The Banshee

tradition is full of rumours of white ladies who haunt castles, woods, rivers, and mountains, where they may be seen combing their yellow hair, or playing on ha

type-golden hair and long blue eyes; they are rarely dark, and their hair is never of that peculiar copper and golden hue that is so common among Banshees. When ugly, they are generally ugly indeed-either repulsive old crones, not unlike the witches in Grimm's Fairy Tales, or death-heads

to Royalty, and more especially, perhaps, to that branch of it known as the House of Hohenzollern. Between this White Lady family phantasm and the Banshee there is undoubtedly something in common. They are both exclusively associated with families of really ancient lineage, which

acteristics in the appearance of the White Lady of the Hohenzollerns, she would seem to be neither very beautiful nor the reverse; nor does she convey the im

s, for he died shortly afterwards. We next read of her appearing in Bohemia at the Castle of Neuhaus. One of the princesses of the royal house was trying on a new head-gear before a mirror, and, thinking her waiting-maid was near at hand, she inquired of her the time. To the Princess's horror, however, instead of the maid answering her, a strange figure all

habit of visiting her at the Palace. On one occasion, when the two girls were alone in their mother's sitting-room, doing some needlework, they were immeasurably surprised to hear the sounds of music, proceeding, so it seemed to them, from behind a big stove that occupied one corner of the apartment. O

at directly the other had quitted the apartment, the music had begun again and, not only that, but the figure of a woman, all

the treasure which she had hoped might be there, a quantity of quick-lime only was found; and the affair eventually getting to the King's ears, he displayed no sur

t his death, would very probably dispute the heirship to the property with the children of his lawful marriage. The Countess then, in order to remove this obstacle to her union, poisoned her two children, which act so disgusted the Margrave that h

a or Perchta von Rosenberg. This theory is founded on the discovery of a portrait of Princess B

nds were heard in the house where the Princess had died. Very possibly, however, in neither of these theories is there any truth, and the secret of the White Lady's activity lies in some subtle and, perhaps, entirely unsuspected fact. It is, I thi

rs Crowe asserts that it was seen shortly before the publication of her "Night Side of Nature." It would be interesting to know whet

d him "that at Berlin-the Elector of Brandenberg's house-before the death of anyone related in blood to that house, there appears a

ription of it that we have hitherto come across. Other ancient German and Austrian families, besides those of the ruling houses, possess their family ghosts, and here again, as in the parallel case of the Irish and their Banshee, the family ghost of the Germans or Austrians is by no means confined to the "White Lady." In some cases of German family haunting, for exam

Traditions of the South of Ireland," we find this paragraph taken from the wo

oman) in the Lünchurger Heath (Spiels Archiv. ii. 297) resembles it more. On stormy nights, when the moon shines faintly through the fleeting clouds, she stalks of gigantic stature with death-like aspect, and black, hollow eyes, wrapt in grave clo

d Henningius Grosius the ancient Venetian family of Donati possess a ghost in the form of a man's head, which is seen looking through a

d of a man thrust in. Knowing that it was not one of his servants, he roused the house, drew his sword, went over the whole palace, all the servants declaring that they had seen such a

haunted by very sweet music, the voice of a woman singing to the

es seem to possess ghosts that follow the fortunes, both at home and abroad, of the families to which they are attach

re is none of that ghastly mixture of the grave, antiquity, and hell that is so characteristic of the baleful type of Banshee, and which would seem to distinguish it from the ghosts of all other countries. The beautiful Scandinavian phantasms more closely resemble fairies or angels than any women of this earth, whilst the hideous ones have all the g

lly tap on the window-panes, or play on the harp; they sometimes haunt in pairs, a kind spirit and an evilly disposed one attending the fortunes of the same family; and they keep exclusively to the very oldest families. Oddly enough at times the Finnish family ghost assumes the guise of a man. Burton, for example, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," t

I purpose later on to publish a volume on the same, but will pa

performed the office of the Irish Banshee," and he particularly referred to the ghostly cries and lamentations which foreboded death to members of the Clan of MacLean of Lochbery. But though many of the Highland families do possess such a ghost, unlike the Banshee, it is not restricted to the feminine sex, nor

of the best known cases of Scot

spirit was chiefly to be seen in the Glenmore, where it took the form of a soldier with one hand perpetually dripping with blood. At one time it invariably signalled its advent in the manner which, I think, has no parallel among ghosts-it challenge

ch, or the girl with the hairy left hand;[13] and the Airlie family, whose seat at Cortachy is haunted by the famous drummer, whose ghostly t

lly thought to be comparatively modern, and not to date further back than two or three hundred years, if as far, which, of course, puts it on quite a different category from that of the Banshee, though its mission is, without doubt, the same. According to Mr Ingram, a former Lord Airlie, becoming jealous of one of his retainers

e apparition that signalises her advent by shrieking, weeping, and moaning before the death of any of the family. Perhaps of all Scottish ghosts this last one most closely resembles the Banshee, though there are distinct differences, chiefly with r

credible testimony of its appearance in our own day. The Earl of E--, a nobleman alike beloved and respected in Scotland, was playing on the day of his decease on the links of St Andrew's at golf. Suddenly he stopped in the middle of

e in his "Anecdotes of the Aristocracy." Sir Bernard asserts that whenever any accident happens to this tree, if, for example, a branch is

a few bear some slight resemblance to it, but as my space is restricted, I will pass

any member of the family. According to a well-known Devonshire ballad, a bird answering to this description flew over the guests at

ed that whenever two birds of this species are seen perched on the house where any

ape of a sturgeon that is seen swimming in the river Trent, opposite Clifton Hall,

through the wall of the room containing that member of the family who was fated to die soon. Most ghost hands are said to be grey and filmy, but this one, according to some eye-witnesses, appears to have borne an extraordinary resemblance to that of a livi

pearance of a nun; and the Byrons of Newstead Abbey, who, according to the great poet of that name, were haunted by a black Friar that

s, and none of them bearing any resemblance to the Banshee. Indeed, there is a far greater dissimilarity between the Englis

in the least degree like that of any Banshee I have ever heard of. He goes on to add that it comes in the stillness of the night, utters a blood-curdling howl, and calls on the person doomed to die thus: "Da-a-a-vy! De-i-i-o-o-ba-a-a-ch." If it is in the guise of a male it says, in addition, "Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach!" which rendered into English

final screech that far surpassed all the others in intensity and sheer horror. Greatly excited-though Mr Sikes affirms he was not frightened-the old man leaped out of bed, and, throwing open the window, saw a figure like a frightful old woman, with long, dishevelled, red hair, and tusk-like teeth, and a startling white complexion, floating in mid-air. She was enveloped in a long, loose, flowing kind of black robe that entirely c

earned that Mr Llewellyn, the landlord of the "Cow and Snuffers," had died in the night about the same time

by shrieks, and both confine their hauntings to really ancient Celtic families; but here, it seems to me, the likeness ends. The Gwrach y Rhibyn

resembles a material candlelight, saving for the fact that it vanishes directly it is approached, and reforms speedily again afterwards. The following descriptions of the Can

turn, sometimes a little out of the way that leadeth unto the church, the following corpse will be found to turn into that very place, for the avoiding of some dirty lane, etc. When I was about fifteen years of age, dwelling at Llanglar, late at night, some neighbours saw one of these candles hovering up and down along the bank of the river, until they were weary in beholding; at last they left it so, and we

her table; within two or three days after comes a fellow in, inquiring for her husband, and taking something from under his

the lady controller of that house, going late into a chamber where the maidservants lay, saw there no less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after, the chamber being newly plastered and a great grate of coal-fire thereon kindled to hasten th

to meet with it, and when he came near it, he saw it was a burying; and the corpse upon the bier, the perfect resemblance of a woman in the neighbourhood whom he knew, holding the candle between her forefingers, who dreadfully grinned at him, and prese

andles appeared some years ago in F

y 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 reac

see these lights; and after a while they all but one disappeared, and this one proceeded slowly towards the water's edge, to a small 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 s

amily. Writing of her, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his "British Goblins," p. 143-4, says: "She appears when any mishap is about to befall a member of the house of Stradling, the direct line, however, of which is extinct. She wears high-heeled shoes, and a long trailing gown of the finest silk." According to local reports, her advent is always known in the neighbourhood by the behaviour of the dogs, which, taking their cue from th

e of any special happening. The Cwn Annwn, or dogs of hell, that are chiefly to be met with in the south of Wales, on the contrary, rarely, if ever, appear, saving to warn those who see them of some approaching death or disaster. Neither they, nor the Gwyllgi, nor the corpse candles, since they do not haunt one family exclusively,