Animal Ghosts

p

imal hauntings was recor

with a fitful and sullen glow in the tiny grate of my one room-ba

escape to the star-lighted vaults. Certainly, from a conversation I had once had with a member of the New Occult Society, I believed it possible by concentrating all the mental activities in one channel, so to overcome the barriers which prevent the soul visiting scenes of the ethereal world, as to pass materialized to the spot upon which the ideas are fixed. But although I had essayed-how many times I do not like to confess-to gain that amount of concentration necessary for

me, spreading out far and wide, winding, black and awful-their solemn grandeur lost in that terrible desolation which makes the moon appear like a hideous nightmare. I could see with amazing clearness the sides of the mountains; there were enormous black fissures, some of them hundreds of feet in width-and the more I gazed the more

bly close. Nearer and nearer I approached, until at last my feet rested on the hard caked soil. For the first few minutes after my arrival I was too overwhelmed with fear to do other than remain stationary. The ground beneath my feet swarmed with myriads of foul and long-legged insects, things with unwiel

to witness its approach. Never shall I forget the agonies of doubt I endured during its advance. No man in a tiger's den, nor deer tied to a tree awaiting its destroyer, could have suffered more than I did then,

pulled its hair, frightened it by putting on masks and making all sorts of queer noises, and finally I had secretly poisoned it. And now we stood

ge of my fears lent additional fierceness to its gambols. A sudden change in my attitude at length made it cease. The use had returned to my limbs; my muscles were quivering, and before it could stop me I had fled! The wildest of chases then ensued. I ran with a speed

ock, until the skin hung in shreds from my fingers, and the blood pattered on the dark soil, that in all probability had never tasted moisture before. All this amused my pursuer vastly; it watched with the leisure of one who knows

tretch your limbs. Ha! ha! Do you remember how you used to make me stretch min

I gasped with a gesticul

le me upon my dull wits; must I now return the compliment? Ha! There's blood

shouted. 'My God, will

climax of your horrors has yet to come. If you cannot tell me the purport of

e wall and uttered incoherent cr

hairy fingers, and showed its huge

once on your earth. And now that we are free from such as you-free to wander anywhere we like without fear of being shot, or caught and caged-we are happy. And what makes us still happier is the knowledge that the majority of men and women will never have a joyous after-s

hat occasioned by his bumping on

at your spirit-it's all nonsense to talk about souls, such as you have no soul-will be earth-b

erociously, and, crouching

e,' I shrieked, 'f

e appealed to the wind.

be as funny when you're a ghost. Get ready. I'm coming, coming,' and as the sky deepened to an awe-inspiring black, and the stars g

I saw creatures of such damning ugliness that my soul screamed aloud with terror. And then from the mountain tops the bolt of heaven was let loose. Every spirit was swept away like chaff before the burst of wind that, hurling and shrieking, bore down upon me. I ga

on his face so awful that she had fled shrieking from the room. The death was, of course, attributed to syncope, but my friend-who, by the way, had never heard of Hugesson before he received the foregoing account through the

y is that sent me by my old school fri

tram." It is reproduced from a maga

became most erratic, and I not only never knew when to expect h

a man is assuredly to recognize h

"ego" is supplanted by another ego, when he ceases to be himself, an

ry through cerebral injury, hypnotism, sometimes in projection when the astral body gets de

carnal home, whither has it gone? and what is t

zzles-puzzles I am devo

, when the identity of the usurping spirit has seemed on the verge of being disclosed to me, an

but up to the present I have invariably been disappointed-the curtain has suddenly fallen, the

the many methods through which the superphysical end

ago. I was aware that it was not Tristram. His mannerisms were the same, his voice had not altered; but ther

d crossing the room to where I sat by the fire, threw

recesses or ghost-suggestive cupboards, and I never once experienced in them the slightest apprehension of sudden superphysical

nce that I began to wonder

said at length, "to a very great extent lies in sympathy. Sympathy!

m's face in dismay.

d, "and under the circumstances the only pe

t. A whole evening had slipped by without my knowledge. He wo

e, "don't worry about me. I am not dependent o

n all probability stolen through the c

I expostulated. "To be home by two o'clock you

true sign that something of

Bruges?"

odd

m arrived there from Antwerp. The hour was late, the weather bois

low, gathering up the reins, took him at a snail's pace to a medi?val-looking tavern in La Rue Croissante. You remember that street? Perhaps n

wn and go to sleep anywhere, and what scruples he might have had were entir

ed, any, in the story. Martin Tristram merely thought her pretty, and that,

hair, carmine lips, and scarlet stockings struck him impressively as she led the way to his

long, low, and gloomy; an enormous, old-fashioned, empty fireplace occupied the centre of one of t

her increased by a colossal and antique four-poster which, placed in the exact middle of the cham

y weird life-their glistening, polished surfaces threw a dozen and one fantastic but oddly human shadows on

ed to go to sleep. Like yourself, and for a similar reason, he never sleeps on h

as overtired. This undoubtedly had something to do with it, as also had the remarkable noises-foot

sonorous clock from somewhere outside boomed 'one,' when, quite unaccounta

no longer alone in the bed-someone, or something, wa

gs; then, a sensation of icy coldness, whilst speedily reassuring him with

d arouse the mysterious visitor. But at length, impelled by an irresistible impulse, he sat up in bed and opened his eyes. The room was agl

perties had become verified; but, mercifully for his sanity, he found it impossible to look. His attention was immediately riveted on the object by his side, w

ass that Tristram could see the gentle heaving

inspection, Tristram, with a supreme effort, managed to tear away his eyes from the m

enomenon, he again directed his gaze to the

no longer disguise from himself what he had in rea

us glitter before him in helpless expectation; to save his soul he could neither have stirred nor uttered the faintest ejaculation. H

into the room on all-fours, and followed each of its tell-tale movements as, sidling up to it

out, the mirror darkened, and on sinking back on his pillow, he realize

to leave the house at daybreak, a decision which, however, was altered on

the town, chancing to meet an old school-fe

atisfied with his lodgings, and readily fell in with

sperately in love with her, and it was close on midnight before he could b

p on the left side of the bed?' he sai

all sure now that it might not have been a nightmare or an hallucination; anyhow, he would like to put it to the test before mentioning it to anyone, and Heriot,

side of the bed, adding that if the maiden was so highly enamoured of him, she must put herself to the inconv

, and before many minutes had elapsed

e room was once again aglow with a phosphorescent light, and

mirror, where he saw, to his consternation and horror, no Herio

by this discovery when the door surreptitiously ope

mbs losing all their power of action and hi

tragedy being accompanied this time by the most realistic chokings and gurgles, to all of which Tristram was obliged to listen in an agony of do

him lightly on the shoulder. There was no reply. He touched him again, and still no answer. He touched him

t was

octor remarked to Tristram, as they walked down the street together, 'and always from the same cause, fa

efore he went he had a talk wit

a fortune, though I believe it's quite safe if you keep on the right side of the bed. I wish your friend had done

asked, as Tristram's

gations in that house. Enthusiasm for his research work makes him unconsciously callous, and if he once got

he following evening I heard it all again

sentially. With unbounded cordiality he urged me to

answering to the description of the figure in the bed-had once lived there with a performing ape, an orang-

as thoroughly convinced me of one thing at least-and that-that apes have spiri

of Cat a

to be a house called "The Swallows," standing in two

aircases and passages. They also testified to hearing sounds as of somebody being strangled, proceeding from an empty attic near where they slept, and of the screams and groans of a number of people being horribly tortured in the cellars just underneath the dairy. On going to see what w

ersons. Early in December, 1841, Mr. Bishop, hearing fearful screams, accompanied by deep and hoarse jabberings, apparently coming from the top of the house, rushed upstairs, whereupon all was instantly silent, and he could discover nothing. After that, Mr. Bishop set to work to get rid of the house, and was fortunate enough to find as a purchaser a retir

whose bodies were supposed to be buried somewhere on or near the premises. He was said to have had a terrible though decidedly unorthodox ending-falling into a vat of boiling tar, a raving madman. But what wer

hic

es was alarmed by a figure like a huge bear issuing from underneath the Jewel Room door. He thrust at it with his bayonet, which, going right through it, stuck in the doorway, whereupon he dropped in a fit, and was carried senseless to the guard-room. When on the morrow Mr. Swifte saw th

world is all "swank". At the most we-Parsons, Priests, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Psychical Research Professors,-at the most can only speculate. Nothing-nothing whatsoever, beyond the bare fact that there are phenomena, unaccountable by physical laws, has as yet been discovered. All the time and energy and space that have been devoted by scientists to the investigation of spiritualism and to making tests in automatic writing are, in my opinion-and, I believe, I speak for the man in the street-hopelessly futile. No one, who has ever really experienced spontaneous ghostly manifestations, c

erred beneath the Tower; for we know the Valley of the Thames was infested with giant reptiles and quadrupeds of all kinds (I incline to this theory); or it may ha

e hauntings by the two species of animal-phantom hares usually portend death or some grave catastrophe, either to the witness himself, or to someone immediately associated wi

by a Whi

n -- Road. He does not, however, mention any locality. After describing several of the phenomena which distur

did so to open the hall door and call for assistance, but the dog, though an excellent house dog, crouched at her feet and whined, but would not follow her up the stairs, so she carried

aviour of dogs I have had in haunted houses, and substanti

al would suddenly appear in a room in which members of the family were seated, and after gliding round and

of ghosts; they seldom, howev

r upon gruesome rooms and halls; the house is once more inhabited, this time by a widow lady and some grown-up sons. These tenants come from a distance, and are entirely strangers both to the neighbourhood and the former history of the house, but, to use her own words, the mist

s ghost was the actual phantasm of some rabbit that had been done to death in the hous

esley'

e Unseen" (Occult Review, October,

f two animals appeared, one being a large white rabbit, and the other an animal like a badger, which used to appear

any natural cause or reason. I remember that loud rappings used to sound round my room at nights, even when I had a light burning. I was often awakened by rappings on the floor of my bedroom, which

broad daylight when my broth

against one of the walls had been lifted by some unknown power into the middle of the room, at the same time he saw an animal like a rabbit run from under the sofa across the room and disappear into the wall

aculty in Har

superphysical, the presence of which they sc

greatest symptoms of terror wh