Andrew Lang
...
The Dog Fanti
Mrs. Ogilvie of Drumquaigh had a poodle named Fanti. Her family, or
at least those who lived with her, were her son, the laird, and three
daughters. Of these the two younger, at a certain recent date, were
paying...
Mark Twain's Story
Mark was smoking his cigar outside the door of his house when he saw a
man, a stranger, approaching him. Suddenly he ceased to be visible!
Mark, who had long desired to see a ghost, rushed into his house to
record...
The Pig In The Dining-room
Mrs. Atlay, wife of a late Bishop of Hereford, dreamed one night that
there was a pig in the dining-room of the palace. She came
downstairs, and in the hall told her governess and children of the
dream, before fam...
The Mignonette
Mrs. Herbert returned with her husband from London to their country
home on the Border. They arrived rather late in the day, prepared to
visit the garden, and decided to put off the visit till the morrow.
At night...
The Lost Cheque
Mr. A., a barrister, sat up one night to write letters, and about
half-past twelve went out to put them in the post. On undressing he
missed a cheque for a large sum, which he had received during the day.
He hunte...
The Ducks' Eggs
A little girl of the author's family kept ducks and was anxious to
sell the eggs to her mother. But the eggs could not be found by eager
search. On going to bed she said, "Perhaps I shall dream of them".
Next mor...
The Lost Key
Lady X., after walking in a wood near her house in Ireland, found that
she had lost an important key. She dreamed that it was lying at the
root of a certain tree, where she found it next day, and her theory is
the...
The Lost Securities
A lady dreamed that she was sitting at a window, watching the end of
an autumn sunset. There came a knock at the front door and a
gentleman and lady were ushered in. The gentleman wore an old-
fashioned snuff-col...
The Arrears Of Teind
"Mr. Rutherford, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the
Vale of Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the
accumulated arrears of teind (or tithe) for which he was said to be
indebted to a nob...
The Two Curmas
A rustic named Curma, of Tullium, near Hippo, Augustine's town, fell
into a catalepsy. On reviving he said: "Run to the house of Curma
the smith and see what is going on". Curma the smith was found to
have died ...
The Assyrian Priest
Herr H. V. Hilprecht is Professor of Assyriology in the University of
Pennsylvania. That university had despatched an expedition to explore
the ruins of Babylon, and sketches of the objects discovered had been
sen...
To The God Nibib, Child
...
Of The God Bel,
...
His Lord
...
Kurigalzu,
...
Pontifex Of The God Bel
...
Has Presented It
But, in the drawings, the fragments were of different colours, so that
a student working on the drawings would not guess them to be parts of
one cylinder. Professor Hilprecht, however, examined the two actual
frag...
The Knot In The Shutter
"It is said that a dream produced a powerful effect on Hone's mind.
He dreamt that he was introduced into a room where he was an entire
stranger, and saw himself seated at a table, and on going towards the
window h...
Queen Mary's Jewels
"I have had a strange dream about your ring" (a "medallion" of Anthony
and Cleopatra); "it is very valuable."
Major Buckley said it was worth 60 pounds, and put the ring into his
friend's hand.
"It belonged to...
The Deathbed
Miss C., a lady of excellent sense, religious but not bigoted, lived
before her marriage in the house of her uncle D., a celebrated
physician, and member of the Institute. Her mother at this time was
seriously ill...
Dream Of Mr Perceval's Murder
"SUNDHILL, December, 1832.
"[Some account of a dream which occurred to John Williams, Esq., of
Scorrier House, in the county of Cornwall, in the year 1812. Taken
from his own mouth, and narrated by him at variou...
The Rattlesnake
Dr. Kinsolving, of the Church of the Epiphany in Philadelphia, dreamed
that he "came across a rattlesnake," which "when killed had _two_
black-looking rattles and a peculiar projection of bone from the tail,
while ...
The Red Lamp
Mr. Cooper says: "A fortnight before the death of the late Earl of L---
in 1882, I called upon the Duke of Hamilton, in Hill Street, to see
him professionally. After I had finished seeing him, we went into the
dr...
The Scar In The Moustache
This story was told to the writer by his old head-master, the Rev. Dr.
Hodson, brother of Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, a person whom I never
heard make any other allusion to such topics. Dr. Hodson was staying
with ...
The Coral Sprigs
Mrs. Weiss, of St. Louis, was in New York in January, 1881, attending
a daughter, Mrs. C., who was about to have a child. She writes:--
"On Friday night (Jan. 21) I dreamed that my daughter's time came;
that owi...
The Satin Slippers
On 1st February, 1891, Michael Conley, a farmer living near Ionia, in
Chichasow county, Iowa, went to Dubuque, in Iowa, to be medically
treated. He left at home his son Pat and his daughter Elizabeth, a
girl of tw...
The Dead Shopman
Swooning, or slight mental mistiness, is not very unusual in ghost
seers. The brother of a friend of my own, a man of letters and wide
erudition, was, as a boy, employed in a shop in a town, say Wexington.
The ove...
Under The Lamp
I had given a glass ball to a young lady, who believed that she could
play the "willing game" successfully without touching the person
"willed," and when the person did not even know that "willing" was
going on. T...
The Cow With The Bell
I had given a glass ball to the wife of a friend, whose visions proved
so startling and on one occasion so unholy that she ceased to make
experiments. One day my friend's secretary, a young student and
golfer, too...
The Deathbed Of Louis Xiv
"Here is a strange story that the Duc d'Orleans told me one day in a
tete-a-tete at Marly, he having just run down from Paris before he
started for Italy; and it may be observed that all the events
predicted came t...
The Old Family Coach
A distinguished and accomplished country gentleman and politician, of
scientific tastes, was riding in the New Forest, some twelve miles
from the place where he was residing. In a grassy glade he discovered
that h...
Riding Home From Mess
In 1854, General Barter, C.B., was a subaltern in the 75th Regiment,
and was doing duty at the hill station of Murree in the Punjaub. He
lived in a house built recently by a Lieutenant B., who died, as
researches ...
The Bright Scar
In 1867, Miss G., aged eighteen, died suddenly of cholera in St.
Louis. In 1876 a brother, F. G., who was much attached to her, had
done a good day's business in St. Joseph. He was sending in his
orders to his em...
The Vision And The Portrait
Mrs. M. writes (December 15, 1891) that before her vision she had
heard nothing about hauntings in the house occupied by herself and her
husband, and nothing about the family sorrows of her predecessors
there.
"...
The Restraining Hand
"About twenty years ago," writes Mrs. Elliot, "I received some letters
by post, one of which contained 15 pounds in bank notes. After
reading the letters I went into the kitchen with them in my hands. I
was alone...
The Benedictine's Voices
My friend, as a lad, was in a strait between the choice of two
professions. He prayed for enlightenment, and soon afterwards heard
an _internal_ voice, advising a certain course. "Did you act on it?"
I asked.
...
The Man At The Lift
In the same way, in August, 1890, a lady in a Boston hotel in the dusk
rang for the lift, walked along the corridor and looked out of a
window, started to run to the door of the lift, saw a man in front of
it, stop...
The Wraith Of The Czarina
"In the exercise of his duties as one of the pages-in-waiting,
Ribaupierre followed one day his august mistress into the throne-room
of the palace. When the Empress, accompanied by the high officers of
her court a...
An "astral Body"
Mr. Sparks and Mr. Cleave, young men of twenty and nineteen, were
accustomed to "mesmerise" each other in their dormitory at Portsmouth,
where they were students of naval engineering. Mr. Sparks simply
stared into...
In Tavistock Place {93}
"In the latter part of the autumn of 1878, between half-past three and
four in the morning, I was leisurely walking home from the house of a
sick friend. A middle-aged woman, apparently a nurse, was slowly
followi...
The Dying Mother {101}
"Mary, the wife of John Goffe of Rochester, being afflicted with a
long illness, removed to her father's house at West Mulling, about
nine miles from her own. There she died on 4th June, this present
year, 1691.
...
The Vision Of The Bride
Colonel Meadows Taylor writes, in The Story of my Life (vol. ii., p.
32): "The determination (to live unmarried) was the result of a very
curious and strange incident that befel me during one of my marches to
Hyde...
Appearances Of The Dead
We now pass beyond the utmost limits to which a "scientific" theory of
things ghostly can be pushed. Science admits, if asked, that it does
not know everything. It is not _inconceivable_ that living minds may
com...
The Daemon Of Spraiton In Devon {111} Anno 1682
"About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish of
Spraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr.
Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling-house of his said
master, there app...
Sir George Villiers' Ghost
The variations in the narratives of Sir George Villiers' appearance to
an old servant of his, or old protege, and the warning communicated by
this man to Villiers' son, the famous Duke of Buckingham, are curious
an...
Cavalier Version {121}
"1627. Since William Lilly the Rebells Jugler and Mountebank in his
malicious and blaspheamous discourse concerning our late Martyred
Soveraigne of ever blessed memory (amongst other lyes and falsehoods)
imprinted...
Wyndham's Letter
"Sr. According to your desire and my promise I have written down what
I remember (divers things being slipt out of my memory) of the
relation made me by Mr. Nicholas Towse concerning the Aparition wch
visited him....
Lord Lyttelton's Ghost
"Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "it is the most extraordinary thing that has
happened in my day." The doctor's day included the rising of 1745 and
of the Wesleyans, the seizure of Canada, the Seven Years' War, the
Americ...
The Slaying Of Sergeant Davies
We now examine a ghost with a purpose; he wanted to have his bones
buried. The Highlands, in spite of Culloden, were not entirely
pacified in the year 1749. Broken men, robbers, fellows with wrongs
unspeakable to...
"dear Lang,
"I enclose a tradition connected with the murder of Sergeant
Davies, which my brother picked up lately before he had read the
story in your Cock Lane. He had heard of the event before, both in
Athole and Braemar, ...
Concerning The Murder Of Sergeant Davies
There is at present living in the neighbourhood of --- an old lady,
about seventy years of age. Her maiden name is ---, {140} and she is
a native of Braemar, but left that district when about twenty years
old, and...
The Gardener's Ghost
Perhaps the latest ghost in a court of justice (except in cases about
the letting of haunted houses) "appeared" at the Aylesbury Petty
Session on 22nd August, 1829. On 25th October, 1828, William Edden, a
market g...
The Dog O' Mause
Account of an apparition that appeared to William Soutar, {145a} in
the Mause, 1730.
[This is a copy from that in the handwriting of Bishop Rattray,
preserved at Craighall, and which was found at Meikleour a few ...
Peter's Ghost
A naval officer visited a friend in the country. Several men were
sitting round the smoking-room fire when he arrived, and a fox-terrier
was with them. Presently the heavy, shambling footsteps of an old
dog, and ...
Ticonderoga
It was one evening in the summer of the year 1755 that Campbell of
Inverawe {157} was on Cruachan hill side. He was startled by seeing a
man coming towards him at full speed; a man ragged, bleeding, and
evidently ...
Ticonderoga"
Inverawe rose before dawn and went straight to the cave. Macniven was
gone!
Inverawe saw no more of the ghost, but the adventure left him a
gloomy, melancholy man. Many a time he would wander on Cruachan hill
...
The Beresford Ghost
"There is at Curraghmore, the seat of Lord Waterford, in Ireland, a
manuscript account of the tale, such as it was originally received and
implicitly believed in by the children and grandchildren of the lady
to who...
Half-past One O'clock
In October, 1893, I was staying at a town which we shall call
Rapingham. One night I and some kinsfolk dined with another old
friend of all of us, a Dr. Ferrier. In the course of dinner he asked
a propos de botte...
"put Out The Light!"
The Rev. D. W. G. Gwynne, M.D., was a physician in holy orders. In
1853 he lived at P--- House, near Taunton, where both he and his wife
"were made uncomfortable by auditory experiences to which they could
find no...
The Creaking Stair
A lady very well known to myself, and in literary society, lived as a
girl with an antiquarian father in an old house dear to an antiquary.
It was haunted, among other things, by footsteps. The old oak
staircase h...
The Grocer's Cough
A man of letters was born in a small Scotch town, where his father was
the intimate friend of a tradesman whom we shall call the grocer.
Almost every day the grocer would come to have a chat with Mr. Mackay,
and th...
My Gillie's Father's Story
Fishing in Sutherland, I had a charming companion in the gillie. He
was well educated, a great reader, the best of salmon fishers, and I
never heard a man curse William, Duke of Cumberland, with more
enthusiasm. ...
The Dream That Knocked At The Door
The following is an old but good story. The Rev. Joseph Wilkins died,
an aged man, in 1800. He left this narrative, often printed; the date
of the adventure is 1754, when Mr. Wilkins, aged twenty-three, was a
sch...
The Girl In Pink
The following anecdote was told to myself, a few months after the
curious event, by the three witnesses in the case. They were
connections of my own, the father was a clergyman of the Anglican
Church; he, his wife...
The Dog In The Haunted Room
The author's friend, Mr. Rokeby, lives, and has lived for some twenty
years, in an old house at Hammersmith. It is surrounded by a large
garden, the drawing-room and dining-room are on the right and left of
the en...
The Lady In Black
A ghost in a haunted house is seldom observed with anything like
scientific precision. The spectre in the following narrative could
not be photographed, attempts being usually made in a light which
required prolon...
The Dancing Devil
On 16th November, 1870, Mr. Shchapoff, a Russian squire, the narrator,
came home from a visit to a country town, Iletski, and found his
family in some disarray. There lived with him his mother and his
wife's mothe...
The Wesley Ghost
No ghost story is more celebrated than that of Old Jeffrey, the spirit
so named by Emily Wesley, which disturbed the Rectory at Epworth,
chiefly in the December of 1716 and the spring of 1717. Yet the
vagueness of...
Lord St Vincent's Ghost Story
Sir Walter Scott, writing about the disturbances in the house occupied
by Mrs. Ricketts, sister of the great admiral, Lord St. Vincent, asks:
"Who has seen Lord St. Vincent's letters?" He adds that the gallant
adm...
More Haunted Houses
A physician, as we have seen, got the better of the demon in Mrs.
Shchapoff's case, at least while the lady was under his care. Really
these disturbances appear to demand the attention of medical men. If
the whol...
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 no...
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 c...
The Hymn Of Donald Ban
O God that created me so helpless,
Strengthen my belief and make it firm.
Command an angel to come from Paradise,
And take up his abode in my dwelling,
To protect me from every trouble
That wicked folks are putti...
The Devil Of Hjalta-stad {246}
The sheriff writes: "The Devil at Hjalta-stad was outspoken enough
this past winter, although no one saw him. I, along with others, had
the dishonour to hear him talking for nearly two days, during which he
addre...
The Ghost At Garpsdal
In Autumn, 1807, there was a disturbance by night in the outer room at
Garpsdal, the door being smashed. There slept in this room the
minister's men-servants, Thorsteinn Gudmundsson, Magnus Jonsson, and a
child na...
Gisli Olafsson
Notwithstanding this declaration, the troubles at Garpsdal were
attributed by others to Magnus, and the name of the "Garpsdale Ghost"
stuck to him throughout his life. He was alive in 1862, when Jon
Arnason's ...
The Story Of Glam
There was a man named Thorhall, who lived at Thorhall-stead in
Forsaela-dala, which lies in the north of Iceland. He was a fairly
wealthy man, especially in cattle, so that no one round about had so
much live-stoc...
'the Foul Fords' Or The Longformacus Farrier
"About 1820 there lived a Farrier of the name of Keane in the village
of Longformacus in Lammermoor. He was a rough, passionate man, much
addicted to swearing. For many years he was farrier to the Eagle or
Spotti...
The Marvels At Froda {273}
During that summer in which Christianity was adopted by law in Iceland
(1000 A.D.), it happened that a ship came to land at Snowfell Ness.
It was a Dublin vessel, manned by Irish and Hebrideans, with few
Norsemen o...
Hands All Round
Nothing was more common, in the seances of Home, the "Medium," than
the appearance of "Spirit hands". If these were made of white kid
gloves, stuffed, the idea, at least, was borrowed from ghost stories,
in which ...
The Cold Hand
[Jerome Cardan, the famous physician, tells the following anecdote in
his De Rerum Varietate, lib. x., 93. Jerome only once heard a rapping
himself, at the time of the death of a friend at a distance. He was
in a...
The Black Dog And The Thumbless Hand
[Some years ago I published in a volume of tales called The Wrong
Paradise, a paper styled "My Friend the Beach-comber". This contained
genuine adventures of a kinsman, my oldest and most intimate friend,
who has ...
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