{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40823/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40823","id":"gutenberg_40823","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40823","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Ghosts"],"text":"GHOSTLY\n  PHENOMENA\n\n\n  BY\n\n\n  ELLIOT O'DONNELL\n\n  AUTHOR OF\n\n  \"Some Haunted Houses of England and Wales.\"\n  \"Haunted Houses of London.\"\n  \"True Ghost Stories,\" etc., etc.\n\n\n\n\n  LONDON\n  T. WERNER LAURIE\n  CLIFFORD'S INN\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nPART I.\n\n  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE\n\n    I. \"ELEMENTALS\"                                                  3\n\n   II. PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND DEAD--DEATH WARNINGS AND DREAMS  35\n\n\nPART II.\n\nPHENOMENA WITNESSED BY OTHER PEOPLE.\n\n  III. \"ELEMENTALS\"                                                 59\n\n   IV. PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD                                        90\n\n\nPART III.\n\n    V. THE HAUNTINGS OF THE OLD SYDERSTERNE PARSONAGE (1833),\n         NEAR FAKENHAM, AND A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN SYDENHAM      123\n\n\nPART IV.\n\n   VI. SUGGESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES                                  143\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\n\n\n\nGHOSTLY PHENOMENA\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n\"ELEMENTALS.\"\n\n\nI have, from time to time, witnessed many manifestations which I believe\nto have been superphysical, both from the peculiarity of their\nproperties, and from the effects their presence invariably produced on\nme--an effect I cannot associate with anything physical.\n\nOne of the first occult phenomena I remember, appeared to me when I\nwas about five years of age. I was then living in a town in the West\nof England, and had, according to the usual custom, been put to bed at\nsix o'clock. I had spent a very happy day, playing with my favourite\ntoys--soldiers--and not being in the least degree tired, was amusing\nmyself with planning a fresh campaign for the following morning, when\nI suddenly noticed that the bedroom door (which I distinctly\nremembered my nurse carefully latching) was slowly opening. Thinking\nthis was very curious, but without the slightest suspicion of ghosts,\nI sat up in the bed and watched.\n\nThe door continued to open, and at last I caught sight of something so\nextraordinary that my guilty conscience at once associated it with the\nDevil, with regard to whom I distinctly recollected to have spoken that\nafternoon in a sceptical, and I frankly admit, very disrespectful\nmanner. But far from feeling the proximity of that heat which all those\nwho profess authority on Satanic matters ascribe to Satan, I felt\ndecidedly cold--so cold, indeed, that my hands grew numb and my teeth\nchattered. At first I only saw two light, glittering eyes that fixed\nthemselves on me with an expression of diabolical glee, but I was soon\nable to perceive that they were set in a huge, flat face, covered with\nfulsome-looking yellow spots about the size of a threepenny bit. I do\nnot remember noticing any of the other features, save the mouth, which\nwas large and gaping. The body to which the head was attached was quite\nnude, and covered all over with spots similar to those on the face. I\ncannot recall any arms, though I have vivid recollections of two thick\nand, to all appearances, jointless legs, by the use of which it left\nthe doorway, and, gliding noiselessly over the carpet, approached an\nempty bed, placed in a parallel position to my own. There it halted, and\nthrusting its misshapen head forward, it fixed its malevolent eyes on me\nwith a penetrating stare. On this occasion, I was far less frightened\nthan on any of my subsequent experiences with the occult. Why, I cannot\nsay, for the manifestation was certainly one of the most hideous I have\never seen. My curiosity, however, was far greater than my fear, and I\nkept asking myself what the Thing was, and why it was there?\n\nIt did not seem to me to be composed of ordinary flesh and blood,\nbut rather of some luminous matter that resembled the light\nemanating from a glow-worm.\n\nAfter remaining in the same attitude for what seemed to me an\nincalculably long time, it gradually receded, and assuming, all of a\nsudden, a horizontal attitude, passed head first through the wall\nopposite to where I sat. Next day, I made a sketch of the apparition,\nand showed it to my relatives, who, of course, told me I had been\ndreaming. About two weeks later I was ill in bed with a painful, if not\nactually dangerous, disease. I was giving an account of this\nmanifestation at a lecture I delivered two or three years ago in B., and\nwhen I had finished speaking was called aside by one of my audience who\nvery shyly told me that he, too, had had a similar experience. Prior to\nbeing attacked by diphtheria, he had seen a queer-looking apparition\nthat had approached his bedside and leaned over him. He assured me that\nhe had been fully awake at the time, and had applied tests to prove that\nthe phenomenon was entirely objective.\n\nA number of other cases, too, have been reported to me, in which various\nspecies of phantasms have been seen before different illnesses. Hence I\nbelieve that certain spirits are symbolical of certain diseases, if not\nthe actual creators of the bacilli from which those diseases arise. To\nthese phantasms I have given the name of Morbas. I have seen two other\nmorbas in addition to the one I have already described. The first case\nhappened to me when I was in Dublin, reading for the Royal Irish\nConstabulary at the then well-known Queen's Service Academy, Ely Place.\nI lodged in Merrion Street, and above my rooms were those of a Mr.\nCharles Clifford, at that time a briefless barrister, but who afterwards\nestablished a big reputation in the West Indies, where he eventually\ndied. I became very friendly with Mr. Clifford, whose father had been a\ncontemporary with several of my relations--also barristers--at Trinity\nCollege. One particularly mild evening,--if I remember rightly it was in\nthe beginning of September--I was chatting away with him in his\nsitting-room, when he suddenly complained of feeling extremely cold, and\nasked me if I would mind shutting the window, as I was nearest to it. As\nI got up in order to carry out his wishes, I noticed that the curtain on\nthe near side of the recess (it was a bay window) was rustling in a very\npeculiar manner, and I was just going to call my friend's attention to\nit when I perceived the most odd-looking, yellow hand suddenly emerge\nfrom the drapery. Sick with fear, but urged on by a curiosity I could\nnot restrain, I approached the curtain, and, pulling it aside\nvigorously, found myself confronted by the tall, nude, yellow figure of\nsomething utterly indefinable. It seemed to me to be wholly composed of\nsome vibrating, luminous matter. Its head was large and round, its eyes\nlight green, oblique and full of intense hatred. I did not notice any\nother features. Its awful expression of malignity so fascinated me that\nI could not remove my gaze from its face, and I was standing still and\nstaring at it helplessly, unable to move or speak, when Clifford asked\nwhat in the world was the matter. The moment he spoke the phenomenon\nvanished, and the spell which its appearance had cast over me being thus\nbroken, I shut the window and returned to my seat.\n\nI did not mention what I had seen to Clifford, as he was of an extremely\nnervous temperament, and, like the majority of Irishmen, very\nsuperstitious. I made, however, a note of the occurrence in my diary,\nand was not surprised when, eight or nine days later, Clifford was ill\nin bed with a malignant disease.\n\nThe second instance happened when I was on tour with No. 1 Company of\n\"The Only Way.\" We were performing in Plymouth, and I was sharing rooms\nwith an actor of the name of Cornelius, who had lately joined us from a\nDramatic School in Oxford Street. Saturday night, as every one in the\nprofession knows, is the most tiring night in the week, for apart from\nthere being a matin\u00e9e that day, there is packing to be done after the\nevening performance, and one rarely, if ever, leaves the theatre before\nhalf-past twelve or one o'clock. On the Saturday night I am about to\nspeak of, Cornelius, who did not appear in the last act, had gone home\nbefore me, and on my leaving the theatre an hour or so later, I found\nthe streets in the vicinity of our lodgings silent and deserted. I was\nhastening along, thinking, I admit, of the good things that awaited us\nat supper, for Cornelius, who arranged the meals, was an excellent\ncaterer, when, just as I was turning in at our gate, I saw a tall figure\ncome out of the house and approach me with a peculiar, gliding motion. A\ncold terror at once ran through me, for I instinctively felt that the\nfigure was nothing human. Overcoming, with a desperate effort, a sudden\nsensation of helplessness, I moved aside, and, as I did so, the figure\nhalted; I then perceived that it was exactly like the yellow phantasm I\nhad seen in Dublin some nine or ten years previously. It remained\nstationary for, perhaps, forty seconds, when it seemed to dissolve into\nthe mist. I then pushed open the gate and entered the house. I made a\nnote of the vision, and learned some few weeks later that an actor, who\nwas then in the rooms we had occupied, had fallen a victim there to the\nsame malady that had attacked Clifford.\n\nFrom the numerous cases that have been related to me, as well as from my\nown experience, I have come to the conclusion that certain species of\nphantasms prefer to appear to children, and only under exceptional\ncircumstances manifest themselves to adults.\n\nOne of these species bears a slight resemblance to Pixies, inasmuch as\nthey are exceedingly diminutive; but there the likeness ends. For\nwhereas Pixies, from most of the statements I have heard regarding them,\nare an intelligent race of fairies that prefer places remote from the\nhaunts of men, these phantasms do not seem to possess any intelligence\nor feeling at all, and are frequently to be seen in houses occupied by\nliving people. Their visits, apparently, have no object--they are merely\nforms consisting of matter without mind. Night after night, when I was a\nlittle boy, I used to lie awake watching half a dozen or so of these\ntiny phantasms moving about the floor or turning round and round on the\ntop of a wardrobe that faced the bed. In appearance they were more or\nless like men--never women--but always grotesque, with big heads, long\nbeards, and something odd in the shape of their limbs and bodies. Their\nfaces were uniformly white, and utterly devoid of expression. I was\nnever in the least degree afraid of them, but often felt very much\nannoyed because they did not do anything sensible. On the slightest\nsound or movement on my part they instantly vanished, and would not\nappear again till the following evening.\n\nI daresay some writers on Occultism would classify them with Nature\nSpirits, but I prefer to designate them a species of the genus\n\"Elemental\"--that is to say, a species of the phantasm that has never\ninhabited any kind of earthly body.\n\nOne afternoon in May, many years ago,--I was a very young child at the\ntime,--I happened to be staying with some friends in the country, and on\nrunning to the nursery window to look at what I thought was one of the\nhousehold behaving in a very odd manner in the garden, I perceived to my\nastonishment the figure of a woman with a long beard, rolling about on\nthe lawn as if in great agony.\n\nThere was something so odd, both in her appearance and actions, that I\nwas too fascinated to remove my gaze from her, and in breathless silence\nwatched her slowly rise up and approach the window. I then saw that her\nface was hardly like that of a human being, but resembled rather some\nvery grotesque kind of animal, and that her fingers, which she kept\nopening and shutting, were short and webbed. She did not impress me as\nbeing either horrible or malignant, and I was noticing, with the keenest\ninterest, the peculiarities of her formation when one of the servants\nentered the nursery, and she instantly vanished.\n\nHow to classify this phenomenon, I must confess I am somewhat puzzled.\nIt does not appear to me to belong altogether to the order of Vagrarian,\nand yet I know of no other species of phantasm to which it is more\nnearly allied. This type of ghost, _i.e._, the Vagrarian, is very often\nseen by children. It is a species of Elemental, and is in my opinion a\nsurvival (or descendant) of the earliest attempts at life on this\nplanet--possibly an experiment in forms of life half physical, half\nsuperphysical--prior to the creation and selection of animal and\nvegetable life as it is known to us.\n\nIn addition to the power of materialising and dematerialising at will,\nVagrarians can, at times, exercise a certain amount of physical force. I\nhave heard of them, for example, moving furniture, banging on doors and\nwalls, and making all sorts of similar disturbances. I have used the\nexpression, \"or descendants,\" with regard them because I think it is\nquite feasible that Vagrarians are mortal, and that they possess some\nespecial means of generating.\n\nThey are generally to be met within lonely places--country lanes and\nspinneys, empty houses, isolated barns, and on moors, commons, and\nhill-tops. In appearance they are caricatures of man and\nbeast--sometimes compounds of both--and would seem to possess a great\ndiversity of form. I have, for example, had them described to me as\ntall, thin figures with tiny, rotund, or flat, rectangular, or wholly\nanimal heads, and again as short, squat figures with a similar variety\nof heads. They are probably the most terrifying of all apparitions, as,\napart from the grotesqueness of their bodies, the expression in their\neyes is invariably diabolical; they seem, indeed, to be animated with an\nintense, an absolutely unlimited, animosity to every form of earthly\nlife. Why, I cannot, of course, say, unless it is that they are jealous\nof both man and beast, whom they might possibly regard as the usurpers\nof a sphere which was at one time strictly confined to themselves. My\nfirst experience of this kind of phantasm occurred when I was a boy. I\nwas staying with some friends in a large old country house in the\nMidlands, and being, even at that early age, fond of adventure, I\nfrequently used to wander off alone in order to explore the adjacent\nneighbourhood. On one of these peregrinations I arrived at a farm which,\nfor some reason or other, happened just then to be untenanted. Delighted\nat the prospect of examining the empty buildings, I scaled a gate, and,\ncrossing a paved yard, entered a large barn. The sight of one or two\nrats scurrying away at my approach made me wish I had my friend's\nterrier with me, and I was turning to look for a stone or some missile\nto throw at them, when a noise in the far corner of the building\nattracted my attention. It was now twilight, and the only windows in the\nplace being small, dirty, and high from the ground, the further\nextremities of the barn were bathed in gloom, and in a gloom that made\nme feel nervous. Following the direction of the sound, I looked and saw\nto my inconceivable horror a tall, luminous something with a white\nrectangular head, crouching on the floor. As its long, glittering, evil\neyes met mine it sprang up (I then perceived that it was fully seven\nfeet high and perfectly nude), and, with its spidery arms poised high in\nthe air, darted forward. Shrieking at the top of my voice, I flew, and\nmy wild cries for help being overheard by some of my friends, who\nchanced to be returning home that way, they at once came to my\nassistance. I shall never forget their faces, for I am sure my cries\nfrightened them almost as much as the apparition had frightened me. To\nassure me it must have been my imagination, they searched the building,\nand, of course, saw nothing, as the phantasm had, doubtless,\ndematerialised. I made enquiries, however, on the quiet about the farm,\nand learned that it had always borne the reputation for being haunted,\nand that it was on that account that it was then untenanted. Needless to\nsay, I never ventured there again alone!\n\nWhen I was in Dublin in 1892, I stayed for a while at a boarding-house\nin Leeson Street. The house, which was large and gloomy, impressed me\nfrom the very first with a sense of loneliness, and I intuitively felt\nthat all its denizens were not of flesh and blood. I occupied a bedroom\non the first floor, on which at the time of my visit there were only two\nother people, both of whom slept in rooms opposite to mine, on the other\nside of the landing. The shape of my room was rendered somewhat peculiar\nowing to the deep window recess on the one side, and the still deeper\nalcove, in which my bed stood, on the other. In the twilight, whilst\nthe former of these recesses was filled with the weirdest shadows\nimaginable, the latter was so bathed in gloom as to be hardly\ndiscernible at all. The furniture, which reflected the past glories of\nthe proprietress, who, like so many people in that position in Dublin,\nbelonged to an at one time wealthy family of landed proprietors,\nconsisted of a massive mahogany four-poster, handsomely carved and\ndraped in faded yellow tapestry, a huge, mahogany wardrobe, an ottoman,\ncovered with tapestry, adorned at irregular intervals with the most\ngrotesque arabesque figures; a bog-oak chest, richly carved and always\nkept locked; two antique, big, oaken chairs, and several rather damaged\nand painfully modern cane-bottomed ones; a threadbare carpet that might\nhave been a Brussels, and just the necessary amount of ordinary bedroom\narticles, several of which were very much the worse for wear.\n\nI never liked the room, for, apart from its habitual darkness--a\ndarkness that seemed to me to be quite independent of the\ndaylight--there was in it an atmosphere of intense oppression, an\noppression that seemed to arise solely and wholly from an evil\ninfluence. Night after night my sleep was disturbed by the most\nharrowing dreams, from which I invariably awoke with a start to find\nmy heart beating violently, and my body bathed in perspiration. Those\nsort of dreams were quite unusual to me; indeed, I had seldom had them\nsince I was a child; they certainly could not be in any way accounted\nfor by my state of health, which was quite normal, nor by my food,\nwhich was of the simplest and most digestive nature. Though ashamed to\nadmit it, I at last grew to dread going to bed on account of those\ndreams, and I accordingly requested the proprietress of the\nestablishment to give me another room. This she somewhat reluctantly\npromised to do the following day. Overjoyed at the prospect of so\nspeedy a deliverance from a room I so cordially feared and detested, I\nwent to bed that night with a comparatively light heart, assuring\nmyself gleefully that it would be the last time I should sleep there. I\ncan remember even now my thoughts as I undressed. What an inadequate\nlight my candle gave as I placed it on the chimney-piece, and watched\nits feeble, flickering flame vainly trying to dissipate the heavy folds\nof darkness that seemed to roll in on me from the surrounding nooks and\ncrannies with unprecedented intensity! How unusually bright the surface\nof the mirror looked, and with what remarkable clearness it reflected\nthe bog-oak chest! The bog-oak chest! I could not remove my eyes from\nit, and as I stared at its image in the glass, I saw to my horror the\nlong-locked, heavy cover slowly begin to rise. Gradually, very\ngradually, it opened, until I fancied I could detect something grey and\nevil peering out at me. My terror was now so great that I dare not turn\nround to look at the actual chest, but was compelled by an irresistible\nfascination to keep my attention riveted on the mirror, upon the\nsurface of which there suddenly fell a dark and fantastically shaped\nshadow that, apparently proceeding from the chest, moved stealthily\ntowards my bed, and disappeared in the innermost recesses of the\ndimly-lighted alcove. I was so unnerved by this incident that it was\nonly after a series of severe mental efforts that I could persuade\nmyself to make a thorough examination of the room, and so satisfy\nmyself that what I had seen was in all probability the result of my\nimagination. With timid footsteps I first of all approached the\nchest--it was still locked. I then advanced more complacently to the\nbed, and, falling on my hands and knees, peered under it--there was\nnothing to be seen! Endeavouring to persuade myself now that there were\nabsolutely no grounds for fear, and that mere shadows--for whichever\nway I turned, the room was full of them--could do me no harm, I\nundressed, and, blowing out the candle, got into bed. Having spent the\nday fishing off the Mugglestone Rocks, near Dalkey (in company with two\nof my fellow students at the Queen's Service Academy), I felt healthily\ntired, and, after a few preliminary turns and twists to get into a\ncomfortable position, was soon fast asleep. I awoke with a violent\nstart, just as the clock on the landing outside solemnly struck two.\nThe house was wrapped in complete silence, and, beyond a few occasional\ncreakings on the stairs and in--so I fancied--the recess of the window,\nI could hear nothing. The sky, which had been covered with a thick\ncoating of grey mist all the day, had cleared, and a silvery stream of\nmoonlight, pouring in through the open window, flooded that side of the\nroom on which stood the bog-oak chest. Again my eyes involuntarily\nwandered to the mirror, which was exactly opposite to where I lay, and\nagain, with even greater horror than before, I watched the lid of the\nchest slowly begin to rise. Wider and wider it opened, until, with a\nfaint click, it fell back on its hinges and struck the wall. I then\nsaw a tall, grey shape climb out of it, and, with a snake-like movement\nof its long limbs, advance silently towards me. Though it was in the\nfull glare of the moonbeams, I cannot say definitely what it was like,\nsaving that it impressed me with a strong sense of its utter\ngrotesqueness, a grotesqueness that at once pronounced it a Vagrarian.\nParalysed with terror, and unable to move or utter a sound, I was\nconstrained to sit bolt upright and await its approach. Though I could\nsee no distinct eyes, I felt they were there, and that they were fixed\non me all the time with insatiable glee and malice. Nearer and nearer\nit drew, until, gliding round the foot of the bed, it passed along by\nme, accompanied by a current of icy cold air that made every tooth in\nmy head chatter. I then became conscious of some powerful magnetic\nforce drawing me backwards, and as I sank gasping and panting on the\npillow, a hideous, nude form rose quivering over me, and I lost\nconsciousness. When I regained my senses the greyness of dawn was\nstruggling for mastery with the moonbeams, and the Vagrarian had\ngone. That night, as I passed the door of the now vacated room on\nthe way to my new and somewhat brighter quarters, I heard a soft\nchuckle proceeding, as I felt certain, from the bog-oak chest--but\nI did not stop to investigate.\n\nOddly enough, that same year I had another experience of a similar\nnature, whilst staying with some relatives of mine in a town many\nmiles remote from Dublin.\n\nMy bedroom on this occasion, however, was a cheerful contrast to the one\nin which I witnessed the phenomenon in Dublin, and from the fact that\nthe colour of its wallpaper, carpet, curtains, bed-hangings, and\nfurniture was emerald, was appropriately termed the Green Room. Its\nwindows, large and low down, overlooked a garden that had been at one\ntime, so I was told, a morass, and this garden, which was even now, at\ncertain seasons of the year, excessively damp, was, in my opinion, the\nonly drawback to an otherwise charming place. The first time I saw it,\nwhich was in my early childhood, I felt a cold, apprehensive chill steal\nover me, nor did I, subsequently, ever pass by it without experiencing a\nsensation of extreme horror and aversion. Consequently, much as I liked\nthe Green Room itself, I would have infinitely preferred sleeping on the\nother side of the house. For the first few nights, however, I slept\nwell, and the room was so warm and sunny that I was even beginning to\nget over my antipathy to its prospect, when I received a rude shock. I\nhad gone to bed at about eleven o'clock as usual, and, being unable to\nsleep, was formulating in my brain plans for the morrow, when I suddenly\nfelt the bed violently agitated. My first thought was that some one was\nplaying a practical joke on me, but I quickly pooh-poohed that idea,\nsince, with the exception of one of the servants, I was by far the\nyoungest person in the house, and my relatives were much too staid and\nsensible even to think of doing such a stupid thing. I next thought of\nburglars, and being a great deal younger and, I admit, pluckier than I\nam now, I struck a light, and, jumping out of bed, looked under it.\nThere was nothing there. Greatly relieved, I hastily got into bed again,\nand, blowing out the candle, lay down. For some minutes all was still,\nand then the foot of the bed rose several inches from the ground, and,\nfalling down with a dull crash, was shaken furiously. I was now very\nmuch frightened, for I knew the disturbance was due to nothing purely\nphysical. Just at that very moment, too, a strong gust of air blowing in\nthrough the window transported the atmosphere of the garden, and\nsimultaneously I was seized with a sense of utter loneliness and\ndespair. Lying back on my pillow, I now perceived the glistening white\nfigure, quite nude, of what looked like an abnormally tall, thin man,\nwith a cylindrical-shaped head, crawl from beneath my bed, and, suddenly\nassuming an erect position, bound to the window, through which he\nvanished to the darkness beyond.\n\nThe following day I made some excuse, and returned to Dublin; nor have I\never slept in the Green Room since. From the general appearance of the\nphenomenon, though I did not see its face, I have no hesitation in\nsaying that it was a Vagrarian, and that the primitive nature of the\ngarden attracted it thither.\n\nThat the famous Irish Banshee, like the Drummer and Pipers of Scotland,\nthe Death Candles of Wales, and the various English Family Ghosts, is\nthe work of a species of Elemental, to which I have given the name,\n\"Clanogrian,\" I have no doubt. The Celtic word Banshee, meaning the\nwoman of the barrow, may in all probability account for the popular idea\nthat whenever a member of one of the old Irish clans dies, their doom is\nforetold (to any or every member of the family but themselves) by a\nseries of wails, in a woman's voice, the phantasm of the woman herself\nbeing sometimes seen. But as a matter of fact there is a great variety\nof form in these death-warnings peculiar to the Irish, and each historic\nfamily has its own particular banshee. I have experienced the O'Donnell\nBanshee (that Banshee that has ofttimes been heard in Spain, Italy,\nFrance, and Austria, wherever, in fact, a member of the clan lives) on\none occasion. I was living at the seaside at the time, and had been in\nbed about an hour, when I heard, as I thought, outside my door, not a\nseries, but just one wail, which, beginning in a low key, ended withal\nin a scream so loud and agonising that my blood froze. Instinctively I\nknew it was the Banshee. Scrambling out of bed, I opened the door, and\nthe moment I did so, several other doors opened, and a troup of\nterrified figures, in night attire, came timidly out on to the landing.\nOne and all had heard the sound, which they, too, recognised as the\nBanshee, but we saw nothing. That night a near relative of mine died!\n\nAs I have already hinted, our clan is numerous, and as many of its members\nare now scattered throughout Europe, it is not often I come in touch with\nthem. Last year, however, I met one of my kinsmen, who was at that time\nM.P. for a London constituency, and in the course of a long conversation\nwith him, I was interested to hear that on the eve of his father's death\nboth he and his brother had heard the single wail of the Banshee (just as\nI had done) outside the door of the room in which they were sitting. They\nboth rushed out, as one naturally does on hearing it, but saw nothing.\nTheir father, it is needless to say, had been quite unconscious of the\nBanshee, though he was keenly sensible of every other sound.\n\nI think any one, who is acquainted with the history of Ireland, in which\nmy clan figures so prominently, will not be at all astonished that I\nhave been visited by so many psychic phenomena.\n\nThe last experience, in connection with Elementals, to which I will allude\nhere, happened to me some years ago, when I was renting a house in the\nextreme West of England. The house, though new--I was the first\noccupant--was not only close to a ridge of rocks, where it was alleged\nthat wreckers used to carry on their nefarious work until quite recently,\nbut was within walking distance of an ancient Celtic settlement.\nFurthermore, from comparatively close at hand, several skeletons, supposed\nto belong to the Neolithic Age, had recently been disinterred.\n\nI entered the house with a perfectly unbiassed mind; indeed, the thought\nthat it might be haunted never for one moment entered my mind. Being at\nthat time unmarried, I had a housekeeper, who soon complained to me of\nheavy, queer noises. Not wishing to lose her, I pooh-poohed the idea of\nthere being anything wrong with the place, and suggested that the sounds\nwere produced by the wind. It was a big, oddly-constructed place, full\nof long, dark passages and gloomy nooks and cupboards. I occupied a room\non the top landing, separated from my housekeeper's by a\nsepulchral-looking corridor. Facing my door was that of a room connected\nby means of a low doorway with a big loft, the furthest extremities of\nwhich were totally obscured from view by a perpetual shroud of darkness,\na darkness that the feeble rays of sunlight, filtering through the tiny\nskylight in the slanting roof, entirely failed to dissipate. This loft\ncertainly did suggest the superphysical, and I felt that if any ghostly\npresence walked the house, it had its headquarters in that spot.\n\nStill, I heard nothing, nothing beyond the occasional banging of a\ndoor and loud creakings on the staircase. My housekeeper, however,\nleft me, and her successor, who, to all appearances, was a practical,\nmatter-of-fact sort of woman, had not been with me many days\nbefore she, too, gave notice.\n\n\"I never believed in ghosts till I came here,\" she told me, \"but I am\ncertain there are such things now. For every night I hear not only the\nstrangest noises in my room, but the pattering of stealthy footsteps in\nthe passage--sounds which I feel certain could neither be produced by\nrats nor the wind. Indeed, sir, I can't bear being left alone in the\nbasement of the house after dusk, as I have the feeling that something\nuncanny walks about the house.\"\n\nThe housekeeper, who succeeded her, speedily gave notice for precisely\nthe same reason, and every one, who subsequently slept in the house,\ncomplained that they had the most unpleasant sensations as soon as it\nwas dark, and heard the most extraordinary and harrowing noises.\n\nOne woman, an ex-Salvation Army officer, whom I left in charge of the\nhouse during my temporary absence, told me she had been awakened in the\nnight by the sounds of shuffling footsteps that had stopped outside her\ndoor, the handle of which was then slowly turned.\n\n\"I was awfully frightened,\" she said, \"for I knew at once it was a\ndevil; but screwing up courage, I sang as loud as my parched throat\nwould allow me, 'Washed in the blood of the Lamb,' when the evil spirit\nceased its disturbances and I heard the sound of its steps in full\nretreat up the staircase.\"\n\nWhen the summer season was at its height, the manageress of one of the\nadjacent hotels asked me if I would mind letting her have a room for the\nnight, in my house, as she really did not know where to put all her\nvisitors; there was no accommodation left for them in the town. I\nconsented, and the visitor, who happened to be a middle-aged lady, told\nmy housekeeper the following morning that she was sure the house was\nhaunted, as she had been awakened about two o'clock from the most\nrevolting dreams to hear the most curious footsteps--like those of some\nbig animal--approach her door. She then heard the sound of heavy\nbreathing, and watched the door handle gradually turn. \"I then crossed\nmyself and prayed with all my might,\" she said, \"when the thing retired,\nand I heard its soft footsteps die away in the distance.\"\n\nOne morning, between three and four o'clock, I awoke from a very nasty\ndream, in which I had seen a tall figure with a grey, evil face come\nbounding up the stairs, three steps at a time, and along the passages\nto my bedroom. I was so shocked at the appearance of this thing in my\ndreams, that for several minutes after recovering conscious my heart\npalpitated violently. I then heard the sound of stealthy footsteps\ncoming along the passage parallel with my bed. Nearer and nearer they\ncame, until they halted outside my door, on the top panels of which\nthere suddenly came a crash so tremendous that every article in the room\nquivered. I jumped out of bed, threw open the door, and saw--nothing.\nThe passage was silent and empty.\n\nThe following night, taking various precautions to satisfy myself and\nothers that the noises were due to superphysical agencies, I covered the\nfloor of the passage outside my room with alternate layers of chalk,\nflour, and sand, fastened wires across it, and blocked it up at one end\nwith a table, on the edge of which I carefully balanced a bottle of ink.\n\nAt the same time in the morning, however, the footsteps again came.\nFirst of all they came to the table, when I distinctly heard the\nink-bottle hurled to the ground with a crash; then, passing through the\nwires and over the chalk, flour, and sand, they drew up to my door. Sick\nwith suspense I awaited the crash, and the moment it came, sprang out\non the landing. There was nothing there, save an almost preternatural\nhush and the cold grey of dawn, but the instant I withdrew into my room,\nevery wall and beam throughout the house shook with Satanical laughter!\nI was now so horrified that I never kept vigil in the place again, but\nleft it shortly afterwards.\n\nI subsequently heard from two entirely independent sources that an\napparition had been seen on the site of the house some years\npreviously. My first informant, Mrs. T., said: \"One night, at about\ntwelve o'clock, as I was coming home from a party, I saw, just about\nthe place where your house now stands, the tall figure of a man with a\ntiny, rotund head. It seemed to rise out of the ground, and, striding\nforward with a slightly swaying motion, vanished over the cliff\nexactly opposite your front door. The night being moonlight, I saw the\nthing distinctly, and can well recall the horrible expression in its\nlight, round eyes and leering mouth. It had small, bestial features,\nclose-cropped hair, and a very grey complexion. Its arms and legs were\nabnormally long and thin. I should think it stood fully seven feet. I\nam sure it was nothing subjective, because when I rubbed my eyes it\nwas still there; neither could it have been any one masquerading, as\nthe cliff at that particular spot is fully forty feet high, and to\nhave jumped, or even dropped over it, could not have been done without\nincurring serious injury. I did not learn till long afterwards that\nthe cliff has long borne a reputation for being haunted.\"\n\nMy other informant, who had certainly neither met this lady nor heard\nher story, gave me an account of a similar experience she had had in the\nsame place. Hence I am inclined to think that the house was haunted by\nan Elemental, either a Vagrarian or Vice Elemental, that had been\nattracted thither either by the loneliness of the locality, or the\nbarrow (to which I have alluded), or by the crimes formerly perpetrated\non the cliff by wreckers.\n\nIt was in this house that I witnessed a manifestation prior to the\ndeath of a near relative of mine. As I have seen a similar apparition\nsince, and have heard of a thing answering to the same description\nbeing seen separately by members of my family, I am inclined to\nclassify it with Family Elementals, rather than to associate it with\nthe Elemental I have just described.\n\nThe incident took place one morning at about four o'clock. My attention\nbeing drawn to a bright object in one corner of my room, I sat up in bed\nand looked at it, when to my horror I saw a spherical mass of vibrating,\nyellow-green light suddenly materialise into the round head of Something\nhalf human, half animal, and wholly evil! The face was longer than that\nof a human being, whilst the upper part, which was correspondingly wide,\ngradually narrowed till it terminated in a very pronounced and prominent\nchin. The head was covered with a mass of tow-coloured, matted hair; the\nface was entirely clean-shaven. The thin lips, which were wreathed in a\nwicked leer, displayed very long, pointed teeth. But it was the eyes,\nwhich were fixed on mine with a steady stare, that arrested and riveted\nmy attention. In hue they were of a light green, in expression they were\nhellish, for no other word can so adequately express the unfathomable\nintensity of their diabolical glee, and, as I gazed at them in helpless\nfascination, my blood froze. I do not think the manifestation lasted\nmore than a few seconds, though to me, of course, it seemed an eternity.\nIt vanished simultaneously with a loud and utterly inexplicable crash\n(as if countless crockery was being smashed) in the passage outside my\ndoor. In the morning I learned of the death of a near relative who had\ndied just at the time I witnessed the phenomenon.\n\nA striking instance of another kind of phantasm, which I can only\nconclude is an Elemental of the order of Clanogrians, occurred quite\nrecently. In a work of mine entitled \"The Haunted Houses of London,\"\npublished last year, I narrated an instance of a lady who, prior to the\ndeath of her husband, heard a grandfather clock (there being no clock of\nthat description in the house), first of all, strike thirteen, and then,\nat intervals, several other numbers, which were subsequently found to\ndenote the exact date of her husband's death.\n\nSome months after the appearance of this book, I went to see \"The Blue\nBird,\" and found myself seated next but one to the lady who experienced\nthe phenomenon of the clock. In between the acts she leaned forward to\nspeak to me, and said: \"Isn't it odd, I have heard that clock again, Mr.\nO'Donnell, and it struck thirteen just as before? And what is still more\nstrange, a few days ago, as I was sitting in my drawing-room, I heard a\ngong--I have no such thing in my house--very solemnly strike a certain\nnumber of times, quite close to me. Unfortunately, I did not count the\nstrokes; but what do you think it means?\"\n\nI replied that I did not know; possibly, perhaps, the death of some\nrelative. At the same time, I instinctively felt that the sounds\nforetold her own doom--a presentiment which, alas! was only too true, as\nMrs. ---- was killed a few days afterwards in a somewhat extraordinary\ntaxi-cab collision in Portman Square. As Mrs. ---- was a lady well known\nin Society, the accident was fully reported in several of the leading\nLondon dailies--in fact, that was how I first heard of it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND DEAD--DEATH WARNINGS AND DREAMS.\n\n\nIn one of my works I have alluded to the case of Miss D. (a signed\naccount of which appeared in the October number, 1899, of the \"Magazine\nfor the Society of Psychical Research\"), who unconsciously projected her\nsuperphysical body into the presence of four witnesses, including\nmyself, and once when I was staying in Northampton a rather amusing\nincident with regard to projection happened to me. I went to Castle\nStreet Station to see Mrs. W., a connection of mine, off, and as the\ntrain steamed out of the \"bay,\" I was very much surprised to see her\nlean out of the window and wave to me. Of course, I waved back, but\nthinking such a proceeding on her part was most extraordinary, as I knew\nher to be extremely dignified, and averse to anything \"tripperish,\" I\nmade a note of the circumstance, and resolved to allude to it when next\nwe met. I did so, but although I made use of all the tact I possess,\nMrs. W. was intensely annoyed, and, of course, indignantly denied\nhaving done such a thing. Now, was this a case of unconscious\nprojection, or merely of suggestion? I am inclined to think the former.\n\nThe same thing happened at Temple Mead Station, Bristol, when I was\nagain seeing Mrs. W. off to her home. This time I rubbed my eyes, and\nstill her phantom was at the window, waving vigorously until the train\nhad travelled some distance!\n\nIn an article specially written for \"Cassell's Magazine\" last year, I\ndescribed how, on certain nights in the year (New Year's Eve for\nexample), I have seen the phantasms of people destined to play some more\nor less important r\u00f4le in my subsequent life. I have referred to this\npeculiar form of phenomenon, too, in my book, \"The Haunted Houses of\nLondon,\" and I am now afforded the opportunity of quoting a third\ninstance. One New Year's Eve a few years ago I was at a small country\nstation in the Midlands, waiting for the Birmingham train. As the\nweather was very cold and wet, there were few travellers, and the\nplatform, gloomy and streaming with water, presented a singularly\nforlorn and forbidding appearance. Having been confined indoors all\nday, I was glad to snatch any opportunity for stretching my limbs, and\nwas pacing up and down in the rain, when I narrowly avoided collision\nwith a very elegantly--though unseasonably--dressed lady. Apart from\nbeing pretty, she had a decidedly intellectual face, and I was so struck\nwith her, that I admit I wheeled round with the intention of passing her\nagain, when to my astonishment there was no one to be seen, and on my\nenquiring both of the station-master and solitary porter who the lady\nwas, it was positively asserted that no such person had entered the\nstation. Some months later, when taking tea at a club in Knightsbridge,\nI was introduced to Lady ----, whom I immediately recognised as the lady\nI had seen on New Year's Eve. I mentioned the incident to her, and she\nlaughingly told me she had never been to such a place. Lady ----\nis now a great friend of mine.\n\nAlso the phantasms of people, who have at any time deeply impressed\nme, appear to me frequently. Some years ago I was always seeing the\nphantasm of H., a boy to whom I had the strangest aversion when I was\nat C. College. I recollect the first time I witnessed the phenomenon\nwas in the High Street, Falmouth. I was walking with an old school\nfriend, now Major F., of the ---- Regiment. Seeing H. suddenly cross\nthe road very slowly in front of us, I exclaimed, \"Why, how\nextraordinary! If that isn't H.! You remember H. at school, don't you?\nHe hasn't altered in the slightest.\"\n\nF. laughed. \"What are you talking about?\" he said. \"I certainly do\nremember H., but he's not here. Whatever makes you think of him?\"\n\nI looked again, and the figure of H. had completely disappeared. Within\nthat year I saw the phantasm of H. five or six times, but always in\ndifferent places, and always when my thoughts were far removed from him.\nThe question now arises as to whether what I saw was subjective or\nobjective; if the former, whether it was due to telepathy, suggestion,\nor hallucination; if the latter, whether it was superphysical or\nillusionary? And here again, I am inclined to attribute the phenomenon\nboth to the objective and superphysical.\n\nI have alluded in one of my former works to the only really satisfactory\ninstance in which I have consciously projected my superphysical body,\nthough I have made various attempts. My failures are, I think, due to\nthe difficulty I experience in obtaining the necessary conditions of\nperfect tranquillity of mind and absolute physical silence. An\ninteresting experiment I have tried, and in which I hope eventually to\nsucceed, is as follows:--I lean my forehead against the door of a room\nin which several people are seated with cameras. Concentrating\ntremendously hard, I bring before my mind a vivid picture of the\ncontents of that room. The picture becomes clearer and clearer, until I\ncan see every little detail in it, when I suddenly find myself passing\nthrough the door into the brilliantly illuminated space beyond. An\ninstant more, and I feel my presence would be revealed to the sitters,\nbut at the critical moment something mysterious happens, and my\nsuperphysical ego is sharply recalled to my physical body.\n\nBefore I refer to my experiences with phantasms of the Dead,\nI think some allusions to death warnings by dreams and otherwise\nmay be of interest.\n\nWhen I was a little boy, I well remember a Miss C. coming into the room\nin which I was sitting, and observing to my companion, \"I am sure\nsomething is going to happen to my mother, for as I was crossing the\nroad just now I distinctly saw her standing on the edge of the pavement\nbeckoning to me. As I approached, she suddenly vanished.\"\n\nTwo hours later Miss C. again came into my room. This time she was\nholding a telegram in her hand, and crying bitterly. \"I was sure\nsomething would happen,\" she said: \"my mother is dead. She died just\nabout the time I saw her.\"\n\nThe house in which I was then staying was in Bath, and Miss C.'s\nmother died in Worcester.\n\nThe next instance of a phenomenon of this nature occurred years later,\nwhen I was an assistant master in a Preparatory School for the Royal\nNavy. I was chatting with the principal one night in his study, which\nwas in the rear of the house, overlooking a somewhat dreary back\ngarden. The headmaster was making some remark on the new regulations\nthat were shortly to come in force with respect to the Entrance\nExamination to the _Britannia_, when he suddenly stopped short, and\nwith a kind of gasping cry that made my blood run cold, pointed to the\nwhite window blind. \"See!\" he said, \"see! it's my father! He's in his\ngrave-clothes, signalling to me. Oh! my God! he must be dead!\" He then\nsank back in his chair, breathing heavily. For some seconds there was\na silence which to me, at any rate, was most painful; he then\nexclaimed, \"It's gone now. Did you see it?\"\n\nI replied that I had not seen anything except a violent agitation of the\nblind, which agitation, curiously enough, he had not noticed. The next\nmorning he received a telegram saying his father was dead; the latter\nhad died about the time his phantasm had been seen by his son.\n\nThough I cannot say I have any great faith in the majority of omens,\nsuch as spilling salt and seeing magpies, nevertheless there are some to\nwhich I do attach importance. The same Miss C., to whom I have just\nreferred, told me one evening that she had just seen a winding-sheet in\nthe candle, and that it pointed towards her. That same night she dreamed\none of her teeth came out, and on it was a portrait of her brother Jack.\nThe following day she received a telegram to the effect that Jack had\ndied suddenly from an attack of apoplexy.\n\nI have frequently seen phantasms of the dead both in haunted houses\nand elsewhere. One of the best friends I ever had was \"K.,\" who was\na fellow student with me when I was reading in Dublin. K., who\ncame of a very distinguished military family, and was the great-nephew\nof the Baroness B., used often to chat with me about the possibilities\nof the future life.\n\n\"Look here,\" he said to me one night, \"I'll make you a promise. If\nanything happens to me within the next few years I'll appear to you.\"\n\nI laughingly told him I should be very pleased to see his ghost, and\nthat I would do all I could to make it feel thoroughly at home. Some\nmonths later, \"K.\" went to South Africa, where he eventually joined one\nof the Mounted Police Forces. One evening, when I was sitting alone in\nmy room in D., I suddenly felt very cold, and on glancing towards the\nwindow saw a figure standing in the recess. Though the figure was misty,\nluminous, and not at all clearly defined, I had no difficulty in\nrecognising it as the phantasm of \"K.,\" who had certainly not been in my\nthoughts for some long time. He appeared to be wearing a khaki uniform,\nwhich was very much torn and blood-stained. His face was deathly white\nand shockingly mutilated, and his eyes, which were wide open and glassy,\nwere fixed on me with a blank stare. It was a horrid spectacle, and I\nwas so shocked that I fell back in my chair, feeling sick and faint. I\ndo not think the manifestation lasted more than a minute at the most. A\nfew days later, I read in the papers that Major Wilson's party had been\nambushed and cut to pieces on the Shangani River, and among the names of\nthe victims was that of \"K.\"\n\nAnother experience of this nature happened to me whilst I was staying in\nNorthamptonshire. I was cycling along a road one very hot summer day,\nwhen I suddenly perceived, pedalling steadily away ahead of me, a\ncyclist in a grey suit. How he had got there was a mystery, for the road\nwas straight, there were no turnings, and I had not seen him pass me.\nMoreover, there was something very odd both about the rider and his\nmachine, for despite the dryness of the day, the man's clothes and\nbicycle were splashed with mud and dripping with water. Curious to see\nhis face, I tried my hardest to overtake him, but fast as I went, the\ndistance between us never seemed to decrease, although he apparently did\nnot alter his pace. At last we came to a steep hill marked DANGEROUS,\nand I saw lumbering slowly up it a heavy drayman's cart. Without\nslacking speed the grey cyclist rode recklessly down, and, to my intense\nhorror, dashed straight into the cart. Jumping off my machine, I placed\nit against the hedge, and ran to the cart, fully expecting to see the\nmangled remains of the foolhardy rider. To my astonishment, however,\nthere were no signs of him anywhere, and the driver of the vehicle was\npolitely incredulous when I told him what I had seen. I subsequently\nlearned, though not, I admit, on very reliable authority, that a cyclist\nhad been killed on that hill two or three years previously, but whether\nthe accident took place on a wet day, or whether the cyclist was clad in\na grey suit, I could not ascertain.\n\nAn incident which I have omitted to mention in the proper order,\nnamely, among phantasms of the Living, happened to me in a village\nnear Yarmouth. I was on tour at the time, and had gone for a long walk\non Sunday afternoon in the country. On my way back I arrived at the\nvillage of E., and as I was passing a very pretty thatched-roof\ncottage, saw, to my astonishment, an actress I had known on tour (and\nwhose professional name was Ethel Raynor) standing on the path. She\nwas holding both hands outstretched towards me, and in each of them\nwas a large bunch of snowdrops. I saw her very distinctly, as she\nseemed to give out a light of her own, a bright white glow which\nemanated from every part of her body. Her features--she was a\nsingularly handsome girl--were perfectly life-like, though the total\nabsence of colour made her appear unnatural. Her eyes, which were dark\nand beautiful, were fixed on me with an expression of the utmost\nintensity, and from the slight movement of her lips I felt sure she\nwanted to say something. I stepped forward with the intention of\naddressing her, and the instant I did so, she vanished. On arriving at\nmy rooms, I made a note of the occurrence in my diary, and was very\nsurprised to hear that, instead of dying, Miss Raynor had married--her\nmarriage taking place on the day I had seen her phantasm. Within a\nyear, however, her husband deserted her, and she committed suicide!\n\nWith reference to dreams, there is a vast field for speculation.\nIn a subsequent chapter I shall state a few of my theories regarding\nthem. It will suffice here merely to enumerate a few instances\nfrom my own experience.\n\nI once recollect having a very vivid dream in which I saw a man, with\nwhom I was slightly acquainted, thrown from his horse and terribly\nmutilated. The horse looked so evil, and acted with such an\nextraordinary amount of diabolical cunning, that I have always felt\nsuspicious of horses since. The dream was literally fulfilled.\n\nI have often been warned against certain people in dreams, and found\nthat these warnings were fully justified. For example, when I was the\nsolitary guest of a man (who, by the way, was the nephew of a celebrated\npeer) abroad, I dreamed that my host came into my room and drew the\npicture of a crown on my mirror with a piece of red chalk. He then\nretraced his steps in silent glee, and as he closed the door behind him,\nthe glass in the mirror gave a loud crack, and fell on the floor with a\ncrash. I was so impressed with the dream that I became prejudiced in no\nslight degree against my host, and when the latter, a few days later,\ntried to persuade me to invest money in a mining enterprise in Cornwall,\nI refused; and it was very fortunate I did so, for the mine which had\nbeen opened with so much show and flourish failed, and nearly all the\nshareholders were ruined.\n\nMany years ago I visited the State of B----, and shortly after my\narrival at a farm, situated some distance from any settlement, I made\nthe acquaintance of a neighbouring farmer and his wife, of the name of\nConey. The Coneys, perceiving that I did not like my present\nsurroundings, suggested that they should take me to the next Province in\ntheir waggon. I was to pay them one and a half dollars a day, in return\nfor which I was to receive such sleeping accommodation as the waggon\ncould afford and full board. The route, they took very good care to\nassure me, was both beautiful and interesting. Crossing the C----\nMountains, and passing within sight of a famous crater lake and Lake\nD----, they would go through mile after mile of forest, teeming with big\ngame and lovely scenery. As I was young (I was comparatively fresh from\na Public School) and very fond of adventure, the prospect of seeing so\nmuch new country and of doing a little shooting appealed to me very\nstrongly. Consequently, though I was by no means favourably impressed\nwith the looks either of the farmer (a squat, beetle-browed man) or of\nhis wife (a dark, saturnine woman with sly brown eyes and a cruel\nmouth), I was on the whole inclined to accept their offer. For the rest\nof the day after their visit I deliberated what I should do, and that\nnight I had a very vivid dream. I saw myself lying asleep in a waggon\nwhich was standing close to the edge of a tremendous abyss. The horses,\nwhich had been taken from the shafts, were tethered to the trunks of two\nlofty fir trees, and close to them, engaged in earnest confabulation,\nwere the farmer and his wife. The moonbeams, falling direct on their\nfaces, rendered both features and expressions clearly visible, and as I\ngazed into their eyes and recognised the intensity of their evil\nnatures, my soul sickened--they were plotting to murder me. Gliding over\nthe red-brown soil with noiseless feet, they crept up to the waggon, and\nseizing the individual I identified as myself by the head and feet, they\nhurled him into the chasm. There was the sound of a splash in the far\ndistance--and--I awoke. My mind was now made up. I would remain where I\nwas for the present, at least. And very thankful I am for the warning,\nsince I afterwards learned that the Coneys bore a very sinister\nreputation, and that had I gone with them there is but little doubt they\nwould have robbed and murdered me.\n\nA friend of mine, who is an officer in the ---- Regiment, dreamed\nthree times that he was descending a road, at the bottom of which was\na bridge overhead. When he came to the bridge, a man who was in hiding\nthere rushed out and shot him. The scene was so real and the details\nso graphic that my friend was greatly impressed. One day, when he was\nwalking in the South of Spain, he came to a dip in the road, and\nthere, before him, lay the scene he had seen so often in his dreams.\nHe was now in some doubt as to whether he should go on, as he felt\nsure the person he had dreamed of would dash out on him. After some\nhesitation, however, he proceeded, and eventually arrived at the\nbridge. There was no one there, nor did he suffer any molestation\nwhatsoever on his way home. It is impossible to explain why the dream\nshould only have been verified in part.\n\nI have many times dreamed I have been fishing in a wood by a waterfall,\nand so vividly has the scenery been portrayed that I have got to know\nevery stick and stone in the place. So far, however, I have never come\nacross the objective counterpart of that cascade. In other instances I\nhave found myself visiting the actual spots I have seen in my visions.\nFor instance, I constantly dreamed of a curious-looking red and white\nship with two funnels, side by side, three masts and a hull, very high\nout of the water. Something always told me the vessel was for some\npeculiar use, but I could never discover what, neither could I make out\nthe name which was written on her bows. I could read the first three\nletters, but no more. On arriving at a seaside town in the West of\nEngland shortly after one of these vivid nocturnal visions, I saw a\nsteamer in the bay which I instantly identified as that of my dreams,\nwhilst to make me still more certain, the letters on her bows\ncorresponded with those I had seen in my sleep. She had been specially\ndesigned as an Atlantic Cable boat!\n\nBefore going to America I distinctly recollect dreaming that I was\nstanding by myself in the corridor of an enormous hotel. I saw no other\nvisitors, only one or two porters in very faded uniforms, and\ninstinctively felt that I was the only guest in the place. This feeling\nfilled me with awe, and I was dreading the idea of spending a night on\none of the deserted landings, when I awoke. On arriving in San Francisco\nsome months later, I was conducted by a passenger agent to an hotel,\nwhich I at once recognised as the hotel of my dreams. There was the same\ntier upon tier of empty galleries, the same almost interminable\nsuccession of gloomy, deserted corridors and row upon row of gaping\ndoors leading into silent, tenantless rooms, whilst to complete the\nlikeness the hall porters wore exactly similar uniforms. From a variety\nof causes I was, so the clerk at the booking-office informed me, the\nonly visitor in the building.\n\nIf dreams of present-day places have their objective counterparts, and\ndreams of future scenes are fulfilled, is it not feasible that dreams\nof the past should be equally veritable? I see no reason why it should\nnot be so. I have often dreamed of ancient cities teeming with people\nclad in loose, flowing drapery and turbans, or tight hose and armour.\nI have rubbed shoulders with red-crossed knights, and followed in the\nwake of bare-headed monks and light-footed priests. I have gazed\nadmiringly into the faces of fair ladies whose shining hair was\nsurmounted with lofty, conical hats, and I have moved aside to make\nway for great dames on milk-white palfreys.\n\nIn my dreams I have lived in all ages, breathed all kinds of\natmospheres, seen all kinds of events. One or two of these dreams haunt\nme now. I remember, for example, dreaming that I was in a very quaint\nold town covered with cobblestones. I had a lady with me who was very\nnear and dear to me, and my object was to protect her from the crowds of\nhustling, jostling merrymakers who crowded the thoroughfares. From the\nstyle of dress I saw on all sides, and which both I and my companion\nwore, I knew we were in the Middle Ages. But where we were and what was\ngoing on I could not tell. After threading our way through endless\nnarrow streets, lined with gabled wooden houses, whose upper storeys\nprojected far over their entrances, we at length arrived at a big square\nin which a vast number of people were watching a show. There were three\nactors--a devil in a tight-fitting black costume and mask, and two imps\nin red, whilst the show consisted of the acrobatic performance of a\nnumber of tricks played by the imps on the devil, who apparently tried\nhis level best to catch his tormentors, but always failed. Though my\ncompanion and I thought it extremely stupid, the crowd enjoyed it\nthoroughly, and I saw one or two stout red-faced women and several burly\nmen-at-arms convulsed with laughter.\n\nSuddenly, however, when the performance was at its height, there was an\nabrupt pause--two priests, with knit brows and glittering eyes, glided\nup to a girl, and, placing a hand on each of her arms, led her\ndespairingly away, the crowd showing their approval of the act by\nshaking their fists in the poor wretch's face. Seized with a terrible\nfear lest my companion should likewise be taken, I hurried her away, and\nas we hastened along I heard the most fearful screams of agony. On and\non we went, until we came to an open space in the town, void of people,\nand surrounded by dark, forbidding-looking houses. I halted, and was\ndeliberating which direction to take, when my companion clutched me by\nthe elbow. I turned round, and saw, a few yards behind us, three\npriests, who, fixing their eyes malevolently on us, darted forward.\nCatching my companion by the hand, I was preparing to drag her into one\nof the houses opposite, when my foot slipped, and the next moment I saw\nher struggling in the hands of her relentless captors. There was a long,\ndespairing cry--and I awoke. I have had this same dream, detail by\ndetail, five times, and I know the faces of all the principals in\nit now as well as I know my own.\n\nCuriously enough, I have dreamed of the same place, but at a different\nperiod. I have found myself walking along the quaint streets with a\ngirl, whom I instinctively knew was my wife, past crowds of laughing,\nfrolicing people dressed in the costume of the French Revolutionary\nperiod. We have come to the open space with the dark, forbidding\nhouses, when I have slipped just as two savage-looking men in red caps\nhave dashed out on us. My companion has attempted to escape; they\nhave pursued her, and with the wails of her death-agony in my ears I\nhave awakened. Can it be that these dreams are reminiscences of a\nformer existence, of scenes with which I was once familiar? Or have\nthey been vividly portrayed to me by an Elemental? I fancy the\nlatter to be the more likely.\n\nOccasionally I have a peculiarly phantastic dream, in which I find myself\nin the depths of a dark forest, standing by a rocky pool, the sides of\nwhich are covered with all kinds of beautiful lichens. As I am gazing\nmeditatively at the water, a slight noise from behind makes me look round,\nwhen I perceive the tall figure of a man in grey hunting costume, _\u00e0 la_\nRobin Hood, with a bow in one of his hands and a quiver of arrows by his\nside. His face is grey, and his eyes long and dark and glittering. He\npoints to the root of a tree, where I perceive a huge green wooden wheel,\nthat suddenly commences to roll. In an instant the forest is alive with\ngrey archers, who fire a volley of arrows at the wheel, and endeavour to\nstop it. An arm is thrown round me, I am swung off the ground, and when I\nalight on the earth again it is to find myself on a flight of winding stone\nsteps, in what I suppose is a very lofty tower. The walls on either side\nof me are of rough-hewn stone, and on peering through a small grated\nwindow, I can see, many feet beneath me, the silvery surface of a broad\nriver and a wide expanse of emerald grass. I ascend up, up, up, until I\narrive in a large room, brilliantly illuminated with sunbeams. Hanging on a\nwall is a picture representing a woman gazing at a grey door, which is\nslowly opening. On the door something is written, which I feel is the\nkeynote to Life and Death, and I am endeavouring to interpret it when a\nhand falls on my shoulder. I look round, and standing beside me is the grey\nhuntsman. I awake with his subtle, baffling smile vividly before me. A\nmoment more and I might have been initiated into the great mystery I\nhave long been endeavouring to solve.\n\nI have little faith in dreams of marriages and deaths. They so seldom\nportend what they were once supposed to do. In my opinion, they are the\nsuggestions of mischievous Elementals.\n\nIn concluding this chapter, I will describe a dream I had comparatively\nrecently. I fancied it was late at night, and that I was on the Thames\nEmbankment. The only person in sight was a well-dressed man in a\nfrock-coat and silk hat, who was leaning over the parapet. Feeling\ncertain from his attitude that he was contemplating suicide, I yielded\nto impulse, and, walking up to him, said, \"You seem to be very unhappy!\nCan I do anything for you?\" Raising his head, he looked at me, when to\nmy astonishment I at once recognised the grey huntsman I had seen in the\ndream which I have previously narrated. Complexion, hair, eyes, mouth,\nwere the same--the expression alone differed. On this occasion he was\nsad. \"You need not be afraid,\" he said. \"I cannot put an end to my\nexistence. I wish I could.\" \"Why can't you?\" I enquired with interest.\nAnd I have never forgotten the emphasis of his reply. \"Because,\" he\nresponded, \"I am an Evil Force, a Vice Elemental.\"\n\nSome months after this, when I was travelling one night from Victoria to\nGipsy Hill, I had as my sole companion a well-dressed man in a soft Panama\nhat, who appeared to be occupied in a novel. I did not pay the slightest\nattention to him till the train stopped at Wandsworth Common, when he\nproceeded to get out. As he glided by me on his way to the door, he stooped\ndown and, smiling sardonically, passed out into the darkness of the night.\nIt was the man of my dreams, the huntsman and the would-be suicide!\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nPHENOMENA WITNESSED BY OTHER PEOPLE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\"ELEMENTALS.\"\n\n\nThe reticence people in general show towards having their names and\nhouses mentioned in print has led me to substitute fictitious names in\nmost of the cases referred to in this chapter.\n\nIn one of my former works I alluded to a phantasm with a pig's head I\nsaw standing outside an old burial ground in Guilsborough, Northampton.\nSome years after the occurrence I was discussing the occult with my\nfather-in-law, Henry Williams, M.D. (late of Chapel Place, Cavendish\nSquare), and was very much surprised when he told me that he, too, had\nwitnessed the same or a similar phenomena in Guilsborough. I append the\nstatement he made with regard to it:--\n\n                                           \"GUILSBOROUGH,\n                                              \"NORTHAMPTON,\n                                                \"_January 23, 1909._\n\n     \"I well remember many years ago, when a boy, running upstairs into\n     the top room of a certain house in Guilsborough and seeing a tall,\n     thin figure of a man with an animal's head crouching on the bed. I\n     was so frightened when I saw it that I ran out of the room as fast\n     as I could.\n\n                                        \"HENRY W. WILLIAMS, M.D.\"\n\nMy father-in-law had certainly made no mention of what he had seen to me\nbefore he heard my experience, neither had I the slightest idea that\nsuch a phantasm had been encountered in the village by any one but\nmyself. Close to the house where he saw the phenomena I believe an\nancient sacrificial stone was once found, whilst in the same\nneighbourhood there are the remains of a barrow and numerous other\nevidences of the Stone Age; hence the pig-faced phantasm may have been\neither a Vice Elemental attracted to Guilsborough by the human blood\nonce spilt on the sacrificial stone, or by certain crimes committed in\nand around the village in modern times, or by the thoughts of some\npeculiarly bestial-minded person, or people, buried in the now disused\ncemetery; or, again, the phantasm may have been the actual earth-bound\nspirit of some very vicious person, whose appearance would be in\naccordance with the life he or she led when on earth. Which of the two\nit is I cannot, of course, say: that is--for the present, at\nleast--beyond human knowledge.\n\nI have recorded another haunting of a similar nature.\n\nWriting to me from Devizes on May 15th, 1910, Mr. \"I. Walton\" says:--\n\n    \"DEAR SIR,\n\n    \"I have just been reading your book, 'Haunted Houses of London.' It\n    recalls to my mind a hideous apparition which I witnessed about ten\n    days ago, and which made such an impression on my mind that I send\n    you particulars of it.\n\n    \"I was on a visit to my two sons, who live at No. 37, M---- Square,\n    Chelsea. On the first night of my visit I slept in a room on the\n    third floor facing the Square. I have no knowledge of the science\n    you profess, and no personal faith in supernatural apparition, but\n    the spectacle I witnessed was so extraordinary that, by the light of\n    your thrilling narratives, it looks as though I may have been\n    sleeping in a room that has been the scene of a tragedy.\n\n    \"The room was not utterly dark, and some light penetrated from the\n    lamps in the Square, but as I lay with my face to the wall, all in\n    front of me was dark.\n\n    \"I fell asleep, and remained so for an hour or more, when I suddenly\n    awoke with a great jerk, and found confronting me the most awful\n    apparition you can imagine. It was a dwarfed, tubby figure with a\n    face like a pig, perfectly naked, in a strong bright light. The\n    whole figure resembled in appearance the scalded body of a pig of\n    average size, but the legs and arms were those of a human being\n    brutalised, male or female I could not say. In ten or fifteen\n    seconds it vanished, leaving me in a profuse perspiration and\n    trembling, from which I did not recover for some time. But I slept\n    off the rest of the night.\n\n    \"When the landlady came to call me (she slept on the third floor\n    back) she pointed out that a picture on the connecting door had\n    fallen down between my bed and the next room. Doubtless it was the\n    fall of the picture that waked me up with a start. But what about\n    the apparition? I can only assign it to some occult cause.\n\n                     \"I remain, dear Sir,\n                            \"Yours faithfully,\n                                     \"'I. WALTON.'\"\n\nIn this instance it is, of course, very difficult to tell whether the\nphenomena is Subjective or Objective. Presuming it to be Objective,\nwhich I am inclined to believe it was, then it was either the\nearth-bound spirit of some particularly vicious person who was in some\nway connected with the house, or else it was a Vice Elemental attracted\nto the house either by the foul thoughts of some occupant or by some\nmurder formerly committed there.\n\nWriting to me again on June 13th, 1910, Mr. \"I. Walton\" says:--\n\n     \"DEAR SIR,\n\n     \"I am quite willing that you should find a place for my experience\n     in your forthcoming book. I think I omitted one detail of the\n     spectre: it had bright yellow hair worn in ringlets extending\n     barely as far as the shoulders.\n\n                            \"Yours faithfully,\n                                     \"'I. WALTON.'\"\n\nAnother case in which there is little or no doubt of the apparition\nbeing a Vice Elemental was related to me by Mrs. Bruce, whose husband\nwas recently stationed in India. Her narrative is as follows:--\n\n\"We once lived in a bungalow that had been built on the site of a house\nwhose inhabitants had been barbarously murdered by the Sepoys during the\nIndian Mutiny, and we had not occupied it many days before we were\ndisturbed by hearing a curious, crooning noise coming from various parts\nof the building. The moment we entered a room, whence the noise seemed\nto proceed, there was silence, while the instant our backs were turned\nit recommenced. We never saw anything, however, until one day when my\nhusband, hearing the sounds, hurriedly entered the room in which he\nfancied he could locate them. He then saw the blurred outlines of\nsomething--he could only describe as semi-human--suddenly rise from one\nof the corners and dart past him. The disturbances were so worrying that\nwe eventually left the house.\"\n\nIn this case the amount of blood spilt on the site of the bungalow would\nin itself be a sufficient cause for the hauntings, and my only surprise\nis that it did not attract many more Elementals of this species.\n\nMiss Frances Sinclair had an uncanny experience whilst travelling by\nrail between Chester and London last autumn.\n\nOn entering a tunnel, at about six in the evening, Miss Sinclair was\nquite positive there was no one in the compartment saving herself and\nher dog. Judge then her astonishment and dismay, when she suddenly saw,\nseated opposite her, the huddled-up figure of what she took to be a man\nwith his throat cut! He had two protruding fishy eyes, which met hers in\na glassy stare. He was dressed in mustard-coloured clothes, and had a\nblack bag by his side. Miss Sinclair was at once seized with a violent\nimpulse to destroy herself, and whilst her dog was burying its nose in\nthe folds of her dress and exhibiting every indication of terror, Miss\nSinclair was doing all she could to prevent herself jumping out of the\ncarriage. Just when she thought she must succumb and was on the verge of\nopening the door, the tunnel ended, the phantasm vanished, and her\nlonging for self-destruction abruptly ceased. She had never before, she\nassures me, experienced any such sensations.\n\nHere, of course, it is impossible to say whether what she witnessed\nwas Subjective or Objective, but assuming the latter, then I am\ninclined to think that the apparition, judging by its appearance and\nthe desires it generated, was a Vice Elemental, and not a Phantasm of\nthe Dead. It need not necessarily have been attached to the\ncompartment in which she happened to see it, but may have haunted the\ntunnel itself, manifesting itself in various ways.\n\nAn author, whom I will designate Mr. Reed, told me a few weeks ago, that\nhe and his brother, on going upstairs one evening, had seen the figure\nof a man with a cone-shaped head suddenly stalk past them, and, bounding\nup the stairs, vanish in the gloom. Though naturally very surprised,\nneither Mr. Reed nor his brother were in the least degree frightened. On\nthe contrary, they were greatly interested, as the phantasm answered so\nwell to their ideas of a bogey! As both brothers saw it, and neither of\nthem were in the least degree nervous, I am inclined to think that this\nphantom was a Vagrarian, and that its presence in the house was due\neither to some prehistoric relic that lay buried near at hand, or to the\nloneliness and isolation of the place.\n\nMrs. H. Dodd had a strange experience with an Elemental. \"Waking up one\nnight many years ago,\" she tells me, \"I saw a tall figure standing by my\nbedside. It appeared to have a light inside it, and gave the same\nimpression that a hand does when held in front of a candle. I could see\nthe red of the flesh and dark-blue lines of the ribs--the whole was\nluminous. What the face was like I do not know, as I never got so far,\nbeing much too frightened to look. It bent over me, and I hid my head in\nthe bedclothes with fright. When I told my parents about it at\nbreakfast, to my surprise no one laughed at me; why, I do not know,\nunless the house was haunted and they knew it. My brother said he had\nseen a tall figure disappear into the wall of his room in the night.\"\n\nAs Mrs. Dodd adds that a near relative of hers died about that time, it\nis, of course, possible that the phantasm was that of the latter,\nalthough from the possibilities of grotesqueness suggested by what she\nsaw of the ghost, as well as from the fact that the house was newly\nbuilt in a neighbourhood peculiarly favourable to Elementals, I am\ninclined to assign it to that class of apparitions.\n\nSome months ago I received from the Baroness Von A---- the following\naccount of a haunting experienced by her family:--\n\n     \"DEAR MR. O'DONNELL\" (she writes),\n\n     \"I should be much obliged if you would tell me the meaning of the\n     things witnessed by my grandmother, Lady W----, widow of General\n     Sir B. W----. I must first tell you that she was always a most\n     truthful, sensible and unimaginative woman, that I am quite sure\n     she would not have invented or added to anything she told so often.\n     The story is thus:--\n\n     \"During the fifties or sixties, she and my grandfather, then\n     Colonel W----, went to stay with some very old friends of theirs,\n     Colonel and Mrs. V----, at their place in the country: I forget the\n     name, but think it was near Worcester. Neither of my grand-parents\n     had ever heard of anything supernatural in connection with the\n     V----'s house, yet my grandmother told me she felt a sense of the\n     most acute discomfort the minute she entered her friends' house.\n     This, however, passed off until, having occasion to go upstairs to\n     her room after dinner to fetch her needlework, she felt it again on\n     crossing the hall. Scarcely had she started to mount the stairs\n     than she distinctly heard footsteps behind her. She stopped, so did\n     they; so, thinking it a trick of imagination, she went on, when the\n     footsteps went on, too. They could not possibly be the echo of\n     hers, as she heard the sound of her own, and the others were quite\n     different, lighter and shorter. They followed her to the door of\n     her bedroom, the door of which she quickly shut and bolted, as she\n     was feeling very frightened, but all the time she felt the\n     footsteps were waiting for her outside. At last she made up her\n     mind to go down again, but scarcely had she emerged from her room\n     and started to go down the corridor, when the footsteps\n     recommenced. Thoroughly frightened, she ran to the drawing-room,\n     never stopping till she was in the midst of her friends, but\n     hearing all the while the light steps flying after her. They\n     stopped only when she entered the drawing-room. On Mrs. V----\n     remarking on her pale face, my grandmother told her what had\n     happened. Mrs. V---- then announced that the footsteps were a\n     common occurrence, that nearly every one in the house had heard\n     them, and that a thorough investigation had been made without\n     result--there was no explanation. My grandmother heard the\n     footsteps on several other occasions.\n\n     \"The other manifestations occurred during her stay in the same\n     house. It was some days after the last occurrence, that my\n     grandfather had occasion to go up to town with Colonel V----,\n     leaving my grandmother alone. Quite contrary to her usual habit,\n     when bedtime came she felt unaccountably nervous, and therefore\n     asked a friend, Miss R----, who was also a guest at the V----'s, to\n     stay with her for the night. They went to bed and to sleep, but not\n     for long. They were both awakened by the clock on the landing\n     outside striking twelve, when they both sat up in bed\n     simultaneously, owing to their hearing the most unaccountable\n     knocking over their heads, although, otherwise, the house was\n     absolutely silent. They listened, and heard it again and again, and\n     my grandmother said it sounded to them both as if nails were being\n     driven into a coffin. The knocking continued for some time, until,\n     unable to bear it any longer, Miss R---- jumped out of bed and\n     said, 'Well! I'm going to see what it is; it is evidently coming\n     from the room on the floor above, just over us, and I must find\n     out.' My grandmother volunteered to go with her, and they crept up\n     to the second storey, the knocking getting louder each step they\n     took. On arriving at the door whence the sounds--which were very\n     distinct now--proceeded, they found the door was locked, and as\n     they turned the handle for the second time the knocking ceased, to\n     be replaced by the most gruesome and hellish laughter. Too\n     frightened to go on with their investigations, they fled\n     downstairs, the laughter continuing as they ran. Immediately they\n     entered their room the knocking recommenced, and went on for a\n     considerable time, and when it stopped, being both too frightened\n     to sleep, they lit a lamp and talked till the morning. When the\n     housemaid brought them their tea, she remarked on their worn looks,\n     and on being told the reason, said, 'Oh, dear! That's Mr. Harry's\n     room, and it's always kept locked when he is away. If only nothing\n     has happened to him!'\n\n     \"During the day a telegram came to say that the eldest boy, Harry,\n     who was then in London, had died during the night; they did not\n     even know he was ill.\n\n     \"One thing I ought to mention is that a large cage of doves stood\n     outside on the second floor landing. As a rule, these birds are\n     frightened at the smallest sound, but my grandmother says she\n     noticed that they never moved, although the noise of the knocking\n     and laughter was enough to waken any one.\"\n\nThe Baroness Von A---- goes on to ask if I think the disturbances were\ndue to Phantasms of the Dead or to Elementals. I told her that, in my\nopinion, the knockings and laughter were due to one and the same\nagency, namely, that of an Elemental which had attached itself to the\nhouse in the same way as other Elementals--commonly known as Family\nGhosts--attach themselves to families. Very probably the Elemental was\nattracted to the house in the first instance by some crime committed\nthere, or it may even have been attracted to the soil prior to the\nbuilding of the house. Such spirits vary in their attitude to Man. \"The\nYellow Boy,\" for instance, that haunted a certain room at Knebworth,\nappearing periodically to whoever was sleeping there, and by gestures\ndescribing the manner of their approaching death, did not, when giving\nthe warning, exhibit any glee or malice: his actions were perfectly\nmechanical and his expression neutral. For example, when the apparition\nappeared to Lord Castlereagh, it merely drew its hand three times across\nits throat, thus predicting the way his lordship would die. (Lord\nCastlereagh shortly afterwards committed suicide by cutting his throat.)\n\nOther cases of death-warning in which there is no apparent malice are\n\"The Radiant Boy\" at Corby Castle, when the apparition is benevolent\nrather than otherwise, and the \"Drummer\" at Cortachy Castle, when the\nphenomenon appears to be mischievous rather than malicious.\n\nOn the other hand, that there is evil design and intention on the part\nof some death-warning phenomena is quite evident, to my mind, from the\ncase of the clock to which I have alluded in Chapter I.; a case which\nalso proves, I think, that the fates of some, if not indeed of all of\nus, are pre-ordained, and that there are certain orders of Elementals\nthat not only have the power to warn us of these fates, but that can\nalso be instrumental in accomplishing them. For instance, _re_ the clock\nthat struck thirteen, and the lady who was killed in the taxi-cab\naccident, it will be remembered that the latter was of a very\nextraordinary nature--so extraordinary, in fact, that it really seems as\nif the Elemental was the actual contriver of it--that it deliberately\nplotted the disaster, and that it was present at the time, predominating\nthe thoughts and guiding the hands of the two drivers as they collided\nwith one another. Why it did so is difficult to conceive, unless,\npreferring solitude for its domain, it regarded Mrs. Wright as an\nobstacle in its way, and an intruder where it had the sole privilege of\nhaunting. Possibly, too, the house in which Mrs. Wright lived may be\nunder some curse or ban, which necessitates those having the temerity\nto occupy it, paying the penalty of so doing with their lives, the time\nand nature of their deaths being decided by the phenomenon in charge.\n\nThis supposition--namely, that Elementals can be instrumental in\nworking evil--coincides with my theory that diseases are primarily due\nto powers or spirits antagonistic to the human race, and that such\npowers or spirits exist in multitudinous forms; but whereas Morbas\nhave the widest range possible, the other two species of Elementals,\n_i.e._, Vice Elementals and Clanogrians, or Family Ghosts, are\nconfined to certain families and houses.\n\nMiss Rolands, a friend of mine, who is an artist, gives me an experience\nthat once happened to her.\n\n\"I am afraid I will tell this story very badly,\" she begins, \"but I will do\nmy little best. I remember it all so well, though I was little more than a\nchild at the time. I lived with my grandparents, aunts, and sister in an\nold house in Birkenhead. The house was a very high one. It had both attics\nand cellars, and in one of the attics there was a bloodstain, due, so I was\ntold, to a murder of a particularly horrible nature, that had once been\nperpetrated there, and on account of which the house was reputed to be\nhaunted. Rumour said that in bygone days the house had been inhabited by\npriests, and that it was one of them who had been killed, his body being\ntaken away in a barrel! In spite, however, of the bloodstain and the grim\ntales in connection with it, my sisters and I, at the commencement of our\ntenancy of the house, used to play in the attic, and nothing happened. But\nat last there came a night when we awoke to the fact that there was a\nghastly amount of truth in what we had heard. Some time after we had all\ngone to bed, we were all aroused (even my practical old grandfather) by\nthree loud knocks on one of the doors which each of us fancied was our own.\nThen there was silence, and then, from the very top of the house where the\nattic was situated, a barrel was rolled down the stairs!--bump! bump! bump!\nWhen it reached each separate landing, there was a short interval as if the\nbarrel was settling itself before beginning its next journey, and then\nagain, bump! bump! fainter and fainter, until it reached the cellar,\nwhen the sounds ceased.\n\nWhen this stage was reached, we used to light tapers and all look out of\nour respective doors with white scared faces and hair that literally\nfelt as if it were standing on end, and then, after a few seconds of\nbreathless silence we flew with one accord to one room, where we\nremained, packed like herrings, till the morning.\n\nThis strange, mysterious occurrence happened at least three times to my\nknowledge, and I can vouch for its absolute truth, as can my aunts and\nsister, and as could my grandparents, if they were alive.\n\nWithout any accurate details with regard to the murder, it is impossible\nto say definitely to what class of phantasms this haunting was due. One\nmight attribute it entirely to the work of IMPERSONATING ELEMENTALS,\nentirely to phantasms of the Dead, or to both Impersonating Elementals\nand Phantasms of the Dead.\n\nI have recently been seeking for information concerning Pixies, and as\nthe result of my enquiries have received replies from several people\n(whose social position and consequent sense of honour are a guarantee of\ntheir veracity) declaring they have seen this species of Elemental.\n\nOne of my informants, Miss White, who lives in West Cornwall, tells me\nthat on one occasion, when she was crossing some very lonely fields,\nalmost within sight of Castle-on-Dinas, she suddenly saw a number of\nlittle people rise from among the boulders of granite on the top of a\nhill facing her; they were all armed with spears and engaged in a kind\nof mimic battle, but, on Miss White approaching them, they instantly\nvanished, nor did she ever see them again.\n\nI can quite imagine that the hill, where Miss White alleges she saw\nthese little phantasms, is haunted, as the whole of that neighbourhood\n(with which I have been acquainted for some years) is most\nsuggestive of every kind of Elemental. There are, for example, on\nCastle-on-Dinas, the remains of an ancient Celtic village, and I have\nno doubt the locality has experienced many violent deaths, and that\nmany prehistoric people lie buried there.\n\nAnother of my correspondents, Mrs. Bellew, says:--\"In the winter of\n1888-89 I was suffering from delicate lungs, and was advised to have a\nfire in my bedroom night and morning. One night, between eleven and\ntwelve, I was awakened suddenly by a coal falling into the fender, and\nheard a small voice, resembling the squeaking of a mouse, say, 'We did\nthat! you didn't know it,' then there followed shrill laughter. I sat\nup in bed so as to command a view of the fireplace, and saw sitting on a\nlive coal two little beings about six inches high, with human faces and\nlimbs and white skins.\n\n\"Quite naturally I answered, 'I knew perfectly well it was you.' At\nthe sound of my voice they vanished at once, and I, only then,\nrealised how strange an experience I had had. The whole incident only\noccupied a minute or two.\"\n\nOf course, it is very difficult to think that this was not entirely\nsubjective, and were it not for the fact that Mrs. Bellew is so positive\nthat the phenomena were objective, I should be inclined to believe\notherwise. Still, it is very delightful to think there may be such a\npleasant type of Elemental.\n\nAn interesting incident occurred to the Rev. G. Chichester, with whom\nI had some correspondence two years ago. It was the only psychic\nexperience he had had, and took place at a Druid's Circle in the North\nof England. As he was examining the stones of the Circle, he suddenly\nbecame aware of a \"death-like smell\" (to quote his own words) and the\nsense of some approaching presence. Retreating hastily to a distance,\nhe then perceived a figure clad in white or light grey glide from the\nadjoining wood and vanish near the largest stone of the cromlech. The\nCircle was in a pine wood, and under one of the stones which had been\ndug up in the late seventies of the last century an urn had been\nfound, which urn is now in a museum. The Rev. G. Chichester informed\nme that manifestations of an unpleasant nature had also followed the\nlifting of a stone in a celebrated cromlech in Cumberland, so that he\nwas inclined to think psychic phenomena invariably followed the\ndisturbance of any of the stones. Though Mr. Chichester did not give\nme any very definite idea of what he saw, it seems to me highly\nprobable that it was a BARROWVIAN, or the phantasm of a prehistoric\nman; the latter, being thoroughly animal, would possess no soul, and\nhis spirit would doubtless remain earth-bound _ad infinitum_. On the\nother hand, of course, it might have been a Vagrarian.\n\nOf the appearance of spirit lights I have had abundant evidence. Mrs.\nW----, of Guilsborough, with whom I am well acquainted, informs me that\non awaking one night she found the room full of the most beautiful\ncoloured lights, that floated in mid-air round the bed. They were so\npretty that she was not in the least alarmed, but continued to watch\nthem till they suddenly vanished. The darkness of the night, the\ninclemency of the weather, and the situation of the room precluded the\nprobability of the lights being produced by any one outside the house.\n\nIn the memoirs of a famous lady artist I have just been editing, I have\ngiven an account of blue lights seen by her and her husband in their\nbedroom. On this occasion the manifestations filled the eye-witnesses\nwith horror, and the husband, in his endeavours to ward them off the\nbed, struck at them with his hand, when they divided, re-uniting again\nimmediately afterwards.\n\nI am inclined to think that in both instances the lights were due to the\npresence of some form of Elemental in the initial stage of materialisation;\nbut whereas the beauty of the lights and the absence of fear in the first\ncase suggests that the phantasms belonged to some agreeable type of\nElemental, very likely of the order of Pixies, the uniform blueness and the\npresence of fear in the latter case suggests that the lights were due to\nsome terrifying and vicious form of Elemental, that was in all probability\npermanently attached to the house.\n\nThese lights seem to resemble in some respects those seen from time to\ntime in Wales, though in the latter case the phenomena appear with the\npurpose of predicting death. A description is given of them in \"Frazer's\nMagazine.\" They would seem to be closely allied with the corpse candles,\nor Canhyllan Cyrth, also seen in Wales, an account of which is given in\n\"News from the Invisible World,\" a work by T. Charley, who collected his\ninformation (so I understand from an announcement on the title-page)\nfrom the works of Baxter, Wesley, Simpson, and other writers. These\ncandles are so called because their light resembles in shape that of a\ncandle; in colour it is sometimes white, sometimes of various shades of\nblue. If it is pale blue and small, it predicts the death of an infant;\nif big, an adult. The writer then narrates several cases relative to the\nappearance of these lights, the concluding one running thus: \"About\nthirty-four or thirty-five years since, one Jane Wyatt, my wife's\nsister, being nurse to Baronet Rud's three eldest children and (the lady\nbeing deceased) the lady controller of that house, going late into a\nchamber where the maidservants lay, saw there no less than five of\nthese lights together. It happened a while after, the chamber being\nnewly plastered and a grate of coal fire therein kindled to hasten the\ndrying up of the plastering, that five of the maidservants went there to\nbed, as they were wont; but in the morning they were all dead, being\nsuffocated in their sleep with the steam of the newly tempered lime and\ncoal. This was at Langathen, in Carmarthenshire.\"\n\nThese lights do not appear to have ever reached any further stage of\nmaterialisation, though I imagine they possess that capability and that\nthey are in reality some peculiarly grim form of Elemental--as grim,\nmaybe, as the drummers and pipers of Scotland, and other Glanogrians or\nFamily Ghosts, with which they would seem to be closely connected.\n\nOf Noises, that are popularly attributed to Poltergeists, but which I\nthink are due either to Phantasms of the Dead or to Vagrarian,\nImpersonating or Vice Elementals, I have received many accounts.\n\nMiss Dulcie Vincent, sister to the Society beauty (whose experience I\nshall give later on), and herself a well-known beauty, says:--\n\n\"When I was staying with my uncle some years ago in his house in\nNorfolk, we used to hear the most remarkable noises at night, which no\none could in any way explain. For example, there were tremendous crashes\nas if all the crockery in the house was being dashed to pieces on the\nkitchen tiles, whilst at other times we heard heavy thuds and bumps as\nif furniture were being moved about wholesale from one room to another.\nOne night, the noises were so great that my uncle took his gun and went\ndownstairs, making sure that there were burglars in the house; but the\nmoment he opened the door of the room whence the sounds proceeded, there\nwas an intense hush, and nothing was to be seen. A few nights after this\nincident, I was awakened by hearing my bedroom door slowly open. I\nlooked, but saw no one. Seized with ungovernable terror, I then buried\nmy head under the bedclothes, when I distinctly heard soft footsteps\napproach the bed. There was then a silence, during which I instinctively\nfelt some antagonistic presence close beside me. Then, to my\nindescribable terror, the bedclothes were gently pulled from my face,\nand I felt something--I knew not what--was peering down at me and trying\nto make me look. Exerting all my will power, however, I am thankful to\nsay I kept my eyes tightly closed, and the Thing at length stealthily\nwithdrew, nor did I ever experience it again.\n\n\"My uncle's house was built on the site of some old cottages, in one of\nwhich lived a mad woman, but whether the disturbances were due to her\nphantasm or not, I cannot, of course, say.\"\n\nNeither can I! though I should think it not at all improbable,\nas many hauntings of a similar nature are undoubtedly caused\nby the earth-bound spirits of the mad, which accounts for the\nsenseless crashings and thumpings!\n\nMiss Featherstone, a lady residing in Hampshire, has also had an\nexperience with similar phenomena. \"About six years ago,\" she informs\nme, \"after my sister's death, I had a very unpleasant form of Psychism\"\n(I quote her own words), \"which has only lately ceased. Things used to\ndisappear and reappear in a very strange way. Though it was apparently\nuncanny, it was, of course, difficult to prove absolutely they had not\nbeen moved by physical means. The first time the phenomena took place\nwas during the visit of a very practical friend. She had been writing,\nand had put her materials together, and was walking out of the room,\nwhen her pen was whisked out of her hand. She looked about everywhere,\nshe shook her dress (which was quite a new one), but the pen had\nvanished--it was nowhere to be seen. Then she went upstairs, put on her\nwalking shoes, hat, and gloves, and went to the railway station, came\nstraight home, and, on taking off her outdoor things, discovered the\nmissing pen inside a tailor's stitching across the front of her dress!\nShe could not find any opening where it could have got in, and was\nobliged to unpick part of the dress to get it out. I wanted her to send\nan account of the incident to the S.P.R., but as she had a strong\naversion to anything in the nature of publicity, I could not persuade\nher to do so. After this things constantly disappeared, and reappeared\nin a prominent position after every one had searched the place. I think,\nand hope, however, that this has now ceased, as it procured me a very\nbad reputation with several servants, who emphatically declared I was in\nleague with the Evil One.\"\n\nIn a subsequent letter she writes:--\"The house in which my Poltergeist\nexperiences took place was in Dawlish, but the annoyances followed me to\nLondon. I had been sitting at friendly _s\u00e9ances_ with one or two friends\nat that time. At the beginning the phenomena seemed in some way\nassociated with an old cupboard which I had bought second-hand, and\nwhich I still possess.\"\n\nIf the disturbances were not brought about by human agency, then I think\nit highly probable that both the _s\u00e9ances_ at which Miss Featherstone\nhad been attending and the oak chest may have been responsible for them.\nI am quite sure that whenever a genuine spirit manifestation takes place\nat a _s\u00e9ance_, that that manifestation is due either to the earth-bound\nspirits of people who were merely silly when in the body (and of these\nthere have been, still are, and always will be a superabundance), to the\nearth-bound spirits of people who were bestial and lustful, or simply\ndue to mischievous Impersonating and other kinds of Elementals. These\nlatter, when once encouraged, are extremely difficult to shake off. They\nattach themselves to certain of the sitters, whom they follow to their\nhomes, which they subsequently haunt. I have known many such instances;\nhence, I think it very probable that a mischievous Elemental attached\nitself to Miss Featherstone at one of the _s\u00e9ances_ she attended, and,\nfollowing her from place to place, pestered her with its unpleasant\nattentions. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the oak chest\nwas haunted by some species of Elemental, as is often the case with\npieces of furniture, either old in themselves or constructed of antique\nwood--wood, for instance, that comes from a bog, an ancient forest, a\nmountain top, or any other spot frequented by Vagrarians.\n\nMiss Featherstone gives me another experience she once had, and which is\nnot without interest.\n\n\"About seven years ago,\" she says, \"my two sisters and I were staying at\na farmhouse near Chagford, on Dartmoor, between Thridly and Gidleigh. We\nstarted one day to walk to the latter place, and went through the\nvillage and up a lane beyond, on to the open moor, where we found\nourselves on a level piece of ground, with Kes Tor close by to our left,\nwhilst on our right were three new-looking houses, with little gardens\nand wicket gates leading to them. I went into one to enquire if there\nwere any rooms to let for the following year, and was shown over it,\nwhile my sisters waited on the moor for me. Strange to say, I forgot to\nask the name and address of the place, but it seemed on a perfectly\nstraight road from Gidleigh. When we got back to Chagford, we asked our\nlandlady where we had been, and she said the name of the place was\nBerry Down; so the next year we wrote there for rooms, but on arriving\nwere astonished to find quite a different place--not on the open moor at\nall. We then set about looking for the three houses we had seen. We\nwalked round Gidleigh in every direction, enquiring of the postman,\nclergymen, farmers, and villagers, but none knew of any such houses, nor\ncould we ever find the remotest traces of them. The day on which we saw\nthem was bright and sunny, so that we could not possibly have been\nmistaken, and, moreover, we rested on the moor opposite them for some\ntime, so that had they been mere optical illusions, we should have\neventually become aware of the fact. Several old Gidleigh cottagers to\nwhom we narrated the incident were of the opinion we had been 'Pixie\nled.' Is such a thing possible?\"\n\nThere are instances I know--though I cannot at present recall one--where\npeople have seen and entered phantom houses, just as sailors have\nwitnessed the phenomenon of the phantom ship--which I have heard has\nbeen seen again comparatively recently off the North Cornwall coast--but\nwhether such visions are due to Pixies, or any other kind of Elemental,\nI cannot, with certainty, say. Taking into consideration, however, the\nnumerous tricks Elementals do play, and how they very often, I believe,\nsuggest dreams, I see no reason why they should not have been\nresponsible for the delusion of the three cottages.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE DEAD.\n\n\nThough I head this chapter \"Phantasms of the Dead,\" it is almost\nimpossible to discriminate between Phantasms of the Dead, _i.e._, the\nactual earth-bound souls of the people, and Elementals, whose special\nfunction it is to impersonate them. In the case of murder, whereas, I\nthink it quite possible that the spirit of the actual murderer\nappears, I think it highly unlikely that the soul of his victim (save,\nof course, where the latter has led a vicious life) is equally\nearth-bound, but that what we see is merely an impersonating\nElemental, who, in company with the earth-bound soul of the homicide,\nnightly (or periodically) re-enacts the tragedy.\n\nIn cases of suicide, too, I think the nature of the Phantasms that\nsubsequently appears largely depends on the life led by the suicide--if\nvicious the hauntings would be due to his earth-bound spirit, if moral\nto an Impersonating Elemental, but in either case Vice Elementals would\nin all probability be attached to the spot, when the hauntings would at\nonce become dual (which so frequently happens). Where the suicide is a\ncriminal lunatic or epileptic imbecile, I believe the phenomenon seen is\nhis or her actual spirit--I do not think such people have souls. By\nspirit, I mean the mere animal side of man's nature--that Force, which\nis solely directed to the attainment and furtherance of carnal desires;\nby soul, that Force, which recognizes and strives after all that tends\nto make the mind pure and beautiful.\n\nWith regard to wraithes, _i.e._, apparitions seen shortly after death, I\nthink that in the majority of cases at all events, it is the actual\nsuperphysical body of the deceased that appears, prior to its removal to\nother spheres, and that, except during this interval, the souls of the\nrational and moral never return to the material world. In all other\ncases of hauntings the phenomena are due either to the earth-bound\nspirits of the depraved, to the silly, _i.e._, those who, without being\nactually cruel or lustful, have no capacity for the culture of mind; to\ncriminal lunatics, and epileptic imbeciles; or else to Elementals,\nbenevolent, neutral and otherwise.\n\n\nCASES.\n\nMrs. P., the wife of an Army Medical Officer, living in my\nneighbourhood, says: \"Some years ago I was travelling to Southampton,\nwith my little daughter, a child of four. My nephew, who lived in Mare\nStreet, Hackney, asked me to pass the night at his house. It was a large\nbuilding, with long passages, out of which many doors opened, and, close\nto the back of it, there lay a cemetery.\n\n\"We arrived, to find no one at home but the servants. My nephew had left\na message for me, asking me to make myself thoroughly 'at home' and go\nto bed, if I felt tired after the journey.\n\n\"My little daughter and I shared a big room with a double bed. I did\nnot sleep for some time on account of a curious noise. Though there\nwas no wind, all the doors in the passage rattled on their hinges and\nbumped about, as if someone was going along trying the handles. The\nnoise lasted for some time, and disturbed me a great deal so that I\ndid not sleep at all well.\n\n\"In the morning my nephew said, 'Well, Aunt, I hope you were\ncomfortable and had a good night?' 'Oh, everything was comfortable,'\nI replied, 'but I did not pass a good night. There is something very\nstrange about the doors in your upstairs passage. They seemed to be\nkicking about on their hinges for hours.'\n\n\"He looked at me in rather a curious way, and said, 'I suppose you did\nnot know that my mother died in the room where you slept--in fact, in\nthe very same bed.'\n\n\"'Indeed, I did not,' I answered, 'and, if I had known it, I should\nnever have accepted your hospitality.'\n\n\"Well, I went on my journey to India, and thought no more about the matter.\nBut, when I returned, a year or two later, I happened to speak of it to one\nof my nieces, who instantly gave me her experience in the same house.\n\n\"'After our mother died,' she said, 'the room was shut up and it\nremained so for some time. Then my sister and I decided that we should\nuse it, and we slept there together. The first night we were not\ndisturbed, but the second night I woke and saw our mother sitting in a\nchair before the large dressing glass. My sister was asleep, but I\nsuppose I must have made some movement which roused her, for she awoke,\nand, without a word from me, cried out--'There's mother! Mother has come\nback to us!' Thus, you see, we both saw the apparition plainly and had\nnot the least doubt as to who it was.\"\n\nThe manifestations in this case were, I think, due to a benevolent\nElemental that impersonated the dead lady with the object of conveying\nsome message from the soul of the latter to her living relatives and\nfriends. The impression conveyed by the phenomenon to the girls, would\nbe that their mother was still cognisant of them; whilst the Elemental\nwould, in all probability, find some means of communicating the welcome\ntidings to the mother that her daughters had not forgotten her.\n\nMrs. P---- narrated to me another case. \"My husband,\" she said, \"attended a\ncertain old man and his wife who were very devoted to one another. They\nwere quite elderly people, but sound and sane--not at all fanciful or\ninclined to be foolish. When the old man died, his wife felt his loss most\ndreadfully. She never quite got over it, and, when she took to her bed with\nher last illness, she was constantly saying that she wished she could see\nher husband again. Her attendants told her that she ought not to say such\na thing, but the wish grew upon her, till, one day, being alone, she spoke\nto him and begged him to come back.\n\n\"Immediately he appeared to be sitting in a chair by her bedside. But,\nthough her wish was gratified, she was terrified.\n\n\"'Go away, go away!' she cried, 'I don't want you.' The vision vanished.\nSome few days later, she died. I often used to sit with her, and I am\nsure that she was quite reasonable and in full possession of her wits.\"\n\nHere, of course, one has to entirely depend upon the evidence of the\ndeceased who, being ill at the time, might easily have been the victim\nof an illusion--at least so it seems to me. I merely quote the case to\nshow that I am not always ready to accept as objective the phenomena\nwitnessed by a single individual.\n\nThe case of Miss V. St. Jermyn, a lady living in the North of London, is\na great deal stronger.\n\n\"My father,\" she says, \"was the Rector of an immense parish, which was\ndivided at his death. He had ten curates. The senior curate, who was\nappointed to succeed him in the more important division, was shortly\nafterwards made a Canon, so I shall speak of him as Canon Jervis. He\nowed everything he had to my father, and he was always ready to say this\nand talk of his obligations to my father. I mention this to show the\nsort of regard he had for my father. We on our side, my brothers,\nsisters and I, always looked on him as a very great friend, having known\nhim all our lives. There was never anyone with whose appearance we were\nmore familiar, and he certainly was rather remarkable looking. Standing\nat least six feet and proportionately broad, he had a square face, rough\nhewn features and very thick cr\u00eap\u00e9 hair, which was getting grizzled. He\nwas always very well dressed. Everyone was much struck with his\nappearance and I was constantly being asked who he was.\n\n\"Early one January (about the 3rd, I think), some years ago, he died,\nand we were all so grieved that we at once wrote expressing our sympathy\nto his family. We certainly thought about him a good deal, though his\ndeath was not one of those great sorrows which leave no room in one's\nmind for the remembrance of anything else.\n\n\"About the 13th of February (of that year), my brother, sister and\nmyself went to tea with a friend, a well-known artist at the Pembroke\nStudios, Kensington. It was a very pleasant party and we stayed late;\nindeed, we were nearly the last to leave. For about fifteen minutes\nbefore we left the Studios, I was talking to our host, who was showing\nus a curious old French bible with coloured illustrations. I mention\nthis to show how my mind had been engaged.\n\n\"After leaving the studio, on our way to the High Street, Kensington, we\nhad to pass along one side of Edwardes' Square. There the houses have\nlittle gardens with iron railings and the pathway is very narrow. We\nwere walking one after the other, my brother in front, my sister next,\nand I last, when, suddenly, I saw Canon Jervis as clearly and plainly as\nI have ever in my life seen anyone before or since. He passed me on the\nside next the railings. I cannot in any way explain why I did, or said,\nnothing at the time, saving that I was too overcome with amazement. We\nwent on and got into an omnibus, which took us to the street where we\nlive. As we walked along the latter, I again saw the Canon coming down a\nside street and my sister immediately exclaimed: 'There is Canon Jervis!\nlooking just as if he were alive!' My brother, who was a little way in\nfront of us, did not speak--he had seen nothing.\n\n\"Looking back on the incident I cannot explain why we neither attempted\nto look after or follow him. But I think most people at the time of\nseeing an apparition seem to be in a sense paralysed with astonishment\nand quite lose their presence of mind.\"\n\nAs the manifestation occurred so soon after the Canon's death, I am\ninclined to think that in this instance it was a _bona fide_\nphantasm of the Dead.\n\nA case of a haunting with a purpose was related to me recently by a Mrs.\nCraven. Whilst visiting at a country house, Mrs. Craven often used to\nretire to the library for a few minutes' quiet reading, when she\ninvariably found a priest sitting there, in a peculiarly pensive\nattitude. Wondering who he was, as she never saw him in any other part\nof the house, but not liking to disturb him, Mrs. Craven used to sit and\nsteal furtive glances at him from over her book, until she felt she\ncould no longer stand being in his presence, when she made her escape as\nsilently as possible from the room. This went on for some days, until\ndetermining one morning to brave it out, she remained in her seat till\nthe priest somewhat electrified her by suddenly pointing in a very\nagitated manner to the book shelves. Thinking him queerer than ever, but\nattributing his inertness to some possible physical affliction, Mrs.\nCraven went to the bookcase and after some trouble discovered the book\nhe wanted. But on bringing it to him, he motioned her to turn over the\nleaves, and to her astonishment the book seemed to open at the place he\nindicated, where she perceived a loose sheet of paper covered with\nwriting. Obeying his tacit injunctions she threw the document into the\nfire, whereupon the priest at once vanished.\n\nMuch startled, Mrs. Craven related what had occurred to the hostess, who\ncoolly informed her that the library was well known to be haunted by just\nsuch an apparition as she had described, which, however, only appeared\nperiodically. So far, Mrs. Craven does not think it has been seen again.\n\nThe identity of the priest being unknown, one cannot say for certain\nwhether this phenomenon was a phantasm of the Dead or an Impersonating\nElemental, though, from the lives of self-indulgence led by so many\npriests in the past, I am inclined to believe it was a genuine phantasm\nof the Dead. I think the incident of the document is quite sufficient in\nitself to prove the manifestations were objective.\n\nThere is a well authenticated story current in Clifton (Bristol) of an\napparition appearing (in the home of a well-known professional man)\ncomparatively recently, with a purpose.\n\nMiss Debrett, an artist belonging to one of the Cornish Art Colonies,\nhad a curious experience at Moret, which experience I will tell\nin her own words:--\n\n\"From Paris to Moret-sur-Loing is not a very long run, two hours at the\nmost. My friend, an artist, and myself went there in the month of July.\nWe 'put up' at the Hotel de la Chalette. We had rooms adjoining one\nanother, my friend using hers as a studio in the daytime. My room was\nvery close, the roof sloped horribly and I experienced a queer shrinking\nsensation the moment I entered it. However, overcoming such feelings I\nresolved to sleep there and say nothing of my misgivings to my friend.\nAt two o'clock in the morning of my first night there, I was awakened by\nlittle tappings and a feeling of terror. I tried in vain to sleep but\ncould not, the presence of some ghost-like creature was strongly about\nme. I lit my candle and placed it on the stand beside my bed, trying to\nassure myself that this at least would protect me from apparitions, but\nthe feeling of the invisible presence remained. I was immeasurably\nrelieved when morning came, though I did not mention a word of what had\nhappened to my friend.\n\n\"Night after night the sensations were repeated with ever increasing\nintensity, until I could instinctively feel the presence of a woman who\nappeared to be enduring the most severe mental and physical pain. I\ncould feel her close to me, bending backwards and forwards and writhing\nto and fro, and a deadly fear seized me lest she would clutch hold of me\nin her throes of agony. Once I saw her shadow on the wall. Apart from\nthe unmistakeable likeness it bore to a woman, I am sure it was her\nshadow, as I looked carefully about the room, removing sundry articles\nof furniture to assure myself the phenomenon was not due to them. It was\nnot, for whatever I did in no way disturbed it--it still remained\nplainly and ominously outlined on the wall.\n\n\"About the second week of my stay in Moret-sur-Loing, I was taken ill with\na violent cold and feverish pains. I could not discover any cause, though\nmy friend attributed it to a night's rowing on the river Loing. For a few\ndays I was confined to my room and my only consolation was to look at a\nlittle pot of flowers which I had bought at the local market. The flowers\nwere bright scarlet and in pleasant contrast to the general gloominess of\nthe apartment. At last, however, utterly worn out with my illness and the\nlong succession of harassing nights, I persuaded my friend to leave the\nhotel, which she reluctantly did, and we returned to England.\n\n\"On our way home we met a fellow artist who told us she had also been\nstaying quite recently at Moret, and then it transpired that she, too,\nhad had rooms at the Hotel de la Chalette, but had given them up as they\nwere so depressing. Upon hearing this I related my experiences,\nwhereupon she exclaimed, 'How odd! A girl whom I knew very well used to\ngo very often to the Hotel de la Chalette, and occupied the very room\nyou slept in. She was very much attached to the place and when she was\ndying in England continually expressed a longing to be there. She died\nin the very greatest agony--just such agony as that of the woman you\ndescribe--and fought against death to the very last. She was most\nunresigned and rebellious. I wonder if the sensations you experienced\nwere in any way due to her?'\"\n\nI think so without a doubt, and that the phantasm Miss Debrett saw is\neither that of the earth-bound spirit of the unhappy girl who, when\ndying, wished herself at the Hotel de la Chalette, or that of an\nimpersonating Elemental;--let us hope it is the latter. Death wishes\nare, I am sure, frequently fulfilled, and, consequently, cannot be\nregarded both by utterer and audience with too much seriousness. The\nstrong desire of the girl to cling to life--on this earth--proving that\nher spiritual aspirations were strictly limited--was almost a sufficient\nguarantee that her spirit would remain earth-bound.\n\nMiss Viola Vincent, a well-known Society beauty, has furnished me with\nan account of a house presumably haunted by a Phantasm of the Dead. It\nis a large country house not very far from London, and the case was\nreported to Miss Vincent by an old servant of the name of Garth.\nGarth, who had no idea at the time that the house was haunted, was\ntaking a short nap on her bed one afternoon when she heard the door\nslowly open and on looking up, saw to her astonishment a little\nsinister old man, who tiptoed up to her bed and, leaning over her,\nplaced his finger on his lips as if to enjoin silence (an unnecessary\nprecaution as Garth was far too terrified either to utter a sound or\nto move). On perceiving her fright, a subtle smile of satisfaction\nstole over the man's face, which Garth describes as yellow and\nwizened. He left the bed and, turning round, glided surreptitiously\nthrough the open doorway. Greatly mystified, Garth mentioned the\naffair to the other servants, who, instead of laughing at her, at once\nexclaimed, \"Why, you've seen old S----. He committed a murder, just\noutside the door of your room, many years ago, and is frequently seen\nabout the house and grounds. If you examine the boarding in the\npassage carefully, you will see the bloodstains.\" As Garth refused to\nsleep in the room again, a valet of one of the visitors was put there,\nand he experienced precisely the same phenomenon.\n\nGarth constantly saw the phantasm of the man in various parts of the\nbuilding. Sometimes she would meet him face to face on a staircase,\nsometimes he would creep stealthily after her, down one of the numerous,\ngloomy corridors. Indeed, she never seemed to be free from him, and, in\nthe end, her nerves became so upset that, although the situation was an\nexcellent one, she was obliged to relinquish it. When in the orchard,\nGarth, on several occasions, heard the sound of galloping horses and saw\nthe misty figures of two people engaged in earnest conversation. On\napproaching them, however, they invariably melted into fine air. Miss\nVincent enquired into the case, and, eventually, got into communication\nwith other people who had witnessed the same phenomena.\n\nI think it is highly probable that the apparition of the old man, at\nany rate, was a phantasm of the dead, that is to say, the earth-bound\nspirit of the murderer; for despite the tendency there is nowadays for\npseudo-humanitarians to sympathise with the perpetrators of revolting\nand cruel murders, it is very certain that the Higher Occult Powers\nhold no such erroneously lenient views, and that he who spills human\nblood is bound by that blood to the earth. Hence murderers--or at\nleast such murderers as are not genuinely repentent--are chained for\nan unlimited time to the scenes of their crimes, which they are\ncompelled willy-nilly to re-enact nightly.\n\nAnother case of haunting by the phantasm of a murderer, or murderers,\nwas told me by Miss Dalrymple, aunt of the famous singer, T.C.\nDalrymple. Her experiences began the night of her arrival at \"The\nLichens,\" the house her nephew was then renting, near Felixstowe.\n\nOn retiring to rest she found the servants had made a very big fire in\nher room, and growing somewhat apprehensive about it, she got out of bed\nand took some of it off. Then, thinking that her alarm was rather\nfoolish, and that, as there was a proportionately large fender, no\ndanger could possibly arise, she put the coal on again and got back into\nbed. A few minutes afterwards the room was pervaded with a current of\nicy cold air, that blew over the bed and rustled through her hair. The\nnext instant, she felt a cold, heavy hand laid on one of her shoulders,\nand she was steadily and mercilessly pressed down and down. Her terror\nwas now so intense that she could neither move nor articulate a sound,\nand she could almost hear the violent palpitation of her heart. After\nwhat seemed to her an eternity, but which was, in all probability, only\na few seconds, the hand was removed, and Miss Dalrymple then heard seven\nloud thumps on the table at the foot of the bed, after which there was\nsilence, and the manifestations ceased. Miss Dalrymple, however, was\ntoo upset to sleep, and lay awake all night in a great agony of mind,\nlest there should be any further disturbances. When the maid brought her\nsome tea in the morning, the latter immediately exclaimed, \"Oh, madam,\nhow dreadfully ill you look!\" to which Miss Dalrymple replied, \"Yes! I\nhave been feeling very ill, but do not, on any account, tell your master\nor mistress, as it will only worry them.\"\n\nMiss Dalrymple then took one of the older servants into confidence, and\nasked her if the house was haunted.\n\n\"Well, madam,\" was the reluctant response, \"people do say that there is a\nhouse in this village that is haunted by the ghost of a murdered lady, but\nI am not quite sure which house it is\"--an answer which implied much.\n\nMiss Dalrymple did not have any further experiences there herself, but\nsome time afterwards one of her great-nieces remarked to her, \"Did you\nknow, auntie, 'The Lichens' was haunted?\" and went on to say that on one\noccasion, when going upstairs, she had seen the figure of a woman in a\ngrey dress bending over the basin in the bath-room as if engaged in\nrinsing her hands. Thinking it was the head nurse, she was going on her\nway unconcernedly when she saw the nurse coming towards her from quite a\ndifferent part of the house. Greatly astonished, she at once made\nenquiries, in reply to which the nurse assured her that she had not been\nin the bath-room for at least an hour. The figure in grey was repeatedly\nseen, always in or near the bath-room, and always appearing as if\nrinsing her hands. Once, too, when one of the children was alone in a\ndownstairs room that opened on to the lawn, a hideous, trampish old man,\ncarrying a sack, approached the window, and, after peeping in at the\nchild with an evil smile, placed his fingers knowingly alongside his\nnose and glided noiselessly away into the shrubbery. The child ran out\nat once and asked the gardener to look for the man, but despite a\nvigorous search, no such person could be found.\n\nAnother inmate of the house, on going one day to her bedroom, heard\nsomething behind her, and, turning round, perceived, to her unmitigated\nhorror, the luminous trunk of a man, which had apparently been\ndismembered. The body, which was bobbing up and down in mid-air,\napproached her rapidly, and, moving aside to let it pass, she saw it\nvanish through the door of the room Mrs. Dalrymple had occupied. After\nthis ghastly manifestation, T.C. Dalrymple, Esq., fearing, for the sake\nof his family, to remain any longer in such a place, left \"The Lichens,\"\npart of which has since been pulled down and rebuilt. Miss Dalrymple's\nheart has never been sound since she felt the ghostly hand on her\nshoulder, the horror of which phenomenon, as any of her friends can\ntestify, turned her hair white.\n\nAs to the cause of the hauntings, that must be entirely a matter of\nconjecture, since, with regard to the former history of the house,\nnothing definite is known. A very vague rumour is current that many\nyears ago it was the _rendezvous_ of all manner of rips and _rou\u00e9s_,\nand, strange though it may seem, the fact that the phantasm of the\nwoman, seen there, was wearing a modern costume, does not preclude the\nidea that the said phantasm belonged to a bygone period. Such an\nanachronism is by no means uncommon in cases of haunting, but it renders\nthe task of theorising on ghostly phenomena all the more difficult.\n\nIt may be asked with regard to this case--had the phantasm of the woman\nany connection with that of the tramp, the mutilated body and the hand;\nand my answer to that question is, that all four phenomena were, in all\nprobability, closely allied with one another. Very possibly an old man\nhad been murdered there by his paramour, who, after cutting up his body,\nhad bribed a tramp to dispose of it, in which case the house would, of\ncourse, be haunted by the earth-bound spirits of both the victim and\nagents of the crime. But it is quite possible, supposing the phenomena\nare genuine phantasms of the dead, that the tragedy did not take place\nin that house at all, but was enacted in some far-away spot, one or more\nof the principals being in some way connected with \"The Lichens.\"\nHowever, as I have already said, it is one of those cases that must, by\nreason of the uncertain history of the house, always remain a mystery.\n\nA haunting of a similar nature occurred quite recently at a house near\nLeeds. The place, which had stood empty for a very long while, was\neventually taken on a lease by my informants, Mr. and Mrs. Urquhart.\nNeither of the latter had had any previous experience with the\nsuperphysical, at which both were more or less inclined to scoff. One\nevening, shortly after their arrival, Mrs. Urquhart was alone in the\nstudy, and, looking up from her needlework, saw what at first sight\nappeared to be a luminous disc--but which speedily developed into a\nhead--emerge from the wall opposite, and, bobbing up and down in\nmid-air, slowly approach her. It was a woman's head, the woman having\nobviously been decapitated, the expression in the wide open staring eyes\nshowing every indication of a cruel ending. The hair was long and\nmatted, the skin startlingly white. Mrs. Urquhart was at first far too\nterrified to move or utter a sound, but as the ghastly object floated\nright up to her, the revulsion she experienced was so great that the\nspell of her inertness was broken and she fled from the room.\n\nWhen she told her husband what had occurred, he exclaimed laughingly,\n\"Why, my dear, I never knew you had such a vivid imagination! You will\nsoon be asking me to believe in hobgoblins and pixies.\" Whereupon Mrs.\nUrquhart bit her lips and was silent.\n\nHowever, after dinner Mrs. Urquhart, hearing a great commotion in the\nstudy, ran to see what was happening, and discovered her husband\nand his friend, looking ghastly white, thrashing the air with\nwalking-sticks. Catching sight of her, they both cried out, \"We've\nseen the head--the beastly thing came out of the wall, as you\ndescribed, and floated towards us!\"\n\nOn hearing this, Mrs. Urquhart recoiled in horror, nor could she be\npersuaded ever again to enter the room. Her husband, whom the\nexperience had effectually cured of scepticism, at once fell in with\nher proposal that they should immediately quit the house, and soon\nafter their removal they learned that the place had been pulled down.\nFrom the fact, revealed by subsequent enquiries, that some years\npreviously an old woman had been murdered there, it is quite evident\nto my mind that what the Urquharts and their friend saw was both\nobjective and superphysical; but whether the apparition was a phantasm\nof the dead, or an impersonating elemental, can only be decided by an\nadequate knowledge of the character of the murdered person in whose\nlikeness the phenomenon appeared.\n\nHauntings of a very disturbing nature go on (or, at least, did so a\nshort while ago) at a house in Rugeley, where dreadful groans are\nfrequently heard proceeding from a room on the ground floor. My\ninformant, however, would not say whether or not the house was the one\nin which the notorious Palmer poisoned his victims; but here again it\nseems more than probable, that the sounds are due to the presence of an\nElemental attached to the spot by the sacrifice of human blood.\n\nI am hoping, at no great future date, to make a series of investigations\nin houses that have been the scenes of unsolved mysteries, since I\nbelieve it quite possible that I should experience such superphysical\ndemonstrations as would give me the direct clue to the identity of the\nperpetrators of the crimes.\n\n\nVISIONS AND DREAMS.\n\nThe Baroness Von A----, in a recent letter to me, says:--\"I wonder if it\nwould interest you to hear of a rather strange occurrence that once\nbefell my husband. He was staying in town at the time, and was asked to\ntea at the house of some friends of ours in Westminster. The name of the\nfriends is Howard, and their house, which is very old, is in one of the\nold squares behind the Abbey. My husband, an absolute sceptic himself,\nknew that the Howards were interested in Psychical Research, but had\nnever heard of any legend in connection with their house. One evening,\nafter tea, which took place in a back room, my husband, more in a\nteasing spirit than anything else, suddenly exclaimed, 'Look here! Shall\nI tell you what I can see in this room?' (He is most insistent that at\nthe time he spoke he saw nothing, but was preparing to make the whole\nthing up, and meant to tell the Howards so afterwards.) 'I seem to be\nstanding in a small garden. It is a dark night, and I see two men,\ndressed in the fashion of Charles II.'s time, just finishing digging a\nsmall grave, near the edge of which another man is standing holding in\none hand a lantern of antique design. The two men have finished, the\nthird waves his lantern slowly, and the door of the house which faces me\n(I feel it is this house, albeit somewhat different, though how I cannot\nsay) opens, and out of it comes a fourth man, also dressed according to\nthe Charles II. period, though in a very much richer costume. There is\nan expression of diabolical satisfaction in his eyes as they dwell on\nthe face of the child he is carrying in his arms, and which, to my\nhorror, I see has been murdered. The villain approaches the grave, into\nwhich he ruthlessly drops the body, and the diggers at once cover it\nwith shovels full of earth. That is all I can see.'\n\n\"To my husband's astonishment the Howards were wildly excited, and told\nhim that the legend connected with the house (and which they believed\nwas only known to one or two people besides themselves) tallied detail\nfor detail with the vision he had just witnessed. It was quite in vain\nthat he protested he had seen nothing at all, but had invented the story\njust to 'have them on'--they would not believe him. It appears that in\nthe time of Charles II., another house had occupied the site of the\npresent one, though the garden was practically the same. A child had\nbeen murdered there for its inheritance, and had been buried in the\ngarden where its bones had been subsequently found, after which the\nhouse had been pulled down and the present one built. I am sure my\nhusband honestly thought he was inventing the vision. Could it have\nbeen a case of suggestion?\"\n\nYes, I am inclined to believe it was a case of suggestion, but of\nsuggestion due to some superphysical objective presence that actually\nput the words of the story into the mouth of the narrator. I do not\nthink the story was a chance invention, a mere coincidence, any more\nthan I think the suggestion was telepathic.\n\nMy next case deals with a dream, a lady, of the name of Carmichael, had\nwhilst staying in an old house in the Punjab. She dreamed she was\nawakened by a lovely Hindoo lady, who came to her bedside, and by signs\nimplored her to follow her. This Mrs. Carmichael at once did, and the\nHindoo led her down winding passages and through numerous rooms, until\nthey at length arrived in a courtyard with a well at the far end of it.\nThe Hindoo silently and mournfully approached the well, and, pointing\ndown it, wrung her hands and disappeared.\n\nMrs. Carmichael then woke to find herself bathed in perspiration; and\nthe dream made such an impression on her that when she went to stay\nwith some friends the next day, she told them about it. To her\nastonishment they were intensely excited. \"Why!\" they exclaimed, \"we\nknow the place well, and you have described exactly the winding\npassages in that part of the house that has never been used since a\nHindoo lady was murdered there for her jewels some years ago. Neither\nthe murderer nor his booty was ever found.\"\n\nIt was now Mrs. Carmichael's turn to be amazed, and she readily agreed\nto go with them to the house to see if she could find the well she had\nseen in her vision. Accordingly they all set out, and, on reaching the\nhouse, appointed Mrs. Carmichael as guide. Without any hesitation she at\nonce made for the disused wing, and, leading the party through the rooms\nand down the passages she had seen in her dream, eventually brought them\nto the well in the courtyard. The well was then dug, and at the bottom\nlay a number of valuable diamond and pearl necklaces, rings and\near-rings! No body, however, was found, but when Mrs. Carmichael slept\nin the house again she dreamed no more of the Hindoo lady.\n\nI unhesitatingly vouch for the truth of this story. The question now\narises--to what cause could the vision be attributed? Was it due to a\ntelepathic communication from some living brain acquainted with the\nstory, or did Mrs. Carmichael's superphysical body leave her material\nbody and visit the scene she witnessed, or was it all suggested to her\nby some objective superphysical presence, presumably that of an\nimpersonating and benevolently disposed Elemental? I am inclined to\nthink the last theory the most feasible.\n\nAn account of another interesting dream has been sent me by Miss\nFeatherstone, several of whose other psychic experiences I have already\nrelated. \"In a dream,\" she says, \"which occurred twenty-three years\nago, I thought I was very much upset and worried, and was running up and\ndown passages which I had never seen before, looking for something (I am\nnot sure that I knew in my dream what I was looking for), and being\nunable to find it, I exclaimed, 'Oh! I do wish Arthur was here!' I woke\nup saying this. Some months afterwards I was staying with a cousin in\nWorcestershire, when she had an epileptic fit. All the servants were out\nexcepting two young girls. The doctor came and ordered brandy, and I\ncould not find the key of the cellar anywhere. I had never explored the\ndownstairs of my cousin's house before, and as I raced down a long\nsuccession of passages in my search for the cellar key, I instantly\nrecognised and identified the passages with those I had seen in my\ndream. Moreover, to make the resemblance still more striking, my cousin\nArthur, who alone knew where the key was kept, was away, and I kept\nsaying to myself, 'I would give anything if only Arthur were here!'\nLater in the day he returned with the key in his pocket.\"\n\nIn this instance I think the superphysical body of Miss Featherstone,\nunder the guidance of an Elemental, separated itself from her material\nbody whilst the latter was asleep, and visited the actual spot where the\nincident of the key took place. As to why the Elemental should then have\ninitiated Miss Featherstone into the trivial details only of an incident\nof the future, it is impossible to explain. One can only surmise that\nthe act was an inconsequent one on the part of the Elemental, or that it\nwould have revealed more to her had not some unexpected interruption\nrecalled Miss Featherstone's superphysical self.\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE HAUNTINGS OF THE OLD SYDERSTERNE PARSONAGE (1833), NEAR FAKENHAM,\nAND A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN SYDENHAM.\n\n\nSome weeks ago the Rev. Henry Hacon, M.A., of Searly Vicarage, North Kelsey\nMoor, wrote to me, very kindly enclosing the following interesting letter\nwhich his father, many years ago, had received from the Rev. John Stewart,\nM.A., at that time Rector of Sydersterne, near Fakenham.\n\nThe letter, which deals exclusively with the then very much discussed\nhauntings at Sydersterne Parsonage, runs thus:--\n\n                                    SYDERSTERNE PARSONAGE,\n                                              NEAR FAKENHAM,\n                                                     _May 22, 1833_.\n\n     MY DEAR SIR,\n\n     All this Parsonage circle were gratified to learn that you and your\n     family were recovered from the late epidemic. We are very sensible\n     of your kind wishes, and shall be happy to see you at any time\n     your press of business may allow you to leave Swaffham. The\n     interest excited by the noises in our dwelling has become quite\n     intense throughout this entire district of country. The arrivals\n     from every quarter proved at last so utterly inconvenient that we\n     have been obliged to decline receiving any more. We were compelled\n     to draw the line somewhere, and we judged it could not be more\n     sensibly done than immediately after the highly respectable\n     authentication of the noises furnished last Thursday.\n\n     On the night preceding and the Thursday morning four God-fearing,\n     shrewd, intelligent brother clergymen assembled at the Parsonage,\n     and together, with a pious and accomplished lady and a medical\n     gentleman from Holt (of eminence in his profession), joined Mrs.\n     Stewart, my two eldest boys and myself, in watching. The\n     clergymen were those of St. Edmund's, Norwich, of (here the\n     writing is indiscernible owing to a tear in the MS.) Docking,\n     and of South Creake.\n\n     At ten minutes to two on Thursday morning the noises commenced, and\n     lasted, with very little pause, till two hours after daybreak. The\n     self-confident were crestfallen, and the fancied-wise acknowledged\n     their ignorance as the sun rose high. Within the limits of any\n     sheet of paper I could not give you even a sketch of what has\n     taken place here. The smile of contented ignorance, or the sneer\n     of presumption, cut but a poor figure when opposed to truth and\n     fact--and the pharisaical cloak that is ostensibly worn to\n     exclude \"superstition\" may secrete in its folds the very\n     demon of \"infidelity.\"\n\n     Arrangements are in progress to detect the most cunning schemes of\n     human agency--but must be kept profoundly secret until the blow\n     can be struck.\n\n     The magistrates, clergy, and surrounding gentry continue to arrive\n     at the Parsonage, and offer us their public and private services in\n     any way that can be at all considered useful. The Marquis of\n     Cholmondeley's agent has gone to town resolved to lay the whole\n     business before his lordship, and to suggest that a Bow Street\n     officer should be sent down. I have likewise written to his\n     lordship, who has been very kind to me.\n\n     You may rely upon it, that no human means (at whatever expense)\n     shall be neglected to settle the point as to human agency. To\n     attain a right history of the Sydersterne noises you must read the\n     details of (here the writing is illegible, owing to a blot), that\n     took place in the family of the Wesleys in 1716, their Rectory\n     being at Epworth, in Lincolnshire. The father's (the Rev. S.\n     Wesley's) journal is transcribed by the great and good John Wesley,\n     his son. These noises never could be accounted for.\n\n     I have already traced the existence of noises in Sydersterne\n     Parsonage for thirty-six years back. I am told that Mr. Bullen,\n     farmer, of Swaffham (with whom you are intimate), lived about that\n     time at Creake (three miles from here), and recollects them\n     occurring then. Be kind enough to ask him if he remembers of what\n     nature they, at that period, were, and how long they continued\n     without intermission. Favour me with the results of your enquiries.\n     I think that but three of the generation then living now survive.\n     The noises were here in 1797. Some ignoramus put the notices of\n     them in the _East Anglian_. In that account some things are\n     correct, mixed up with much that is wrong. However, I have kept a\n     regular diary or journal of all things connected with them, and\n     which in due time shall be published. Get the solution of these\n     questions from Mr. Bullen for me, and, lest we should be wanderers,\n     when you purpose coming over to us, let us know by post the day you\n     mean to visit here. On Saturday forenoon there will be a letter for\n     James at Mr. Finch's, and which Claxton is to take.\n\n     Kind compliments from all to all under your \"roof tree.\"\n\n                                                JOHN STEWART.\n\nCommenting upon the hauntings, the Rev. H. Hacon, M.A., in a letter to\nme dated June 24, 1910, says:--\n\n\"... Here you have whatever further particulars I am able to send about\nthe haunted house. Some of them are among my earliest recollections.\n\n\"I can remember my father, when relating some of them, seeing my infant\neyes expressing delicious terror, I suppose, turning the conclusion into\nsomething comic, so that I might not go to my bed in fear and trembling.\nWhen older I heard particulars from one of Mr. Stewart's sons.\n\n\"Sometimes the noises heard at the Parsonage were like the scratchings,\nnot of a cat, but of a tiger, on the inner walls of the house, whilst\nat other times they resembled a shower of copper coins promiscuously\nfalling. One Sunday night, about the time Mr. Stewart came into\nresidence, there were heard in the Parsonage noises like the shifting\nabout of heavy furniture. So that one who heard the disturbances said,\n'Well! I do wonder our new vicar should have his house set to rights on\na Sunday!' There was not, however, a living soul in the house.\n\n\"The Stewart family were, of course, in a way, burdened by curious\nvisitors. But being very hospitable, they were always glad to see their\nfriends, two of whom, Swaffham contemporaries, Mr. and Mrs. Seppings,\nwere passing the day and night there, anxious, of course, to witness\nsome of the phenomena. As it was drawing near bedtime, Mr. Seppings,\nbefore saying good night, went to a side table to take up a bedroom\ncandlestick, saying, 'Well! I don't suppose we shall hear anything\nto-night,' when, as his hand was about to grasp the candlestick, there\ncame a stroke under the table and under the candlestick like that of a\nheavy hammer. Miss Stewart, the daughter of the house, after retiring to\nbed, would sometimes sing the Evening Hymn, when taps were heard on the\nwoodwork of the bed beating time to the music. Mr. Stewart, whose wife's\nhealth at last became enfeebled under the stress, concluded that the\nphenomena were evidences of the presence of a troubled spirit, for after\nevery effort was made to ascertain the cause of the disturbances,\nnothing was discovered that in any way pointed to human agency.\n\n\"The Marquis of Cholmondeley, the Patron of the Living, had the ground\nround the house excavated to ascertain whether there was any vault\nunderneath the house--none, however, was found. Two Bow Street officers\nwere sent to exercise their skill. They passed the night, armed with\nloaded pistols, in chambers opposite to one another. In the night, each,\nhearing a noise as if in the opposite chamber, came out with a loaded\npistol with the intention of firing. But a mutual recognition ensuing,\nthe catastrophe of each being shot by the other was averted.\n\n\"The house, to the best of my belief, like a number of other\nold parsonages, was at length pulled down and a new one built\nin its stead....\"\n\nIn another letter my correspondent says:--\"Mr. Stewart was a _quasi\nalumnus_ of the great Greek scholar, Dr. Parr, and was a man of\neminent local literary celebrity. Mrs. Stewart, his wife, was a\ndaughter of an Admiral McDougall, so there was neither in them, nor in\nany of their children, any peasant or bourgeois predilection to\nsuperstition about ghosts.\"\n\nUpon my writing to the Rev. H. Hacon, M.A., and asking him if he had\ngiven me an exhaustive account of all the phenomena that were\nexperienced in the Parsonage, he sent me the following list,\nwhich was a brief recapitulary of what he had already told me,\nwith a few additions:--\n\n(1) The sound as of a huge ball descending upon the roof and penetrating\nto the ground floor.\n\n(2) A sound as of metal coin showering down from above.\n\n(3) Scratching on the inner wall as of from the claws of a\nlion or tiger.\n\n(4) On the occasion of a guest retiring for the night and putting his\nhand out for the night candlestick, a blow as from a hammer upon the\nunder-side of the table where the candlestick was standing. The guest,\nby the way, had been expecting to hear the sounds, and was now\nconcluding there would be none.\n\n(5) The sound as of a hand on the woodwork of the bed, keeping time to\nthe singing of the Evening Hymn by Mrs. Stewart's daughter, on the\nconclusion of the latter's daily devotions.\n\n(6) The incident of the Bow Street officers.\n\n(7) The incident of the shifting of the furniture.\n\n(8) The screams as of a human being under torture.\n\nSince after every precaution had been taken to guard against the\npossibility of trickery, the disturbances still continued, and were\nheard collectively, there can be little doubt they were superphysical.\nSuch being the case, I am inclined to attribute them to the presence of\nan Elemental, though to what kind of Elemental it is impossible for me\nto say with any certainty, as the history of the Parsonage is unknown to\nme. Since, however, the disturbances do not seem to have been the\nprecursors of any misfortune to the Stewarts, I can safely conclude that\nthe Elemental was not a Clanogrian. It was, in all probability, either a\nVice Elemental attracted thither by the past committal of some crime, or\nby the vicious thoughts of some former occupant, or a Vagrarian drawn to\nthe spot by its seclusiveness or by some relic of prehistoric times. I\nthink the latter is the most probable, for the grotesque nature of the\nsounds are quite in accordance with the appearance and behaviour of the\ngenerality of Vagrarians, who usually manifest their resentment of human\ntrespassers, on what they presume to be their special preserves, by\ncreating all manner of alarming disturbances.\n\nShortly before commencing this book, hearing rumours that a certain\nhouse in the neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace was haunted, I obtained\npermission from the owner to sleep there, the only condition being that\nI should on no account give any clue as to the real identity of the\nplace, which he was most anxious to let; and it is a fact, however\nincredible it may seem to sceptics, that nothing more effectually\nprevents a house letting than the reputation that it is haunted!\n\nThe house in question, though furnished, had been standing empty for\nsome long time, and when I entered it alone one evening about nine\no'clock, I was at once impressed with the musty atmosphere. My first\nact, therefore, was to open the windows on the top landing. The house\nconsisted of three storeys and a basement, twelve bed and four\nreception rooms, with the usual kitchen offices. I had had no\ndefinite information as to the nature of the hauntings, so that I came\nto the house with a perfectly unbiassed mind, and under conditions\nthat excluded any possibility of suggestion. I admit that, when the\nfront door closed behind me, and I found myself in a silent, empty\nhall, in which the shadows of evening were fast beginning to assemble,\nmy heart beat a little faster than usual. Confronting me was a\nstaircase leading to all the grim possibilities of the upper landings,\nwhilst a little on one side of it was a dark, narrow passage, from\nwhich a flight of unprepossessing stone steps led into the abyssmal\ndepths of the basement.\n\nAfter a few minutes' hesitation, glad even to hear my own footsteps, I\nmoved across the hall, and after examining the rooms on the ground\nfloor, ascended to those above.\n\nAll the blinds in the house being down, each room with its ponderous\nold-fashioned furniture presented a particularly funereal aspect, to\nwhich a startling effect was given by a few patches of brilliant\nmoonlight, that, falling on the polished surfaces of the wardrobes,\nconverted them into mirrors, wherein I saw the reflections of what\napparently had no material counterparts. Here and there, too, in some\nremote angle, I saw a white and glistening something, that for a moment\nchilled my blood, until a closer inspection proved it to be a mere\nillumination on the wall or on some naturally bright object.\n\nI have generally been able to detect, both in Silence and in Shadows, an\nindefinable Something that is--to me, at any rate--an almost sure\nindication of the near proximity of the Superphysical; and the moment I\ncrossed the threshold of this house, I felt this indefinable Something\nall round me in a degree that was most marked.\n\nThe hush, indeed, which was forced and unnatural, had grown with each\nstep I took, until now, as I involuntarily paused to listen, the\npulsation of my own heart was like the rapid beating on a drum, whilst I\ninstinctively felt that numerous other beings were holding in their\nbreath simultaneously with mine. The shadows, too, were far from normal\nshadows, for as I glanced behind me, and saw them waving to and fro on\nthe walls and floor, I was not only struck with the fact that several of\nthem resembled nothing near at hand, nothing that could in any way be\nexplained by the furniture, but that, wherever I went, the same few\nshadows glided surreptitiously behind me.\n\nAs I was about to enter one of the top attics, there was a thud, and\nsomething flew past me. I switched on my flashlight. It was a black\ncat--a poor stray creature with gaunt sides and unkempt coat--a great\ndeal more frightened than I.\n\nMy investigation of the upper premises over, I descended into the\nbasement, which, like all basements that have remained disused for any\nlength of time, was excessively cold and damp.\n\nThere were two cellars, the one opening into the other, both pitch dark\nand streaming with moisture, and as I groped my way down into them by\nthe spasmodic aid of my pocket search-light, I could not help thinking\nof the recent gruesome discoveries in Hilldrop Crescent.\n\nIn nine cases out of ten the origin of hauntings may be looked for in\nbasements, the gloomy, depressing nature of which seem to have a special\nattraction for those Elementals that suggest crime.\n\nAnd here, in the cellars, far removed from prying eyes and sunlight,\nhere, under the clammy, broken cement floor, here was an ideal sepulchre\nready for the use of any murderer. He had only to poke his nose\nhalf-way down the steps to be struck with the excellence of the idea,\nand to hurry back for pick and shovel to make the job complete.\n\nThe longer I lingered in the cellars, the more firmly I became convinced\nthat they had at one time or another witnessed some secret burial. Dare\nI remain down there and wait for the phenomena? The heavy, foetid\natmosphere of the place hung round me like a wet rag, while the chill\nfumes, rising from between the crevices in the cement, ascended my\nnostrils and made me sneeze. If I stayed in this charnel house, I must\ncertainly risk rheumatic fever. Then a brilliant thought struck me--I\nwould cover the floor of the innermost cellar with cocoanut matting;\nthere were several loose stacks of it lying in the scullery.\n\nI did so, and the result, though not, perhaps, quite as satisfactory as\nI had anticipated, for the dampness was still abominable, made it at\nleast possible for me to remain there. I accordingly perched myself on a\ntable I had also brought from the scullery, and waited.\n\nMinute after minute passed and nothing happened, nothing beyond a few\nisolated noises, such as the slamming of some far-distant door--which\nslamming, as I tried to reassure myself, momentarily forgetting that\nthe house I was in was detached, might be in the next house--and the\ncreaking of boards, those creakings that one so seldom seems to hear in\nthe daytime, but which one laughingly tells oneself are due to natural\ncauses--though what those causes are is apparently inexplicable.\n\nThe wind does not blow every night, neither can it perform half of\nthat for which it is often held responsible, neither does every house\nswarm with rats. Still, I do not say that what I then heard could not\nhave been accounted for naturally--I daresay it might have been--only\nI was not clever enough to do it. Sceptics are usually so brilliant\nthat one often wonders how it is they do not occupy all the foremost\nplaces in literature, science, and art--why, in fact, the smart,\nshrewd man, who scoffs at ghosts, is so often unheard of, whilst the\npoor silly believer in the superphysical is so often eminent as a\nscientist or author. Can it be that it is, after all, the little\nlearning that makes the man the fool?\n\nBut to continue. The hour of midnight--that hour erroneously supposed to\nbe the one when psychic phenomena usually show themselves--passed, and I\nanxiously awaited for what I felt every moment might now produce.\n\nAbout one o'clock the temperature in the cellars suddenly grew so cold\nthat my teeth chattered, and I then heard, as I thought, in the front\nhall, a tremendous crash as if all the crockery in the house had been\ndashed from some prodigious height in one big pile on the floor. Then\nthere was a death-like hush, and then a jabber, jabber,\njabber--apparently in the kitchen overhead--as of someone talking very\nfast, and very incoherently, to themselves; then silence, and then, what\nmade me feel sick with terror, the sound of shuffling footsteps slowly\napproaching the head of the steps confronting me. Nearer and nearer they\ncame, until they suddenly paused, and I saw the blurred outlines of the\nluminous figure of something stunted, something hardly human, and\nsomething inconceivably nasty.\n\nIt rushed noiselessly down the steps, and, brushing swiftly past me,\nvanished in the furthest corner of the cellar.\n\nFeeling that nothing more would happen now, I ascended the steps, and after\na final and brief survey of the premises, walked home, feeling convinced\nthat the phenomena I had experienced were due to a Vice Elemental\nattracted to the house by a murder that had once been committed there, the\nbody of the victim being interred in one of the cellars.\n\nI was not able to visit the house again, and the owner, though\nacknowledging that what I had seen and heard was a recognised feature of\nthe hauntings, refused to disclose anything further.\n\n\n\n\nPART IV.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nSUGGESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES.\n\n\nIn accordance with a general opinion, which is unquestionably correct,\nit would be extremely ridiculous to dogmatise on a subject so open to\ncontroversy as Psychic Phenomena, hence my statements must not be\nregarded in any sense as arbitrary; they are merely views based on a\ncertain amount of actual experience.\n\n\nPHANTASMS.\n\nA phantasm, in my opinion, is a phenomena that cannot be explained by\nany physical laws. It is an objective--something, that can materialise\nand dematerialise at will, that can sometimes emit sounds, sometimes\nmove material objects, and sometimes (though rarely) commit acts of\nphysical violence on material objects. It can produce various sensations\non living material bodies, whilst it is, in itself, though sometimes\nsensible and rational, as far as we know, always insensible to physical\naction. It can adopt a variety of different forms, and, being subject to\nno limitations of space and time, it can pass through opaque objects in\nany place and at any time.\n\n\nCLASSIFICATION OF PHANTASMS.\n\nWithout any attempt at an exhaustive classification (which is, of course,\nimpossible), I have divided the different kinds of phantasms that have come\nwithin my experience as follows:--Phantasms of the Dead, Phantasms of the\nLiving, and Elementals, and since I have defined each of these species in\nanother of my works, it will be sufficient for me to say here, that by\nPhantasms of the Dead, I mean the phantasms of every form of life that has\ninhabited a material body, whether human, animal, or vegetable, for I\nmaintain that there is a spirit in everything that lives; that by Phantasms\nof the Living, I mean the superphysical counterpart of a living material\nbody that can, under certain conditions not at present fully known, leave\nthat body and manifest itself at any distance away from that body, either\nvisually or auditorially; and that by Elementals, I mean all spirits that\nhave never inhabited any material body.\n\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE DEAD.\n\nAs I have already stated, I think earth-bound spirits of the dead are\nconfined to people whose animal propensities were far in excess of their\nspiritual--that is to say, whose thoughts were entirely centred on\nmatters appertaining to the material world.\n\nI do not suppose for one moment all such spirits would be compelled to\nhaunt certain localities, but only the spirits of murderers, of\ncarnal-minded suicides, of misers and other people who, when alive, were\nattracted to one spot by some special vice or peculiar hobby; the\nspirits of criminal lunatics, and vicious imbeciles, and of particularly\ngross and sensual people, whose phantasms are, according to some\nauthorities (a view I do not altogether take), as bestial and savage in\nappearance as the people, when alive, were lustful and cruel in\ndisposition, need not necessarily haunt one spot. That the earth-bound\nspirits of murderers, suicides, and grossly sensual people haunt certain\nlocalities in the shape of certain animals has been firmly believed for\nmany centuries. According to Hartshorne, a man, who committed suicide at\nBroomfield, near Salisbury, came back to earth in the form of a black\ndog; whilst legend says that the spirit of Lady Howard, of James the\nFirst's reign, who got rid of four husbands, haunts the road from\nFitzford to Oakhampton Park, in the shape of a hound.\n\nMany spectral dogs, supposed by some to be the souls of evil-doers, are\nalleged to haunt the sides of pools and rivers, particularly in Devon.\nMr. Dyer, in his _Ghost World_ (p. 107) gives an instance of a haunting\nnear Tring, where the spirit of a chimney-sweep, who murdered an old\nwoman, was frequently seen on the site of the gibbet, on which he was\nhanged, in the form of a black dog. As, however, the phantasms of so\nmany murderers and vicious people have been seen in forms more or less\nresembling those people when alive, I am inclined to attribute the\napparitions of animals either to the earth-bound spirits of the animals\nthemselves, or to Impersonating and Vice Elementals, whilst to the\nlatter I attribute the entire sub-human and sub-animal type of psychic\nphenomenon--such, for example, as the pig-headed ghost of Guilsborough.\n\n\nTHE SOULS OF THE GOOD.\n\nWhilst the spirits of bad people are thus held to be reincarnate, in\nthe shape of animals, in some countries there is a belief that the souls\nof the good remain on earth for an indefinite period in the guise of\nbirds. In Bulgaria, for example, all souls are supposed to leave the\nbody in the form of birds--a belief that was at one time prevalent among\ncertain North American Indian tribes, whilst in Denmark and Germany\nthere was at one time an almost universal belief that the advent of\ninfants was heralded by the appearance of a stork, who brought the\nchild's soul with it (vide _Thorpe's Northern Mythology_, i., p. 289).\nTo my mind, it is a significant fact that from time immemorial psychism\nhas been closely associated with the bird which, in Egyptian\nhieroglyphics and other symbols of the Ancients, signifies the soul.\n\nApropos of psychism and birds, a very curious incident happened this\nspring to a relative of mine with whom I was staying in the village of\nG----. Early one morning a large bird came to his bedroom window, and by\nviolent tappings and flappings of its wings against the glass, attracted\nhis attention, when it at once flew away. The previous day an old and\ndear friend of his (to whom he was very much attached) had died, and he\nsubsequently learned that on the day of her funeral a dove had come to\nthe window of the room in which the dead body lay, and had behaved in\nprecisely the same manner, flying away directly it had succeeded in\nattracting attention. The visitation of these birds may, of course, only\nhave been a coincidence, but if so, it was a very curious one--indeed, I\nam inclined to believe that in each instance the bird was a benevolent\nElemental that appeared with the sole object of intimating to my\nrelative and to those around the dead body of his friend that the soul\nof the latter was still alive.\n\nThough I think it quite possible that the souls of the virtuous and\nspiritual-minded remain earth-bound for a short space after death, I do\nnot think that, when once they are removed to other spheres, they can,\nunder any circumstances, return. There can be no going back when once\nthey have begun the slow, but sure process of spiritual evolution which\nwill lead them to Paradise.\n\n\nFUTURITY FOR DUMB ANIMALS.\n\nThere is, in my opinion, abundant evidence to show that dogs, horses,\nand birds have spirits that survive death, and this being so, it is\nonly reasonable to suppose that there is a future existence for every\nkind of animal and for everything, in fact, that possesses any sort of\nmind--though I do not believe that their spirits all go to the same\nsphere. A relative of mine, once a year, always hears the sound of\nbarking over the grave of a very favourite fox-terrier, whilst another\nrelative has on more than one occasion seen the phantasm of a black\nspaniel to which she was very much attached. Mr. Harper, in his book of\n_Haunted Houses_ (Chapman and Hall, 1907), gives a very interesting\naccount of the alleged haunting of Ballechin House, Perthshire, by the\nphantasms of a number of dogs that had been shot on the death--and at\nthe express desire--of a Major Stewart, the late owner of the property;\nwhilst a lady correspondent of mine tells me that her eldest nephew has,\nfrom the time he was three years old, seen, occasionally, two thin dogs\nlike greyhounds. To quote her own words: \"They seem to come and look at\nhim, he says. He is a most matter-of-fact person, and I do not think he\nhas any belief in psychic matters at all. He was born in the North West\nTerritory, where there are no dogs of that kind, and did not come to\nEngland until he was over four years old.\"\n\nIn my book, _The Haunted Houses of London_, I gave several instances of\nthe apparitions of animals, including that of a dear old dog of mine\nthat appeared to me in York Road, London, and of a parrot that was seen\nstanding on the shoulders of a lady near Clifton.\n\nAlthough it is only too apparent that animals have not man's capacity\nfor appreciating what is morally beautiful--in other words, have no\nsouls--I think their intelligence, sagacity, and faithfulness ensures a\nfuture life of happiness to them with as great a certainty as \"soul\"\nentails a happy futurity to us. Consequently, I believe that all animals\nand insects have future lives, and that the spirits of all animals and\ninsects, like the souls of men, are being continually contended for by\nElementals; and that whilst the spirits of the faithful, benignant,\ngentle, and industrious go to the Animals' Paradise, the spirits of the\ncruel and savage are condemned to go to a corresponding Hades.\n\nThere is apparently, however, no very stringent law to prevent the\nspirits of all kinds of animals--benevolent and otherwise--from\noccasionally returning and materialising to us.\n\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE LIVING.\n\nI have already stated that it is quite possible to separate the\nsuperphysical from the physical body, and for the former to manifest itself\neither visually or auditorially, or both, at any distance from the latter.\nThe accomplishment of this act--which is called projection--is entirely a\nquestion of concentration, but of a concentration so intense that it cannot\nbe reached--at least, such is my experience--without absolute physical\nquiet and total absence of mental disturbance.\n\nThe separation of the two bodies may be done consciously or\nunconsciously, more often the latter, and not infrequently, too, during\nsleep. Indeed, many cases of nocturnal hauntings have been found to be\ndue to the phantasms of living people, who have dreamed they were\nvisiting certain localities, and whose superphysical bodies frequently\nhave, in very truth, visited the places in question, and thereby\noccasioned the hauntings.\n\nThe following is one of the many stories I have heard that would serve\nas an example of this kind of haunting. A Mrs. Elmore, on the occasion\nof her first visit to Scotland, told me that the people with whom she\nwas staying took her to see a picturesque house near Montrose. The\ncaretaker, on opening the door to them, turned deadly pale, and screamed\nout, \"God help us! If it isn't the ghost come to visit me in broad\ndaylight!\" When the woman had recovered a little from her fright, she\nexplained to them that, for some months past, the house had been haunted\nby an apparition the exact image of Mrs. Elmore; it had exactly the same\nface and figure, but was wearing different clothes, which clothes,\nhowever, when the caretaker described them, Mrs. Elmore immediately\nidentified with certain garments she had at home.\n\nAs they proceeded to explore the house, it began to dawn on Mrs. Elmore\nthat the face of the old woman was strangely familiar, and, on ascending\nthe main staircase, she at once recognised the landing and passages as\nthose she had been continually dreaming about during the past year.\nPointing to one of the closed doors, she exclaimed, \"That is my favourite\nroom with the pretty blue wall paper, the blue carpet and the quaint inlaid\ncabinet standing opposite the foot of the old oak bedstead.\"\n\nThe caretaker again almost fainted in astonishment. \"It is just as you\ndescribe, ma'am,\" she exclaimed. \"The De'il is in it.\"\n\nAnd it did indeed seem like it, as Mrs. Elmore knew the upper part of\nthe house--the part she had visited in her sleep--by heart. As a matter\nof fact, there is no doubt that during sleep Mrs. Elmore's superphysical\nbody had left her material body and visited the house. In all such\ncases, however, as well as in cases of conscious projection, there is\ngreat danger, since, awake or asleep, we are never free from\nantagonistic Elementals, who would have no difficulty in seizing both\nour superphysical and material bodies, and appropriating the latter to\ntheir own use, were it not for the combatting and counteracting efforts\nof our guardian angels--the Benevolent Elementals.\n\nAll dreams, whether accompanied or unaccompanied by unconscious\nprojections, are induced by Elementals.\n\n\nTHE CLOTHES OF PHANTASMS.\n\nAgain, and again, sceptics, with would-be smartness, have said to me,\n\"Where do ghosts get their clothes? One can imagine the spirit of a person,\nbut not the spirit of his garments. There are surely no tailoring\nestablishments in the psychic world?\" But this argument, if such it can be\ncalled, is of little value, since the Dead who appear would naturally\nassume those forms in which they were best known when living, and when on\nearth they were surely better known clothed than unclothed.\n\nThe clothes are not, of course, material clothes any more than the body\nis a material body--they are mere accessories assumed, so to speak, to\nmake the image more complete, and to facilitate the question of\nidentity. It is surely not difficult to understand that the Force which\nhas the power to manifest itself at all, has the power to manifest\nitself in the most suitable guise. The phantasm is, after all, only the\nimage of the spirit or soul; it is not actually the spirit or soul\nitself, any more than the man we see walking about Regent Street in a\nsilk hat and frock-coat is actually the man himself; the latter is an\nabstract quantity, compounded of spirit, soul, and intelligence--what we\nsee is merely an outward concrete form, whereby we are able to identify\nthat abstract quantity. So it is with the superphysical ego. To identify\nit we must either see or feel it, and thus to those of us who have\nsight, it appears in a form with which some of us, at least, are\nfamiliar--the form that was once common to its material body; hence\nclothes--illusionary clothes--are necessary appendages.\n\nIt is not so with certain orders of Elementals: having no identity to\nprove, they manifest themselves--nude.\n\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE MURDERED AND OF SUICIDES.\n\nAs I have already stated, where suicides and murdered people have led gross\nlives, the hauntings are undoubtedly due to their earth-bound spirits; but\nwhere they have been benevolent and pure-minded people, then the phenomena\nexperienced after their deaths may be attributed to Elementals.\n\n\nELEMENTALS.\n\nElementals--namely, those spirits that have never had material bodies,\nhuman or animal--are either benevolent, antagonistic, or neutral, and are\nsubjected to the supervision of those Higher Occult Forces that are\nresponsible for the creation of Nature. I do not think it feasible that the\nsame Powers (or Power) that created all that is beneficial to man, created\nalso all that is obnoxious to him. If Man were the only sufferer, then one\ncould attach some credence to the story of the Fall, though there would be\nlittle enough justice in it then; but when one considers the vast amount of\nsuffering that has always been endured by all forms of animal life, the\nBiblical version of the Garden of Eden degenerates into a mere myth as\nunjust as it is fanciful. Whatever man may have done to have brought upon\nhimself thousands of years of the most hideous sufferings, it is ludicrous\nto suppose that animals and insects also sinned! And therefore, since to me\nthe terms Almighty and Merciful, and Almighty and Just, are utterly\nirreconcilable when applied to the Creator of this material world, I can\nonly assume that there was not one Creative Force, but many, and that\nwhilst some (probably the majority) of these Forces (none of which are\nsupreme, for if one were Omnipotent, then the others would assuredly cease\nto exist) have always been diametrically opposed to one another in their\nattitude towards all forms of animal life, others have remained indifferent\nand neutral. Of these Creative Forces, some, whom I will designate the\nBenevolent Powers, wished both man and beast to live for ever in perfect\nhappiness, whilst others, whom I will designate the Evil Powers, wished\nboth man and beast to die. Some sort of a compromise was therefore arranged\nby which the contending Forces agreed that all forms of animal life should\ndie, and that the material body should be succeeded by the superphysical,\nfor the possession of which both Forces must contend. The Benevolent Powers\nwould strive to transfer superphysical man, after subjecting him to the\nthorough process of spiritual evolution to their own particular sphere,\nnamely, Paradise, whilst the Evil Powers would strive to keep superphysical\nman permanently bound to this Earth, namely, Purgatory; hence there would\nbe a constant struggle between them, a struggle in which each opposing\nForce would resort to every conceivable device to secure\nthe souls and spirits of both man and beast.\n\nTo the Benevolent Creative Powers, then, we owe everything that tends to\nman's happiness (and what is more necessary to real happiness than\ntemperance and morality), whilst to the Evil Creative Powers are due all\ndiseases, crimes, and cruelties--everything, in fact, that is injurious\nto health and responsible for suffering, either mental or physical.\n\nI think I have elsewhere stated in my definition of Benevolent\nElementals that they would seem to be identical with the good fairies\nof our childhood's days, and with the angels in the Bible. In any case\nthey are employed by the Higher Occult Powers friendly to man, and are\nalways with us, trying to keep us in the paths of virtue, and guarding\nus from physical danger.\n\nVice Elementals, on the other hand, are employed by the Higher Occult\nPowers inimical to man, and are also always with us, trying to persuade\nus to do everything that harms us mentally, morally, and physically, and\nthat, in a like manner, indirectly injures our neighbours.\n\nVice Elementals appear in every variety of form, from beautiful,\ncaptivating women and handsome, insinuating men, to the grossest and\nmost terrifying caricatures of both man and beast; for example,\npig-headed men, monstrous dogs (such as \"The Mauthe Dog\" of Peel Castle,\nIsle of Man; the Kirk-grim of Scandinavia, which is sometimes a dog and\nsometimes a horse or pig); the Gwyllgi of Wales; huge bears (such as the\nfamous \"bear\" ghost of the Tower of London), and many other mal-shaped\nforms of man and beast.\n\nWhereas, however, the more prepossessing type of this class of Elemental\nroams everywhere, the more terrible are usually confined to places where\ncrimes have been committed and impure thoughts conceived.\n\n\nVAGRARIANS.\n\nThese Elementals, which I have already described, are merely survivals\nof experiments at life, prior to the selection of any definite forms of\nman and beast; they were created by the neutral Powers, and their\nattitude to man (whom they shun as much as possible), though spiteful\nand mischievous, is prompted by nothing actually sinister.\n\n\nMORBAS, OR DISEASE ELEMENTALS.\n\nThese Phantasms are the Agents of the Evil Creative Powers. Always\nhideous in appearance, they create all manner of malignant bacilli,\nand are responsible for all diseases and illness, which they often\ndelight in predicting.\n\n\nCLANOGRIANS, OR FAMILY GHOSTS.\n\nWhy there should be a particular type of Elemental attached to certain\nfamilies it is difficult to say. Some people think it is solely on\naccount of the dreadful crimes perpetrated by members of these families\nin past days; but if that were the case, what family would be exempt,\nsince there can be very few amongst us who could positively assert that\nno ancestor of his had ever committed a murder! I think it more likely,\nthat, at one time, Man was in much closer touch with the Creative Powers\nthan he is now, and that certain families, as a mark of friendship, or\notherwise, had Clanogrians attached to them (by both the Benevolent and\nAntagonistic Powers), with the express purpose of warning them of\nphysical danger, and that in course of time, as the relationship between\nthe Higher Powers and man grew more distant, the functions of these\nFamily Elementals became fewer and fewer, until at length they consisted\nsolely of Death warnings, as is now the case.\n\nIt would seem that certain houses, such, for example, as Knebworth and\nthe one in which Mrs. Wright (whose case I have already mentioned)\nlived, as well as families, have ghosts attached to them that have the\npower of warning people of their approaching doom.\n\nIt is, of course, quite possible that these ghosts were once attached to\npeople, either living in those houses, or in some way connected with\nthem, and, that leaving those people, they took up their freed abode in\nthe houses, continuing, however, their function of Death Warning. On the\nother hand, they may be a type of Vagrarian who, being brought to the\nhouse with some antique piece of furniture, resolve to take up their\nabode in it. As this type of Elemental prefers solitude, it would\nnaturally take every means in its power to insure it. Or, again, they\nmay be a type of Elemental closely allied to Morbas, who are attracted\nto these houses by crimes once committed there (for I think when once a\nmurder has been committed no Benevolent Powers can prevent Vice and\nother antagonistic Elementals from taking up their abode on the spot),\nand who have the power committed to them to bring about all manner of\ncatastrophes fatal to the material inmates of the house; hence houses\nwhere death warnings of the nature of phantom clocks have been heard\nshould be studiously avoided.\n\n\nIMPERSONATING ELEMENTALS.\n\nOne of the functions of Impersonating Elementals, as I have already\nstated, is to perform the _r\u00f4les_ both of the victim of murder and of\nsuicide, though only in those cases where the spirits of the murdered\nperson and the suicide are not themselves earth-bound. These Elementals\nwould seem to be Neutrals, or spirit properties, employed alike by the\nBenevolent and Antagonistic Forces. In cases of suicide, for example,\nthey would be employed by the Benevolent Forces with the object of\nwarning people against self-destruction; and, at the same time, they\nmight be employed by the Antagonistic Forces with the object of leading\npeople on to self-destruction.\n\nI think Impersonating Elementals sometimes manifest themselves at\nSpiritualistic _s\u00e9ances_, when they appear as relatives and friends of\nthe sitters, and are pronounced to be such by the \"controls.\"\n\nIn dreams, too, Impersonating Elementals frequently find constant\nemployment, assuming every variety of guise--indeed, dreams, as I have\nalready remarked, are completely under the control of Benevolent,\nImpersonating, and Antagonistic Elementals.\n\n\nNEUTRAL ELEMENTALS.\n\nUnder this heading are included all Impersonating Elementals,\nsome Clanogrians, and the greater number of Vagrarians,\nPixies, and Fire Elementals.\n\n\nMATERIALISATION.\n\nAll superphysical spirits, whether earth-bound spirits of the dead or\nElementals, have the power of materialisation, though the conditions\nunder which they may do so vary considerably. What the conditions\nactually are, is quite unknown at present to physical man.\n\n\nTHE PSYCHIC FACULTY.\n\nI think the seeing, hearing, or feeling of psychic phenomena is determined\nby the Phenomena themselves, and that the latter themselves select the\nperson to whom they wish to become manifest--hence there is no actual\npsychic faculty. I have, for example, in a haunted house, seen the\nphenomenon on one night and not on another, though on both occasions other\npeople in the room have witnessed it. There are no end of other instances,\ntoo, in which people, who see apparitions on one occasion, do not see them\non another, although the manifestations are of a precisely similar nature.\n\n\nPHANTOM COACHES, CLOCKS, SHIPS, ETC.\n\nPhantom coaches, clocks, ships, etc., are merely illusionary accessories\nto help carry out the design of Elementals. A coach was said at one\ntime to haunt a road in Monmouthshire, and there are numerous cases of\nsimilar hauntings in different parts of England.\n\nFrom time to time, too, phantom ships are reputed to have been seen off\nthe North Cornish coast, whilst there is hardly a coast in the world\nthat has not been visited by them. As they are usually seen before\nmaritime catastrophes, they undoubtedly belong to the order of\nClanogrians, with which I accordingly classify them.\n\n\nPHANTASMS IN MINES.\n\nIn certain mining districts, after work hours, the miners say they hear\nthe sounds of knocking and picking proceeding from the levels they have\njust vacated, and they declare it is \"The Buccas\" at work, the Buccas\nbeing a species of Neutral Elemental (closely allied to the Pixie)\npeculiar to mines. I have never heard of any of the miners seeing the\nBuccas, though several have spoken to me of the noises they have heard.\n\nDeserted old mines are often alleged to be haunted, and I have been told\nthat if one stands by the mouth of an empty shaft on a still night, one can\nhear the rolling of the Buccas' barrows and the thud, thud, of the Buccas'\npicks. Interesting accounts of similar phenomena are given in Carne's\n_Tales of the West_ and Hunt's _Popular Romances of the West of England_.\n\nAnother species of ghost, allied, perhaps, to the Clanogrian, is a blue,\nluminous hand that appears in various parts of the mine before a\ncatastrophe; sometimes it is seen climbing ropes, sometimes resting on\nthe edge of one of the cages, and sometimes hovering in mid-air with a\nfinger pointed at the doomed men.\n\nCertain mines in France are haunted by a white hare that appears with\nthe same purport, whilst in Germany the miners are haunted by Elementals\nof the Pixie order, called respectively Kobolds and Knauffbriegen, that\nplay all sorts of mischievous pranks (very often of a dangerous nature)\non the miners. Mines are, in addition, of course, subjected to all the\nordinary forms of hauntings.\n\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE SEA.\n\nIn all parts of the world there is a firm belief among many of the\npeople living in lonely spots on the coast, that the sea and rocks are\nhaunted by the earth-bound spirits of the drowned, and often when I have\nbeen walking alone at night along the cliffs or sandy beaches between\nBude and Clovelly, and Lamorna and the Land's End, Dalkey and Bray and\nLunan Bay, I have heard the rising and falling of ghostly voices from\nover the deserted, star-lit sea--voices that may either have come from\nthe superphysical bodies of those who lay engulfed there, or from\nImpersonating Elementals.\n\nI have repeatedly heard it said that in the grey hours of the\nmorning all sorts of queer filmy shapes rise out of the sea and\nglide over the silent strand.\n\nMr. Dyer, in his _Ghost World_, refers to \"The Bay of the Departed\" in\nBrittany, where boatmen are summoned by some unseen power to launch\ntheir boats and to ferry to some island near at hand the souls of the\nmen who have been drowned. In this bay, too, the wails and cries of the\nphantasms of shipwrecked sailors are clearly heard in the dead of night.\nSo strong is the antipathy of the seafaring community in many parts of\nBrittany to the sea coast that none will approach it after nightfall.\n\nMr. Hunt, in his _Romances of West of England_, says that one night when a\nfisherman was walking along the sands at Porth-Towan, he suddenly heard a\nvoice cry out three times from the sea, \"The hour is come, but not the\nman,\" whereupon a black figure, like that of a man, appeared on the top of\nthe hill, paused for a moment, and then, rushing impetuously down the steep\nincline, over the sand, vanished amid the gently lapping waves.\n\nThe figure, of course, may have been the actual earth-bound spirit of\nsomeone who was once drowned in that spot, or it may have been an\nimpersonating or Vice Elemental attracted to that spot by some tragedy that\nhad taken place there; since I have heard of many similar instances of\ntall, thin figures bounding over cliffs or across sandy beaches, vanishing\nin the sea, I conclude such phenomena are by no means uncommon.\n\nIn certain parts of the Norfolk coast it is still, I believe, affirmed\nthat before any person is drowned a voice is heard from the sea\npredicting a squall, and a great reluctance is still shown in many\ncountries to rescue anyone from drowning, since it is popularly supposed\nthat the drowning person will at some time or another injure his\nrescuer--an idea which should certainly be discouraged, whether there is\nany truth in it or not. But the sea certainly has a peculiar fascination\nfor most people, and, I feel sure, it possesses a species of Elemental\npeculiar to itself. Those Elementals probably resent the rescue of their\nwould-be victims, and use the latter as a means of wreaking their\nvengeance on the rescuer!\n\n\nHAUNTED TREES.\n\nCases of trees haunted by particularly grotesque kinds of phantasms\n(presumably Vagrarians, Vice Elementals, and Neutrals) are numerous.\n\nA few years ago, a Mrs. Cayley told me that when riding along a certain\nroad in India, she had the greatest difficulty in making her horse pass\na particular tree, and that on mentioning the matter to a native\nservant, the man at once exclaimed, \"Allah preserve you, mem-sahib, from\never passing near that tree. A dog-faced man sits at the base of the\ntrunk, and, with his long arms outstretched, watches for passers-by. He\nsprings upon them, half frightens them to death, and overwhelms them\nwith misfortune. If ever you come within the clutches of the dog-faced\nspirit, mem-sahib, you will shortly afterwards meet with some dire\ncalamity. The horse has second sight, mem-sahib; it can see the spirit\nand its evil nature, and has no desire to place either itself or you\nwithin its clutches. Be wise, mem-sahib, and never go near that tree!\"\n\nMrs. Cayley, however, was not wise. Laughing at the Indian's credulity, she\nimmediately saddled her horse, and riding to the tree, compelled the\nreluctant and terrified animal to pass under its branches. Just as it did\nso, Mrs. Cayley felt an icy current of air pass right through her, and,\nglancing down, saw, to her horror, a misty something crouching against the\ntrunk of the tree and peering up at her. She couldn't tell what it was, its\nshape being altogether too indistinct, but from the fact that it impressed\nher with sensations of the utmost terror and loathing, she realised that it\nwas something both diabolical and malignant. At this moment her horse\nshied, and she knew nothing more till she found herself with a sprained\nankle, lying on the ground close to the tree. Her terror was then so great\nthat, without daring to look round, she rolled over and over till she had\ngot from under cover of the branches, when, despite the pain caused by her\ninjury, she got up and hobbled home.\n\nThat evening a very near relative of hers was accidentally shot, and within\nthe week her favourite brother died from the effects of sunstroke!\n\nThe ghost in this case was either a Vice Elemental attracted to the\ntree by some tragedy once enacted there, or a phantasm of the\nmalignant order of Clanogrian.\n\nHauntings of a similar nature are not uncommon in Ireland.\n\nAccording to certain North American Indian tribes, trees have spirits of\ntheir own, which resemble beautiful women, whilst in Greece certain\ntrees are haunted by \"Stichios\" (see _Superstitions of Modern Greece_,\nby M. Le Baron d'Estournelles), a malignant kind of Vagrarian or\nClanogrian that wreaks vengeance on anyone or anything venturing to\nsleep beneath the branches.\n\nIn Australia, too, the Bushmen often shun trees, declaring them to be\nhaunted by demons that whistle in the branches. Whether this is true or\nnot, many trees are haunted, and the phantasm that most commonly haunts\nthem is undoubtedly the sub-human and sub-animal type of Vice\nElemental--such as was seen by Mrs. Cayley on the day her relative was\naccidentally shot and shortly before her brother succumbed to sunstroke.\n\n\nTELEPATHY.\n\nThe transference of thought from one mind to another without any other\nmedium than air is an established fact--such communications are of daily\noccurrence. At present, however, the communications usually take place\nwithout any conscious endeavour on the part of the transmitter, or\nknowledge of actual reception on the part of the receiver.\n\nFor example, a certain Mr. Philpotts, with whom I am acquainted, when on\na visit to London, was wishing very earnestly one morning that his wife,\nwhom he had left at home, would go into his study and write a letter in\nreply to one which he had forgotten to answer. On his return home next\nday, he found to his astonishment that at the very time he had been\nthinking of the letter, his wife had actually gone into the study and\npenned it. Up to that moment, she had had no intention of going into the\nstudy, and no idea that any letter there needed an answer.\n\nInstances like this are numerous. The questions now arise as to whether\nit is possible for the transmitter of the thoughts to raise in the\nrecipient's mind visions which might be thought to be objective, and\nthat if such a process should be possible, if it would not account for\nmany of the so-called superphysical phenomena?\n\nIn instances where phenomena are seen individually, _i.e._, where they\nmanifest themselves to single individuals, I think it possible, but not\nprobable, that they may be due to telepathy; but where the\ndemonstrations take place, either visually or auditorially, before a\nnumber of people, several of whom are conscious of them, then those\ndemonstrations are without doubt objective, and consequently in no way\ntraceable to telepathic communication. This being so, why, then, should\nnot all such demonstrations, whether manifesting themselves individually\nor collectively, be objective?\n\nIn the case of Miss D., a case I have already mentioned in reference to\nprojection, the phenomenon was without a doubt objective. Four of us\nsuddenly saw what we all took to be the natural body of Miss D. descend\nthe staircase, pass between us, open a door and slam it behind her, the\nfact of her disappearance--there being no exit from the room she had\nentered and into which we had immediately followed her--proving beyond\nquestion that what we had seen was her superphysical body. She was\nactually a long distance from the house at the time of the occurrence,\nand could not remember thinking either of us or the house, so that the\nseparation of her superphysical from her physical body must have taken\nplace unconsciously. I had a decided impression of her dress as it swept\nover my feet during her descent of the staircase. We were all busily\nengaged in discussing our programme for the day when the phantasm\nappeared, and had, certainly, not been thinking of Miss D.\n\nI do not think, then, that Phantasms of the Living are in any way\nattributable to telepathy, but that, like all other phantasms, they\nare purely superphysical. I have often been to haunted houses where\nthe nature of the haunting was entirely unknown to me, and witnessed\nthe same phenomena that I have subsequently learned have been\nexperienced by countless other people. This has happened to me\nindividually and collectively; collectively when my companions have\nbeen in as complete ignorance as to the nature of the manifestations\nas myself. Indeed, in most of my investigations I am accompanied by\npronounced sceptics, who are, in addition, complete strangers to the\nneighbourhood. Hence there can be no question, under these\ncircumstances, either of telepathy or suggestion.\n\n\nSPIRITUALISTIC _S\u00c9ANCES_.\n\nAs I have already inferred, I think it quite likely that genuine\nsuperphysical manifestations do, at times, take place at spiritualistic\n_s\u00e9ances_, but I am convinced that all such phenomena are confined to\nearth-bound spirits of the Dead, and Impersonating and Vice Elementals.\nFor this reason I think constant, or even casual, attendance at\n_s\u00e9ances_ is a very dangerous thing, as, not content with appearing at\nthe _s\u00e9ance_, these undesirable Elementals will attach themselves to the\nsitters, accompanying them home and wherever they may go, with the sole\nobject of doing them mischief; and when once attached, they will not\neasily, if ever, be got rid of.\n\nI am often asked if I know of a materialising medium who is above the\nsuspicion of trickery. I do not. There is no medium that I have ever\nmet, or even heard of, that has not at times (at all events) resorted to\nfraudulent means of producing phenomena.\n\nIf spirits can manifest themselves in haunted houses without the\nassistance of a medium, or the necessity of sitting round tables with\njoined hands, or facing \"curtained off\" recesses or mysterious\ncabinets--why cannot they thus simply manifest themselves at a _s\u00e9ance_?\nTo my mind the reason is obvious, since the genuine superphysical\nmanifestations cannot be summoned at will by any medium, the latter,\nrather than allow his audience to go away unsatisfied, invariably makes\nuse of conditions, under cover of which--failing the genuine\nphenomenon--he can always produce a fraudulent representation.\n\nThe stock-in-trade of many spiritualistic _s\u00e9ances_ seems to be an\nIndian, who executes a wild dance and speaks in a Hill dialect only\nknown to one or two people in the room (confederates, of course), a\nbeautiful girl who was once a very naughty nun, or hospital nurse, and\nseveral soldiers stated to have been killed in recent wars and who are\nanxious to materialise. This, however, they do not do, as one or two\nladies in the audience (confederates again) declare they dare not\nunder any circumstances behold bullet wounds and sabre cuts--a protest\nthat at once meets with the approval of the \"control,\" who bids the\nsoldiers remain invisible, and talk only. The sound of voices is then\nheard proceeding from behind a heavy curtain that is hung across the\nrecess of a window conveniently left open. Sometimes, a number of feet\nare seen moving backwards and forwards under the curtain, and,\noccasionally, a very ugly but unmistakeably material head (wearing a\nmask) is poked through between the drawn curtains, much, of course, to\nthe horror of the more timid of the audience, who are only too ready\nto believe the declaration of the medium and his confederates, that\nthe head is that of some Earth-bound Spirit.\n\nThe darkness of the room--for _s\u00e9ances_ are seldom held in the\nlight--facilitates every manner of trickery, whilst the window, cabinet,\nand door all furnish easy means of entrance and exit.\n\nThe knockings on the table and the banging of tambourines are, as I have\nproved over and over again, invariably the work either of the medium\nhimself or of confederates amongst the audience.\n\nThe trumpets that blow on the walls are generally manipulated by someone\noutside the room, and the sound that apparently comes from them, often,\nin reality, proceeds from an entirely different quarter.\n\nI think, however, that genuine spirits do occasionally materialise, but\nthat when they do, it is as much to the terror of the medium as of his\naudience. The fear inspired by a _bona-fide_ superphysical demonstration\nis a very different thing to that produced by a bogus one--the\nsensations are absolutely unlike, and anyone who has once beheld a\nspontaneous psychic materialisation in a genuinely haunted house cannot\nbe deceived by the doll-like make-beliefs at spiritualistic _s\u00e9ances_.\n\n\nAUTOMATIC WRITING.\n\nThough I have never been able to obtain any very definite results myself\nwith planchette, I have no doubt genuine spirit messages are obtained in\nthis way, and that such messages are always suggested by Elementals. But\nsince these messages cannot be relied upon, owing to the fact that it is\nimpossible to tell by what order of Elementals they are suggested, I\nthink automatic writing is sheer waste of time.\n\n\nTHE LAYING OF PHANTASMS.\n\nLast year, when I was investigating at a notorious haunted house in the\nWest of England, the ghost suddenly and quite unexpectedly appeared in\nour midst. There were several of us present, and we were all much\nalarmed, as I believe one always is in the presence of the Unknown. I\naddressed the phenomenon, challenging it in the name of God and adjuring\nit to speak; there was, however, no response of any kind, and I think it\nextremely doubtful if it understood what I said, or even if it heard me.\n\nI have done this on other occasions, and always with the same\nresult--the phenomenon has remained totally unaffected by my words.\n\nI know also of a case in which a Roman Catholic priest tried to lay a\nspirit, with the startling result that the spirit (figuratively\nspeaking) laid him, for on his mumbling out some form of exorcism, it\nstretched out a grotesque and shadowy hand, and he fell face downwards\non his bed, unable to utter a sound or move a muscle.\n\nI have, however, heard instances in which phantasms have been \"laid\" by\nthe repetition of prayers, and so can only conclude that the possibility\nof laying a ghost depends entirely on conditions about which we know\nnothing.\n\nWhereas I think it highly probable that oral communication may sometimes\nbe held with rational Phantasms of the Dead with possible beneficial\nresults on one or both sides, no mode of address produces other than an\nirritating effect on Phantasms of the Insane; there is no consistency\nwhatever in the result of exhortation on Elementals.\n\n\nPHANTASMS OF THE INSANE.\n\nWhether the spirit of an insane person is earth-bound, or not, depends\nentirely on the cause of the malady. If the insanity is due to long\nindulgence in vice, or if it is hereditary, then I think the spirit of the\nmad person is earth-bound; but if the disease is the result of a shock or\nof something not brought about by vicious indulgences, and the sufferer had\nbeen perfectly pure-minded before the affliction, then his spirit is\ncertainly not earth-bound. The former species of insanity would be the work\nof Vice Elementals and Morbas, and the latter of Morbas only.\n\nThe ghosts of idiots are, in my opinion, always earth-bound, and few\nforms of hauntings are more horrible than those in which the\nmanifestations are due to Imbeciles--a by no means uncommon occurrence.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n  A.\n                                                                     PAGE\n  Animals (Future for), 149-150\n    \"     (Phantasms of), 145-150\n\n  Antagonistic Elementals, 157-8, 163\n    \"          Forces, 157\n\n  Automatic Writing, 177\n\n\n  B.\n\n  Banshee, 23 (def. of), 24, 25\n\n  Baroness Von A---- (Case of the), 67-72, 113-115\n\n  Barrowvians, 79 (def. of)\n\n  Bellew (Case of Mrs.), 77\n\n  Benevolent Elementals, 153-7\n    \"        Forces, 157 (def. of), 163\n\n  Bruce (Case of Mrs.), 63-4\n\n  Buccas, 164\n\n\n  C.\n\n  C---- (Case of Miss), 39-41\n\n  Carmichael (Case of Miss), 116\n\n  Cayley (Case of Miss), 169-170\n\n  Chichester (Case of Rev. G.), 78-9\n\n  Clanogrians, 23 (def. of), 33, 34, 74, 82, 159 (def. of), 162, 170\n\n  Clifford (Case of Mr.), 7\n\n  Clocks (Phantom), 13, 38, 73, 163\n\n  Clock that struck Thirteen, 13, 33, 73\n\n  Clothes of Phantasms, 153-154\n\n  Coaches (Phantom), 163\n\n  Cone shaped head (Phantasm with), 66\n\n  Coney (Mr. and Mrs.), 46\n\n  Cornelius (Case of Mr.), 8\n\n  Craven (Case of Mrs.), 98-100\n\n  Cyclist in grey, 43\n\n\n  D.\n\n  D---- (Case of Miss), 172-3\n\n  Dalrymple (Case of Miss), 106-110\n\n  Dead (Phantasms of the), 90, 98, 99, 103, 105, 145-6\n\n  Death Candles of Wales, 23, 81\n\n  Death Warnings, 39, 161\n\n  Debrett (Case of Miss), 100, 102\n\n  Dodd (Case of Miss), 66-67\n\n  Dreams, 45-56, 113-119\n\n  Drummers (Phantom), 23, 72, 82\n\n\n  E.\n\n  Elementals (def. of), 11 (def. of), 155 (def. of)\n\n  Elmore (Case of Mrs.), 152-3\n\n\n  F.\n\n  Family Ghosts, 72, 74, 82, 159 (def. of)\n\n  Falmouth, 37\n\n  Featherstone (Case of Miss), 84, 117-119\n\n  Fire Elementals, 77, 162\n\n\n  H.\n\n  H---- (Phantasm of), 37-8\n\n  Hacon (Rev. H.), 123, 127-129\n\n  Howards (Case of), 113-115\n\n\n  I.\n\n  Impersonating Elementals, 76, 86, 94, 99, 103, 112, 161-2 (def. of), 167\n\n\n  K.\n\n  K---- (Case of Mr.), 41-3\n\n  Kobolds, 164\n\n\n  L.\n\n  Lady ---- (Case of), 37\n\n  Laying of Phantasms, 177-8\n\n  Lichens (Haunting of the), 106-110\n\n  Lights (Spirit), 79-80\n\n  Living (Phantasms of), 34, 44, 151-3, 173\n\n\n  M.\n\n  Mad (Spirits of the), 84, 91, 179\n\n  Materialisation, 163\n\n  Mines (Phantasms in), 164-165\n\n  Morbas, 3-9, 74, 159 (def. of), 179\n\n  Murdered (Phantasms of), 108, 111, 112, 116, 155\n\n  Murderers (Phantasms of), 105, 110\n\n\n  N.\n\n  Nature Spirits, 11\n\n  Neutral Elementals, 162\n\n\n  O.\n\n  Omens, 41\n\n\n  P.\n\n  P---- (Case of Mrs.), 92-95\n\n  Palmer the Murderer, 12\n\n  Phantasms (Classification of), 144\n    \"       (def. of), 143\n\n  Pig's head (Phantasm with), 59-63\n\n  Pipers (Phantasms of), 23, 82\n\n  Pixies, 10, 76-78, 80, 88-89, 163\n\n  Poltergeists, 82, 85\n\n  Portman Square (Tragedy in), 34, 73\n\n  Projection, 35, 117-8\n\n  Projection (Process of), 39\n\n  Psychic Faculty, 163\n\n\n  R.\n\n  Radiant Boy, 72\n\n  Raynor (Case of Miss), 44-5\n\n  Reed (Case of Mr.), 66\n\n  Rolands (Case of Miss), 74-6\n\n\n  S.\n\n  \"S\" (Phantasm of \"Old\"), 104\n\n  Sea (Phantasms of the), 160\n\n  S\u00e9ances, 85-6, 162, 174-7\n\n  Ships (Phantom of), 163\n\n  Sinclair (Case of Miss), 64-5\n\n  Soul (def. of), 91\n\n  Souls of Good, 146-8\n\n  Spirit (def. of), 91\n\n  St. Jermyn (Case of Miss), 95-98\n\n  Stewart (Case of Rev. J.), 123-129\n\n  Suicides (Phantasms of), 90-91, 155\n\n  Suggestion, 115\n\n  Sydersterne Parsonage (Haunting of), 123-132\n\n\n  T.\n\n  Telepathy, 117, 171-174\n\n  Trees, 168-170\n\n\n  U.\n\n  Urquhart (Case of Mrs.), 110-112\n\n\n  V.\n\n  Vagrarians (def. of), 12, 159\n\n  Vagrarians, 11-23, 25-31, 66, 82, 131, 159, 161, 163\n\n  Vice Elementals, 31, 56, 62, 63, 64, 65, 82, 131, 138, 157, 167, 170, 179\n\n  Vincent (Case of Miss), 82, 84\n\n  Vincent (Case of Miss Viola), 103-105\n\n\n  W.\n\n  W---- (Case of Mrs.), 35, 79\n\n  Walton (Case of Mr.), 61-2\n\n  Williams (Case of Dr.), 59-61\n\n  Wraithes, 91\n\n\n  Y.\n\n  Yellow Boy, 72\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.\n\nThe following words have been retained in both versions:\n\n  Morbas (page 6, 74, 159, 161, 179, index) and morbas (page 6)\n\n  forwards (pages 101, 176) and forward (pages 5, 14, 30, 33, 45, 53)\n\n  D/death warnings (page 39, 160, 161, index) and death-warnings (page 24)\n\n  cone-shaped (page 66) and cone shaped (index)\n\n  grandparents (pages 74, 76) and grand-parents (page 23)\n\n  rough hewn (page 100) and rough-hewn (page 96)\n\n  everyone (page 96) and every one (pages 8, 27, 69, 85)\n\n  someone (pages 92, 138, 167, 176) and some one (page 22)\n\n  wallpaper (page 21) and wall paper (page 152)\n\n  well known (pages 31, 99)  and well-known (pages 6, 82, 97, 100, 103)\n\n  would be (pages 17, 39, 60, 90, 94, 130, 143, 145, 156, 157, 160, 162,\n  179) and would-be (pages 56, 153, 168)\n\n  bona-fide (page 177) and bona fide (page 98)\n\nThe following parts have been left as printed:\n\n  Castle-on-Dinas which seems to mean Castle-an-Dinas in Cornwall (page 77)\n\n  A narration from Miss Rolands starting on page 74 with opening\n  quotation marks continous over several pages without marking other\n  paragraphs beeing part of the narration or closing the quotation mark\n (middle of page 76). These paragraphs have been left as set in the book.\n\n\nOther than the corrections listed below, printer's inconsistencies\nin spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have\nbeen retained.\n\nThe following misprints have been corrected:\n\n  changed \"figure of some thing utterly\" into \"figure of something\n          utterly\" page 7\n\n  changed \"to be met with in lonely\" into \"to be met within\n          lonely\" page 13\n\n  changed \"various English family-ghosts, is the work\" into \"various\n          English Family Ghosts, is the work\" page 23\n\n  changed \"recovering consciousn ss my\" into \"recovering\n          consciousness my\" page 29\n\n  changed \"Vagrarian or Vice-Elemental, that\" into \"Vagrarian or\n          Vice Elemental, that\" page 31\n\n  changed \"illusionary? Ande here\" into \"illusionary? And here\" page 38\n\n  changed \"she suddenly vanished.\" into \"she suddenly vanished.\"\" page 40\n\n  changed \"would doubtless remain earthbound\" into \"would doubtless\n          remain earth-bound\" page 79\n\n  changed \"other Glanogrians or\" into \"other Clanogrians or\" page 82\n\n  changed \"the actual earthbound souls of the people,\" into \"the actual\n          earth-bound souls of the people,\" page 90\n\n  changed \"is equally earthbound, but\" into \"is equally earth-bound,\n          but\" page 90\n\n  changed \"company with the earthbound soul of\" into \"company with the\n          earth-bound soul of\" page 90\n\n  changed \"Mrs. P--. narrated to me\" into \"Mrs. P---- narrated\n          to me\" page 94\n\n  changed \"Night after night the\" into \"\"Night after night the\" page 101\n\n  changed \"in the day time, but\" into \"in the daytime, but\" page 137\n\n  changed \"sometimes (though-rarely) commit\" into \"sometimes (though\n          rarely) commit\" page 143\n\n  changed added \"in India, s had the greatest difficulty in making her\n          ho pass a particular tree, and that on mentioni the matter\"\n          into \"in India, she had the greatest difficulty in making\n          her horse pass a particular tree, and that on mentioning the\n          matter\" page 168\n\n  changed \"you within its cluthces. Be\" into \"you within its clutches.\n          Be\" page 169\n\n  changed \"altogether too distinct, but from the fact that it impressed\n          r with sensations of the utmost terror and thing, she realised\"\n          into \"altogether too indistinct, but from the fact that it\n          impressed her with sensations of the utmost terror and loathing,\n          she realised\" page 169\n\n  changed \"so, Mrs. Caley felt an\" into \"so, Mrs. Cayley felt an\" page 169\n\n  changed \"Baroness Von A-- (Case of the)\" into \"Baroness Von A----\n         (Case of the)\" index\n\n  changed \"Clanogrians, 23 (def. of), 33, 34, 74 82, 159 (def. of), 162,\n         170\" into \"Clanogrians, 23 (def. of), 33, 34, 74, 82, 159 (def.\n         of), 162, 170\" index\n\n  changed \"Family Ghosts, 72, 74, 82 159 (def. of)\" into \"Family Ghosts,\n          72, 74, 82, 159 (def. of)\" index","title":"Ghostly Phenomena","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":35581}