted it by rapping, secreting objects, and, in +short, in the usual way. {155c} We adduce + +PETER'S GHOST + +A naval officer visited a friend in the country. Several men were +sitting round the smoking-room fire when he arrived, and a fox-terrier +was with them. Presently the heavy, shambling footsteps of an old +dog, and the metallic shaking sound of his collar, were heard coming +up stairs. + +"Here's old Peter!" said his visitor. + +"_Peter's dead_!" whispered his owner. + +The sounds passed through the closed door, heard by all; they pattered +into the room; the fox-terrier bristled up, growled, and pursued a +viewless object across the carpet; from the hearth-rug sounded a +shake, a jingle of a collar and the settling weight of a body +collapsing into repose. {156} + +This pleasing anecdote rests on what is called _nautical evidence_, +which, for reasons inexplicable to me, was (in these matters) +distrusted by Sir Walter Scott. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +More Ghosts with a Purpose. Ticonderoga. The Beresford Ghost. +Sources of Evidence. The Family Version. A New Old-Fashioned Ghost. +Half-past One o'clock. Put out the Light! + +The ghost in the following famous tale had a purpose. He was a +Highland ghost, a Campbell, and desired vengeance on a Macniven, who +murdered him. The ghost, practically, "cried Cruachan," and tried to +rouse the clan. Failing in this, owing to Inverawe's loyalty to his +oath, the ghost uttered a prophecy. + +The tale is given in the words of Miss Elspeth Campbell, who collected +it at Inverawe from a Highland narrator. She adds a curious +supplementary tradition in the Argyle family. + +TICONDEROGA + +It was one evening in the summer of the year 1755 that Campbell of +Inverawe {157} was on Cruachan hill side. He was startled by seeing a +man coming towards him at full speed; a man ragged, bleeding, and +evidently suffering agonies of terror. "The avengers of blood are on +my track, Oh, save me!" the poor wretch managed to gasp out. +Inverawe, filled with pity for the miserable man, swore "By the word +of an Inverawe which never failed friend or foe yet" to save him. + +Inverawe then led the stranger to the secret cave on Cruachan hill +side. + +None knew of this cave but the laird of Inverawe himself, as the +secret was most carefully kept and had been handed down from father to +son for many generations. The entrance was small, and no one passing +would for an instant suspect it to be other than a tod's hole, {158a} +but within were fair-sized rooms, one containing a well of the purest +spring water. It is said that Wallace and Bruce had made use of this +cave in earlier days. + +Here Inverawe left his guest. The man was so overcome by terror that +he clung on to Inverawe's plaid, {158b} imploring him not to leave him +alone. Inverawe was filled with disgust at this cowardly conduct, and +already almost repented having plighted his word to save such a +worthless creature. + +On Inverawe's return home he found a man in a state of great +excitement waiting to see him. This man informed him of the murder of +his (Inverawe's) foster-brother by one Macniven. "We have," said he, +"tracked the murderer to within a short distance of this place, and I +am here to warn you in case he should seek your protection." Inverawe +turned pale and remained silent, not knowing what answer to give. The +man, knowing the love that subsisted between the foster-brothers, +thought this silence arose from grief alone, and left the house to +pursue the search for Macniven further. + +The compassion Inverawe felt for the trembling man he had left in the +cave turned to hate when he thought of his beloved foster-brother +murdered; but as he had plighted his word to save him, save him he +must and would. As soon, therefore, as night fell he went to the cave +with food, and promised to return with more the next day. + +Thoroughly worn out, as soon as he reached home he retired to rest, +but sleep he could not. So taking up a book he began to read. A +shadow fell across the page. He looked up and saw his foster-brother +standing by the bedside. But, oh, how changed! His fair hair clotted +with blood; his face pale and drawn, and his garments all gory. He +uttered the following words: "Inverawe, shield not the murderer; +blood must flow for blood," and then faded away out of sight. + +In spite of the spirit's commands, Inverawe remained true to his +promise, and returned next day to Macniven with fresh provisions. +That night his foster-brother again appeared to him uttering the same +warning: "Inverawe, Inverawe, shield not the murderer; blood must +flow for blood". At daybreak Inverawe hurried off to the cave, and +said to Macniven: "I can shield you no longer; you must escape as +best you can". Inverawe now hoped to receive no further visit from +the vengeful spirit. In this he was disappointed, for at the usual +hour the ghost appeared, and in anger said, "I have warned you once, I +have warned you twice; it is too late now. We shall meet again at +TICONDEROGA." + +Inverawe rose before dawn and went straight to the cave. Macniven was +gone! + +Inverawe saw no more of the ghost, but the adventure left him a +gloomy, melancholy man. Many a time he would wander on Cruachan hill +side, brooding over his vision, and people passing him would see the +far-away look in his eyes, and would say one to the other: "The puir +laird, he is aye thinking on him that is gone". Only his dearest +friends knew the cause of his melancholy. + +In 1756 the war between the English and French in America broke out. +The 42nd regiment embarked, and landed at New York in June of that +year. Campbell of Inverawe was a major in the regiment. The lieut.- +colonel was Francis Grant. From New York the 42nd proceeded to +Albany, where the regiment remained inactive till the spring of 1757. +One evening when the 42nd were still quartered at this place, Inverawe +asked the colonel "if he had ever heard of a place called +Ticonderoga". {160} Colonel Grant replied he had never heard the name +before. Inverawe then told his story. Most of the officers were +present at the time; some were impressed, others were inclined to look +upon the whole thing as a joke, but seeing how very much disturbed +Inverawe was about it all, even the most unbelieving refrained from +bantering him. + +In 1758 an expedition was to be directed against Ticonderoga, on Lake +George, a fort erected by the French. The Highlanders were to form +part of this expedition. The force was under Major-General +Abercromby. + +Ticonderoga was called by the French St. Louis [really "Fort +Carillon"], and Inverawe knew it by no other name. One of the +officers told Colonel Grant that the Indian name of the place was +Ticonderoga. Grant, remembering Campbell's story, said: "For God's +sake don't let Campbell know this, or harm will come of it". + +The troops embarked on Lake George and landed without opposition near +the extremity of the lake early in July. They marched from there, +through woods, upon Ticonderoga, having had one successful skirmish +with the enemy, driving them back with considerable loss. Lord Howe +was killed in this engagement. + +On the 10th of July the assault was directed to be commenced by the +picquets. {162} The Grenadiers were to follow, supported by the +battalions and reserves. The Highlanders and 55th regiment formed the +reserve. + +In vain the troops attempted to force their way through the abbatis, +they themselves being exposed to a heavy artillery and musket fire +from an enemy well under cover. The Highlanders could no longer be +restrained, and rushed forward from the reserve, cutting and carving +their way through trees and other obstacles with their claymores. The +deadly fire still continued from the fort. As no ladders had been +provided for scaling the breastwork, the soldiers climbed on to one +another's shoulders, and made holes for their feet in the face of the +work with their swords and bayonets, but as soon as a man reached the +top he was thrown down. Captain John Campbell and a few men succeeded +at last in forcing their way over the breastworks, but were +immediately cut down. + +After a long and desperate struggle, lasting in fact nearly four +hours, General Abercromby gave orders for a retreat. The troops could +hardly be prevailed upon to retire, and it was not till the order had +been given for the third time that the Highlanders withdrew from the +hopeless encounter. The loss sustained by the regiment was as +follows: eight officers, nine sergeants and 297 men killed; seventeen +officers, ten sergeants and 306 men wounded. + +Inverawe, after having fought with the greatest courage, received at +length his death wound. Colonel Grant hastened to the dying man's +side, who looked reproachfully at him, and said: "You deceived me; +this is Ticonderoga, for I have seen him". Inverawe never spoke +again. Inverawe's son, an officer in the same regiment, also lost his +life at Ticonderoga. + +On the very day that these events were happening in far-away America, +two ladies, Miss Campbell of Ederein and her sister, were walking from +Kilmalieu to Inveraray, and had reached the then new bridge over the +Aray. One of them happened to look up at the sky. She gave a call to +her sister to look also. They both of them saw in the sky what looked +like a siege going on. They saw the different regiments with their +colours, and recognised many of their friends among the Highlanders. +They saw Inverawe and his son fall, and other men whom they knew. +When they reached Inveraray they told all their friends of the vision +they had just seen. They also took down the names of those they had +seen fall, and the time and date of the occurrence. The well-known +Danish physician, Sir William Hart, was, together with an Englishman +and a servant, walking round the Castle of Inveraray. These men saw +the same phenomena, and confirmed the statements made by the two +ladies. Weeks after the gazette corroborated their statements in its +account of the attempt made on Ticonderoga. Every detail was correct +in the vision, down to the actual number of the killed and wounded. + +But there was sorrow throughout Argyll long before the gazette +appeared. + +* * * * * + +We now give the best attainable version of a yet more famous legend, +"The Tyrone Ghost". + +The literary history of "The Tyrone Ghost" is curious. In 1802 Scott +used the tale as the foundation of his ballad, The Eve of St. John, +and referred to the tradition of a noble Irish family in a note. In +1858 the subject was discussed in Notes and Queries. A reference was +given to Lyon's privately printed Grand Juries of Westmeath from 1751. +The version from that rare work, a version dated "Dublin, August, +1802," was published in Notes and Queries of 24th July, 1858. In +December, 1896, a member of the Beresford family published in The +Nines (a journal of the Wiltshire regiment), the account which +follows, derived from a MS. at Curraghmore, written by Lady Betty +Cobbe, granddaughter of the ghost-seer, Lady Beresford. The writer in +The Nines remembers Lady Betty. The account of 1802 is clearly +derived from the Curraghmore MS., but omits dates; calls Sir Tristram +Beresford "Sir Marcus "; leaves out the visit to Gill Hall, where the +ghost appeared, and substitutes blanks for the names of persons +concerned. Otherwise the differences in the two versions are mainly +verbal. + +THE BERESFORD GHOST + +"There is at Curraghmore, the seat of Lord Waterford, in Ireland, a +manuscript account of the tale, such as it was originally received and +implicitly believed in by the children and grandchildren of the lady +to whom Lord Tyrone is supposed to have made the supernatural +appearance after death. The account was written by Lady Betty Cobbe, +the youngest daughter of Marcus, Earl of Tyrone, and granddaughter of +Nicola S., Lady Beresford. She lived to a good old age, in full use +of all her faculties, both of body and mind. I can myself remember +her, for when a boy I passed through Bath on a journey with my mother, +and we went to her house there, and had luncheon. She appeared to my +juvenile imagination a very appropriate person to revise and transmit +such a tale, and fully adapted to do ample justice to her subject- +matter. It never has been doubted in the family that she received the +full particulars in early life, and that she heard the circumstances, +such as they were believed to have occurred, from the nearest +relatives of the two persons, the supposed actors in this mysterious +interview, viz., from her own father, Lord Tyrone, who died in 1763, +and from her aunt, Lady Riverston, who died in 1763 also. + +"These two were both with their mother, Lady Beresford, on the day of +her decease, and they, without assistance or witness, took off from +their parent's wrist the black bandage which she had always worn on +all occasions and times, even at Court, as some very old persons who +lived well into the eighteenth century testified, having received +their information from eyewitnesses of the fact. There was an oil +painting of this lady in Tyrone House, Dublin, representing her with a +black ribbon bound round her wrist. This portrait disappeared in an +unaccountable manner. It used to hang in one of the drawing-rooms in +that mansion, with other family pictures. When Henry, Marquis of +Waterford, sold the old town residence of the family and its grounds +to the Government as the site of the Education Board, he directed Mr. +Watkins, a dealer in pictures, and a man of considerable knowledge in +works of art and vertu, to collect the pictures, etc., etc., which +were best adapted for removal to Curraghmore. Mr. Watkins especially +picked out this portrait, not only as a good work of art, but as one +which, from its associations, deserved particular care and notice. +When, however, the lot arrived at Curraghmore and was unpacked, no +such picture was found; and though Mr. Watkins took great pains and +exerted himself to the utmost to trace what had become of it, to this +day (nearly forty years), not a hint of its existence has been +received or heard of. + +"John le Poer, Lord Decies, was the eldest son of Richard, Earl of +Tyrone, and of Lady Dorothy Annesley, daughter of Arthur, Earl of +Anglesey. He was born 1665, succeeded his father 1690, and died 14th +October, 1693. He became Lord Tyrone at his father's death, and is +the 'ghost' of the story. + +"Nicola Sophie Hamilton was the second and youngest daughter and co- +heiress of Hugh, Lord Glenawley, who was also Baron Lunge in Sweden. +Being a zealous Royalist, he had, together with his father, migrated +to that country in 1643, and returned from it at the Restoration. He +was of a good old family, and held considerable landed property in the +county Tyrone, near Ballygawley. He died there in 1679. His eldest +daughter and co-heiress, Arabella Susanna, married, in 1683, Sir John +Macgill, of Gill Hall, in the county Down. + +"Nicola S. (the second daughter) was born in 1666, and married Sir +Tristram Beresford in 1687. Between that and 1693 two daughters were +born, but no son to inherit the ample landed estates of his father, +who most anxiously wished and hoped for an heir. It was under these +circumstances, and at this period, that the manuscripts state that +Lord Tyrone made his appearance after death; and all the versions of +the story, without variation, attribute the same cause and reason, +viz., a solemn promise mutually interchanged in early life between +John le Poer, then Lord Decies, afterwards Lord Tyrone, and Nicola S. +Hamilton, that whichever of the two died the first, should, if +permitted, appear to the survivor for the object of declaring the +approval or rejection by the Deity of the revealed religion as +generally acknowledged: of which the departed one must be fully +cognisant, but of which they both had in their youth entertained +unfortunate doubts. + +"In the month of October, 1693, Sir Tristram and Lady Beresford went +on a visit to her sister, Lady Macgill, at Gill Hall, now the seat of +Lord Clanwilliam, whose grandmother was eventually the heiress of Sir +J. Macgill's property. One morning Sir Tristram rose early, leaving +Lady Beresford asleep, and went out for a walk before breakfast. When +his wife joined the table very late, her appearance and the +embarrassment of her manner attracted general attention, especially +that of her husband. He made anxious inquiries as to her health, and +asked her apart what had occurred to her wrist, which was tied up with +black ribbon tightly bound round it. She earnestly entreated him not +to inquire more then, or thereafter, as to the cause of her wearing or +continuing afterwards to wear that ribbon; 'for,' she added, 'you will +never see me without it'. He replied, 'Since you urge it so +vehemently, I promise you not to inquire more about it'. + +"After completing her hurried breakfast she made anxious inquiries as +to whether the post had yet arrived. It had not yet come in; and Sir +Tristram asked: 'Why are you so particularly eager about letters to- +day?' 'Because I expect to hear of Lord Tyrone's death, which took +place on Tuesday.' 'Well,' remarked Sir Tristram, 'I never should +have put you down for a superstitious person; but I suppose that some +idle dream has disturbed you.' Shortly after, the servant brought in +the letters; one was sealed with black wax. 'It is as I expected,' +she cries; 'he is dead.' The letter was from Lord Tyrone's steward to +inform them that his master had died in Dublin, on Tuesday, 14th +October, at 4 p.m. Sir Tristram endeavoured to console her, and +begged her to restrain her grief, when she assured him that she felt +relieved and easier now that she knew the actual fact. She added, 'I +can now give you a most satisfactory piece of intelligence, viz., that +I am with child, and that it will be a boy'. A son was born in the +following July. Sir Tristram survived its birth little more than six +years. After his death Lady Beresford continued to reside with her +young family at his place in the county of Derry, and seldom went from +home. She hardly mingled with any neighbours or friends, excepting +with Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, of Coleraine. He was the principal +personage in that town, and was, by his mother, a near relative of Sir +Tristram. His wife was the daughter of Robert Gorges, LL.D. (a +gentleman of good old English family, and possessed of a considerable +estate in the county Meath), by Jane Loftus, daughter of Sir Adam +Loftus, of Rathfarnham, and sister of Lord Lisburn. They had an only +son, Richard Gorges, who was in the army, and became a general officer +very early in life. With the Jacksons Lady Beresford maintained a +constant communication and lived on the most intimate terms, while she +seemed determined to eschew all other society and to remain in her +chosen retirement. + +"At the conclusion of three years thus passed, one luckless day "Young +Gorges" most vehemently professed his passion for her, and solicited +her hand, urging his suit in a most passionate appeal, which was +evidently not displeasing to the fair widow, and which, unfortunately +for her, was successful. They were married in 1704. One son and two +daughters were born to them, when his abandoned and dissolute conduct +forced her to seek and to obtain a separation. After this had +continued for four years, General Gorges pretended extreme penitence +for his past misdeeds, and with the most solemn promises of amendment +induced his wife to live with him again, and she became the mother of +a second son. The day month after her confinement happened to be her +birthday, and having recovered and feeling herself equal to some +exertion, she sent for her son, Sir Marcus Beresford, then twenty +years old, and her married daughter, Lady Riverston. She also invited +Dr. King, the Archbishop of Dublin (who was an intimate friend), and +an old clergyman who had christened her, and who had always kept up a +most kindly intercourse with her during her whole life, to make up a +small party to celebrate the day. + +"In the early part of it Lady Beresford was engaged in a kindly +conversation with her old friend the clergyman, and in the course of +it said: 'You know that I am forty-eight this day'. 'No, indeed,' he +replied; 'you are only forty-seven, for your mother had a dispute with +me once on the very subject of your age, and I in consequence sent and +consulted the registry, and can most confidently assert that you are +only forty-seven this day.' 'You have signed my death-warrant, then,' +she cried; 'leave me, I pray, for I have not much longer to live, but +have many things of grave importance to settle before I die. Send my +son and my daughter to me immediately.' The clergyman did as he was +bidden. He directed Sir Marcus and his sister to go instantly to +their mother; and he sent to the archbishop and a few other friends to +put them off from joining the birthday party. + +"When her two children repaired to Lady Beresford, she thus addressed +them: 'I have something of deep importance to communicate to you, my +dear children, before I die. You are no strangers to the intimacy and +the affection which subsisted in early life between Lord Tyrone and +myself. We were educated together when young, under the same roof, in +the pernicious principles of Deism. Our real friends afterwards took +every opportunity to convince us of our error, but their arguments +were insufficient to overpower and uproot our infidelity, though they +had the effect of shaking our confidence in it, and thus leaving us +wavering between the two opinions. In this perplexing state of doubt +we made a solemn promise one to the other, that whichever died first +should, if permitted, appear to the other for the purpose of declaring +what religion was the one acceptable to the Almighty. One night, +years after this interchange of promises, I was sleeping with your +father at Gill Hall, when I suddenly awoke and discovered Lord Tyrone +sitting visibly by the side of the bed. I screamed out, and vainly +endeavoured to rouse Sir Tristram. "Tell me," I said, "Lord Tyrone, +why and wherefore are you here at this time of the night?" "Have you +then forgotten our promise to each other, pledged in early life? I +died on Tuesday, at four o'clock. I have been permitted thus to +appear in order to assure you that the revealed religion is the true +and only one by which we can be saved. I am also suffered to inform +you that you are with child, and will produce a son, who will marry my +heiress; that Sir Tristram will not live long, when you will marry +again, and you will die from the effects of childbirth in your forty- +seventh year." I begged from him some convincing sign or proof so +that when the morning came I might rely upon it, and feel satisfied +that his appearance had been real, and that it was not the phantom of +my imagination. He caused the hangings of the bed to be drawn in an +unusual way and impossible manner through an iron hook. I still was +not satisfied, when he wrote his signature in my pocket-book. I +wanted, however, more substantial proof of his visit, when he laid his +hand, which was cold as marble, on my wrist; the sinews shrunk up, the +nerves withered at the touch. "Now," he said, "let no mortal eye, +while you live, ever see that wrist," and vanished. While I was +conversing with him my thoughts were calm, but as soon as he +disappeared I felt chilled with horror and dismay, a cold sweat came +over me, and I again endeavoured but vainly to awaken Sir Tristram; a +flood of tears came to my relief, and I fell asleep. + +"'In the morning your father got up without disturbing me; he had not +noticed anything extraordinary about me or the bed-hangings. When I +did arise I found a long broom in the gallery outside the bedroom +door, and with great difficulty I unhooded the curtain, fearing that +the position of it might excite surprise and cause inquiry. I bound +up my wrist with black ribbon before I went down to breakfast, where +the agitation of my mind was too visible not to attract attention. +Sir Tristram made many anxious inquiries as to my health, especially +as to my sprained wrist, as he conceived mine to be. I begged him to +drop all questions as to the bandage, even if I continued to adopt it +for any length of time. He kindly promised me not to speak of it any +more, and he kept his promise faithfully. You, my son, came into the +world as predicted, and your father died six years after. I then +determined to abandon society and its pleasures and not mingle again +with the world, hoping to avoid the dreadful predictions as to my +second marriage; but, alas! in the one family with which I held +constant and friendly intercourse I met the man, whom I did not regard +with perfect indifference. Though I struggled to conquer by every +means the passion, I at length yielded to his solicitations, and in a +fatal moment for my own peace I became his wife. In a few years his +conduct fully justified my demand for a separation, and I fondly hoped +to escape the fatal prophecy. Under the delusion that I had passed my +forty-seventh birthday, I was prevailed upon to believe in his +amendment, and to pardon him. I have, however, heard from undoubted +authority that I am only forty-seven this day, and I know that I am +about to die. I die, however, without the dread of death, fortified +as I am by the sacred precepts of Christianity and upheld by its +promises. When I am gone, I wish that you, my children, should unbind +this black ribbon and alone behold my wrist before I am consigned to +the grave.' + +"She then requested to be left that she might lie down and compose +herself, and her children quitted the apartment, having desired her +attendant to watch her, and if any change came on to summon them to +her bedside. In an hour the bell rang, and they hastened to the call, +but all was over. The two children having ordered every one to +retire, knelt down by the side of the bed, when Lady Riverston unbound +the black ribbon and found the wrist exactly as Lady Beresford had +described it--every nerve withered, every sinew shrunk. + +"Her friend, the Archbishop, had had her buried in the Cathedral of +St. Patrick, in Dublin, in the Earl of Cork's tomb, where she now +lies." + +* * * * * + +The writer now professes his disbelief in any spiritual presence, and +explains his theory that Lady Beresford's anxiety about Lord Tyrone +deluded her by a vivid dream, during which she hurt her wrist. + +Of all ghost stories the Tyrone, or Beresford Ghost, has most +variants. Following Monsieur Haureau, in the Journal des Savants, I +have tracked the tale, the death compact, and the wound inflicted by +the ghost on the hand, or wrist, or brow, of the seer, through Henry +More, and Melanchthon, and a mediaeval sermon by Eudes de Shirton, to +William of Malmesbury, a range of 700 years. Mrs. Grant of Laggan has +a rather recent case, and I have heard of another in the last ten +years! Calmet has a case in 1625, the spectre leaves + +The sable score of fingers four + +on a board of wood. + +Now for a modern instance of a gang of ghosts with a purpose! + +When I narrated the story which follows to an eminent moral +philosopher, he remarked, at a given point, "Oh, the ghost _spoke_, +did she?" and displayed scepticism. The evidence, however, left him, +as it leaves me, at a standstill, not convinced, but agreeably +perplexed. The ghosts here are truly old-fashioned. + +My story is, and must probably remain, entirely devoid of proof, as +far as any kind of ghostly influence is concerned. We find ghosts +appearing, and imposing a certain course of action on a living +witness, for definite purposes of their own. The course of action +prescribed was undeniably pursued, and apparently the purpose of the +ghosts was fulfilled, but what that purpose was their agent declines +to state, and conjecture is hopelessly baffled. + +The documents in the affair have been published by the Society for +Psychical Research (Proceedings, vol. xi., p. 547), and are here used +for reference. But I think the matter will be more intelligible if I +narrate it exactly as it came under my own observation. The names of +persons and places are all fictitious, and are the same as those used +in the documents published by the S.P.R. + +HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK + +In October, 1893, I was staying at a town which we shall call +Rapingham. One night I and some kinsfolk dined with another old +friend of all of us, a Dr. Ferrier. In the course of dinner he asked +a propos de bottes:-- + +"Have you heard of the ghost in Blake Street?" a sunny, pleasant +street of respectable but uninteresting antiquity in Rapingham. + +We had none of us heard of the ghost, and begged the doctor to +enlighten our ignorance. His story ran thus--I have it in his own +writing as far as its essence goes:-- + +"The house," he said, "belongs to my friends, the Applebys, who let +it, as they live elsewhere. A quiet couple took it and lived in it +for five years, when the husband died, and the widow went away. They +made no complaint while tenants. The house stood empty for some time, +and all I know personally about the matter is that I, my wife, and the +children were in the dining-room one Sunday when we heard unusual +noises in the drawing-room overhead. We went through the rooms but +could find no cause or explanation of the disturbance, and thought no +more about it. + +"About six or seven years ago I let the house to a Mr. Buckley, who is +still the tenant. He was unmarried, and his family consisted of his +mother and sisters. They preceded him to put the place in order, and +before his arrival came to me in some irritation complaining that I +had let them _a haunted house_! They insisted that there were strange +noises, as if heavy weights were being dragged about, or heavy +footsteps pacing in the rooms and on the stairs. I said that I knew +nothing about the matter. The stairs are of stone, water is only +carried up to the first floor, there is an unused system of hot air +pipes. {177a} Something went wrong with the water-main in the area +once, but the noises lasted after it was mended. + +"I think Mr. Buckley when he arrived never heard anything unusual. +But one evening as he walked upstairs carrying an ink-bottle, he found +his hand full of some liquid. Thinking that he had spilt the ink, he +went to a window where he found his hand full of water, to account for +which there was no stain on the ceiling, or anything else that he +could discover. On another occasion one of the young ladies was +kneeling by a trunk in an attic, alone, when water was switched over +her face, as if from a wet brush. {177b} There was a small pool of +water on the floor, and the wall beyond her was sprinkled. + +"Time went on, and the disturbances were very rare: in fact ceased +for two years till the present week, when Mrs. Claughton, a widow +accompanied by two of her children, came to stay with the Buckleys. +{177c} She had heard of the disturbances and the theory of hauntings-- +I don't know if these things interested her or not. + +"Early on Monday, 9th October, Mrs. Claughton came to consult me. Her +story was this: About a quarter past one on Sunday night, or Monday +morning, she was in bed with one of her children, the other sleeping +in the room. She was awakened by footsteps on the stair, and supposed +that a servant was coming to call her to Miss Buckley, who was ill. +The steps stopped at the door, then the noise was repeated. Mrs. +Claughton lit her bedroom candle, opened the door and listened. There +was no one there. The clock on the landing pointed to twenty minutes +past one. Mrs. Claughton went back to bed, read a book, fell asleep, +and woke to find the candle still lit, but low in the socket. She +heard a sigh, and saw a lady, unknown to her, her head swathed in a +soft white shawl, her expression gentle and refined, her features much +emaciated. + +"The Appearance said, 'Follow me,' and Mrs. Claughton, taking the +bedroom candle, rose and followed out on to the landing, and so into +the adjacent drawing-room. She cannot remember opening the door, +which the housemaid had locked outside, and she owns that this passage +is dreamlike in her memory. Seeing that her candle was flickering +out, she substituted for it a pink one taken from a chiffonier. The +figure walked nearly to the window, turned three-quarters round, said +'To-morrow!' and was no more seen. Mrs. Claughton went back to her +room, where her eldest child asked:-- + +"'Who is the lady in white?' + +"'Only me, mother, go to sleep,' she thinks she answered. After lying +awake for two hours, with gas burning, she fell asleep. The pink +candle from the drawing-room chiffonier was in her candlestick in the +morning. + +"After hearing the lady's narrative I told her to try change of air, +which she declined as cowardly. So, as she would stay on at Mr. +Buckley's, I suggested that an electric alarm communicating with Miss +Buckley's room should be rigged up, and this was done." + +Here the doctor paused, and as the events had happened within the +week, we felt that we were at last on the track of a recent ghost. + +"Next morning, about one, the Buckleys were aroused by a tremendous +peal of the alarm; Mrs. Claughton they found in a faint. Next morning +{179} she consulted me as to the whereabouts of a certain place, let +me call it 'Meresby'. I suggested the use of a postal directory; we +found Meresby, a place extremely unknown to fame, in an agricultural +district about five hours from London in the opposite direction from +Rapingham. To this place Mrs. Claughton said she must go, in the +interest and by the order of certain ghosts, whom she saw on Monday +night, and whose injunctions she had taken down in a note-book. She +has left Rapingham for London, and there," said the doctor, "my story +ends for the present." + +We expected it to end for good and all, but in the course of the week +came a communication to the doctor in writing from Mrs. Claughton's +governess. This lady, on Mrs. Claughton's arrival at her London house +(Friday, 13th October), passed a night perturbed by sounds of weeping, +"loud moans," and "a very odd noise overhead, like some electric +battery gone wrong," in fact, much like the "warning" of a jack +running down, which Old Jeffrey used to give at the Wesley's house in +Epworth. There were also heavy footsteps and thuds, as of moving +weighty bodies. So far the governess. + +This curious communication I read at Rapingham on Saturday, 14th +October, or Sunday, 15th October. On Monday I went to town. In the +course of the week I received a letter from my kinsman in Rapingham, +saying that Mrs. Claughton had written to Dr. Ferrier, telling him +that she had gone to Meresby on Saturday; had accomplished the bidding +of the ghosts, and had lodged with one Joseph Wright, the parish +clerk. Her duty had been to examine the Meresby parish registers, and +to compare certain entries with information given by the ghosts and +written by her in her note-book. If the entries in the parish +register tallied with her notes, she was to pass the time between one +o'clock and half-past one, alone, in Meresby Church, and receive a +communication from the spectres. All this she said that she had done, +and in evidence of her journey enclosed her half ticket to Meresby, +which a dream had warned her would not be taken on her arrival. She +also sent a white rose from a grave to Dr. Ferrier, a gentleman in no +sympathy with the Jacobite cause, which, indeed, has no connection +whatever with the matter in hand. + +On hearing of this letter from Mrs. Claughton, I confess that, not +knowing the lady, I remained purely sceptical. The railway company, +however, vouched for the ticket. The rector of Meresby, being +appealed to, knew nothing of the matter. He therefore sent for his +curate and parish clerk. + +"Did a lady pass part of Sunday night in the church?" + +The clerk and the curate admitted that this unusual event _had_ +occurred. A lady had arrived from London on Saturday evening; had +lodged with Wright, the parish clerk; had asked for the parish +registers; had compared them with her note-book after morning service +on Sunday, and had begged leave to pass part of the night in the +church. The curate in vain tried to dissuade her, and finally, +washing his hands of it, had left her to Wright the clerk. To him she +described a Mr. George Howard, deceased (one of the ghosts). He +recognised the description, and he accompanied her to the church on a +dark night, starting at one o'clock. She stayed alone, without a +light, in the locked-up church from 1.20 to 1.45, when he let her out. + +There now remained no doubt that Mrs. Claughton had really gone to +Meresby, a long and disagreeable journey, and had been locked up in +the church alone at a witching hour. + +Beyond this point we have only the statements of Mrs. Claughton, made +to Lord Bute, Mr. Myers and others, and published by the Society for +Psychical Research. She says that after arranging the alarm bell on +Monday night (October 9-10) she fell asleep reading in her dressing- +gown, lying outside her bed. She wakened, and found the lady of the +white shawl bending over her. Mrs. Claughton said: "Am I dreaming, +or is it true?" The figure gave, as testimony to character, a piece +of information. Next Mrs. Claughton saw a male ghost, "tall, dark, +healthy, sixty years old," who named himself as George Howard, buried +in Meresby churchyard, Meresby being a place of which Mrs. Claughton, +like most people, now heard for the first time. He gave the dates of +his marriage and death, which are correct, and have been seen by Mr. +Myers in Mrs. Claughton's note-book. He bade her verify these dates +at Meresby, and wait at 1.15 in the morning at the grave of Richard +Harte (a person, like all of them, unknown to Mrs. Claughton) at the +south-west corner of the south aisle in Meresby Church. This Mr. +Harte died on 15th May, 1745, and missed many events of interest by +doing so. Mr. Howard also named and described Joseph Wright, of +Meresby, as a man who would help her, and he gave minute local +information. Next came a phantom of a man whose name Mrs. Claughton +is not free to give; {182} he seemed to be in great trouble, at first +covering his face with his hands, but later removing them. These +three spectres were to meet Mrs. Claughton in Meresby Church and give +her information of importance on a matter concerning, apparently, the +third and only unhappy appearance. After these promises and +injunctions the phantoms left, and Mrs. Claughton went to the door to +look at the clock. Feeling faint, she rang the alarum, when her +friends came and found her in a swoon on the floor. The hour was +1.20. + +What Mrs. Claughton's children were doing all this time, and whether +they were in the room or not, does not appear. + +On Thursday Mrs. Claughton went to town, and her governess was +perturbed, as we have seen. + +On Friday night Mrs. Claughton _dreamed_ a number of things connected +with her journey; a page of the notes made from this dream was shown +to Mr. Myers. Thus her half ticket was not to be taken, she was to +find a Mr. Francis, concerned in the private affairs of the ghosts, +which needed rectifying, and so forth. These premonitions, with +others, were all fulfilled. Mrs. Claughton, in the church at night, +continued her conversation with the ghosts whose acquaintance she had +made at Rapingham. She obtained, it seems, all the information +needful to settling the mysterious matters which disturbed the male +ghost who hid his face, and on Monday morning she visited the daughter +of Mr. Howard in her country house in a park, "recognised the strong +likeness to her father, and carried out all things desired by the dead +to the full, as had been requested. . . . The wishes expressed to her +were perfectly rational, reasonable and of natural importance." + +The clerk, Wright, attests the accuracy of Mrs. Claughton's +description of Mr. Howard, whom he knew, and the correspondence of her +dates with those in the parish register and on the graves, which he +found for her at her request. Mr. Myers, "from a very partial +knowledge" of what the Meresby ghosts' business was, thinks the +reasons for not revealing this matter "entirely sufficient". The +ghosts' messages to survivors "effected the intended results," says +Mrs. Claughton. + +* * * * * + +Of this story the only conceivable natural explanation is that Mrs. +Claughton, to serve her private ends, paid secret preliminary visits +to Meresby, "got up" there a number of minute facts, chose a haunted +house at the other end of England as a first scene in her little +drama, and made the rest of the troublesome journeys, not to mention +the uncomfortable visit to a dark church at midnight, and did all this +from a hysterical love of notoriety. This desirable boon she would +probably never have obtained, even as far as it is consistent with a +pseudonym, if I had not chanced to dine with Dr. Ferrier while the +adventure was only beginning. As there seemed to be a chance of +taking a ghost "on the half volley," I at once communicated the first +part of the tale to the Psychical Society (using pseudonyms, as here, +throughout), and two years later Mrs. Claughton consented to tell the +Society as much as she thinks it fair to reveal. + +This, it will be confessed, is a round-about way of obtaining fame, +and an ordinary person in Mrs. Claughton's position would have gone to +the Psychical Society at once, as Mark Twain meant to do when he saw +the ghost which turned out to be a very ordinary person. + +There I leave these ghosts, my mind being in a just balance of +agnosticism. If ghosts at all, they were ghosts with a purpose. The +species is now very rare. + +The purpose of the ghost in the following instance was trivial, but +was successfully accomplished. In place of asking people to do what +it wanted, the ghost did the thing itself. Now the modern theory of +ghosts, namely, that they are delusions of the senses of the seers, +caused somehow by the mental action of dead or distant people, does +not seem to apply in this case. The ghost produced an effect on a +material object. + +"PUT OUT THE LIGHT!" + +The Rev. D. W. G. Gwynne, M.D., was a physician in holy orders. In +1853 he lived at P--- House, near Taunton, where both he and his wife +"were made uncomfortable by auditory experiences to which they could +find no clue," or, in common English, they heard mysterious noises. +"During the night," writes Dr. Gwynne, "I became aware of a draped +figure passing across the foot of the bed towards the fireplace. I +had the impression that the arm was raised, pointing with the hand +towards the mantel-piece on which a night-light was burning. Mrs. +Gwynne at the same moment seized my arm, _and the light was +extinguished_! Notwithstanding, I distinctly saw the figure returning +towards the door, and being under the impression that one of the +servants had found her way into our room, I leaped out of bed to +intercept the intruder, but found and saw nothing. I rushed to the +door and endeavoured to follow the supposed intruder, and it was not +until I found the door locked, as usual, that I was painfully +impressed. I need hardly say that Mrs. Gwynne was in a very nervous +state. She asked me what I had seen, and I told her. She had seen +the same figure," "but," writes Mrs. Gwynne, "I distinctly _saw the +hand of the figure placed over the night-light, which was at once +extinguished_". "Mrs. Gwynne also heard the rustle of the 'tall man- +like figure's' garments. In addition to the night-light there was +moonlight in the room." + +"Other people had suffered many things in the same house, unknown to +Dr. and Mrs. Gwynne, who gave up the place soon afterwards." + +In plenty of stories we hear of ghosts who draw curtains or open +doors, and these apparent material effects are usually called part of +the seer's delusion. But the night-light certainly went out under the +figure's hand, and was relit by Dr. Gwynne. Either the ghost was an +actual entity, not a mere hallucination of two people, or the +extinction of the light was a curious coincidence. {186} + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Haunted Houses. Antiquity of Haunted Houses. Savage Cases. Ancient +Egyptian Cases. Persistence in Modern Times. Impostures. Imaginary +Noises. Nature of Noises. The Creaking Stair. Ghostly Effects +produced by the Living but Absent. The Grocer's Cough. Difficulty of +Belief. My Gillie's Father's Story. "Silverton Abbey." The Dream +that Opened the Door. Abbotsford Noises. Legitimate Haunting by the +Dead. The Girl in Pink. The Dog in the Haunted Room. The Lady in +Black. Dogs Alarmed. The Dead Seldom Recognised. Glamis. A Border +Castle. Another Class of Hauntings. A Russian Case. The Dancing +Devil. The Little Hands. + +Haunted houses have been familiar to man ever since he has owned a +roof to cover his head. The Australian blacks possessed only shelters +or "leans-to," so in Australia the spirits do their rapping on the +tree trunks; a native illustrated this by whacking a table with a +book. The perched-up houses of the Dyaks are haunted by noisy routing +agencies. We find them in monasteries, palaces, and crofters' +cottages all through the Middle Ages. On an ancient Egyptian papyrus +we find the husband of the Lady Onkhari protesting against her habit +of haunting his house, and exclaiming: "What wrong have I done," +exactly in the spirit of the "Hymn of Donald Ban," who was "sair +hadden down by a bodach" (noisy bogle) after Culloden. {188a} + +The husband of Onkhari does not say _how_ she disturbed him, but the +manners of Egyptian haunters, just what they remain at present, may be +gathered from a magical papyrus, written in Greek. Spirits "wail and +groan, or laugh dreadfully"; they cause bad dreams, terror and +madness; finally, they "practice stealthy theft," and rap and knock. +The "theft" (by making objects disappear mysteriously) is often +illustrated in the following tales, as are the groaning and knocking. +{188b} St. Augustine speaks of hauntings as familiar occurrences, and +we have a chain of similar cases from ancient Egypt to 1896. Several +houses in that year were so disturbed that the inhabitants were +obliged to leave them. The newspapers were full of correspondence on +the subject. + +The usual annoyances are apparitions (rare), flying about of objects +(not very common), noises of every kind (extremely frequent), groans, +screams, footsteps and fire-raising. Imposture has either been proved +or made very probable in ten out of eleven cases of volatile objects +between 1883 and 1895. {188c} Moreover, it is certain that the noises +of haunted houses are not equally audible by all persons present, even +when the sounds are at their loudest. Thus Lord St. Vincent, the +great admiral, heard nothing during his stay at the house of his +sister, Mrs. Ricketts, while that lady endured terrible things. After +his departure she was obliged to recall him. He arrived, and slept +peacefully. Next day his sister told him about the disturbances, +after which he heard them as much as his neighbours, and was as +unsuccessful in discovering their cause. {189} + +Of course this looks as if these noises were unreal, children of the +imagination. Noises being the staple of haunted houses, a few words +may be devoted to them. They are usually the frou-frou or rustling +sweep of a gown, footsteps, raps, thumps, groans, a sound as if all +the heavy furniture was being knocked about, crashing of crockery and +jingling of money. Of course, as to footsteps, people _may_ be +walking about, and most of the other noises are either easily +imitated, or easily produced by rats, water pipes, cracks in furniture +(which the Aztecs thought ominous of death), and other natural causes. +The explanation is rather more difficult when the steps pace a +gallery, passing and repassing among curious inquirers, or in this +instance. + +THE CREAKING STAIR + +A lady very well known to myself, and in literary society, lived as a +girl with an antiquarian father in an old house dear to an antiquary. +It was haunted, among other things, by footsteps. The old oak +staircase had two creaking steps, numbers seventeen and eighteen from +the top. The girl would sit on the stair, stretching out her arms, +and count the steps as they passed her, one, two, three, and so on to +seventeen and eighteen, _which always creaked_. {190} In this case +rats and similar causes were excluded, though we may allow for +"expectant attention". But this does not generally work. When people +sit up on purpose to look out for the ghost, he rarely comes; in the +case of the "Lady in Black," which we give later, when purposely +waited for, she was never seen at all. + +Discounting imposture, which is sometimes found, and sometimes merely +fabled (as in the Tedworth story), there remains one curious +circumstance. Specially ghostly noises are attributed to the living +but absent. + +THE GROCER'S COUGH + +A man of letters was born in a small Scotch town, where his father was +the intimate friend of a tradesman whom we shall call the grocer. +Almost every day the grocer would come to have a chat with Mr. Mackay, +and the visitor, alone of the natives, had the habit of knocking at +the door before entering. One day Mr. Mackay said to his daughter, +"There's Mr. Macwilliam's knock. Open the door." But there was no +Mr. Macwilliam! He was just leaving his house at the other end of the +street. From that day Mr. Mackay always heard the grocer's knock "a +little previous," accompanied by the grocer's cough, which was +peculiar. Then all the family heard it, including the son who later +became learned. He, when he had left his village for Glasgow, +reasoned himself out of the opinion that the grocer's knock did herald +and precede the grocer. But when he went home for a visit he found +that he heard it just as of old. Possibly some local Sentimental +Tommy watched for the grocer, played the trick and ran away. This +explanation presents no difficulty, but the boy was never detected. +{191} + +Such anecdotes somehow do not commend themselves to the belief even of +people who can believe a good deal. + +But "the spirits of the living," as the Highlanders say, have surely +as good a chance to knock, or appear at a distance, as the spirits of +the dead. To be sure, the living do not know (unless they are making +a scientific experiment) what trouble they are giving on these +occasions, but one can only infer, like St. Augustine, that probably +the dead don't know it either. + +Thus, + +MY GILLIE'S FATHER'S STORY + +Fishing in Sutherland, I had a charming companion in the gillie. He +was well educated, a great reader, the best of salmon fishers, and I +never heard a man curse William, Duke of Cumberland, with more +enthusiasm. His father, still alive, was second-sighted, and so, to a +moderate extent and without theory, was my friend. Among other +anecdotes (confirmed in writing by the old gentleman) was this:-- + +The father had a friend who died in the house which they both +occupied. The clothes of the deceased hung on pegs in the bedroom. +One night the father awoke, and saw a stranger examining and handling +the clothes of the defunct. Then came a letter from the dead man's +brother, inquiring about the effects. He followed later, and was the +stranger seen by my gillie's father. + +Thus the living but absent may haunt a house both noisily and by +actual appearance. The learned even think, for very exquisite +reasons, that "Silverton Abbey" {192} is haunted noisily by a "spirit +of the living". Here is a case:-- + +THE DREAM THAT KNOCKED AT THE DOOR + +The following is an old but good story. The Rev. Joseph Wilkins died, +an aged man, in 1800. He left this narrative, often printed; the date +of the adventure is 1754, when Mr. Wilkins, aged twenty-three, was a +schoolmaster in Devonshire. The dream was an ordinary dream, and did +not announce death, or anything but a journey. Mr. Wilkins dreamed, +in Devonshire, that he was going to London. He thought he would go by +Gloucestershire and see his people. So he started, arrived at his +father's house, found the front door locked, went in by the back door, +went to his parents' room, saw his father asleep in bed and his mother +awake. He said: "Mother, I am going a long journey, and have come to +bid you good-bye". She answered in a fright, "Oh dear son, thou art +dead!" Mr. Wilkins wakened, and thought nothing of it. As early as a +letter could come, one arrived from his father, addressing him as if +he were dead, and desiring him, if by accident alive, or any one into +whose hands the letter might fall, to write at once. The father then +gave his reasons for alarm. Mrs. Wilkins, being awake one night, +heard some one try the front door, enter by the back, then saw her son +come into her room and say he was going on a long journey, with the +rest of the dialogue. She then woke her husband, who said she had +been dreaming, but who was alarmed enough to write the letter. No +harm came of it to anybody. + +The story would be better if Mr. Wilkins, junior, like Laud, had kept +a nocturnal of his dreams, and published his father's letter, with +post-marks. + +The story of the lady who often dreamed of a house, and when by chance +she found and rented it was recognised as the ghost who had recently +haunted it, is good, but is an invention! + +A somewhat similar instance is that of the uproar of moving heavy +objects, heard by Scott in Abbotsford on the night preceding and the +night of the death of his furnisher, Mr. Bullock, in London. The +story is given in Lockhart's Life of Scott, and is too familiar for +repetition. + +On the whole, accepting one kind of story on the same level as the +other kind, the living and absent may unconsciously produce the +phenomena of haunted houses just as well as the dead, to whose alleged +performances we now advance. Actual appearances, as we have said, are +not common, and just as all persons do not hear the sounds, so many do +not see the appearance, even when it is visible to others in the same +room. As an example, take a very mild and lady-like case of haunting. + +THE GIRL IN PINK + +The following anecdote was told to myself, a few months after the +curious event, by the three witnesses in the case. They were +connections of my own, the father was a clergyman of the Anglican +Church; he, his wife and their daughter, a girl of twenty, were the +"percipients". All are cheerful, sagacious people, and all, though +they absolutely agreed as to the facts in their experience, professed +an utter disbelief in "ghosts," which the occurrence has not affected +in any way. They usually reside in a foreign city, where there is a +good deal of English society. One day they left the town to lunch +with a young fellow-countryman who lived in a villa in the +neighbourhood. There he was attempting to farm a small estate, with +what measure of success the story does not say. His house was kept by +his sister, who was present, of course, at the little luncheon party. +During the meal some question was asked, or some remark was made, to +which the clerical guest replied in English by a reference to "the +maid-servant in pink". + +"There is no maid in pink," said the host, and he asked both his other +guests to corroborate him. + +Both ladies, mother and daughter, were obliged to say that unless +their eyes deceived them, they certainly _had_ seen a girl in pink +attending on them, or, at least, moving about in the room. To this +their entertainers earnestly replied that no such person was in their +establishment, that they had no woman servant but the elderly cook and +housekeeper, then present, who was neither a girl nor in pink. After +luncheon the guests were taken all over the house, to convince them of +the absence of the young woman whom they had seen, and assuredly there +was no trace of her. + +On returning to the town where they reside, they casually mentioned +the circumstance as a curious illusion. The person to whom they spoke +said, with some interest, "Don't you know that a girl is said to have +been murdered in that house before your friends took it, and that she +is reported to be occasionally seen, dressed in pink?" + +They had heard of no such matter, but the story seemed to be pretty +generally known, though naturally disliked by the occupant of the +house. As for the percipients, they each and all remain firm in the +belief that, till convinced of the impossibility of her presence, they +were certain they had seen a girl in pink, and rather a pretty girl, +whose appearance suggested nothing out of the common. An obvious +hypothesis is discounted, of course, by the presence of the sister of +the young gentleman who farmed the estate and occupied the house. + +Here is another case, mild but pertinacious. + +THE DOG IN THE HAUNTED ROOM + +The author's friend, Mr. Rokeby, lives, and has lived for some twenty +years, in an old house at Hammersmith. It is surrounded by a large +garden, the drawing-room and dining-room are on the right and left of +the entrance from the garden, on the ground floor. My friends had +never been troubled by any phenomena before, and never expected to be. +However, they found the house "noisy," the windows were apt to be +violently shaken at night and steps used to be heard where no steps +should be. Deep long sighs were audible at all times of day. As Mrs. +Rokeby approached a door, the handle would turn and the door fly open. +{196} Sounds of stitching a hard material, and of dragging a heavy +weight occurred in Mrs. Rokeby's room, and her hair used to be pulled +in a manner for which she could not account. "These sorts of things +went on for about five years, when in October, 1875, about three +o'clock in the afternoon, I was sitting" (says Mrs. Rokeby) "with +three of my children in the dining-room, reading to them. I rang the +bell for the parlour-maid, when the door opened, and on looking up I +saw the figure of a woman come in and walk up to the side of the +table, stand there a second or two, and then turn to go out again, but +before reaching the door she seemed to dissolve away. She was a grey, +short-looking woman, apparently dressed in grey muslin. I hardly saw +the face, which seemed scarcely to be defined at all. None of the +children saw her," and Mrs. Rokeby only mentioned the affair at the +time to her husband. + +Two servants, in the next two months, saw the same figure, alike in +dress at least, in other rooms both by daylight and candle light. +They had not heard of Mrs. Rokeby's experience, were accustomed to the +noises, and were in good health. One of them was frightened, and left +her place. + +A brilliant light in a dark room, an icy wind and a feeling of being +"watched" were other discomforts in Mrs. Rokeby's lot. After 1876, +only occasional rappings were heard, till Mr. Rokeby being absent one +night in 1883, the noises broke out, "banging, thumping, the whole +place shaking". The library was the centre of these exercises, and +the dog, a fine collie, was shut up in the library. Mrs. Rokeby left +her room for her daughter's, while the dog whined in terror, and the +noises increased in violence. Next day the dog, when let out, rushed +forth with enthusiasm, but crouched with his tail between his legs +when invited to re-enter. + +This was in 1883. Several years after, Mr. Rokeby was smoking, alone, +in the dining-room early in the evening, when the dog began to bristle +up his hair, and bark. Mr. Rokeby looked up and saw the woman in +grey, with about half her figure passed through the slightly open +door. He ran to the door, but she was gone, and the servants were +engaged in their usual business. {198a} + +Our next ghost offered many opportunities to observers. + +THE LADY IN BLACK + +A ghost in a haunted house is seldom observed with anything like +scientific precision. The spectre in the following narrative could +not be photographed, attempts being usually made in a light which +required prolonged exposure. Efforts to touch it were failures, nor +did it speak. On the other hand, it did lend itself, perhaps +unconsciously, to one scientific experiment. The story is unromantic; +the names are fictitious. {198b} + +Bognor House, an eligible family residence near a large town, was +built in 1860, and occupied, till his death in 1876, by Mr. S. He was +twice married, and was not of temperate ways. His second wife adopted +his habits, left him shortly before his death, and died at Clifton in +1878. The pair used to quarrel about some jewels which Mr. S. +concealed in the flooring of a room where the ghost was never seen. + +A Mr L. now took the house, but died six months later. Bognor House +stood empty for four years, during which there was vague talk of +hauntings. In April, 1882, the house was taken by Captain Morton. +This was in April; in June Miss Rose Morton, a lady of nineteen +studying medicine (and wearing spectacles), saw the first appearance. +Miss Morton did not mention her experiences to her family, her mother +being an invalid, and her brothers and sisters very young, but she +transmitted accounts to a friend, a lady, in a kind of diary letters. +These are extant, and are quoted. + +Phenomena of this kind usually begin with noises, and go on to +apparitions. Miss Morton one night, while preparing to go to bed, +heard a noise outside, thought it was her mother, opened the door, saw +a tall lady in black holding a handkerchief to her face, and followed +the figure till her candle burned out. A widow's white cuff was +visible on each wrist, the whole of the face was never seen. In 1882- +84, Miss Morton saw the figure about six times; it was thrice seen, +once through the window from outside, by other persons, who took it +for a living being. Two boys playing in the garden ran in to ask who +was the weeping lady in black. + +On 29th January, 1884, Miss Morton spoke to her inmate, as the lady in +black stood beside a sofa. "She only gave a slight gasp and moved +towards the door. Just by the door I spoke to her again, but she +seemed as if she were quite unable to speak." {199} In May and June +Miss Morton fastened strings at different heights from the stair +railings to the wall, where she attached them with glue, but she twice +saw the lady pass through the cords, leaving them untouched. When +Miss Morton cornered the figure and tried to touch her, or pounce on +her, she dodged, or disappeared. But by a curious contradiction her +steps were often heard by several of the family, and when she heard +the steps, Miss Morton used to go out and follow the figure. There is +really no more to tell. Miss Morton's father never saw the lady, even +when she sat on a sofa for half an hour, Miss Morton watching her. +Other people saw her in the garden crying, and sent messages to ask +what was the matter, and who was the lady in distress. Many members +of the family, boys, girls, married ladies, servants and others often +saw the lady in black. In 1885 loud noises, bumps and turning of door +handles were common, and though the servants were told that the lady +was quite harmless, they did not always stay. The whole establishment +of servants was gradually changed, but the lady still walked. She +appeared more seldom in 1887-1889, and by 1892 even the light +footsteps ceased. Two dogs, a retriever and a Skye terrier, showed +much alarm. "Twice," says Miss Morton, "I saw the terrier suddenly +run up to the mat at the foot of the stairs in the hall, wagging its +tail, and moving its back in the way dogs do when they expect to be +caressed. It jumped up, fawning as it would do if a person had been +standing there, but suddenly slunk away with its tail between its +legs, and retreated, trembling, under a sofa." Miss Morton's own +emotion, at first, was "a feeling of awe at something unknown, mixed +with a strong desire to know more about it". {200} + +This is a pretty tame case of haunting, as was conjectured, by an +unhappy revenant, the returned spirit of the second Mrs. S. Here it +may be remarked that apparitions in haunted houses are very seldom +recognised as those of dead persons, and, when recognised, the +recognition is usually dubious. Thus, in February, 1897, Lieutenant +Carr Glyn, of the Grenadiers, while reading in the outer room of the +Queen's Library in Windsor, saw a lady in black in a kind of mantilla +of black lace pass from the inner room into a corner where she was +lost to view. He supposed that she had gone out by a door there, and +asked an attendant later who she was. There was no door round the +corner, and, in the opinion of some, the lady was Queen Elizabeth! +She has a traditional habit, it seems, of haunting the Library. But +surely, of all people, in dress and aspect Queen Elizabeth is most +easily recognised. The seer did not recognise her, and she was +probably a mere casual hallucination. In old houses such traditions +are common, but vague. In this connection Glamis is usually +mentioned. Every one has heard of the Secret Chamber, with its +mystery, and the story was known to Scott, who introduces it in The +Betrothed. But we know when the Secret Chamber was built (under the +Restoration), who built it, what he paid the masons, and where it is: +under the Charter Room. {201} These cold facts rather take the +"weird" effect off the Glamis legend. + +The usual process is, given an old house, first a noise, then a +hallucination, actual or pretended, then a myth to account for the +hallucination. There is a castle on the border which has at least +seven or eight distinct ghosts. One is the famous Radiant Boy. He +has been evicted by turning his tapestried chamber into the smoking- +room. For many years not one ghost has been seen except the lady with +the candle, viewed by myself, but, being ignorant of the story, I +thought she was one of the maids. Perhaps she was, but she went into +an empty set of rooms, and did not come out again. Footsteps are apt +to approach the doors of these rooms in mirk midnight, the door handle +turns, and that is all. + +So much for supposed hauntings by spirits of the dead. + +At the opposite pole are hauntings by agencies whom nobody supposes to +be ghosts of inmates of the house. The following is an extreme +example, as the haunter proceeded to arson. This is not so very +unusual, and, if managed by an impostor, shows insane malevolence. +{202} + +THE DANCING DEVIL + +On 16th November, 1870, Mr. Shchapoff, a Russian squire, the narrator, +came home from a visit to a country town, Iletski, and found his +family in some disarray. There lived with him his mother and his +wife's mother, ladies of about sixty-nine, his wife, aged twenty, and +his baby daughter. The ladies had been a good deal disturbed. On the +night of the 14th, the baby was fractious, and the cook, Maria, danced +and played the harmonica to divert her. The baby fell asleep, the +wife and Mr. Shchapoff's miller's lady were engaged in conversation, +when a shadow crossed the blind on the outside. They were about to go +out and see who was passing, when they heard a double shuffle being +executed with energy in the loft overhead. They thought Maria, the +cook, was making a night of it, but found her asleep in the kitchen. +The dancing went on but nobody could be found in the loft. Then raps +began on the window panes, and so the miller and gardener patrolled +outside. Nobody! + +Raps and dancing lasted through most of the night and began again at +ten in the morning. The ladies were incommoded and complained of +broken sleep. Mr. Shchapoff, hearing all this, examined the miller, +who admitted the facts, but attributed them to a pigeon's nest, which +he had found under the cornice. Satisfied with this rather elementary +hypothesis, Mr. Shchapoff sat down to read Livingstone's African +Travels. Presently the double shuffle sounded in the loft. Mrs. +Shchapoff was asleep in her bedroom, but was awakened by loud raps. +The window was tapped at, deafening thumps were dealt at the outer +wall, and the whole house thrilled. Mr. Shchapoff rushed out with +dogs and a gun, there were no footsteps in the snow, the air was +still, the full moon rode in a serene sky. Mr. Shchapoff came back, +and the double shuffle was sounding merrily in the empty loft. Next +day was no better, but the noises abated and ceased gradually. + +Alas, Mr. Shchapoff could not leave well alone. On 20th December, to +amuse a friend, he asked Maria to dance and play. Raps, in tune, +began on the window panes. Next night they returned, while boots, +slippers, and other objects, flew about with a hissing noise. A piece +of stuff would fly up and fall with a heavy hard thud, while hard +bodies fell soundless as a feather. The performances slowly died +away. + +On Old Year's Night Maria danced to please them; raps began, people +watching on either side of a wall heard the raps on the other side. +On 8th January, Mrs. Shchapoff fainted when a large, luminous ball +floated, increasing in size, from under her bed. The raps now +followed her about by day, as in the case of John Wesley's sisters. +On these occasions she felt weak and somnolent. Finally Mr. Shchapoff +carried his family to his town house for much-needed change of air. + +Science, in the form of Dr. Shustoff, now hinted that electricity or +magnetic force was at the bottom of the annoyances, a great comfort to +the household, who conceived that the devil was concerned. The doctor +accompanied his friends to their country house for a night, Maria was +invited to oblige with a dance, and only a few taps on windows +followed. The family returned to town till 21st January. No sooner +was Mrs. Shchapoff in bed than knives and forks came out of a closed +cupboard and flew about, occasionally sticking in the walls. + +On 24th January the doctor abandoned the hypothesis of electricity, +because the noises kept time to profane but not to sacred music. A +Tartar hymn by a Tartar servant, an Islamite, had no accompaniment, +but the Freischutz was warmly encored. + +This went beyond the most intelligent spontaneous exercises of +electricity. Questions were asked of the agencies, and to the +interrogation, "Are you a devil?" a most deafening knock replied. "We +all jumped backwards." + +Now comes a curious point. In the Wesley and Tedworth cases, the +masters of the houses, like the cure of Cideville (1851), were at odds +with local "cunning men". + +Mr. Shchapoff's fiend now averred that he was "set on" by the servant +of a neighbouring miller, with whom Mr. Shchapoff had a dispute about +a mill pond. This man had previously said, "It will be worse; they +will drag you by the hair". And, indeed, Mrs. Shchapoff was found in +tears, because her hair had been pulled. {205} + +Science again intervened. A section of the Imperial Geographical +Society sent Dr. Shustoff, Mr. Akutin (a Government civil engineer), +and a literary gentleman, as a committee of inquiry appointed by the +governor of the province. They made a number of experiments with +Leyden jars, magnets, and so forth, with only negative results. +Things flew about, both _from_, and _towards_ Mrs. Shchapoff. Nothing +volatile was ever seen to _begin_ its motion, though, in March, 1883, +objects were seen, by a policeman and six other witnesses, to fly up +from a bin and out of a closed cupboard, in a house at Worksop. {206} +Mr. Akutin, in Mrs. Shchapoff's bedroom, found the noises answer +questions in French and German, on contemporary politics, of which the +lady of the house knew nothing. Lassalle was said to be alive, Mr. +Shchapoff remarked, "What nonsense!" but Mr. Akutin corrected him. +The bogey was better informed. The success of the French in the great +war was predicted. + +The family now moved to their town house, and the inquest continued, +though the raps were only heard near the lady. A Dr. Dubinsky vowed +that she made them herself, with her tongue; then, with her pulse. +The doctor assailed, and finally shook the faith of Mr. Akutin, who +was to furnish a report. "He bribed a servant boy to say that his +mistress made the sounds herself, and then pretended that he had +caught her trying to deceive us by throwing things." Finally Mr. +Akutin reported that the whole affair was a hysterical imposition by +Mrs. Shchapoff. Dr. Dubinsky attended her, her health and spirits +improved, and the disturbances ceased. But poor Mr. Shchapoff +received an official warning not to do it again, from the governor of +his province. That way lies Siberia. + +"Imagine, then," exclaims Mr. Shchapoff, "our horror, when, on our +return to the country in March, the unknown force at once set to work +again. And now even my wife's presence was not essential. Thus, one +day, I saw with my own eyes a heavy sofa jump off all four legs (three +or four times in fact), and this when my aged mother was lying on it." +The same thing occurred to Nancy Wesley's bed, on which she was +sitting while playing cards in 1717. The picture of a lady of +seventy, sitting tight to a bucking sofa, appeals to the brave. + +Then the fire-raising began. A blue spark flew out of a wash-stand, +into Mrs. Shchapoff's bedroom. Luckily she was absent, and her +mother, rushing forward with a water-jug, extinguished a flaming +cotton dress. Bright red globular meteors now danced in the veranda. +Mr. Portnoff next takes up the tale as follows, Mr. Shchapoff having +been absent from home on the occasion described. + +"I was sitting playing the guitar. The miller got up to leave, and +was followed by Mrs. Shchapoff. Hardly had she shut the door, when I +heard, as though from far off, a deep drawn wail. The voice seemed +familiar to me. Overcome with an unaccountable horror I rushed to the +door, and there in the passage I saw a literal pillar of fire, in the +middle of which, draped in flame, stood Mrs. Shchapoff. . . . I rushed +to put it out with my hands, but I found it burned them badly, as if +they were sticking to burning pitch. A sort of cracking noise came +from beneath the floor, which also shook and vibrated violently." Mr. +Portnoff and the miller "carried off the unconscious victim". + +Mr. Shchapoff also saw a small pink hand, like a child's, spring from +the floor, and play with Mrs. Shchapoff's coverlet, in bed. These +things were too much; the Shchapoffs fled to a cottage, and took a new +country house. They had no more disturbances. Mrs. Shchapoff died in +child-bed, in 1878, "a healthy, religious, quiet, affectionate woman". + + + + + +CHAPTER X +Modern Hauntings + + +The Shchapoff Story of a Peculiar Type. "Demoniacal Possession." +Story of Wellington Mill briefly analysed. Authorities for the Story. +Letters. A Journal. The Wesley Ghost. Given Critically and Why. +Note on similar Stories, such as the Drummer of Tedworth. Sir Waller +Scott's Scepticism about Nautical Evidence. Lord St. Vincent. Scott +asks Where are his Letters on a Ghostly Disturbance. The Letters are +now Published. Lord St. Vincent's Ghost Story. Reflections. + +Cases like that of Mrs. Shchapoff really belong to a peculiar species +of haunted houses. Our ancestors, like the modern Chinese, attributed +them to diabolical possession, not to an ordinary ghost of a dead +person. Examples are very numerous, and have all the same "symptoms," +as Coleridge would have said, he attributing them to a contagious +nervous malady of observation in the spectators. Among the most +notorious is the story of Willington Mill, told by Howitt, and +borrowed by Mrs. Crowe, in The Night Side of Nature. Mr. Procter, the +occupant, a Quaker, vouched to Mrs. Crowe for the authenticity of +Howitt's version. (22nd July, 1847.) Other letters from seers are +published, and the Society of Psychical Research lately printed Mr. +Procter's contemporary journal. A man, a woman, and a monkey were the +chief apparitions. There were noises, lights, beds were heaved about: +nothing was omitted. A clairvoyante was turned on, but could only say +that the spectral figures, which she described, "had no brains". +After the Quakers left the house there seems to have been no more +trouble. The affair lasted for fifteen years. + +Familiar as it is, we now offer the old story of the hauntings at +Epworth, mainly because a full view of the inhabitants, the +extraordinary family of Wesley, seems necessary to an understanding of +the affair. The famous and excessively superstitious John Wesley was +not present on the occasion. + +THE WESLEY GHOST + +No ghost story is more celebrated than that of Old Jeffrey, the spirit +so named by Emily Wesley, which disturbed the Rectory at Epworth, +chiefly in the December of 1716 and the spring of 1717. Yet the +vagueness of the human mind has led many people, especially +journalists, to suppose that the haunted house was that, not of Samuel +Wesley, but of his son John Wesley, the founder of the Wesleyan +Methodists. For the better intelligence of the tale, we must know who +the inmates of the Epworth Rectory were, and the nature of their +characters and pursuits. The rector was the Rev. Samuel Wesley, born +in 1662, the son of a clergyman banished from his living on "Black +Bartholomew Day," 1666. Though educated among Dissenters, Samuel +Wesley converted himself to the truth as it is in the Church of +England, became a "poor scholar" of Exeter College in Oxford, +supported himself mainly by hack-work in literature (he was one of the +editors of a penny paper called The Athenian Mercury, a sort of +Answers), married Miss Susanna Annesley, a lady of good family, in +1690-91, and in 1693 was presented to the Rectory of Epworth in +Lincolnshire by Mary, wife of William of Orange, to whom he had +dedicated a poem on the life of Christ. The living was poor, Mr. +Wesley's family multiplied with amazing velocity, he was in debt, and +unpopular. His cattle were maimed in 1705, and in 1703 his house was +burned down. The Rectory House, of which a picture is given in +Clarke's Memoirs of the Wesleys, 1825, was built anew at his own +expense. Mr. Wesley was in politics a strong Royalist, but having +seen James II. shake "his lean arm" at the Fellows of Magdalen +College, and threaten them "with the weight of a king's right hand," +he conceived a prejudice against that monarch, and took the side of +the Prince of Orange. His wife, a very pious woman and a strict +disciplinarian, was a Jacobite, would not say "amen" to the prayers +for "the king," and was therefore deserted by her husband for a year +or more in 1701-1702. They came together again, however, on the +accession of Queen Anne. + +Unpopular for his politics, hated by the Dissenters, and at odds with +the "cunning men," or local wizards against whom he had frequently +preached, Mr. Wesley was certainly apt to have tricks played on him by +his neighbours. His house, though surrounded by a wall, a hedge, and +its own grounds, was within a few yards of the nearest dwelling in the +village street. + +In 1716, when the disturbances began, Mr. Wesley's family consisted of +his wife; his eldest son, Sam, aged about twenty-three, and then +absent at his duties as an usher at Westminster; John, aged twelve, a +boy at Westminster School; Charles, a boy of eight, away from home, +and the girls, who were all at the parsonage. They were Emily, about +twenty-two, Mary, Nancy and Sukey, probably about twenty-one, twenty +and nineteen, and Hetty, who may have been anything between nineteen +and twelve, but who comes after John in Dr. Clarke's list, and is +apparently reckoned among "the children". {212} Then there was Patty, +who may have been only nine, and little Keziah. + +All except Patty were very lively young people, and Hetty, afterwards +a copious poet, "was gay and sprightly, full of mirth, good-humour, +and keen wit. She indulged this disposition so much that it was said +to have given great uneasiness to her parents." The servants, Robin +Brown, Betty Massy and Nancy Marshall, were recent comers, but were +acquitted by Mrs. Wesley of any share in the mischief. The family, +though, like other people of their date, they were inclined to believe +in witches and "warnings," were not especially superstitious, and +regarded the disturbances, first with some apprehension, then as a +joke, and finally as a bore. + +The authorities for what occurred are, first, a statement and journal +by Mr. Wesley, then a series of letters of 1717 to Sam at Westminster +by his mother, Emily and Sukey, next a set of written statements made +by these and other witnesses to John Wesley in 1726, and last and +worst, a narrative composed many years after by John Wesley for The +Arminian Magazine. + +The earliest document, by a few days, is the statement of Mr. Wesley, +written, with a brief journal, between 21st December, 1716, and 1st +January, 1717. Comparing this with Mrs. Wesley's letter to Sam of +12th January, 1716 and Sukey's letter of 24th January, we learn that +the family for some weeks after 1st December had been "in the greatest +panic imaginable," supposing that Sam, Jack, or Charlie (who must also +have been absent from home) was dead, "or by some misfortune killed". +The reason for these apprehensions was that on the night of 1st +December the maid "heard at the dining-room door several dreadful +groans, like a person in extremes". They laughed at her, but for the +whole of December "the groans, squeaks, tinglings and knockings were +frightful enough". The rest of the family (Mr. Wesley always +excepted) "heard a strange knocking in divers places," chiefly in the +green room, or nursery, where (apparently) Hetty, Patty and Keziah +lay. Emily heard the noises later than some of her sisters, perhaps a +week after the original groans. She was locking up the house about +ten o'clock when a sound came like the smashing and splintering of a +huge piece of coal on the kitchen floor. She and Sukey went through +the rooms on the ground floor, but found the dog asleep, the cat at +the other end of the house, and everything in order. From her bedroom +Emily heard a noise of breaking the empty bottles under the stairs, +but was going to bed, when Hetty, who had been sitting on the lowest +step of the garret stairs beside the nursery door, waiting for her +father, was chased into the nursery by a sound as of a man passing her +in a loose trailing gown. Sukey and Nancy were alarmed by loud knocks +on the outside of the dining-room door and overhead. All this time +Mr. Wesley heard nothing, and was not even told that anything unusual +was heard. Mrs. Wesley at first held her peace lest he should think +it "according to the vulgar opinion, a warning against his own death, +which, indeed, we all apprehended". Mr. Wesley only smiled when he +was informed; but, by taking care to see all the girls safe in bed, +sufficiently showed his opinion that the young ladies and their lovers +were the ghost. Mrs. Wesley then fell back on the theory of rats, and +employed a man to blow a horn as a remedy against these vermin. But +this measure only aroused the emulation of the sprite, whom Emily +began to call "Jeffrey". + +Not till 21st December did Mr. Wesley hear anything, then came +thumpings on his bedroom wall. Unable to discover the cause, he +procured a stout mastiff, which soon became demoralised by his +experiences. On the morning of the 24th, about seven o'clock, Emily +led Mrs. Wesley into the nursery, where she heard knocks on and under +the bedstead; these sounds replied when she knocked. Something "like +a badger, with no head," says Emily; Mrs. Wesley only says, "like a +badger," ran from under the bed. On the night of the 25th there was +an appalling vacarme. Mr. and Mrs. Wesley went on a tour of +inspection, but only found the mastiff whining in terror. "We still +heard it rattle and thunder in every room above or behind us, locked +as well as open, except my study, where as yet it never came." On the +night of the 26th Mr. Wesley seems to have heard of a phenomenon +already familiar to Emily--"something like the quick winding up of a +jack, at the corner of the room by my bed head". This was always +followed by knocks, "hollow and loud, such as none of us could ever +imitate". Mr. Wesley went into the nursery, Hetty, Kezzy and Patty +were asleep. The knocks were loud, beneath and in the room, so Mr. +Wesley went below to the kitchen, struck with his stick against the +rafters, and was answered "as often and as loud as I knocked". The +peculiar knock which was his own, 1-23456-7, was not successfully +echoed at that time. Mr. Wesley then returned to the nursery, which +was as tapageuse as ever. The children, three, were trembling in +their sleep. Mr. Wesley invited the agency to an interview in his +study, was answered by one knock outside, "all the rest were within," +and then came silence. Investigations outside produced no result, but +the latch of the door would rise and fall, and the door itself was +pushed violently back against investigators. + +"I have been with Hetty," says Emily, "when it has knocked under her, +and when she has removed has followed her," and it knocked under +little Kezzy, when "she stamped with her foot, pretending to scare +Patty." + +Mr. Wesley had requested an interview in his study, especially as the +Jacobite goblin routed loudly "over our heads constantly, when we came +to the prayers for King George and the prince". In his study the +agency pushed Mr. Wesley about, bumping him against the corner of his +desk, and against his door. He would ask for a conversation, but +heard only "two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the +chirping of a bird, but not like the noise of rats, which I have often +heard". + +Mr. Wesley had meant to leave home for a visit on Friday, 28th +December, but the noises of the 27th were so loud that he stayed at +home, inviting the Rev. Mr. Hoole, of Haxey, to view the performances. +"The noises were very boisterous and disturbing this night." Mr. +Hoole says (in 1726, confirmed by Mrs. Wesley, 12th January, 1717) +that there were sounds of feet, trailing gowns, raps, and a noise as +of planing boards: the disturbance finally went outside the house and +died away. Mr. Wesley seems to have paid his visit on the 30th, and +notes, "1st January, 1717. My family have had no disturbance since I +went away." + +To judge by Mr. Wesley's letter to Sam, of 12th January, there was no +trouble between the 29th of December and that date. On the 19th of +January, and the 30th of the same month, Sam wrote, full of curiosity, +to his father and mother. Mrs. Wesley replied (25th or 27th January), +saying that no explanation could be discovered, but "it commonly was +nearer Hetty than the rest". On 24th January, Sukey said "it is now +pretty quiet, but still knocks at prayers for the king." On 11th +February, Mr. Wesley, much bored by Sam's inquiries, says, "we are all +now quiet. . . . It would make a glorious penny book for Jack +Dunton," his brother-in-law, a publisher of popular literature, such +as the Athenian Mercury. Emily (no date) explains the phenomena as +the revenge for her father's recent sermons "against consulting those +that are called cunning men, which our people are given to, and _it +had a particular spite at my father_". + +The disturbances by no means ended in the beginning of January, nor at +other dates when a brief cessation made the Wesleys hope that Jeffrey +had returned to his own place. Thus on 27th March, Sukey writes to +Sam, remarking that as Hetty and Emily are also writing "so +particularly," she need not say much. "One thing I believe you do not +know, that is, last Sunday, to my father's no small amazement, his +trencher danced upon the table a pretty while, without anybody's +stirring the table. . . . Send me some news for we are excluded from +the sight or hearing of any versal thing, except Jeffery." + +The last mention of the affair, at this time, is in a letter from +Emily, of 1st April, to a Mr. Berry. + +"Tell my brother the sprite was with us last night, and heard by many +of our family." There are no other contemporary letters preserved, +but we may note Mrs. Wesley's opinion (25th January) that it was +"beyond the power of any human being to make such strange and various +noises". + +The next evidence is ten years after date, the statements taken down +by Jack Wesley in 1726 (1720?). Mrs. Wesley adds to her former +account that she "earnestly desired it might not disturb her" (at her +devotions) "between five and six in the evening," and it did not rout +in her room at that time. Emily added that a screen was knocked at on +each side as she went round to the other. Sukey mentioned the noise +as, on one occasion, coming gradually from the garret stairs, outside +the nursery door, up to Hetty's bed, "who trembled strongly in her +sleep. It then removed to the room overhead, where it knocked my +father's knock on the ground, as if it would beat the house down." +Nancy said that the noise used to follow her, or precede her, and once +a bed, on which she sat playing cards, was lifted up under her several +times to a considerable height. Robin, the servant, gave evidence +that he was greatly plagued with all manner of noises and movements of +objects. + +John Wesley, in his account published many years after date in his +Arminian Magazine, attributed the affair of 1716 to his father's +broken vow of deserting his mother till she recognised the Prince of +Orange as king! He adds that the mastiff "used to tremble and creep +away before the noise began". + +Some other peculiarities may be noted. All persons did not always +hear the noises. It was three weeks before Mr. Wesley heard anything. +"John and Kitty Maw, who lived over against us, listened several +nights in the time of the disturbance, but could never hear anything." +Again, "The first time my mother ever heard any unusual noise at +Epworth was long before the disturbance of old Jeffrey . . . the door +and windows jarred very loud, and presently several distinct strokes, +three by three, were struck. From that night it never failed to give +notice in much the same manner, against any signal misfortune or +illness of any belonging to the family," writes Jack. + +Once more, on 10th February, 1750, Emily (now Mrs. Harper) wrote to +her brother John, "that wonderful thing called by us Jeffery, how +certainly it calls on me against any extraordinary new affliction". + +This is practically all the story of Old Jeffrey. The explanations +have been, trickery by servants (Priestley), contagious hallucinations +(Coleridge), devilry (Southey), and trickery by Hetty Wesley (Dr. +Salmon, of Trinity College, Dublin). Dr. Salmon points out that there +is no evidence from Hetty; that she was a lively, humorous girl, and +he conceives that she began to frighten the maids, and only +reluctantly exhibited before her father against whom, however, Jeffrey +developed "a particular spite". He adds that certain circumstances +were peculiar to Hetty, which, in fact, is not the case. The present +editor has examined Dr. Salmon's arguments in The Contemporary Review, +and shown reason, in the evidence, for acquitting Hetty Wesley, who +was never suspected by her family. + +Trickery from without, by "the cunning men," is an explanation which, +at least, provides a motive, but how the thing could be managed from +without remains a mystery. Sam Wesley, the friend of Pope, and +Atterbury, and Lord Oxford, not unjustly said: "Wit, I fancy, might +find many interpretations, but wisdom none". {220} + +As the Wesley tale is a very typical instance of a very large class, +our study of it may exempt us from printing the well-known parallel +case of "The Drummer of Tedworth". Briefly, the house of Mr. +Mompesson, near Ludgarshal, in Wilts, was disturbed in the usual way, +for at least two years, from April, 1661, to April, 1663, or later. +The noises, and copious phenomena of moving objects apparently +untouched, were attributed to the unholy powers of a wandering +drummer, deprived by Mr. Mompesson of his drum. A grand jury +presented the drummer for trial, on a charge of witchcraft, but the +petty jury would not convict, there being a want of evidence to prove +threats, malum minatum, by the drummer. In 1662 the Rev. Joseph +Glanvil, F.R.S., visited the house, and, in the bedroom of Mr. +Mompesson's little girls, the chief sufferers, heard and saw much the +same phenomena as the elder Wesley describes in his own nursery. The +"little modest girls" were aged about seven and eight. Charles II. +sent some gentlemen to the house for one night, when nothing occurred, +the disturbances being intermittent. Glanvil published his narrative +at the time, and Mr. Pepys found it "not very convincing". Glanvil, +in consequence of his book, was so vexed by correspondents "that I +have been haunted almost as bad as Mr. Mompesson's house". A report +that imposture had been discovered, and confessed by Mr. Mompesson, +was set afloat, by John Webster, in a well-known work, and may still +be found in modern books. Glanvil denied it till he was "quite +tired," and Mompesson gave a formal denial in a letter dated Tedworth, +8th November, 1672. He also, with many others, swore to the facts on +oath, in court, at the drummer's trial. {221} + +In the Tedworth case, as at Epworth, and in the curious Cideville case +of 1851, a quarrel with "cunning men" preceded the disturbances. In +Lord St. Vincent's case, which follows, nothing of the kind is +reported. As an almost universal rule children, especially girls of +about twelve, are centres of the trouble; in the St. Vincent story, +the children alone were exempt from annoyance. + +LORD ST. VINCENT'S GHOST STORY + +Sir Walter Scott, writing about the disturbances in the house occupied +by Mrs. Ricketts, sister of the great admiral, Lord St. Vincent, asks: +"Who has seen Lord St. Vincent's letters?" He adds that the gallant +admiral, after all, was a sailor, and implies that "what the sailor +said" (if he said anything) "is not evidence". + +The fact of unaccountable disturbances which finally drove Mrs. +Ricketts out of Hinton Ampner, is absolutely indisputable, though the +cause of the annoyances may remain as mysterious as ever. The +contemporary correspondence (including that of Lord St. Vincent, then +Captain Jervis) exists, and has been edited by Mrs. Henley Jervis, +grand-daughter of Mrs. Ricketts. {222} + +There is only the very vaguest evidence for hauntings at Lady +Hillsborough's old house of Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, before Mr. +Ricketts took it in January, 1765. He and his wife were then +disturbed by footsteps, and sounds of doors opening and shutting. +They put new locks on the doors lest the villagers had procured keys, +but this proved of no avail. The servants talked of seeing +appearances of a gentleman in drab and of a lady in silk, which Mrs. +Ricketts disregarded. Her husband went to Jamaica in the autumn of +1769, and in 1771 she was so disturbed that her brother, Captain +Jervis, a witness of the phenomena, insisted on her leaving the house +in August. He and Mrs. Ricketts then wrote to Mr. Ricketts about the +affair. In July, 1772, Mrs. Ricketts wrote a long and solemn +description of her sufferings, to be given to her children. + +We shall slightly abridge her statement, in which she mentions that +when she left Hinton she had not one of the servants who came thither +in her family, which "evinces the impossibility of a confederacy". +Her new, like her former servants, were satisfactory; Camis, her new +coachman, was of a yeoman house of 400 years' standing. It will be +observed that Mrs. Ricketts was a good deal annoyed even _before_ 2nd +April, 1771, the day when she dates the beginning of the worst +disturbances. She believed that the agency was human--a robber or a +practical joker--and but slowly and reluctantly became convinced that +the "exploded" notion of an abnormal force might be correct. We learn +that while Captain Jervis was not informed of the sounds he never +heard them, and whereas Mrs. Ricketts heard violent noises after he +went to bed on the night of his vigil, he heard nothing. "Several +instances occurred where very loud noises were heard by one or two +persons, when those equally near and in the same direction were not +sensible of the least impression." {223} + +With this preface, Mrs. Ricketts may be allowed to tell her own tale. + +"Sometime after Mr. Ricketts left me (autumn, 1769) I--then lying in +the bedroom over the kitchen--heard frequently the noise of some one +walking in the room within, and the rustling as of silk clothes +against the door that opened into my room, sometimes so loud, and of +such continuance as to break my rest. Instant search being often +made, we never could discover any appearance of human or brute being. +Repeatedly disturbed in the same manner, I made it my constant +practice to search the room and closets within, and to secure the only +door on the inside. . . . Yet this precaution did not preclude the +disturbance, which continued with little interruption." + +Nobody, in short, could enter this room, except by passing through +that of Mrs. Ricketts, the door of which "was always made fast by a +drawn bolt". Yet somebody kept rustling and walking in the inner +room, which somebody could never be found when sought for. + +In summer, 1770, Mrs. Ricketts heard someone walk to the foot of her +bed in her own room, "the footsteps as distinct as ever I heard, +myself perfectly awake and collected". Nobody could be discovered in +the chamber. Mrs. Ricketts boldly clung to her room, and was only now +and then disturbed by "sounds of harmony," and heavy thumps, down +stairs. After this, and early in 1771, she was "frequently sensible +of a hollow murmuring that seemed to possess the whole house: it was +independent of wind, being equally heard on the calmest nights, and it +was a sound I had never been accustomed to hear". + +On 27th February, 1771, a maid was alarmed by "groans and fluttering +round her bed": she was "the sister of an eminent grocer in +Alresford". On 2nd April, Mrs. Ricketts heard people walking in the +lobby, hunted for burglars, traced the sounds to a room whence their +was no outlet, and found nobody. This kind of thing went on till Mrs. +Ricketts despaired of any natural explanation. After mid-summer, +1771, the trouble increased, in broad daylight, and a shrill female +voice, answered by two male voices was added to the afflictions. +Captain Jervis came on a visit, but was told of nothing, and never +heard anything. After he went to Portsmouth, "the most deep, loud +tremendous noise seemed to rush and fall with infinite velocity and +force on the lobby floor adjoining my room," accompanied by a shrill +and dreadful shriek, seeming to proceed from under the spot where the +rushing noise fell, and repeated three or four times. + +Mrs. Ricketts' "resolution remained firm," but her health was +impaired; she tried changing her room, without results. The +disturbances pursued her. Her brother now returned. She told him +nothing, and he heard nothing, but next day she unbosomed herself. +Captain Jervis therefore sat up with Captain Luttrell and his own man. +He was rewarded by noises which he in vain tried to pursue. "I should +do great injustice to my sister" (he writes to Mr. Ricketts on 9th +August, 1771), "if I did not acknowledge to have heard what I could +not, after the most diligent search and serious reflection, any way +account for." Captain Jervis during a whole week slept by day, and +watched, armed, by night. Even by day he was disturbed by a sound as +of immense weights falling from the ceiling to the floor of his room. +He finally obliged his sister to leave the house. + +What occurred after Mrs. Ricketts abandoned Hinton is not very +distinct. Apparently Captain Jervis's second stay of a week, when he +did hear the noises, was from 1st August to 8th August. From a +statement by Mrs. Ricketts it appears that, when her brother joined +his ship, the Alarm (9th August), she retired to Dame Camis's house, +that of her coachman's mother. Thence she went, and made another +attempt to live at Hinton, but was "soon after assailed by a noise I +never before heard, very near me, and the terror I felt not to be +described". She therefore went to the Newbolts, and thence to the old +Palace at Winton; later, on Mr. Ricketts' return, to the Parsonage, +and then to Longwood (to the _old_ house there) near Alresford. + +Meanwhile, on 18th September, Lady Hillsborough's agent lay with armed +men at Hinton, and, making no discovery, offered 50 pounds (increased +by Mr. Ricketts to 100 pounds) for the apprehension of the persons who +caused the noises. The reward was never claimed. On 8th March, 1772, +Camis wrote: "I am very sorry that we cannot find out the reason of +the noise"; at other dates he mentions sporadic noises heard by his +mother and another woman, including "the murmur". A year after Mrs. +Ricketts left a family named Lawrence took the house, and, according +to old Lucy Camis, in 1818, Mr. Lawrence very properly threatened to +dismiss any servant who spoke of the disturbances. The result of this +sensible course was that the Lawrences left suddenly, at the end of +the year--and the house was pulled down. Some old political papers of +the Great Rebellion, and a monkey's skull, not exhibited to any +anatomist, are said to have been discovered under the floor of the +lobby, or of one of the rooms. Mrs. Ricketts adds sadly, "The +unbelief of Chancellor Hoadley went nearest my heart," as he had +previously a high opinion of her veracity. The Bishop of St. Asaph +was incredulous, "on the ground that such means were unworthy of the +Deity to employ". + +Probably a modern bishop would say that there were no noises at all, +that every one who heard the sounds was under the influence of +"suggestion," caused first in Mrs. Ricketts' own mind by vague tales +of a gentleman in drab seen by the servants. + +The contagion, to be sure, also reached two distinguished captains in +the navy, but not till one of them was told about disturbances which +had not previously disturbed him. If this explanation be true, it +casts an unusual light on the human imagination. Physical science has +lately invented a new theory. Disturbances of this kind are perhaps +"seismic,"--caused by earthquakes! (See Professor Milne, in The +Times, 21st June, 1897.) + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +A Question for Physicians. Professor William James's Opinion. +Hysterical Disease? Little Hands. Domestic Arson. The Wem Case. +"The Saucepan began it." The Nurse-maid. Boots Fly Off. +Investigation. Emma's Partial Confession. Corroborative Evidence. +Question of Disease Repeated. Chinese Cases. Haunted Mrs. Chang. +Mr. Niu's Female Slave. The Great Amherst Mystery. Run as a Show. +Failure. Later Miracles. The Fire-raiser Arrested. Parallels. A +Highland Case. A Hero of the Forty-Five. Donald na Bocan. Donald's +Hymn. Icelandic Cases. The Devil of Hjalta-stad. The Ghost at +Garpsdal. + +MORE HAUNTED HOUSES + +A physician, as we have seen, got the better of the demon in Mrs. +Shchapoff's case, at least while the lady was under his care. Really +these disturbances appear to demand the attention of medical men. If +the whole phenomena are caused by imposture, the actors, or actresses, +display a wonderful similarity of symptoms and an alarming taste for +fire-raising. Professor William James, the well-known psychologist, +mentions ten cases whose resemblances "suggest a natural type," and we +ask, is it a type of hysterical disease? {229} He chooses, among +others, an instance in Dr. Nevius's book on Demon Possession in China, +and there is another in Peru. He also mentions The Great Amherst +Mystery, which we give, and the Rerrick case in Scotland (1696), +related by Telfer, who prints, on his margins, the names of the +attesting witnesses of each event, lairds, clergymen, and farmers. At +Rerrick, as in Russia, the _little hand_ was seen by Telfer himself, +and the fire-raising was endless. At Amherst too, as in a pair of +recent Russian cases and others, there was plenty of fire-raising. By +a lucky chance an English case occurred at Wem, in Shropshire, in +November, 1883. It began at a farm called the Woods, some ten miles +from Shrewsbury. First a saucepan full of eggs "jumped" off the fire +in the kitchen, and the tea-things, leaping from the table, were +broken. Cinders "were thrown out of the fire," and set some clothes +in a blaze. A globe leaped off a lamp. A farmer, Mr. Lea, saw all +the windows of the upper story "as it were on fire," but it was no +such matter. The nurse-maid ran out in a fright, to a neighbour's, +and her dress spontaneously combusted as she ran. The people +attributed these and similar events, to something in the coal, or in +the air, or to electricity. When the nurse-girl, Emma Davies, sat on +the lap of the school mistress, Miss Maddox, her boots kept flying +off, like the boot laces in The Daemon of Spraiton. + +All this was printed in the London papers, and, on 15th November, The +Daily Telegraph and Daily News published Emma's confession that she +wrought by sleight of hand and foot. On 17th November, Mr. Hughes +went from Cambridge to investigate. For some reason investigation +never begins till the fun is over. On the 9th the girl, now in a very +nervous state (no wonder!) had been put under the care of a Dr. +Mackey. This gentleman and Miss Turner said that things had occurred +since Emma came, for which they could not account. On 13th November, +however, Miss Turner, looking out of a window, spotted Emma throwing a +brick, and pretending that the flight of the brick was automatic. +Next day Emma confessed to her tricks, but steadfastly denied that she +had cheated at Woods Farm, and Weston Lullingfield, where she had also +been. Her evidence to this effect was so far confirmed by Mrs. +Hampson of Woods Farm, and her servant, Priscilla Evans, when examined +by Mr. Hughes. Both were "quite certain" that they saw crockery rise +by itself into air off the kitchen table, when Emma was at a +neighbouring farm, Mr. Lea's. Priscilla also saw crockery come out of +a cupboard, in detachments, and fly between her and Emma, usually in a +slanting direction, while Emma stood by with her arms folded. Yet +Priscilla was not on good terms with Emma. Unless, then, Mrs. Hampson +and Priscilla fabled, it is difficult to see how Emma could move +objects when she was "standing at some considerable distance, +standing, in fact, in quite another farm". + +Similar evidence was given and signed by Miss Maddox, the +schoolmistress, and Mr. and Mrs. Lea. On the other hand Mrs. Hampson +and Priscilla believed that Emma managed the fire-raising herself. +The flames were "very high and white, and the articles were very +little singed". This occurred also at Rerrick, in 1696, but Mr. +Hughes attributes it to Emma's use of paraffin, which does not apply +to the Rerrick case. Paraffin smells a good deal--nothing is said +about a smell of paraffin. + +Only one thing is certain: Emma was at last caught in a cheat. This +discredits her, but a man who cheats at cards _may_ hold a good hand +by accident. In the same way, if such wonders can happen (as so much +world-wide evidence declares), they _may_ have happened at Woods Farm, +and Emma, "in a very nervous state," _may_ have feigned then, or +rather did feign them later. + +The question for the medical faculty is: Does a decided taste for +wilful fire-raising often accompany exhibitions of dancing furniture +and crockery, gratuitously given by patients of hysterical +temperament? This is quite a normal inquiry. Is there a nervous +malady of which the symptoms are domestic arson, and amateur leger-de- +main? The complaint, if it exists, is of very old standing and wide +prevalence, including Russia, Scotland, New England, France, Iceland, +Germany, China and Peru. + +As a proof of the identity of symptoms in this malady, we give a +Chinese case. The Chinese, as to diabolical possession, are precisely +of the same opinion as the inspired authors of the Gospels. People +are "possessed," and, like the woman having a spirit of divination in +the Acts of the Apostles, make a good thing out of it. Thus Mrs. Ku +was approached by a native Christian. She became rigid and her demon, +speaking through her, acknowledged the Catholic verity, and said that +if Mrs. Ku were converted he would have to leave. On recovering her +everyday consciousness, Mrs. Ku asked what Tsehwa, her demon, had +said. The Christian told her, and perhaps she would have deserted her +erroneous courses, but her fellow-villagers implored her to pay homage +to the demon. They were in the habit of resorting to it for medical +advice (as people do to Mrs. Piper's demon in the United States), so +Mrs. Ku decided to remain in the business. {232} The parallel to the +case in the Acts is interesting. + +HAUNTED MRS. CHANG + +Mr. Chang, of that ilk (Chang Chang Tien-ts), was a man of fifty- +seven, and a graduate in letters. The ladies of his family having +accommodated a demon with a shrine in his house, Mr. Chang said he +"would have none of that nonsense". The spirit then entered into Mrs. +Chang, and the usual fire-raising began all over the place. The +furniture and crockery danced in the familiar way, and objects took to +disappearing mysteriously, even when secured under lock and key. Mr. +Chang was as unlucky as Mr. Chin. At _his_ house "doors would open of +their own accord, footfalls were heard, as of persons walking in the +house, although no one could be seen. Plates, bowls and the teapot +would suddenly rise from the table into the air." {233a} + +Mrs. Chang now tried the off chance of there being something in +Christianity, stayed with a native Christian (the narrator), and felt +much better. She could enjoy her meals, and was quite a new woman. +As her friend could not go home with her, Mrs. Fung, a native +Christian, resided for a while at Mr. Chang's; "comparative quiet was +restored," and Mrs. Fung retired to her family. + +The symptoms returned; the native Christian was sent for, and found +Mr. Chang's establishment full of buckets of water for extinguishing +the sudden fires. Mrs. Chang's daughter-in-law was now possessed, and +"drank wine in large quantities, though ordinarily she would not touch +it". She was staring and tossing her arms wildly; a service was held, +and she soon became her usual self. + +In the afternoon, when the devils went out of the ladies, the fowls +flew into a state of wild excitement, while the swine rushed furiously +about and tried to climb a wall. + +The family have become Christians, the fires have ceased; Mr. Chang is +an earnest inquirer, but opposed, for obvious reasons, to any public +profession of our religion. {233b} + +In Mr. Niu's case "strange noises and rappings were frequently heard +about the house. The buildings were also set on fire in different +places in some mysterious way." The Christians tried to convert Mr. +Niu, but as the devil now possessed his female slave, whose success in +fortune-telling was extremely lucrative, Mr. Niu said that he +preferred to leave well alone, and remained wedded to his idols. {234} + +We next offer a recent colonial case, in which the symptoms, as Mr. +Pecksniff said, were "chronic". + +THE GREAT AMHERST MYSTERY + +On 13th February, 1888, Mr. Walter Hubbell, an actor by profession, +"being duly sworn" before a Notary Public in New York, testified to +the following story:-- + +In 1879 he was acting with a strolling company, and came to Amherst, +in Nova Scotia. Here he heard of a haunted house, known to the local +newspapers as "The Great Amherst Mystery". Having previously +succeeded in exposing the frauds of spiritualism Mr. Hubbell +determined to investigate the affair of Amherst. The haunted house +was inhabited by Daniel Teed, the respected foreman in a large shoe +factory. Under his roof were Mrs. Teed, "as good a woman as ever +lived"; little Willie, a baby boy; and Mrs. Teed's two sisters, +Jennie, a very pretty girl, and Esther, remarkable for large grey +eyes, pretty little hands and feet, and candour of expression. A +brother of Teed's and a brother of Mrs. Cox made up the family. They +were well off, and lived comfortably in a detached cottage of two +storys. It began when Jennie and Esther were in bed one night. +Esther jumped up, saying that there was a mouse in the bed. Next +night, a green band-box began to make a rustling noise, and then rose +a foot in the air, several times. On the following night Esther felt +unwell, and "was a swelling wisibly before the werry eyes" of her +alarmed family. Reports like thunder peeled through her chamber, +under a serene sky. Next day Esther could only eat "a small piece of +bread and butter, and a large green pickle". She recovered slightly, +in spite of the pickle, but, four nights later, all her and her +sister's bed-clothes flew off, and settled down in a remote corner. +At Jennie's screams, the family rushed in, and found Esther "fearfully +swollen". Mrs. Teed replaced the bed-clothes, which flew off again, +the pillow striking John Teed in the face. Mr. Teed then left the +room, observing, in a somewhat unscientific spirit, that "he had had +enough of it". The others, with a kindness which did them credit, sat +on the edges of the bed, and repressed the desire of the sheets and +blankets to fly away. The bed, however, sent forth peels like +thunder, when Esther suddenly fell into a peaceful sleep. + +Next evening Dr. Carritte arrived, and the bolster flew at his head, +_and then went back again under Esther's_. While paralysed by this +phenomenon, unprecedented in his practice, the doctor heard a metal +point scribbling on the wall. Examining the place whence the sound +proceeded, he discovered this inscription:-- + +Esther Cox! You are mine +to kill. + +Mr. Hubbell has verified the inscription, and often, later, recognised +the hand, in writings which "came out of the air and fell at our +feet". Bits of plaster now gyrated in the room, accompanied by peels +of local thunder. The doctor admitted that his diagnosis was at +fault. Next day he visited his patient when potatoes flew at him. He +exhibited a powerful sedative, but pounding noises began on the roofs +and were audible at a distance of 200 yards, as the doctor himself +told Mr. Hubbell. + +The clergy now investigated the circumstances, which they attributed +to electricity. "Even the most exclusive class" frequented Mr. Teed's +house, till December, when Esther had an attack of diphtheria. On +recovering she went on to visit friends in Sackville, New Brunswick, +where nothing unusual occurred. On her return the phenomena broke +forth afresh, and Esther heard a voice proclaim that the house would +be set on fire. Lighted matches then fell from the ceiling, but the +family extinguished them. The ghost then set a dress on fire, +apparently as by spontaneous combustion, and this kind of thing +continued. The heads of the local fire-brigade suspected Esther of +these attempts at arson, and Dr. Nathan Tupper suggested that she +should be flogged. So Mr. Teed removed Esther to the house of a Mr. +White. + +In about a month "all," as Mrs. Nickleby's lover said, "was gas and +gaiters". The furniture either flew about, or broke into flames. +Worse, certain pieces of iron placed as an experiment on Esther's lap +"became too hot to be handled with comfort," and then flew away. + +Mr. Hubbell himself now came on the scene, and, not detecting +imposture, thought that "there was money in it". He determined to +"run" Esther as a powerful attraction, he lecturing, and Esther +sitting on the platform. + +It did not pay. The audience hurled things at Mr. Hubbell, and these +were the only volatile objects. Mr. Hubbell therefore brought Esther +back to her family at Amherst, where, in Esther's absence, his +umbrella and a large carving knife flew at him with every appearance +of malevolence. A great arm-chair next charged at him like a bull, +and to say that Mr. Hubbell was awed "would indeed seem an inadequate +expression of my feelings". The ghosts then thrice undressed little +Willie in public, in derision of his tears and outcries. Fire-raising +followed, and that would be a hard heart which could read the tale +unmoved. Here it is, in the simple eloquence of Mr. Hubbell:-- + +"This was my first experience with Bob, the demon, as a fire-fiend; +and I say, candidly, that until I had had that experience I never +fully realised what an awful calamity it was to have an invisible +monster, somewhere within the atmosphere, going from place to place +about the house, gathering up old newspapers into a bundle and hiding +it in the basket of soiled linen or in a closet, then go and steal +matches out of the match-box in the kitchen or somebody's pocket, as +he did out of mine, and after kindling a fire in the bundle, tell +Esther that he had started a fire, but would not tell where; or +perhaps not tell her at all, in which case the first intimation we +would have was the smell of the smoke pouring through the house, and +then the most intense excitement, everybody running with buckets of +water. I say it was the most truly awful calamity that could possible +befall any family, infidel or Christian, that could be conceived in +the mind of man or ghost. + +"And how much more terrible did it seem in this little cottage, where +all were strict members of church, prayed, sang hymns and read the +Bible. Poor Mrs. Teed!" + +On Mr. Hubbell's remarking that the cat was not tormented, "she was +instantly lifted from the floor to a height of five feet, and then +dropped on Esther's back. . . . I never saw any cat more frightened; +she ran out into the front yard, where she remained for the balance +(rest) of the day." On 27th June "a trumpet was heard in the house +all day". + +The Rev. R. A. Temple now prayed with Esther, and tried a little +amateur exorcism, including the use of slips of paper, inscribed with +Habakkuk ii. 3. The ghosts cared no more than Voltaire for ce coquin +d'Habacuc. + +Things came to such a pass, matches simply raining all round, that Mr. +Teed's landlord, a Mr. Bliss, evicted Esther. She went to a Mr. Van +Amburgh's, and Mr. Teed's cottage was in peace. + +Some weeks later Esther was arrested for incendiarism in a barn, was +sentenced to four months' imprisonment, but was soon released in +deference to public opinion. She married, had a family; and ceased to +be a mystery. + +This story is narrated with an amiable simplicity, and is backed, more +or less, by extracts from Amherst and other local newspapers. On +making inquiries, I found that opinion was divided. Some held that +Esther was a mere impostor and fire-raiser; from other sources I +obtained curious tales of the eccentric flight of objects in her +neighbourhood. It is only certain that Esther's case is identical +with Madame Shchapoff's, and experts in hysteria may tell us whether +that malady ever takes the form of setting fire to the patient's +wardrobe, and to things in general. {239a} + +After these modern cases of disturbances, we may look at a few old, or +even ancient examples. It will be observed that the symptoms are +always of the same type, whatever the date or country. The first is +Gaelic, of last century. + +DONALD BAN AND THE BOCAN {239b} + +It is fully a hundred years ago since there died in Lochaber a man +named Donald Ban, sometimes called "the son of Angus," but more +frequently known as Donald Ban of the Bocan. This surname was derived +from the troubles caused to him by a bocan--a goblin--many of whose +doings are preserved in tradition. + +Donald drew his origin from the honourable house of Keppoch, and was +the last of the hunters of Macvic-Ronald. His home was at Mounessee, +and later at Inverlaire in Glenspean, and his wife belonged to the +MacGregors of Rannoch. He went out with the Prince, and was present +at the battle of Culloden. He fled from the field, and took refuge in +a mountain shieling, having two guns with him, but only one of them +was loaded. A company of soldiers came upon him there, and although +Donald escaped by a back window, taking the empty gun with him by +mistake, he was wounded in the leg by a shot from his pursuers. The +soldiers took him then, and conveyed him to Inverness, where he was +thrown into prison to await his trial. While he was in prison he had +a dream; he saw himself sitting and drinking with Alastair MacCholla, +and Donald MacRonald Vor. The latter was the man of whom it was said +that he had two hearts; he was taken prisoner at Falkirk and executed +at Carlisle. Donald was more fortunate than his friend, and was +finally set free. + +It was after this that the bocan began to trouble him; and although +Donald never revealed to any man the secret of who the bocan was (if +indeed he knew it himself), yet there were some who professed to know +that it was a "gillie" of Donald's who was killed at Culloden. Their +reason for believing this was that on one occasion the man in question +had given away more to a poor neighbour than Donald was pleased to +spare. Donald found fault with him, and in the quarrel that followed +the man said, "I will be avenged for this, alive or dead". + +It was on the hill that Donald first met with the bocan, but he soon +came to closer quarters, and haunted the house in a most annoying +fashion. He injured the members of the household, and destroyed all +the food, being especially given to dirtying the butter (a thing quite +superfluous, according to Captain Burt's description of Highland +butter). On one occasion a certain Ronald of Aberardair was a guest +in Donald's house, and Donald's wife said, "Though I put butter on the +table for you tonight, it will just be dirtied". "I will go with you +to the butter-keg," said Ronald, "with my dirk in my hand, and hold my +bonnet over the keg, and he will not dirty it this night." So the two +went together to fetch the butter, but it was dirtied just as usual. + +Things were worse during the night and they could get no sleep for the +stones and clods that came flying about the house. "The bocan was +throwing things out of the walls, and they would hear them rattling at +the head of Donald's bed." The minister came (Mr. John Mor MacDougall +was his name) and slept a night or two in the house, but the bocan +kept away so long as he was there. Another visitor, Angus MacAlister +Ban, whose grandson told the tale, had more experience of the bocan's +reality. "Something seized his two big toes, and he could not get +free any more than if he had been caught by the smith's tongs. It was +the bocan, but he did nothing more to him." Some of the clergy, too, +as well as laymen of every rank, were witnesses to the pranks which +the spirit carried on, but not even Donald himself ever saw him in any +shape whatever. So famous did the affair become that Donald was +nearly ruined by entertaining all the curious strangers who came to +see the facts for themselves. + +In the end Donald resolved to change his abode, to see whether he +could in that way escape from the visitations. He took all his +possessions with him except a harrow, which was left beside the wall +of the house, but before the party had gone far on the road the harrow +was seen coming after them. "Stop, stop," said Donald; "if the harrow +is coming after us, we may just as well go back again." The mystery +of the harrow is not explained, but Donald did return to his home, and +made no further attempt to escape from his troubles in this way. + +If the bocan had a spite at Donald, he was still worse disposed +towards his wife, the MacGregor woman. On the night on which he last +made his presence felt, he went on the roof of the house and cried, +"Are you asleep, Donald Ban?" "Not just now," said Donald. "Put out +that long grey tether, the MacGregor wife," said he. "I don't think +I'll do that tonight," said Donald. "Come out yourself, then," said +the bocan, "and leave your bonnet." The good-wife, thinking that the +bocan was outside and would not hear her, whispered in Donald's ear as +he was rising, "Won't you ask him when the Prince will come?" The +words, however, were hardly out of her mouth when the bocan answered +her with, "Didn't you get enough of him before, you grey tether?" + +Another account says that at this last visit of the bocan, he was +saying that various other spirits were along with him. Donald's wife +said to her husband: "I should think that if they were along with him +they would speak to us"; but the bocan answered, "They are no more +able to speak than the sole of your foot". He then summoned Donald +outside as above. "I will come," said Donald, "and thanks be to the +Good Being that you have asked me." Donald was taking his dirk with +him as he went out, but the bocan said, "leave your dirk inside, +Donald, and your knife as well". + +Donald then went outside, and the bocan led him on through rivers and +a birch-wood for about three miles, till they came to the river Fert. +There the bocan pointed out to Donald a hole in which he had hidden +some plough-irons while he was alive. Donald proceeded to take them +out, and while doing so the two eyes of the bocan were causing him +greater fear than anything else he ever heard or saw. When he had got +the irons out of the hole, they went back to Mounessie together, and +parted that night at the house of Donald Ban. + +Donald, whether naturally or by reason of his ghostly visitant, was a +religious man, and commemorated his troubles in some verses which bear +the name of "The Hymn of Donald Ban of the Bocan". In these he speaks +of the common belief that he had done something to deserve all this +annoyance, and makes mention of the "stones and clods" which flew +about his house in the night time. Otherwise the hymn is mainly +composed of religious sentiments, but its connection with the story +makes it interesting, and the following is a literal translation of +it. + +THE HYMN OF DONALD BAN + +O God that created me so helpless, +Strengthen my belief and make it firm. +Command an angel to come from Paradise, +And take up his abode in my dwelling, +To protect me from every trouble +That wicked folks are putting in my way; +Jesus, that did'st suffer Thy crucifixion, +Restrain their doings, and be with me Thyself. + +Little wonder though I am thoughtful-- +_Always at the time when I go to bed +The stones and the clods will arise-- +How could a saint get sleep there_? +I am without peace or rest, +Without repose or sleep till the morning; +O Thou that art in the throne of grace, +Behold my treatment and be a guard to me. + +Little wonder though I am troubled, +So many stories about me in every place. +Some that are unjust will be saying, +"It is all owing to himself, that affair". +Judge not except as you know, +Though the Son of God were awaking you; +No one knows if I have deserved more +Than a rich man that is without care. + +Although I am in trouble at this time, +Verily, I shall be doubly repaid; +When the call comes to me from my Saviour, +I shall receive mercy and new grace; +I fear no more vexation, +When I ascend to be with Thy saints; +O Thou that sittest on the throne, +Assist my speaking and accept my prayer. + +O God, make me mindful +Night and day to be praying, +Seeking pardon richly +For what I have done, on my knees. +Stir with the spirit of Truth +True repentance in my bosom, +That when Thou sendest death to seek me, +Christ may take care of me. + +The bocan was not the only inhabitant of the spirit-world that Donald +Ban encountered during his lifetime. A cousin of his mother was said +to have been carried off by the fairies, and one night Donald saw him +among them, dancing away with all his might. Donald was also out +hunting in the year of the great snow, and at nightfall he saw a man +mounted on the back of a deer ascending a great rock. He heard the +man saying, "Home, Donald Ban," and fortunately he took the advice, +for that night there fell eleven feet of snow in the very spot where +he had intended to stay. + +We now take two modern Icelandic cases, for the purpose of leading up +to the famous Icelandic legend of Grettir and Glam the Vampire, from +the Grettis Saga. It is plain that such incidents as those in the two +modern Icelandic cases (however the effects were produced) might +easily be swollen into the prodigious tale of Glam in the course of +two or three centuries, between Grettir's time and the complete +formation of his Saga. + +THE DEVIL OF HJALTA-STAD {246} + +The sheriff writes: "The Devil at Hjalta-stad was outspoken enough +this past winter, although no one saw him. I, along with others, had +the dishonour to hear him talking for nearly two days, during which he +addressed myself and the minister, Sir Grim, with words the like of +which 'eye hath not seen nor ear heard'. As soon as we reached the +front of the house there was heard in the door an iron voice saying: +'So Hans from Eyrar is come now, and wishes to talk with me, the --- +idiot'. Compared with other names that he gave me this might be +considered as flattering. When I inquired who it was that addressed +me with such words, he answered in a fierce voice, 'I was called +Lucifer at first, but now I am called Devil and Enemy'. He threw at +us both stones and pieces of wood, as well as other things, and broke +two windows in the minister's room. He spoke so close to us that he +seemed to be just at our side. There was an old woman there of the +name of Opia, whom he called his wife, and a 'heavenly blessed soul,' +and asked Sir Grim to marry them, with various other remarks of this +kind, which I will not recount. + +"I have little liking to write about his ongoings, which were all +disgraceful and shameful, in accordance with the nature of the actor. +He repeated the 'Pater Noster' three times, answered questions from +the Catechism and the Bible, said that the devils held service in +hell, and told what texts and psalms they had for various occasions. +He asked us to give him some of the food we had, and a drink of tea, +etc. I asked the fellow whether God was good. He said, 'Yes'. +Whether he was truthful. He answered, 'Not one of his words can be +doubted'. Sir Grim asked him whether the devil was good-looking. He +answered: 'He is far better-looking than you, you --- ugly snout!' I +asked him whether the devils agreed well with each other. He answered +in a kind of sobbing voice: 'It is painful to know that they never +have peace'. I bade him say something to me in German, and said to +him Lass uns Teusc redre (sic), but he answered as if he had +misunderstood me. + +"When we went to bed in the evening he shouted fiercely in the middle +of the floor, 'On this night I shall snatch you off to hell, and you +shall not rise up out of bed as you lay down'. During the evening he +wished the minister's wife good-night. The minister and I continued +to talk with him during the night; among other things we asked him +what kind of weather it was outside. He answered: 'It is cold, with +a north wind'. We asked if he was cold. He answered: 'I think I am +both hot and cold'. I asked him how loud he could shout. He said, +'So loud that the roof would go off the house, and you would all fall +into a dead faint'. I told him to try it. He answered: 'Do you +think I am come to amuse you, you --- idiot?' I asked him to show us +a little specimen. He said he would do so, and gave three shouts, the +last of which was so fearful that I have never heard anything worse, +and doubt whether I ever shall. Towards daybreak, after he had parted +from us with the usual compliments, we fell asleep. + +"Next morning he came in again, and began to waken up people; he named +each one by name, not forgetting to add some nickname, and asking +whether so-and-so was awake. When he saw they were all awake, he said +he was going to play with the door now, and with that he threw the +door off its hinges with a sudden jerk, and sent it far in upon the +floor. The strangest thing was that when he threw anything it went +down at once, and then went back to its place again, so it was evident +that he either went inside it or moved about with it. + +"The previous evening he challenged me twice to come out into the +darkness to him, and this in an angry voice, saying that he would tear +me limb from limb. I went out and told him to come on, but nothing +happened. When I went back to my place and asked him why he had not +fulfilled his promise, he said, 'I had no orders for it from my +master'. He asked us whether we had ever heard the like before, and +when we said 'Yes,' he answered, 'That is not true: the like has +never been heard at any time'. He had sung 'The memory of Jesus' +after I arrived there, and talked frequently while the word of God was +being read. He said that he did not mind this, but that he did not +like the 'Cross-school Psalms,' and said it must have been a great +idiot who composed them. This enemy came like a devil, departed as +such, and behaved himself as such while he was present, nor would it +befit any one but the devil to declare all that he said. At the same +time it must be added that I am not quite convinced that it was a +spirit, but my opinions on this I cannot give here for lack of time." + +In another work {249} where the sheriff's letter is given with some +variations and additions, an attempt is made to explain the story. +The phenomena were said to have been caused by a young man who had +learned ventriloquism abroad. Even if this art could have been +practised so successfully as to puzzle the sheriff and others, it +could hardly have taken the door off its hinges and thrown it into the +room. It is curious that while Jon Espolin in his Annals entirely +discredits the sheriff's letter, he yet gives a very similar account +of the spirit's proceedings. + +A later story of the same kind, also printed by Jon Arnason (i., 311), +is that of the ghost at Garpsdal as related by the minister there, Sir +Saemund, and written down by another minister on 7th June, 1808. The +narrative is as follows:-- + +THE GHOST AT GARPSDAL + +In Autumn, 1807, there was a disturbance by night in the outer room at +Garpsdal, the door being smashed. There slept in this room the +minister's men-servants, Thorsteinn Gudmundsson, Magnus Jonsson, and a +child named Thorstein. Later, on 16th November, a boat which the +minister had lying at the sea-side was broken in broad daylight, and +although the blows were heard at the homestead yet no human form was +visible that could have done this. All the folks at Garpsdal were at +home, and the young fellow Magnus Jonsson was engaged either at the +sheep-houses or about the homestead; the spirit often appeared to him +in the likeness of a woman. On the 18th of the same month four doors +of the sheep-houses were broken in broad daylight, while the minister +was marrying a couple in the church; most of his people were present +in the church, Magnus being among them. That same day in the evening +this woman was noticed in the sheep-houses; she said that she wished +to get a ewe to roast, but as soon as an old woman who lived at +Garpsdal and was both skilled and wise (Gudrun Jons-dottir by name) +had handled the ewe, its struggles ceased and it recovered again. +While Gudrun was handling the ewe, Magnus was standing in the door of +the house; with that one of the rafters was broken, and the pieces +were thrown in his face. He said that the woman went away just then. +The minister's horses were close by, and at that moment became so +scared that they ran straight over smooth ice as though it had been +earth, and suffered no harm. + +On the evening of the 20th there were great disturbances, panelling +and doors being broken down in various rooms. The minister was +standing in the house door along with Magnus and two or three girls +when Magnus said to him that the spirit had gone into the sitting- +room. The minister went and stood at the door of the room, and after +he had been there a little while, talking to the others, a pane of +glass in one of the room windows was broken. Magnus was standing +beside the minister talking to him, and when the pane broke he said +that the spirit had gone out by that. The minister went to the +window, and saw that the pane was all broken into little pieces. The +following evening, the 21st, the spirit also made its presence known +by bangings, thumpings, and loud noises. + +On the 28th the ongoings of the spirit surpassed themselves. In the +evening a great blow was given on the roof of the sitting-room. The +minister was inside at the time, but Magnus with two girls was out in +the barn. At the same moment the partition between the weaving-shop +and the sitting-room was broken down, and then three windows of the +room itself--one above the minister's bed, another above his writing- +table, and the third in front of the closet door. A piece of a table +was thrown in at one of these, and a spade at another. At this the +household ran out of that room into the loft, but the minister sprang +downstairs and out; the old woman Gudrun who was named before went +with him, and there also came Magnus and some of the others. Just +then a vessel of wash, which had been standing in the kitchen, was +thrown at Gudrun's head. The minister then ran in, along with Magnus +and the girls, and now everything that was loose was flying about, +both doors and splinters of wood. The minister opened a room near the +outer door intending to go in there, but just then a sledge hammer +which lay at the door was thrown at him, but it only touched him on +the side and hip, and did him no harm. From there the minister and +the others went back to the sitting-room, where everything was dancing +about, and where they were met with a perfect volley of splinters of +deal from the partitions. The minister then fled, and took his wife +and child to Muli, the next farm, and left them there, as she was +frightened to death with all this. He himself returned next day. + +On the 8th of December, the woman again made her appearance in broad +daylight. On this occasion she broke the shelves and panelling in the +pantry, in presence of the minister, Magnus, and others. According to +Magnus, the spirit then went out through the wall at the minister's +words, and made its way to the byre-lane. Magnus and Gudrun went +after it, but were received with throwings of mud and dirt. A stone +was also hurled at Magnus, as large as any man could lift, while +Gudrun received a blow on the arm that confined her to her bed for +three weeks. + +On the 26th of the month the shepherd, Einar Jonsson, a hardy and +resolute fellow, commanded the spirit to show itself to him. +Thereupon there came over him such a madness and frenzy, that he had +to be closely guarded to prevent him from doing harm to himself. He +was taken to the house, and kept in his bed, a watch being held over +him. When he recovered his wits, he said that this girl had come +above his head and assailed him. When he had completely got over +this, he went away from Garpsdal altogether. + +Later than this the minister's horse was found dead in the stable at +Muli, and the folks there said that it was all black and swollen. + +These are the most remarkable doings of the ghost at Garpsdal, +according to the evidence of Sir Saemund, Magnus, Gudrun, and all the +household at Garpsdal, all of whom will confirm their witness with an +oath, and aver that no human being could have been so invisible there +by day and night, but rather that it was some kind of spirit that did +the mischief. From the story itself it may be seen that neither +Magnus nor any other person could have accomplished the like, and all +the folk will confirm this, and clear all persons in the matter, so +far as they know. In this form the story was told to me, the +subscriber, to Samuel Egilsson and Bjarni Oddsson, by the minister +himself and his household, at Garpsdal, 28th May, 1808. That this is +correctly set down, after what the minister Sir Saemund related to me, +I witness here at Stad on Reykjanes, 7th June, 1808. + +GISLI OLAFSSON + +* * * * * + +Notwithstanding this declaration, the troubles at Garpsdal were +attributed by others to Magnus, and the name of the "Garpsdale Ghost" +stuck to him throughout his life. He was alive in 1862, when Jon +Arnason's volume was published. + +These modern instances lead up to "the best story in the world," the +old Icelandic tale of Glam. + + + + + +CHAPTER XII +The Story of Glam. The Foul Fords. + + +THE STORY OF GLAM + +There was a man named Thorhall, who lived at Thorhall-stead in +Forsaela-dala, which lies in the north of Iceland. He was a fairly +wealthy man, especially in cattle, so that no one round about had so +much live-stock as he had. He was not a chief, however, but an honest +and worthy yeoman. + +"Now this man's place was greatly haunted, so that he could scarcely +get a shepherd to stay with him, and although he asked the opinion of +many as to what he ought to do, he could find none to give him advice +of any worth. + +"One summer at the Althing, or yearly assembly of the people, Thorhall +went to the booth of Skafti, the law man, who was the wisest of men +and gave good counsel when his opinion was asked. He received +Thorhall in a friendly way, because he knew he was a man of means, and +asked him what news he had. + +"'I would have some good advice from you,' said Thorhall. + +'"I am little able to give that,' said Skafti; 'but what is the +matter?' + +"'This is the way of it,' said Thorhall, 'I have had very bad luck +with my shepherds of late. Some of them get injured, and others will +not serve out their time; and now no one that knows how the case +stands will take the place at all.' + +"'Then there must be some evil spirit there,' said Skafti, 'when men +are less willing to herd your sheep, than those of others. Now since +you have asked my advice, I will get a shepherd for you. Glam is his +name, he belongs to Sweden, and came out here last summer. He is big +and strong, but not very well liked by most people.' + +"Thorhall said that he did not mind that, if he looked well after the +sheep. Skafti answered that there was no hope of other men doing it, +if Glam could not, seeing he was so strong and stout-hearted. Their +talk ended there, and Thorhall left the booth. + +"This took place just at the breaking up of the assembly. Thorhall +missed two of his horses, and went to look for them in person, from +which it may be seen that he was no proud man. He went up to the +mountain ridge, and south along the fell that is called Armann's fell. +There he saw a man coming down from the wood, leading a horse laden +with bundles of brushwood. They soon met each other and Thorhall +asked his name. He said he was called Glam. He was tall of body, and +of strange appearance; his eyes were blue and staring, and his hair +wolf-grey in colour. Thorhall was a little startled when he saw him, +and was certain that this was the man he had been told about. + +"'What work are you best fitted for?' he asked. Glam said that he was +good at keeping sheep in winter. + +"'Will you look after _my_ sheep?' said Thorhall. 'Skafti has put you +into my hands.' + +"'On this condition only will I take service with you,' said Glam, +'that I have my own free will, for I am ill-tempered if anything does +not please me.' + +"'That will not harm me,' said Thorhall, 'and I should like you to +come to me.' + +"'I will do so,' said Glam; 'but is there any trouble at your place?' + +"'It is believed to be haunted,' said Thorhall. + +"'I am not afraid of such bug-bears,' said Glam, 'and think that it +will be all the livelier for that.' + +"'You will need all your boldness,' said Thorhall, 'It is best not to +be too frightened for one's self there.' + +"After this they made a bargain between them, and Glam was to come +when the winter nights began. Then they parted, and Thorhall found +his horses where he had just newly looked for them, and rode home, +after thanking Skafti for his kindness. + +"The summer passed, and Thorhall heard nothing of the shepherd, nor +did any one know the least about him, but at the time appointed he +came to Thorhall-stead. The yeoman received him well, but the others +did not like him, and the good-wife least of all. He began his work +among the sheep which gave him little trouble, for he had a loud, +hoarse voice, and the flock all ran together whenever he shouted. +There was a church at Thorhall-stead, but Glam would never go to it +nor join in the service. He was unbelieving, surly, and difficult to +deal with, and ever one felt a dislike towards him. + +"So time went on till it came to Christmas eve. On that morning Glam +rose early and called for his food. The good-wife answered: 'It is +not the custom of Christian people to eat on this day, for to-morrow +is the first day of Christmas, and we ought to fast to-day'. Glam +replied: 'You have many foolish fashions that I see no good in. I +cannot see that men are any better off now than they were when they +never troubled themselves about such things. I think it was a far +better life when men were heathens; and now I want my food, and no +nonsense.' The good-wife answered: 'I am sure you will come to +sorrow to-day if you act thus perversely'. + +"Glam bade her bring his food at once, or it would be the worse for +her. She was afraid to refuse, and after he had eaten he went out in +a great rage. + +"The weather was very bad. It was dark and gloomy all round; +snowflakes fluttered about; loud noises were heard in the air, and it +grew worse and worse as the day wore on. They heard the shepherd's +voice during the forenoon, but less of him as the day passed. Then +the snow began to drift, and by evening there was a violent storm. +People came to the service in church, and the day wore on to evening, +but still Glam did not come home. There was some talk among them of +going to look for him, but no search was made on account of the storm +and the darkness. + +"All Christmas eve Glam did not return, and in the morning men went to +look for him. They found the sheep scattered in the fens, beaten down +by the storm, or up on the hills. Thereafter they came to a place in +the valley where the snow was all trampled, as if there had been a +terrible struggle there, for stones and frozen earth were torn up all +round about. They looked carefully round the place, and found Glam +lying a short distance off, quite dead. He was black in colour, and +swollen up as big as an ox. They were horrified at the sight, and +shuddered in their hearts. However, they tried to carry him to the +church, but could get him no further than to the edge of a cleft, a +little lower down; so they left him there and went home and told their +master what had happened. + +"Thorhall asked them what had been the cause of Glam's death. They +said that they had traced footprints as large as though the bottom of +a cask had been set down in the snow leading from where the trampled +place was up to the cliffs at the head of the valley, and all along +the track there were huge blood-stains. From this they guessed that +the evil spirit which lived there must have killed Glam, but had +received so much hurt that it had died, for nothing was ever seen of +it after. + +"The second day of Christmas they tried again to bring Glam to the +church. They yoked horses to him, but after they had come down the +slope and reached level ground they could drag him no further, and he +had to be left there. + +"On the third day a priest went with them, but Glam was not be found, +although they searched for him all day. The priest refused to go a +second time, and the shepherd was found at once when the priest was +not present. So they gave over their attempts to take him to the +church, and buried him on the spot. + +"Soon after this they became aware that Glam was not lying quiet, and +great damage was done by him, for many that saw him fell into a swoon, +or lost their reason. Immediately after Yule men believed that they +saw him about the farm itself, and grew terribly frightened, so that +many of them ran away. After this Glam began to ride on the house-top +by night, {259} and nearly shook it to pieces, and then he walked +about almost night and day. Men hardly dared to go up into the +valley, even although they had urgent business there, and every one in +the district thought great harm of the matter. + +"In spring, Thorhall got new men, and started the farm again, while +Glam's walkings began to grow less frequent as the days grew longer. +So time went on, until it was mid-summer. That summer a ship from +Norway came into Huna-water (a firth to the north of Thorhall-stead), +and had on board a man called Thorgaut. He was foreign by birth, big +of body, and as strong as any two men. He was unhired and unmarried, +and was looking for some employment, as he was penniless. Thorhall +rode to the ship, and found Thorgaut there. He asked him whether he +would enter his service. Thorgaut answered that he might well do so, +and that he did not care much what work he did. + +"'You must know, however,' said Thorhall, 'that it is not good for any +faint-hearted man to live at my place, on account of the hauntings +that have been of late, and I do not wish to deceive you in any way.' + +"'I do not think myself utterly lost although I see some wretched +ghosts,' said Thorgaut. 'It will be no light matter for others if _I_ +am scared, and I will not throw up the place on that account.' + +"Their bargain was quickly made, and Thorgaut was to have charge of +the sheep during the winter. The summer went past, and Thorgaut began +his duties with the winter nights, and was well liked by every one. +Glam began to come again, and rode on the house-top, which Thorgaut +thought great sport, and said that the thrall would have to come to +close quarters before he would be afraid of him. Thorhall bade him +not say too much about it. 'It will be better for you,' said he, 'if +you have no trial of each other.' + +"'Your courage has indeed been shaken out of you,' said Thorgaut, 'but +I am not going to fall dead for such talk.' + +"The winter went on till Christmas came again, and on Christmas eve +the shepherd went out to his sheep. 'I trust,' said the good-wife, +'that things will not go after the old fashion.' + +"'Have no fear of that, good-wife,' said Thorgaut; 'there will be +something worth talking about if I don't come back.' + +"The weather was very cold, and a heavy drift blowing. Thorgaut was +in the habit of coming home when it was half-dark, but on this +occasion he did not return at his usual time. People came to church, +and they now began to think that things were not unlikely to fall out +as they had done before. Thorhall wished to make search for the +shepherd, but the church-goers refused, saying that they would not +risk themselves in the hands of evil demons by night, and so no search +was made. + +"After their morning meal on Christmas day they went out to look for +the shepherd. They first made their way to Glam's cairn, guessing +that he was the cause of the man's disappearance. On coming near to +this they saw great tidings, for there they found the shepherd with +his neck broken and every bone in his body smashed in pieces. They +carried him to the church, and he did no harm to any man thereafter. +But Glam began to gather strength anew, and now went so far in his +mischief that every one fled from Thorhall-stead, except the yeoman +and his wife. + +"The same cattleman, however, had been there for a long time, and +Thorhall would not let him leave, because he was so faithful and so +careful. He was very old, and did not want to go away either, for he +saw that everything his master had would go to wreck and ruin, if +there was no one to look after it. + +"One morning after the middle of winter the good-wife went out to the +byre to milk the cows. It was broad daylight by this time, for no one +ventured to be outside earlier than that, except the cattleman, who +always went out when it began to grow clear. She heard a great noise +and fearful bellowing in the byre, and ran into the house again, +crying out and saying that some awful thing was going on there. +Thorhall went out to the cattle and found them goring each other with +their horns. To get out of their way, he went through into the barn, +and in doing this he saw the cattleman lying on his back with his head +in one stall and his feet in another. He went up to him and felt him +and soon found that he was dead, with his back broken over the upright +stone between two of the stalls. + +"The yeoman thought it high time to leave the place now, and fled from +his farm with all that he could remove. All the live-stock that he +left behind was killed by Glam, who then went through the whole glen +and laid waste all the farms up from Tongue. + +"Thorhall spent the rest of the winter with various friends. No one +could go up into the glen with horse or dog, for these were killed at +once; but when spring came again and the days began to lengthen, +Glam's walkings grew less frequent, and Thorhall determined to return +to his homestead. He had difficulty in getting servants, but managed +to set up his home again at Thorhall-stead. Things went just as +before. When autumn came, the hauntings began again, and now it was +the yeoman's daughter who was most assailed, till in the end she died +of fright. Many plans were tried, but all to no effect, and it seemed +as if all Water-dale would be laid waste unless some remedy could be +found. + +"All this befell in the days of Grettir, the son of Asmund, who was +the strongest man of his day in Iceland. He had been abroad at this +time, outlawed for three years, and was only eighteen years of age +when he returned. He had been at home all through the autumn, but +when the winter nights were well advanced, he rode north to Water- +dale, and came to Tongue, where lived his uncle Jokull. His uncle +received him heartily, and he stayed there for three nights. At this +time there was so much talk about Glam's walkings, that nothing was so +largely spoken of as these. Grettir inquired closely about all that +had happened, and Jokull said that the stories told no more than had +indeed taken place; 'but are you intending to go there, kinsman?' said +he. Grettir answered that he was. Jokull bade him not do so, 'for it +is a dangerous undertaking, and a great risk for your friends to lose +you, for in our opinion there is not another like you among the young +men, and "ill will come of ill" where Glam is. Far better it is to +deal with mortal men than with such evil spirits.' + +"Grettir, however, said that he had a mind to fare to Thorhall-stead, +and see how things had been going on there. Jokull replied: 'I see +now that it is of no use to hold you back, but the saying is true that +"good luck and good heart are not the same'". Grettir answered: +'"Woe stands at one man's door when it has entered another's house". +Think how it may go with yourself before the end.' + +"'It may be,' said Jokull, 'that both of us see some way into the +future, and yet neither of us can do anything to prevent it.' + +"After this they parted, and neither liked the other's forebodings. + +"Grettir rode to Thorhall-stead, and the yeoman received him heartily. +He asked Grettir where he was going, who said that he wished to stay +there all night if he would allow him. Thorhall said that he would be +very glad if he would stay, 'but few men count it a gain to be guests +here for long. You must have heard how matters stand, and I shall be +very unwilling for you to come to any harm on my account. And even +although you yourself escape safe and sound, I know for certain that +you will lose your horse, for no man that comes here can keep that +uninjured.' + +"Grettir answered that there were horses enough to be got, whatever +might happen to this one. Thorhall was delighted that he was willing +to stay, and gave him the heartiest reception. The horse was strongly +secured in an out-house; then they went to sleep, and that night +passed without Glam appearing. + +"'Your coming here,' said Thorhall, 'has made a happy change, for Glam +is in the habit of riding the house every night, or breaking up the +doors, as you may see for yourself.' + +"'Then one of two things will happen,' said Grettir; 'either he will +not restrain himself for long, or the hauntings will cease for more +than one night. I shall stay for another night, and see how things +go.' + +"After this they went to look at Grettir's horse, and found that he +had not been meddled with, so the yeoman thought that everything was +going on well, Grettir stayed another night, and still the thrall did +not come about them. Thorhall thought that things were looking +brighter, but when he went to look to Grettir's horse he found the +out-house broken up, the horse dragged outside, and every bone in it +broken. He told Grettir what had happened, and advised him to secure +his own safety, 'for your death is certain if you wait for Glam'. + +"Grettir answered: 'The least I can get for my horse is to see the +thrall'. Thorhall replied that it would do him no good to see him, +'for he is unlike anything in human shape; but I am fain of every hour +that you are willing to stay here'. + +"The day wore on, and when it was bed-time Grettir would not take off +his clothes, but lay down on the floor over against Thorhall's bed- +closet. He put a thick cloak above himself, buttoning one end beneath +his feet, and doubling the other under his head, while he looked out +at the hole for the neck. There was a strong plank in front of the +floored space, and against this he pressed his feet. The door- +fittings were all broken off from the outer door, but there was a +hurdle set up instead, and roughly secured. The wainscot that had +once stretched across the hall was all broken down, both above and +below the cross-beam. The beds were all pulled out of their places, +and everything was in confusion. + +"A light was left burning in the hall, and when the third part of the +night was past Grettir heard loud noises outside. Then something went +up on top of the house, and rode above the hall, beating the roof with +its heels till every beam cracked. This went on for a long time; then +it came down off the house and went to the door. When this was opened +Grettir saw the thrall thrust in his head; ghastly big he seemed, and +wonderfully huge of feature. Glam came in slowly, and raised himself +up when he was inside the doorway, till he loomed up against the roof. +Then he turned his face down the hall, laid his arms on the cross- +beam, and glared all over the place. Thorhall gave no sign during all +this, for he thought it bad enough to hear what was going on outside. + +"Grettir lay still and never moved. Glam saw that there was a bundle +lying on the floor, and moved further up the hall and grasped the +cloak firmly. Grettir placed his feet against the plank, and yielded +not the least. Glam tugged a second time, much harder than before, +but still the cloak did not move. A third time he pulled with both +his hands, so hard that he raised Grettir up from the floor, and now +they wrenched the cloak asunder between them. Glam stood staring at +the piece which he held in his hands, and wondering greatly who could +have pulled so hard against him. At that moment Grettir sprang in +under the monster's hands, and threw his arms around his waist, +intending to make him fall backwards. Glam, however, bore down upon +him so strongly that Grettir was forced to give way before him. He +then tried to stay himself against the seat-boards, but these gave way +with him, and everything that came in their path was broken. + +"Glam wanted to get him outside, and although Grettir set his feet +against everything that he could, yet Glam succeeded in dragging him +out into the porch. There they had a fierce struggle, for the thrall +meant to have him out of doors, while Grettir saw that bad as it was +to deal with Glam inside the house it would be worse outside, and +therefore strove with all his might against being carried out. When +they came into the porch Glam put forth all his strength, and pulled +Grettir close to him. When Grettir saw that he could not stay himself +he suddenly changed his plan, and threw himself as hard as he could +against the monster's breast, setting both his feet against an earth- +fast stone that lay in the doorway. Glam was not prepared for this, +being then in the act of pulling Grettir towards him, so he fell +backwards and went crashing out through the door, his shoulders +catching the lintel as he fell. The roof of the porch was wrenched in +two, both rafters and frozen thatch, and backwards out of the house +went Glam, with Grettir above him. + +"Outside there was bright moonshine and broken clouds, which sometimes +drifted over the moon and sometimes left it clear. At the moment when +Glam fell the cloud passed off the moon, and he cast up his eyes +sharply towards it; and Grettir himself said that this was the only +sight he ever saw that terrified him. Then Grettir grew so helpless, +both by reason of his weariness and at seeing Glam roll his eyes so +horribly, that he was unable to draw his dagger, and lay well-nigh +between life and death. + +"But in this was Glam's might more fiendish than that of most other +ghosts, that he spoke in this fashion: 'Great eagerness have you +shown to meet me, Grettir, and little wonder will it be though you get +no great good fortune from me; but this I may tell you, that you have +now received only half of the strength and vigour that was destined +for you if you had not met with me. I cannot now take from you the +strength you have already gained, but this I can see to, that you will +never be stronger than you are now, and yet you are strong enough, as +many a man shall feel. Hitherto you have been famous for your deeds, +but henceforth you shall be a manslayer and an outlaw, and most of +your deeds will turn to your own hurt and misfortune. Outlawed you +shall be, and ever have a solitary life for your lot; and this, too, I +lay upon you, ever to see these eyes of mine before your own, and then +you will think it hard to be alone, and that will bring you to your +death.' + +"When Glam had said this the faintness passed off Grettir, and he then +drew his dagger, cut off Glam's head, and laid it beside his thigh. +Thorhall then came out, having put on his clothes while Glam was +talking, but never venturing to come near until he had fallen. He +praised God, and thanked Grettir for overcoming the unclean spirit. +Then they set to work, and burned Glam to ashes, which they placed in +a sack, and buried where cattle were least likely to pasture or men to +tread. When this was done they went home again, and it was now near +daybreak. + +"Thorhall sent to the next farm for the men there, and told them what +had taken place. All thought highly of the exploit that heard of it, +and it was the common talk that in all Iceland there was no man like +Grettir Asnundarson for strength and courage and all kinds of bodily +feats. Thorhall gave him a good horse when he went away, as well as a +fine suit of clothes, for the ones he had been wearing were all torn +to pieces. The two then parted with the utmost friendship. + +"Thence Grettir rode to the Ridge in Water-dale, where his kinsman +Thorvald received him heartily, and asked closely concerning his +encounter with Glam. Grettir told him how he had fared, and said that +his strength was never put to harder proof, so long did the struggle +between them last. Thorvald bade him be quiet and gentle in his +conduct, and things would go well with him, otherwise his troubles +would be many. Grettir answered that his temper was not improved; he +was more easily roused than ever, and less able to bear opposition. +In this, too, he felt a great change, that he had become so much +afraid of the dark that he dared not go anywhere alone after night +began to fall, for then he saw phantoms and monsters of every kind. +So it has become a saying ever since then, when folk see things very +different from what they are, that Glam lends them his eyes, or gives +them glam-sight. + +"This fear of solitude brought Grettir, at last, to his end." + +Ghosts being seldom dangerous to human life, we follow up the +homicidal Glam with a Scottish traditional story of malevolent and +murderous sprites. + +'THE FOUL FORDS' OR THE LONGFORMACUS FARRIER + +"About 1820 there lived a Farrier of the name of Keane in the village +of Longformacus in Lammermoor. He was a rough, passionate man, much +addicted to swearing. For many years he was farrier to the Eagle or +Spottiswood troop of Yeomanry. One day he went to Greenlaw to attend +the funeral of his sister, intending to be home early in the +afternoon. His wife and family were surprised when he did not appear +as they expected and they sat up watching for him. About two o'clock +in the morning a heavy weight was heard to fall against the door of +the house, and on opening it to see what was the matter, old Keane was +discovered lying in a fainting fit on the threshold. He was put to +bed and means used for his recovery, but when he came out of the fit +he was raving mad and talked of such frightful things that his family +were quite terrified. He continued till next day in the same state, +but at length his senses returned and he desired to see the minister +alone. + +"After a long conversation with him he called all his family round his +bed, and required from each of his children and his wife a solemn +promise that they would none of them ever pass over a particular spot +in the moor between Longformacus and Greenlaw, known by the name of +'The Foul Fords' (it is the ford over a little water-course just east +of Castle Shields). He assigned no reason to them for this demand, +but the promise was given and he spoke no more, and died that evening. + +"About ten years after his death, his eldest son Henry Keane had to go +to Greenlaw on business, and in the afternoon he prepared to return +home. The last person who saw him as he was leaving the town was the +blacksmith of Spottiswood, John Michie. He tried to persuade Michie +to accompany him home, which he refused to do as it would take him +several miles out of his way. Keane begged him most earnestly to go +with him as he said he _must_ pass the Foul Fords that night, and he +would rather go through hell-fire than do so. Michie asked him why he +said he _must_ pass the Foul Fords, as by going a few yards on either +side of them he might avoid them entirely. He persisted that he +_must_ pass them and Michie at last left him, a good deal surprised +that he should talk of going over the Foul Fords when every one knew +that he and his whole family were bound, by a promise to their dead +father, never to go by the place. + +"Next morning a labouring man from Castle Shields, by name Adam +Redpath, was going to his work (digging sheep-drains on the moor), +when on the Foul Fords he met Henry Keane lying stone dead and with no +mark of violence on his body. His hat, coat, waistcoat, shoes and +stockings were lying at about 100 yards distance from him on the +Greenlaw side of the Fords, and while his flannel drawers were off and +lying with the rest of his clothes, his trousers were on. Mr. Ord, +the minister of Longformacus, told one or two persons what John Keane +(the father) had said to him on his deathbed, and by degrees the story +got abroad. It was this. Keane said that he was returning home +slowly after his sister's funeral, looking on the ground, when he was +suddenly roused by hearing the tramping of horses, and on looking up +he saw a large troop of riders coming towards him two and two. What +was his horror when he saw that one of the two foremost was the sister +whom he had that day seen buried at Greenlaw! On looking further he +saw many relations and friends long before dead; but when the two last +horses came up to him he saw that one was mounted by a dark man whose +face he had never seen before. He led the other horse, which, though +saddled and bridled, was riderless, and on this horse the whole +company wanted to compel Keane to get. He struggled violently, he +said, for some time, and at last got off by promising that one of his +family should go instead of him. + +"There still lives at Longformacus his remaining son Robert; he has +the same horror of the Foul Fords that his brother had, and will not +speak, nor allow any one to speak to him on the subject. + +"Three or four years ago a herd of the name of Burton was found dead +within a short distance of the spot, without any apparent cause for +his death." {272} + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII +The Marvels at Froda + + +The following tale has all the direct simplicity and truth to human +nature which mark the ancient literature of Iceland. Defoe might have +envied the profusion of detail; "The large chest with a lock, and the +small box," and so on. Some of the minor portents, such as the +disturbances among inanimate objects, and the appearance of a glow of +mysterious light, "the Fate Moon," recur in modern tales of haunted +houses. The combination of Christian exorcism, then a novelty in +Iceland, with legal proceedings against the ghosts, is especially +characteristic. + +THE MARVELS AT FRODA {273} + +During that summer in which Christianity was adopted by law in Iceland +(1000 A.D.), it happened that a ship came to land at Snowfell Ness. +It was a Dublin vessel, manned by Irish and Hebrideans, with few +Norsemen on board. They lay there for a long time during the summer, +waiting for a favourable wind to sail into the firth, and many people +from the Ness went down to trade with them. There was on board a +Hebridean woman named Thorgunna, of whom her shipmates said that she +owned some costly things, the like of which would be difficult to find +in Iceland. When Thurid, the housewife at Froda, heard of this she +was very curious to see the articles, for she was a woman that was +fond of show and finery. She went to the ship and asked Thorgunna +whether she had any woman's apparel that was finer than the common. +Thorgunna said that she had nothing of the kind to sell, but had some +good things of her own, that she might not be affronted at feasts or +other gatherings. Thurid begged a sight of these, and Thorgunna +showed her treasures. Thurid was much pleased with them, and thought +them very becoming, though not of high value. She offered to buy +them, but Thorgunna would not sell. Thurid then invited her to come +and stay with her, because she knew that Thorgunna was well provided, +and thought that she would get the things from her in course of time. + +Thorgunna answered, "I am well pleased to go to stay with you, but you +must know that I have little mind to pay for myself, because I am well +able to work, and have no dislike to it, though I will not do any +dirty work. I must be allowed to settle what I shall pay for myself +out of such property as I have." + +Although Thorgunna spoke in this fashion, yet Thurid would have her to +go with her, and her things were taken out of the ship; these were in +a large chest with a lock and a small box, and both were taken home to +Froda. When Thorgunna arrived there she asked for her bed to be shown +her, and was given one in the inner part of the hall. Then she opened +up the chest, and took bed-clothes out of it: they were all very +beautiful, and over the bed she spread English coverlets and a silken +quilt. Out of the chest she also brought a bed-curtain and all the +hangings that belonged to it, and the whole outfit was so fine that +folk thought they had never seen the like of it. + +Then said Thurid the housewife: "Name the price of all your bed- +clothes and hangings". + +Thorgunna answered, "I will not lie among straw for you, although you +are so stately, and bear yourself so proudly". + +Thurid was ill pleased at this, and offered no more to buy the things. + +Thorgunna worked at cloth-making every day when there was no hay- +making, but when the weather was dry she worked among the dry hay in +the home field, and had a rake made for herself which she alone was to +use. Thorgunna was a big woman, both broad and tall, and very stout; +she had dark eyebrows, and her eyes were close set; her hair brown and +in great abundance. She was well-mannered in her daily life, and went +to church every day before beginning her work, but she was not of a +light disposition nor of many words. Most people thought that +Thorgunna must be in the sixties, yet she was a very active woman. + +At this time one Thorir "wooden-leg" and his wife Thorgrima "charm- +cheek" were being maintained at Froda, and there was little love +between them and Thorgunna. The person that she had most ado with was +Kjartan, the son of the house; him she loved much, but he was rather +cold towards her, and this often vexed her. Kjartan was then fifteen +years old, and was both big of body and manly in appearance. + +The summer that year was very wet, but in the autumn there came dry +days. By this time the hay-work at Froda was so far advanced that all +the home field was mown, and nearly the half of it was quite dry. +There came then a fine dry day, clear and bright, with not a cloud to +be seen in all the sky. Thorodd, the yeoman, rose early in the +morning and arranged the work of each one; some began to cart off the +hay, and some to put it into stalks, while the women were set to toss +and dry it. Thorgunna also had her share assigned to her, and the +work went on well during the day. When it drew near to three in the +afternoon, a mass of dark clouds was seen rising in the north which +came rapidly across the sky and took its course right above the farm. +They thought it certain that there was rain in the cloud and Thorodd +bade his people rake the hay together; but Thorgunna continued to +scatter hers, in spite of the orders that were given. The clouds came +on quickly, and when they were above the homestead at Froda there came +such darkness with them that the people could see nothing beyond the +home field; indeed, they could scarcely distinguish their own hands. +Out of the cloud came so much rain that all the hay which was lying +flat was quite soaked. When the cloud had passed over and the sky +cleared again, it was seen that blood had fallen amid the rain. In +the evening there was a good draught, and the blood soon dried off all +the hay except that which Thorgunna had been working at; it did not +dry, nor did the rake that she had been using. + +Thurid asked Thorgunna what she supposed this marvel might portend. +She said that she did not know, "but it seems to me most likely that +it is an evil omen for some person who is present here". In the +evening Thorgunna went home and took off her clothes, which had been +stained with the blood; then she lay down in her bed and breathed +heavily, and it was found that she was taken with sickness. The +shower had not fallen anywhere else than at Froda. + +All that evening Thorgunna would taste no food. In the morning +Thorodd came to her and asked about her sickness, and what end she +thought it would have. She answered that she did not expect to have +any more illnesses. Then she said: "I consider you the wisest person +in the homestead here, and so I shall tell you what arrangements I +wish to make about the property that I leave behind me, and about +myself, for things will go as I tell you, though you think there is +nothing very remarkable about me. It will do you little good to +depart from my instructions, for this affair has so begun that it will +not pass smoothly off, unless strong measures are taken in dealing +with it." + +Thorodd answered: "There seems to me great likelihood that your +forebodings will come true; and therefore," said he, "I shall promise +to you not to depart from your instructions". + +"These are my arrangements," said Thorgunna, "that I will have myself +taken to Skalholt if I die of this sickness, for my mind forbodes me +that that place will some time or other be the most glorious spot in +this land. I know also that by now there are priests there to sing +the funeral service over me. So I ask you to have me carried thither, +and for that you shall take so much of my property that you suffer no +loss in the matter. Of my other effects, Thurid shall have the +scarlet cloak that I own, and I give it her so that she may readily +consent to my disposing of all the rest as I please. I have a gold +ring, and it shall go to the church with me; but as for my bed and +bed-hangings, I will have them burned with fire, because they will be +of service to no one. I do not say this because I grudge that any one +should possess these treasures, if I knew that they would be of use to +them; rather am I so earnest in the matter, because I should be sorry +for folk to fall into such trouble for me, as I know will be the case +if my words are not heeded." + +Thorodd promised to do as she asked him, and after this Thorgunna's +sickness increased, so that she lay but few days before she died. The +body was first taken to the church, and Thorodd had a coffin made for +it. On the following day Thorodd had all the bed-clothes carried out +into the open air, and made a pile of wood beside them. Then Thurid +the housewife came up, and asked what he was going to do with the bed- +clothes. He answered that he was to burn them with fire, as Thorgunna +had directed him. "I will not have such treasures burned," said +Thurid. Thorodd answered: "She declared strongly that it would not +do to depart from what she said". "That was mere jealousy," said +Thurid; "she grudged any other person the use of them, and that was +why she gave these orders; but nothing terrible will happen though her +words are set aside." "I doubt," said he, "whether it will be well to +do otherwise than as she charged me." + +Then Thurid laid her arms round his neck, and besought him not to burn +the furnishings of the bed, and so much did she press him in this that +his heart gave way to her, and she managed it so that Thorodd burned +the mattresses and pillows, while she took for herself the quilt and +coverlets and all the hangings. Yet neither of them was well pleased. + +After this the funeral was made ready; trustworthy men were sent with +the body, and good horses which Thorodd owned. The body was wrapped +in linen, but not sewed up in it, and then laid in the coffin. After +this they held south over the heath as the paths go, and went on until +they came to a farm called Lower Ness, which lies in the Tongues of +Staf-holt. There they asked leave to stay over night, but the farmer +would give them no hospitality. However, as it was close on +nightfall, they did not see how they could go on, for they thought it +would be dangerous to deal with the White River by night. They +therefore unloaded their horses, and carried the body into an out- +house, after which they went into the sitting-room and took off their +outer clothes, intending to stay there over night without food. + +The people of the house were going to bed by daylight, and after they +were in bed a great noise was heard in the kitchen. Some went to see +whether thieves had not broken in, and when they reached the kitchen +they saw there a tall woman. She was quite naked, with no clothes +whatever upon her, and was busy preparing food. Those who saw her +were so terrified that they dared not go near her at all. When the +funeral party heard of this they went thither, and saw what the matter +was--Thorgunna had come there, and it seemed advisable to them all not +to meddle with her. When she had done all that she wanted, she +brought the food into the room, set the tables and laid the food upon +them. Then the funeral party said to the farmer: "It may happen in +the end, before we part, that you will think it dearly bought that you +would show us no hospitality". Both the farmer and the housewife +answered: "We will willingly give you food, and do you all other +services that you require". + +As soon as the farmer had offered them this, Thorgunna passed out of +the room into the kitchen, and then went outside, nor did she show +herself again. Then a light was kindled in the room, and the wet +clothes of the guests were taken off, and dry ones given them in their +place. After this they sat down at table, and blessed their food, +while the farmer had holy water sprinkled over all the house. The +guests ate their food, and it harmed no man, although Thorgunna had +prepared it. They slept there that night, and were treated with great +hospitality. + +In the morning they continued their journey, and things went very +smoothly with them; wherever this affair was heard of, most people +thought it best to do them all the service that they required, and of +their journey no more is to be told. When they came to Skalholt, they +handed over the precious things which Thorgunna had sent thither: the +ring and other articles, all of which the priests gladly received. +Thorgunna was buried there, while the funeral party returned home, +which they all reached in safety. + +At Froda there was a large hall with a fireplace in the midde, and a +bed-closet at the inner end of it, as was then the custom. At the +outer end were two store-closets, one on each side; dried fish were +piled in one of these, and there was meal in the other. In this hall +fires were kindled every evening, as was the custom, and folk sat +round these fires for a long while before they went to supper. On +that evening on which the funeral party came home, while the folk at +Froda were sitting round the fires, they saw a half-moon appear on the +panelling of the hall, and it was visible to all those who were +present. It went round the room backwards and against the sun's +course, nor did it disappear so long as they sat by the fires. +Thorodd asked Thorir Wooden-leg what this might portend. "It is the +Moon of Fate," said Thorir, "and deaths will come after it." This +went on all that week that the Fate-Moon came in every evening. + +The next tidings that happened at Froda were that the shepherd came in +and was very silent; he spoke little, and that in a frenzied manner. +Folk were most inclined to believe that he had been bewitched, because +he went about by himself, and talked to himself. This went on for +some time, but one evening, when two weeks of winter had passed, the +shepherd came home, went to his bed, and lay down there. When they +went to him in the morning he was dead, and was buried at the church. + +Soon after this there began great hauntings. One night Thorir Wooden- +leg went outside and was at some distance from the door. When he was +about to go in again, he saw that the shepherd had come between him +and the door. Thorir tried to get in, but the shepherd would not +allow him. Then Thorir tried to get away from him, but the shepherd +followed him, caught hold of him, and threw him down at the door. He +received great hurt from this, but was able to reach his bed; there he +turned black as coal, took sickness and died. He was also buried at +the church there, and after this both the shepherd and Thorir were +seen in company, at which all the folk became full of fear, as was to +be expected. + +This also followed upon the burial of Thorir, that one of Thorodd's +men grew ill, and lay three nights before he died; then one died after +another, until six of them were gone. By this time the Christmas fast +had come, although the fast was not then kept in Iceland. The store- +closet, in which the dried fish were kept, was packed so full that the +door could not be opened; the pile reached nigh up to the rafters, and +a ladder was required to get the fish off the top of it. One evening +while the folk were sitting round the fires, the fish were torn, but +when search was made no living thing could be found there. + +During the winter, a little before Christmas, Thorodd went out to Ness +for the fish he had there; there were six men in all in a ten-oared +boat, and they stayed out there all night. The same evening that +Thorodd went from home, it happened at Froda, when folk went to sit by +the fires that had been made, that they saw a seal's head rise up out +of the fireplace. A maid-servant was the first who came forward and +saw this marvel; she took a washing-bat which lay beside the door, and +struck the seal's head with this, but it rose up at the blow and gazed +at Thorgunna's bed-hangings. Then one of the men went up and beat the +seal, but it rose higher at every blow until it had come up above the +fins; then the man fell into a swoon, and all those who were present +were filled with fear. Then the lad Kjartan sprang forward, took up a +large iron sledge-hammer and struck at the seal's head; it was a heavy +blow, but it only shook its head, and looked round. Then Kjartan gave +it stroke after stroke, and the seal went down as though he were +driving in a stake. Kjartan hammered away till the seal went down so +far that he beat the floor close again above its head, and during the +rest of the winter all the portents were most afraid of Kjartan. + +Next morning, while Thorodd and the others were coming in from Ness +with the fish, they were all lost out from Enni; the boat and the fish +drove on shore there, but the bodies were never found. When the news +of this reached Froda, Kjartan and Thurid invited their neighbours to +the funeral banquet, and the ale prepared for Christmas was used for +this purpose. The first evening of the feast, however, after the folk +had taken their seats, there came into the hall Thorodd and his +companions, all dripping wet. The folk greeted Thorodd well, thinking +this a good omen, for at that time it was firmly believed that drowned +men, who came to their own funeral feast, were well received by Ran, +the sea-goddess; and the old beliefs had as yet suffered little, +though folk were baptised and called Christians. + +Thorodd and his fellows went right along the hall where the folk sat, +and passed into the one where the fires were, answering no man's +greeting. Those of the household who were in the hall ran out, and +Thorodd and his men sat down beside the fires, where they remained +till they had fallen into ashes; then they went away again. This +befel every evening while the banquet lasted, and there was much talk +about it among those who were present. Some thought that it would +stop when the feast was ended. When the banquet was over the guests +went home, leaving the place very dull and dismal. + +On the evening after they had gone, the fires were kindled as usual, +and after they had burned up, there came in Thorodd with his company, +all of them wet. They sat down by the fire and began to wring their +clothes; and after they had sat down there came in Thorir Wooden-leg +and his five companions, all covered with earth. They shook their +clothes and scattered the earth on Thorodd and his fellows. The folk +of the household rushed out of the hall, as might be expected, and all +that evening they had no light nor any warmth from the fire. + +Next evening the fires were made in the other hall, as the dead men +would be less likely to come there; but this was not so, for +everything happened just as it had done on the previous evening, and +both parties came to sit by the fires. + +On the third evening Kjartan advised that a large fire should be made +in the hall, and a little fire in another and smaller room. This was +done, and things then went on in this fashion, that Thorodd and the +others sat beside the big fire, while the household contented +themselves with the little one, and this lasted right through +Christmas-tide. + +By this time there was more and more noise in the pile of fish, and +the sound of them being torn was heard both by night and day. Some +time after this it was necessary to take down some of the fish, and +the man who went up on the pile saw this strange thing, that up out of +the pile there came a tail, in appearance like a singed ox-tail. It +was black and covered with hair like a seal. The man laid hold of it +and pulled, and called on the others to come and help him. Others +then got up on the heap, both men and women, and pulled at the tail, +but all to no purpose. It seemed to them that the tail was dead, but +while they tugged at it, it flew out of their hands taking the skin +off the palms of those who had been holding it hardest, and no more +was ever seen of the tail. The fish were then taken up and every one +was found to be torn out of the skin, yet no living thing was to be +found in the pile. + +Following upon this, Thorgrima Charm-cheek, the wife of Thorir Wooden- +leg, fell ill, and lay only a little while before she died, and the +same evening that she was buried she was seen in company with her +husband Thorir. The sickness then began a second time after the tail +had been seen, and now the women died more than the men. Another six +persons died in this attack, and some fled away on account of the +ghosts and the hauntings. In the autumn there had been thirty in the +household, of whom eighteen were dead, and five had run away, leaving +only seven behind in the spring. + +When these marvels had reached this pitch, it happened one day that +Kjartan went to Helga-fell to see his uncle Snorri, and asked his +advice as to what should be done. There had then come to Helga-fell a +priest whom Gizurr the white had sent to Snorri, and this priest +Snorri sent to Froda along with Kjartan, his son Thord, and six other +men. He also gave them this advice, that they should burn all +Thorgunna's bed-hangings and hold a law court at the door, and there +prosecute all those men who were walking after death. He also bade +the priest hold service there, consecrate water, and confess the +people. They summoned men from the nearest farms to accompany them, +and arrived at Froda on the evening before Candlemas, just at the time +when the fires were being kindled. Thurid the housewife had then +taken the sickness after the same fashion as those who had died. +Kjartan went in at once, and saw that Thorodd and the others were +sitting by the fire as usual. He took down Thorgunna's bed-hangings, +went into the hall, and carried out a live coal from the fire: then +all the bed-gear that Thorgunna had owned was burned. + +After this Kjartan summoned Thorir Wooden-leg, and Thord summoned +Thorodd, on the charge of going about the homestead without leave, and +depriving men of both health and life; all those who sat beside the +fire were summoned in the same way. Then a court was held at the +door, in which the charges were declared, and everything done as in a +regular law court; opinions were given, the case summed up, and +judgment passed. After sentence had been pronounced on Thorir Wooden- +leg, he rose up and said: "Now we have sat as long as we can bear". +After this he went out by the other door from that at which the court +was held. Then sentence was passed on the shepherd, and when he heard +it he stood up and said: "Now I shall go, and I think it would have +been better before". When Thorgrima heard sentence pronounced on her, +she rose up and said: "Now we have stayed while it could be borne". +Then one after another was summoned, and each stood up as judgment was +given upon him; all of them said something as they went out, and +showed that they were loath to part. Finally sentence was passed on +Thorodd himself, and when he heard it, he rose and said: "Little +peace I find here, and let us all flee now," and went out after that. +Then Kjartan and the others entered and the priest carried holy water +and sacred relics over all the house. Later on in the day he held +solemn service, and after this all the hauntings and ghost-walkings at +Froda ceased, while Thurid recovered from her sickness and became well +again. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Spiritualistic Floating Hands. Hands in Haunted Houses. Jerome +Cardan's Tale. "The Cold Hand." The Beach-comber's Tale. "The Black +Dogs and the Thumbless Hand." The Pakeha Maori and "The Leprous +Hand". "The Hand of the Ghost that Bit." + +HANDS ALL ROUND + +Nothing was more common, in the seances of Home, the "Medium," than +the appearance of "Spirit hands". If these were made of white kid +gloves, stuffed, the idea, at least, was borrowed from ghost stories, +in which ghostly hands, with no visible bodies, are not unusual. We +see them in the Shchapoff case, at Rerrick, and in other haunted +houses. Here are some tales of Hands, old or new. + +THE COLD HAND + +[Jerome Cardan, the famous physician, tells the following anecdote in +his De Rerum Varietate, lib. x., 93. Jerome only once heard a rapping +himself, at the time of the death of a friend at a distance. He was +in a terrible fright, and dared not leave his room all day.] + +A story which my father used often to tell: "I was brought up," he +said, "in the house of Joannes Resta, and therein taught Latin to his +three sons; when I left them I supported myself on my own means. It +chanced that one of these lads, while I was studying medicine, fell +deadly sick, he being now a young man grown, and I was called in to be +with the youth, partly for my knowledge of medicine, partly for old +friendship's sake. The master of the house happened to be absent; the +patient slept in an upper chamber, one of his brothers and I in a +lower room, the third brother, Isidore, was not at home. Each of the +rooms was next to a turret; turrets being common in that city. When +we went to bed on the first night of my visit, I heard a constant +knocking on the wall of the room. + +"'What is that?' I said. + +"'Don't be afraid, it is only a familiar spirit,' said my companion. +'They call them follets; it is harmless enough, and seldom so +troublesome as it is now: I don't know what can be the matter with +it.' + +"The young fellow went to sleep, but I was kept awake for a while, +wondering and observing. After half an hour of stillness I felt a +thumb press on my head, and a sense of cold. I kept watching; the +forefinger, the middle finger, and the rest of the hand were next laid +on, the little finger nearly reaching my forehead. The hand was like +that of a boy of ten, to guess by the size, and so cold that it was +extremely unpleasant. Meantime I was chuckling over my luck in such +an opportunity of witnessing a wonder, and I listened eagerly. + +"The hand stole with the ring finger foremost over my face and down my +nose, it was slipping into my mouth, and two finger-tips had entered, +when I threw it off with my right hand, thinking it was uncanny, and +not relishing it inside my body. Silence followed and I lay awake, +distrusting the spectre more or less. In about half an hour it +returned and repeated its former conduct, touching me very lightly, +yet very chilly. When it reached my mouth I again drove it away. +Though my lips were tightly closed, I felt an extreme icy cold in my +teeth. I now got out of bed, thinking this might be a friendly visit +from the ghost of the sick lad upstairs, who must have died. + +"As I went to the door, the thing passed before me, rapping on the +walls. When I was got to the door it knocked outside; when I opened +the door, it began to knock on the turret. The moon was shining; I +went on to see what would happen, but it beat on the other sides of +the tower, and, as it always evaded me, I went up to see how my +patient was. He was alive, but very weak. + +"As I was speaking to those who stood about his bed, we heard a noise +as if the house was falling. In rushed my bedfellow, the brother of +the sick lad, half dead with terror. + +"'When you got up,' he said, 'I felt a cold hand on my back. I +thought it was you who wanted to waken me and take me to see my +brother, so I pretended to be asleep and lay quiet, supposing that you +would go alone when you found me so sound asleep. But when I did not +feel you get up, and the cold hand grew to be more than I could bear, +I hit out to push your hand away, and felt your place empty--but warm. +Then I remembered the follet, and ran upstairs as hard as I could put +my feet to the ground: never was I in such a fright!' + +"The sick lad died on the following night." + +Here Carden the elder stopped, and Jerome, his son, philosophised on +the subject. + +Miss Dendy, on the authority of Mr. Elijah Cope, an itinerant +preacher, gives this anecdote of similar familiarity with a follet in +Staffordshire. + +* * * * * + +"Fairies! I went into a farmhouse to stay a night, and in the evening +there came a knocking in the room as if some one had struck the table. +I jumped up. My hostess got up and 'Good-night,' says she, 'I'm off'. +'But what was it?' says I. 'Just a poor old fairy,' says she; 'Old +Nancy. She's a poor old thing; been here ever so long; lost her +husband and her children; it's bad to be left like that, all alone. I +leave a bit o' cake on the table for her, and sometimes she fetches +it, and sometimes she don't." + +THE BLACK DOG AND THE THUMBLESS HAND + +[Some years ago I published in a volume of tales called The Wrong +Paradise, a paper styled "My Friend the Beach-comber". This contained +genuine adventures of a kinsman, my oldest and most intimate friend, +who has passed much of his life in the Pacific, mainly in a foreign +colony, and in the wild New Hebrides. My friend is a man of +education, an artist, and a student of anthropology and ethnology. +Engaged on a work of scientific research, he has not committed any of +his innumerable adventures, warlike or wandering, to print. The +following "yarn" he sent to me lately, in a letter on some points of +native customs. Of course the description of the Beach-comber, in the +book referred to, is purely fictitious. The yarn of "The Thumbless +Hand" is here cast in a dialogue, but the whole of the strange +experience described is given in the words of the narrator. It should +be added that, though my friend was present at some amateur seances, +in a remote isle of the sea, he is not a spiritualist, never was one, +and has no theory to account for what occurred, and no belief in +"spooks" of any description. His faith is plighted to the theories of +Mr. Darwin, and that is his only superstition. The name of the +principal character in the yarn is, of course, fictitious. The real +name is an old but not a noble one in England.] + +"Have the natives the custom of walking through fire?" said my friend +the Beach-comber, in answer to a question of mine. "Not that I know +of. In fact the soles of their feet are so thick-skinned that they +would think nothing of it." + +"Then have they any spiritualistic games, like the Burmans and +Maories? I have a lot of yarns about them." + +"They are too jolly well frightened of bush spirits to invite them to +tea," said the Beach-comber. "I knew a fellow who got a bit of land +merely by whistling up and down in it at nightfall. {292} They think +spirits whistle. No, I don't fancy they go in for seances. But we +once had some, we white men, in one of the islands. Not the Oui-ouis" +(native name for the French), "real white men. And that led to +Bolter's row with me." + +"What about?" + +"Oh, about his young woman. I told her the story; it was thoughtless, +and yet I don't know that I was wrong. After all, Bolter could not +have been a comfortable fellow to marry." + +In this opinion readers of the Beach-comber's narrative will probably +agree, I fancy. + +"Bad moral character?" + +"Not that I know of. Queer fish; kept queer company. Even if she was +ever so fond of dogs, I don't think a girl would have cared for +Bolter's kennel. Not in her bedroom anyway." + +"But she could surely have got him to keep them outside, however doggy +he was?" + +"He was not doggy a bit. I don't know that Bolter ever saw the black +dogs himself. He certainly never told me so. It is that beastly +Thumbless Hand, no woman could have stood it, not to mention the +chance of catching cold when it pulled the blankets off." + +"What on earth are you talking about? I can understand a man attended +by black dogs that nobody sees but himself. The Catholics tell it of +John Knox, and of another Reformer, a fellow called Smeaton. +Moreover, it is common in delirium tremens. But you say Bolter didn't +see the dogs?" + +"No, not so far as he told me, but I did, and other fellows, when with +Bolter. Bolter was asleep; he didn't see anything. Also the Hand, +which was a good deal worse. I don't know if he ever saw it. But he +was jolly nervous, and he had heard of it." + +The habits of the Beach-comber are absolutely temperate, otherwise my +astonishment would have been less, and I should have regarded all +these phenomena as subjective. + +"Tell me about it all, old cock," I said. + +"I'm sure I told you last time I was at home." + +"Never; my memory for yarns is only too good. I hate a chestnut." + +"Well, here goes! Mind you I don't profess to explain the thing; only +I don't think I did wrong in telling the young woman, for, however you +account for it, it was not nice." + +"A good many years ago there came to the island, as a clerk, un nomme +Bolter, English or Jew." + +"His name is not Jewish." + +"No, and I really don't know about his breed. The most curious thing +about his appearance was his eyes: they were large, black, and had a +peculiar dull dead lustre." + +"Did they shine in the dark? I knew a fellow at Oxford whose eyes +did. Chairs ran after him." + +"I never noticed; I don't remember. 'Psychically,' as you +superstitious muffs call it, Bolter was still more queer. At that +time we were all gone on spirit-rapping. Bolter turned out a great +acquisition, 'medium,' or what not. Mind you, I'm not saying Bolter +was straight. In the dark he'd tell you what you had in your hand, +exact time of your watch, and so on. I didn't take stock in this, and +one night brought some photographs with me, and asked for a +description of them. This he gave correctly, winding up by saying, +'The one nearest your body is that of ---'" + +Here my friend named a person well known to both of us, whose name I +prefer not to introduce here. This person, I may add, had never been +in or near the island, and was totally unknown to Bolter. + +"Of course," my friend went on, "the photographs were all the time +inside my pocket. Now, really, Bolter had some mystic power of seeing +in the dark." + +"Hyperaesthesia!" said I. + +"Hypercriticism!" said the Beach-comber. + +"What happened next _might_ be hyperaesthesia--I suppose you mean +abnormal intensity of the senses--but how could hyperaesthesia see +through a tweed coat and lining?" + +"Well, what happened next?" + +"Bolter's firm used to get sheep by every mail from ---, and send them +regularly to their station, six miles off. One time they landed late +in the afternoon, and yet were foolishly sent off, Bolter in charge. +I said at the time he would lose half the lot, as it would be dark +long before he could reach the station. He didn't lose them! + +"Next day I met one of the niggers who was sent to lend him a hand, +and asked results. + +"'Master,' said the nigger, 'Bolter is a devil! He sees at night. +When the sheep ran away to right or left in the dark, he told us where +to follow.'" + +"He _heard_ them, I suppose," said I. + +"Maybe, but you must be sharp to have sharper senses than these +niggers. Anyhow, that was not Bolter's account of it. When I saw him +and spoke to him he said simply, 'Yes, that when excited or interested +to seek or find anything in obscurity the object became covered with a +dim glow of light, which rendered it visible'. 'But things in a +pocket.' 'That also,' said he. 'Curious isn't it? Probably the +Rontgen rays are implicated therein, eh?'" + +"Did you ever read Dr. Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism?" + +"The cove that invented Gregory's Mixture?" + +"Yes." + +"Beast he must have been. No, I never read him." + +"He says that Major Buckley's hypnotised subjects saw hidden objects +in a blue light--mottoes inside a nut, for example." + +"Rontgen rays, for a fiver! But Bolter said nothing about seeing +_blue_ light. Well, after three or four seances Bolter used to be +very nervous and unwilling to sleep alone, so I once went with him to +his one-roomed hut. We turned into the same bed. I was awakened +later by a noise and movement in the room. Found the door open; the +full moon streaming in, making light like day, and the place full of +great big black dogs--well, anyhow there were four or five! They were +romping about, seemingly playing. One jumped on the bed, another +rubbed his muzzle on mine! (the bed was low, and I slept outside). +Now I never had anything but love for dogs of any kind, and as--n'est- +ce pas?--love casts out fear, I simply got up, turned them all out, +shut the door, and turned in again myself. Of course my idea was that +they were flesh and blood, and I allude to physical fear. + +"I slept, but was anew awakened by a ghastly feeling that the blanket +was being dragged and creeping off the bed. I pulled it up again, but +anew began the slow movement of descent. + +"Rather surprised, I pulled it up afresh and held it, and must have +dozed off, as I suppose. Awoke, to feel it being pulled again; it was +slipping, slipping, and then with a sudden, violent jerk it was thrown +on the floor. Il faut dire that during all this I had glanced several +times at Bolter, who seemed profoundly asleep. But now alarmed I +tried to wake him. In vain, he slept like the dead; his face, always +a pasty white, now like marble in the moonlight. After some +hesitation I put the blanket back on the bed and held it fast. The +pulling at once began and increased in strength, and I, by this time +thoroughly alarmed, put all my strength against it, and hung on like +grim death. + +"To get a better hold I had taken a turn over my head (or perhaps +simply to hide), when suddenly I felt a pressure outside on my body, +and a movement like fingers--they gradually approached my head. Mad +with fear I chucked off the blanket, grasped a Hand, gazed on it for +one moment in silent horror, and threw it away! No wonder, it was +attached to no arm or body, it was hairy and dark coloured, the +fingers were short, blunt, with long, claw-like nails, and it was +minus a thumb! Too frightened to get up I had to stop in bed, and, I +suppose, fell to sleep again, after fresh vain attempts to awaken +Bolter. Next morning I told him about it. He said several men who +had thus passed the night with him had seen this hand. 'But,' added +he, 'it's lucky you didn't have the big black dogs also.' Tableau! + +"I was to have slept again with him next night to look further into +the matter, but a friend of his came from --- that day, so I could not +renew the experiment, as I had fully determined to do. By-the-bye, I +was troubled for months after by the same feeling that the clothes +were being pulled off the bed. + +"And that's the yarn of the Black Dogs and the Thumbless Hand." + +"I think," said I, "that you did no harm in telling Bolter's young +woman." + +"I never thought of it when I told her, or of her interest in the +kennel; but, by George, she soon broke off her engagement." + +"Did you know Manning, the Pakeha Maori, the fellow who wrote Old New +Zealand?" + +"No, what about him?" + +"He did not put it in his book, but he told the same yarn, without the +dogs, as having happened to himself. He saw the whole arm, and _the +hand was leprous_." + +"Ugh!" said the Beach-comber. + +"Next morning he was obliged to view the body of an old Maori, who had +been murdered in his garden the night before. That old man's hand was +the hand he saw. I know a room in an old house in England where +plucking off the bed-clothes goes on, every now and then, and has gone +on as long as the present occupants have been there. But I only heard +lately, and _they_ only heard from me, that the same thing used to +occur, in the same room and no other, in the last generation, when +another family lived there." + +"Anybody see anything?" + +"No, only footsteps are heard creeping up, before the twitches come +off." + +"And what do the people do?" + +"Nothing! We set a camera once to photograph the spook. He did not +sit." + +"It's rum!" said the Beach-comber. "But mind you, as to spooks, I +don't believe a word of it." {299} + +THE GHOST THAT BIT + +The idiot Scotch laird in the story would not let the dentist put his +fingers into his mouth, "for I'm feared ye'll bite me". The following +anecdote proves that a ghost may entertain a better founded alarm on +this score. A correspondent of Notes and Queries (3rd Sept., 1864) is +responsible for the narrative, given "almost verbatim from the lips of +the lady herself," a person of tried veracity. + +"Emma S---, one of seven children, was sleeping alone, with her face +towards the west, at a large house near C---, in the Staffordshire +moorlands. As she had given orders to her maid to call her at an +early hour, she was not surprised at being awakened between three and +four on a fine August morning in 1840 by a sharp tapping at her door, +when in spite of a "thank you, I hear," to the first and second raps, +with the third came a rush of wind, which caused the curtains to be +drawn up in the centre of the bed. She became annoyed, and sitting up +called out, "Marie, what are you about?" + +Instead, however, of her servant, she was astonished to see the face +of an aunt by marriage peering above and between the curtains, and at +the same moment--whether unconsciously she threw forward her arms, or +whether they were drawn forward, as it were, in a vortex of air, she +cannot be sure--one of her thumbs was sensibly pressed between the +teeth of the apparition, though no mark afterwards remained on it. +All this notwithstanding, she remained collected and unalarmed; but +instantly arose, dressed, and went downstairs, where she found not a +creature stirring. Her father, on coming down shortly afterwards, +naturally asked what had made her rise so early; rallied her on the +cause, and soon afterwards went on to his sister-in-law's house, where +he found that she had just unexpectedly died. Coming back again, and +not noticing his daughter's presence in the room, in consequence of +her being behind a screen near the fire, he suddenly announced the +event to his wife, as being of so remarkable a character that he could +in no way account for it. As may be anticipated, Emma, overhearing +this unlooked-for denouement of her dream, at once fell to the ground +in a fainting condition. + +_On one of the thumbs of the corpse was found a mark as if it had been +bitten in the death agony_. {300} + +We have now followed the "ghostly" from its germs in dreams, and +momentary hallucinations of eye or ear, up to the most prodigious +narratives which popular invention has built on bases probably very +slight. Where facts and experience, whether real or hallucinatory +experience, end, where the mythopoeic fancy comes in, readers may +decide for themselves. + + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{0a} Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., p. 115. By Professor +William James, Harvard College, Macmillan's, London, 1890. The +physical processes believed to be involved, are described on pp. 123, +124 of the same work. + +{0b} Op. cit., ii., 130. + +{4} Story received from Miss ---; confirmed on inquiry by Drumquaigh. + +{5a} Phantasms of the Living, ii., 382. + +{5b} To "send" a dream the old Egyptians wrote it out and made a cat +swallow it! + +{8} See "Queen Mary's Jewels" in chapter ii. + +{10} Narrated by Mrs. Herbert. + +{11a} Story confirmed by Mr. A. + +{11b} This child had a more curious experience. Her nurse was very +ill, and of course did not sleep in the nursery. One morning the +little girl said, "Macpherson is better, I saw her come in last night +with a candle in her hand. She just stooped over me and then went to +Tom" (a younger brother) "and kissed him in his sleep." Macpherson +had died in the night, and her attendants, of course, protested +ignorance of her having left her deathbed. + +{11c} Story received from Lady X. See another good case in +Proceedings of the Psychical Society, vol. xi., 1895, p. 397. In this +case, however, the finder was not nearer than forty rods to the person +who lost a watch in long grass. He assisted in the search, however, +and may have seen the watch unconsciously, in a moment of absence of +mind. Many other cases in Proceedings of S.P.R. + +{13} Story received in a letter from the dreamer. + +{16} Augustine. In Library of the Fathers, XVII. Short Treatises, +pp. 530-531. + +{18} St. Augustine, De Cura pro Mortuis. + +{20} The professor is not sure whether he spoke English or German. + +{24} From Some Account of the Conversion of the late William Hone, +supplied by some friend of W. H. to compiler. Name not given. + +{28} What is now called "mental telegraphy" or "telepathy" is quite +an old idea. Bacon calls it "sympathy" between two distant minds, +sympathy so strong that one communicates with the other without using +the recognised channels of the senses. Izaak Walton explains in the +same way Dr. Donne's vision, in Paris, of his wife and dead child. +"If two lutes are strung to an exact harmony, and one is struck, the +other sounds," argues Walton. Two minds may be as harmoniously +attuned and communicate each with each. Of course, in the case of the +lutes there are actual vibrations, physical facts. But we know +nothing of vibrations in the brain which can traverse space to another +brain. + +Many experiments have been made in consciously transferring thoughts +or emotions from one mind to another. These are very liable to be +vitiated by bad observation, collusion and other causes. Meanwhile, +intercommunication between mind and mind without the aid of the +recognised senses--a supposed process of "telepathy"--is a current +explanation of the dreams in which knowledge is obtained that exists +in the mind of another person, and of the delusion by virtue of which +one person sees another who is perhaps dying, or in some other crisis, +at a distance. The idea is popular. A poor Highland woman wrote to +her son in Glasgow: "Don't be thinking too much of us, or I shall be +seeing you some evening in the byre". This is a simple expression of +the hypothesis of "telepathy" or "mental telegraphy". + +{31} Perhaps among such papers as the Casket Letters, exhibited to +the Commission at Westminster, and "tabled" before the Scotch Privy +Council. + +{35a} To Joseph himself she bequeathed the ruby tortoise given to her +by his brother. Probably the diamonds were not Rizzio's gift. + +{35b} Boismont was a distinguished physician and "Mad Doctor," or +"Alienist". He was also a Christian, and opposed a tendency, not +uncommon in his time, as in ours, to regard all "hallucinations" as a +proof of mental disease in the "hallucinated". + +{39a} S.P.R., v., 324. + +{39b} Ibid., 324. + +{42} Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. v., pp. +324, 325. + +{43} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 495. + +{45a} Signed by Mr. Cooper and the Duchess of Hamilton. + +{45b} See Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 91. + +{48} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 522. + +{50} The case was reported in the Herald (Dubuque) for 12th February, +1891. It was confirmed by Mr. Hoffman, by Mr. George Brown and by +Miss Conley, examined by the Rev. Mr. Crum, of Dubuque.--Proceedings, +S.P.R., viii., 200-205. Pat Conley, too, corroborated, and had no +theory of explanation. That the girl knew beforehand of the dollars +is conceivable, but she did not know of the change of clothes. + +{56a} Told by the nobleman in question to the author. + +{56b} The author knows some eight cases among his friends of a +solitary meaningless hallucination like this. + +{58} As to the fact of such visions, I have so often seen crystal +gazing, and heard the pictures described by persons whose word I could +not doubt, men and women of unblemished character, free from +superstition, that I am obliged to believe in the fact as a real +though hallucinatory experience. Mr. Clodd attributes it to disorder +of the liver. If no more were needed I could "scry" famously! + +{60a} Facts attested and signed by Mr. Baillie and Miss Preston. + +{60b} Story told to me by both my friends and the secretary. + +{62} Memoires, v., 120. Paris, 1829. + +{66} Readers curious in crystal-gazing will find an interesting +sketch of the history of the practice, with many modern instances, in +Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. v., p. 486, by "Miss X.". There are also +experiments by Lord Stanhope and Dr. Gregory in Gregory's Letters on +Animal Magnetism, p. 370 (1851). It is said that, as sights may be +seen in a glass ball, so articulate voices, by a similar illusion, can +be heard in a sea shell, when + +"It remembers its august abodes, +And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there". + +{68} A set of scientific men, as Lelut and Lombroso, seem to think +that a hallucination stamps a man as _mad_. Napoleon, Socrates, +Pascal, Jeanne d'Arc, Luther were all lunatics. They had lucid +intervals of considerable duration, and the belief in their lunacy is +peculiar to a small school of writers. + +{69a} A crowd of phantom coaches will be found in Messrs. Myers and +Gurney's Phantasms of the Living. + +{69b} See The Slaying of Sergeant Davies of Guise's. + +{70} Principles of Psychology, by Prof. James of Harvard, vol. ii., +p. 612. Charcot is one of sixteen witnesses cited for the fact. + +{74} Story written by General Barter, 28th April, 1888. (S.P.R.) +Corroborated by Mrs. Barter and Mr. Stewart, to whom General Barter +told his adventure at the time. + +{75} Statement by Mr. F. G., confirmed by his father and brother, who +were present when he told his tale first, in St. Louis. S.P.R. +Proceedings, vol. vi., p. 17. + +{76} S.P.R., viii., p. 178. + +{77} Mrs. M. sent the memorandum to the S.P.R. "March 13, 1886. +Have just seen visions on lawn--a soldier in general's uniform, a +young lady kneeling to him, 11.40 p.m." + +{78} S.P.R., viii., p. 178. The real names are intentionally +reserved. + +{80a} Corroborated by Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Elliot nearly fainted. +S.P.R., viii., 344-345. + +{80b} Oddly enough, maniacs have many more hallucinations of hearing +than of sight. In sane people the reverse is the case. + +{82} Anecdote by the lady. Boston Budget, 31st August, 1890. +S.P.R., viii., 345. + +{85a} Tom Sawyer, Detective. + +{85b} Phantasms of the Living, by Gurney and Myers. + +{85c} The story is given by Mr. Mountford, one of the seers. + +{86} Journal of Medical Science, April, 1880, p. 151. + +{88} Catholic theology recognises, under the name of "Bilocation," +the appearance of a person in one place when he is really in another. + +{91a} Phantasms, ii., pp. 671-677. + +{91b} Phantasms of the Living. + +{91c} Mr. E. B. Tylor gives a Maori case in Primitive Culture. +Another is in Phantasms, ii., 557. See also Polack's New Zealand for +the prevalence of the belief. + +{92} Gurney, Phantasms, ii., 6. + +{93} The late Surgeon-Major Armand Leslie, who was killed at the +battle of El Teb, communicated the following story to the Daily +Telegraph in the autumn of 1881, attesting it with his signature. + +{95a} This is a remarkably difficult story to believe. "The morning +bright and calm" is lit by the rays of the moon. The woman (a Mrs. +Gamp) must have rushed past Dr. Leslie. A man who died in Greece or +Russia "that morning" would hardly be arrayed in evening dress for +burial before 4 a.m. The custom of using goloshes as "hell-shoes" +(fastened on the Icelandic dead in the Sagas) needs confirmation. Men +are seldom buried in eye-glasses--never in tall white hats.--Phantasms +of the Living, ii., 252. + +{95b} From a memorandum, made by General Birch Reynardson, of an oral +communication made to him by Sir John Sherbrooke, one of the two +seers. + +{101} This is an old, but good story. The Rev. Thomas Tilson, +minister (non-conforming) of Aylesford, in Kent, sent it on 6th July, +1691, to Baxter for his Certainty of the World of Spirits. The woman +Mary Goffe died on 4th June, 1691. Mr. Tilson's informants were her +father, speaking on the day after her burial; the nurse, with two +corroborative neighbours, on 2nd July; the mother of Mary Goffe; the +minister who attended her, and one woman who sat up with her--all +"sober intelligent persons". Not many stories have such good evidence +in their favour. + +{103} Phantasms, ii., 528. + +{111} "That which was published in May, 1683, concerning the Daemon, +or Daemons of Spraiton was the extract of a letter from T. C., +Esquire, a near neighbour to the place; and though it needed little +confirmation further than the credit that the learning and quality of +that gentleman had stampt upon it, yet was much of it likewise known +to and related by the Reverend Minister of Barnstaple, of the vicinity +to Spraiton. Having likewise since had fresh testimonials of the +veracity of that relation, and it being at first designed to fill this +place, I have thought it not amiss (for the strangeness of it) to +print it here a second time, exactly as I had transcribed it then."-- +BOVET. + +{118} Shchapoff case of "The Dancing Devil" and "The Great Amherst +Mystery". + +{121} Additional MSS., British Museum, 27,402, f. 132. + +{122} Really 1628, unless, indeed, the long-continued appearances +began in the year before Buckingham's death; old style. + +{127} It may fairly be argued, granting the ghost, his advice and his +knowledge of a secret known to the countess, that he was a +hallucination unconsciously wired on to old Towse by the mind of the +anxious countess herself! + +{129a} Hamilton's Memoirs. + +{129b} Mrs. Thrale's Diary, 28th November, 1779. + +{129c} Diary of Lady Mary Coke, 30th November, 1779. + +{130a} See Phantasms, ii., 586. + +{130b} The difficulty of knowing whether one is awake or asleep, just +about the moment of entering or leaving sleep is notorious. The +author, on awaking in a perfectly dark room, has occasionally seen it +in a dim light, and has even been aware, or seemed to be aware, of the +pattern of the wall paper. In a few moments this effect of light +disappears, and all is darkness. This is the confused mental state +technically styled "Borderland," a haunt of ghosts, who are really +flitting dreams. + +{131} Life of Lockhart. + +{132} The author has given authorities in Blackwood's Magazine March, +1895. A Mr. Coulton (not Croker as erroneously stated) published in +the Quarterly Review, No. 179, an article to prove that Lyttelton +committed suicide, and was Junius. See also the author's Life of +Lockhart. + +{140} A prominent name among the witnesses at the trial. + +{141} The report of the trial in the Scots Magazine of June, 1754 +(magazines appeared at the end of the month), adds nothing of +interest. The trial lasted from 7 a.m. of June 11 till 6 a.m. of June +14. The jury deliberated for two hours before arriving at a verdict. + +{142} Sydney, no date. + +{144} Phantasms, ii., 586, quoting (apparently) the Buckingham +Gazette of the period. + +{145a} Oddly enough a Mr. William Soutar, of Blairgowrie, tells a +ghost story of his own to the S.P.R.! + +{145b} I put them for convenience at the foot.--W. L. L. + +{146a} The dogs in all these towns (farms) of Mause are very well +accustomed with hunting the fox. + +{146b} Blair (Blairgowrie) is the kirk-town of that parish, where +there is also a weekly market: it lies about a mile below Middle +Mause on the same side of the river. + +{146c} Knockhead is within less than half a mile of Middle Mause, and +the Hilltown lies betwixt the two. We see both of them from our +window of Craighall House. + +{148a} This George Soutar died about two or three years ago, and was +very well known to William. + +{148b} The Isle is a spot of ground in the wood of Rychalzie, about a +mile above Middle Mause, on the same side of the river. + +{149a} Glasclune is a gentleman of the name of Blair, whose house +lies about three-quarters of a mile south-west from Middle Mause. + +{149b} He said the voice answered him as if it had been some distance +without the door. + +{150} Besides the length of time since the murder was committed, +there is another reason why all the bones were not found, viz., that +there is a little burn or brook which had run for the space of twenty +years, at least, across upon the place when the bones were found, and +would have carried them all away had it not been that the bush, at the +side of which they were buried, had turned the force of the stream a +little from off that place where they lay, for they were not more than +a foot, or at most a foot and a half, under ground, and it is only +within these three years that a water-spate has altered the course of +the burn. + +{151} The course of the river (the Ericht) is from north to south. +Middle Mause lies on the west side of it, and Craighall on the east. + +{155a} With reference to the last statement in Mr. Newton's notes see +the Journal of Sir Walter Scott (edit., 1891, p. 210) under date 13th +June, 1826. + +{155b} L'Homme Posthume. + +{155c} Denny's Folklore of China. + +{156} Story received in a letter from Lieutenant --- of H.M.S gunboat ---. + +{157} He fought at Culloden, of course for King George, and was +appealed to for protection by old Glengarry. + +{158a} Fox's hole. + +{158b} How did Inverawe get leave to wear the Highland dress? + +{160} In every version of the story that I have heard or read +Ticonderoga is called St. Louis, and Inverawe was ignorant of its +other name. Yet in all the histories of the war that I have seen, the +only name given to the place is Ticonderoga. There is no mention of +its having a French name. Even if Inverawe knew the fort they were to +storm was called Ticonderoga, he cannot have known it when the ghost +appeared to him in Scotland. At that time there was not even a fort +at Ticonderoga, as the French only erected it in 1756. Inverawe had +told his story to friends in Scotland before the war broke out in +America, so even if in 1758 he did know the real name of the fort that +the expedition was directed against, I don't see that it lessens the +interest of the story.--E. A. C. + +The French really called the place Fort Carillon, which disguised the +native name Ticonderoga. See Memoirs of the Chevalier Johnstone.--A. +L. + +{162} Abercromby's force consisted of the 27th, 42nd, 44th, 46th, +55th, and battalions of the 60th Royal Americans, with about 9000 +Provincials and a train of artillery. The assault, however, took +place before the guns could come up, matters having been hastened by +the information that M. de Levy was approaching with 3000 French +troops to relieve Ticonderoga garrison. + +{177a} I know one inveterate ghost produced in an ancient Scottish +house by these appliances.--A. L. + +{177b} Such events are common enough in old tales of haunted houses. + +{177c} This lady was well known to my friends and to Dr. Ferrier. I +also have had the honour to make her acquaintance. + +{179} Apparently on Thursday morning really. + +{182} She gave, not for publication, the other real names, here +altered to pseudonyms. + +{186} Phantasms, ii., 202. + +{188a} Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, i., fascic. 2. + +{188b} Examples cited in Classical Review, December, 1896, pp. 411, +413. + +{188c} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 45-116. + +{189} See "Lord St. Vincent's Story". + +{190} Anecdote received from the lady. + +{191} Story at second-hand. + +{192} See The Standard for summer, 1896. + +{196} I have once seen this happen, and it is a curious thing to see, +when on the other side of the door there is nobody. + +{198a} S.P.R., iii., 115, and from oral narrative of Mr. and Mrs. +Rokeby. In 1885, when the account was published, Mr. Rokeby had not +yet seen the lady in grey. Nothing of interest is known about the +previous tenants of the house. + +{198b} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. viii., p. 311. + +{199} Letter of 31st January, 1884. + +{200} Six separate signed accounts by other witnesses are given. +They add nothing more remarkable than what Miss Morton relates. No +account was published till the haunting ceased, for fear of lowering +the letting value of Bognor House. + +{201} Mr. A. H. Millar's Book of Glamis, Scottish History Society. + +{202} This account is abridged from Mr. Walter Leaf's translation of +Aksakoff's Predvestniki Spiritizma, St. Petersburg, 1895. Mr. +Aksakoff publishes contemporary letters, certificates from witnesses, +and Mr. Akutin's hostile report. It is based on the possibility of +imitating the raps, the difficulty of locating them, and the fact that +the flying objects were never seen to start. If Mrs. Shchapoff threw +them, they might, perhaps, have occasionally been seen to start. +S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 298. Precisely similar events occurred in +Russian military quarters in 1853. As a quantity of Government +property was burned, official inquiries were held. The reports are +published by Mr. Aksakoff. The repeated verdict was that no suspicion +attached to any subject of the Czar. + +{205} The same freedom was taken, as has been said, with a lady of +the most irreproachable character, a friend of the author, in a +haunted house, of the usual sort, in Hammersmith, about 1876. + +{206} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 49. + +{212} John Wesley, however, places Hetty as next in seniority to Mary +or Molly. We do not certainly know whether Hetty was a child, or a +grown-up girl, but, as she always sat up till her father went to bed, +the latter is the more probable opinion. As Hetty has been accused of +causing the disturbances, her age is a matter of interest. Girls of +twelve or thirteen are usually implicated in these affairs. Hetty was +probably several years older. + +{220} 30th January, 1717. + +{221} Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus, 1726. Preface to part ii., +Mompesson's letters. + +{222} Gentleman's Magazine, November, December, 1872. + +{223} This happened, to a less degree, in the Wesley case, and is not +uncommon in modern instances. The inference seems to be that the +noises, like the sights occasionally seen, are hallucinatory, not +real. Gentleman's Magazine, Dec., 1872, p. 666. + +{229} S.P.R. Proceedings, vol. xii., p. 7. + +{232} Demon Possession in China, p. 399. By the Rev. John L. Nevius, +D.D. Forty years a missionary in China. Revel, New York, 1894. + +{233a} Translated from report of Hsu Chung-ki, Nevius, p. 61. + +{233b} Nevius, pp. 403-406. + +{234} Op. cit., p. 415. There are other cases in Mr. Denny's +Folklore of China. + +{239a} The Great Amherst Mystery, by Walter Hubbell. Brentano, New +York, 1882. I obtained some additional evidence at first hand +published in Longman's Magazine. + +{239b} The sources for this tale are two Gaelic accounts, one of +which is printed in the Gael, vol. vi., p. 142, and the other in the +Glenbard Collection of Gaelic Poetry, by the Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair, +p. 297 ff. The former was communicated by Mr. D. C. Macpherson from +local tradition; the latter was obtained from a tailor, a native of +Lochaber, who emigrated to Canada when about thirty years of age. +When the story was taken down from his lips in 1885, he was over +eighty years old, and died only a few months later. + +{246} John Arnason, in his Icelandic Folklore and Fairy Tales (vol. +i., p. 309), gives the account of this as written by the Sheriff Hans +Wium in a letter to Bishop Haldorr Brynjolfsson in the autumn of 1750. + +{249} Huld, part 3, p. 25, Keykjavik, 1893. + +{259} As at Amherst! + +{272} Written out from tradition on 24th May, 1852. The name of the +afflicted family is here represented by a pseudonym. + +{273} From Eyrbyggja Saga, chaps, l.-lv. Froda is the name of a farm +on the north side of Snaefell Ness, the great headland which divides +the west coast of Iceland. + +{292} Fact. + +{299} Cornhill Magazine, 1896. + +{300} This story should come under the head of "Common Deathbed +Wraiths," but, it is such an uncommon one! + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF DREAMS AND GHOSTS*** + + +******* This file should be named 12621.txt or 12621.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/2/12621 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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