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diff --git a/30440-0.txt b/30440-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45e08e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/30440-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6649 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30440 *** + +BYWAYS OF GHOST-LAND + + + + + BYWAYS OF + GHOST-LAND + + BY + + ELLIOTT O'DONNELL + + AUTHOR OF + + "SOME HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND AND WALES," + "HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON," "GHOSTLY PHENOMENA," + "DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS," "SCOTTISH GHOST TALES," + "TRUE GHOST TALES," ETC., ETC. + + WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, LIMITED + 164 Aldersgate St., London, E.C. + 1911 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + 1. THE UNKNOWN BRAIN 1 + + 2. THE OCCULT IN SHADOWS 21 + + 3. OBSESSION, POSSESSION 28 + + 4. OCCULT HOOLIGANS 47 + + 5. SYLVAN HORRORS 56 + + 6. COMPLEX HAUNTINGS AND OCCULT BESTIALITIES 80 + + 7. VAMPIRES, WERE-WOLVES, FOX-WOMEN, ETC. 110 + + 8. DEATH-WARNINGS AND FAMILY GHOSTS 132 + + 9. SUPERSTITIONS AND FORTUNES 153 + + 10. THE HAND OF GLORY; THE BLOODY HAND OF ULSTER; + THE SEVENTH SON; BIRTH-MARKS; NATURE'S + DEVIL SIGNALS; PRE-EXISTENCE; THE FUTURE; + PROJECTION; TELEPATHY; ETC. 176 + + 11. OCCULT INHABITANTS OF THE SEA AND RIVERS 198 + + 12. BUDDHAS AND BOGGLE CHAIRS 210 + + INDEX 244 + + + + +BYWAYS OF GHOST-LAND + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE UNKNOWN BRAIN + + +Whether all that constitutes man's spiritual nature, that is to say, ALL +his mind, is inseparably amalgamated with the whitish mass of soft +matter enclosed in his cranium and called his brain, is a question that +must, one supposes, be ever open to debate. + +One knows that this whitish substance is the centre of the nervous +system and the seat of consciousness and volition, and, from the +constant study of character by type or by phrenology, one may even go on +to deduce with reason that in this protoplasmic substance--in each of +the numerous cells into which it is divided and subdivided--are located +the human faculties. Hence, it would seem that one may rationally +conclude, that all man's vital force, all that comprises his +mind--_i.e._ the power in him that conceives, remembers, reasons, +wills--is so wrapped up in the actual matter of his cerebrum as to be +incapable of existing apart from it; and that as a natural sequence +thereto, on the dissolution of the brain, the mind and everything +pertaining to the mind dies with it--there is no future life because +there is nothing left to survive. + +Such a condition, if complete annihilation can be so named, is the one +and only conclusion to the doctrine that mind--crude, undiagnosed +mind--is dependent on matter, a doctrine confirmed by the apparent facts +that injury to the cranium is accompanied by unconsciousness and +protracted loss of memory, and that the sanity of the individual is +entirely contingent upon the state of his cerebral matter--a clot of +blood in one of the cerebral veins, or the unhealthy condition of a +cell, being in itself sufficient to bring about a complete mental +metamorphose, and, in common parlance, to produce madness. + +In the deepest of sleeps, too, when there is less blood in the cerebral +veins, and the muscles are generally relaxed, and the pulse is slower, +and the respiratory movements are fewer in number, consciousness +departs, and man apparently lapses into a state of absolute nothingness +which materialists, not unreasonably, presume must be akin to death. It +would appear, then, that our mental faculties are entirely regulated by, +and consequently, entirely dependent on, the material within our brain +cells, and that, granted certain conditions of that material, we have +consciousness, and that, without those conditions, we have no +consciousness--in other words, "our minds cease to exist." Hence, there +is no such thing as separate spiritual existence; mind is merely an +eventuality of matter, and, when the latter perishes, the former +perishes too. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can exist +apart from the physical. + +This is an assertion--unquestionably dogmatic--that exponents of +materialism hold to be logically unassailable. To disprove it may not be +an easy task at present; but I am, nevertheless, convinced there is a +world apart from matter--a superphysical plane with which part of us, at +least, is in some way connected, and I discredit the materialist's +dogma, partly because something in my nature compels me to an opposite +conclusion, and partly because certain phenomena I have experienced, +cannot, I am certain, have been produced by any physical agency. + +In support of my theory that we are not solely material, but partly +physical and partly superphysical, I maintain that consciousness is +never wholly lost; that even in swoons and dreams, when all sensations +would seem to be swallowed up in the blackness of darkness, there is +SOME consciousness left--the consciousness of existence, of impression. +We recover from a faint, or awake from the most profound of slumbers, +and remember not that we have dreamed. Yet, if we think with sufficient +concentration, our memory suddenly returns to us, and we recollect that, +during the swoon or sleep, ALL thought was not obliterated, but, that we +were conscious of being somewhere and of experiencing SOMETHING. + +It is only in our lighter sleeps, when the spirit traverses +superphysical planes more closely connected with the material, that we +remember ALL that occurred. Most of us will agree that there are two +distinct forms of mental existence--the one in which we are conscious +of the purely superphysical, and the one wherein we are only cognisant +of the physical. In the first-named of these two mental existences-- +_i.e._ in swoons, sleep, and even death, consciousness is never entirely +lost; we still think--we think with our spiritual or unknown brain; and +when in the last-named state, _i.e._ in our physical wakefulness and +life, we think with our material or known brain. + +Unknown brains exist on all sides of us. Many of them are the +earth-bound spirits of those whose spiritual or unknown brains, when on +the earth, were starved to feed their material or known brains; or, in +other words, the earth-bound spirits of those whose cravings, when in +carnal form, were entirely animal. It is they, together with a variety +of elementary forms of superphysical life (_i.e._ phantasms that have +never inhabited any kind of earthly body), that constantly surround us, +and, with their occult brains, suggest to our known brains every kind of +base and impure thought. + +Something, it is difficult to say what, usually warns me of the presence +of these occult brains, and at certain times (and in certain places) I +can feel, with my superphysical mind, their subtle hypnotic influences. + +It is the unknown brain that produces those manifestations usually +attributed to ghosts, and it is, more often than not, the possessors of +the unknown brain in constant activity, _i.e._ the denizens of the +superphysical world, who convey to our organs of hearing, either by +suggestion or actual presentation, the sensations of uncanny knocks, +crashes, shrieks, etc.; and to our organs of sight, all kinds of +uncanny, visual phenomena. + +All the phenomena we see are not objective; but the agents who "will" +that we should see them are objective--they are the unknown brains. It +is a mistake to think that these unknown brains can only exert their +influence on a few of us. We are all subject to them, though we do not +all see their manifestations. Were it not for the lower order of spirit +brains, there would be comparatively few drunkards, gamblers, +adulterers, fornicators, murderers, and suicides. It is they who excite +man's animal senses, by conjuring up alluring pictures of drink, and +gold, and sexual happiness. By the aid of the higher type of spirit +brains (who, contending for ever with the lower forms of spirit brains, +are indeed our "guardian angels") I have been enabled to perceive the +atmosphere surrounding drinking-dens and brothels full of all kinds of +bestial influences, from elementals, who allure men by presenting to +their minds all kinds of attractive tableaux, to the earth-bound spirits +of drunkards and libertines, transformed into horrors of the sub-human, +sub-animal order of phantasms--things with bloated, nude bodies and +pigs' faces, shaggy bears with fulsome, watery eyes; mangy dogs, etc. I +have watched these things that still possess--and possess in a far +greater degree--all the passions of their life incarnate, sniffing the +foul and vitiated atmosphere of the public-houses and brothels, and +chafing in the most hideous manner at their inability to gratify their +lustful cravings in a more substantial way. A man advances along the +road at a swinging pace, with no thought, as yet, of deviating from his +course and entering a public-house. He comes within the radius of the +sinister influences, which I can see and feel hanging around the saloon. +Their shadowy, silent brain power at once comes into play and gains +ascendancy over his weaker will. He halts because he is "willed" to do +so. A tempting tableau of drink rises before him and he at once imagines +he is thirsty. Soft and fascinating elemental hands close over his and +draw him gently aside. A look of beastly satisfaction suffuses his eyes. +He smacks his lips, hastens his steps, the bar-room door closes behind +him, and, for the remaining hours of the day, he wallows in drink. + +But the unknown brain does not confine itself to the neighbourhood of a +public-house--it may be anywhere. I have, intuitively, felt its presence +on the deserted moors of Cornwall, between St Ives and the Land's End; +in the grey Cornish churches and chapels (very much in the latter); +around the cold and dismal mouths of disused mine-shafts; all along the +rocky North Cornish coast; on the sea; at various spots on different +railway lines, both in the United Kingdom and abroad; and, of course, in +multitudinous places in London. + +A year or so ago, I called on Mrs de B----, a well-known society lady, +at that time residing in Cadogan Gardens. The moment I entered her +drawing-room, I became aware of an occult presence that seemed to be +hovering around her. Wherever she moved, it moved with her, and I FELT +that its strange, fathomless, enigmatical eyes were fixed on her, +noting and guiding her innermost thoughts and her every action with +inexorable persistence. + +Some six months later, I met Lady D----, a friend in common, and in +answer to my inquiries concerning Mrs de B----, was informed that she +had just been divorced. "Dorothy" (_i.e._ Mrs de B----), Lady D---- went +on to explain, "had been all right till she took up spiritualism, but +directly she began to attend séances everything seemed to go wrong with +her. At last she quarrelled with her husband, the climax being reached +when she became violently infatuated with an officer in the Guards. The +result was a decree _nisi_ with heavy costs." I exhibited, perhaps, more +surprise than I felt. But the fact of Mrs de B---- having attended +séances explained everything. She was obviously a woman with a naturally +weak will, and had fallen under the influence of one of the lowest, and +most dangerous types of earth-bound spirits, the type that so often +attends séances. This occult brain had attached itself to her, and, +accompanying her home, had deliberately wrecked her domestic happiness. +It would doubtless remain with her now _ad infinitum_. Indeed, it is +next to impossible to shake off these superphysical cerebrums. They +cling to one with such leech-like tenacity, and can rarely be made to +depart till they have accomplished their purposes. + +Burial-grounds appear to have great attractions for this class of +spirit. A man, whom I once met at Boulogne, told me a remarkable story, +the veracity of which I have no reason to doubt. + +"I have," he began, "undergone an experience which, though, +unfortunately, by no means unique, is one that is rarer nowadays than +formerly. I was once all but buried alive. It happened at a little +village, a most charming spot, near Maestel in the valley of the Rhone. +I had been stopping at the only inn the place possessed, and, cycling +out one morning, met with an accident--my machine skidded violently as I +was descending a steep hill, with the result that I was pitched head +first against a brick wall. The latter being considerably harder than my +skull, concussion followed. Some villagers picked me up insensible, I +was taken to the inn, and the nearest doctor--an uncertificated +wretch--was summoned. He knew little of trepanning; besides, I was a +foreigner, a German, and it did not matter. He bled me, it is true, and +performed other of the ordinary means of relief; but these producing no +apparent effect, he pronounced me dead, and preparations were at once +made for my burial. As strangers kept coming to the inn and the +accommodation was strictly limited, the landlord was considerably +incensed at having to waste a room on a corpse. Accordingly, he had me +screwed down in my coffin without delay, and placed in the cemetery +among the tombs, till the public gravedigger could conveniently spare a +few minutes to inter me. The shaking I received during my transit (for +the yokels were exceedingly rough and clumsy), together with the cold +night air which, luckily for me, found an easy means of access through +the innumerable chinks and cracks in the ill-fitting coffin-lid, acting +like a restorative tonic, I gradually revived, and the horror I felt in +realising my position is better, perhaps, imagined than described. When +consciousness first began to reassert itself, I simply fancied I was +awakening from a particularly deep sleep. I then struggled hard to +remember where I was and what had taken place. At first nothing came +back to me, all was blank and void; but as I continued to persevere, +gradually, very gradually, a recollection of my accident and of the +subsequent events returned to me. I remembered with the utmost +distinctness striking my head against the wall, and of SEEING myself +carried, head first, by two rustics--the one with a shock head of red +hair, the other swarthy as a Dago--to the inn. I recollected seeing the +almost humorous look of horror in the chambermaid's face, as she rushed +to inform the landlord, and the consternation of one and all during the +discussion as to what ought to be done. The landlady suggested one +thing, her husband another, the chambermaid another; and they all united +in ransacking my pockets--much to my dismay--to see if they could +discover a card-case or letter that might give them a clue as to my home +address. I saw them do all this; and it seemed as if I were standing +beside by own body, looking down at it, and that on all sides of me, and +apparently invisible to the rest of the company, were strange, +inscrutable pale eyes, set in the midst of grey, shapeless, shadowy +substances. + +"Then the doctor--a little slim, narrow-chested man, with a pointed +beard and big ears--came and held a mirror to my mouth, and opened one +of my veins, and talked a great deal of gibberish, whilst he made +countless covert sheep's eyes at the pretty chambermaid, who had taken +advantage of his arrival to overhaul my knapsack and help herself from +my purse. I distinctly heard the arrangements made for my funeral, and +the voice of the landlord saying: 'Yes, of course, doctor, that is only +fair; you have taken no end of trouble with him. I will keep his watch' +(the watch was of solid gold, and cost me £25) 'and clothes to defray +the expenses of the funeral and pay for his recent board' (I had only +settled my account with him that morning). And the shrill voice of the +landlady echoed: 'Yes, that is only fair, only right!' Then they all +left the room, and I remained alone with my body. What followed was more +or less blurred. The innumerable and ever-watchful grey eyes impressed +me most. I recollected, however, the advent of the men--the same two who +had brought me to the inn--to take me away in my coffin, and I had vivid +recollections of tramping along the dark and silent road beside them, +and wishing I could liberate my body. Then we halted at the iron gate +leading into the cemetery, the coffin was dropped on the ground with a +bang, and--the rest was a blank. Nothing, nothing came back to me. At +first I was inclined to attribute my memory to a dream. 'Absurd!' I said +to myself. 'Such things cannot have occurred. I am in bed; I know I am!' +Then I endeavoured to move my arms to feel the counterpane; I could not; +my arms were bound, tightly bound to my side. A cold sweat burst out all +over me. Good God! was it true? I tried again; and the same thing +happened--I could not stir. Again and again I tried, straining and +tugging at my sides till the muscles on my arms were on the verge of +bursting, and I had to desist through utter exhaustion. I lay still and +listened to the beating of my heart. Then, I clenched my toes and tried +to kick. I could not; my feet were ruthlessly fastened together. + +"Death garments! A winding-sheet! I could feel it clinging to me all +over. It compressed the air in my lungs, it retarded the circulation, +and gave me the most excruciating cramp, and pins and needles. My +sufferings were so acute that I groaned, and, on attempting to stretch +my jaws, found that they were encased in tight, clammy bandages. By +prodigious efforts I eventually managed to gain a certain amount of +liberty for my head, and this gave me the consolation that if I could do +nothing else I could at least howl--howl! How utterly futile, for who, +in God's name, would hear me? The thought of all there was above me, of +all the piles of earth and grass--for the idea that I was not actually +buried never entered my mind--filled me with the most abject sorrow and +despair. The utter helplessness of my position came home to me with +damning force. Rescue was absolutely out of the question, because the +only persons, who knew where I was, believed me dead. To my friends and +relations, my fate would ever remain a mystery. The knowledge that they +would, at once, have come to my assistance, had I only been able to +communicate with them, was cruel in the extreme; and tears of +mortification poured down my cheeks when I realised how blissfully +unconscious they were of my fate. The most vivid and alluring visions of +home, of my parents, and brothers, and sisters, flitted tantalisingly +before me. I saw them all sitting on their accustomary seats, in the +parlour, my father smoking his meerschaum, my mother knitting, my eldest +sister describing an opera she had been to that afternoon, my youngest +sister listening to her with mouth half open and absorbing interest in +her blue eyes, my brother examining the works of a clockwork engine +which he had just taken to pieces; whilst from the room overhead, +inhabited by a Count, a veteran who had won distinction in the campaigns +of '64 and '66, came strains of 'The Watch on the Rhine.' Every now and +then my mother would lean back in her chair and close her eyes, and I +knew intuitively she was thinking of me. Mein Gott! If she had only +known the truth. These tableaux faded away, and the gruesome awfulness +of my surroundings thrust themselves upon me. A damp, foetid smell, +suggestive of the rottenness of decay, assailed my nostrils and made me +sneeze. I choked; the saliva streamed in torrents down my chin and +throat! My recumbent position and ligaments made it difficult for me to +recover my breath; I grew black in the face; I imagined I was dying. I +abruptly, miraculously recovered, and all was silent as before. Silent! +Good heavens! There is no silence compared with that of the grave. + +"I longed for a sound, for any sound, the creaking of a board, the +snapping of a twig, the ticking of an insect--there was none--the +silence was the silence of stone. I thought of worms; I imagined +countless legions of them making their way to me from the surrounding +mouldering coffins. Every now and then I uttered a shriek as something +cold and slimy touched my skin, and my stomach heaved within me as a +whiff of something particularly offensive fanned my face. + +"Suddenly I saw eyes--the same grey, inscrutable eyes that I had seen +before--immediately above my own. I tried to fathom them, to discover +some trace of expression. I could not--they were insoluble. I +instinctively felt there was a subtle brain behind them, a brain that +was stealthily analysing me, and I tried to assure myself its intentions +were not hostile. Above, and on either side of the eyes, I saw the +shadow of something white, soft, and spongy, in which I fancied I could +detect a distinct likeness to a human brain, only on a large scale. +There were the cerebral lobes, or largest part of the forebrain, +enormously developed and overhanging the cerebellum, or great lobe of +the hindbrain, and completely covering the lobes of the midbrain. On the +cerebrum I even thought I could detect--for I have a smattering of +anatomy--the usual convolutions, and the grooves dividing the cerebrum +into two hemispheres. But there was something I had never seen before, +and which I could not account for--two things like antennæ, one on +either side of the cerebrum. As I gazed at them, they lengthened and +shortened in such quick succession that I grew giddy and had to remove +my eyes. What they were I cannot think; but then, of course the brain, +being occult, doubtless possessed properties of a nature wholly +unsuspected by me. The moment I averted my glance, I experienced--this +time on my forehead--the same cold, slimy sensation I had felt before, +and I at once associated it with the cerebral tentacles. Soon after this +I was touched in a similar manner on my right thigh, then on my left, +and simultaneously on both legs; then in a half a dozen places at the +same time. I looked out of the corner of my eyes, first on one side of +me and then the other, and encountered the shadowy semblance to brains +in each direction. I was therefore forced to conclude that the +atmosphere in the coffin was literally impregnated with psychic +cerebrums, and that every internal organ I possessed was being subjected +to the most minute inspection. My mind rapidly became filled with every +vile and lustful desire, and I cried aloud to be permitted five minutes' +freedom to put into operation the basest and filthiest of actions. My +thoughts were thus occupied when, to my amazement, I suddenly heard the +sound of voices--human voices. At first I listened with incredulity, +thinking that it must be merely a trick of my imagination or some +further ingenious, devilish device, on the part of the ghostly brains, +to torture me. But the voices continued, and drew nearer and nearer, +until I could at length distinguish what they were saying. The speakers +were two men, François and Jacques, and they were discussing the task +that brought them thither--the task of burying me. Burying me! So, then, +I was not yet under the earth! The revulsion of my feelings on +discovering that there was still a spark of hope is indescribable; the +blood surged through my veins in waves of fire, my eyes danced, my heart +thumped, and--I laughed! Laughed! There was no stopping me--peal +followed peal, louder and louder, until cobblestones and tombstones +reverberated and thundered back the sound. + +"The effect on François and Jacques was the reverse of what I wished. +When first they heard me, they became suddenly and deathly silent. Then +their pent-up feelings of horror could stand it no longer, and with the +wildest of yells they dropped their pick and shovel, and fled. My +laughter ceased, and, half drowned in tears of anguish, I listened to +their sabots pounding along the gravel walk and on to the hard highroad, +till the noises ceased and there was, once again, universal and +awe-inspiring silence. Again the eyes and tentacles, again the yearnings +for base and shameful deeds, and again--oh, blissful interruption! the +sound of human voices--François and Jacques returning with a crowd of +people, all greatly excited, all talking at once. + +"'I call God as my witness I heard it, and Jacques too. Isn't that so, +Jacques?' a voice, which I identified as that of François, shrieked. And +Jacques, doubtless as eager to be heard--for it was not once in a +lifetime anyone in his position had such an opportunity for +notoriety--as he was to come to his companion's rescue, bawled out; 'Ay! +There was no mistaking the sounds. May I never live to eat my supper +again if it was not laughter. Listen!' And everyone, at once, grew +quiet. + +"Now was my opportunity--my only opportunity. A single sound, however +slight, however trivial, and I should be saved! A cry rose in my throat; +another instant and it would have escaped my lips, when a dozen +tentacles shot forward and I was silent. Despair, such as no soul +experienced more acutely, even when on the threshold of hell, now seized +me, and bid me make my last, convulsive effort. Collecting, nay, even +dragging together every atom of will-power that still remained within my +enfeebled frame, I swelled my lungs to their utmost. A kind of rusty, +vibratory movement ran through my parched tongue; my jaws creaked, +creaked and strained on their hinges, my lips puffed and assumed the +dimensions of bladders and--that was all. No sound came. A weight, soft, +sticky, pungent, and overwhelming, cloaked my brain, and spreading +weed-like, with numbing coldness, stifled the cry ere it left the +precincts of my larynx. Hope died within me--I was irretrievably lost. A +babel of voices now arose together. François, Jacques, the village curé, +gendarme, doctor, chambermaid, mine host and hostess, and others, whose +tones I did not recognise, clamoured to be heard. Some, foremost amongst +whom were François, Jacques, and a boy, were in favour of the coffin +being opened; whilst others, notably the doctor and chambermaid (who +pertly declared she had seen quite enough of my ugly face), ridiculed +the notion and said the sooner I was buried the better it would be. The +weather had been more than usually hot that day, and the corpse, which +was very much swollen--for, like all gourmands, I had had chronic +disease of the liver--had, in their opinion, already become insanitary. +The boy then burst out crying. It had always been the height of his +ambition, he said, to see someone dead, and he thought it a dastardly +shame on the part of the doctor and chambermaid to wish to deny him this +opportunity. + +"The gendarme thinking, no doubt, he ought to have a say in the matter, +muttered something to the effect that children were a great deal too +forward nowadays, and that it would be time enough for the boy to see a +corpse when he broke his mother's heart--which, following the precedence +of all spoilt boys, he was certain to do sooner or later; and this +opinion found ready endorsement. The boy suppressed, my case began to +look hopeless, and the poignancy of my suspense became such that I +thought I should have gone mad. François was already persuaded into +setting to work with his pick, and, I should most certainly have been +speedily interred, had it not been for the timely arrival of a village +wag, who, planking himself unobserved behind a tombstone close to my +coffin, burst out laughing in the most sepulchral fashion. The effect on +the company was electrical; the majority, including the women, fled +precipitately, and the rest, overcoming the feeble protests of the +doctor, wrenched off the lid of the coffin. The spell, cast over me by +the occult brains, was now by a merciful Providence broken, and I was +able to explain my condition to the flabbergasted faces around me. + +"I need only say, in conclusion, that the discomfiture of the doctor was +complete, and that I took good care to express my opinion of him +everywhere I went. Doubtless, many poor wretches have been less +fortunate than I, and, being pronounced dead by unskilled physicians, +have been prematurely interred. Apart from all the agony consequent to +asphyxiation, they must have suffered hellish tortures through the +agency of spirit brains." + +This is the anecdote as related to me, and it serves as an illustration +of my theory that the unknown brain is objective, and that it can, under +given circumstances--_i.e._ when physical life is, so to speak, in +abeyance--be both seen and felt by the known brain. At birth, and more +particularly at death, the presence of the unknown brain is most marked. +And here it may not be inappropriate to remark that, in my experience at +least, the hour of midnight is by no means the time most favourable to +occult phenomena. I have seen far more manifestations at twilight, and +between two and four a.m., than at any other period of the day--times, I +think, according with those when human vitality is at its lowest and +death most frequently takes place. It is, doubtless, the ebb of human +vitality and the possibility of death that attracts the earth-bound +brains and other varying types of elemental harpies. They scent death +with ten times the acuteness of sharks and vultures, and hie with all +haste to the spot, so as to be there in good time to get their final +suck, vampire fashion, at the spiritual brain of the dying; substituting +in the place of what they extract, substance--in the shape of foul and +lustful thoughts--for the material or known brain to feed upon. The food +they have stolen, these vampires vainly imagine will enable them to rise +to a higher spiritual plane. + +In connection with this subject of the two brains, the question arises: +What forms the connecting link between the material or known brain, and +the spiritual or unknown brain? If the unknown brain has a separate +existence, and can detach itself at times (as in "projection"), why must +it wait for death to set it entirely free? My answer to that question +is: That the connecting link consists of a magnetic force, at present +indefinable, the scope, or pale, of which varies according to the +relative dimensions of the two brains. In a case, for example, where the +physical or known brain is far more developed than the spiritual or +unknown brain, the radius of attraction would be limited and the +connecting link strong; on the other hand, in a case where the spiritual +or unknown brain is more developed than the physical or known brain, the +magnetic pale is proportionately wide, and the connecting link would be +weak. + +Thus, in the swoon or profound sleep of a person possessing a greater +preponderance of physical than spiritual brain, the conscious self would +still be concerned with purely material matters, such as eating and +drinking, petty disputes, money, sexual desires, etc., though, owing to +the lack of concentration, which is a marked feature of those who +possess the grossly material brain, little or nothing of this conscious +self would be remembered. But in the swoon, or deep sleep of a person +possessing the spiritual brain in excess, the unknown brain is partially +freed from the known brain, and the conscious self is consequently far +away from the material body, on the confines of an entirely spiritual +plane. Of course, the experiences of this conscious self may or may not +be remembered, but there is, in its case, always the possibility, owing +to the capacity for concentration which is invariably the property of +all who have developed their spiritual or unknown brain, of subsequent +recollection. + +At death, and at death only, the magnetic link is actually broken. The +unknown brain is then entirely freed from the known brain, and the +latter, together with the rest of the material body, perishes from +natural decay; whilst the former, no longer restricted within the limits +of its earthly pale, is at liberty to soar _ad infinitum_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OCCULT IN SHADOWS + + +Many of the shadows, I have seen, have not had material counterparts. +They have invariably proved themselves to be superphysical danger +signals, the sure indicators of the presence of those grey, inscrutable, +inhuman cerebrums to which I have alluded; of phantasms of the dead and +of elementals of all kinds. There is an indescribable something about +them, that at once distinguishes them from ordinary shadows, and puts me +on my guard. I have seen them in houses that to all appearances are the +least likely to be haunted--houses full of sunshine and the gladness of +human voices. In the midst of merriment, they have darkened the wall +opposite me like the mystic writing in Nebuchadnezzar's palace. They +have suddenly appeared by my side, as I have been standing on rich, new +carpeting or sun-kissed swards. They have floated into my presence with +both sunbeams and moonbeams, through windows, doors, and curtains, and +their advent has invariably been followed by some form or other of +occult demonstration. I spent some weeks this summer at Worthing, and, +walking one afternoon to the Downs, selected a bright and secluded spot +for a comfortable snooze. I revel in snatching naps in the open +sunshine, and this was a place that struck me as being perfectly ideal +for that purpose. It was on the brow of a diminutive hillock covered +with fresh, lovely grass of a particularly vivid green. In the rear and +on either side of it, the ground rose and fell in pleasing alternation +for an almost interminable distance, whilst in front of it there was a +gentle declivity (up which I had clambered) terminating in the broad, +level road leading to Worthing. Here, on this broad expanse of the +Downs, was a fairyland of soft sea air, sunshine and rest--rest from +mankind, from the shrill, unmusical voices of the crude and rude product +of the County Council schools. + +I sat down; I never for one moment thought of phantasms; I fell asleep. +I awoke; the hot floodgates of the cloudless heaven were still open, the +air translucent over and around me, when straight in front of me, on a +gloriously gilded patch of grass, there fell a shadow--a shadow from no +apparent substance, for both air and ground were void of obstacles, and, +apart from myself, there was no living object in the near landscape. Yet +it was a shadow; a shadow that I could not diagnose; a waving, +fluctuating shadow, unpleasantly suggestive of something subtle and +horrid. It was, I instinctively knew, the shadow of the occult; a few +moments more, and a development would, in all probability, take place. +The blue sky, the golden sea, the tiny trails of smoke creeping up +lazily from the myriads of chimney-pots, the white house-tops, the red +house-tops, the church spire, the railway line, the puffing, humming, +shuffling goods-train, the glistening white roads, the breathing, busy +figures, and the bright and smiling mile upon mile of emerald turf rose +in rebellion against the likelihood of ghosts--yet, there was the +shadow. I looked away from it, and, as I did so, an icy touch fell on my +shoulder. I dared not turn; I sat motionless, petrified, frozen. The +touch passed to my forehead and from thence to my chin, my head swung +round forcibly, and I saw--nothing--only the shadow; but how different, +for out of the chaotic blotches there now appeared a well--a remarkably +well--defined outline, the outline of a head and hand, the head of a +fantastic beast, a repulsive beast, and the hand of a man. A flock of +swallows swirled overhead, a grasshopper chirped, a linnet sang, and, +with this sudden awakening of nature, the touch and shadow vanished +simultaneously. But the hillock had lost its attractions for me, and, +rising hastily, I dashed down the decline and hurried homewards. I +discovered no reason other than solitude, and the possible burial-place +of prehistoric man, for the presence of the occult; but the next time I +visited the spot, the same thing happened. I have been there twice +since, and the same, always the same thing--first the shadow, then the +touch, then the shadow, then the arrival of some form or other of joyous +animal life, and the abrupt disappearance of the Unknown. + +I was once practising bowls on the lawn of a very old house, the other +inhabitants of which were all occupied indoors. I had taken up a bowl, +and was in the act of throwing it, when, suddenly, on the empty space in +front of me I saw a shadow, a nodding, waving, impenetrable, +undecipherable shadow. I looked around, but there was nothing visible +that could in any way account for it. I threw down the bowl and turned +to go indoors. As I did so, something touched me lightly in the face. I +threw out my hand and touched a cold, clammy substance strangely +suggestive of the leafy branch of a tree. Yet nothing was to be seen. I +felt again, and my fingers wandered to a broader expanse of something +gnarled and uneven. I kept on exploring, and my grasp closed over +something painfully prickly. I drew my hand smartly back, and, as I did +so, distinctly heard the loud and angry rustling of leaves. Just then +one of my friends called out to me from a window. I veered round to +reply, and the shadow had vanished. I never saw it again, though I often +had the curious sensation that it was there. I did not mention my +experience to my friends, as they were pronounced disbelievers in the +superphysical, but tactful inquiry led to my gleaning the information +that on the identical spot, where I had felt the phenomena, had once +stood a horse-chestnut tree, which had been cut down owing to the strong +aversion the family had taken to it, partly on account of a strange +growth on the trunk, unpleasantly suggestive of cancer, and partly +because a tramp had hanged himself on one of the branches. + +All sorts of extraordinary shadows have come to me in the Parks, the +Twopenny Tube, and along the Thames Embankment. At ten o'clock, on the +morning of 1st April 1899, I entered Hyde Park by one of the side gates +of the Marble Arch, and crossing to the island, sat down on an empty +bench. The sky was grey, the weather ominous, and occasional heavy drops +of rain made me rejoice in the possession of an umbrella. On such a day, +the park does not appear at its best. The Arch exhibited a dull, dirty, +yellowish-grey exterior; every seat was bespattered with mud; whilst, to +render the general aspect still more unprepossessing, the trees had not +yet donned their mantles of green, but stood dejectedly drooping their +leafless branches as if overcome with embarrassment at their nakedness. +On the benches around me sat, or lay, London's homeless--wretched-looking +men in long, tattered overcoats, baggy, buttonless trousers, cracked and +laceless boots, and shapeless bowlers, too weak from want of food and +rest even to think of work, almost incapable, indeed, of thought at +all--breathing corpses, nothing more, with premature signs of +decomposition in their filthy smell. And the women--the women were, if +possible, ranker--feebly pulsating, feebly throbbing, foully stinking, +rotten, living deaths. No amount of soap, food, or warmth could reclaim +them now. Nature's implacable law--the survival of the fittest, the +weakest to the wall--was here exhibited in all its brutal force, and, as +I gazed at the weakest, my heart turned sick within me. + +Time advanced; one by one the army of tatterdemalions crawled away, God +alone knew how, God alone knew where. In all probability God did not +care. Why should He? He created Nature and Nature's laws. + +A different type of humanity replaced this garbage: neat and dapper +girls on their way to business; black-bowlered, spotless-leathered, +a-guinea-a-week clerks, casting longing glances at the pale grass and +countless trees (their only reminiscence of the country), as they +hastened their pace, lest they should be a minute late for their hateful +servitude; a policeman with the characteristic stride and swinging arms; +a brisk and short-stepped postman; an apoplectic-looking, +second-hand-clothes-man; an emaciated widow; a typical charwoman; two +mechanics; the usual brutal-faced labourer; one of the idle rich in +shiny hat, high collar, cutaway coat, prancing past on a coal-black +horse; and a bevy of nursemaids. + +To show my mind was not centred on the occult,--bootlaces, collar-studs, +the two buttons on the back of ladies' coats, dyed hair, servants' feet, +and a dozen and one other subjects, quite other than the superphysical, +successively occupied my thoughts. Imagine, then, my surprise and the +shock I received, when, on glancing at the gravel in front of me, I saw +two shadows--two enigmatical shadows. A dog came shambling along the +path, showed its teeth, snarled, sprang on one side, and, with bristling +hair, fled for its life. I examined the plot of ground behind me; there +was nothing that could in any way account for the shadows, nothing like +them. Something rubbed against my leg. I involuntarily put down my hand; +it was a foot--a clammy lump of ice, but, unmistakably, a foot. Yet of +what? I saw nothing, only the shadows. I did not want to discover more; +my very soul shrank within me at the bare idea of what there might be, +what there was. But, as is always the case, the superphysical gave me no +choice; my hand, moving involuntarily forward, rested on something flat, +round, grotesque, horrid, something I took for a face, but a face which +I knew could not be human. Then I understood the shadows. Uniting, they +formed the outline of something lithe and tall, the outline of a +monstrosity with a growth even as I had felt it--flat, round, grotesque, +and horrid. Was it the phantasm of one of those poor waifs and strays, +having all their bestialities and diseases magnified; or was it the +spirit of a tree of some unusually noxious nature? + +I could not divine, and so I came away unsatisfied. But I believe the +shadow is still there, for I saw it only the last time I was in the +Park. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +OBSESSION, POSSESSION + + +_Clocks, Chests and Mummies_ + +As I have already remarked, spirit or unknown brains are frequently +present at births. The brains of infants are very susceptible to +impressions, and, in them, the thought-germs of the occult brains find +snug billets. As time goes on, these germs develop and become generally +known as "tastes," "cranks," and "manias." + +It is an error to think that men of genius are especially prone to +manias. On the contrary, the occult brains have the greatest difficulty +in selecting thought-germs sufficiently subtle to lodge in the +brain-cells of a child of genius. Practically, any germ of carnal +thought will be sure of reception in the protoplasmic brain-cells of a +child, who is destined to become a doctor, solicitor, soldier, +shopkeeper, labourer, or worker in any ordinary occupation; but the +thought-germ that will find entrance to the brain-cells of a future +painter, writer, actor, or musician, must represent some propensity of a +more or less extraordinary nature. + +We all harbour these occult missiles, we are all to a certain extent +mad: the proud mamma who puts her only son into the Church or makes a +lawyer of him, and placidly watches him develop a scarlet face, double +chin, and prodigious paunch, would flounce out a hundred and one +indignant denials if anyone suggested he had a mania, but it would be +true; gluttony would be his mania, and one every whit as prohibitive to +his chances of reaching the spiritual plane, as drink, or sexual +passion. Love of eating is, indeed, quite the commonest form of +obsession, and one that develops soonest. Nine out of ten +children--particularly present-day children, whose doting parents +encourage their every desire--are fonder of cramming their bellies than +of playing cricket or skipping; games soon weary them, but buns and +chocolates never. The truth is, buns and chocolate have obsessed them. +They think of them all day, and dream of them all night. It is buns and +chocolates! wherever and whenever they turn or look--buns and +chocolates! This greed soon develops, as the occult brain intended it +should; enforced physical labour, or athletics, or even sedentary work +may dwarf its growth for a time, but at middle and old age it comes on +again, and the buns and chocolates are become so many coursed luncheons +and dinners. Their world is one of menus, nothing but menus; their only +mental exertion the study of menus, and I have no doubt that "tuck" +shops and restaurants are besieged by the ever-hungry spirit of the +earth-bound glutton. Though the drink-germ is usually developed later +(and its later growth is invariably accelerated with seas of alcohol), +it not infrequently feeds its initial growth with copious streams of +ginger beer and lemon kali. + +Manual labourers--_i.e._ navvies, coal-heavers, miners, etc.--are +naturally more or less brutal. Their brain-cells at birth offered so +little resistance to the evil occult influences that they received, in +full, all the lower germs of thought inoculated by the occult brains. +Drink, gluttony, cruelty, all came to their infant cerebrums +cotemporaneously. The cruelty germ develops first, and cats, dogs, +donkeys, smaller brothers, and even babies are made to feel the superior +physical strength of the early wearer of hobnails. He is obsessed with a +mania for hurting something, and with his strongly innate instinct of +self-preservation, invariably chooses something that cannot harm him. +Daily he looks around for fresh victims, and finally decides that the +weedy offspring of the hated superior classes are the easiest prey. In +company with others of his species, he annihilates the boy in Etons on +his way to and from school, and the after recollections of the +weakling's bloody nose and teardrops are as nectar to him. The cruelty +germ develops apace. The bloody noses of the well-dressed classes are +his mania now. He sees them at every turn and even dreams of them. He +grows to manhood, and either digs in the road or plies the pick and +shovel underground. The mechanical, monotonous exercise and the +sordidness of his home surroundings foster the germ, and his leisure +moments are occupied with the memory of those glorious times when he was +hitting out at someone, and he feels he would give anything just to +have one more blow. Curse the police! If it were not for them he could +indulge his hobby to the utmost. But the stalwart, officious man in blue +is ever on the scene, and the thrashing of a puny cleric or sawbones is +scarcely compensation for a month's hard labour. Yet his mania must be +satisfied somehow--it worries him to pieces. He must either smash +someone's nose or go mad; there is no alternative, and he chooses the +former. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals prevents +him skinning a cat; the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty +to Children will be down on him at once if he strikes a child, and so he +has no other resource left but his wife--he can knock out all her teeth, +bash in her ribs, and jump on her head to his heart's content. She will +never dare prosecute him, and, if she does, some Humanitarian Society +will be sure to see that he is not legally punished. He thus finds safe +scope for the indulgence of his crank, and when there is nothing left of +his own wife, he turns his unattractive and pusillanimous attentions to +someone else's. + +But occult thought-germs of this elementary type only thrive where the +infant's spiritual or unknown brain is wholly undeveloped. Where the +spiritual or unknown brain of an infant is partially developed, the +germ-thought to be lodged in it (especially if it be a germ-thought of +cruelty) must be of a more subtle and refined nature. + +I have traced the growth of cruelty obsession in children one would not +suspect of any great tendency to animalism. A refined love of making +others suffer has led them to vent inquisitionary tortures on insects, +and the mania for pulling off the legs of flies and roasting beetles +under spyglasses has been gradually extended to drowning mice in cages +and seeing pigs killed. Time develops the germ; the cruel boy becomes +the callous doctor or "sharp-practising" attorney, and the cruel girl +becomes the cruel mother and often the frail divorcée. Drink and cards +are an obsession with some; cruelty is just as much a matter of +obsession with others. But the ingenuity of the occult brain rises to +higher things; it rises to the subtlest form of invention when dealing +with the artistic and literary temperament. I have been intimately +acquainted with authors--well-known in the popular sense of the +word--who have been obsessed in the oddest and often most painful ways. + +The constant going back to turn door-handles, the sitting in grotesque +and untoward positions, the fondness for fingering any smooth and shiny +objects, such as mother-of-pearl, develop into manias for change--change +of scenery, of occupation, of affections, of people--change that +inevitably necessitates misery; for breaking--breaking promises, +contracts, family ties, furniture--but breaking, always breaking; for +sensuality--sensuality sometimes venial, but often of the most gross and +unpardonable nature. + +I knew a musician who was obsessed in a peculiarly loathsome manner. Few +knew of his misfortune, and none abominated it more than himself. He +sang divinely, had the most charming personality, was all that could be +desired as a husband and father, and yet was, in secret, a monomaniac of +the most degrading and unusual order. In the daytime, when all was +bright and cheerful, his mania was forgotten; but the moment twilight +came, and he saw the shadows of night stealing stealthily towards him, +his craze returned, and, if alone, he would steal surreptitiously out of +the house and, with the utmost perseverance, seek an opportunity of +carrying into effect his bestial practices. I have known him tie himself +to the table, surround himself with Bibles, and resort to every +imaginable device to divert his mind from his passion, but all to no +purpose; the knowledge that outside all was darkness and shadows proved +irresistible. With a beating heart he put on his coat and hat, and, +furtively opening the door, slunk out to gratify his hateful lust. +Heaven knows! he went through hell. + +I once watched a woman obsessed with an unnatural and wholly monstrous +mania for her dog. She took it with her wherever she went, to the +theatre, the shops, church, in railway carriages, on board ship. She +dressed it in the richest silks and furs, decorated it with bangles, +presented it with a watch, hugged, kissed, and fondled it, took it to +bed with her, dreamed of it. When it died, she went into heavy mourning +for it, and in an incredibly short space of time pined away. I saw her a +few days before her death, and I was shocked; her gestures, mannerisms, +and expression had become absolutely canine, and when she smiled--smiled +in a forced and unnatural manner--I could have sworn I saw Launcelot, +her pet! + +There was also a man, a brilliant writer, who from a boy had been +obsessed with a craze for all sorts of glossy things, more especially +buttons. The mania grew; he spent all his time running after girls who +were manicured, or who wore shining buttons, and, when he married, he +besought his wife to sew buttons on every article of her apparel. In the +end, he is said to have swallowed a button, merely to enjoy the +sensation of its smooth surface on the coats of his stomach. + +This somewhat exaggerated instance of obsession serves to show that, no +matter how extraordinary the thought-germ, it may enter one's mind and +finally become a passion. + +That the majority of people are obsessed, though in a varying degree, is +a generally accepted fact; but that furniture can be possessed by occult +brains, though not a generally accepted fact, is, I believe, equally +true. + +In a former work, entitled _Some Haunted Houses of England and Wales_, +published by Mr Eveleigh Nash, I described how a bog-oak grandfather's +clock was possessed by a peculiar type of elemental, which I +subsequently classified as a vagrarian, or kind of grotesque spirit that +inhabits wild and lonely places, and, not infrequently, spots where +there are the remains of prehistoric (and even latter-day) man and +beast. In another volume called _The Haunted Houses of London_, I +narrated the haunting of a house in Portman Square by a grandfather's +clock, the spirit in possession causing it to foretell death by +striking certain times; and I have since heard of hauntings by phenomena +of a more or less similar nature. + +The following is an example. A very dear friend of mine was taken ill +shortly before Christmas. No one at the time suspected there was +anything serious the matter with her, although her health of late had +been far from good. I happened to be staying in the house just then, and +found, that for some reason or other, I could not sleep. I do not often +suffer from insomnia, so that the occurrence struck me as somewhat +extraordinary. My bedroom opened on to a large, dark landing. In one +corner of it stood a very old grandfather's clock, the ticking of which +I could distinctly hear when the house was quiet. For the first two or +three nights of my visit the clock was as usual, but, the night before +my friend was taken ill, its ticking became strangely irregular. At one +moment it sounded faint, at the next moment, the reverse; now it was +slow, now quick; until at length, in a paroxysm of curiosity and fear, I +cautiously opened my door and peeped out. It was a light night, and the +glass face of the clock flashed back the moonbeams with startling +brilliancy. A grim and subdued hush hung over the staircases and +landings. The ticking was now low; but as I listened intently, it +gradually grew louder and louder, until, to my horror, the colossal +frame swayed violently backwards and forwards. Unable to stand the sight +of it any longer, and fearful of what I might see next, I retreated into +my room, and, carefully locking the door, lit the gas, and got into +bed. At three o'clock the ticking once again became normal. The +following night the same thing occurred, and I discovered that certain +other members of the household had also heard it. My friend rapidly grew +worse, and the irregularities of the clock became more and more +pronounced, more and more disturbing. Then there came a morning, when, +between two and three o'clock, unable to lie in bed and listen to the +ticking any longer, I got up. An irresistible attraction dragged me to +the door. I peeped out, and there, with the moonlight concentrated on +its face as before, swayed the clock, backwards and forwards, backwards +and forwards, slowly and solemnly; and with each movement there issued +from within it a hollow, agonised voice, the counterpart of that of my +sick friend, exclaiming, "Oh dear! Oh dear! It is coming! It is coming!" + +I was so fascinated, so frightened, that I could not remove my gaze, but +was constrained to stand still and stare at it; and all the while there +was a dull, mechanical repetition of the words: "Oh dear! Oh dear! It is +coming, it is coming!" Half an hour passed in this manner, and the hands +indicated five minutes to three, when a creak on the staircase made me +look round. My heart turned to ice--there, half-way down the stairs, was +a tall, black figure, its polished ebony skin shining in the moonbeams. +I saw only its body at first, for I was far too surprised even to glance +at its face. As it glided noiselessly towards me, however, obeying an +uncontrollable impulse, I looked. There was no face at all, only two +eyes--two long, oblique, half-open eyes--grey and sinister, +inexpressibly, hellishly sinister--and, as they met my gaze, they smiled +gleefully. They passed on, the door of the clock swung open, and the +figure stepped inside and vanished! I was now able to move, and +re-entering my room, I locked myself in, turned on the gas, and buried +myself under the bedclothes. + +I left the house next day, and shortly afterwards received the +melancholy tidings of the death of my dear friend. For the time being, +at least, the clock had been possessed by an elemental spirit of death. + +I know an instance, too, in which a long, protracted whine, like the +whine of a dog, proceeded from a grandfather's clock, prior to any +catastrophe in a certain family; another instance, in which loud thumps +were heard in a grandfather's clock before a death; and still another +instance in which a hooded face used occasionally to be seen in lieu of +the clock's face. + +In all these cases, the clocks were undoubtedly temporarily possessed by +the same type of spirit--the type I have classified "Clanogrian" or +Family Ghost--occult phenomena that, having attached themselves in +bygone ages to certain families, sometimes cling to furniture (often not +inappropriately to clocks) that belonged to those families; and, still +clinging, in its various removals, to the piece they have "possessed," +continue to perform their original grizzly function of foretelling +death. + +Of course, these charnel prophets are not the only phantasms that +"possess" furniture. For example, I once heard of a case of +"possession" by a non-prophetic phantasm in connection with a chest--an +antique oak chest which, I believe, claimed to be a native of Limerick. +After experiencing many vicissitudes in its career, the chest fell into +the hands of a Mrs MacNeill, who bought it at a rather exorbitant price +from a second-hand dealer in Cork. + +The chest, placed in the dining-room of its new home, was the recipient +of much premature adulation. The awakening came one afternoon soon after +its arrival, when Mrs MacNeill was alone in the dining-room at twilight. +She had spent a very tiring morning shopping in Tralee, her nearest +market-town, and consequently fell asleep in an arm-chair in front of +the fire, directly after luncheon. She awoke with a sensation of extreme +chilliness, and thinking the window could not have been shut properly, +she got up to close it, when her attention was attracted by something +white protruding from under the lid of the chest. She went up to inspect +it, but she recoiled in horror. It was a long finger, with a very +protuberant knuckle-bone, but no sign of a nail. She was so shocked that +for some seconds she could only stand staring at it, mute and helpless; +but the sound of approaching carriage-wheels breaking the spell, she +rushed to the fireplace and pulled the bell vigorously. As she did so, +there came a loud chuckle from the chest, and all the walls of the room +seemed to shake with laughter. + +Of course everyone laughed when Mrs MacNeill related what had happened. +The chest was minutely examined, and as it was found to contain nothing +but some mats that had been stored away in it the previous day, the +finger was forthwith declared to have been an optical illusion, and Mrs +MacNeill was, for the time being, ridiculed into believing it was so +herself. For the next two or three days nothing occurred; nothing, in +fact, until one night when Mrs MacNeill and her daughters heard the +queerest of noises downstairs, proceeding apparently from the +dining-room--heavy, flopping footsteps, bumps as if a body was being +dragged backwards and forwards across the floor, crashes as if all the +crockery in the house had been piled in a mass on the floor, loud peals +of malevolent laughter, and then--silence. + +The following night, the disturbances being repeated, Mrs MacNeill +summoned up courage to go downstairs and peep into the room. The noises +were still going on when she arrived at the door, but, the moment she +opened it, they ceased and there was nothing to be seen. A day or two +afterwards, when she was again alone in the dining-room and the evening +shadows were beginning to make their appearance, she glanced anxiously +at the chest, and--there was the finger. Losing her self-possession at +once, and yielding to a paroxysm of the wildest, the most ungovernable +terror, she opened her mouth to shriek. Not a sound came; the cry that +had been generated in her lungs died away ere it reached her larynx, and +she relapsed into a kind of cataleptic condition, in which all her +faculties were acutely alert but her limbs and organs of speech palsied. + +She expected every instant that the chest-lid would fly open and that +the baleful thing lurking within would spring upon her. The torture she +suffered from such anticipations was little short of hell, and was +rendered all the more maddening by occasional quiverings of the lid, +which brought all her expectations to a climax. Now, now at any rate, +she assured herself, the moment had come when the acme of horrordom +would be bounced upon her and she would either die or go mad. But no; +her agonies were again and again borne anew, and her prognostications +unfulfilled. At last the creakings abruptly ceased--nothing was to be +heard save the shaking of the trees, the distant yelping of a dog, and +the far-away footfall of one of the servants. Having somewhat recovered +from the shock, Mrs MacNeill was busy speculating as to the appearance +of the hidden horror, when she heard a breathing, the subtle, stealthy +breathing of the secreted pouncer. Again she was spellbound. The evening +advanced, and from every nook and cranny of the room, from behind +chairs, sofa, sideboard, and table, from window-sill and curtains, stole +the shadows, all sorts of curious shadows, that brought with them an +atmosphere of the barren, wind-swept cliffs and dark, deserted +mountains, an atmosphere that added fresh terrors to Mrs MacNeill's +already more than distraught mind. + +The room was now full of occult possibilities, drawn from all quarters, +and doubtless attracted thither by the chest, which acted as a physical +magnet. It grew late; still no one came to her rescue; and still more +shadows, and more, and more, and more, until the room was full of them. +She actually saw them gliding towards the house, in shoals, across the +moon-kissed lawn and carriage-drive. Shadows of all sorts--some, +unmistakable phantasms of the dead, with skinless faces and glassy eyes, +their bodies either wrapped in shrouds covered with the black slime of +bogs or dripping with water; some, whole and lank and bony; some with an +arm or leg missing; some with no limbs or body, only heads--shrunken, +bloodless heads with wide-open, staring eyes--yellow, ichorous +eyes--gleaming, devilish eyes. Elementals of all sorts--some, tall and +thin, with rotund heads and meaningless features; some, with +rectangular, fleshy heads; some, with animal heads. On they came in +countless legions, on, on, and on, one after another, each vying with +the other in ghastly horridness. + +The series of terrific shocks Mrs MacNeill experienced during the +advance of this long and seemingly interminable procession of every +conceivable ghoulish abortion, at length wore her out. The pulsations of +her naturally strong heart temporarily failed, and, as her pent-up +feelings found vent in one gasping scream for help, she fell insensible +to the ground. + +That very night the chest was ruthlessly cremated, and Mrs MacNeill's +dining-room ceased to be a meeting-place for spooks. + +Whenever I see an old chest now, I always view it with +suspicion--especially if it should happen to be a bog-oak chest. The +fact is, the latter is more likely than not to be "possessed" by +elementals, which need scarcely be a matter of surprise when one +remembers that bogs--particularly Irish bogs--have been haunted, from +time immemorial, by the most uncouth and fantastic type of spirits. + +But mummies, mummies even more often than clocks and chests, are +"possessed" by denizens of the occult world. Of course, everyone has +heard of the "unlucky" mummy, the painted case of which, only, is in the +Oriental department of the British Museum, and the story connected with +it is so well known that it would be superfluous to expatiate on it +here. I will therefore pass on to instances of other mummies "possessed" +in a more or less similar manner. + +During one of my sojourns in Paris, I met a Frenchman who, he informed +me, had just returned from the East. I asked him if he had brought back +any curios, such as vases, funeral urns, weapons, or amulets. "Yes, +lots," he replied, "two cases full. But no mummies! Mon Dieu! No +mummies! You ask me why? Ah! Therein hangs a tale. If you will have +patience, I will tell it you." + +The following is the gist of his narrative:-- + +"Some seasons ago I travelled up the Nile as far as Assiut, and when +there, managed to pay a brief visit to the grand ruins of Thebes. Among +the various treasures I brought away with me, of no great archæological +value, was a mummy. I found it lying in an enormous lidless sarcophagus, +close to a mutilated statue of Anubis. On my return to Assiut, I had the +mummy placed in my tent, and thought no more of it till something awoke +me with a startling suddenness in the night. Then, obeying a peculiar +impulse, I turned over on my side and looked in the direction of my +treasure. + +"The nights in the Soudan at this time of year are brilliant; one can +even see to read, and every object in the desert is almost as clearly +visible as by day. But I was quite startled by the whiteness of the glow +that rested on the mummy, the face of which was immediately opposite +mine. The remains--those of Met-Om-Karema, lady of the College of the +god Amen-ra--were swathed in bandages, some of which had worn away in +parts or become loose; and the figure, plainly discernible, was that of +a shapely woman with elegant bust, well-formed limbs, rounded arms and +small hands. The thumbs were slender, and the fingers, each of which +were separately bandaged, long and tapering. The neck was full, the +cranium rather long, the nose aquiline, the chin firm. Imitation eyes, +brows, and lips were painted on the wrappings, and the effect thus +produced, and in the phosphorescent glare of the moonbeams, was very +weird. I was quite alone in the tent, the only other European, who had +accompanied me to Assiut, having stayed in the town by preference, and +my servants being encamped at some hundred or so yards from me on the +ground. + +"Sound travels far in the desert, but the silence now was absolute, and +although I listened attentively, I could not detect the slightest +noise--man, beast, and insect were abnormally still. There was something +in the air, too, that struck me as unusual; an odd, clammy coldness that +reminded me at once of the catacombs in Paris. I had hardly, however, +conceived the resemblance, when a sob--low, gentle, but very +distinct--sent a thrill of terror through me. It was ridiculous, absurd! +It could not be, and I fought against the idea as to whence the sound +had proceeded, as something too utterly fantastic, too utterly +impossible! I tried to occupy my mind with other thoughts--the +frivolities of Cairo, the casinos of Nice; but all to no purpose; and +soon on my eager, throbbing ear there again fell that sound, that low +and gentle sob. My hair stood on end; this time there was no doubt, no +possible manner of doubt--the mummy lived! I looked at it aghast. I +strained my vision to detect any movement in its limbs, but none was +perceptible. Yet the noise had come from it, it had breathed--breathed-- +and even as I hissed the word unconsciously through my clenched lips, +the bosom of the mummy rose and fell. + +"A frightful terror seized me. I tried to shriek to my servants; I could +not ejaculate a syllable. I tried to close my eyelids, but they were +held open as in a vice. Again there came a sob that was immediately +succeeded by a sigh; and a tremor ran through the figure from head to +foot. One of its hands then began to move, the fingers clutched the air +convulsively, then grew rigid, then curled slowly into the palms, then +suddenly straightened. The bandages concealing them from view then fell +off, and to my agonised sight were disclosed objects that struck me as +strangely familiar. There is something about fingers, a marked +individuality, I never forget. No two persons' hands are alike. And in +these fingers, in their excessive whiteness, round knuckles, and blue +veins, in their tapering formation and perfect filbert nails, I read a +likeness whose prototype, struggle how I would, I could not recall. +Gradually the hand moved upwards, and, reaching the throat, the fingers +set to work, at once, to remove the wrappings. My terror was now +sublime! I dare not imagine, I dare not for one instant think, what I +should see! And there was no getting away from it; I could not stir an +inch, not the fraction of an inch, and the ghastly revelation would take +place within a yard of my face. + +"One by one the bandages came off. A glimmer of skin, pallid as marble; +the beginning of the nose, the whole nose; the upper lip, exquisitely, +delicately cut; the teeth, white and even on the whole, but here and +there a shining gold filling; the under-lip, soft and gentle; a mouth I +knew, but--God!--where? In my dreams, in the wild fantasies that had +oft-times visited my pillow at night--in delirium, in reality, where? +Mon Dieu! WHERE? + +"The uncasing continued. The chin came next, a chin that was purely +feminine, purely classical; then the upper part of the head--the hair +long, black, luxuriant--the forehead low and white--the brows black, +finely pencilled; and, last of all, the eyes!--and as they met my +frenzied gaze and smiled, smiled right down into the depths of my livid +soul, I recognised them--they were the eyes of my mother, my mother who +had died in my boyhood! Seized with a madness that knew no bounds, I +sprang to my feet. The figure rose and confronted me. I flung open my +arms to embrace her, the woman of all women in the world I loved best, +the only woman I had loved. Shrinking from my touch, she cowered against +the side of the tent. I fell on my knees before her and kissed--what? +Not the feet of my mother, but that of the long unburied dead. Sick with +repulsion and fear I looked up, and there, bending over and peering into +my eyes was the face, the fleshless, mouldering face of a foul and +barely recognisable corpse! With a shriek of horror I rolled backwards, +and, springing to my feet, prepared to fly. I glanced at the mummy. It +was lying on the ground, stiff and still, every bandage in its place; +whilst standing over it, a look of fiendish glee in its light, doglike +eyes, was the figure of Anubis, lurid and menacing. + +"The voices of my servants, assuring me they were coming, broke the +silence, and in an instant the apparition vanished. + +"I had had enough of the tent, however, at least for that night, and, +seeking refuge in the town, I whiled away the hours till morning with a +fragrant cigar and novel. Directly I had breakfasted, I took the mummy +back to Thebes and left it there. No, thank you, Mr O'Donnell, I collect +many kinds of curios, but--no more mummies!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OCCULT HOOLIGANS + + +Deducing from my own and other people's experiences, there exists a +distinct type of occult phenomenon whose sole occupation is in +boisterous orgies and in making manifestations purely for the sake of +causing annoyance. To this phantasm the Germans have given the name +POLTERGEIST, whilst in former of my works I have classified it as a +Vagrarian Order of ELEMENTAL. It is this form of the superphysical, +perhaps, that up to the present time has gained the greatest +credence--it has been known in all ages and in all countries. Who, for +example, has not heard of the famous Stockwell ghost that caused such a +sensation in 1772, and of which Mrs Crowe gives a detailed account in +her _Night Side of Nature_; or again, of "The Black Lion Lane, Bayswater +Ghost," referred to many years ago in _The Morning Post_; or, of the +"Epworth Ghost," that so unceasingly tormented the Wesley family; or, of +the "Demon of Tedworth" that gave John Mompesson and his family no +peace, and of countless other well-authenticated and recorded instances +of this same type of occult phenomenon? The poltergeists in the +above-mentioned cases were never seen, only felt and heard; but in what +a disagreeable and often painful manner! The Demon of Tedworth, for +example, awoke everyone at night by thumping on doors and imitating the +beatings of a drum. It rattled bedsteads, scratched on the floor and +wall as if possessing iron talons, groaned, and uttered loud cries of "A +witch! A witch!" Nor was it content with these auditory demonstrations, +for it resorted to far more energetic methods of physical violence. +Furniture was moved out of its place and upset; the children's shoes +were taken off their feet and thrown over their heads; their hair was +tweaked and their clothes pulled; one little boy was even hit on a sore +place on his heel; the servants were lifted bodily out of their beds and +let fall; whilst several members of the household were stripped of all +they had on, forcibly held down, and pelted with shoes. Nor were the +proceedings at Stockwell, Black Lion Lane, and Epworth, though rather +more bizarre, any less violent. + +To quote another instance of this kind of haunting, Professor Schuppart +at Gressen, in Upper Hesse, was for six years persecuted by a +poltergeist in the most unpleasant manner; stones were sent whizzing +through closed rooms in all directions, breaking windows but hurting no +one; his books were torn to pieces; the lamp by which he was reading was +removed to a distant corner of the room, and his cheeks were slapped, +and slapped so incessantly that he could get no sleep. + +According to Mrs Crowe, there was a case of a similar nature at Mr +Chave's, in Devonshire, in 1910, where affidavits were made before the +magistrate attesting the facts, and large rewards offered for discovery; +but in vain, the phenomena continued, and the spiritual agent was +frequently seen in the form of some strange animal. + +There seems to be little limit, short of grievous bodily injury--and +even that limit has occasionally been overstepped--to poltergeist +hooliganism. Last summer the Rev. Henry Hacon, M.A., of Searly Vicarage, +North Kelsey Moor, very kindly sent me an original manuscript dealing +with poltergeist disturbances of a very peculiar nature, at the old +Syderstone Parsonage near Fakenham. I published the account _ad verbum_ +in a work of mine that appeared the ensuing autumn, entitled _Ghostly +Phenomena_, and the interest it created encourages me to refer to other +cases dealing with the same kind of phenomena. + +There is a parsonage in the South of England where not only noises have +been heard, but articles have been mysteriously whisked away and not +returned. A lady assures me that when a gentleman, with whom she was +intimately acquainted, was alone in one of the reception rooms one day, +he placed some coins to the value, I believe, of fifteen shillings, on +the table beside him, and chancing to have his attention directed to the +fire, which had burned low, was surprised on looking again to discover +the coins had gone; nor did he ever recover them. Other things, too, for +the most part trivial, were also taken in the same incomprehensible +manner, and apparently by the same mischievous unseen agency. It is true +that one of the former inhabitants of the house had, during the latter +portion of his life, been heavily in debt, and that his borrowing +propensities may have accompanied him to the occult world; but though +such an explanation is quite feasible, I am rather inclined to attribute +the disappearances to the pranks of some mischievous vagrarian. + +I have myself over and over again experienced a similar kind of thing. +For example, in a certain house in Norwood, I remember losing in rapid +succession two stylograph pens, a knife, and a sash. I remembered, in +each case, laying the article on a table, then having my attention +called away by some rather unusual sound in a far corner of the room, +and then, on returning to the table, finding the article had vanished. +There was no one else in the house, so that ordinary theft was out of +the question. Yet where did these articles go, and of what use would +they be to a poltergeist? On one occasion, only, I caught a glimpse of +the miscreant. It was about eight o'clock on a warm evening in June, and +I was sitting reading in my study. The room is slightly below the level +of the road, and in summer, the trees outside, whilst acting as an +effective screen against the sun's rays, cast their shadows somewhat too +thickly on the floor and walls, burying the angles in heavy gloom. In +the daytime one rather welcomes this darkness; but in the afternoon it +becomes a trifle oppressive, and at twilight one sometimes wishes it was +not there. It is at twilight that the nature of the shadows usually +undergoes a change, and there amalgamates, with them, that Something, +that peculiar, indefinable Something that I can only associate with the +superphysical. Here, in my library, I often watch it creep in with the +fading of the sunlight, or, postponing its advent till later--steal in +through the window with the moonbeams, and I feel its presence just as +assuredly and instinctively as I can feel and detect the presence of +hostility in an audience or individual. I cannot describe how; I can +only say I do, and that my discernment is seldom misleading. On the +evening in question I was alone in the house. I had noticed, amid the +shadows that lay in clusters on the floor and walls, this enigmatical +Something. It was there most markedly; but I did not associate it with +anything particularly terrifying or antagonistic. Perhaps that was +because the book I was reading interested me most profoundly--it was a +translation from Heine, and I am devoted to Heine. Let me quote an +extract. It is from _Florentine Nights_, and runs: "But is it not folly +to wish to sound the inner meaning of any phenomenon outside us, when we +cannot even solve the enigma of our own souls? We hardly know even +whether outside phenomena really exist! We are often unable to +distinguish reality from mere dream-faces. Was it a shape of my fancy, +or was it horrible reality that I heard and saw on that night? I know +not. I only remember that, as the wildest thoughts were flowing through +my heart, a singular sound came to my ear." I had got so far, +absorbingly, spiritually interested, when I heard a laugh, a long, low +chuckle, that seemed to come from the darkest and most remote corner of +the room. A cold paroxysm froze my body, the book slid from my hands, +and I sat upright in my chair, every faculty within me acutely alert and +active. The laugh was repeated, this time from behind a writing-table in +quite another part of the room. Something which sounded like a shower of +tintacks then fell into the grate; after which there was a long pause, +and then a terrific bump, as if some heavy body had fallen from a great +height on to the floor immediately in front of me. I even heard the +hissing and whizzing the body made in its descent as it cut its passage +through the air. Again there came an interval of tranquillity broken +only by the sounds of people in the road, the hurrying footsteps of a +girl, the clattering of a man in hobnails, the quick, sharp tread of the +lamplighter, and the scampering patter of a bevy of children. Then there +came a series of knockings on the ceiling, and then the sound of +something falling into a gaping abyss which I intuitively felt had +surreptitiously opened at my feet. + +For many seconds I listened to the reverberations of the object as it +dashed against the sides of the unknown chasm; at length there was a +splash, succeeded by hollow echoes. Shaking in every limb, I shrank back +as far as I possibly could in my chair and clutched the arms. A draught, +cold and dank, as if coming from an almost interminable distance, blew +upwards and fanned my nostrils. Then there came the most appalling, the +most blood-curdling chuckle, and I saw a hand--a lurid grey hand with +long, knotted fingers and black, curved nails--feeling its way towards +me, through the subtle darkness, like some enormous, unsavoury insect. +Nearer, nearer, and nearer it drew, its fingers waving in the air, +antennæ fashion. For a moment it paused, and then, with lightning +rapidity, snatched the book from my knees and disappeared. Directly +afterwards I heard the sound of a latchkey inserted in the front door, +whilst the voice of my wife inquiring why the house was in darkness +broke the superphysical spell. Obeying her summons, I ascended the +staircase, and the first object that greeted my vision in the hall was +the volume of Heine that had been so unceremoniously taken from me! +Assuredly this was the doings of a poltergeist! A poltergeist that up to +the present had confined its attentions to me, no one else in the house +having either heard or seen it. + +In my study there is a deep recess concealed in the winter-time by heavy +curtains drawn across it; and often when I am writing something makes me +look up, and a cold horror falls upon me as I perceive the curtains +rustle, rustle as though they were laughing, laughing in conjunction +with some hidden occult monstrosity; some grey--the bulk of the +phantasms that come to me are grey--and glittering monstrosity who was +enjoying a rich jest at my expense. Occasionally, to emphasise its +presence, this poltergeist has scratched the wall, or thumped, or thrown +an invisible missile over my head, or sighed, or groaned, or gurgled, +and I have been frightened, horribly, ghastly frightened. Then something +has happened--my wife has called out, or someone has rung a bell, or the +postman has given one of his whole-hearted smashes with the knocker, +and the poltergeist has "cleared off," and I have not been disturbed by +it again for the remainder of the evening. + +I am not the only person whom poltergeists visit. Judging from my +correspondence and the accounts I see in the letters of various +psychical research magazines, they patronise many people. Their _modus +operandi_, covering a wide range, is always boisterous. Undoubtedly they +have been badly brought up--their home influence and their educational +training must have been sadly lacking in discipline. Or is it the +reverse? Are their crude devices and mad, tomboyish pranks merely +reactionary, and the only means they have of finding vent for their +naturally high spirits? If so, I devoutly wish they would choose some +locality other than my study for their playground. Yet they interest me, +and although I quake horribly when they are present, I derive endless +amusement at other times, in speculating on their _raison d'être_, and +curious--perhaps complex--constitutions. I do not believe they have ever +inhabited any earthly body, either human or animal. I think it likely +that they may be survivals of early experiments in animal and vegetable +life in this planet, prior to the selection of any definite types; +spirits that have never been anything else but spirits, and which have, +no doubt, often envied man his carnal body and the possibilities that +have been permitted him of eventually reaching a higher spiritual plane. +It is envy, perhaps, that has made them mischievous, and generated in +them an insatiable thirst to torment and frighten man. Another probable +explanation of them is, that they may be inhabitants of one of the other +planets that have the power granted, under certain conditions at present +unknown to us, of making themselves seen and heard by certain dwellers +on the earth; and it is, of course, possible that they are but one of +many types of spirits inhabiting a superphysical sphere that encloses or +infringes on our own. They may be only another form of life, a form that +is neither carnal nor immortal, but which has to depend for its +existence on a superphysical food. They may be born in a fashion that, +apart from its peculiarity and extravagance, bears some resemblance to +the generation of physical animal life; and they may die, too, as man +dies, and their death may be but the passing from one stage to another, +or it may be for eternity. + +But enough of possibilities, of probable and improbable theories. For +the present not only poltergeists but all other phantoms are seen as +through a glass darkly, and, pending the discovery of some definite +data, we do but flounder in a sea of wide, limitless, and infinite +speculation. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SYLVAN HORRORS + + +I believe trees have spirits; I believe everything that grows has a +spirit, and that such spirits never die, but passing into another state, +a state of film and shadow, live on for ever. The phantasms of vegetable +life are everywhere, though discernible only to the few of us. Often as +I ramble through thoroughfares, crowded with pedestrians and vehicles, +and impregnated with steam and smoke and all the impurities arising from +over-congested humanity, I have suddenly smelt a different atmosphere, +the cold atmosphere of superphysical forest land. I have come to a halt, +and leaning in some doorway, gazed in awestruck wonder at the nodding +foliage of a leviathan lepidodendron, the phantasm of one of those +mammoth lycopods that flourished in the Carboniferous period. I have +watched it swaying its shadowy arms backwards and forwards as if keeping +time to some ghostly music, and the breeze it has thus created has +rustled through my hair, while the sweet scent of its resin has +pleasantly tickled my nostrils. I have seen, too, suddenly open before +me, dark, gloomy aisles, lined with stupendous pines and carpeted with +long, luxuriant grass, gigantic ferns, and other monstrous primeval +flora, of a nomenclature wholly unknown to me; I have watched in chilled +fascination the black trunks twist and bend and contort, as if under the +influence of an uncontrollable fit of laughter, or at the bidding of +some psychic cyclone. I have at times stayed my steps when in the throes +of the city-pavements; shops and people have been obliterated, and their +places taken by occult foliage; immense fungi have blocked out the sun's +rays, and under the shelter of their slimy, glistening heads, I have +been thrilled to see the wriggling, gliding forms of countless smaller +saprophytes. I have felt the cold touch of loathsome toadstools and +sniffed the hot, dry dust of the full, ripe puff-ball. On the Thames +Embankment, up Chelsea way, I have at twilight beheld wonderful +metamorphoses. In company with the shadows of natural objects of the +landscape, have silently sprung up giant reeds and bullrushes. I have +felt their icy coldness as, blowing hither and thither in the delirium +of their free, untrammelled existence, they have swished across my face. +Visions, truly visions, the exquisite fantasies of a vivid imagination. +So says the sage. I do not think so; I dispute him _in toto_. These +objects I have seen have not been illusions; else, why have I not +imagined other things; why, for example, have I not seen rocks walking +about and tables coming in at my door? If these phantasms were but +tricks of the imagination, then imagination would stop at nothing. But +they are not imagination, neither are they the idle fancies of an +over-active brain. They are objective--just as much objective as are the +smells of recognised physical objects, that those, with keenly sensitive +olfactory organs, can detect, and those, with a less sensitive sense of +smell, cannot detect; those, with acute hearing, can hear, and those +with less acute hearing cannot hear. And yet, people are slow to believe +that the seeing of the occult is as much a faculty as is the scenting of +smells or the hearing of noises. + +I have heard it said that, deep down in coal mines, certain of the +workers have seen wondrous sights; that when they have been alone in a +drift, they have heard the blowing of the wind and the rustling of +leaves, and suddenly found themselves penned in on all sides by the +naked trunks of enormous primitive trees, lepidodendrons, sigillarias, +ferns, and other plants, that have shone out with phosphorescent +grandeur amid the inky blackness of the subterranean ether. Around the +feet of the spellbound watchers have sprung up rank blades of +Brobdingnagian grass and creepers, out of which have crept, with lurid +eyes, prodigious millipedes, cockroaches, white ants, myriapods and +scorpions, whilst added to the moaning and sighing of the trees has been +the humming of stone-flies, dragon-flies, and locusts. Galleries and +shafts have echoed and re-echoed with these noises of the old world, +which yet lives, and will continue to live, maybe, to the end of time. + +But are the physical trees, the trees that we can all see budding and +sprouting in our gardens to-day--are they ever cognisant of the presence +of the occult? Can they, like certain--not all--dogs and horses and +other animals, detect the proximity of the unknown? Do they tremble and +shake with fear at the sight of some psychic vegetation, or are they +utterly devoid of any such faculty? Can they see, hear, or smell? Have +they any senses at all? And, if they have one sense, have they not +others? Aye, there is food for reflection. + +Personally, I believe trees have senses--not, of course, in such a high +state of development as those of animal life; but, nevertheless, senses. +Consequently, I think it quite possible that certain of them, like +certain animals, feel the presence of the superphysical. I often stroll +in woods. I do not love solitude; I love the trees, and I do not think +there is anything in nature, apart from man, I love much more. The oak, +the ash, the elm, the poplar, the willow, to me are more than mere +names; they are friends, the friends of my boyhood and manhood; +companions in my lonely rambles and voluntary banishments; guardians of +my siestas; comforters of my tribulations. The gentle fanning of their +branches has eased my pain-racked brow and given me much-needed sleep, +whilst the chlorophyll of their leaves has acted like balm to my +eyelids, inflamed after long hours of study. I have leaned my head +against their trunks, and heard, or fancied I have heard, the fantastic +murmurings of their peaceful minds. This is what happens in the daytime, +when the hot summer sun has turned the meadow-grass a golden brown. But +with the twilight comes the change. Phantom-land awakes, and mingled +with the shadows of the trees and bushes that lazily unroll themselves +from trunk and branches are the darkest of shades, that impart to the +forest an atmosphere of dreary coldness. Usually I hie away with haste +at sunset, but there are occasions when I have dallied longer than I +have intended, and only realised my error when it has been too late. I +have then, controlled by the irresistible fascination of the woods, +waited and watched. I well recollect, for example, being caught in this +way in a Hampshire spinney, at that time one of my most frequented +haunts. The day had been unusually close and stifling, and the heat, in +conjunction with a hard morning's work--for I had written, God only +knows how long, without ceasing,--made me frightfully sleepy, and on +arriving at my favourite spot beneath a lofty pine, I had slept till, +for very shame, my eyelids could keep closed no longer. It was then nine +o'clock, and the metamorphosis of sunset had commenced in solemn +earnest. The evening was charming, ideal of the heart of summer; the air +soft, sweetly scented; the sky unspotted blue. A peaceful hush, broken +only by the chiming of some distant church bells, and the faint, the +very faint barking of dogs, enveloped everything and instilled in me a +false sensation of security. Facing me was a diminutive glade padded +with downy grass, transformed into a pale yellow by the lustrous rays of +the now encrimsoned sun. Fainter and fainter grew the ruddy glow, until +there was nought of it left but a pale pink streak, whose delicate +marginal lines still separated the blue of the sky from the quickly +superseding grey. A barely perceptible mist gradually cloaked the grass, +whilst the gloom amid the foliage on the opposite side of the glade +intensified. There was now no sound of bells, no barking of dogs; and +silence, a silence tinged with the sadness so characteristic of summer +evenings, was everywhere paramount. A sudden rush of icy air made my +teeth chatter. I made an effort to stir, to escape ere the grotesque and +intangible horrors of the wood could catch me. I ignominiously failed; +the soles of my feet froze to the ground. Then I felt the slender, +graceful body of the pine against which I leaned my back, shake and +quiver, and my hand--the hand that rested on its bark--grew damp and +sticky. + +I endeavoured to avert my eyes from the open space confronting them. I +failed; and as I gazed, filled with the anticipations of the damned, +there suddenly burst into view, with all the frightful vividness +associated only with the occult, a tall form--armless, legless--fashioned +like the gnarled trunk of a tree--white, startlingly white in places +where the bark had worn away, but on the whole a bright, a luridly +bright, yellow and black. At first I successfully resisted a powerful +impulse to raise my eyes to its face; but as I only too well knew would +be the case, I was obliged to look at last, and, as I anticipated, I +underwent a most violent shock. In lieu of a face I saw a raw and +shining polyp, a mass of waving, tossing, pulpy radicles from whose +centre shone two long, obliquely set, pale eyes, ablaze with devilry and +malice. The thing, after the nature of all terrifying phantasms, was +endowed with hypnotic properties, and directly its eyes rested on me I +became numb; my muscles slept while my faculties remained awake, +acutely awake. + +Inch by inch the thing approached me; its stealthy, gliding motion +reminding me of a tiger subtly and relentlessly stalking its prey. It +came up to me, and the catalepsy which had held me rigidly upright +departed. I fell on the ground for protection, and, as the great unknown +curved its ghastly figure over me and touched my throat and forehead +with its fulsome tentacles, I was overcome with nervous tremors; a +deadly pain griped my entrails, and, convulsed with agony, I rolled over +on my face, furiously clawing the bracken. In this condition I continued +for probably one or even two minutes, though to me it seemed very much +longer. My sufferings terminated with the loud report of firearms, and +slowly picking myself up, I found that the apparition had vanished, and +that standing some twenty or so paces from me was a boy with a gun. I +recognised him at once as the son of my neighbour, the village +schoolmaster; but not wishing to tarry there any longer, I hurriedly +wished him good night, and leaving the copse a great deal more quickly +than I had entered it, I hastened home. + +What had I seen? A phantasm of some dead tree? some peculiar species of +spirit (I have elsewhere termed a vagrarian), attracted thither by the +loneliness of the locality? some vicious, evil phantasm? or a +vice-elemental, whose presence there would be due to some particularly +wicked crime or series of crimes perpetrated on or near the spot? I +cannot say. It might well have been either one of them, or something +quite different. I am quite sure, however, that most woods are haunted, +and that he who sees spirit phenomena can be pretty certain of seeing +them there. Again and again, as I have been passing after nightfall, +through tree-girt glen, forest, or avenue, I have seen all sorts of +curious forms and shapes move noiselessly from tree to tree. Hooded +figures, with death's-heads, have glided surreptitiously through +moon-kissed spaces; icy hands have touched me on the shoulders; whilst, +pacing alongside me, I have oft-times heard footsteps, light and heavy, +though I have seen nothing. + +Miss Frances Sinclair tells me that, once, when walking along a country +lane, she espied some odd-looking object lying on the ground at the foot +of a tree. She approached it, and found to her horror it was a human +finger swimming in a pool of blood. She turned round to attract the +attention of her friends, and when she looked again the finger had +vanished. On this very spot, she was subsequently informed, the murder +of a child had taken place. + +Trees are, I believe, frequently haunted by spirits that suggest crime. +I have no doubt that numbers of people have hanged themselves on the +same tree in just the same way as countless people have committed +suicide by jumping over certain bridges. Why? For the very simple reason +that hovering about these bridges are influences antagonistic to the +human race, spirits whose chief and fiendish delight is to breathe +thoughts of self-destruction into the brains of passers-by. I once heard +of a man, medically pronounced sane, who frequently complained that he +was tormented by a voice whispering in his ear, "Shoot yourself! Shoot +yourself!"--advice which he eventually found himself bound to follow. +And of a man, likewise stated to be sane, who journeyed a considerable +distance to jump over a notorious bridge because he was for ever being +haunted by the phantasm of a weirdly beautiful woman who told him to do +so. If bridges have their attendant sinister spirits, so undoubtedly +have trees--spirits ever anxious to entice within the magnetic circle of +their baleful influence anyone of the human race. + +Many tales of trees being haunted in this way have come to me from India +and the East. I quoted one in my _Ghostly Phenomena_, and the following +was told me by a lady whom I met recently, when on a visit to my wife's +relations in the Midlands. + +"I was riding with my husband along a very lonely mountain road in +Assam," my informant began, "when I suddenly discovered I had lost my +silk scarf, which happened to be a rather costly one. I had a pretty +shrewd idea whereabouts I might have dropped it, and, on mentioning the +fact to my husband, he at once turned and rode back to look for it. +Being armed, I did not feel at all nervous at being left alone, +especially as there had been no cases, for many years, of assault on a +European in our district; but, seeing a big mango tree standing quite by +itself a few yards from the road, I turned my horse's head with the +intention of riding up to it and picking some of its fruit. To my great +annoyance, however, the beast refused to go; moreover, although at all +times most docile, it now reared, and kicked, and showed unmistakable +signs of fright. + +"I speedily came to the conclusion that my horse was aware of the +presence of something--probably a wild beast--I could not see myself, +and I at once dismounted, and tethering the shivering animal to a +boulder, advanced cautiously, revolver in hand, to the tree. At every +step I took, I expected the spring of a panther or some other beast of +prey; but, being afraid of nothing but a tiger--and there were none, +thank God! in that immediate neighbourhood--I went boldly on. On nearing +the tree, I noticed that the soil under the branches was singularly +dark, as if scorched and blackened by a fire, and that the atmosphere +around it had suddenly grown very cold and dreary. To my disappointment +there was no fruit, and I was coming away in disgust, when I caught +sight of a queer-looking thing just over my head and half-hidden by the +foliage. I parted the leaves asunder with my whip and looked up at it. +My blood froze. + +"The thing was nothing human. It had a long, grey, nude body, shaped +like that of a man, only with abnormally long arms and legs, and very +long and crooked fingers. Its head was flat and rectangular, without any +features saving a pair of long and heavy lidded, light eyes, that were +fixed on mine with an expression of hellish glee. For some seconds I was +too appalled even to think, and then the most mad desire to kill myself +surged through me. I raised my revolver, and was in the act of placing +it to my forehead, when a loud shout from behind startled me. It was my +husband. He had found my scarf, and, hurrying back, had arrived just in +time to see me raise the revolver--strange to relate--at him! In a few +words I explained to him what had happened, and we examined the tree +together. But there were no signs of the terrifying phenomenon--it had +completely vanished. Though my husband declared that I must have been +dreaming, I noticed he looked singularly grave, and, on our return home, +he begged me never to go near the tree again. I asked him if he had had +any idea it was haunted, and he said: 'No! but I know there are such +trees. Ask Dingan.' Dingan was one of our native servants--the one we +respected most, as he had been with my husband for nearly twelve +years--ever since, in fact, he had settled in Assam. 'The mango tree, +mem-sahib!' Dingan exclaimed, when I approached him on the subject, 'the +mango tree on the Yuka Road, just before you get to the bridge over the +river? I know it well. We call it "the devil tree," mem-sahib. No other +tree will grow near it. There is a spirit peculiar to certain trees that +lives in its branches, and persuades anyone who ventures within a few +feet of it, either to kill themselves, or to kill other people. I have +seen three men from this village alone, hanging to its accursed +branches; they were left there till the ropes rotted and the jackals +bore them off to the jungles. Three suicides have I seen, and three +murders--two were women, strangers in these parts, and they were both +lying within the shadow of the mango's trunk, with the backs of their +heads broken in like eggs! It is a thrice-accursed tree, mem-sahib.' +Needless to say, I agreed with Dingan, and in future gave the mango a +wide berth." + +Vagrarians, tree devils (a type of vice elemental), and phantasms of +dead trees are some of the occult horrors that haunt woods, and, in +fact, the whole country-side! Added to these, there are the fauns and +satyrs, those queer creatures, undoubtedly vagrarians, half-man and +half-goat, that are accredited by the ancients with much merry-making, +and grievous to add, much lasciviousness. Of these spirits there is +mention in Scripture, namely, Isaiah xiii. 21, where we read: "And their +houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, +and satyrs shall dance there"; and in Baddeley's _Historical +Meditations_, published about the beginning of the seventeenth century, +there is a description by Plutarch, of a satyr captured by Sulla, when +the latter was on his way from Dyrrachium to Brundisium. The creature, +which appears to have been very material, was found asleep in a park +near Apollonia. On being led into the presence of Sulla, it commenced +speaking in a harsh voice that was an odd mixture of the neighing of a +horse and the crying of a goat. As neither Sulla nor any of his +followers could understand in the slightest degree what the monstrosity +meant, they let it go, nor is there any further reference to it. + +Now, granted that this account is not "faked," and that such a beast +actually did exist, it would naturally suggest to one that vagrarians, +pixies, and other grotesque forms of phantasms are, after all, only the +spirits of similar types of material life, and that, in all +probability, the earth, contemporary with prehistoric, and even +later-day man, fairly swarmed with such creatures. However, this, like +everything else connected with these early times, is merely a matter of +speculation. Another explanatory theory is, that possibly superphysical +phenomena were much more common formerly than now, and that the various +types of sub-human and sub-animal apparitions (which were then +constantly seen by the many, but which are now only visible to the few) +have been handed down to us in the likeness of satyrs and fauns. Anyhow, +I think they may be rightly classified in the category of vagrarians. +The association of spirits with trees is pretty nearly universal. In the +fairy tales of youth we have frequent allusions to them. In the +Caucasus, where the population is not of Slavonic origin, we have +innumerable stories of sacred trees, and in each of these stones the +main idea is the same--namely, that a human life is dependent on the +existence of a tree. In Slavonic mythology, plants as well as trees are +magnets for spirits, and in the sweet-scented pinewoods, in the dark, +lonely pinewoods, dwell "psipolnitza," or female goblins, who plague the +harvesters; and "lieshi," or forest male demons, closely allied to +satyrs. In Iceland there was a pretty superstition to the effect that, +when an innocent person was put to death, a sorb or mountain ash would +spring over their grave. In Teutonic mythology the sorb is supposed to +take the form of a lily or white rose, and, on the chairs of those about +to die, one or other of these flowers is placed by unseen hands. White +lilies, too, are emblematic of innocence, and have a knack of +mysteriously shooting up on the graves of those who have been unjustly +executed. Surely this would be the work of a spirit, as, also, would be +the action of the Eglantine, which is so charmingly illustrated in the +touching story of Tristram and Yseult. Tradition says that from the +grave of Tristram there sprang an eglantine which twined about the +statue of the lovely Yseult, and, despite the fact of its being thrice +cut down, grew again, ever embracing the same fair image. Among the +North American Indians there was, and maybe still is, a general belief +that the spirits of those who died, naturally reverted to trees--to the +great pines of the mountain forests--where they dwelt for ever amid the +branches. The Indians believed also that the spirits of certain trees +walked at night in the guise of beautiful women. Lucky Indians! Would +that my experience of the forest phantasms had been half so entrancing. +The modern Greeks, Australian bushmen, and natives of the East Indies, +like myself, only see the ugly side of the superphysical, for the +spirits that haunt their vegetation are irredeemably ugly, horribly +terrifying, and fiendishly vindictive. + +The idea that the dead often passed into trees is well illustrated in +the classics. For example, Æneas, in his wanderings, strikes a tree, and +is half-frightened out of his wits by a great spurt of blood. A hollow +voice, typical of phantasms and apparently proceeding from somewhere +within the trunk, then begs him to desist, going on to explain that the +tree is not an ordinary tree but the metamorphosed soul of an unlucky +wight called Polydorus, (he must have been unlucky, if only to have had +such a name). Needless to say, Æneas, who was strictly a gentleman in +spite of his aristocratic pretensions, at once dropped his axe and +showed his sympathy for the poor tree-bound spirit in an abundant flow +of tears, which must have satisfied, even, Polydorus. There is a very +similar story in Swedish folk-lore. A voice in a tree addressed a man, +who was about to cut it down, with these words, "Friend, hew me not!" +But the man on this occasion was not a gentleman, and, instead of +complying with the modest request, only plied his axe the more heartily. +To his horror--a just punishment for his barbarity--there was a most +frightful groan of agony, and out from the hole he had made in the +trunk, rushed a fountain of blood, real human blood. What happened then +I cannot say, but I imagine that the woodcutter, stricken with remorse, +whipped up his bandana from the ground, and did all that lay in his +power--though he had not had the advantages of lessons in first aid--to +stop the bleeding. One cannot help being amused at these marvellous +stories, but, after all, they are not very much more wonderful than many +of one's own ghostly experiences. At any rate, they serve to illustrate +how widespread and venerable is the belief that trees--trees, perhaps, +in particular--are closely associated with the occult. + +Pixies! What are pixies? That they are not the dear, delightful, quaint +little people Shakespeare so inimitably portrays in the _Midsummer +Night's Dream_, is, I fear, only too readily acknowledged. I am told +that they may be seen even now, and I know those who say that they have +seen them, but that they are the mere shadows of those dainty creatures +that used to gambol in the moonshine and help the poor and weary in +their household work. The present-day pixies, whom I am loath to imagine +are the descendants of the old-world pixies--though, of course, on the +other hand, they may be merely degenerates, a much more pleasant +alternative--are I think still to be occasionally encountered in lonely, +isolated districts; such, for instance, as the mountains in the West of +Ireland, the Hebrides, and other more or less desolate islands, and on +one or two of the Cornish hills and moors. + +Like most phantasms, the modern pixies are silent and elusive. They +appear and disappear with equal abruptness, contenting themselves with +merely gliding along noiselessly from rock to rock, or from bush to +bush. Dainty they are not, pretty they are not, and in stature only do +they resemble the pixie of fairy tales; otherwise they are true +vagrarians, grotesque and often harrowing. + +In my _Ghostly Phenomena_ I have given one or two accounts of their +appearance in the West of England, but the nearest approach to pixies +that I have myself seen, were phantasms that appeared to me, in 1903, on +the Wicklow Hills, near Bray. I was out for a walk on the afternoon of +Thursday, May 18; the weather was oppressive, and the grey, lowering sky +threatened rain, a fact which accounted for the paucity of pedestrians. +Leaving my temporary headquarters, at Bray, at half-past one, I arrived +at a pretty village close to the foot of the hills and immediately began +the ascent. Selecting a deviating path that wound its way up gradually, +I, at length, reached the summit of the ridge. + +On and on I strolled, careless of time and distance, until a sudden +dryness in my throat reminded me it must be about the hour at which I +generally took tea. I turned round and began to retrace my steps +homeward. The place was absolutely deserted; not a sign of a human being +or animal anywhere, and the deepest silence. I had come to the brink of +a slight elevation when, to my astonishment, I saw in the tiny plateau +beneath, three extraordinary shapes. Standing not more than two feet +from the ground, they had the most perfectly proportioned bodies of +human beings, but monstrous heads; their faces had a leadish blue hue, +like that of corpses; their eyes were wide open and glassy. They glided +along slowly and solemnly in Indian file, their grey, straggling hair +and loose white clothes rustling in the breeze; and on arriving at a +slight depression in the ground, they sank and sank, until they entirely +disappeared from view. I then descended from my perch, and made a +thorough examination of the spot where they had vanished. It was firm, +hard, caked soil, without hole or cover, or anything in which they could +possibly have hidden. I was somewhat shocked, as indeed I always am +after an encounter with the superphysical, but not so much shocked as I +should have been had the phantasms been bigger. I visited the same spot +subsequently, but did not see another manifestation. + +To revert to trees--fascinating, haunting trees. Much credulity was at +one time attached to the tradition that the tree on which Jesus Christ +was crucified was an aspen, and that, thenceforth, all aspens were +afflicted with a peculiar shivering. Botanists, scientists, and +matter-of-fact people of all sorts pooh-pooh this legend, as, indeed, +many people nowadays pooh-pooh the very existence of Christ. But +something--you may call it intuition--I prefer to call it my Guardian +Spirit--bids me believe both; and I do believe as much in the tradition +of the aspen as in the existence of Christ. Moreover, this intuition or +influence--the work of my Guardian Spirit--whether dealing with things +psychical, psychological, or physical has never yet failed me. If it +warns me of the presence of a phantasm, I subsequently experience some +kind or other of spiritual phenomenon; if it bids me beware of a person, +I am invariably brought to discover later on that that person's +intentions have been antagonistic to me; and if it causes me to deter +from travelling by a certain route, or on a certain day, I always +discover afterwards that it was a very fortunate thing for me that I +abided by its warning. That is why I attach great importance to the +voice of my Guardian Spirit; and that is why, when it tells me that, +despite the many obvious discrepancies and absurdities in the +Scriptures, despite the character of the Old Testament God--who repels +rather than attracts me--despite all this, there was a Jesus Christ who +actually was a great and benevolent Spirit, temporarily incarnate, and +who really did suffer on the Cross in the manner described in +subsequent MSS.,--I believe it all implicitly. I back the still, small +voice of my Guardian Spirit against all the arguments scepticism can +produce. + +Very good, then. I believe in the existence and spirituality of Jesus +Christ because of the biddings of my Guardian Spirit, and, for the very +same reason, I attach credence to the tradition of the quivering of the +aspen. The sceptic accounts for the shaking of this tree by showing that +it is due to a peculiar formation in the structure of the aspen's +foliage. This may be so, but that peculiarity of structure was created +immediately after Christ's crucifixion, and was created as a memento, +for all time, of one of the most unpardonable murders on record. + +There is something especially weird, too, in the ash; something that +suggests to my mind that it is particularly susceptible to superphysical +influences. I have often sat and listened to its groaning, and more than +once, at twilight, perceived the filmy outline of some fantastic figure +writhed around its slender trunk. + +John Timbs, F.S.A., in his book of _Popular Errors_, published by +Crosby, Lockwood & Co. in 1880, quotes from a letter, dated 7th July +1606, thus: "It is stated that at Brampton, near Gainsborough, in +Lincolnshire, 'an ash tree shaketh in body and boughs thereof, sighing +and groaning like a man troubled in his sleep, as if it felt some +sensible torment. Many have climbed to the top of it, who heard the +groans more easily than they could below. But one among the rest, being +on the top thereof, spake to the tree; but presently came down much +aghast, and lay grovelling on the earth, three hours speechless. In the +end reviving, he said: "Brampton, Brampton, thou art much bound to +pray!"' The Earl of Lincoln caused one of the arms of the ash to be +lopped off and a hole bored through the body, and then was the sound, or +hollow voice, heard more audibly than before, but in a kind of speech +which they could not comprehend. This is the second wonderful ash +produced by past ages in this district--according to tradition, +Ethelreda's budding staff having shot out into the first." So says the +letter, and from my own experience of the ash, I am quite ready to +accredit it with special psychic properties, though I cannot state I +have ever heard it speak. + +I believe it attracts phantasms in just the same way as do certain +people, myself included, and certain kinds of furniture. Its groanings +at night have constantly attracted, startled, and terrified me; they +have been quite different to the sounds I have heard it make in the +daytime; and often I could have sworn that, when I listened to its +groanings, I was listening to the groanings of some dying person, and, +what is more harrowing still, to some person I knew. + +I have heard it said, too, that the most ghastly screams and gurgles +have been heard proceeding from the ash trees planted in or near the +site of murders or suicides, and as I sit here writing, a scene opens +before me, and I can see a plain with one solitary tree--an +ash--standing by a pool of water, on the margin of which are three +clusters of reeds. Dark clouds scud across the sky, and the moon only +shows itself at intervals. It is an intensely wild and lonely spot, and +the cold, dank air blowing across the barren wastes renders it all the +more inhospitable. No one, no living thing, no object is visible save +the ash. Suddenly it moves its livid trunk, sways violently, +unnaturally, backwards and forwards--once, twice, thrice; and there +comes from it a cry, a most piercing, agonising cry, half human, half +animal, that dies away in a wail and imparts to the atmosphere a +sensation of ice. I can hear the cry as I sit here writing; my memory +rehearses it; it was one of the most frightful, blood-curdling, hellish +sounds I ever endured; and the scene was on the Wicklow hills in +Ireland. + +The narcotic plant, the mandrake, is also credited with groaning, though +I cannot say I have ever heard it. Though there is nothing particularly +psychic about the witch-hazel, in the hands of certain people who are +mediumistic, it will indicate the exact spot where water lies under the +ground. The people who possess this faculty of discovering the locality +of water by means of the hazel, are named dowsers, and my only wonder is +that their undeniably useful faculty is not more cultivated and +developed. + +To my mind, there is no limit to the possibilities suggested by this +faculty; for surely, if one species of tree possesses attraction for a +certain object in nature, there can be no reason why other species of +trees should not possess a similar attraction for other objects in +nature. And if they possess this attraction for the physical, why not +for the superphysical--why, indeed, should not "ghosts" come within the +radius of their magnetism? + +The palm and sycamore trees have invariably been associated with the +spiritual, and made use of symbolically, as the tree of life. An +illustration, on a stele in the Berlin Museum, depicts a palm tree from +the stem of which proceeds two arms, one administering to a figure, +kneeling below, the fruit or bread of life; the other, pouring from a +vase the water of life. + +On another, a later Egyptian stele, the tree of life is the sycamore. +There is no doubt that the Egyptians and Assyrians regarded these two +trees as susceptible only to good psychic influences, they figure so +frequently in illustrations of the benevolent deities. Nor were the Jews +and Christians behind in their recognition of the extraordinary +properties of these two trees, especially the palm. We find it +symbolically introduced in the decoration of Solomon's Temple--on the +walls, furniture, and vessels; whilst in Christian mosaics it figures as +the tree of life in Paradise (_vide_ Rev. xxii. 1, 2, and in the apsis +of S. Giovanni Laterans). It is even regarded as synonymous with Jesus +Christ, as may be seen in the illuminated frontispiece to an +_Evangelium_ in the library of the British Museum, where the symbols of +the four Evangelists, placed over corresponding columns of lessons from +their gospels, are portrayed looking up to a palm tree, rising from the +earth, on the summit of which is a cross, with the symbolical letters +alpha and omega suspended from its arms. + +I am, of course, only speaking from my own experience, but this much I +can vouch for, that I have never heard of a palm tree being haunted by +an evil spirit, whereas I have heard of several cases in which palm +leaves or crosses cut from palms have been used, and apparently with +effect, as preventives of injuries caused by malevolent occult +demonstrations; and were I forced to spend a night in some lonely +forest, I think I should prefer, viewing the situation entirely from the +standpoint of psychical possibilities, that that forest should be +composed partly or wholly of palms. + +Before concluding this chapter, I must make a brief allusion to another +type of spirit--the BARROWVIAN--that resembles the vagrarian and pixie, +inasmuch as it delights in lonely places. Whenever I see a barrow, +tumulus or druidical, circle, I scent the probability of +phantasms--phantasms of a peculiar sort. Most ancient burial-places are +haunted, and haunted by two species of the same genus: the one, the +spirits of whatever prehistoric forms of animal life lie buried there; +and the other, grotesque phantasms, often very similar to vagrarians in +appearance, but with distinct ghoulish propensities and an inveterate +hatred to living human beings. In my _Ghostly Phenomena_ I have referred +to the haunting of a druidical circle in the North of England, and also +to the haunting of a house I once rented in Cornwall, near Castle on +Dinas, by barrowvians; I have heard, too, of many cases of a like +nature. I have, of course, often watched all night, near barrows or +cromlechs, without any manifestations taking place; sometimes, even, +without feeling the presence of the Unknown, though these occasions have +been rare. At about two o'clock one morning, when I was keeping my vigil +beside a barrow in the South of England, I saw a phenomenon in the shape +of a hand--only a hand, a big, misty, luminous blue hand, with long +crooked fingers. I could, of course, only speculate as to the owner of +the hand, and I must confess that I postponed that speculation till I +was safe and sound, and bathed in sunshine, within the doors of my own +domicile. + +Hauntings of this type generally occur where excavations have been made, +a barrow broken into, or a dolmen removed; the manifestations generally +taking the form of phantasms of the dead, the prehistoric dead. But +phenomena that are seen there are, more often than not, things that bear +little or no resemblance to human beings; abnormally tall, thin things +with small, bizarre heads, round, rectangular, or cone-shaped, sometimes +semi- or wholly animal, and always expressive of the utmost malignity. +Occasionally, in fact I might say often, the phenomena are entirely +bestial--such, for example, as huge, blue, or spotted dogs, shaggy +bears, and monstrous horses. Houses, built on or near the site of such +burial-places, are not infrequently disturbed by strange noises, and the +manifestations, when materialised, usually take one or other of these +forms. In cases of this kind I have found that exorcism has little or no +effect; or, if any, it is that the phenomena become even more emphatic. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +COMPLEX HAUNTINGS AND OCCULT BESTIALITIES + + +What are occult bestialities? Are they the spirits of human beings who, +when inhabiting material bodies, led thoroughly criminal lives; are they +the phantasms of dead beasts--cats and dogs, etc.; or are they things +that were never carnate? I think they may be either one or the +other--that any one of these alternatives is admissible. There is a +house, for example, in a London square, haunted by the apparition of a +nude woman with long, yellow, curly hair and a pig's face. There is no +mistaking the resemblance--eyes, snout, mouth, jaw, jowls, all are +piggish, and the appearance of the thing is hideously suggestive of all +that is bestial. What, then, is it? From the fact that in all +probability a very sensuous, animal-minded woman once lived in the +house, I am led to suppose that this may be her phantasm--or--one only +of her many phantasms. And in this latter supposition lies much food for +reflection. The physical brain, as we know, consists of multitudinous +cells which we may reasonably take to be the homes of our respective +faculties. Now, as each material cell has its representative immaterial +inhabitant, so each immaterial inhabitant has its representative +phantasm. Thus each representative phantasm, on the dissolution of the +material brain, would be either earth-bound or promoted to the higher +spiritual plane. Hence, one human being may be represented by a score of +phantasms, and it is quite possible for a house to be haunted by many +totally different phenomena of the same person. I know, for instance, of +a house being subjected to the hauntings of a dog, a sensual-looking +priest, the bloated shape of an indescribable something, and a +ferocious-visaged sailor. It had had, prior to my investigation, only +one tenant, a notorious rake and glutton; no priest or sailor had ever +been known to enter the house; and so I concluded the many apparitions +were but phantasms of the same person--phantasms of his several, +separate, and distinct personalities. He had brutal tendencies, +sacerdotal (not spiritual) tendencies, gluttonous, and nautical +tendencies, and his whole character being dominated by carnal cravings, +on the dissolution of his material body each separate tendency would +remain earth-bound, represented by the phantasm most closely resembling +it. I believe this theory may explain many dual hauntings, and it holds +good with regard to the case I have quoted, the case of the apparition +with the pig's head. The ghost need not necessarily have been the spirit +of a dead woman _in toto_, but merely the phantasm of one of her grosser +personalities; her more spiritual personalities, represented by other +phantasms, having migrated to the higher plane. Let me take, as another +example, the case which I personally investigated, and which interested +me deeply. The house was then haunted (and, as far as I know to the +contrary, is still haunted) by a blurred figure, suggestive of something +hardly human and extremely nasty, that bounded up the stairs two steps +at a time; by a big, malignant eye--only an eye--that appeared in one of +the top rooms; and by a phantasm resembling a lady in distinctly modern +costume. The house is old, and as, according to tradition, some crime +was committed within its walls many years ago, the case may really be an +instance of separate hauntings--the bounding figure and the eye (the +latter either belonging to the figure or to another phantasm) being the +phantasms of the principal, or principals, in the ancient tragedy; the +lady, either the phantasm of someone who died there comparatively +recently, or of someone still alive, who consciously, or unconsciously, +projects her superphysical ego to that spot. On the other hand, the +three different phenomena might be three different phantasms of one +person, that person being either alive or dead--for one can +unquestionably, at times, project phantasms of one's various +personalities before physical dissolution. The question of occult +phenomena, one may thus see, is far more complex than it would appear to +be at first sight, and naturally so,--the whole of nature being complex +from start to finish. Just as minerals are not composed of one atom but +of countless atoms, so the human brain is not constituted of one cell +but of many; and as with the material cerebrum, so with the +immaterial--hence the complexity. With regard to the phenomena of +superphysical bestialities such as dogs, bears, etc., it is almost +impossible to say whether the phantasm would be that of a dead person, +or rather that representing one of some dead person's several +personalities--the phantasm of a genuine animal, of a vagrarian, or of +some other type of elemental. + +One can only surmise the identity of such phantasms, after becoming +acquainted with the history of the locality in which such manifestations +appear. The case to which I referred in my previous works, _Some Haunted +Houses of England and Wales_, and _Ghostly Phenomena_, namely, that of +the apparition of a nude man being seen outside an unused burial-ground +in Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, furnishes a good example of +alternatives. Near to the spot, at least within two or three hundred +yards of it, was a barrow, close to which a sacrificial stone had been +unearthed; consequently the phantasm may have been a barrowvian; and +again, as the locality is much wooded and but thinly populated, it may +have been a vagrarian; and again, the burial-ground being in such close +proximity, the apparition may well have been the phantasm of one of the +various personalities of a human being interred there. + +One night, as I was sitting reading alone in an isolated cottage on the +Wicklow hills, I was half-startled out of my senses by hearing a loud, +menacing cry, half-human and half-animal, and apparently in mid-air, +directly over my head. I looked up, and to my horror saw suspended, a +few feet above me, the face of a Dalmatian dog--of a long since dead +Dalmatian dog, with glassy, expressionless eyes, and yellow, gaping +jaws. The phenomenon did not last more than half a minute, and with its +abrupt disappearance came a repetition of the cry. What was it? I +questioned the owner of the cottage, and she informed me she had always +had the sensation something uncanny walked the place at night, but had +never seen anything. "One of my children did, though," she added; +"Mike--he was drowned at sea twelve months ago. Before he became a +sailor he lived with me here, and often used to see a dog--a big, +spotted cratur, like what we called a plum-pudding dog. It was a nasty, +unwholesome-looking thing, he used to tell me, and would run round and +round his room--the room where you sleep--at night. Though a bold enough +lad as a rule, the thing always scared him; and he used to come and tell +me about it, with a face as white as linen--'Mother!' he would say, 'I +saw the spotted cratur again in the night, and I couldn't get as much as +a wink of sleep.' He would sometimes throw a boot at it, and always with +the same result--the boot would go right through it." She then told me +that a former tenant of the house, who had borne an evil reputation in +the village--the peasants unanimously declaring she was a witch--had +died, so it was said, in my room. "But, of course," she added, "it +wasn't her ghost that Mike saw." Here I disagreed with her. However, if +she could not come to any conclusion, neither could I; for though, of +course, the dog may have been the earth-bound spirit of some +particularly carnal-minded occupant of the cottage--or, in other words, +a phantasm representing one of that carnal-minded person's several +personalities,--it may have been the phantasm of a vagrarian, of a +barrowvian, or, of some other kind of elemental, attracted to the spot +by its extreme loneliness, and the presence there, unsuspected by man, +of some ancient remains, either human or animal. Occult dogs are very +often of a luminous, semi-transparent bluish-grey--a bluish-grey that is +common to many other kinds of superphysical phenomena, but which I have +never seen in the physical world. + +I have heard of several houses in Westmoreland and Devon, always in the +vicinity of ancient burial-places, being haunted by blue dogs, and +sometimes by blue dogs without heads. Indeed, headless apparitions of +all sorts are by no means uncommon. A lady, who is well known to me, had +a very unpleasant experience in a house in Norfolk, where she was +awakened one night by a scratching on her window-pane, which was some +distance from the ground, and, on getting out of bed to see what was +there, perceived the huge form of a shaggy dog, without a head, pressed +against the glass. + +Fortunately for my informant, the manifestation was brief. The height of +the window from the ground quite precluded the possibility of the +apparition being any natural dog, and my friend was subsequently +informed that what she had seen was one of the many headless phantasms +that haunted the house. Of course, it does not follow that because one +does not actually see a head, a head is not objectively there--it may be +very much there, only not materialised. A story of one of these +seemingly headless apparitions was once told me by a Mrs Forbes du Barry +whom I met at Lady D.'s house in Eaton Square. I remember the at-home to +which I refer, particularly well, as the entertainment on that occasion +was entirely entrusted to Miss Lilian North, who as a reciter and +raconteur is, in my opinion, as far superior to any other reciter and +raconteur as the stars are superior to the earth. Those who have not +heard her stories, have not listened to her eloquent voice--that appeals +not merely to the heart, but to the soul--are to be pitied. But there--I +am digressing. Let me proceed. It was, I repeat, on the soul-inspiring +occasion above mentioned that I was introduced to Mrs Forbes du Barry, +who must be held responsible for the following story. + +"I was reading one of your books the other day, Mr O'Donnell," she +began, "and some of your experiences remind me of one of my own--one +that occurred to me many years ago, when I was living in Worthing, in +the old part of the town, not far from where the Public Library now +stands. Directly after we had taken the house, my husband was ordered to +India. However, he did not expect to be away for long, so, as I was not +in very good health just then, I did not go with him, but remained with +my little boy, Philip, in Worthing. Besides Philip and myself, my +household only consisted of a nursery-governess, cook, housemaid, and +kitchen-maid. The hauntings began before we had been in our new quarters +many days. We all heard strange noises, scratchings, and whinings, and +the servants complained that often, when they were at meals, something +they could not see, but which they could swear was a dog, came sniffing +round them, jumping up and placing its invisible paws on their lap. +Often, too, when they were in bed the same thing entered their room, +they said, and jumped on the top of them. They were all very much +frightened, and declared that if the hauntings continued they would not +be able to stay in the house. Of course, I endeavoured to laugh away +their fears, but the latter were far too deeply rooted, and I myself, +apart from the noises I had heard, could not help feeling that there was +some strangely unpleasant influence in the house. The climax was brought +about by Philip. One afternoon, hearing him cry very loudly in the +nursery, I ran upstairs to see what was the matter. On the landing +outside the nursery I narrowly avoided a collision with the governess, +who came tearing out of the room, her eyes half out of her head with +terror, and her cheeks white as a sheet. She said nothing--and indeed +her silence was far more impressive than words--but, rushing past me, +flung herself downstairs, half a dozen steps at a time, and ran into the +garden. In an agony of fear--for I dreaded to think what had happened--I +burst into the nursery, and found Philip standing on the bed, +frantically beating the air with his hands. 'Take it away--oh, take it +away!' he cried; 'it is a horrid dog; it has no head!' Then, seeing me, +he sprang down and, racing up to me, leaped into my open arms. As he did +so, something darted past and disappeared through the open doorway. It +was a huge greyhound without a head! I left the house the next day--I +was fortunately able to sublet it--and went to Bournemouth. But, do you +know, Mr O'Donnell, that dog followed us! Wherever we went it went too, +nor did it ever leave Philip till his death, which took place in Egypt +on his twenty-first birthday. Now, what do you think of that?" + +"I think," I replied, "that the phantasm was very probably that of a +real dog, and that it became genuinely attached to your son. I do not +think it was headless, but that, for some reason unknown for the +present, its head never materialised. What was the history of the +house?" + +"It had no history as far as I could gather," Mrs Forbes du Barry said. +"A lady once lived there who was devoted to dogs, but no one thinks she +ever had a greyhound." + +"Then," I replied thoughtfully, "it is just possible that the headless +dog was the phantasm of the lady herself, or, at least, of one of her +personalities!" + +Mrs du Barry appeared somewhat shocked, and I adroitly changed the +conversation. However, I should not be at all surprised if this were the +case. + +The improbability of any ancient remains being interred under or near +the house, precludes the idea of barrowvians, whilst the thickly +populated nature of the neighbourhood and the entire absence of +loneliness, renders the possibility of vagrarians equally unlikely. That +being so, one only has to consider the possibility of its being a vice +elemental attracted to the house by the vicious lives and thoughts of +some former occupant, and I am, after all, inclined to favour the theory +that the phantasm was the phantasm of the old dog-loving lady herself, +attaching itself in true canine fashion to the child Philip. + +The most popular animal form amongst spirits--the form assumed by them +more often than any other--is undoubtedly the dog. I hear of the occult +dog more often than of any other occult beast, and in many places there +is yet a firm belief that the souls of the wicked are chained to this +earth in the shape of monstrous dogs. According to Mr Dyer, in his +_Ghost World_, a man who hanged himself at Broomfield, near Salisbury, +manifested himself in the guise of a huge black dog; whilst the Lady +Howard of James I.'s reign, for her many misdeeds, not the least of +which was getting rid of her husbands, was, on her death, transformed +into a hound and compelled to run every night, between midnight and +cock-crow, from the gateway of Fitzford, her former residence, to +Oakhampton Park, and bring back to the place, from whence she started, a +blade of grass in her mouth; and this penance she is doomed to continue +till every blade of grass is removed from the park, which feat she will +not be able to effect till the end of the world. Mr Dyer also goes on to +say that in the hamlet of Dean Combe, Devon, there once lived a weaver +of great fame and skill, who the day after his death was seen sitting +working away at the loom as usual. A parson was promptly fetched, and +the following conversation took place. + +"Knowles!" the parson commanded (not without, I shrewdly suspect, some +fear), "come down! This is no place for thee!" "I will!" said the +weaver, "as soon as I have worked out my quill." "Nay," said the vicar, +"thou hast been long enough at thy work; come down at once." The spirit +then descended, and, on being pelted with earth and thrown on the ground +by the parson, was converted into a black hound, which apparently was +its ultimate shape. + +Some years ago, Mr Dyer says, there was an accident in a Cornish mine +whereby several men lost their lives, and, rather than that their +relatives should be shocked at the sight of their mangled remains, some +bystander, with all the best intentions in the world, threw the bodies +into a fire, with the result that the mine has ever since been haunted +by a troop of little black dogs. + +According to the _Book of Days_, ii. p. 433, there is a widespread +belief in most parts of England in a spectral dog, "large, shaggy, and +black," but not confined to any one particular species. This phantasm is +believed to haunt localities that have witnessed crimes, and also to +foretell catastrophes. The Lancashire people, according to Harland and +Wilkinson in their _Lancashire Folk-lore_, call it the "stuker" and +"trash": the latter name being given it on account of its heavy, +slopping walk; and the former appellation from its curious screech, +which is a sure indication of some approaching death or calamity. To the +peasantry of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire it is known as "the shuck," an +apparition that haunts churchyards and other lonely places. In the Isle +of Man a similar kind of phantasm, called "the Mauthe dog," was said to +walk Peel Castle; whilst many of the Welsh lanes--particularly that +leading from Mowsiad to Lisworney Crossways--are, according to Wirt +Sikes' _British Goblins_, haunted by the gwyllgi, a big black dog of the +most terrifying aspect. + +Cases of hauntings by packs of spectral hounds have from time to time +been reported from all parts of the United Kingdom; but mostly from +Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, Wales, Devon, and +Cornwall. In the northern districts they are designated "Gabriel's +hounds"; in Devon, "the Wisk, Yesk, or Heath hounds"; in Wales, "the Cwn +Annwn or Cwn y Wybr" (see Dyer's _Ghost World_); and in Cornwall, "the +devil and his dandy dogs." My own experiences fully coincide with the +traditional belief that the dog is a very common form of spirit +phenomena; but I can only repeat (the same remark applying to other +animal manifestations), that it is impossible to decide with any degree +of certainty to what category of phantasms, in addition to the general +order of occult bestialities, the dog belongs. It seems quite +permissible to think that the spirits of ladies, with an absorbing mania +for canine pets, should be eventually earth-bound in the form of dogs--a +fate which many of the fair sex have assured me would be "absolutely +divine," and far preferable to the orthodox heaven. + +I cannot see why the shape of a dog should be appropriated by the less +desirable denizens of the occult world. But, that it is so, there is no +room to doubt, as the following illustration shows. As soon as the trial +of the infamous slaughterer X---- was over, and the verdict of death +generally known, a deep sigh of relief was heaved by the whole of +civilisation--saving, of course, those pseudo-humanitarians who always +pity murderers and women-beaters, and who, if the law was at all +sensible and just, should be hanged with their bestial _protégés_. From +all classes of men, I repeat, with the exception of those pernicious +cranks, were heard the ejaculations: "Well! he's settled. What a good +thing! I am glad! The world will be well rid of him!" + +Then I smiled. The world well rid of him! Would it be rid of him? Not if +I knew anything about occult phenomena. Indeed, the career on earth for +such an epicure in murder as X---- had only just begun; in fact, it +could hardly be said to begin till physical dissolution. The last +drop--that six feet or so plunge between grim scaffolding--might in the +case of some criminals, mere tyros at the trade, terminate for good +their connection with this material plane; but not, decidedly not, in +the case of this bosom comrade of vice elementals. + +From both a psychological and superphysical point of view the case had +interested me from the first. I had been anxious to see the man, for I +felt sure, even if he did not display any of the ordinary physiognomical +danger signals observable in many bestial criminals, there would +nevertheless be a something about or around him, that would immediately +warn as keen a student of the occult as myself of his close association +with the lowest order of phantasms. I was not, however, permitted an +interview, and so had to base my deductions upon the descriptions of him +given me, first hand, by two experts in psychology, and upon +photographs. In the latter I recognised--though not with the readiness +I should have done in the photo's living prototype--the presence of the +unknown brain, the grey, silent, stealthy, ever-watchful, ever-lurking +occult brain. As I gazed at his picture, as in a crystal, it faded away, +and I saw the material man sitting alone in his study before a glowing +fire. From out of him there crept a shadow, the shadow of something big, +bloated, and crawling. I could distinguish nothing further. On reaching +the door it paused, and I felt it was eyeing him--or rather his material +body--anxiously. Perhaps it feared lest some other shadow, equally +baleful, equally sly and subtle, would usurp its home. Its hesitation +was, however, but momentary, and, passing through the door, it glided +across the dimly lighted hall and out into the freedom of the open air. +Picture succeeding picture with great rapidity, I followed it as it +curled and fawned over the tombstones in more than one churchyard; moved +with a peculiar waddling motion through foul alleys, halting wherever +the garbage lay thickest, rubbed itself caressingly on the gory floors +of slaughter-houses, and finally entered a dark, empty house in a road +that, if not the Euston Road, was a road in every way resembling it. + +The atmosphere of the place was so suggestive of murder that my soul +sickened within me; and so much so, in fact, that when I saw several +grisly forms gliding down the gloomy staircases and along the sombre, +narrow passages, where X----'s immaterial personality was halting, +apparently to greet it, I could look no longer, but shut my eyes. For +some seconds I kept them closed, and, on re-opening them, found the +tableau had changed--the material body before the fire was re-animated, +and in the depths of the bleared, protruding eyes I saw the creeping, +crawling, waddling, enigmatical shadow vibrating with murder. Again the +scene changed, and I saw the physical man standing in the middle of a +bedroom, listening--listening with blanched face and slightly open +mouth, a steely glimmer of the superphysical, of the malignant, devilish +superphysical, in his dilated pupils. What he is anticipating I cannot +say, I dare not think--unless--unless the repetition of a scream; and it +comes--I cannot hear it, but I can feel it, feel the reverberation +through the crime-kissed walls and vicious, tainted atmosphere. + +Something is at the door--it presses against it; I can catch a glimpse +of its head, its face; my blood freezes--it is horrible. It enters the +room, grey and silent--it lays one hand on the man's sleeve and drags +him forward. He ascends to the room above, and, with all the brutality +of those accustomed to the dead and dying, drags the---- But I will not +go on. The grey unknown, the occult something, sternly issues its +directions, and the merely physical obeys them. It is all over; the plot +of the vice elementals has triumphed, and as they gleefully step away, +one by one, patting their material comrade on the shoulder, the +darkness, the hellish darkness of that infamous night lightens, and in +through the windows steal the cold grey beams of early morning. I am +assured; I have had enough; I pitch the photograph into the grate. The +evening comes--the evening after the execution. A feeling of the +greatest, the most unenviable curiosity urges me to go, to see if what I +surmise, will actually happen. I leave Gipsy Hill by an early afternoon +train, I spend a few hours at a literary club, I dine at a quiet--an +eminently quiet--restaurant in Oxford Street, and at eleven o'clock I am +standing near a spot which I believe--I have no positive proof--I merely +believe, was frequented by X----. It is more than twelve hours since he +was executed; will anything--will the shape, the personality, I +anticipate--come? The night air grows colder; I shrink deeper and deeper +into the folds of my overcoat, and wish--devoutly wish--myself back +again by my fireside. + +The minutes glide by slowly. The streets are very silent now. With the +exception of an occasional toot-toot from a taxi and the shrill whistle +of a goods train, no other sounds are to be heard. It is the hour when +nearly all material London sleeps and the streets are monopolised by +shadows, interspersed with something rather more substantial--namely, +policemen. A few yards away from me there slips by a man in a blue serge +suit; and then, tip-toeing surreptitiously behind him, with one hand in +his trousers-pocket and the other carrying a suspicious-looking black +bag, comes a white-faced young man, dressed in shabby imitation of a +West End swell; an ill-fitting frock-coat, which, even in the uncertain +flicker of the gas-lamps, pronounces itself to be ready made, and the +typical shopwalker's silk hat worn slightly on one side. Whether this +night bird goes through life on tiptoe, as many people do, or whether +he only adopts that fashion on this particular occasion, is a conundrum, +not without interest to students of character to whom a man's walk +denotes much. + +For a long time the street is deserted, and then a bedraggled figure in +a shawl, with a big paper parcel under her arm, shuffles noiselessly by +and disappears down an adjacent turning. Then there is another long +interval, interrupted by a pretentious clock sonorously sounding two. A +feeling of drowsiness creeps over me; my eyelids droop. I begin to lose +cognisance of my surroundings and to imagine myself in some far-away +place, when I am recalled sharply to myself by an intensely cold current +of air. Intuitively I recognise the superphysical; it is the same +species of cold which invariably heralds its approach. I have been right +in my surmises after all; this spot is destined to be haunted. My eyes +are wide enough open now, and every nerve in my body tingles with the +keenest expectation. Something is coming, and, if that something is not +the phantasm of him whom I believe is earthbound, whose phantasm is it? +There is a slight noise of scratching from somewhere close beside me. It +might have been the wind rustling the leaves against the masonry, or it +might have been--I look round and see nothing. The sound is repeated and +with the same result--NOTHING! A third time I heard it, and then from +the dark road on one side of me there waddles--I recognise the waddling +at once--a shadow that, gradually becoming a little more distinct, +develops into the rather blurry form of a dog--a gaunt, hungry-looking +mongrel. In a few seconds it stops short and looks at me with big +swollen eyes that glitter with a something that is not actually bestial +or savage, something strange yet not altogether strange, something +enigmatic yet not entirely enigmatic. I am nonplussed; it was, and yet +it was not, what I expected. With restless, ambling steps it slinks past +me, disappearing through the closed gate by my side. Then satisfied, yet +vaguely puzzled, I come away, wondering, wondering--wondering why on +earth dogs should thus be desecrated. + +Contrary to what one would imagine to be the case from the close +association of cats with witches and magic, phantasms in a feline form +are comparatively rare, and their appearance is seldom, if ever, as +repulsive as that of the occult dog. I have seen phantasm cats several +times, but, though they have been abnormally large and alarming, only +once--and I am anxious to forget that time--were they anything like as +offensive as many of the ghostly dogs that have manifested themselves to +me. In my _Haunted Houses of England and Wales_ I have given an instance +of dual haunting, in which one of the phenomena was a big black cat with +a fiendish expression in its eyes, but otherwise normal; and, _à propos_ +of cats, there now comes back to me a story I was once told in the Far +West--the Golden State of California. I was on my way back to England, +after a short but somewhat bitter absence, and I was staying for the +night at a small hotel in San Francisco. The man who related the +anecdote was an Australian, born and bred, on his way home to his +native land after many years' sojourn in Texas. I was sitting on the +sofa in the smoke-room reading, when he threw himself down in a chair +opposite me and we gradually got into conversation. It was late when we +began talking, and the other visitors, one by one, yawned, rose, and +withdrew to their bedrooms, until we found ourselves alone--absolutely +alone. The night was unusually dark and silent. + +Leaning over the little tile-covered table at which we sat, the stranger +suddenly said: "Do you see anything by me? Look hard." Much surprised at +his request, for I confess that up to then I had taken him for a very +ordinary kind of person, I looked, and, to my infinite astonishment and +awe, saw, floating in mid-air, about two yards from him, and on a level +with his chair, the shadowy outlines of what looked like an enormous +cat--a cat with very little hair and unpleasant eyes--decidedly +unpleasant eyes. My flesh crawled! + +"Well?" said the stranger--who, by-the-by, had called himself +Gallaher,--in very anxious tones, "Well--you don't seem in a hurry, nor +yet particularly pleased--what is it?" + +"A cat!" I gasped. "A cat--and a cat in mid-air!" + +The stranger swore. "D---- it!" he cried, dashing his fist on the table +with such force that the match-box flew a dozen or so feet up the +room--"Cuss! the infernal thing! I guessed it was near me, I could feel +its icy breath!" He glanced sharply round as he spoke, and hurled his +tobacco pouch at the shape. It passed right through it and fell with a +soft squash on the ground. Gallaher picked it up with an oath. "I will +tell you the history of that cat," he went on, as he resumed his seat, +"and a d----d queer history it is." + +Pouring himself out a bumper of whisky and refilling his pipe, he +cleared his throat and began: "As a boy I always hated cats--God knows +why--but the sight of a cat made me sick. I could not stand their soft, +sleek fur; nor their silly, senseless faces; nor their smell--the smell +of their skins, which most people don't seem able to detect. I could, +however; I could recognise that d----d scent a mile off, and could +always tell, without seeing it, when there was a cat in the house. If +any of the boys at school wanted to play me a trick they let loose half +a dozen mangy tabbies in our yard, or sent me a hideous 'Tom' trussed up +like a fowl in a hamper, or made cats' noises in the dead of night under +my window. Everyone in the village, from the baker to the bone-setter, +knew of my hatred of cats, and, consequently, I had many +enemies--chiefly amongst the old ladies. I must tell you, however, much +as I loathed and abominated cats, I never killed one. I threw stones and +sticks at them; I emptied jugs, and cans, and many pails of water on +them; I pelted them with turnips; I hurled cushions, bolsters, pillows, +anything I could first lay my hands on, at them; and"--here he cast a +furtive look at the shadow--"I have pinched and trodden on their tails; +but I have never killed one. When I grew up, my attitude towards them +remained the same, and wherever I went I won the reputation for being +the inveterate, the most poignantly inveterate, enemy of cats. + +"When I was about twenty-five, I settled in a part of Texas where there +were no cats. It was on a ranch in the upper valley of the Colorado. I +was cattle ranching, and having had a pretty shrewd knowledge of the +business before I left home, I soon made headway, and--between +ourselves, mate, for there are mighty 'tough uns' in these town +hotels--a good pile of dollars. I never had any of the adventures that +befall most men out West, never but once, and I am coming to that right +away. + +"I had been selling some hundred head of cattle and about the same +number of hogs, at a town some twenty or so miles from my ranch, and +feeling I would like a bit of excitement, after so many months of +monotony--the monotony of the desert life--I turned into the theatre--a +wooden shanty--where a company of touring players, mostly Yankees, were +performing. Sitting next to me was a fellow who speedily got into +conversation with me and assured me he was an Australian. I did not +believe him, for he had not the cut of an Australian,--until he +mentioned one or two of the streets I knew in Adelaide, and that settled +me. We drank to each other's health straight away, and he invited me to +supper at his hotel. I accepted; and as soon as the performance was +over, and we had exchanged greetings with some half-dozen of the +performers, in whisky, he slipped his arm through mine and we strolled +off together. Of course it was very foolish of me, seeing that I had a +belt full of money; but then I had not had an outing for a long time, +and I thirsted for adventure as I thirsted for whisky, and God alone +knows how much of THAT I had already drunk. We arrived at the hotel. It +was a poor-looking place in a sinister neighbourhood, abounding with +evil-eyed Dagos and cut-throats of all kinds. Still I was young and +strong, and well armed, for I never left home in those days without a +six-shooter. My companion escorted me into a low room in the rear of the +premises, smelling villainously of foul tobacco and equally foul +alcohol. Some half-cooked slices of bacon and suspicious-looking fried +eggs were placed before us, which, with huge hunks of bread and a bottle +of very much belabelled--too much belabelled--Highland whisky, completed +the repast. But it was too unsavoury even for my companion, whose hungry +eyes and lantern jaws proclaimed he had a ravenous appetite. However, he +ate the bacon and I the bread; the eggs we emptied into a flower-pot. +The supper--the supper of which he had led me to think so much--over, we +filled our glasses, or at least he poured out for both, for his hands +were steadier--even in my condition of semi-intoxication I noticed they +were steadier--than mine. Then he brought me a cigar and took me to his +bedroom, a bare, grimy apartment overhead. There was no furniture, +saving a bed showing unmistakable signs that someone had been lying on +it in dirty boots, a small rectangular deal table, and one chair. + +"In a stupefied condition I was hesitating which of the alternatives to +choose--the chair or the table, for, oddly enough, I never thought of +the bed, when my host settled the question by leading me forcibly +forward and flinging me down on the mattress. He then took a wooden +wedge out of his pocket, and, going to the door, thrust it in the crack, +giving the handle a violent tug to see whether the door stood the test. +'There now, mate,' he said with a grin--a grin that seemed to suggest +something my tipsy brain could not grasp, 'I have just shut us in snug +and secure so that we can chat away without fear of interruption. Let us +drink to a comfortable night's sleep. You will sleep sound enough here, +I can tell you!' He handed me a glass as he spoke. 'Drink!' he said with +a leer. 'You are not half an Australian if you cannot hold that! See!' +and pouring himself out a tumbler of spirits and water he was about to +gulp it down, when I uttered an ejaculation of horror. The light from +the single gas jet over his head, falling on his face as he lifted it up +to drink the whisky, revealed in his wide open, protruding pupils, the +reflection of a cat--I can swear it was a cat. Instantly my intoxication +evaporated and I scented danger. How was it I had not noticed before +that the man was a typical ruffian--a regular street-corner loiterer, +waiting, hawklike, to pounce upon and fleece the first well-to-do +looking stranger he saw. Of course I saw it all now like a flash of +lightning: he had seen me about the town during the earlier part of the +day, had found out I was there on business, that I was an Australian, +and one or two other things--it is surprising how soon one's affairs get +mooted in a small town,--and guessing I had the receipts of my sales on +my person, had decided to rob me. Accordingly, with this end in view, he +had followed me into the theatre, and, securing the seat next me, had +broken the ice by pretending he was an Australian. He had then plied me +with drink and brought me, already more than half drunk, to this +cut-throat den. And I owed the discovery to a cat! My first thought was +to feel for my revolver. I did, and found it was--gone. My hopes sank to +zero; for though I might have been more than a match for the wiry framed +stranger had we both been unarmed, I had not the slightest chance with +him were he armed, as he undoubtedly was, with my revolver as well as +his own. Though it takes some time to explain this, it all passed +through my mind in a few seconds--before he had finished drinking. 'Now, +mate!' he said, putting down his glass, the first WHOLE glass even of +whisky and water he had taken that night, 'that's my share, now for +yours.' + +"'Wait a bit!' I stammered, pretending to hiccough, 'wait a bit. I don't +feel that I can drink any more just yet! Maybe I will in a few minutes.' +We sat down, and I saw protruding from his hip pocket the butt end of a +revolver. If only I could get it! Determined to try, I edged slightly +towards him. He immediately drew away, a curious, furtive, bestial smile +lurking in the corner of his lips. I casually repeated the manoeuvre, +and he just as casually repeated his. Then I glanced at the window--the +door I knew was hopeless,--and it was iron barred. I gazed again at the +man, and his eyes grinned evilly as they met mine. Without a doubt he +meant to murder me. The ghastliness of my position stunned me. Even if I +shrieked for help, who would hear me save desperadoes, in all +probability every whit as ready as my companion to kill me. + +"A hideous stupor now began to assert itself, and as I strained to keep +my lids from closing, I watched with a thrill of terror a fiendish look +of expectancy creep into the white, gleaming face of the stranger. I +realised, only too acutely, that he was waiting for me to fall asleep so +as the more conveniently to rob and murder me. The man was a murderer by +instinct--his whole air suggested it--his very breath was impregnated +with the sickly desire to kill. Physically, he was the ideal assassin. +It was strange that I had not observed it before; but in this light, +this yellow, piercing glare, all the criminality of his features was +revealed with damning clearness: the high cheek-bones, the light, +protruding eyes, the abnormally developed forehead and temporal regions, +the small, weak chin, the grossly irregular teeth, the poisonous breath, +the club-shaped finger-tips and thick palms. Where could one find a +greater combination of typically criminal characteristics? The man was +made for destroying his fellow creatures. When would he begin his job +and how? + +"I am not narrow minded, I can recognise merit even in my enemies; and +though I was so soon to be his victim, I could not but admire the +thoroughly professional manner, indicative of past mastership, with +which he set about his business. So far all his plans, generated with +meteor-like quickness, had been successful; he was now showing how +devoted he was to his vocation, and how richly he appreciated the +situation, by abandoning himself to a short period of greedy, voluptuous +anticipation, fully expressed in his staring eyes and thinly lipped +mouth, before experiencing the delicious sensation of slitting my +windpipe and dismembering me. My drowsiness, which I verily believe was +in a great measure due to the peculiar fascination he had for me, +steadily increased, and it was only with the most desperate efforts, +egged on by the knowledge that my very existence depended on it, that I +could keep my eyelids from actually coming together and sticking fast. +At last they closed so nearly as to deceive my companion, who, rising +stealthily to his feet, showed his teeth in a broad grin of +satisfaction, and whipping from his coat pocket a glittering, +horn-handled knife, ran his dirty, spatulate thumb over the blade to see +if it was sharp. Grinning still more, he now tiptoed to the window, +pulled the blind as far down as it would go, and, after placing his ear +against the panel of the door to make sure no one was about, gaily spat +on his palms, and, with a soft, sardonic chuckle, crept slowly towards +me. Had he advanced with a war-whoop it would have made little or no +difference--the man and his atmosphere paralysed me--I was held in the +chair by iron bonds that swathed themselves round hands, and feet, and +tongue. I could neither stir nor utter a sound,--only look, look with +all the pent-up agonies of my soul through my burning, quivering +eye-lashes. A yard, a foot, an inch, and the perspiring fingers of his +left hand dexterously loosened the gaudy coloured scarf that hid my +throat. A second later and I felt them smartly transferred to my long, +curly hair. They tightened, and my neck was on the very verge of being +jerked back, when between my quivering eyelids I saw on the sheeny +surface of his bulging eye-balls,--the cat--the damnable, hated cat. The +effect was magical. A wave of the most terrific, the most ungovernable +fury surged through me. I struck out blindly, and one of my fists +alighting on the would-be murderer's face made him stagger back and drop +the knife. In an instant the weapon was mine, and ere he could draw his +six-shooter--for the suddenness of the encounter and my blow had +considerably dazed him--I had hurled myself upon him, and brought him to +the ground. + +"The force with which I had thrown him, together with my blow, had +stunned him, and I would have left him in that condition had it not been +for the cat--the accursed cat--that, peeping up at me from every +particle of his prostrate body, egged me on to kill him. My intense +admiration for his genius now manifested itself in the way in which I +imitated all his movements, from the visit to the door and window, to +the spitting on his palms; and with a grin--the nearest counterpart that +I could get, after prodigious efforts, to the one that so fascinated +me--I approached his recumbent figure, and, bending over it, removed his +neckerchief. I sat and admired the gently throbbing whiteness of his +throat for some seconds, and then, with a volley of execrations at the +cat, commenced my novel and by no means uninteresting work. I am afraid +I bungled it sadly, for I was disturbed when in the midst of it, by the +sound of scratching, the violent and frantic scratching, of some animal +on the upper panels of the door. The sound flustered me, and, my hand +shaking in consequence, I did not make such a neat job of it as I should +have liked. However, I did my best, and at all events I killed him; and +I enjoyed the supreme satisfaction of knowing that I had killed +him--killed the cat. But my joy was of short duration, and I now +bitterly regret my rash deed. Wherever I go in the daytime, the shadowy +figure of the cat accompanies me, and at night, crouching on my +bedclothes, it watches--watches me with the expression in its eyes and +mouth of my would-be murderer on that memorable night." + +As he concluded, for an instant, only for an instant, the shadow by his +side grew clearer, and I saw the cat, saw it watching him with murder, +ghastly murder lurking in its eyes. I struck a match, and, as I had +anticipated, the phenomenon vanished. + +"It will return," the Australian said gloomily; "it always does. I shall +never get rid of it!" And as I fully concurred with this statement, and +had no suggestions to offer, I thanked him for his story, and wished him +good night. But I did not leave him alone. He still had his cat. I saw +it return to him as I passed through the doorway. Of course, I had no +means of verifying his story; it might have been true, or it might not. +But there was the cat!--thoroughly objective and as perfect a specimen +of a feline, occult bestiality as I have ever seen or wish to see again. + +That a spirit should appear in the form of a pig need not seem +remarkable when we remember that those who live foul lives, _i.e._ the +sensual and greedy, must, after death, assume the shape that is most +appropriate to them; indeed, in these circumstances, one might rather be +surprised that a phantasm in the shape of a hog is not a more frequent +occurrence. + +There are numerous instances of hauntings by phenomena of this kind, in +some cases the phantasms being wholly animal, and in other cases +semi-animal. + +What I have said with regard to the phantasms of dogs--namely, the +difficulty, practically the impossibility, of deciding whether the +manifestation is due to an elemental or to a spirit of the dead--holds +good in the case of "pig" as well as every other kind of bestial +phenomenon. + +The phantasm in the shape of a horse I am inclined to attribute to the +once actually material horse and not to elementals. + +With regard to phantom birds--and there are innumerable cases of occult +bird phenomena--I fancy it is otherwise, and that the majority of bird +hauntings are caused either by the spirits of dead people, or by vicious +forms of elementals. + +Though one hears of few cases of occult bestialities in the shape of +tigers, lions, or any other wild animal--saving bears and wolves, +phantasms of which appear to be common--I nevertheless believe, from +hearsay evidence, that they are to be met with in certain of the jungles +and deserts in the East, and that for the most part they are the +phantasms of the dead animals themselves, still hankering to be +cruel--still hankering to kill. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +VAMPIRES, WERE-WOLVES, FOX-WOMEN, ETC. + + +_Vampires_ + +According to a work by Jos. Ennemoser, entitled _The Phantom World_, +Hungary was at one time full of vampires. Between the river Theiss and +Transylvania, were (and still are, I believe) a people called Heyducs, +who were much pestered with this particularly noxious kind of phantasm. +About 1732, a Heyduc called Arnauld Paul was crushed to death by a +waggon. Thirty days after his burial a great number of people began to +die, and it was then remembered that Paul had said he was tormented by a +vampire. A consultation was held and it was decided to exhume him. On +digging up his body, it was found to be red all over and literally +bursting with blood, some of which had forced a passage out and wetted +his winding sheet. Moreover, his hair, nails, and beard had grown +considerably. These being sure signs that the corpse was possessed by a +vampire, the local bailie was fetched and the usual proceedings for the +expulsion of the undesirable phantasm began. A stake, sharply pointed at +one end, was handed to the bailie, who, raising it above his head, +drove it with all his might into the heart of the corpse. There then +issued from the body the most fearful screams, whereupon it was at once +thrown into a fire that had been specially prepared for it, and burned +to ashes. But, though this was the end of that particular vampire, it +was by no means the end of the hauntings; for the deaths, far from +decreasing in number, continued in rapid succession, and no less than +seventeen people in the village died within a period of three months. +The question now arose as to which of the other bodies in the cemetery +were "possessed," it being very evident that more than one vampire lay +buried there. Whilst the matter was at the height of discussion, the +solution to the problem was brought about thus. A girl, of the name of +Stanoska, awoke in the middle of the night, uttering the most +heartrending screams, and declaring that the son of a man called Millo +(who had been dead nine weeks) had nearly strangled her. A rush was at +once made to the cemetery, and a general disinterment taking place, +seventeen out of the forty corpses (including that of the son of Millo) +showed unmistakable signs of vampirism. They were all treated according +to the mode described, and their ashes cast into the adjacent river. A +committee of inquiry concluded that the spread of vampirism had been due +to the eating of certain cattle, of which Paul had been the first to +partake. The disturbances ceased with the death of the girl and the +destruction of her body, and the full account of the hauntings, attested +to by officers of the local garrison, the chief surgeons, and most +influential of the inhabitants of the district, was sent to the +Imperial Council of War at Venice, which caused a strict inquiry to be +made into the matter, and were subsequently, according to Ennemoser, +satisfied that all was _bona fide_. + +In another work, _A History of Magic_, Ennemoser also refers to a case +in the village of Kisilova, in Hungary, where the body of an old man, +three days after his death, appeared to his son on two consecutive +nights, demanding something to eat, and, being given some meat, ate it +ravenously. The third night the son died, and the succeeding day +witnessed the deaths of some five or six others. The matter was reported +to the Tribunal of Belgrade, which promptly sent two officers to inquire +into the case. On their arrival the old man's grave was opened, and his +body found to be full of blood and natural respiration. A stake was then +driven through its heart, and the hauntings ceased. + +Though far fewer in number than they were, and more than ever confined +to certain localities, I am quite sure that vampires are by no means +extinct. Their modes and habits--they are no longer gregarious--have +changed with the modes and habits of their victims, but they are none +the less vampires. Have I seen them? No! but my not having been thus +fortunate, or rather unfortunate, does not make me so discourteous as to +disbelieve those who tell me that they have seen a vampire--that +peculiar, indefinably peculiar shape that, wriggling along the ground +from one tombstone to another, crawls up and over the churchyard wall, +and making for the nearest house, disappears through one of its upper +windows. Indeed, I have no doubt that had I watched that house some few +days afterwards, I should have seen a pale, anæmic looking creature, +with projecting teeth and a thoroughly imbecile expression, come out of +it. I believe a large percentage of idiots and imbecile epileptics owe +their pitiable plight to vampires which, in their infancy, they had the +misfortune to attract. I do not think that, as of old, the vampires come +to their prey installed in stolen bodies, but that they visit people +wholly in spirit form, and, with their superphysical mouths, suck the +brain cells dry of intellect. The baby, who is thus the victim of a +vampire, grows up into something on a far lower scale of intelligence +than dumb animals, more bestial than monkeys, and more dangerous (far +more dangerous, if the public only realised it) than tigers; for, +whereas the tiger is content with one square meal a day, the hunger of +vampirism is never satisfied, and the half-starved, mal-shaped brain +cells, the prey of vampirism, are in a constant state of suction, ever +trying to draw in mental sustenance from the healthy brain cells around +them. Idiots and epileptics are the cephalopoda of the land--only, if +anything, fouler, more voracious, and more insatiable than their aquatic +prototypes. They never ought to be at large. If not destroyed in their +early infancy (which one cannot help thinking would be the most merciful +plan both for the idiot and the community in general), those polyp +brains ought to be kept in some isolated place where they would have +only each other to feed upon. When I see an idiot walking in the +streets, I always take very good care to give him a wide berth, as I +have no desire that the vampire buried in his withered brain cells +should derive any nutrition at my expense. From the fact that some towns +which are close to cromlechs, ancient burial-grounds, woods, or moors +are full of idiots, leads me to suppose that vampires often frequent the +same spots as barrowvians, vagrarians and other types of elementals. +Whilst, on the other hand, since many densely crowded centres have fully +their share of idiots, I am led to believe that vampires are equally +attracted by populous districts, and that, in short, unlike barrowvians +and vagrarians, they can be met with pretty nearly everywhere. And now +for examples. + +A man I know, who spends most of his time in Germany, once had a strange +experience when staying in the neighbourhood of the Hartz mountains. One +sultry evening in August he was walking in the country, and noticed a +perambulator with a white figure, which he took to be that of a +remarkably tall nursemaid, bending over it. As he drew nearer, however, +he found that he had been mistaken. The figure was nothing human; it had +no limbs; it was cylindrical. A faint, sickly sound of sucking caused my +friend to start forward with an exclamation of horror, and as he did so, +the phantasm glided away from the perambulator and disappeared among the +trees. The baby, my friend assured me, was a mere bag of bones, with a +ghastly, grinning anæmic face. Again, when touring in Hungary, he had a +similar experience. He was walking down a back street in a large, +thickly populated town, when he beheld a baby lying on the hot and +sticky pavement with a queer-looking object stooping over it. Wondering +what on earth the thing was, he advanced rapidly, and saw, to his +unmitigated horror, that it was a phantasm with a limbless, cylindrical +body, a huge flat, pulpy head, and protruding, luminous lips, which were +tightly glued to the infant's ears; and again my friend heard a faint, +sickly sound of sucking, and a sound more hideously nauseating, he +informed me, could not be imagined. He was too dumbfounded to act; he +could only stare; and the phantasm, after continuing its loathsome +occupation for some seconds, leisurely arose, and moving away with a +gliding motion, vanished in the yard of an adjacent house. The child did +not appear to be human, but a concoction of half a dozen diminutive +bestialities, and as my friend gazed at it, too fascinated for the +moment to tear himself away, it smiled up at him with the hungry, +leering smile of vampirism and idiocy. + +So much for vampires in the country and in crowded cities, but, as I +have already remarked, they are ubiquitous. As an illustration, there is +said to be a maritime town in a remote part of England, which, besides +being full of quaintness (of a kind not invariably pleasant) and of foul +smells, is also full of more than half-savage fishermen and idiots; +idiots that often come out at dusk, and greatly alarm strangers by +running after them. + +Some years ago, one of these idiots went into a stranger's house, took a +noisy baby out of its cot, and after tubbing it well (which I think +showed that the idiot possessed certain powers of observation), cut off +its head, throwing the offending member into the fire. The parents were +naturally indignant, and so were some of the inhabitants; but the affair +was speedily forgotten, and although the murderer was confined to a +lunatic asylum, nothing was done to rid the town of other idiots who +were, collectively, doing mischief of a nature far more serious than +that of the recently perpetrated murder. + +The wild and rugged coast upon which the town is situated was formerly +the hunting-ground of wreckers, and I fear the present breed of +fishermen, in spite of their hypocritical pretensions to religion, prove +only too plainly by their abominable cruelty to birds and inhospitable +treatment of strangers, that they are in reality no better than their +forbears. This inherited strain of cruelty in the fishermen would alone +account for the presence of vampires and every other kind of vicious +elemental; but the town has still another attraction--namely, a +prehistoric burial-ground, on a wide expanse of thinly populated +moorland--in its rear. + +_À propos_ of vampires, my friend Mrs South writes to me as follows (I +quote her letter _ad verbum_): "The other night, I was dining with a +very old friend of mine whom I had not seen for years, and, during a +pause in the conversation, he suddenly said, 'Do you believe in +vampires?' I wondered for a moment if he had gone mad, and I think, in +my matter-of-fact way, I blurted out something of the sort; but I saw in +a moment, from the expression in his eyes, that he had something to +tell me, and that he was not at all in the mood to be laughed at or +misunderstood, 'Tell me,' I said, 'I am listening.' 'Well,' he replied, +'I had an extraordinary experience a few months ago, and not a word of +it have I breathed to any living soul. But sometimes the horror of it so +overpowers me that I feel I must share my secret with someone; and +you--well, you and I have always been such pals.' I answered nothing, +but gently pressed his hand. + +"After lighting a cigarette, he commenced his story, which I will give +you as nearly as possible in his own words:-- + +"'It is about six months ago since I returned from my travels. Up to +that time I had been away from England for nearly three years, as you +know. About a couple of nights after my return, I was dining at my Club, +when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round, I saw my old +friend S----. + +"'As I had no idea he was in London, you may imagine my delight. He +joined me at dinner and we went over old times together. He asked me if +I had heard anything of our mutual friend G----, to whom we were both +very much attached. I said I had had a few lines from him about six +months previously, announcing his marriage, but that I had never heard +from him nor seen him since. He had settled, I believe, in the heart of +the country. S---- then told me that he had not seen G---- since his +engagement, neither had he heard from him; in fact he had written to him +once or twice, but his letters had received no answer. There were +whispered rumours that he was looking ill and unhappy. Hearing this, I +got G----'s address from S----, and made up my mind I would run down and +see him as soon as I could get away from town. + +"'About a week afterwards I found myself, after driving an interminable +distance, so it seemed to me, through Devonshire lanes, stopping outside +a beautiful house which appeared to be entirely isolated from any other +dwelling. + +"'A few more minutes and I was standing before a blazing log fire in a +fine old hall, eagerly awaiting the welcome I knew my old friend would +give me. I did not anticipate long; in less time than it takes to tell +G---- appeared, and with slow, painfully slow steps, crossed the hall to +greet me. He was wasted to a shadow, and I felt a lump rise in my throat +as I thought of the splendid, athletic boy I used to know. He made no +excuse for his wife, who did not accompany him; and though I was +naturally anxious to see her, I was glad that Jack and I were alone. We +chatted together utterly regardless of the time, and it was not until +the first gong had sounded that I thought of dressing for dinner. After +performing a somewhat hurried toilette, I was hastening downstairs, when +I suddenly became conscious that I was being watched. I looked all round +and could see no one. I then heard a low, musical laugh just above my +head, and looking up, I saw a figure leaning over the banisters. The +beauty of the face dazzled me for a moment, and the loveliness of the +eyes, which looked into mine and seemed to shine a red gold, held me +spellbound. Presently a voice, every whit as lovely as the face, said: +"So you are Jack's chum?" The most beautiful woman I have ever seen then +came slowly down the stairs, and slipping her arm through mine, led me +to the dining-room. As her hand rested on my coat-sleeve, I remember +noticing that the fingers were long, and thin, and pointed, and the +nails so polished that they almost shone red. Indeed, I could not help +feeling somewhat puzzled by the fact that everything about her shone red +with the exception of her skin, which, with an equal brilliancy, shone +white. At dinner she was lively, but she ate and drank very sparingly, +and as though food was loathsome to her. + +"'Soon after dinner I felt so exceedingly tired and sleepy, a most +unusual thing for me, that I found it absolutely impossible to keep +awake, and consequently asked my host and hostess to excuse me. I woke +next morning feeling languid and giddy, and, while shaving, I noticed a +curious red mark at the base of my neck. I imagined I must have cut +myself shaving hurriedly the evening before, and thought nothing more +about it. + +"'The following night, after dinner, I experienced the same sensation of +sleepiness, and felt almost as if I had been drugged. It was impossible +for me to keep awake, so I again asked to be excused! On this occasion, +after I had retired, a curious thing happened. I dreamed--or at least I +suppose I dreamed--that I saw my door slowly open, and the figure of a +woman carrying a candle in one hand, and with the other carefully +shading the flame, glide noiselessly into my room. She was clad in a +loose red gown, and a great rope of hair hung over one shoulder. Again +those red-gold eyes looked into mine; again I heard that low musical +laugh; and this time I felt powerless either to speak or to move. She +leaned down, nearer and nearer to me; her eyes gradually assumed a +fiendish and terrible expression; and with a sucking noise, which was +horrible to hear, she fastened her crimson lips to the little wound in +my neck. I remembered nothing more until the morning. The place on my +neck, I thought, looked more inflamed, and as I looked at it, my dream +came vividly back to me and I began to wonder if after all it was only a +dream. I felt frightfully rotten, so rotten that I decided to return to +town that day; and yet I yielded to some strange fascination, and +determined, after all, to stay another night. At dinner I drank +sparingly; and, making the same excuse as on the previous nights, I +retired to bed at an early hour. I lay awake until midnight, waiting for +I know not what; and was just thinking what a mad fool I was, when +suddenly the door gently opened and again I saw Jack's wife. Slowly she +came towards me, gliding as stealthily and noiselessly as a snake. I +waited until she leaned over me, until I felt her breath on my cheek, +and then--then flung my arms round her. I had just time to see the mad +terror in her eyes as she realised I was awake, and the next instant, +like an eel, she had slipped from my grasp, and was gone. I never saw +her again. I left early the next morning, and I shall never forget dear +old Jack's face when I said good-bye to him. It is only a few days since +I heard of his death.'" + + +_Were-wolves_ + +Closely allied to the vampire is the were-wolf, which, however, instead +of devouring the intellect of human beings, feeds only on their flesh. +Like the vampire, the were-wolf belongs to the order of elementals; but, +unlike the vampire, it is confined to a very limited sphere--the wilds +of Norway, Sweden, and Russia, and only appears in two guises, that of a +human being in the daytime and a wolf at night. I have closely +questioned many people who have travelled in those regions, but very few +of them--one or two at the most--have actually come in contact with +those to whom the existence of the were-wolf is not a fable but a fact. +One of these travellers, a mere acquaintance whom I met in an hotel in +the Latin Quarter of Paris, assured me that the authenticity of a story +he would tell me, relating to the were-wolf, was, in the neighbourhood +through which he travelled, never for a single moment doubted. + +My informant, a highly cultured Russian, spoke English, French, German, +and Italian with as great fluency as I spoke my native tongue, and I +believed him to be perfectly genuine. The incident he told me, to which +unanimous belief was accredited, happened to two young men (whom I will +call Hans and Carl), who were travelling to Nijni Novgorod, a city in +the province of Tobolsk. The route they took was off the beaten track, +and led them through a singularly wild and desolate tract of country. +One evening, when they were trotting mechanically along, their horses +suddenly came to a standstill and appeared to be very much frightened. +They inquired of the driver the reason of such strange behaviour, and he +pointed with his whip to a spot on the ice--they were then crossing a +frozen lake--a few feet ahead of them. They got out of the sleigh, and, +approaching the spot indicated, found the body of a peasant lying on his +back, his throat gnawed away and all his entrails gone. "A wolf without +a doubt," they said, and getting back into the sleigh, they drove on, +taking good care to see that their rifles were ready for instant action. +They had barely gone a mile when the horses again halted, and a second +corpse was discovered, the corpse of a child with its face and thighs +entirely eaten away. Again they drove on, and had progressed a few more +miles when the horses stopped so abruptly that the driver was pitched +bodily out; and before Carl and Hans could dismount, the brutes started +off at a wild gallop. They were eventually got under control, but it was +with the greatest difficulty that they were forced to turn round and go +back, in order to pick up the unfortunate driver. The farther they went, +the more restless they became, and when, at length, they approached the +place where the driver had been thrown, they came to a sudden and +resolute standstill. As no amount of whipping would now make them go on, +Hans got out, and advancing a few steps, espied something lying across +the track some little distance ahead of them. Gun in hand, he advanced +a few more steps, when he suddenly stopped. To his utter amazement he +saw, bending over a body, which he at once identified as that of their +driver, the figure of a woman. She started as he approached, and, +hastily springing up, turned towards him. The strange beauty of her +face, her long, lithe limbs (she stood fully six feet high) and slender +body,--the beauty of the latter enhanced by the white woollen costume in +which she was clad,--had an extraordinary effect upon Hans. Her shining +masses of golden hair, that curled in thick clusters over her forehead +and about her ears; the perfect regularity of her features, and the +lustrous blue of her eyes, enraptured him; whilst the expression both in +her face and figure--in her sparkling eyes and firmly modelled mouth; in +her red lips, and even in her pearly teeth, repulsed and almost +frightened him. He gazed steadily at her, and, as he did so, the hold on +his rifle involuntarily tightened. He then glanced from her face to her +hands, and noticed with a spasm of horror that the tips of her long and +beautifully shaped nails were dripping with blood, and that there was +blood, too, on her knees and feet, blood all over her. He then looked at +the driver and saw the wretched man's clothes had been partially +stripped off, and that there were great gory holes in his throat and +abdomen. + +"Oh, I am so glad you have come!" the woman cried, addressing him in a +strangely peculiar voice, that thrilled him to the marrow of his bones. +"It is the wolves. Do come and see what they have done. I saw them, from +a distance, attack this poor man, and leaving my sleigh, for my horses +came to a dead halt, and nothing I could do would induce them to move, I +ran to his assistance. But, alas! I was too late!" Then, looking at her +dress, from which Hans could scarcely remove his eyes, she cried out: +"Ugh! How disgusting--blood! My hands and clothes are covered with it. I +tried to stop the bleeding, but it was no use"; and she proceeded to +wipe her fingers on the snow. + +"But why did you venture here alone?" Hans inquired, "and why unarmed? +How foolhardy! The wolves would have made short work of you had you +encountered them!" + +"Then you cannot have heard the report of my gun!" the woman cried, in +well-feigned astonishment. "How strange! I fired at the wolves from over +there"; and she pointed with one of her slender, milky-white fingers to +a spot on the ice some fifty yards away. "Fortunately, they all made +off," she continued, "and I hastened hither, dropping my gun that I +might run the faster." + +"I can see no gun," Hans exclaimed, shading his eyes with his hand and +staring hard. + +The woman laughed. "What a disbelieving Jew it is!" she said. "The gun +is there; I can see it plainly. You must be short-sighted." And then, +straining her eyes on the far distance, she shrieked: "Great Heavens! My +sleigh has gone! Oh! what shall I do? What shall I do?" + +Giving way to every gesture of despair, she looked so forlorn and +beautiful that Hans would have been full of pity for her, had not +certain vague suspicions, which he could neither account for nor +overcome, entered his heart. Sorely perplexed, he did not know what to +do, and stood looking at her in critical silence. + +"Won't you come with me?" she said, clasping her hands beseechingly. +"Come with me to look for it. The horses may only have strayed a short +distance, and we might overtake them without much difficulty." + +As she spoke thus, her piercing, earnest gaze thrilled him to the very +soul, and his heart rose in rebellion against his reason. He had seen +many fair women, but assuredly none as fair as this one. What eyes! What +hair! What a complexion! What limbs! It seemed to him that she was not +like ordinary women, that she was not of the same flesh and blood as any +of the women he had ever met, and that she was in reality something far +superior; something generated by the primitive glamour of the starry +night, of the great, sparkling, ice-covered lake, and the lone, +snow-capped peaks beyond. And all the while he was thinking thus, and +unconsciously coming under the spell of her weird beauty, the woman +continued to gaze entreatingly at him from under the long lashes which +swept her cheeks. At last he could refuse her no longer--he would have +gone to hell with her had she asked it--and shouting to Carl to remain +where he was, he bade her lead the way. Setting off with long, quick +strides that made Hans wonder anew, she soon put a considerable distance +between herself and companion, and Carl. Hans now perceived a change; +the sky grew dark, the clouds heavy, and the farther they went, the more +perceptible this change became. The brightness and sense of joy in the +air vanished, and, with its dissipation, came a chill and melancholy +wind that rose from the bosom of the lake and swept all around them, +moaning and sighing like a legion of lost souls. + +But Hans, who came of a military stock, feared little, and, with his +beautiful guide beside him, would cheerfully have faced a thousand +devils. He had no eyes for anything save her, no thought of anything but +her, and when she sidled up to him, playfully fingering his gun, he +allowed her to take it from him and do what she liked with it. Indeed, +he was so absorbed in the contemplation of her marvellous beauty, that +he did not perceive her deftly unload his rifle and throw it from her on +the ice; nor did he take any other notice than to think it a very +pretty, playful trick when she laughingly caught his two hands, and +bound them securely together behind his back. He was still drinking in +the wondrous beauty of her eyes, when she suddenly slipped one of her +pretty, shapely feet between his, and with a quick, subtle movement, +tripped him and threw him to the ground. There was a dull crash, and, +amid the hundred and one sounds that echoed and re-echoed through his +head as it came in contact with the ice, he seemed to hear the far-off +patter of horses' hoofs. Then something deliciously soft and cool +touched his throat, and opening his eyes, he found his beautiful +companion bending over him and undoing the folds of his woollen +neckerchief with her shapely fingers. For such an experience he would +fall and faint till further orders. He sought her eyes, and all but +fainted again--the expression in them appalled him. They were no longer +those of a woman but a devil, a horrible, sordid devil that hungered not +merely for his soul, but for his flesh and blood. Then, in a second, he +understood it all--she was a were-wolf, one of those ghastly creatures +he had hitherto scoffingly attributed to the idle superstitions of the +peasants. It was she who had mutilated the bodies they had passed on the +road; it was she who had killed and half-eaten their driver; it was +she--but he could think no more, it was all too horrible, and the +revulsion of his feelings towards her clogged his brain. He longed to +grapple with her, strangle her, and he could do nothing. The bare touch +of those fingers--those cool, white, tapering fingers, with their long, +shining filbert nails, all ready and eager to tear and rend his flesh to +pieces--had taken all the life from his limbs, and he could only gaze +feebly at her and damn her from the very bottom of his soul. One by one, +more swiftly now, she unfastened the buttons of his coat and vest and +then, baring her cruel teeth with a soft gurgle of excitement, and a +smack of her red glistening lips, she prepared to eat him. Strangely +enough, he experienced no pain as her nails sank into the flesh of his +throat and chest and clawed it asunder. He was numb, numb with the +numbness produced by hypnotism or paralysis--only some of his faculties +were awake, vividly, startlingly awake. He was abruptly roused from this +state by the dull crack of a rifle, and an agonising, blood-curdling +scream, after which he knew no more till he found himself sitting +upright on the ice, gulping down brandy, his throat a mass of bandages, +and Carl kneeling beside him. + +"Where is she?" he asked, and Carl pointed to an object on the ice. It +was the body of a huge white wolf, with half its head blown away. + +"An explosive bullet," Carl said grimly. "I thought I would make certain +of the beast, even at the risk of hurting you; and, mein Gott! it was a +near shave! You have lost some of your hair, but nothing more. When I +saw you go away with the woman, I guessed something was up. I did not +like the look of her at all; she was a giantess, taller than any woman I +have ever seen; and the way she had you in tow made me decidedly +uncomfortable. Consequently, I followed you at a distance, and when I +saw her trip you, I lashed up our horses and came to your rescue as fast +as I could. Unfortunately, I had to dismount when I was still some +distance off, as no amount of lashing would induce the horses to +approach you nearer, and after arriving within range, it took me some +seconds to get my rifle ready and select the best position for a shot. +But, thank God! I was just in time, and, beyond a few scratches, you are +all right. Shall we leave the beast here or take it with us?" + +"We will do neither," Hans said, with a shudder, whilst a new and sad +expression stole into his eyes. "I cannot forget it was once a woman! +and, my God! what a woman! We will bury her here in the ice." + +The story here terminated, and from the fact that I have heard other +stories of a similar nature, I am led to believe that there is in this +one some substratum of truth. Were-wolves are not, of course, always +prepossessing; they vary considerably. Moreover, they are not restricted +to one sex, but are just as likely to be met with in the guise of boys +and men as of girls and women. + + +_Fox-women_ + +Very different from this were-wolf, though also belonging to the great +family of elementals, are the fox-women of Japan and China, about which +much has been written, but about which, apparently, very little is +known. + +In China the fox was (and in remote parts still is) believed to attain +the age of eight hundred or a thousand years. At fifty it can assume the +form of a woman, and at one hundred that of a young and lovely girl, +called Kao-Sai, or "Our Lady." On reaching the thousand years' limit, it +goes to Paradise without physical dissolution. I have questioned many +Chinese concerning these fox-women, but have never been able to get any +very definite information. One Chinaman, however, assured me that his +brother had actually seen the transmigration from fox to woman take +place. The man's name I have forgotten, but I will call him Ching Kang. +Well, Ching Kang was one day threading his way through a lovely valley +of the Tapa-ling mountains, when he came upon a silver (_i.e._ white) +fox crouching on the bank of a stream in such a peculiar attitude that +Ching Kang's attention was at once arrested. Thinking that the animal +was ill, and delighted at the prospect of lending it aid, for silver +foxes are regarded as of good omen in China, Ching Kang approached it, +and was about to examine it carefully, when to his astonishment he found +he could not move--he was hypnotised. But although his limbs were +paralysed, his faculties were wonderfully active, and his heart almost +ceased beating when he saw the fox slowly begin to get bigger and +bigger, until at last its head was on a level with his own. There was +then a loud crash, its skin burst asunder, and there stepped out of it +the form of a girl of such entrancing beauty that Ching Kang thought he +must be in Heaven. She was fairer than most Chinese women; her eyes were +blue instead of brown, and her shapely hands and feet were of milky +whiteness. She was gaily dressed in blue silk, with earrings and +bracelets of blue stone, and carried in one of her hands a blue fan. +With a wave of her slender palms she released Ching Kang from his spell, +and, bidding him follow her, plunged into a thick clump of bushes. Madly +infatuated, Ching Kang needed no second bidding, but, keeping close to +her heels, stolidly pushed his way through barricades of brambles that, +whilst yielding to her touch, closed on him and beat him on the face and +body so unmercifully that in a very short time he was barely +recognisable, being literally bathed in blood. However, despite his +wounds increasing and multiplying with every step he took, and naturally +causing him the most excruciating agony, Ching Kang never, for one +instant, thought of turning back; he always kept within touching +distance of the blue form in front of him. But at last human nature +could stand it no longer; his strength gave way, and as with a mad +shriek of despair he implored her to stop, his senses left him and he +fell in a heap to the ground. When he recovered he was lying alone, +quite alone in the middle of the road, exactly opposite the spot where +he had first seen the fox, and by his side was a fan, a blue fan. +Picking it up sadly, he placed it near his heart (where it remained to +the very day of his death), and with one last lingering look at the bank +of the stream, he continued his solitary journey. + +This was Ching Kang's story. His brother did not think he ever met the +fox-woman again. He believed Ching Kang was still searching for her when +he died. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DEATH WARNINGS AND FAMILY GHOSTS + + +Candles are very subject to psychic influences. Many years ago, when I +was a boy, I was sitting in a room with some very dear friends of mine, +when one of them, suddenly turning livid, pointed at the candle, and +with eyes starting out of their sockets, screamed, "A winding-sheet! A +winding-sheet! See! it is pointing at me!" We were all so frightened by +the suddenness of her action, that for some seconds no one spoke, but +all sat transfixed with horror, gaping at the candle. "It must be my +brother Tom," she continued, "or Jack. Can't you see it?" Then, one +after another, we all examined the candle and discovered that what she +said was quite true--there was an unmistakable winding-sheet in the wax, +and it emphatically pointed in her direction. Nor were her surmisings in +vain, for the next morning she received a telegram to say her brother +Tom had died suddenly. I am sceptical with regard to some +manifestations, but I certainly do believe in this one, and I often +regard my candle anxiously, fearing that I may see a winding-sheet in +it. + +To have three candles lighted at the same time is also an omen of +death, and as I have known it to be fulfilled in several cases within my +own experience, I cannot help regarding it as one of the most certain. + +I am sometimes informed of the advent of the occult in a very startling +manner--my candle burns blue. It has done this when I have been sitting +alone in my study, at night, writing. I have been busily engaged penning +descriptions of the ghosts I and others have seen, when I have been +startled by the fact that my paper, originally white, has suddenly +become the colour of the sky, and on looking hastily up to discover a +reason, have been in no small measure shocked to see my candle burning a +bright blue. An occult manifestation of sorts has invariably followed. I +am often warned of the near advent of the occult in this same manner +when I am investigating in a haunted house--the flame of the candle +burns blue before the appearance of the ghost. It is, by the way, an +error to think that different types of phantasms can only appear in +certain colours--colours that are peculiar to them. I have seen the same +phenomenon manifest itself in half a dozen different colours, and blue +is as often adopted by the higher types of spirits as by the lower, and +is, in fact, common to both. I have little patience with occultists who +draw hard and fast lines, and, ignoring everybody else's experiences, +presume to diagnose within the narrow limits of their own. No one can as +yet say anything for certain with regard to the superphysical, and the +statements of the most humble psychic investigator, provided he has had +actual experience, and is genuine, are just as worthy of attention as +those of the most eminent exponents of theosophy or spiritualism, or of +any learned member of the Psychical Research Societies. The occult does +not reveal itself to the rich in preference to the poor, and, for +manifestation, is not more partial to the Professor of Physics and Law +than to the Professor of Nothing--other than keen interest and common +sense. + + +_Corpse-candles_ + +In Wales there are corpse-candles. According to the account of the Rev. +Mr Davis in a work by T. Charley entitled _The Invisible World_, +corpse-candles are so called because their light resembles a material +candle-light, and might be mistaken for the same, saving that when +anyone approaches them they vanish, and presently reappear. If the +corpse-candle be small, pale, or bluish, it denotes the death of an +infant; if it be big, the death of an adult is foretold; and if there +are two, three, or more candle-lights, varying in size, then the deaths +are predicted of a corresponding number of infants and adults. "Of +late," the Rev. Mr Davis goes on to say (I quote him _ad verbum_), "my +sexton's wife, an aged, understanding woman, saw from her bed a little +bluish candle upon her table: within two or three days after comes a +fellow in, inquiring for her husband, and, taking something from under +his cloak, clapt it down directly upon the table end where she had seen +the candle; and what was it but a dead-born child? Another time, the +same woman saw such another candle upon the other end of the same +table: within a few days later, a weak child, by myself newly +christened, was brought into the sexton's house, where presently he +died; and when the sexton's wife, who was then abroad, came home, she +found the women shrouding the child on that other end of the table where +she had seen the candle. On a time, myself and a huntsman coming from +our school in England, and being three or four hours benighted ere we +could reach home, saw such a light, which, coming from a house we well +knew, held its course (but not directly) in the highway to church: +shortly after, the eldest son in that house died, and steered the same +course.... About thirty-four or thirty-five years since, one Jane Wyatt, +my wife's sister, being nurse to Baronet Rud's three eldest children, +and (the lady being deceased) the lady of the house going late into a +chamber where the maid-servants lay, saw there no less than five of +these lights together. It happened awhile after, the chamber being newly +plastered, and a great grate of coal-fire therein kindled to hasten the +drying up of the plastering, that five of the maid-servants went there +to bed as they were wont; but in the morning they were all dead, being +suffocated in their sleep with the steam of the newly tempered lime and +coal. This was at Llangathen in Carmarthen." + +So wrote the Rev. Mr Davis, and in an old number of _Frazer's Journal_ I +came across the following account of death-tokens, which, although not +exactly corpse-candles, might certainly be classed in the same category. +It ran thus: + +"In a wild and retired district in North Wales, the following +occurrence took place, to the great astonishment of the mountaineers. We +can vouch for the truth of the statement, as many of our own teutu, or +clan, were witnesses of the facts. On a dark evening a few weeks ago, +some persons, with whom we are well acquainted, were returning to +Barmouth on the south or opposite side of the river. As they approached +the ferry house at Penthryn, which is directly opposite Barmouth, they +observed a light near the house, which they conjectured to be produced +by a bonfire, and greatly puzzled they were to discover the reason why +it should have been lighted. As they came nearer, however, it vanished; +and when they inquired at the house respecting it, they were surprised +to learn that not only had the people there displayed no light, but they +had not even seen one; nor could they perceive any signs of it on the +sands. On reaching Barmouth, the circumstance was mentioned, and the +fact corroborated by some of the people there, who had also plainly and +distinctly seen the light. It was settled, therefore, by some of the old +fishermen that this was a death-token; and, sure enough, the man who +kept the ferry at that time was drowned at high water a few nights +afterwards, on the very spot where the light was seen. He was landing +from the boat, when he fell into the water, and so perished. The same +winter the Barmouth people, as well as the inhabitants of the opposite +bank, were struck by the appearance of a number of small lights, which +were seen dancing in the air at a place called Borthwyn, about half a +mile from the town. A great number of people came out to see these +lights; and after awhile they all but one disappeared, and this one +proceeded slowly towards the water's edge to a little bay where some +boats were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near the spot +saw the light advancing, they saw it also hover for a few seconds over +one particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or three days +afterwards, the man to whom that particular boat belonged was drowned in +the river, while he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in that very +boat." + +As the corpse-candle is obviously a phantasm whose invariable custom is +to foretell death, it must, I think, be classified with that species of +elementals which I have named--for want of a more appropriate +title--CLANOGRIAN. CLANOGRIANS embrace every kind of national and family +ghost, such as The White Owl of the Arundels, the Drummer of the +Airlies, and the Banshee of the O'Neills and O'Donnells. + +With regard to the origin of corpse-candles, as of all other +clanogrians, one can only speculate. The powers that govern the +superphysical world have much in their close keeping that they +absolutely refuse to disclose to mortal man. Presuming, however, that +corpse-candles and all sorts of family ghosts are analogous, I should +say that the former are spirits which have attached themselves to +certain localities, either owing to some great crime or crimes having +been committed there in the past, or because at some still more remote +period the inhabitants of those parts--the Milesians and Nemedhians, the +early ancestors of the Irish, dabbled in sorcery. + + +_Fire-coffins_ + +Who has not seen all manner of pictures in the fire? Who has not seen, +or fancied he has seen, a fire-coffin? A fire-coffin is a bit of red-hot +coal that pops mysteriously out of the grate in the rude shape of a +coffin, and is prophetic of death, not necessarily the death of the +beholder, but of someone known to him. + + +_The Death-watch_ + +Though this omen in a room is undoubtedly due to the presence in the +woodwork of the wall of a minute beetle of the timber-boring genus +ANOBIUM, it is a strange fact that its ticking should only be heard +before the death of someone, who, if not living in the house, is +connected with someone who does live in it. From this fact, one is led +to suppose that this minute beetle has an intuitive knowledge of +impending death, as is the case with certain people and also certain +animals. + +The noise is said to be produced by the beetle raising itself upon its +hind legs (see _Popular Errors explained_, by John Timbs), with the body +somewhat inclined, and beating its head with great force and agility +upon the plane of position; and its strokes are so powerful as to be +heard from some little distance. It usually taps from six to twelve +times in succession, then pauses, and then recommences. It is an error +to suppose it only ticks in the spring, for I know those who have heard +its ticking at other, and indeed, at all times in the year. + + +_Owls_ + +Owls have always been deemed psychic, and they figure ominously in the +folk-lore of many countries. I myself can testify to the fact that they +are often the harbinger of death, as I have on several occasions been +present when the screeching of an owl, just outside the window, has +occurred almost coincident with the death of someone, nearly related +either to myself or to one of my companions. That owls have the faculty +of "scenting the approach of death" is to my mind no mere idle +superstition, for we constantly read about them hovering around gibbets, +and they have not infrequently been known to consummate Heaven's wrath +by plucking out the eyes of the still living murderers and feeding on +their brains. That they also have tastes in common with the least +desirable of the occult world may be gathered from the fact that they +show a distinct preference for the haunts of vagrarians, barrowvians, +and other kinds of elementals; and even the worthy Isaiah goes so far as +to couple them with satyrs. + +Occasionally, too, as in the case of the Arundels of Wardour, where a +white owl is seen before the death of one of the family, they perform +the function of clanogrians. + + +_Ravens_ + +A close rival of the owl in psychic significance is the raven, the +subtle, cunning, ghostly raven that taps on window-panes and croaks +dismally before a death or illness. I love ravens--they have the +greatest fascination for me. Years ago I had a raven, but, alas! only +for a time, a very short time. It came to me one gloomy night, when the +wind was blowing and the rain falling in cataracts. I was at the +time--and as usual--writing ghost tales. Thought I to myself, this raven +is just what I want; I will make a great friend of it, it shall sit at +my table while I write and inspire me with its eyes--its esoteric eyes +and mystic voice. I let it in, gave it food and shelter, and we settled +down together, the raven and I, both revellers in the occult, both +lovers of solitude. But it proved to be a worthless bird, a shallow, +empty-minded, shameless bird, and all I gleaned from it was--idleness. +It made me listless and restless; it filled me with cravings, not for +work, but for nature, for the dark open air of night-time, for the vast +loneliness of mountains, the deep secluded valleys, the rushing, foaming +flow of streams, and for woods--ah! how I love the woods!--woods full of +stalwart oaks and silvery beeches, full of silent, moon-kissed glades, +nymphs, sirens, and pixies. Ah! how I longed for all these, and more +besides--for anything and everything that appertained neither to man nor +his works. Then I said good-bye to the raven, and, taking it with me to +the top of a high hill, let it go. Croaking, croaking, croaking it flew +away, without giving me as much as one farewell glance. + + +_Mermaids_ + +Who would not, if they could, believe in mermaids? Surely all save those +who have no sense of the beautiful--of poetry, flowers, painting, music, +romance; all save those who have never built fairy castles in the air +nor seen fairy palaces in the fire; all save those whose minds, steeped +in money-making, are both sordid and stunted. That mermaids did exist, +and more or less in legendary form, I think quite probable, for I feel +sure there was a time in the earth's history when man was in much closer +touch with the superphysical than he is at present. They may, I think, +be classified with pixies, nymphs, and sylphs, and other pleasant types +of elementals that ceased to fraternise with man when he became more +plentiful and forsook the simple mode of living for the artificial. + +Pixies, nymphs, sylphs, and other similar kinds of fairies are all +harmless and benevolent elementals, and I believe they were all fond of +visiting this earth, but that they seldom visit it now, only appearing +at rare intervals to a highly favoured few. + + +_The Wandering Jew_ + +No story fascinated me more when I was a boy than that of Ahasuerus, the +Wandering Jew. How vividly I saw him--in my mental vision--with his +hooked nose, and wild, dark eyes, gleaming with hatred, cruelty, and +terror, spit out his curses at Christ and frantically bid him begone! +And Christ! How plainly I saw Him, too, bathed in the sweat of agony, +stumbling, staggering, reeling, and tottering beneath the cross he had +to carry! And then the climax--the calm, biting, damning climax. "Tarry +thou till I come!" How distinctly I heard Christ utter those words, and +with what relief I watched the pallor of sickly fear and superstition +steal into the Jew's eyes and overspread his cheeks! And he is said to +be living now! Periodically he turns up in some portion or other of the +globe, causing a great sensation. And many are the people who claim to +have met him--the man whom no prison can detain, no fetters hold; who +can reel off the history of the last nineteen hundred odd years with the +most minute fluency, and with an intimate knowledge of men and things +long since dead and forgotten. Ahasuerus, still, always, ever +Ahasuerus--no matter whether we call him Joseph, Cartaphilus, or +Salathiel, his fine name and guilty life stick to him--he can get rid of +neither. For all time he is, and must be, Ahasuerus, the Wandering +Jew--the Jew Christ damned. + + +_Attendant Spirits_ + +I believe that, from the moment of our birth, most, if not all of us, +have our attendant spirits, namely, a spirit sent by the higher occult +powers that are in favour of man's spiritual progress, whose function it +is to guide us in the path of virtue and guard us from physical danger, +and a spirit sent by the higher occult powers that are antagonistic to +man's spiritual progress, whose function it is to lead us into all sorts +of mental, moral, and spiritual evil, and also to bring about our path +some bodily harm. The former is a benevolent elemental, well known to +the many, and termed by them "Our Guardian Angel"; the latter is a vice +elemental, equally well known perhaps, to the many, and termed by them +"Our Evil Genie." The benevolent creative powers and the evil creative +powers (in whose service respectively our attendant spirits are +employed) are for ever contending for man's superphysical body, and it +is, perhaps, only in the proportion of our response to the influences of +these attendant spirits, that we either evolve to a higher spiritual +plane, or remain earth-bound. I, myself, having been through many +vicissitudes, feel that I owe both my moral and physical preservation +from danger entirely to the vigilance of my guardian attendant spirit. I +was once travelling in the United States at the time of a great railway +strike. The strikers held up my train at Crown Point, a few miles +outside Chicago; and as I was forced to take to flight, and leave my +baggage (which unfortunately contained all my ready money), I arrived in +Chicago late at night without a cent on me. Beyond the clothes I had on, +I had nothing; consequently, on my presenting myself at a hotel with the +request for a night's lodging, I was curtly refused. One hotel after +another, one house after another, I tried, but always with the same +result; having no luggage, and being unable to pay a deposit, no one +would take me. The night advanced; the streets became rougher and +rougher, for Chicago just then was teeming with the scum of the earth, +ruffians of every description, who would cheerfully have cut any man's +throat simply for the sake of his clothes. All around me was a sea of +swarthy faces with insolent, sinister eyes that flashed and glittered in +the gaslight. I was pushed, jostled, and cursed, and the bare thought of +having to spend a whole night amid such a foul, cut-throat horde filled +me with dismay. Yet what could I do? Clearly nothing, until the morning, +when I should be able to explain my position to the British Consul. The +knowledge that in all the crises through which I had hitherto passed, my +guardian spirit had never deserted me, gave me hope, and I prayed +devoutly that it would now come to my assistance and help me to get to +some place of shelter. + +Time passed, and as my prayers were not answered, I repeated them with +increased vigour. Then, quite suddenly, a man stepped out from the dark +entrance to a by-street, and, touching me lightly on the arm, said, "Is +there anything amiss? I have been looking at you for some time, and a +feeling has come over me that you need assistance. What is the matter?" +I regarded the speaker earnestly, and, convinced that he was honest, +told him my story, whereupon to my delight he at once said, "I think I +can help you, for a friend of mine runs a small but thoroughly +respectable hotel close to here, and, if you like to trust yourself to +my guidance, I will take you there and explain your penniless +condition." I accepted his offer; what he said proved to be correct; the +hotel-keeper believed my story, and I passed the night in decency and +comfort. In the morning the proprietor lent me the requisite amount of +money for a cablegram to Europe. My bank in England cabled to a bank in +Chicago, and the hotel-keeper generously made himself responsible for my +identity; the draft was cashed, and I was once again able to proceed on +my journey. But what caused the man in the street to notice me? What +prompted him to lend me his aid? Surely my guardian spirit. Again, when +in Denver, in the Denver of old times, before it had grown into anything +like the city it is now, I was seized with a severe attack of dysentery, +and the owner of the hotel in which I was staying, believing it to be +cholera, turned me, weak and faint as I was, into the street. I tried +everywhere to get shelter; the ghastly pallor and emaciation of my +countenance went against me--no one, not even by dint of bribing, for I +was then well off, would take me in. At last, completely overcome by +exhaustion, I sank down in the street, where, in all probability, I +should have remained all night, had not a negro suddenly come up to me, +and, with a sympathetic expression in his face, asked if he could help +me. "I passed you some time ago," he said, "and noticed how ill you +looked, but I did not like to speak to you for fear you might resent it, +but I had not got far before I felt compelled to turn back. I tried to +resist this impulse, but it was no good. What ails you?" I told him. For +a moment or so he was silent, and then, his face brightening up, he +exclaimed, "I think I can help you. Come along with me," and, helping me +gently to my feet, he conducted me to his own house, not a very grand +one, it is true, but scrupulously clean and well conducted, and I +remained there until I was thoroughly sound and fit. The negro is not as +a rule a creature of impulse, and here again I felt that I owed my +preservation to the kindly interference of my guardian spirit. + +Thrice I have been nearly drowned, and on both occasions saved as by a +miracle, or, in other words, by my attendant guardian spirit. Once, when +I was bathing alone in a Scotch loch and had swum out some considerable +distance, I suddenly became exhausted, and realised with terror that it +was quite impossible for me to regain the shore. I was making a last +futile effort to strike out, when something came bobbing up against me. +It was an oar! Whence it had come Heaven alone knew, for Heaven alone +could have sent it. Leaning my chin lightly on it and propelling myself +gently with my limbs, I had no difficulty in keeping afloat, and +eventually reached the land in safety. The scene of my next miraculous +rescue from drowning was a river. In diving into the water off a boat, I +got my legs entangled in a thick undergrowth of weeds. Frantically +struggling to get free and realising only too acutely the seriousness of +my position, for my lungs were on the verge of bursting, I fervently +solicited the succour of my guardian spirit, and had no sooner done so, +than I fancied I felt soft hands press against my flesh, and the next +moment my body had risen to the surface. No living person was within +sight, so that my rescuer could only have been--as usual--my guardian +spirit. + +Several times I fancy I have seen her, white, luminous, and shadowy, +but for all that suggestive of great beauty. Once, too, in the wilder +moments of my youth, when I contemplated rash deeds, I heard her sigh, +and the sigh, sinking down into the furthermost recesses of my soul, +drowned all my thoughts of rash deeds in a thousand reverberating +echoes. I have been invariably warned by strangers against taking a +false step that would unquestionably have led to the direst misfortune. +I meet a stranger, and without the slightest hint from me, he touches +upon the very matter uppermost in my mind, and, in a few earnest and +never-to-be-forgotten words of admonition, deters me from my scheme. +Whence come these strangers, to all appearance of flesh and blood like +myself? Were they my guardian spirit in temporary material guise, or +were they human beings that, like the hotel proprietor's friend in +Chicago, and the negro, have been impelled by my guardian spirit to +converse with me and by their friendly assistance save me? Many of the +faces we see around us every day are, I believe, attendant spirits, and +phantasms of every species, that have adopted physical form for some +specific purpose. + + +_Banshees_ + +It has been suggested that banshees are guardian spirits and evil genii; +but I do not think so, for whereas one or other of the two latter +phantasms (sometimes both) are in constant attendance on man, banshees +only visit certain families before a catastrophe about to happen in +those families, or before the death of a member of those families. As +to their origin, little can be said, for little is at present known. +Some say their attachment to a family is due to some crime perpetrated +by a member of that family in the far dim past, whilst others attribute +it to the fact that certain classes and races in bygone times dabbled in +sorcery, thus attracting the elementals, which have haunted them ever +since. Others, again, claim that banshees are mere thought +materialisations handed down from one generation to another. But +although no one knows the origin and nature of a banshee, the statements +of those who have actually experienced these hauntings should surely +carry far more weight and command more attention than the statements of +those who only speak from hearsay; for it is, after all, only the +sensation of actual experience that can guide us in the study of this +subject; and, perhaps, through our "sensations" alone, the key to it +will one day be found. A phantasm produces an effect on us totally +unlike any that can be produced by physical agency--at least such is my +experience--hence, for those who have never come in contact with the +unknown to pronounce any verdict on it, is to my mind both futile and +absurd. Of one thing, at least, I am sure, namely, that banshees are no +more thought materialisations than they are cats--neither are they in +any way traceable to telepathy or suggestion; they are entirely due to +objective spirit forms. I do not base this assertion on a knowledge +gained from other people's experiences--and surely the information thus +gained cannot properly be termed knowledge--but from the sensations I +myself, as a member of an old Irish clan, have experienced from the +hauntings of the banshee--the banshee that down through the long links +of my Celtic ancestry, through all vicissitudes, through all changes of +fortune, has followed us, and will follow us, to the end of time. +Because it is customary to speak of an Irish family ghost by its generic +title, the banshee, it must not be supposed that every Irish family +possessing a ghost is haunted by the same phantasm--the same banshee. + +In Ireland, as in other countries, family ghosts are varied and +distinct, and consequently there are many and varying forms of the +banshee. To a member of our clan, a single wail signifies the advent of +the banshee, which, when materialised, is not beautiful to look upon. +The banshee does not necessarily signify its advent by one wail--that of +a clan allied to us wails three times. Another banshee does not wail at +all, but moans, and yet another heralds its approach with music. When +materialised, to quote only a few instances, one banshee is in the form +of a beautiful girl, another is in the form of a hideous prehistoric +hag, and another in the form of a head--only a head with rough matted +hair and malevolent, bestial eyes. + + +_Scottish Ghosts_ + +When it is remembered that the ancestors of the Highlanders, _i.e._, the +Picts and Scots, originally came from Ireland and are of Formosian and +Milesian descent, it will be readily understood that their proud old +clans--and rightly proud, for who but a grovelling money grubber would +not sooner be descended from a warrior, elected chief, on account of his +all-round prowess, than from some measly hireling whose instincts were +all mercenary?--possess ghosts that are nearly allied to the banshee. + +The Airlie family, whose headquarters are at Cortachy Castle, is haunted +by the phantasm of a drummer that beats a tattoo before the death of one +of the members of the clan. There is no question as to the genuineness +of this haunting, its actuality is beyond dispute. All sorts of theories +as to the origin of this ghostly drummer have been advanced by a prying, +inquisitive public, but it is extremely doubtful if any of them approach +the truth. Other families have pipers that pipe a dismal dirge, and +skaters that are seen skating even when there is no ice, and always +before a death or great calamity. + + +_English Family Ghosts_ + +There are a few old English families, too, families who, in all +probability, can point to Celtic blood at some distant period in their +history, that possess family ghosts. I have, for example, stayed in one +house where, prior to a death, a boat is seen gliding noiselessly along +a stream that flows through the grounds. The rower is invariably the +person doomed to die. A friend of mine, who was very sceptical in such +matters, was fishing in this stream late one evening when he suddenly +saw a boat shoot round the bend. Much astonished--for he knew it could +be no one from the house--he threw down his rod and watched. Nearer and +nearer it came, but not a sound; the oars stirred and splashed the +rippling, foaming water in absolute silence. Convinced now that what he +beheld was nothing physical, my friend was greatly frightened, and, as +the boat shot past him, he perceived in the rower his host's youngest +son, who was then fighting in South Africa. He did not mention the +incident to his friends, but he was scarcely surprised when, in the +course of the next few days, a cablegram was received with the tidings +that the material counterpart of his vision had been killed in action. + +A white dove is the harbinger of death to the Arundels of Wardour; a +white hare to an equally well-known family in Cornwall. Corby Castle in +Cumberland has its "Radiant Boy"; whilst Mrs E. M. Ward has stated, in +her reminiscences, that a certain room at Knebworth was once haunted by +the phantasm of a boy with long yellow hair, called "The Yellow Boy," +who never appeared to anyone in it, unless they were to die a violent +death, the manner of which death he indicated by a series of ghastly +pantomimics. + +Other families, I am told, lay claim to phantom coaches, clocks, beds, +ladies in white, and a variety of ghostly phenomena whose manifestations +are always a sinister omen. + + +_Welsh Ghosts_ + +In addition to corpse-candles and blue lights, the Welsh, according to +Mr Wirt Sykes, in his work, _British Goblins_, pp. 212-216, possess a +species of ill-omened ghost that is not, however, restricted to any one +family, but which visits promiscuously any house or village prior to a +death. Sometimes it flaps its leathern wings against the window of the +room containing the sick person, and in a broken, howling tone calls +upon the latter to give up his life; whilst, at other times, according +to Mr Dyer in his _Ghost World_, it actually materialises and appears in +the form of an old crone with streaming hair and a coat of blue, when it +is called the "Ellyllon," and, like the banshee, presages death with a +scream. + +Again, when it is called the "Cyhyraeth," and is never seen, it +foretells the death of the insane, or those who have for a long time +been ill, by moaning, groaning, and rattling shutters in the immediate +vicinity of the doomed person. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"SUPERSTITIONS AND FORTUNES" + + +_Thirteen at Table_ + +There is no doubt that there have been many occasions upon which +thirteen people have sat down to dinner, all of which people at the end +of a year have been alive and well; there is no doubt also that there +have been many occasions upon which thirteen have sat down to dine, and +the first of them to rise has died within twelve months. Therefore, I +prefer not to take the risk, and to sit down to dinner in any number but +thirteen. + +A curious story is told in connection with this superstition. A lady was +present at a dinner party given by the Count D---- in Buda-Pesth, when +it was discovered that the company about to sit down numbered thirteen. +Immediately there was a loud protest, and the poor Count was at his +wits' end to know how to get out of the difficulty, when a servant +hurriedly entered and whispered something in his ear. Instantly the +Count's face lighted up. "How very fortunate!" he exclaimed, addressing +his guests. "A very old friend of mine, who, to tell the truth, I had +thought to be dead, has just turned up. We may, therefore, sit down in +peace, for we shall now be fourteen." A wave of relief swept through +the party, and, in the midst of their congratulations, in walked the +opportune guest, a tall, heavily bearded young man, with a strangely set +expression in his eyes and mouth, and not a vestige of colour in his +cheeks. It was noticed that after replying to the Count's salutations in +remarkably hollow tones that made those nearest him shiver, he took no +part in the conversation, and partook of nothing beyond a glass of wine +and some fruit. The evening passed in the usual manner; the guests, with +the exception of the stranger, went, and, eventually, the Count found +himself alone with the friend of his boyhood, the friend whom he had not +seen for years, and whom he had believed to be dead. + +Wondering at the unusual reticence of his old chum, but attributing it +to shyness, the Count, seeing that he now had an opportunity for a chat, +and, anxious to hear what his friend had been doing in the long interval +since they had last met, sat down beside him on the couch, and thus +began: "How very odd that you should have turned up to-night! If you +hadn't come just when you did, I don't know what would have happened!" + +"But I do!" was the quiet reply. "You would have been the first to rise +from the table, and, consequently, you would have died within the year. +That is why I came." + +At this the Count burst out laughing. "Come, come, Max!" he cried. "You +always were a bit of a wag, and I see you haven't improved. But be +serious now, I beg you, and tell me what made you come to-night and what +you have been doing all these years? Why, it must be sixteen years, if a +day, since last I saw you!" + +Max leaned back in his seat, and, regarding the Count earnestly with his +dark, penetrating eyes, said, "I have already told you why I came here +to-night, and you don't believe me, but WAIT! Now, as to what has +happened to me since we parted. Can I expect you to believe that? +Hardly! Anyhow, I will put you to the test. When we parted, if you +remember rightly, I had just passed my final, and having been elected +junior house surgeon at my hospital, St Christopher's, at Brunn, had +taken up my abode there. I remained at St Christopher's for two years, +just long enough to earn distinction in the operating theatre, when I +received a more lucrative appointment in Cracow. There I soon had a +private practice of my own and was on the high road to fame and fortune, +when I was unlucky enough to fall in love." + +"Unlucky!" laughed the Count. "Pray what was the matter with her? Had +she no dowry, or was she an heiress with an ogre of a father, or was she +already married?" + +"Married," Max responded, "married to a regular martinet who, whilst +treating her in the same austere manner he treated his soldiers--he was +colonel of a line regiment--was jealous to the verge of insanity. It was +when I was attending him for a slight ailment of the throat that I met +her, and we fell in love with each other at first sight." + +"How romantic!" sighed the Count. "How very romantic! Another glass of +Moselle?" + +"For some time," Max continued, not noticing the interruption, "all went +smoothly. We met clandestinely and spent many an hour together, unknown +to the invalid. We tried to keep him in bed as long as we could, but his +constitution, which was that of an ox, was against us, and his recovery +was astonishingly rapid. An indiscreet observation on the part of one of +the household first led him to suspect, and, watching his wife like a +cat does a mouse, he caught her one evening in the act of holding out +her hand for me to kiss. With a yell of fury he rushed upon us, and in +the scuffle that followed----" + +"You killed him," said the Count. "Well! I forgive you! We all forgive +you! By the love of Heaven! you had some excuse." + +"You are mistaken!" Max went on, still in the same cold, unmoved +accents, "it was I who was killed!" He looked at the Count, and the +Count's blood turned to ice as he suddenly realised he was, indeed, +gazing at a corpse. + +For some seconds the Count and the corpse sat facing one another in +absolute silence, and then the latter, rising solemnly from the chair, +mounted the window-sill, and, with an expressive wave of farewell, +disappeared in the absorbing darkness without. Now, as Max was never +seen again, and it was ascertained without any difficulty that he had +actually perished in the manner he had described, there is surely every +reason to believe that a _bona fide_ danger had threatened the Count, +and that the spirit of Max in his earthly guise had, in very deed, +turned up at the dinner party with the sole object of saving his friend. + + +_Spilling Salt_ + +Everyone knows that to avoid bad luck from spilling salt, it is only +necessary to throw some of it over the left shoulder; but no one knows +why such an act is a deterrent to misfortune, any more than why +misfortune, if not then averted, should accrue from the spilling. + +That the superstition originated in a tradition that Judas Iscariot +overturned a salt-cellar is ridiculous, for there is but little doubt it +was in vogue long before the advent of Christ, and is certainly current +to-day among tribes and races that have never heard of the "Last +Supper." + +In all probability the superstition is derived from the fact that salt, +from its usage in ancient sacrificial rites, was once regarded as +sacred. Hence to spill any carelessly was looked upon as sacrilegious +and an offence to the gods, to appease whom the device of throwing it +over the left, the more psychic shoulder, was instituted. + + +_Looking-glasses_ + +The breaking of a looking-glass is said to be an ill omen, and I have +certainly known many cases in which one misfortune after another has +occurred to the person who has had the misfortune to break a +looking-glass. Some think that because looking-glasses were once used in +sorcery, they possess certain psychic properties, and that by reason of +their psychic properties any injury done to a mirror must be fraught +with danger to the doer of that injury, but whether this is so or not is +a matter of conjecture. + + +_Psychic Days_ + +"Friday's child is full of woe." Of all days Friday is universally +regarded as the most unlucky. According to Soames in his work, _The +Anglo-Saxon Church_, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday +and died on a Friday. And since Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday, +it is naturally of small wonder that Friday is accursed. + +To travel on Friday is generally deemed to be courting accident; to be +married on Friday, courting divorce or death. Few sailors care to embark +on Friday; few theatrical managers to produce a new play on Friday. In +Livonia most of the inhabitants are so prejudiced against Friday, that +they never settle any important business, or conclude a bargain on that +day; in some places they do not even dress their children. + +For my part, I so far believe in this superstition that I never set out +for a journey, or commence any new work on Friday, if I have the option +of any other day. Thursday has always been an unlucky day for me. Most +of my accidents, disappointments, illnesses have happened on Thursdays. +Wednesday has been my luckiest day. Monday, Thursday, Friday, and +Saturday the days when I have mostly experienced occult phenomena. On +All-Hallows E'en the spirits of the dead are supposed to walk. I +remember when a child hearing from the lips of a relative how in her +girlhood she had screwed up the courage to shut herself in a dark room +on All-Hallows E'en and had eaten an apple in front of the mirror; and +that instead of seeing the face of her future husband peering over her +shoulder, she had seen a quantity of earth falling. She was informed +that this was a prognostication of death, and, surely enough, within the +year her father died. I have heard, too, of a girl who, on All-Hallows +E'en, walked down a gloomy garden path scattering hempseed for her +future lover to pick up, and on hearing someone tiptoeing behind her, +and fancying it was a practical joker, turned sharply round, to confront +a skeleton dressed exactly similar to herself. She died before the year +was out from the result of an accident on the ice. + +I have often poured boiling lead into water on All-Hallows E'en and it +has assumed strange shapes, once--a boot, once--a coffin, once--a ship; +and I have placed all the letters of the alphabet cut out of pasteboard +by my bedside, and on one occasion (my door was locked, by the way, and +I fully satisfied myself no one was in hiding) found, on awakening in +the morning, the following word spelt out of them--"Merivale." It was +not until some days afterwards that I remembered associations with this +word, and then it all came back to me in a trice--it was the name of a +man who had once wanted me to join him in an enterprise in British West +Africa. + +On New Year's Eve a certain family, with whom I am very intimately +acquainted, frequently see ghosts of the future, as well as phantasms of +the dead, and, when I stay with them, which I often do at Christmas, I +am always glad when this night is over. On one occasion, one of them saw +a lady come up the garden path and vanish on the front doorsteps. She +saw the lady's face distinctly; every feature in it, together with the +clothes she was wearing, stood out with startling perspicuity. + +Some six months later, she was introduced to the material counterpart of +the phantasm, who was destined to play a most important part in her +life. On another New Year's Eve she saw the phantasm of a dog, to which +she had been deeply attached, enter her bedroom and jump on her bed, +just as it had done during its lifetime. Not in the least frightened, +she put down her hand to stroke it, when it vanished. I have given +several other instances of this kind in my _Haunted Houses of London_ +and _Ghostly Phenomena_--they all, I think, tend to prove a future +existence for dumb animals. + +The 28th of December, Childermass Day, or the Feast of the Holy +Innocents, the day on which King Herod slaughtered so many infants (if +they were no better mannered than the bulk of the County Council +children of to-day, one can hardly blame him), is held to be +unpropitious for the commencement of any new undertaking by those of +tender years. + +The fishermen who dwell on the Baltic seldom use their nets between All +Saints and St Martin's Day, or on St Blaise's Day; if they did, they +believe they would not take any fish for a whole year. On Ash Wednesday +the women in those parts neither sew nor knit for fear of bringing +misfortune upon their cattle, whilst they do not use fire on St +Lawrence's Day, in order to secure themselves against fire for the rest +of the year. + +In Moravia the peasants used not to hunt on St Mark's or St Catherine's +Day, for fear they should be unlucky all the rest of the year. In +Yorkshire it was once customary to watch for the dead on St Mark's +(April 24) and Midsummer Eve. On both those nights (so says Mr Timbs in +his _Mysteries of Life and Futurity_) persons would sit and watch in the +church porch from eleven o'clock at night till one in the morning. In +the third year (for it must be done thrice), the watchers were said to +see the spectres of all those who were to die the next year pass into +the church. + +I am quite sure there is much truth in this, for I have heard of +sceptics putting it to the test, and of "singing to quite a different +tune" when the phantasms of those they knew quite well suddenly shot up +from the ground, and, gliding past them, vanished at the threshold of +the church. Occasionally, too, I have been informed of cases where the +watchers have seen themselves in the ghastly procession and have died +shortly afterwards. + + +_Fortune-telling_ + +Before ridiculing the possibility of telling fortunes by cards, it would +be just as well for sceptics to inquire into the history of cards, and +the reason of their being designated the Devil's pasteboards. Their +origin may be traced to the days when man was undoubtedly in close touch +with the occult, and each card, _i.e._ of the original design, has a +psychic meaning. Hence the telling of fortunes by certain people--those +who have had actual experience with occult phenomena--deserves to be +taken seriously; and I am convinced many of the fortunes thus told come +true. + + +_Palmistry_ + +That there is much truth in palmistry--the palmistry of those who have +made a thorough study of the subject--should by this time, I think, be +an established fact. I can honestly say I have had my hand told with +absolute accuracy, and in such a manner as utterly precludes the +possibility of coincidence or chance. Many of the events, and +out-of-the-way events, of my life have been read in my lines with +perfect veracity, my character has been delineated with equal fidelity, +and the future portrayed exactly in the manner it has come about--and +all by a stranger, one who had never seen or heard of me before he "told +my hand." + +To attempt to negative the positive is the height of folly, but fools +will deny anything and everything save their own wit. It does not follow +that because one palmist has been at fault, all palmists are at fault. I +believe in palmistry, because I have seen it verified in a hundred and +one instances. + +Apart from the lines, however, there is a wealth of character in hands: +I am never tired of studying them. To me the most beautiful and +interesting hands are the pure psychic and the dramatic--the former with +its thin, narrow palm, slender, tapering fingers and filbert nails; the +latter a model of symmetry and grace, with conical finger-tips and +filbert nails--indeed, filbert nails are more or less confined to these +two types; one seldom sees them in other hands. + +Then there are the literary and artistic hands, with their mixed types +of fingers, some conical and some square-tipped, but always with some +redeeming feature of refinement and elegance in them; and the musical +hand, sometimes a modified edition of the psychic, and sometimes quite +different, with short, supple fingers and square tips. And yet +again--would that it did not exist!--the business hand, far more common +in England, where the bulk of the people have commercial minds, than +elsewhere. It has no redeeming feature, but is short, and square, and +fat, with stumpy fingers and hideous, spatulate nails, the very sight of +which makes me shudder. Indeed, I have heard it said abroad, and not +without some reason, that, apart from other little peculiarities, such +as projecting teeth and big feet, the English have two sets of toes! +When I look at English children's fingers, and see how universal is the +custom of biting the nails, I feel quite sure the day will come when +there will be no nails left to bite--that the day, in fact, is not far +distant, when nails, rather than teeth, will become extinct. + +The Irish, French, Italians, Spanish, and Danes, being far more dramatic +and psychic than the English, have far nicer hands, and for one set of +filbert nails in London, we may count a dozen in Paris or Madrid. + +Murderers' hands are often noticeable for their knotted knuckles and +club-shaped finger-tips; suicides--for the slenderness of the thumbs +and strong inclination of the index to the second finger; thieves--for +the pointedness of the finger-tips, and the length and suppleness of the +fingers. Dominating, coarse-minded people, and people who exert undue +influence over others, generally have broad, flat thumbs. The hands of +soldiers and sailors are usually broad, with short, thick, square-tipped +fingers; the hands of clergy are also more often broad and coarse than +slender and conical, which may be accounted for by the fact that so many +of them enter the Church with other than spiritual motives. The really +spiritual hand is the counterpart of the psychical, and rarely seen in +England. Doctors, doctors with a genuine love of their profession, in +other words, "born" doctors, have broad but slender palms, with long, +supple fingers and moderately square tips. This type of hand is typical, +also, of the hospital nurse. + +It is, of course, a gross error to think that birth has everything to do +with the shape of the hand; for the latter is entirely dependent on +temperament; but it is also a mistake to say that as many +beautiful-shaped hands are to be found among the lower as among the +upper classes in England. It is a mistake, because the psychic and +dramatic temperaments (and the psychic and dramatic type of hand is +unquestionably the most beautiful) are rarely to be found in the middle +and lower classes in England--they are almost entirely confined to the +upper classes. + + +_Pyromancy_ + +Predicting the future by fire is one of the oldest methods of +fortune-telling, and has been practised from time immemorial. I have +often had my fortune told in the fire, but I cannot say it has ever +proved to be very correct; only once a prognostication came true,--a +sudden death occurred in a family very nearly connected with me, after a +very fanciful churchyard had been pointed out to me amid the glowing +embers. + + +_Hydromancy_ + +There are many ways of telling the fortune by means of water. One of the +most usual methods is to float some object on the water's surface, +predicting the future in accordance with the course that object takes; +but I believe future events are just as often foretold by means of the +water only. + +Many people believe that especially successful results in +fortune-telling may be obtained by means of water only, on All-Hallows +E'en or New Year's Eve. + +On the former night, the method of divining the future is as +follows:--Place a bowl of clear spring water on your lap at midnight, +and gaze into it. If you are to be married, you will see the face of +your future husband (or bride) reflected in the water; if you are to +remain single all your life, you will see nothing; and if you are to die +within the year, the water will become muddy. On New Year's Eve a +tumbler of water should be placed at midnight before the looking-glass, +when any person, or persons, destined to play a very important rôle in +your life within the coming year, will suddenly appear and sip the +water. Should you be doomed to die within that period, the tumbler will +be thrown on the ground and dashed to pieces. + +The conditions during the trial of both these methods are that you +should be alone in the room, with only one candle burning. + + +_The Crystal_ + +I often practise crystal-gazing, and the results are strangely +inconsistent. I see with startling vividness events that actually come +to pass, and sometimes with equal perspicuity events that, as far as I +know, are never fulfilled. And this I feel sure must be the case with +all crystal-gazers, if they would but admit it. My method is very +simple. As I cannot concentrate unless I have absolute quiet, I wait +till the house is very still, and I then sit alone in my room with my +back to the light, in such a position that the light pours over my +shoulders on to the crystal, which I have set on the table before me. +Sometimes I sit for a long time before I see anything, and sometimes, +after a lengthy sitting, I see nothing at all; but when a tableau does +come, it is always with the most startling vividness. When I want to be +initiated into what is happening to certain of my friends, I concentrate +my whole mind on those friends--I think of nothing but them--their +faces, forms, mannerisms, and surroundings--and then, suddenly, I see +them in the crystal! Visions are sometimes of the future, sometimes of +the present, sometimes of the past, and sometimes of neither, but of +what never actually transpires--and there is the strange inconsistency. +I do not know what methods other people adopt, I daresay some of them +differ from mine, but I feel quite sure that, look at the crystal how +they will, it will invariably lie to them at times. + +A day or so before the death of Lafayette, when I was concentrating my +whole mind on forthcoming events, I distinctly saw, in the crystal, a +stage with a man standing before the footlights, either speaking or +singing. In the midst of his performance, a black curtain suddenly fell, +and I intuitively realised the theatre was on fire. The picture then +faded away and was replaced by something of a totally different +character. Again, just before the great thunder-storm at the end of May, +when Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, was struck, I saw, in the crystal, +a black sky, vivid flashes of lightning, a road rushing with brown +water, and a church spire with an enormous crack in it. + +Of course, it is very easy to say these visions might have been mere +coincidences; but if they were only coincidences, they were surpassingly +uncommon ones. + + +_Talismans and Amulets_ + +Amulets, though now practically confined to the East, were once very +much in vogue throughout Europe. + +Count Daniel O'Donnell, brigadier-general in the Irish Brigade of Louis +XIV., never went into battle without carrying with him an amulet in the +shape of the jewelled casket "Cathach of Columbcille," containing a +Latin psalter said to have been written by St Columba. It has quite +recently been lent to the Royal Irish Academy (where it is now) by my +kinsman, the late Sir Richard O'Donnell, Bart. Count O'Donnell used to +say that so long as he had this talisman with him, he would never be +wounded, and it is a fact that though he led his regiment in the thick +of the fight at Borgoforte, Nago, Arco, Vercelli, Ivrea, Verrua, +Chivasso, Cassano, and other battles in the Italian Campaign of 1701-7, +and at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Arleux, Denain, Douai, Bouchain, and +Fuesnoy, in the Netherlands, he always came through scathless. Hence, +like him, I am inclined to attribute his escapes to the psychic +properties of the talisman. + +The great family of Lyons were in possession of a talisman in the form +of a "lion-cup," the original of Scott's "Blessed Bear of Bradwardine," +which always brought them good luck till they went to Glamis, and after +that they experienced centuries of misfortune. + +Another famous talisman is the "Luck of Edenhall," in the possession of +Sir Richard Musgrave of Edenhall, in Cumberland; and many other ancient +families still retain their amulets. + + +_"The Evil Eye"_ + +I was recently speaking to an Italian lady who informed me that belief +in "the evil eye" is still very prevalent in many parts of Italy. "I +myself believe in it," she said, "and whenever I pass a person whom I +think possesses it, I make a sign with my fingers"--and she held up two +of her fingers as she spoke. I certainly have observed that people with +a peculiar and undefinable "something" in their eyes are particularly +unlucky and invariably bring misfortune on those with whom they are in +any degree intimate. These people, I have no doubt, possess "the evil +eye," though it would not be discernible except to the extremely +psychic, and there is no doubt that the Irish and Italians are both far +more psychic than the English. + +People are of opinion that the eye is not a particularly safe indicator +of true character, but I beg to differ. To me the eye tells everything, +and I have never yet looked directly into a person's eyes without being +able to satisfy myself as to their disposition. Cruelty, vanity, deceit, +temper, sensuality, and all the other vices display themselves at once; +and so with vulgarity--the glitter of the vulgar, of the ignorant, +petty, mean, sordid mind, the mind that estimates all things and all +people by money and clothes, cannot be hidden; "vulgarity" will out, and +in no way more effectually than through the eyes. No matter how "smart" +the _parvenu_ dresses, no matter how perfect his "style," the glitter of +the eye tells me what manner of man he is, and when I see that strange +anomaly, "nature's gentleman," in the service of such a man, I do not +say to myself "Jack is as good"--I say, "Jack is better than his +master." + +But to me "the evil eye," no less than the vulgar eye, manifests +itself. I was at an "at home" one afternoon several seasons ago, when an +old friend of mine suddenly whispered: + +"You see that lady in black, over there? I must tell you about her. She +has just lost her husband, and he committed suicide under rather +extraordinary circumstances in Sicily. He was not only very unlucky +himself, but he invariably brought misfortune on those to whom he took a +liking--even his dogs. His mother died from the effects of a railway +accident; his favourite brother was drowned; the girl to whom he was +first engaged went into rapid consumption; and no sooner had he married +the lady you see, than she indirectly experienced misfortune through the +heavy monetary losses of her father. At last he became convinced that he +must be labouring under the influence of a curse, and, filled with a +curious desire to see if he had 'the evil eye,'--people of course said +he was mad--he went to Sicily. Arriving there, he had no sooner shown +himself among the superstitious peasants, than they made a sign with +their fingers to ward off evil, and in every possible way shunned him. +Convinced then that what he had suspected was true, namely, that he was +genuinely accursed, he went into a wood and shot himself." + +This, I daresay, is only one of many suicides in similar circumstances, +and not a few of the suicides we attribute, with such obvious +inconsistency (thinking thereby to cover our ignorance), to "temporary +insanity," may be traceable to the influence of "the evil eye." + + +_Witches_ + +Though witches no longer wear conical hats and red cloaks and fly +through the air on broomsticks, and though their _modus operandi_ has +changed with their change of attire, I believe there are just as many +witches in the world to-day, perhaps even more, than in days gone by. +All women are witches who exert baleful influence over others--who wreck +the happiness of families by setting husbands against wives (or, what is +even more common, wives against husbands), parents against children, and +brothers against sisters; and, who steal whole fortunes by inveigling +into love, silly, weak-minded old men, or by captivating equally silly +and weak-willed women. Indeed, the latter is far from rare, and there +are instances of women having filled other women with the blindest +infatuation for them--an infatuation surpassing that of the most doting +lovers, and, without doubt, generated by undue influence, or, in other +words, by witchcraft. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that the orthodox +witch of the past was harmless compared with her present-day +representative. There is, however, one thing we may be thankful for, and +that is--that in the majority of cases the modern witch, despite her +disregard of the former properties of her calling, cannot hide her +danger signals. Her manners are soft and insinuating, but her eyes are +hard--hard with the steely hardness, which, granted certain conditions, +would not hesitate at murder. Her hands, too, are coarse--an +exaggeration of the business type of hand--the fingers short and +club-shaped, the thumbs broad and flat, the nails hideous; they are the +antipodes of the psychic or dramatic type of hands: a type that, +needless to say, witches have never been known to possess. Once the +invocation of the dead was one of the practices of ancient witchcraft: +one might, perhaps, not inappropriately apply the term witch to the +modern spiritualist. + +If we credit the Scriptures with any degree of truth, then witches most +certainly had the power of calling up the dead in Biblical days, for at +Endor the feat--rare even in those times--was accomplished of invoking +in material form the phantasms of the good as well as the evil. Though I +am of the opinion that no amount of invocation will bring back a +phantasm from the higher spiritual planes to-day, unless that invocation +be made in very exceptional circumstances, with a specific purpose, I am +quite sure that _bona fide_ spirits of the earth-bound do occasionally +materialise in answer to the summons of the spiritualist. I do not base +this statement on any experience I have ever had, for it is a rather +singular fact that, although I have seen many spontaneous phenomena in +haunted houses, I have never seen anything resembling, in the slightest +degree, a genuine spirit form, at a séance. Therefore, I repeat, I do +not base my statement, as to the occasional materialisation of _bona +fide_ earth-bound spirits, on any of my experiences, but on those of +"sitters" with whom I am intimately acquainted. What benefit can be +derived from getting into close touch with earth-bound spirits, _i.e._ +with vice and impersonating elementals and the phantasms of dead idiots, +lunatics, murderers, suicides, rakes, drunkards, immoral women and silly +people of all sorts, is, I think, difficult to say; for my own part, I +am only too content to steer clear of them, and confine my attentions to +trying to be of service to those apparitions that are, obviously, for +some reason, made to appear by the higher occult powers. Thus, what is +popularly known as spiritualism is, from my point of view, a mischievous +and often very dangerous form of witchcraft. + +A Frenchman to whom I was recently introduced at a house in Maida Vale, +told me the following case, which he assured me actually happened in the +middle of the eighteenth century, and was attested to by judicial +documents. A French nobleman, whom I will designate the Vicomte +Davergny, whilst on a visit to some friends near Toulouse, on hearing +that a miller in the neighbourhood was in the habit of holding Sabbats, +was seized with a burning desire to attend one. Consequently, in +opposition to the advice of his friends, he saw the miller, and, by dint +of prodigious bribing, finally persuaded the latter to permit him to +attend one of the orgies. But the miller made one stipulation--the +Vicomte was on no account to carry firearms; and to this the latter +readily agreed. When, however, the eventful night arrived, the Vicomte, +becoming convinced that it would be the height of folly to go to a +notoriously lonely spot, in the dark, and unarmed, concealed a brace of +pistols under his clothes. On reaching the place of assignation, he +found the miller already there, and on the latter enveloping him in a +heavy cloak, the Vicomte felt himself lifted bodily from the ground and +whirled through the air. This sensation continued for several moments, +when he was suddenly set down on the earth again and the cloak taken off +him. At first he could scarcely make out anything owing to a blaze of +light, but as soon as his eyes grew accustomed to the illumination, he +perceived that he was standing near a huge faggot fire, around which +squatted a score or so of the most hideous hags he had ever conceived +even in his wildest imagination. After going through a number of strange +incantations, which were more or less Greek to the Vicomte, there was a +most impressive lull, that was abruptly broken by the appearance of an +extraordinary and alarming-looking individual in the midst of the +flames. All the witches at once uttered piercing shrieks and prostrated +themselves, and the Vicomte then realised that the remarkable being who +had caused the commotion was none other than the devil. Yielding to an +irresistible impulse, but without really knowing what he was doing, the +Vicomte whipped out a pistol, and, pointing at Mephistopheles, fired. In +an instant, fire and witches vanished, and all was darkness and silence. + +Terrified out of his wits, the Count sank on the ground, where he +remained till daylight, when he received another shock, on discovering, +stretched close to him, the body of the miller with a bullet wound in +his forehead. Flying from the spot, he wandered on and on, until he +came to a cottage, at which he inquired his way home. And here another +surprise awaited him. For the cottagers, in answer to his inquiries, +informed him that the nearest town was not Toulouse but Bordeaux, and if +he went on walking in such and such a direction, he would speedily come +to it. Arriving at Bordeaux, as the peasant had directed, the Vicomte +rested a short time, and then set out for Toulouse, which city he at +length reached after a few days' journeying. But he had not been back +long before he was arrested for the murder of the miller, it being +deposed that he had been seen near Bordeaux, in the immediate +neighbourhood of the tragedy, directly after its enaction. However, as +it was obviously impossible that the Vicomte could have taken less than +a few days to travel from Toulouse to a spot near Bordeaux, where the +murder had taken place, a distance of several hundreds of miles, on the +evidence of his friends, who declared that he had been with them till +within a few hours of the time when it was presumed the crime was +committed, the charge was withdrawn, and the Vicomte was fully +acquitted. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + THE HAND OF GLORY; THE BLOODY HAND OF + ULSTER; THE SEVENTH SON; BIRTHMARKS; + NATURE'S DEVIL SIGNALS; PRE-EXISTENCE; THE + FUTURE; PROJECTION; TELEPATHY, ETC. + + +_The Hand of Glory_ + +Belief in the power of the Hand of Glory still, I believe, exists in +certain parts of European and Asiatic Russia. Once it was prevalent +everywhere. The Hand of Glory was a hand cut off from the body of a +robber and murderer who had expiated his crimes on the gallows. To endow +it with the properties of a talisman, the blood was first of all +extracted; it was then given a thorough soaking in saltpetre and pepper, +and hung out in the sun. When perfectly dry, it was used as a +candlestick for a candle made of white wax, sesame seed, and fat from +the corpse of the criminal. Prepared thus, the Hand of Glory was deemed +to have the power of aiding and protecting the robbers in their +nefarious work by sending to sleep their intended victims. Hence no +robber ever visited a house without having such a talisman with him. + + +_The Bloody Hand of Ulster_ + +The Red Right Hand of Ulster is the badge of the O'Neills, and according +to tradition it originated thus:--On the approach of an ancient +expedition to Ulster, the leader declared that whoever first touched the +shore should possess the land in the immediate vicinity. An ancestor of +the O'Neills, anxious to obtain the reward, at once cut off his right +hand and threw it on the coast, which henceforth became his territory. + +Since then the O'Neills have always claimed the Red Right Hand of Ulster +as their badge, and it figured only the other day on the banner which, +for the first time since the days of Shane the Proud, was flown from the +battlements of their ancient stronghold, Ardglass Castle, now in the +possession of Mr F. J. Bigger. + +A very similar story to that of the O'Neill is told of an O'Donnell, +who, with a similar motive, namely, to acquire territory, on arriving +within sight of Spain, cut off his hand and hurled it on the shore, and, +like the O'Neills, the O'Donnells from that time have adopted the hand +as their badge. + + +_The Seventh Son_ + +It was formerly believed that a seventh son could cure diseases, and +that a seventh son of a seventh son, with no female born in between, +could cure the king's evil. Indeed, seven was universally regarded as a +psychic number, and according to astrologers the greatest events in a +person's life, and his nearest approach to death without actually +incurring it, would be every seven years. The grand climacterics are +sixty-three and eighty-four, and the most critical periods of a +person's life occur when they are sixty-three and eighty-four years of +age. + + +_Birthmarks_ + +Some families have a heritage of peculiar markings on the skin. The only +birthmark of this description which I am acquainted with is "The +Historic Baldearg," or red spot that has periodically appeared on the +skins of members of the O'Donnell clan. Its origin is dubious, but I +imagine it must go back pretty nearly to the time of the great Niall. In +the days when Ireland was in a chronic state of rebellion, it was said +that it would never shake off the yoke of its cruel English oppressors +till its forces united under the leadership of an O'Donnell with the +Baldearg. An O'Donnell with the Baldearg turned up in 1690, in the +person of Hugh Baldearg O'Donnell, son of John O'Donnell, an officer in +the Spanish Army, and descendant of the Calvagh O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, +who had been created Earl of Wexford by Queen Elizabeth. But the Irish, +as has ever been the case, would not unite, and despite the aid given +him by Talbot (who had succeeded the O'Donnells in the Earldom of +Tyrconnell), he met with but little success, and returning to Spain, +died there with the rank of Major-General in 1704. + +References to the Baldearg may be seen in various of the Memoirs of the +O'Donnells in the libraries of the British Museum, Madrid, Dublin, and +elsewhere. + + +_Nature's Devil Signals_ + +I have already alluded to the fingers typical of murderers; I will now +refer in brief to a form of Nature's other danger signals. The feet of +murderers are, as a rule, very short and broad, the toes flat and +square-tipped. As a rule, too, they either have very receding chins, as +in the case of Mapleton Lefroy, or very massive, prominent chins, as in +the case of Gotfried. + +In many instances the ears of murderers are set very far back and low +down on their heads, and the outer rims are very much crumpled; also +they have very high and prominent cheek-bones, whilst one side of the +face is different from the other. The backs of many murderers' heads are +nearly perpendicular, or, if anything, rather inclined to recede than +otherwise--they seldom project--whilst the forehead is unusually +prominent. + +It is a noteworthy fact that a large percentage of modern murderers have +had rather prominent light, steely blue eyes--rarely grey or brown. + +Their voices--and there is another key to the character--are either +hollow and metallic, or suggestive of the sounds made by certain +animals. + +Many of these characteristics are to be found in criminal lunatics. + + +_Pre-existence and the Future_ + +To talk of a former life as if it were an established fact is, of +course, an absurdity; to dogmatise at all on such a question, with +regard to which one man's opinion is just as speculative as another's, +is, perhaps, equally ridiculous. Granted, then, the equal value of the +varying opinions of sane men on this subject, it is clear that no one +can be considered an authority; my opinion, no less than other people's, +is, as I have said, merely speculation. That I had a former life is, I +think, extremely likely, and that I misconducted myself in that former +life, more than likely, since it is only by supposing a previous +existence in which I misbehaved, that I can see the shadow of a +justification for all the apparently unmerited misfortunes I have +suffered in my present existence. + +I do not, however, see any specific reason why my former existence +should have been here; on the contrary, I think it far more probable +that I was once in some other sphere--perhaps one of the planets--where +my misdeeds led to my banishment and my subsequent appearance in this +world. With regard to a future life, eternal punishment, and its +converse, everlasting bliss, I fear I never had any orthodox views, or, +if I had, my orthodoxy exploded as soon as my common sense began to +grow. + +Hell, the hell hurled at my head from the pulpit, only excited my +indignation--it was so unjust--nor did the God of the Old Testament fill +me with aught save indignation and disgust. Lost in a quagmire of doubts +and perplexities, I inquired of my preceptors as to the authorship of +the book that held up for adoration a being so stern, relentless, and +unjust as God; and in answer to my inquiries was told that I was very +wicked to talk in such a way about the Bible; that it was God's own +book--divinely inspired--in fact, written by God Himself. Then I +inquired if the original manuscript in God's handwriting was still in +existence; and was told I was very wicked and must hold my tongue. Yet I +had no idea of being in any way irreverent or blasphemous; I was merely +perplexed, and longed to have my difficulties settled. Failing this, +they grew, and I began to question whether the terms "merciful" and +"almighty" were terms that could be applied with any degree of +consistency to the scriptural one and only Creator. Would that God, if +He were almighty, have permitted the existence of such an enemy (or +indeed an enemy at all) as the Devil? And if He were merciful, would He, +for the one disobedient act of one human being, have condemned to the +most ghastly and diabolical sufferings, millions of human beings, and +not only human beings, but animals? Ah! that's where the rub comes in, +for though there may be some sense, if not justice, in causing men and +women, who have sinned--to suffer, there is surely neither reason nor +justice in making animals, who have not sinned--to suffer. + +And yet, for man's one act of disobedience, both man and beast have +suffered thousands of years of untold agonies. Could anyone save the +blindest and most fanatical of biblical bigots call the ordainer of such +a punishment merciful? How often have I asked myself who created the +laws and principles of Nature! They are certainly more suggestive of a +fiendish than a benevolent author. It is ridiculous to say man owes +disease to his own acts--such an argument--if argument at all--would +not deceive an infant. Are the insects, the trees, the fish responsible +for the diseases with which they are inflicted? No, Nature, or rather +the creator of Nature, is alone responsible. But, granted we have lived +before, there may be grounds for the suffering both of man and beast. +The story of the Fall may be but a contortion of something that has +happened to man in a former existence, in another sphere, possibly, in +another planet; and its description based on nothing more substantial +than memory, vague and fleeting as a dream. Anyhow, I am inclined to +think that incarnation here might be traced to something of +more--infinitely more--importance than an apple; possibly, to some cause +of which we have not, at the present, even the remotest conception. +People, who do not believe in the former existence, attempt to justify +the ills of man here, by assuming that a state of perfect happiness +cannot be attained by man, except he has suffered a certain amount of +pain; so that, in order to attain to perfect happiness, man must of +necessity experience suffering--a theory founded on the much +misunderstood axiom, that nothing can exist save by contrast. But +supposing, for the sake of argument, that this axiom, according to its +everyday interpretation, is an axiom, _i.e._ a true saying, then God, +the Creator of all things, must have created evil--evil that good may +exist, and good that evil may exist. This deduction, however, is +obviously at variance with the theory that God is all goodness, since if +nothing can exist save by contrast, goodness must of necessity +presuppose badness, and we are thus led to the conclusion that God is +at the same time both good and bad, a conclusion which is undoubtedly a +_reductio ad absurdum_. + +Seeing, then, that a God all good cannot have created evil, surely we +should be more rational, if less scriptural, were we to suppose a +plurality of gods. In any case I cannot see how pain, if God is indeed +all mighty and all good, can be the inevitable corollary of pleasure. +Nor can I see the necessity for man to suffer here, in order to enjoy +absolute happiness in the hereafter. No, I think if there is any +justification for the suffering of mankind on this earth, it is to be +found, not in the theory of "contrast," but in a former existence, and +in an existence in some other sphere or plane. Vague recollections of +such an existence arise and perplex many of us; but they are so elusive, +the moment we attempt to grapple with them, they fade away. + +The frequent and vivid dreams I have, of visiting a region that is +peopled with beings that have nothing at all in common with mankind, and +who welcome me as effusively as if I had been long acquainted with them, +makes me wonder if I have actually dwelt amongst them in a previous +life. + +I cannot get rid of the idea that in everything I see (in these +dreams)--in the appearance, mannerisms, and expressions of my queer +companions, in the scenery, in the atmosphere--I do but recall the +actual experience of long ago--the actual experience of a previous +existence. Nor is this identical dreamland confined to me; and the fact +that others whom I have met, have dreamed of a land, corresponding in +every detail to my dreamland, proves, to my mind, the possibility that +both they and I have lived a former life, and in that former life +inhabited the same sphere. + + +_Projection_ + +I have, as I have previously stated in my work, _The Haunted Houses of +London_, succeeded, on one occasion, in separating at will, my +immaterial from my material body. I was walking alone along a very +quiet, country lane, at 4 P.M., and concentrating with all my mind, on +being at home. I kept repeating to myself, "I WILL be there." Suddenly a +vivid picture of the exterior of the house rose before me, and, the next +instant, I found myself, in the most natural manner possible, walking +down some steps and across the side garden leading to the conservatory. +I entered the house, and found all my possessions--books, papers, shoes, +etc.--just as I had left them some hours previously. With the intention +of showing myself to my wife, in order that she might be a witness to my +appearance, I hastened to the room, where I thought it most likely I +should find her, and was about to turn the handle of the door, when, for +the fraction of a second, I saw nothing. Immediately afterwards there +came a blank, and I was once again on the lonely moorland road, toiling +along, fishing rod in hand, a couple of miles, at least, away from home. +When I did arrive home, my wife met me in the hall, eager to tell me +that at four o'clock both she and the girls had distinctly heard me come +down the steps and through the conservatory into the house. "You +actually came," my wife continued, "to the door of the room in which I +was sitting. I called out to you to come in, but, receiving no reply, I +got up and opened the door, and found, to my utter amazement, no one +there. I searched for you everywhere, and should much like to know why +you have behaved in this very extraordinary manner." + +Much excited in my turn, I hastened to explain to her that I had been +practising projection, and had actually succeeded in separating my +material from my immaterial body, for a brief space of time, just about +four o'clock. The footsteps she had heard were indeed my own +footsteps--and upon this point she was even more positive than I--the +footsteps of my immaterial self. + +I have made my presence felt, though I have never "appeared," on several +other occasions. In my sleep, I believe, I am often separated from my +physical body, as my dreams are so intensely real and vivid. They are so +real that I am frequently able to remember, almost _verbatim_, long +conversations I have had in them, and I awake repeating broken-off +sentences. Often, after I have taken active exercise, such as running, +or done manual labour, such as digging or lifting heavy weights in the +land of my dreams, my muscles have ached all the following day. + +With regard to the projections of other people, I have often seen +phantasms of the living, and an account of one appearing to me, when in +the company of three other persons, all of whom saw it, may be read in +the Psychical Research Society's Magazine for October 1899. I have +referred to it as well as to other of my similar experiences in +_Ghostly Phenomena_ and _Haunted Houses of London_. + +_Doubles_, _i.e._ people who are more or less the exact counterpart of +other people, may easily be taken for projections by those who have but +little acquaintance with the occult. I, myself, have seen many doubles, +but though they be as like as the proverbial two peas, I can tell at a +glance whether they be the material or immaterial likeness of those they +so exactly resemble. I think there is no doubt that, in a good many +instances, doubles have been mistaken for projections, and, of course, +_vice versâ_. + + +_Telepathy and Suggestion_ + +Though telepathy between two very wakeful minds is an established fact, +I do not think it is generally known that it can also take place between +two minds when asleep, or between one person awake and another asleep, +and yet I have proved this to be the case. My wife and I continually +dream of the same thing at the same time, and if I lie down in the +afternoon and fall asleep alone, she often thinks of precisely what I am +dreaming about. Though telepathy and suggestion may possibly account for +hauntings when the phenomenon is only experienced individually, I cannot +see how it can do so when the manifestations are witnessed by numbers, +_i.e._ collectively. I am quite sure that neither telepathy nor +suggestion are in any degree responsible for the phenomena I have +experienced, and that the latter hail only from one quarter--the +objective and genuine occult world. + + +_The Psychic Faculty and Second Sight_ + +Whereas some people seem fated to experience occult phenomena and others +not, there is this inconsistency: the person with the supposed psychic +faculty does not always witness the phenomena when they appear. By way +of illustration: I have been present on one occasion in a haunted room +when all present have seen the ghost with the exception of myself; +whilst on other occasions, either I have been the only one who has seen +it, or some or all of us have seen it. It would thus seem that the +psychic faculty does not ensure one's seeing a ghost, whenever a ghost +is to be seen. + +I think, as a matter of fact, that apparitions can, whilst manifesting +themselves to some, remain invisible to others, and that they themselves +determine to whom they will appear. Some types of phantasms apparently +prefer manifesting themselves to the spiritual or psychic-minded person, +whilst other types do not discriminate, but appear to the spiritual and +carnal-minded alike. There is just as much variety in the tastes and +habits of phantasms as in the tastes and habits of human beings, and in +the behaviour of both phantasm and human being, I regret to say, there +is an equal and predominant amount of inconsistency. + + +_Intuition_ + +I do not think it can be doubted that psychic people have the faculty of +intuition far more highly developed than is the case with the more +material-minded. + +"Second sight" is but another name for the psychic faculty, and it is +generally acknowledged to be far more common among the Celts than the +Anglo-Saxons. That this is so need not be wondered at, since the Irish +and the Highlanders of Scotland (originally the same race) are far more +spiritual-minded than the English (in whom commerciality and worldliness +are innate), and consequently have, on the whole, a far greater +attraction for spirits who would naturally prefer to reveal themselves +to those in whom they would be the more likely to find something in +common. + +There is still a belief in certain parts of the Hebrides that second +sight was once obtained there through a practice called "The Taigheirm." +This rite, which is said to have been last performed about the middle of +the seventeenth century, consisted in roasting on a spit, before a slow +fire, a number of black cats. As soon as one was dead another took its +place, and the sacrifice was continued until the screeches of the +tortured animals summoned from the occult world an enormous black cat, +that promised to bestow as a perpetual heritage on the sacrificer and +his family, the faculty of second sight, if he would desist from any +further slaughter. + +The sacrificer joyfully closed with the bargain, and the ceremony +concluded with much feasting and merriment, in which, however, it is +highly improbable that the phantasms of the poor roasted "toms" took +part. + + +_Clairvoyance_ + +Clairvoyance is a branch of occultism in which I have had little +experience, and can, therefore, only refer to in brief. When I was the +Principal of a Preparatory School, I once had on my staff a Frenchman of +the name of Deslys. On recommencing school after the Christmas vacation, +M. Deslys surprised me very much by suddenly observing: "Mr O'Donnell, +did you not stay during the holidays at No. ... The Crescent, Bath?" + +"Yes," I replied; "but how on earth do you know?" I had only been there +two days, and had certainly never mentioned my visit either to him or to +anyone acquainted with him. + +"Well!" he said, "I'll tell you how I came to know. Hearing from my +friends that Mme. Leprès, a well-known clairvoyante, had just come to +Paris, I went to see her. It is just a week ago to-day. After she had +described, with wonderful accuracy, several houses and scenes with which +I was familiar, and given me several pieces of information about my +friends, which I subsequently found to be correct, I asked her to tell +me where you were and what you were doing. For some moments she was +silent, and then she said very slowly: 'He is staying with a friend at +No. ... The Crescent, Bath. I can see him (it was then three o'clock in +the afternoon) sitting by the bedside of his friend, who has his head +tied up in bandages. Mr O'Donnell is telling him a very droll story +about Lady B----, to whom he has been lately introduced.' She then +stopped, made a futile effort to go on, and after a protracted pause +exclaimed: 'I can see no more--something has happened.' That was all I +found out about you." + +"And enough, too, M. Deslys," I responded, "for what she told you was +absolutely true. A week ago to-day I was staying at No. ... The +Crescent, Bath, and at three o'clock in the afternoon I was sitting at +the bedside of my friend, who had injured his head in a fall, and had it +tied up in bandages; and amongst other bits of gossip, I narrated to him +a very amusing anecdote concerning Lady B----, whom I have only just +met, for the first time, in London." + +Now M. Deslys could not possibly have known, excepting through psychical +agency, where I had been staying a week before that time, or what I had +been doing at three o'clock on that identical afternoon. + + +_Automatic Writing_ + +I have frequently experimented in automatic writing. Who that is +interested in the occult has not! But I cannot say I have ever had any +astonishing results. However, though my own experiences are not worth +recording, I have heard of many extraordinary results obtained by +others--results from automatic messages that one can not help believing +could only be due to superphysical agency. + + +_Table-turning_ + +I do not think there is anything superphysical in merely turning the +table, or making it move across the room, or causing it to fall over on +to the ground, and to get up again. I am of the opinion that all this is +due to animal magnetism, and to the unconscious efforts of the audience, +who are ever anxious for the ghost to come and something startling to +happen. The ladies, in particular, I would point out, press a little +hard with their dainty but determined hands, or with their self-willed +knees resort to a few sly pushes. When this does not happen, I think it +is quite possible that an elemental or some other equally undesirable +type of phantasm does actually attend the séance, and, emphasising its +arrival by sundry noises, is responsible for many, if not all the +phenomena. On the other hand, I certainly think that ninety per cent. of +the rappings and the manifestations of musical enthusiasts is due to +trickery on the part of the medium, or, if there be no professional +medium present, to an over-zealous sitter. + +But since ghosts can and do show themselves spontaneously in haunted +houses, why the necessity of musical instruments, professional medium, +and sitting round a table with fingers linked? Surely, when one comes to +think of it, the _modus operandi_ of the séance, besides being extremely +undignified, is somewhat superfluous. Tin trumpets, twopenny +tambourines, and concertinas are all very well in their way, but, try +how I will, I cannot associate them with ghosts. What phantasm of any +standing at all would be attracted by such baubles? Surely only the +phantasms of the very silliest of servant girls, of incurable idiots, +and of advanced imbeciles. But even they, I think, might be "above it," +in which case the musical instruments, tin trumpets, tambourines, and +concertinas, disdained by the immaterial, must be manipulated by the +material! And this rule with regard to table-turning, the manipulation +of musical instruments, etc., equally applies to materialisation. I have +no doubt that genuine phantasms of the earth-bound or elementals do +occasionally show themselves, but I am quite sure in nine cases out of +ten the manifestations are manifestations of living flesh and blood. + + +_Charms and Checks against Ghosts_ + +"When I feel the approach of the superphysical, I always cross myself," +an old lady once remarked to me; and this is what many people do; +indeed, the sign of the cross is the most common mode of warding off +evil. Whether it is really efficacious is doubtful. I, for my part, make +use of the sign, involuntarily rather than otherwise, because the custom +is innate in me, and is, perhaps, with various other customs, the +heritage of all my race from ages past; but I cannot say it always or +even often answers, for ghosts frequently manifest themselves to me in +spite of it. Then there is the magic circle which is described +differently by divers writers. According to Mr Dyer, in his _Ghost +World_, pp. 167-168, the circle was prepared thus: "A piece of ground +was usually chosen, nine feet square, at the full extent of which +parallel lines were drawn, one within the other, having sundry crosses +and triangles described between them, close to which was formed the +first or outer circle; then about half a foot within the same, a second +circle was described, and within that another square corresponding to +the first, the centre of which was the spot where the master and +associate were to be placed. The vacancies formed by the various lines +and angles of the figure were filled up by the holy names of God, having +crosses and triangles described between them.... The reason assigned for +the use of the circles was, that so much ground being blessed and +consecrated by such holy words and ceremonies as they made use of in +forming it, had a secret force to expel all evil spirits from the bounds +thereof, and, being sprinkled with pure sanctified water, the ground was +purified from all uncleanliness; besides, the holy names of God being +written over every part of it, its forces became so powerful that no +evil spirits had ability to break through it, or to get at the magician +and his companion, by reason of the antipathy in nature they bore to +these sacred names. And the reason given for the triangles was, that if +the spirits were not easily brought to speak the truth, they might by +the exorcist be conjured to enter the same, where, by virtue of the +names of the essence and divinity of God, they could speak nothing but +what was true and right." + +Again according to Mr Dyer, when a spot was haunted by the spirit of a +murderer or suicide who lay buried there, a magic circle was made just +over the grave, and he who was daring enough to venture there, at +midnight, preferably when the elements were at their worst, would +conjure the ghost to appear and give its reason for haunting the spot. +In answer to the summons there was generally a long, unnatural silence, +which was succeeded by a tremendous crash, when the phantasm would +appear, and, in ghastly, hollow tones answer all the questions put to +it. Never once would it encroach on the circle, and on its interrogator +promising to carry out its wishes, it would suddenly vanish and never +again walk abroad. If the hauntings were in a house, the investigator +entered the haunted room at midnight with a candle, and compass, and a +crucifix or Bible. After carefully shutting the door, and describing a +circle on the floor, in which he drew a cross, he placed within it a +chair, and table, and on the latter, put the crucifix, a Bible, and a +lighted candle. He then sat down on the chair and awaited the advent of +the apparition, which either entered noiselessly or with a terrific +crash. On the promise that its wishes would be fulfilled, the ghost +withdrew, and there were no more disturbances. Sometimes the +investigator, if he were a priest, would sprinkle the phantasm with holy +water and sometimes make passes over it with the crucifix, but the +results were always the same; it responded to all the questions that +were put to it and never troubled the house again. + +How different from what happens in reality! Though I have seen and +interrogated many ghosts, I have never had a reply, or anything in the +shape of a reply, nor perceived any alteration in their expression that +would in any way lead me to suppose they had understood me; and as to +exorcism--well, I know of innumerable cases where it has been tried, +and tried by the most pious of clergy--clergy of all denominations--and +singularly failed. It is true I have never experimented with a magic +circle, but, somehow, I have not much faith in it. + +In China the method of expelling ghosts from haunted houses has been +described as follows:--An altar containing tapers and incense sticks is +erected in the spot where the manifestations are most frequent. A Taoist +priest is then summoned, and enters the house dressed in a red robe, +with blue stockings and a black cap. He has with him a sword, made of +the wood of the peach or date tree, the hilt and guard of which are +covered with red cloth. Written in ink on the blade of the sword is a +charm against ghosts. Advancing to the altar, the priest deposits his +sword on it. He then prepares a mystic scroll, which he burns, +collecting and emptying the ashes into a cup of spring water. Next, he +takes the sword in his right hand and the cup in his left, and, after +taking seven paces to the left and eight to the right, he says: "Gods of +heaven and earth, invest me with the heavy seal, in order that I may +eject from this dwelling-house all kinds of evil spirits. Should any +disobey me, give me power to deliver them for safe custody to rulers of +such demons." Then, addressing the ghost in a loud voice, he says: "As +quick as lightning depart from this house." This done, he takes a bunch +of willow, dips it in the cup, and sprinkles it in the east, west, +north, and south corners of the house, and, laying it down, picks up his +sword and cup, and, going to the east corner of the building, calls +out: "I have the authority, Tai-Shaong-Loo-Kivan." He then fills his +mouth with water from the cup, and spits it out on the wall, exclaiming: +"Kill the green evil spirits which come from unlucky stars, or let them +be driven away." This ceremony he repeats at the south, west, and north +corners respectively, substituting, in turn, red, white, and yellow in +the place of green. The attendants then beat gongs, drums, and tom-toms, +and the exorcist cries out: "Evil spirits from the east, I send back to +the east; evil spirits from the south, I send back to the south," and so +on. Finally, he goes to the door of the house, and, after making some +mystical signs in the air, manoeuvres with his sword, congratulates the +owner of the establishment on the expulsion of the ghosts, and demands +his fee. + +In China the sword is generally deemed to have psychic properties, and +is often to be seen suspended over a bed to scare away ghosts. Sometimes +a horse's tail--a horse being also considered extremely psychic--or a +rag dipped in the blood from a criminal's head, are used for the same +purpose. But no matter how many, or how varied, the precautions we take, +ghosts will come, and nothing will drive them away. The only protection +I have ever found to be of any practical value in preventing them from +materialising is a powerful light. As a rule they cannot stand _that_, +and whenever I have turned a pocket flashlight on them, they have at +once dematerialised; often, however, materialising again immediately the +light has been turned off. + +The cock was, at one time, (and still is in some parts of the world) +regarded as a psychic bird; it being thought that phantasms invariably +took their departure as soon as it began to crow. This, however, is a +fallacy. As ghosts appear at all hours of the day and night, in season +and out of season, I fear it is only too obvious that their +manifestations cannot be restricted within the limits of any particular +time, and that their coming and going, far from being subject to the +crowing of a cock, however vociferous, depend entirely on themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OCCULT INHABITANTS OF THE SEA AND RIVERS + + +_Phantom Ships_ + +From time to time, one still hears of a phantom ship being seen, in +various parts of the world. Sometimes it is in the Straits of Magellan, +vainly trying to weather the Horn; sometimes in the frozen latitudes of +the north, steering its way in miraculous fashion past monster icebergs; +sometimes in the Pacific, sometimes in the Atlantic, and only the other +day I heard of its being seen off Cornwall. The night was dark and +stormy, and lights being suddenly seen out at sea as of a vessel in +distress, the lifeboat was launched. On approaching the lights, it was +discovered that they proceeded from a vessel that mysteriously vanished +as soon as the would-be rescuers were within hailing. Much puzzled, the +lifeboat men were about to return, when they saw the lights suddenly +reappear to leeward. On drawing near to them, they again disappeared, +and were once more seen right out to sea. Utterly nonplussed, and +feeling certain that the elusive bark must be the notorious phantom +ship, the lifeboat men abandoned the pursuit, and returned home. + +A fisherman of the same town--the town to which the lifeboat that had +gone to the rescue of the phantom ship belonged--told me, when I was out +with him one evening in his boat, that one of the oldest inhabitants of +the place had on one occasion, when the phantom ship visited the bay, +actually got his hands on her gunwales before she melted away, and he +narrowly escaped pitching headlong into the sea. Though the weather was +then still and warm, the yards of the ship, which were coated with ice, +flapped violently to and fro, as if under the influence of some mighty +wind. The appearance of the phenomenon was followed, as usual, by a +catastrophe to one of the local boats. + +I very often sound sailors as to whether they have ever come across this +ominous vessel, and sometimes hear very enthralling accounts of it. An +old sea captain whom I met on the pier at Southampton, in reply to my +inquiry, said: "Yes! I have seen the phantom ship, or at any rate a +phantom ship, once--but only once. It was one night in the fifties, and +we were becalmed in the South Pacific about three hundred miles due west +of Callao. It had been terrifically hot all day, and, only too thankful +that it was now a little cooler, I was lolling over the bulwarks to get +a few mouthfuls of fresh air before turning into my berth, when one of +the crew touched me on the shoulder, and ejaculating, 'For God's +sake----' abruptly left off. Following the direction of his glaring +eyes, I saw to my amazement a large black brig bearing directly down on +us. She was about a mile off, and, despite the intense calmness of the +sea, was pitching and tossing as if in the roughest water. As she drew +nearer I was able to make her out better, and from her build--she +carried two masts and was square-rigged forward and schooner-rigged +aft--as well as from her tawdry gilt figurehead, concluded she was a +hermaphrodite brig of, very possibly, Dutch nationality. She had +evidently seen a great deal of rough weather, for her foretopmast and +part of her starboard bulwarks were gone, and what added to my +astonishment and filled me with fears and doubts was, that in spite of +the pace at which she was approaching us and the dead calmness of the +air, she had no other sails than her foresail and mainsail, and +flying-jib. + +"By this time all of our crew were on deck, and the skipper and the +second mate took up their positions one on either side of me, the man +who had first called my attention to the strange ship, joining some +other seamen near the forecastle. No one spoke, but, from the expression +in their eyes and ghastly pallor of their cheeks, it was very easy to +see that one and all were dominated by the same feelings of terror and +suspicion. Nearer and nearer drew the brig, until she was at last so +close that we could perceive her crew--all of whom, save the helmsman, +were leaning over the bulwarks--grinning at us. Never shall I forget the +horror of those grins. They were hideous, meaningless, hellish grins, +the grins of corpses in the last stage of putrefaction. And that is just +what they were--all of them--corpses, but corpses possessed by spirits +of the most devilish sort, for as we stared, too petrified with fear to +remove our gaze, they nodded their ulcerated heads and gesticulated +vehemently. The brig then gave a sudden yaw, and with that motion there +was wafted a stink--a stink too damnably foul and rotten to originate +from anywhere, save from some cesspool in hell. Choking, retching, and +all but fainting, I buried my face in the skipper's coat, and did not +venture to raise it, till the far-away sounds of plunging and tossing +assured me the cursed ship had passed. I then looked up, and was just in +time to catch a final glimpse of the brig, a few hundred yards to +leeward, (she had passed close under our stern) before her lofty stern +rose out of the water, and, bows foremost, she plunged into the stilly +depths and we saw her no more. There was no need for the skipper to tell +us that she was the phantom ship, nor did she belie her sinister +reputation, for within a week of seeing her, yellow fever broke out on +board, and when we arrived at port, there were only three of us left." + + +_The Sargasso Sea_ + +Of all the seas in the world, none bear a greater reputation for being +haunted than the Sargasso. Within this impenetrable waste of rank, +stinking seaweed, in places many feet deep, are collected wreckages of +all ages and all climes, grim and permanent records of the world's +maritime history, unsinkable and undestroyable. It has ever been my +ambition to explore the margins of this unsightly yet fascinating marine +wilderness, but, so far, I have been unable to extend my peregrinations +further south than the thirty-fifth degree of latitude. + +Among the many stories I have heard in connection with this sea, the +following will, I think, bear repeating:-- + +"A brig with twelve hands aboard, bound from Boston to the Cape Verde +Islands, was caught in a storm, and, being blown out of her course, +drifted on to the northern extremities of the Sargasso. The wind then +sinking, and an absolute calm taking its place, there seemed every +prospect that the brig would remain where it was for an indefinite +period. A most horrible fate now stared the crew in the face, for +although they had food enough to last them for many weeks, they only had +a very limited supply of water, and the intense heat and terrific stench +from the weeds made them abnormally thirsty. + +"After a long and earnest consultation, in which the skipper acted as +chairman, it was decided that on the consumption of the last drop of +water they should all commit suicide, anything rather than to perish of +thirst, and it would be far less harrowing to die in a body and face the +awful possibilities of the next world in company than alone. + +"As there was only one firearm on board, and the idea of throat-cutting +was disapproved of by several of the more timid, rat poison, of which +there was just enough to go all round, was chosen. Meanwhile, in +consideration of the short time left to them on earth, the crew insisted +that they should be allowed to enjoy themselves to the utmost. To this +the captain, knowing only too well what that would mean, reluctantly +gave his consent. A general pandemonium at once ensued, one of the men +producing a mouth accordion and another a concertina, whilst the rest, +selecting partners with much mock gallantry, danced to the air of a +popular Vaudeville song till they could dance no longer. + +"The next item on the programme was dinner. The best of everything on +board was served up, and they all ate and drank till they could hold no +more. They were then so sleepy that they tumbled off their seats, and, +lying on the floor, soon snored like hogs. The cool of the evening +restoring them, they played pitch and toss, and poker, till tea-time, +and then fooled away the remainder of the evening in more cards and more +drink. In this manner the best part of a week was beguiled. Then the +skipper announced the fact that the last drop of liquor on board had +gone, and that, according to the compact, the hour had arrived to commit +suicide. Had a bombshell fallen in their midst, it could not have caused +a greater consternation than this announcement. The men had, by this +time, become so enamoured with their easy and irresponsible mode of +living, that the idea of quitting it in so abrupt a manner was by no +means to their liking, and they evinced their displeasure in the +roughest and most forcible of language. 'The skipper could d----d well +put an end to himself if he had a mind to, but they would see themselves +somewhere else before they did any such thing--it would be time enough +to talk of dying when the victuals were all eaten up.' Then they +thoroughly overhauled the ship, and on discovering half a dozen bottles +of rum and a small cask of water stowed away in the skipper's cabin, +they threw him overboard and pelted him with empty bottles till he sank; +after which they cleared the deck and danced till sunset. + +"Two nights later, when they were all lying on the deck near the +companion way, licking their parched lips and commiserating with +themselves on the prospect of their gradually approaching end--for they +had abandoned all idea of the rat poison--they suddenly saw a hideous, +seaweedy object rise up over the bulwarks on the leeward side of the +ship. In breathless expectation they all sat up and watched. Inch by +inch it rose, until they saw before them a tall form enveloped from head +to foot in green slime, and horribly suggestive of the well-known figure +of the murdered captain. Gliding noiselessly over the deck, it shook its +hands menacingly at each of the sailors, until it came to the +cabin-boy--the only one among them who had not participated in the +skipper's death--when it touched him gently on the forehead, and, +stooping down, appeared to whisper something in his ears. It then +recrossed the deck, and, mounting the bulwarks, leaped into the sea. + +"For some seconds no one stirred; and then, as if under the influence of +some hypnotic spell, one by one, each of the crew, with the exception of +the cabin-boy, got up, and, marching in Indian file to the spot where +the apparition had vanished, flung themselves overboard. The last of the +procession had barely disappeared from view, when the cabin-boy, whose +agony of mind during this infernal tragedy cannot be described, fell +into a heavy stupor, from which he did not awake till morning. In the +meanwhile the brig, owing to a stiff breeze that had arisen in the +night, was freed from its environment, and was drifting away from the +seaweed. It went on and on, day after day, and day after day, till it +was eventually sighted by a steamer and taken in tow. The cabin-boy, by +this time barely alive, was nursed with the tenderest care, and, owing +to the assiduous attention bestowed on him, he completely recovered." + +I think this story, though naturally ridiculed and discredited by some, +may be unreservedly accepted by those whose knowledge and experience of +the occult warrant their belief in it. + +Along the coast of Brittany are many haunted spots, none more so than +the "Bay of the Departed," where, in the dead of night, wails and cries, +presumably uttered by the phantasms of drowned sailors, are distinctly +heard by the terrified peasantry on shore. I can the more readily +believe this, because I myself have heard similar sounds off the Irish, +Scottish, and Cornish coasts, where shrieks, and wails, and groans as of +the drowning have been borne to me from the inky blackness of the +foaming and tossing sea. According to Mr Hunt in his _Romances of the +West of England_, the sands of Porth Towan were haunted, a fisherman +declaring that one night when he was walking on them alone, he suddenly +heard a voice from the sea cry out, "The hour is come, but not the man." +This was repeated three times, when a black figure, like that of a man, +appeared on the crest of an adjacent hill, and, dashing down the steep +side, rushed over the sands and vanished in the waves. + +In other parts of England, as well as in Brittany and Spain, a voice +from the sea is always said to be heard prior to a storm and loss of +life. In the Bermudas, I have heard that before a wreck a huge white +fish is often seen; whilst in the Cape Verde Islands maritime disasters +are similarly presaged by flocks of peculiarly marked gulls. + +On no more reliable authority than hearsay evidence, I understand that +off the coast of Finland a whirlpool suddenly appears close beside a +vessel that is doomed to be wrecked, and that a like calamity is +foretold off the coast of Peru by the phantasm of a sailor who, in +eighteenth-century costume, swarms up the side of the doomed ship, +enters the captain's cabin, and, touching him on the shoulder, points +solemnly at the porthole and vanishes. + + +_River Ghosts_ + +In China there is a strong belief that spots in rivers, creeks, and +ponds where people have been drowned are haunted by devils that, +concealing themselves either in the water itself or on the banks, spring +out upon the unwary and drown them. To warn people against these +dangerous elementals, a stone or pillar called "The Fat-pee," on which +the name of the future Buddha or Pam-mo-o-mee-to-foo is inscribed, is +set up near the place where they are supposed to lurk, and when the +hauntings become very frequent the evil spirit is exorcised. The +ceremony of exorcism consists in the decapitation of a white horse by a +specially selected executioner, on the site of the hauntings. The head +of the slaughtered animal is placed in an earthenware jar, and buried in +the exact spot where it was killed, which place is then carefully marked +by the erection of a stone tablet with the words "O-me-o-to-fat" +transcribed on it. The performance concludes with the cutting up and +selling of the horse's body for food. Amongst the numerous other creeks +that have witnessed this practice in recent years are those adjoining +the villages of Tsze-tow (near Whampoa) and Gna-zew (near Canton). + +Various of the lakes, particularly the crater lakes of America, were +once thought to be haunted by spirits or devils of a fiery red who +raised storms and upset canoes. + + +_Sirens_ + +But by far the most fascinating of all the phantasms of the water are +the sirens that haunted (and still occasionally haunt) rivers and +waterfalls, particularly those of Germany and Austria. Not so very long +ago on my travels I came across an aged Hungarian who declared that he +had once seen a siren. I append the story he told me, as nearly as +possible in his own words. + +"My brother Hans and I were wandering, early one morning, along the +banks of a tributary of the Drave, in search of birds' eggs. The shores +on either side the river were thickly wooded, and so rough and uneven in +places that we had to exercise the greatest care to avoid getting hurt. +Few people visited the neighbourhood, save in the warmest and brightest +time of the day, and, with the exception of a woodcutter, we had met no +one. Much, then, to our astonishment, on arriving at an open space on +the bank, we heard the sound of singing and music. 'Whoever can it be?' +we asked ourselves, and then, advancing close to the water's edge, we +strained our heads, and saw, perched high on a rock in midstream a few +feet to our left, a girl with long yellow hair and a face of the most +exquisite beauty. Though I was too young then to trouble my head about +girls, I could not help being struck with this one, whilst Hans, who was +several years older than I, was simply spellbound. 'My God! how lovely!' +he cried out, 'and what a voice--how exquisite! Isn't she divine? She is +altogether too beautiful for a human being; she must be an angel,' and +he fell on his knees and extended his hands towards her, as if in the +act of worship. Never having seen Hans behave in such a queer way +before, I touched him on the shoulder, and said: 'Get up! If you go on +like this the lady will think you mad. Besides, it is getting late, we +ought to be going on!' But Hans did not heed me. He still continued to +exclaim aloud, expressing his admiration in the most extravagant +phrases; and then the girl ceased singing, and, looking at Hans with her +large blue eyes, smiled and beckoned him to approach. I caught hold of +him, and begged and implored him to do nothing so foolish, but he +wrenched himself free, and, striking me savagely on the chest, leaped +into the water and swam towards the rock. + +"With what eagerness I counted his strokes and watched the dreaded +distance diminish! On and on he swam, till at length he was close to the +rock, and the lady, bending down, was holding out her lily hands to him. +Hans clutched at them, and they were, I thought, already in his fevered +grasp, when she coyly snatched them away and struck him playfully on the +head. The cruel, hungry waters then surged over him. I saw him sink +down, down, down: I saw him no more. When I raised my agonised eyes to +the rocks, all was silent and desolate: the lady had vanished." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BUDDHAS AND BOGGLE CHAIRS + + +It was in Paris, at the Hotel Mandeville, that I met the Baroness Paoli, +an almost solitary survivor of the famous Corsican family. I was +introduced to her by John Heroncourt, a friend in common, and the +introduction was typical of his characteristic unorthodoxy. + +"Mr Elliott O'Donnell, the Baroness Paoli. Mr Elliott O'Donnell is a +writer on the superphysical. He is unlike the majority of psychical +researchers, inasmuch as he has not based his knowledge on hearsay, but +has actually seen, heard, and felt occult phenomena, both collectively +and individually." + +The Baroness smiled. + +"Then I am delighted to meet Mr O'Donnell, for I, too, have had +experience with the superphysical." + +She extended her hand; the introduction was over. + +A man in my line of life has to work hard. My motto is promptness. I +have no time to waste on superfluity of any kind. I come to the point at +once. Consequently, my first remark to the Baroness was direct from the +shoulder: + +"Your experiences. Please tell them--they will be both interesting and +useful." + +The Baroness gently clasped her hands--truly psychic hands, with slender +fingers and long shapely nails--and, looking at me fixedly, said: + +"If you write about it, promise that you will not mention names." + +"They shall at all events be unrecognisable," I said. "Please begin." + +And without further delay the Baroness commenced her story. + +"You must know," she said, "that in my family, as in most historical +families--particularly Corsican--there have been many tragedies. In some +cases merely orthodox tragedies--a smile, a blow, a groan; in other +cases peculiar tragedies--peculiar even in that country and in the +grimness of the mediæval age. + +"Since 1316 the headquarters of my branch of the Paolis has been at +Sartoris, once the strongest fortified castle in Corsica, but now, alas! +almost past repair, in fact little better than a heap of crumbling +ruins. As you know, Mr O'Donnell, it takes a vast fortune to keep such a +place merely habitable. + +"I lived there with my mother until my marriage two years ago, and +neither she nor I had ever seen or heard any superphysical +manifestations. From time to time some of the servants complained of odd +noises, and there was one room which none of them would pass alone even +in daylight; but we laughed at their fears, merely attributing them to +the superstition which is so common among the Corsican peasants. + +"The year after my marriage, my husband, a Mr Vercoe, who was a great +friend of ours, and I, accepted my mother's invitation to spend +Christmas with her, and we all three travelled together to Sartoris. + +"It was an ideal season, and the snow--an exceptional sight in my native +town--lay thick in the Castle grounds. + +"But to get on with my story--for I see I must not try your patience +with unnecessary detail--I must give you a brief description of the +bedroom in which my husband and I slept. Like all the rooms in the +Castle, it was oak panelled throughout. Floor, ceiling, and walls, all +were of oak, and the bed, also of oak, and certainly of no later date +than the fourteenth century, was superbly carved, and had been recently +valued at £30,000. + +"There were two entrances, the one leading into a passage, and the other +into a large reception room, formerly a chapel, at the furthest +extremity of which was a huge barred and bolted door that had not been +opened for more than a hundred years. This door led down a flight of +stone steps to a series of ancient dungeons that occupied the space +underneath our bedroom and the reception room. + +"On Christmas Eve we retired to rest somewhat earlier than usual, and, +being tired after a long day's motoring, speedily fell into a deep +sleep. We awoke simultaneously, both querying the time and agreeing that +it must be about five o'clock. + +"Whilst we were talking, we suddenly heard, to our utter astonishment, +the sound of footsteps--heavy footsteps--accompanied by a curious +clanging sound, immediately beneath us; and, as if by mutual consent, we +both held our breath and listened. + +"The footsteps moved on, and we presently heard them begin to ascend the +stone steps leading to the adjoining room. Up, up, up, they came, until, +having reached the summit, they paused. Then we heard the huge, heavy +bolts of the fast-closed door shoot back with a sonorous clash. So far I +had been rather more puzzled than frightened, and the idea of ghosts had +not entered my mind, but when I heard the door--the door which I knew to +be so securely fastened from the inside--thus opened, a great fear swept +over me, and I prayed Heaven to save us from what might ensue. + +"Several people, talking rapidly in gruff voices, now entered the room, +and we distinctly heard the jingling of spurs and the rattling of sword +scabbards coming to us distinctly through the cracks of the door. + +"I was so paralysed with fear that I could do nothing. I could neither +speak nor move, and my very soul was concentrated in one great, sickly +dread, one awful anticipation that the intruders would burst into our +room, and, before our very eyes, perform unthinkable horrors. + +"To my immeasurable relief, however, this did not happen. The footsteps, +as far as I could judge, advanced into the middle of the room--there was +a ghastly suggestion of a scuffle, of a smothered cry, a gurgle; and the +mailed feet then retired whence they had come, dragging with them some +heavy load which bumped, bumped, bumped down the stairs and into the +cellar. Then a brief silence followed, abruptly broken by the sound of a +girlish voice, which, though beautifully tintinnabulous, was unearthly, +and full of suggestions so sinister and blood-curdling, that the fetters +which had hitherto held me tongue-tied snapped asunder, and I was able +to give vent to my terror in words. The instant I did so the singing +ceased, all was still, and not another sound disturbed us till morning. + +"We got up as soon as we dared and found the door at the head of the +dungeon steps barred and bolted as usual, while the heavy and antique +furniture in the apartment showed no sign of having been disturbed. + +"On the following night my husband sat up in the room adjoining our +bedroom, to see if there would be a repetition of what had taken place +the night before, but nothing occurred, and we never heard the noises +again. + +"That is one experience. The other, though not our own, was almost +coincidental, and happened to our engineer friend, Mr Vercoe. When we +told him about the noises we had heard, he roared with laughter. + +"'Well,' he said, 'I always understood you Corsicans were superstitious, +but this beats everything. The regulation stereotype ghost in armour and +clanking chains, eh! Do you know what the sounds were, Baroness? Rats!' +and he smiled odiously. + +"Then a sudden idea flashed across me. 'Look here, Mr Vercoe,' I +exclaimed, 'there is one room in our Castle I defy even you--sceptic as +you are--to sleep in. It is the Barceleri Chamber, called after my +ancestor, Barceleri Paoli. He visited China in the fifteenth century, +bringing back with him a number of Chinese curiosities, and a Buddha +which I shrewdly suspect he had stolen from a Canton temple. The room is +much the same as when my ancestor occupied it, for no one has slept in +it since. Moreover, the servants declare that the noises they so +frequently hear come from it. But, of course, you won't mind spending a +night in it?' + +"Mr Vercoe laughed. 'He, he, he! Only too delighted. Give me a bottle of +your most excellent vintage, and I defy any ghost that was ever +created!' + +"He was as good as his word, Mr O'Donnell, and though he had advised the +contrary, we--that is to say, my mother, my husband, our two old +servants and I--sat up in one of the rooms close at hand. + +"Eleven, twelve, one, two, and three o'clock struck, and we were +beginning to wish we had taken his advice and gone to bed, when we heard +the most appalling, agonising, soul-rending screams for help. We rushed +out, and, as we did so, the door of Mr Vercoe's room flew open and +something--something white and glistening--bounded into the +candle-light. + +"We were so shocked, so absolutely petrified with terror, that it was a +second or so before we realised that it was Mr Vercoe--not the Mr Vercoe +we knew, but an entirely different Mr Vercoe--a Mr Vercoe without a +stitch of clothing, and with a face metamorphosed into a lurid, solid +block of horror, overspreading which was a suspicion of +something--something too dreadful to name, but which we could have sworn +was utterly at variance with his nature. Close at his heels was the +blurred outline of something small and unquestionably horrid. I cannot +define it. I dare not attempt to diagnose the sensations it produced. +Apart from a deadly, nauseating fear, they were mercifully novel. + +"Dashing past us, Mr Vercoe literally hurled himself along the corridor, +and with almost superhuman strides, disappeared downstairs. A moment +later, and the clashing of the hall door told us he was in the open air. +A breathless silence fell on us, and for some seconds we were all too +frightened to move. My husband was the first to pull himself together. + +"'Come along!' he cried, gripping one of the trembling servants by the +arm. 'Come along instantly! We must keep him in sight at all costs,' +and, bidding me remain where I was, he raced downstairs. + +"After a long search he eventually discovered Mr Vercoe lying at full +length on the grass--insensible. + +"For some weeks our friend's condition was critical--on the top of a +violent shock to the system, sufficient in itself to endanger life, he +had taken a severe chill, which resulted in double pneumonia. However, +thanks to a bull-dog constitution, typically English, he recovered, and +we then begged him to give us an account of all that had happened. + +"'I cannot!' he said. 'My one desire is to forget everything that +happened on that awful night.' + +"He was obdurate, and our curiosity was, therefore, doomed to remain +unsatisfied. Both my husband and I, however, felt quite sure that the +image of Buddha was at the bottom of the mischief, and, as there chanced +just then to be an English doctor staying at a neighbouring chateau, who +was on his way to China, we entrusted the image to him, on the +understanding that he would place it in a Buddhist temple. He deceived +us, and, returning almost immediately to England, took the image with +him. We subsequently learned that within three months this man was +divorced, that he murdered a woman in Clapham Rise, and, in order to +escape arrest, poisoned himself. + +"The image then found its way to a pawnbroker's establishment in +Houndsditch, which shortly afterwards was burned to the ground. Where it +is now, I cannot definitely say, but I have been told that an image of +Buddha is the sole occupant of an empty house in the Shepherd's Bush +Road--a house that is now deemed haunted. These are the experiences I +wanted to tell you, Mr O'Donnell. What do you think of them?" + +"I think," I said, "they are of absorbing interest. Can you see any +association in the two hauntings--any possible connection between what +you heard and what Mr Vercoe saw?" + +A look of perplexity crossed the Baroness's face. "I hardly know," she +said. "What is your opinion on that point?" + +"That they are distinct--absolutely distinct. The phenomena you heard +are periodical re-enactions, (either by the earth-bound spirits of the +actual victim and perpetrators, or by impersonating phantoms), of a +crime once committed within the Castle walls. A girl was obviously +murdered in the chapel and her coffin dragged into the dungeons, where, +no doubt, her remains are to be found. I presume it was her spirit you +heard tintinnabulating. Very possibly, if her skeleton were unearthed +and re-interred in an orthodox fashion, the hauntings would cease. + +"Now, with regard to your friend's experience. The blurred figure you +saw pursuing the engineer was not the image of Buddha--it was one of Mr +Vercoe's many personalities, extracted from him by the image of Buddha. +We are all, as you are aware, complex creatures, all composed of diverse +selves, each self possessing a specific shape and individuality. The +more animal of these separate selves, the higher spiritual forces +attaching themselves to certain localities and symbols have the power of +drawing out of us, and eventually destroying. The higher spiritual +forces, however, do not associate themselves with all crucifixes and +Buddhas, but only with those moulded by true believers. For instance, a +Buddha fashioned for mere gain, and by a person who was not a genuine +follower of the prophet, would have no power of attraction. + +"I have proved all this, experimentally, times without number. + +"Mr Vercoe must have had--as indeed many of us have--vices, in all +probability, little suspected. The close proximity of the Buddha acted +on them, and they began to leave his body and form a shape of their own. +Had he allowed them to do so, all might have gone well; they would have +been effectually overcome by the higher spiritual forces attached to the +Buddha. But as soon as he saw a figure beginning to form--and no doubt +it was very dreadful--he lost his head. His shrieks interrupted the +work, the power of the Buddha was, _pro tempus_, at an end, and the +extracted personality commenced at once to re-enter Vercoe. Rushing at +him with that end in view, it so terrified him that he fled from the +room, and it was at that stage that you appeared upon the scene. What +followed is, of course, pure conjecture on my part, but I fear, I +greatly fear, that by the time Mr Vercoe became unconscious the mischief +was done, and the latter's evil personality had once again united with +his other personalities." + +"And what would be the after-effect, Mr O'Donnell?" the Baroness +inquired anxiously. + +"I fear a serious one," I replied evasively. "In the case of the doctor +you mentioned, who committed murder, an evil ego had doubtless been +expelled, and, receiving a rebuff, had reunited, for after a reunion the +evil personality usually receives a new impetus and grows with amazing +rapidity. Have you heard from Mr Vercoe lately?" + +The Baroness shook her head. "Not for several months." + +"You will let me know when you do?" + +She nodded. + +A week later she wrote to me from Rome. + +"Isn't it terrible?" she began, "Mr Vercoe committed suicide on +Wednesday--the Birmingham papers--he was a Birmingham man--are full of +it!" + + +_The Barrowvian_ + +The description of an adventure Mr Trobas, a friend of mine, had with a +barrowvian in Brittany (and which I omitted to relate when referring to +barrowvians), I now append as nearly as possible in his own words:-- + +"Night! A sky partially concealed from view by dark, fantastically +shaped clouds, that, crawling along with a slow, stealthy motion, +periodically obscure the moon. The crest of a hill covered with +short-clipped grass, much worn away in places, and in the centre a +Druidical circle broken and incomplete; a few of the stones are erect, +the rest either lie at full length on the sward, close to the mystic +ring, or at some considerable distance from it. Here and there are +distinct evidences of recent digging, and at the base of one of the +horizontal stones is an excavation of no little depth. + +"A sudden, but only temporary clearance of the sky reveals the +surrounding landscape; the rugged mountain side, flecked with gleaming +granite boulders and bordered with sturdy hedges (a mixture of mud and +bracken), and beyond them the meadows, traversed by sinuous streams +whose scintillating surfaces sparkle like diamonds in the silvery +moonlight. At rare intervals the scene is variegated, and nature +interrupted, by a mill or a cottage,--toy-like when viewed from such an +altitude,--and then the sweep of meadowland continues, undulating gently +till it finds repose at the foot of some distant ridge of cone-shaped +mountains. Over everything there is a hush, awe-inspiring in its +intensity. Not the cry of a bird, not the howl of a dog, not the rustle +of a leaf; there is nothing, nothing but the silence of the most +profound sleep. In these remote rural districts man retires to rest +early, the physical world accompanying him; and all nature dreams +simultaneously. + +"It was shortly after the commencement of this period of universal +slumber, one night in April, that I toiled laboriously to the summit of +the hill in question, and, spreading a rug on one of the fallen stones, +converted it into a seat. Naturally I had not climbed this steep ascent +without a purpose. The reason was this--at eight-thirty that morning I +received a telegram from a friend at Armennes, near Carnac, which ran +thus: 'Am in great difficulty--Ghosts--Come.--KRANTZ.' + +"Of course Krantz is not the real name of my friend, but it is one that +answers the purpose admirably in telegrams and on post-cards; and of +course he well knew what he was about when he said 'Come.' Not only I +but everyone has confidence in Krantz, and I was absolutely certain that +when he demanded my presence, the money I should spend on the journey +would not be spent in vain. + +"Apart from psychical investigation, I study every phase of human +nature, and am at present, among other things, engaged on a work of +criminology based on impressions derived from face-to-face communication +with notorious criminals. + +"The morning I received Krantz's summons was the morning I had set aside +for a special study of S---- M----, whose case has recently commanded so +much public attention; but the moment I read the wire, I changed my +plans, without either hesitation or compunction. Krantz was Krantz, and +his dictum could not be disobeyed. + +"Tearing down la rue Saint Denis, and narrowly avoiding collision with a +lady who lives in la rue Saint François, and will persist in wearing +hats and heels that outrage alike every sense of decency and good form, +I hustled into the station, and, rushing down the steps, just succeeded +in catching the Carnac train. After a journey which, for slowness, most +assuredly holds the record, I arrived, boiling over with indignation, at +Armennes, where Krantz met me. After luncheon he led the way to his +study, and, as soon as the servant who handed us coffee had left the +room, began his explanation of the telegram. + +"'As you know, Trobas,' he observed, 'it's not all bliss to be a +landlord. Up to the present I have been singularly fortunate, inasmuch +as I have never experienced any difficulty in getting tenants for my +houses. Now, however, there has been a sudden and most alarming change, +and I have just received no less than a dozen notices from tenants +desirous of giving up their habitations at once. Here they are!' And he +handed me a bundle of letters, for the most part written in the +scrawling hand of the illiterate. 'If you look,' he went on, 'you will +see that none of them give any reason for leaving. It is merely--"We +CANNOT POSSIBLY stay here any longer," or "We MUST give up possession +IMMEDIATELY," which they have done, and in every instance before the +quarter was up. Being naturally greatly astonished and perturbed, I made +careful inquiries, and, at length--for the North Country rustic is most +reticent and difficult to "draw"--succeeded in extracting from three of +them the reason for the general exodus. The houses are all HAUNTED! +There was nothing amiss with them, they informed me, till about three +weeks ago, when they all heard all sorts of alarming noises--crashes as +if every atom of crockery they possessed was being broken; bangs on the +panels of doors; hideous groans; diabolical laughs; and blood-curdling +screams. Nor was that all; some of them vowed they had seen +things--horrible hairy hands, with claw-like nails and knotted joints, +that came out of dark corners and grabbed at them; naked feet with +enormous filthy toes; and faces--HORRIBLE faces that peeped at them over +the banisters or through the windows; and sooner than stand any more of +it--sooner than have their wives and bairns frightened out of their +senses, they would sacrifice a quarter's rent and go. "We are sorry, Mr +Krantz," they said in conclusion, "for you have been a most considerate +landlord, but stay we cannot."' Here my friend paused. + +"'And have you no explanation of these hauntings?' I asked. + +"Krantz shook his head. 'No!' he said, 'the whole thing is a most +profound mystery to me. At first I attributed it to practical jokers, +people dressed up; but a couple of nights' vigil in the haunted district +soon dissipated that theory.' + +"'You say district,' I remarked. 'Are the houses close together--in the +same road or valley?' + +"'In a valley,' Krantz responded--'the Valley of Dolmen. It is ten miles +from here.' + +"'Dolmen!' I murmured, 'why Dolmen?' + +"'Because,' Krantz explained, 'in the centre of the valley is a hill, on +the top of which is a Druids' circle.' + +"'How far are the houses off the hill?' I queried. + +"'Various distances,' Krantz replied; 'one or two very close to the base +of it, and others further away.' + +"'But within a radius of a few miles?' + +"Krantz nodded. 'Oh yes,' he answered. 'The valley itself is small. I +intend taking you there to-night. I thought we would watch outside one +of the houses.' + +"'If you don't mind,' I said, 'I would rather not. Anyway not to-night. +Tell me how to get there and I will go alone.' + +"Krantz smiled. 'You are a strange creature, Trobas,' he said, 'the +strangest in the world. I sometimes wonder if you are an elemental. At +all events, you occupy a category all to yourself. Of course go alone, +if you would rather. I shall be far happier here, and if you can find a +satisfactory solution to the mystery and put an end to the hauntings, I +shall be eternally grateful. When will you start, and what will you +take with you?' + +"'If that clock of yours is right, Krantz,' I exclaimed, pointing to a +gun-metal timepiece on the mantelshelf, 'in half an hour. As the night +promises to be cold, let me have some strong brandy-and-water, a dozen +oatmeal biscuits, a thick rug, and a lantern. Nothing else!' + +"Krantz carried out my instructions to the letter. His motor took me to +Dolmen Valley, and at eight o'clock I began the ascent of the hill. On +reaching the summit, I uttered an exclamation. 'Someone has been +excavating, and quite recently!' + +"It was precisely what I had anticipated. Some weeks previously, a +member of the Lyons literary club, to which I belong, had informed me +that a party of geologist friends of his had been visiting the cromlechs +of Brittany, and had committed the most barbarous depredations there. +Hence, the moment Krantz mentioned the 'Druidical circle,' I associated +the spot with the visit of the geologists; and knowing only too well +that disturbances of ancient burial grounds almost always lead to occult +manifestations, I decided to view the place at once. + +"That I had not erred in my associations was now only too apparent. +Abominable depredations HAD been committed,--doubtless, by the people to +whom I have alluded--and, unless I was grossly mistaken, herein lay the +clue to the hauntings. + +"The air being icy, I had to wrap both my rug and my overcoat tightly +round me to prevent myself from freezing, and every now and then I got +up and stamped my feet violently on the hard ground to restore the +circulation. + +"So far there had been nothing in the atmosphere to warn me of the +presence of the superphysical, but, precisely at eleven o'clock, I +detected the sudden amalgamation, with the ether, of that enigmatical, +indefinable SOMETHING, to which I have so frequently alluded in my past +adventures. And now began that period of suspense which 'takes it out of +me' even more than the encounter with the phenomenon itself. Over and +over again I asked myself the hackneyed, but none the less thrilling +question, 'What form will it take? Will it be simply a phantasm of a +dead Celt, or some peculiarly grotesque and awful elemental[1] attracted +to the spot by human remains?' + +[1] Either a barrowvian or vagrarian. Vide _Haunted Houses of London_ +(published by Eveleigh Nash) and _Ghostly Phenomena_ (published by +Werner Laurie). + +"Minute after minute passed, and nothing happened. It is curious, how at +night, especially when the moon is visible, the landscape seems to +undergo a complete metamorphosis. Objects not merely increase in size, +but vary in shape, and become possessed of an animation suggestive of +all sorts of lurking, secretive possibilities. It was so now. The +boulders in front and around me, presented the appearance of grotesque +beasts, whose hidden eyes I could feel following my every movement with +sly interest. The one solitary fir adorning the plateau was a tree no +longer but an ogre, _pro tempus_, concealing the grim terrors of its +spectral body beneath its tightly folded limbs. The stones of the +circle opposite were ghoulish, hump-backed things that crouched and +squatted in all kinds of fantastic attitudes and tried to read my +thoughts. The shadows, too, that, swarming from the silent tarns and +meadows, ascended with noiseless footsteps the rugged sides of the hill, +and, taking cover of even the smallest obstacles, stalked me with +unremitting persistency, were no mere common shadows, but intangible, +pulpy things that breathed the spirit of the Great Unknown. Yet nothing +specified came to frighten me. The stillness was so emphatic that each +time I moved, the creaking of my clothes and limbs created echoes. I +yawned, and from on all sides of me came a dozen other yawns. I sighed, +and the very earth beneath me swayed with exaggerated sympathy. + +"The silence irritated me. I grew angry; I coughed, laughed, whistled; +and from afar off, from the distant lees, and streams, and spinneys, +came a repetition of the noises. + +"Then the blackest of clouds creeping slowly over the moor crushed the +sheen out of the valley and smothered everything in sable darkness. The +silence of death supervened, and my anger turned to fear. Around me +there was now--NOTHING--only a void. Black ether and space! Space! a +sanctuary from fear, and yet composed of fear itself. It was the space, +the nameless, bottomless SOMETHING spreading limitless all around me, +that, filling me with vague apprehensions, confused me with its terrors. +What was it? Whence came it? I threw out my arms and Something, +Something which I intuitively knew to be there, but which I cannot +explain, receded. I drew them in again, and the same SOMETHING instantly +oppressed me with its close--its very close proximity. + +"I gasped for breath and tried to move my arms again--I could not. A +sudden rigor held me spellbound, and fixed my eyes on the darkness +directly ahead of me. Then, from somewhere in my rear, came a +laugh--hoarse, malignant, and bestial, and I was conscious that the +SOMETHING had materialised and was creeping stealthily towards me. +Nearer, nearer and nearer it came, and all the time I wondered what, +WHAT in the name of God it was like! My anticipations became unbearable, +the pulsations of my heart and the feverish throbbing of my temples +warning me that, if the climax were postponed much longer, I should +either die where I sat, or go mad. That I did neither, was due to a +divine inspiration which made me suddenly think of a device that I had +once seen on a Druidical stone in Brittany--the sun, a hand with the +index and little fingers pointing downwards, and a sprig of mistletoe. +The instant I saw them in my mind's eye, the cords that held me +paralytic slackened. + +"I sprang up, and there, within a yard of where I had sat, was a +figure--the luminous nude figure of a creature, half man and half ape. +Standing some six feet high, it had a clumsy, thick-set body, covered in +places with coarse, bristly hair, arms of abnormal length and girth, +legs swelling with huge muscles and much bowed, and a very large and +long dark head. The face was DREADFUL!--it was the face of something +long since dead; and out of the mass of peeling, yellow skin and +mouldering tissues gleamed two lurid and wholly malevolent eyes. Our +glances met, and, as they did so, a smile of hellish glee suffused its +countenance. Then, crouching down in cat-like fashion on its disgusting +hands, it made ready to spring. Again the device of the sun and +mistletoe arose before me. My fingers instinctively closed on my pocket +flashlight. I pressed the button and, as the brilliant, white ray shot +forth, the satanical object before me VANISHED. Then I turned tail, and +never ceased running till I had arrived at the spot on the high-road +where Krantz's motor awaited me. + + * * * * * + +"After breakfast next morning, Krantz listened to my account of the +midnight adventure in respectful silence. + +"'Then!' he said, when I had finished, 'you attribute the hauntings in +the valley to the excavations of the geologist Leblanc and his party, at +the cromlech six weeks ago?' + +"'Entirely,' I replied. + +"'And you think, if Leblanc and Cie were persuaded to restore and +re-inter the remains they found and carted away, that the disturbances +would cease?' + +"'I am sure of it!' I said. + +"'Then,' Krantz exclaimed, banging his clenched fist on the table, 'I +will approach them on the subject at once!' + +"He did so, and, after much correspondence, eventually received per +goods train, a Tate's sugar cube-box, containing a number of bones of +the missing link pattern, which he at once had taken to the Druids' +circle. As soon as they were buried and the marks of the recent +excavations obliterated, the hauntings in the houses ceased." + + +_Boggle Chairs_ + +"Killington Grange," near Northampton, was once haunted, so my friend Mr +Pope informs me, by a chair, and the following is Mr Pope's own +experience of the hauntings, as nearly as possible as he related it to +me:-- + +"Some years ago, shortly before Christmas, I received an invitation from +my old friend, William Achrow. + +"'Killington Grange, +'Northampton. + +"'DEAR POPE' (he wrote)--'My wife and I are entertaining a few guests +here this Christmas, and are most anxious to include you among them. + +"'When I tell you that Sir Charles and Lady Kirlby are coming, and that +we can offer you something startling in the way of a ghost, you will, I +know, need no further inducement to join our party.--Yours, etc., + +"'W. ACHROW.' + +"Achrow was a cunning fellow; he knew I would go a thousand miles to +meet the Kirlbys, who had been my greatest friends in Ireland, and that +ghosts invariably drew me like magnets. At that time I was a bachelor; I +had no one to think about but myself, and as I felt pretty sure of a +fresh theatrical engagement in the early spring, I was happily careless +with regard to expenditure--and to people of limited incomes like +myself, staying in country houses means expenditure, a great deal more +expenditure than a week or so at an ordinary hotel. + +"However, as I have observed, I felt pretty secure just then; I could +afford a couple of 'fivers,' and would gladly get rid of them to see +once more my dear old friends, Sir Charles and Lady K----. Accordingly, +I accepted Achrow's invitation, and the afternoon of December 23rd saw +me snugly ensconced in a first-class compartment _en route_ for Castle +Street, Northampton. Now, although I am, not unnaturally, perhaps, +prejudiced in favour of Ireland and everything that is Irish, I must say +I do not think the Emerald Isle shows her best in winter, when the banks +of fair Killarney are shorn of their vivid colouring, and the whole +country from north to south, and east to west, is carpeted with mud. No, +the palm of wintry beauty must assuredly be given to the English +Midlands--the Midlands with their stolid and richly variegated +woodlands, and their pretty undulating meadows, clad in fleecy garments +of the purest, softest, and most glittering snow. It was a typical +Midland Christmas when I got to Northampton and took my place in the +luxurious closed carriage Achrow had sent to meet me. + +"Killington Grange lies at the extremity of the village. It stands in +its own grounds of some hundred or so acres, and is approached by a long +avenue that winds its way from the lodge gates through endless rows of +giant oaks and elms, and slender, silver birches. On either side, to +the rear of the trees, lay broad stretches of undulating pasture land, +that in one place terminated in the banks of a large lake, now +glittering with ice and wrapped in the silence of death. + +"The crunching of the carriage wheels on gravel, the termination of the +trees, and a great blaze of light announced the close proximity of the +house, and in a few seconds I was standing on the threshold of an +imposing entrance. + +"A footman took my valise, and before I had crossed the spacious hall, I +was met by my host and kind old friends, whose combined and hearty +greetings were a happy forecast of what was to come. Indeed, at a +merrier dinner party I have never sat down, though in God's truth I have +dined in all kinds of places, and with all sorts of people: with +Princesses of the Royal blood, aflame with all the hauteur of their +race; with earls and counts; with blood-thirsty anarchists; with bishops +and Salvationists, miners and policemen, Dagos and Indians (Red and +Brown); with Japs, Russians, and Poles; and, in short, with the _élite_ +and the rag-tag and bobtail of all climes. But, as I have already said, +I had seldom if ever enjoyed a dinner as I enjoyed this one. + +"Possibly the reason was not far to find--there was little or no +formality; we were all old friends; we had one cause in common--love of +Ireland; we hadn't met for years, and we knew not if we should ever meet +again, for our paths in life were not likely to converge. + +"But Christmas is no season for prigs and dullards, and, possibly, this +rare enjoyment was, in no small measure, due to the delightful snugness +and, at the same time, artistic nature of our surroundings, and to the +excellence, the surpassing excellence of the vintage, which made our +hearts mellow and our tongues loose. + +"Long did our host, Sir Charles, and I sit over the dessert table, after +the ladies had left us, filling and refilling our glasses; and it was +close on ten before we repaired to the drawing-room. + +"'Lady Kirlby,' I said, seating myself next her on a divan, 'I want to +hear about the ghost. Up to the present I confess I have been so taken +up with more material and, may I add'--casting a well-measured glance of +admiration at her beautifully moulded features and lovely eyes--lovely, +in spite of the cruel hand of time which had streaked her chestnut hair +with grey--'infinitely more pleasing subjects, that I have not even +thought about the superphysical. William, however, informs me that there +is a ghost here--he has, of course, told you.' + +"But at this very psychological moment Mrs Achrow interrupted: 'Now, no +secrets, you two,' she said laughingly, leaning over the back of the +divan and tapping Lady Kirlby playfully on the arm. 'There must be no +mention of ghosts till it is close on bedtime, and the lights are low.' + +"Lady Kirlby gave me a pitying look, but it was of no avail; the word of +our hostess was paramount, and I did not learn what was in store for me +until it was too late to retreat. At half-past eleven William Achrow +turned out the gas, and when we were all seated round the fire, he +suggested we should each relate in turn, the most thrilling ghost tale +we had ever heard. The idea, being approved of generally, was carried +out, and when we had been thrilled, as assuredly we had never been +thrilled before, William coolly proclaimed that he had put me in the +haunted room. + +"'I am sure,' he said, amid a roar of the most unfeeling laughter, in +which all but the tender-hearted Lady Kirlby joined, 'that your nerves +are now in the most suitable state for psychical investigation, and that +it won't be your fault if you don't see the ghost. And a very horrible +one it is, at least so I am told, though I cannot say I have ever seen +it myself. No! I won't tell you anything about it now--I want to hear +your version of it first.' + +"With a few more delicate insinuations, made, as he candidly confessed, +in the fervent hope of frightening me still more, on the stroke of +midnight my friend conducted me to my quarters. 'You will have it all to +yourself,' he said, as we traversed a tremendously long and gloomy +corridor that connected the two wings of the house, 'for all the rooms +on this side are at present unoccupied, and those immediately next to +yours haven't been slept in for years--there is something about them +that doesn't appeal to my guests. What it is I can't say--I leave that +to you. Here we are!' and, as he spoke, he threw open a door. A current +of icy cold air slammed it to and blew out my light, and as I groped for +the door-handle, I heard my host's footsteps retreating hurriedly down +the corridor, whilst he wished me a rather nervous good-night. + +"Relighting my candle and shutting the window--Achrow is one of those +open-air fiends who never had a bronchial cold in his life, and expects +everyone else to be equally immune--I found myself in a room that was +well calculated to strike even the most hardened ghost-hunter with awe. + +"It was coffin-shaped, large, narrow, and lofty; and floor, panelling, +and furniture were of the blackest oak. + +"The bedstead, a four-poster of the most funereal type, stood near the +fireplace, from which a couple of thick pine logs sent out a ruddy +glare; and directly opposite the foot of the bed, with its back to the +wall, stood an ebony chair, which, although in a position that should +have necessitated its receiving a generous share of the fire's rays, was +nevertheless shrouded in such darkness that I could only discern its +front legs--a phenomenon that did not strike me as being peculiar till +afterwards. + +"Between the chair and the ingle, was a bay window overlooking one angle +of the lawn, a side path connecting the back premises of the house with +the drive, and a dense growth of evergreens, poplars, limes, and copper +beeches, the branches of which were now weighed down beneath layer upon +layer of snow. + +"The room, as I have stated, was long, but I did not realise how long +until I was in the act of getting into bed, when my eyes struggled in +vain to reach the remote corners of the chamber and the recesses of the +vaulted and fretted ceiling, which were fast presenting the startling +appearance of being overhung with an impenetrable pall, such a pall as +forms the gloomy coverlet of a hearse; the similarity being increased by +waving plume-like shadows that suddenly appeared--from God knows +where!--on the floor and wall. + +"That the room was genuinely haunted I had not now the slightest doubt, +for the atmosphere was charged to the very utmost with superphysical +impressions--the impressions of a monstrous hearse, with all the sickly +paraphernalia of black flowing drapery and scented pine wood. + +"I was annoyed with William Achrow. I had wanted to see him; I had +wanted to meet the Kirlbys; but a ghost--no! Honestly, candidly--no! I +had not slept well for nights, and after the good things I had eaten at +dinner and that excellent vintage, I had been looking forward to a +sound, an unusually sound sleep. Now, however, my hopes were dashed on +the head--the room was haunted--haunted by something gloomily, damnably +evil, evil with an evilness that could only have originated in hell. +Such were my impressions when I got into bed. Contrary to my +expectations, I soon fell asleep. I was awakened by a creak, the loud +but unmistakable creak of a chair. Now, the creaking of furniture is no +uncommon thing. There are few of us who have not at some time or other +heard an empty chair creak, and attributed that creaking either to +expansion of the wood through heat, or to some other equally physical +cause. But are we always right? May not that creaking be sometimes due +to an invisible presence in the chair? Why not? The laws that govern +the superphysical are not known to us at present. We only know from our +own experiences and from the compiled testimony of various reputable +Research Societies that there is a superphysical, and that the +superphysical is a fact which is acknowledged by several of the greatest +scientists of the day. + +"But to continue. The creaking of a chair roused me from my sleep. I sat +up in bed, and as my eyes wandered involuntarily to the ebony chair to +which I have already alluded, I again heard the creaking. + +"My sense of hearing now became painfully acute, and, impelled by a +fascination I could not resist, I held my breath and listened. As I did +so, I distinctly heard the sound of stealthy respiration. Either the +chair or something in it was breathing, breathing with a subtle +gentleness. + +"The fire had now burned low; only a glimmer, the very faintest +perceptible glimmer, came from the logs; hence I had to depend for my +vision on the soft white glow that stole in through the trellised +window-panes. + +"The chair creaked again, and at the back of it, and at a distance of +about four feet from the ground, I encountered the steady glare of two +long, pale, and wholly evil eyes, that regarded me with a malevolency +that held me spellbound; my terror being augmented by my failure to +detect any other features saving the eyes, and only a vague Something +which I took for a body. + +"I remained in a sitting posture for many minutes without being able to +remove my gaze, and when I did look away, I instinctively felt that the +eyes were still regarding me, and that the Something, of which the eyes +were a part, was waiting for an opportunity to creep from its +hiding-place and pounce upon me. + +"This is, I think, what would have happened had it not been for the very +opportune arrival of the Killington Waits, who, bursting out with a +terrific and discordant version of 'The Mistletoe Bough,' which, by the +way, is somewhat inexplicably regarded as appropriate to the festive +season, effectually broke the superphysical spell, and when I looked +again at the chair, the eyes had gone. + +"Feeling quite secure now, I lay down, and, in spite of the many +interruptions, managed to secure a tolerably good night's sleep. + +"At breakfast everyone was most anxious to know if I had seen the ghost, +but I held my tongue. The spirit of adventure had been rekindled in me, +my sporting instinct had returned, and I was ready and eager to see the +phenomena again; but until I had done so, and had put it to one or two +tests, I decided to say nothing about it. + +"The day passed pleasantly--how could it be otherwise in William +Achrow's admirably appointed household?--and the night found me once +again alone in my sepulchral bed-chamber. + +"This time I did not get into bed, but took my seat in an easy-chair by +the fire (which I took care was well replenished with fuel), my face +turned in the direction of the spot where the eyes had appeared. The +weather was inclined to be boisterous, and frequent gusts of wind, +rumbling and moaning through the long and gloomy aisle of the avenue, +plundered the trees of the loose-hanging snow and hurled it in fleecy +clouds against the walls and windows. + +"I had been sitting there about an hour when I suddenly felt I was no +longer alone; a peculiarly cold tremor, that was not, I feel sure, due +to any actual fall in the temperature of the room, ran through me, and +my teeth chattered. As on the previous occasion, however, my senses were +abnormally alive, and as I watched--instinct guiding my eyes to the +ebony chair--I heard a creak, and the sound of Something breathing. The +antagonistic Presence was once again there. I essayed to speak, to +repeat the form of address I had constantly rehearsed, to say and do +something that would tempt the unknown into some form of communication. +I could do nothing. I was lip-bound, powerless to move; and then from +out of the superphysical darkness there gleamed the eyes, lidless, +lurid, bestial. A shape was there, too: a shape which, although still +vague, dreadfully so, was nevertheless more pronounced than on the +former occasion, and I felt that it only needed time, time and an +enforced, an involuntary amount of scrutiny on my part, to see that +shape materialise into something satanical and definite. + +"I waited--I was obliged to wait--when, even as before--Heaven be +praised!--the arrival of the gallant waits, (I say, gallant, for the +night had fast become a white inferno) loosened my fetters, and as I +sprang towards the chair, the eyes vanished. + +"I then got into bed and slept heavily till the morning. + +"To their great disappointment, the clamorous breakfasters learned +nothing--I kept the adventure rigidly to myself, and that night, +Christmas night, found me, for the third time, listening for the sounds +from the mysterious, the hideously, hellishly mysterious, high-backed, +ebony chair. + +"There had been a severe storm during the day, and the wind had howled +with cyclonic force around the house; but there was silence now, an +almost preternatural silence; and the lawn, lavishly bestrewn with huge +heaps of driven snow, and broken, twisted branches, presented the +appearance of a titanic battlefield. In marked contrast to the disturbed +condition of the ground, the sky was singularly serene, and broad beams +of phosphorescent light poured in through the diamond window-panes on to +the bed, in which I was sitting, bolt upright. + +"One o'clock struck, and ere the hollow-sounding vibrations had ceased, +the vague form once again appeared behind the chair, and the malignant, +evil eyes met mine in a diabolical stare; whilst, as before, on trying +to speak or move, I found myself tongue-tied and paralysed. As the +moments slowly glided away, the shape of the Thing became more and more +distinct; a dark and sexless face appeared, surmounted with a straggling +mass of black hair, the ends of which melted away into mist. I saw no +trunk, but I descried two long and bony arms, ebony as the chair, with +crooked, spidery, misty fingers. As I watched its development with +increasing horror, hoping and praying for the arrival of the +never-again-to-be-despised waits, I suddenly realised with a fresh grip +of terror that the chair had moved out of the corner, and that the Thing +behind it was slowly creeping towards me. + +"As it approached, the outlines of its face and limbs became clearer. I +knew that it was something repulsively, diabolically grotesque, but +whether the phantasm of man, or woman, or hellish elemental, I couldn't +for the life of me say; and this uncertainty, making my fear all the +more poignant, added to my already sublime sufferings, those of the +damned. + +"It passed the chair on which my dress-shirt flashed whiter than the +snow in the moonlight; it passed the tomb-like structure constituting +the foot-board of the bed; and as in my frantic madness I strained and +strained at the cruel cords that held me paralytic, it crept on to the +counterpane and wriggled noiselessly towards me. + +"Even then, though its long, pale eyes were close to mine, and the ends +of its tangled hair curled around me, and its icy corpse-tainted breath +scoured my cheeks, even then--I could not see its body nor give it a +name. + +"Clawing at my throat with its sable fingers, it thrust me backwards, +and I sank gasping, retching, choking on to the pillow, where I +underwent all the excruciating torments of strangulation; strangulation +by something tangible, yet intangible, something that could create +sensation without being itself sensitive; something detestably, +abominably wicked and wholly hostile, madly hostile in its attitude +towards mankind. + +"What I suffered is indescribable, and it was to me interminable. Days, +months, years, seemed to pass, and I was still being suffocated, still +feeling the inexorable crunch of those fingers, still peering into the +livid depths of those gloating, fiendish eyes. And then--then, as I was +on the eve of abandoning all hope, a thousand and one tumultuous noises +buzzed in my ears, my eyes swam blood, and I lost consciousness. When I +recovered, the dawn was breaking and all evidences of the superphysical +had disappeared. + +"I did not tell Achrow what I had experienced, but expressed, instead, +the greatest astonishment that anyone should have thought the room was +haunted. 'Haunted indeed!' I said. 'Nonsense! If anything haunts it, it +is the ghost of some philanthropist, for I never slept sounder in my +life. I am, as you know, William, extremely sensitive to the +superphysical, but in this instance, I can assure you, I was +disappointed, greatly disappointed, so much so that I am going home at +once; it would be mere waste of my valuable time to stay any longer in +the vain hope of investigating, when there is NOTHING to investigate. +How came you to get hold of such a crazy idea?' + +"'Well,' William replied, a puzzled expression on his face, 'you noticed +an ebony chair in the room?' + +"I nodded. + +"'I bought it in Bruges, and there are two stories current in connection +with it. The one is to the effect that a very wicked monk, named +Gaboni, died in it (and, indeed, the man who sold me the chair was +actually afraid to keep it any longer in his house, as he assured me +Gaboni's spirit had amalgamated with the wood); and the other story, +which I learned from a different source, namely, from someone who, on +finding out where I bought the chair, told me he knew the whole history +of it, is to the effect that it was of comparatively modern make, and +had been designed by W----, the famous nineteenth-century Belgian +painter, who specialised, as you may know, in the most weird and +fantastic subjects. W---- kept the chair in his studio, and my informant +half laughingly, half seriously remarked that no doubt the chair was +thoroughly saturated with the wave-thoughts from W----'s luridly fertile +brain. Of course, I do not know which story is true, or if, indeed, +either story is true, but the fact remains that, up to now, everyone who +has slept in the room with that chair has complained of having had the +most unpleasant sensations. I own that after all that was told me, I was +afraid to experiment with it myself, but after your experience, or +rather lack of experience, I shall not hesitate to have it in my own +bedroom. Both my wife and I have always admired it--it is such a +uniquely beautiful piece of furniture.' + +"Of course I agreed with my friend, and, after congratulating him most +effusively on his good luck in having been able to secure so unique a +treasure, I again thanked him for his hospitality and bade him +good-bye." + + + + +INDEX + + +Adventure in Chicago, 143-145. + of Hans and Carl with a were-wolf, 121-129. + with pixies near Bray, 71. + +Æneas, story of, 69-70. + +All-Hallows E'en, 158-159. + +_Anglo-Saxon Church, The_, 158. + +Arundels, White Owl of the, 137, 139, 151. + +Ash trees, 74-75. + +Aspens, 73. + +Assam, haunted tree in, 64-67. + +Assiut, 42. + +Attendant spirits, 142-145. + +Automatic writing, 190. + + +Baldearg, the, 178. + +Banshee, the, 137, 147-149. + +Barrowvians, 78, 220-230. + +Bay of the Departed, 205. + +Bears, phantasms of, 79. + +Birthmarks, 178. + +Bloody Hand of Ulster, 176. + +Blue hand, phantasm of a, 79. + +Boggle chairs, 230-243. + +_Book of Days_, 90. + +Brampton, haunted ash tree of, 74. + +_British Goblins_, Book of, 91, 151. + +Buddhas, 210-220. + + +Candles, warnings by, 132. + +Castle on Dinas, 78. + +Cats, phantasms of, 97-108. + +Charley, T., 134. + +Charms and checks against ghosts, 192-197. + +Childermass Day, 160. + +Ching Kang and the Fox-woman, story of, 129-131. + +Clairvoyance, 189. + +Clanogrians, 37, 137. + +Complex hauntings and occult bestialities, 80. + +Complex hauntings by phantasms of one person, 81. + +Corpse-candles, 134-137. + +Count Daniel O'Donnell, 167. + +Crystal-gazing, 166-167. + + +D., Lady, 7. + +Dalmatian dog, phantasm of, 83. + +Davis, Rev. Mr, 135. + +De B., Mrs, 6. + +Dean Combe Ghost, 89. + +Death warnings, 132-140. + +Death-Watch, 138. + +Demon of Stockwell, 48. + of Tedworth, 48. + +Dogs, spirits of, 79, 81, 83-91. + +Dowsers, 76. + +Drummer of the Airlies, 137-150. + +Dyer's _Ghost World_, 89. + + +Earl of Lincoln and the ash tree, 75. + +Elementals, 5. + +Ellyllon, the, 151. + +English family ghosts, 150. + +Ennemoser, works by Jos., 110. + +Epworth, hauntings at, 48. + +Evil eye, the, 168-170. + +Exorcism, 195-196. + +Eye, phantasm of, 82. + + +Fire-coffins, 138. + +Forbes du Barry, Mrs, 86. + +Fortune-telling, 161. + +Fox-women, 119-131. + +_Frazer's Journal_, 135. + + +Gabriel's hounds, 91. + +Ghost of Black Lion Lane, 48. + +Gluttony, 29. + +Grandfather clocks, hauntings by, 35. + +Gwyllgi, the, 91. + + +Hacon, Rev. Henry, 42. + +Hand of Glory, 176. + +Hands, 162-164. + +Hartz mountains, vampirism in the, 114-115. + +Haunted trees, 60-70. + in Caucasus, 68. + in Slavonic mythology, 68. + seas, 198-206. + +Hauntings on Wicklow nets, 83-85. + +Headless dogs, 85, 87-88. + +History of magic, 112. + +Horses, phantasms of, 79, 108. + +Howard, phantasm of Lady, 89. + +Hunt, works of Mr, 205-206. + +Hydromancy, 165. + + +Idiots and vampirism, 113-114. + +Intuition, 187-188. + + +Land's End, 6. + +Looking-glasses, 157. + +Luck of Edenhall, 168. + +Lyons family, 168. + + +Mandrake, the, 76. + +Manias, 28-34. + for buttons, 38. + of manual workers, 30. + of women for dogs, 33. + +Mauthe dog, the, 90. + +Mermaids, 141. + +Midsummer eve, 161. + +Mines, hauntings of, 58. + +Monomaniac musician, 33. + +Mummy of Met-Om-Karema, haunted, 42-46. + + +Nature's devil signals, 179. + +New year's eve, 160, 166. + +_News from the Invisible World_, 134. + +North, recitations of Miss Lilian, 86. + +Numbers, climacteric, 177. + + +Oak chests, haunted, 38. + +Obsession and possession, 28. + +Occult hooligans, 47-55. + +Occult in shadows, 21. + +Owls, 139. + + +Palm tree, 77. + +Palmistry, 162. + +Paul, vampirism of Arnauld, 110. + +Phantasms of living, 184-186. + of pigs, 108. + of sailors, 81. + of wild animals, 108. + +Phantom rowers, 150. + ships, 198-201. + white hares, 151. + world, 110. + +Pixies, 70. + +Plutarch's account of satyrs, 67. + +Poltergeists, 47-50. + and Professor Schuppart, 48-50. + in Norwood, 50. + +Polydorus, story of, 70. + +Poor in Hyde Park, 25. + +Pre-existence, 179-184. + +Premature burial, 2-18. + +Primitive trees, visions of, 56-57. + +Projection, 184-186. + +Psychic days, 158. + faculty, 186. + +Pyromancy, 165. + + +"Radiant Boy of Corby," the, 151. + +Ravens, 140. + +River ghosts, 206-207. + +Romances of West of England, 205-206. + + +St Blaise's Day, 160. + +St Catherine's Day, 161. + +St Lawrence's Day, 161. + +St Mark's Day, 161. + +St Martin's Day, 160. + +Sargasso Sea, 201-205. + +Satyrs and fawns, 67. + +Scottish ghosts, 149-150. + +Séances, 191-192. + +Second sight, 187. + +Seventh son, the, 177. + +Shadow on the Downs, the, 22-23. + in Hyde Park, 26. + of a tree, 24. + +Shuck, the, 90. + +Sinclair, Miss, 63. + +Sirens, 207-209. + +Soames, work of Mr, 158. + +South's tale of a vampire, Mrs, 116-121. + +Spells, 159-161. + +Spilling salt, 157. + +Stuker, the, 90. + +Suggestion, 186. + +Superstitions and fortunes, 153. + +Sycamore, the, 77. + +Sylvan horrors, 56-79. + + +Table-turning, 191-192. + +Talismans and amulets, 167. + +Telepathy, 186. + +Thirteen at table, 153-157. + +Timbs, John, 74, 138, 161. + +"Trash," 90. + +Tree of life, the, 77. + +Trees, haunted, 60-70. + +Tristam and Yseult, legend of, 69. + + +"Unknown depths," the, 20. + + +Vampires, 110-121. + + +Wandering Jew, the, 141-142. + +Welsh ghosts, 151. + +Were-wolves, 121-129. + +Wirt Sikes, work by, 91, 151. + +Witches, 171-175. + +Worthing, 22, 86-88. + + +X., phantasm of murderer, 91-97. + + +"Yellow Boy," the, 151. + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: + + +The following corrections were made: + +p. 23: extra comma removed (after "time" in "but the next time I visited +the spot") + +p. 32: sensualty to sensuality (sensuality sometimes venial) + +p. 34: thought germ to thought-germ to match other instances (how +extraordinary the thought-germ) + +p. 34: later-day to latter-day (even latter-day) + +p. 67: extra comma removed (after "degree" in "in the slightest degree +what the monstrosity meant") + +p. 88: Du to du to match other instances (Mrs du Barry) + +p. 90: Haviland to Harland (Harland and Wilkinson) + +p. 91: Wyhr to Wybr (Cwn y Wybr), to match cited source + +p. 110: missing period added (Jos. Ennemoser) + +pp. 110, 112, and 244 (Index): Ennemoses to Ennemoser + +p. 116: pretentions to pretensions (hypocritical pretensions) + +p. 129: Thanking to Thinking (Thinking that the animal was ill) + +p. 140: syrens to sirens (nymphs, sirens, and pixies) + +p. 154: ont he to on the (on the couch) + +p. 176: he to the (badge of the O'Neills) + +p. 222: added missing single close quote (Here they are!') + +p. 224: double close quote to single close quote (one of the houses.') + +p. 225: had to has ('Someone has been excavating, and quite recently!') + +p. 245: missing periods added after several Index entries (Gluttony, +29.; Haunted Trees ... in Caucasus, 68.) + +On page 110, the author refers to Jos. Ennemoser as the author of _The +Phantom World_. In fact, the cited passage comes from a work by +Augustine Calmet, which was translated into English by William Howitt as +_The Phantom World_; Ennemoser quotes from it in his book _The History +of Magic_. This error has not been corrected. + +Irregularities in hyphenation and capitalization have not been +corrected. Antiquated or misspelled place names have been left as in the +original. + +For the plain text version, oe ligatures have been changed to oe.] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Byways of Ghost-Land, by Elliott O'Donnell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30440 *** |