The Book of Dreams and Ghosts by Andrew Lang (inspirational books TXT) 📖

upper story “as it were on fire,” but it was no such matter.  The nurse-maid ran out in a fright, to a neighbour’s, and her dress spontaneously combusted as she ran.  The people attributed these and similar events, to something in the coal, or in the air, or to electricity.  When the nurse-girl, Emma Davies, sat on the lap of the school mistress, Miss Maddox, her boots kept flying off, like the boot laces in The Daemon of Spraiton.

All this was printed in the London papers, and, on 15th November, The Daily Telegraph and Daily News published Emma’s confession that she wrought by sleight of hand and foot.  On 17th November, Mr. Hughes went from Cambridge to investigate.  For some reason investigation never begins till the fun is over.  On the 9th the girl, now in a very nervous state (no wonder!) had been put under the care of a Dr. Mackey.  This gentleman and Miss Turner said that things had occurred since Emma came, for which they could not account.  On 13th November, however, Miss Turner, looking out of a window, spotted Emma throwing a brick, and pretending that the flight of the brick was automatic.  Next day Emma confessed to her tricks, but steadfastly denied that she had cheated at Woods Farm, and Weston Lullingfield, where she had also been.  Her evidence to this effect was so far confirmed by Mrs. Hampson of Woods Farm, and her servant, Priscilla Evans, when examined by Mr. Hughes.  Both were “quite certain” that they saw crockery rise by itself into air off the kitchen table, when Emma was at a neighbouring farm, Mr. Lea’s.  Priscilla also saw crockery come out of a cupboard, in detachments, and fly between her and Emma, usually in a slanting direction, while Emma stood by with her arms folded.  Yet Priscilla was not on good terms with Emma.  Unless, then, Mrs. Hampson and Priscilla fabled, it is difficult to see how Emma could move objects when she was “standing at some considerable distance, standing, in fact, in quite another farm”.

Similar evidence was given and signed by Miss Maddox, the schoolmistress, and Mr. and Mrs. Lea.  On the other hand Mrs. Hampson and Priscilla believed that Emma managed the fire-raising herself.  The flames were “very high and white, and the articles were very little singed”.  This occurred also at Rerrick, in 1696, but Mr. Hughes attributes it to Emma’s use of paraffin, which does not apply to the Rerrick case.  Paraffin smells a good deal—nothing is said about a smell of paraffin.

Only one thing is certain: Emma was at last caught in a cheat.  This discredits her, but a man who cheats at cards may hold a good hand by accident.  In the same way, if such wonders can happen (as so much world-wide evidence declares), they may have happened at Woods Farm, and Emma, “in a very nervous state,” may have feigned then, or rather did feign them later.

The question for the medical faculty is: Does a decided taste for wilful fire-raising often accompany exhibitions of dancing furniture and crockery, gratuitously given by patients of hysterical temperament?  This is quite a normal inquiry.  Is there a nervous malady of which the symptoms are domestic arson, and amateur leger-de-main?  The complaint, if it exists, is of very old standing and wide prevalence, including Russia, Scotland, New England, France, Iceland, Germany, China and Peru.

As a proof of the identity of symptoms in this malady, we give a Chinese case.  The Chinese, as to diabolical possession, are precisely of the same opinion as the inspired authors of the Gospels.  People are “possessed,” and, like the woman having a spirit of divination in the Acts of the Apostles, make a good thing out of it.  Thus Mrs. Ku was approached by a native Christian.  She became rigid and her demon, speaking through her, acknowledged the Catholic verity, and said that if Mrs. Ku were converted he would have to leave.  On recovering her everyday consciousness, Mrs. Ku asked what Tsehwa, her demon, had said.  The Christian told her, and perhaps she would have deserted her erroneous courses, but her fellow-villagers implored her to pay homage to the demon.  They were in the habit of resorting to it for medical advice (as people do to Mrs. Piper’s demon in the United States), so Mrs. Ku decided to remain in the business. {232}  The parallel to the case in the Acts is interesting.

HAUNTED MRS. CHANG

Mr. Chang, of that ilk (Chang Chang Tien-ts), was a man of fifty-seven, and a graduate in letters.  The ladies of his family having accommodated a demon with a shrine in his house, Mr. Chang said he “would have none of that nonsense”.  The spirit then entered into Mrs. Chang, and the usual fire-raising began all over the place.  The furniture and crockery danced in the familiar way, and objects took to disappearing mysteriously, even when secured under lock and key.  Mr. Chang was as unlucky as Mr. Chin.  At his house “doors would open of their own accord, footfalls were heard, as of persons walking in the house, although no one could be seen.  Plates, bowls and the teapot would suddenly rise from the table into the air.” {233a}

Mrs. Chang now tried the off chance of there being something in Christianity, stayed with a native Christian (the narrator), and felt much better.  She could enjoy her meals, and was quite a new woman.  As her friend could not go home with her, Mrs. Fung, a native Christian, resided for a while at Mr. Chang’s; “comparative quiet was restored,” and Mrs. Fung retired to her family.

The symptoms returned; the native Christian was sent for, and found Mr. Chang’s establishment full of buckets of water for extinguishing the sudden fires.  Mrs. Chang’s daughter-in-law was now possessed, and “drank wine in large quantities, though ordinarily she would not touch it”.  She was staring and tossing her arms wildly; a service was held, and she soon became her usual self.

In the afternoon, when the devils went out of the ladies, the fowls flew into a state of wild excitement, while the swine rushed furiously about and tried to climb a wall.

The family have become Christians, the fires have ceased; Mr. Chang is an earnest inquirer, but opposed, for obvious reasons, to any public profession of our religion. {233b}

In Mr. Niu’s case “strange noises and rappings were frequently heard about the house.  The buildings were also set on fire in different places in some mysterious way.”  The Christians tried to convert Mr. Niu, but as the devil now possessed his female slave, whose success in fortune-telling was extremely lucrative, Mr. Niu said that he preferred to leave well alone, and remained wedded to his idols. {234}

We next offer a recent colonial case, in which the symptoms, as Mr. Pecksniff said, were “chronic”.

THE GREAT AMHERST MYSTERY

On 13th February, 1888, Mr. Walter Hubbell, an actor by profession, “being duly sworn” before a Notary Public in New York, testified to the following story:—

In 1879 he was acting with a strolling company, and came to Amherst, in Nova Scotia.  Here he heard of a haunted house, known to the local newspapers as “The Great Amherst Mystery”.  Having previously succeeded in exposing the frauds of spiritualism Mr. Hubbell determined to investigate the affair of Amherst.  The haunted house was inhabited by Daniel Teed, the respected foreman in a large shoe factory.  Under his roof were Mrs. Teed, “as good a woman as ever lived”; little Willie, a baby boy; and Mrs. Teed’s two sisters, Jennie, a very pretty girl, and Esther, remarkable for large grey eyes, pretty little hands and feet, and candour of expression.  A brother of Teed’s and a brother of Mrs. Cox made up the family.  They were well off, and lived comfortably in a detached cottage of two storys.  It began when Jennie and Esther were in bed one night.  Esther jumped up, saying that there was a mouse in the bed.  Next night, a green band-box began to make a rustling noise, and then rose a foot in the air, several times.  On the following night Esther felt unwell, and “was a swelling wisibly before the werry eyes” of her alarmed family.  Reports like thunder peeled through her chamber, under a serene sky.  Next day Esther could only eat “a small piece of bread and butter, and a large green pickle”.  She recovered slightly, in spite of the pickle, but, four nights later, all her and her sister’s bed-clothes flew off, and settled down in a remote corner.  At Jennie’s screams, the family rushed in, and found Esther “fearfully swollen”.  Mrs. Teed replaced the bed-clothes, which flew off again, the pillow striking John Teed in the face.  Mr. Teed then left the room, observing, in a somewhat unscientific spirit, that “he had had enough of it”.  The others, with a kindness which did them credit, sat on the edges of the bed, and repressed the desire of the sheets and blankets to fly away.  The bed, however, sent forth peels like thunder, when Esther suddenly fell into a peaceful sleep.

Next evening Dr. Carritte arrived, and the bolster flew at his head, and then went back again under Esther’s.  While paralysed by this phenomenon, unprecedented in his practice, the doctor heard a metal point scribbling on the wall.  Examining the place whence the sound proceeded, he discovered this inscription:—

Esther Cox!  You are mine
to kill.

Mr. Hubbell has verified the inscription, and often, later, recognised the hand, in writings which “came out of the air and fell at our feet”.  Bits of plaster now gyrated in the room, accompanied by peels of local thunder.  The doctor admitted that his diagnosis was at fault.  Next day he visited his patient when potatoes flew at him.  He exhibited a powerful sedative, but pounding noises began on the roofs and were audible at a distance of 200 yards, as the doctor himself told Mr. Hubbell.

The clergy now investigated the circumstances, which they attributed to electricity.  “Even the most exclusive class” frequented Mr. Teed’s house, till December, when Esther had an attack of diphtheria.  On recovering she went on to visit friends in Sackville, New Brunswick, where nothing unusual occurred.  On her return the phenomena broke forth afresh, and Esther heard a voice proclaim that the house would be set on fire.  Lighted matches then fell from the ceiling, but the family extinguished them.  The ghost then set a dress on fire, apparently as by spontaneous combustion, and this kind of thing continued.  The heads of the local fire-brigade suspected Esther of these attempts at arson, and Dr. Nathan Tupper suggested that she should be flogged.  So Mr. Teed removed Esther to the house of a Mr. White.

In about a month “all,” as Mrs. Nickleby’s lover said, “was gas and gaiters”.  The furniture either flew about, or broke into flames.  Worse, certain pieces of iron placed as an experiment on Esther’s lap “became too hot to be handled with comfort,” and then flew away.

Mr. Hubbell himself now came on the scene, and, not detecting imposture, thought that “there was money in it”.  He determined to “run” Esther as a powerful attraction, he lecturing, and Esther sitting on the platform.

It did not pay.  The audience hurled things at Mr. Hubbell, and these were the only volatile objects.  Mr. Hubbell therefore brought Esther back to her family at Amherst, where, in Esther’s absence, his umbrella and a large carving knife flew at him with every appearance of malevolence.  A great arm-chair next charged at him like a bull, and to say that Mr. Hubbell was awed “would indeed seem an inadequate expression of my feelings”.  The ghosts then thrice undressed little Willie in public, in derision of his tears and outcries.  Fire-raising followed, and that would be a hard heart which could read the tale unmoved.  Here it is, in the simple eloquence