Chapter XXXI Phantom Sounds
The deceptiveness of sound in olden times was very little understood, and hence originated, in most countries, a host of traditionary tales descriptive of sundry mysterious noises which were generally attributed to supernatural agencies. Hence, it is impossible to say how many a ghost story would long ago have found a satisfactory solution if only attention had been paid to the properties of sound. But by disregarding the laws which regulate the conditions upon which sound is oftentimes more or less audible, the imagination has frequently conjured up the most fantastic reasons for some mysterious rumbling which has suddenly trespassed on the silence of the night. Thus, Dr. Tyndall has proved how the atmosphere is occasionally in an unusual degree more transparent or opaque to sound as well as to light, and supported this theory by referring to the audibility of fog-signals, which vary according to the state of the weather. Facts of this kind are of the utmost importance in accounting, it may be, for some apparently inexplicable sound. It is sometimes forgotten, too, that sounds are far more audible at night time than during the day, and what would fail to attract notice, even if heard during the hours of sunlight, would probably be treated in a different aspect when once the darkness of evening had set in. There is perhaps no superstition so deeply rooted in the popular mind as the belief in what are generally termed ‘death-warnings’; the common opinion being that death announces its approach by certain mysterious noises, a powerful illustration of which occurs in ‘Macbeth’ (Act ii. sc. 3), where Lennox graphically describes how, on the awful night in which Duncan is murdered—
Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death:
And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confused events,
New hatch’d to the woeful time.
Modern folk-lore holds either that a knocking or rumbling in the floor is an omen of death about to happen, or that dying persons themselves announce their dissolution to their friends in such strange sounds.341
In recent years one of the most interesting instances of a phantom voice occurred in connection with the death of Mr. George Smith, the well-known Assyriologist. This eminent scholar died at Aleppo, on August 19, 1876, at about six o’clock in the afternoon. On the same day, and at about the same time, as Dr. Delitzsch—a friend and fellow-worker of Mr. Smith—was passing within a stone’s throw of the house in which he had lived when in London, he suddenly heard his own name uttered aloud ‘in a most piercing cry,’ which a contemporary record of the time said ‘thrilled him to the marrow.’ The fact impressed Dr. Delitzsch so much that he looked at his watch, made a note of the hour, and recorded the fact in his note-book, this being one of those straightforward and unimpeachable coincidences which, even to an opponent, is difficult to explain.
There can be no doubt that many of the unearthly noises heard near and in lonely houses on the coast were produced by an illicit class of spirits, that is, through the agency of smugglers, ‘in order to alarm and drive all others but their accomplices from their haunts.’ Thus, in a house at Rottingdean, Sussex, all kinds of strange noises were heard night after night, when suddenly they ceased. Soon afterwards one of a gang of smugglers confessed to their having made a secret passage from the beach close by the house, and that, wishing to induce the occupiers to abandon it, they had rolled at the dead of night tub after tub of spirits up the passage, and so had caused it to be reported that the place was haunted.342 George Cruikshank tells how, in the wine cellar of a house somewhere near Blackheath, there were sometimes heard strange noises in the evening and at night-time, such as knocking, groaning, footsteps, &c. The master of the house at last determined ‘to lay the ghost’ if possible, and one evening, when these noises had been heard, went with his servants to the cellar, where they discovered an under-gardener in a drunken state. It seems that he had tunnelled a hole from the tool-house through the wall into the cellar.
In numerous cases, too, there can be no doubt that strange noises heard in the silent hours of the night have been due to some cleverly-devised trick for the purpose, in many cases, of keeping the house uninhabited, and thereby benefiting, it may be, some impecunious care-taker. A story is told of a ghost—which turned out to be the trick of a Franciscan friar—that answered questions by knocking in the Catholic church of Orleans, and demanded the removal of the provost’s Lutheran wife, who had been buried there.343 But one of the most eccentric instances of spiritual antics was the noises said to have been heard at Epworth Parsonage in the time of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, these sounds having consisted of ‘knockings’ and ‘groanings,’ of ‘footsteps,’ and ‘rustling of silk trailing along,’ ‘clattering of the iron casement,’ and ‘clattering of the warming pan,’ and all sorts of frightful noises, which frightened even a big dog, a large mastiff, who used, at first, when he heard the noises, ‘to bark, and leap, and snap on one side and the other, and that frequently before anyone in the room heard the noises at all; but after two or three days he used to creep away before the noise began, and by this the family knew it was at hand.’ Mr. Wesley at one time thought it was rats, and sent for a horn to blow them away. But this made matters worse, for after the horn was blown the noise came in the daytime as well. Some of the Wesley family believed it to be supernatural hauntings, and explained the cause of it thus: at morning and evening prayers, ‘when the Rev. Samuel Wesley commenced prayer for the king, a knocking began all round the room, and a thundering knock attended the Amen.’ Mr. Wesley observed that his wife did not say ‘Amen’ to the prayer for the king, but Mrs. Wesley added she could not, for she did not believe that the Prince of Orange was king.344 Ewshott House, Hampshire, was disturbed by equally strange sounds, and Glamis Castle, with its secret room, has long been famous for the mysterious noises, knocking, and hammering heard at night-time, which a lady once remarked reminded her of the erection of a scaffold.
The miscreant ghosts of wicked people are supposed to make all kinds of unearthly noises, for as they cannot enjoy peace in their graves, they delight in annoying the occupants of their mortal haunts. Lowther Hall, the residence of the ‘bad Lord Lonsdale,’ was disturbed by such uncanny sounds that neither men nor animals were permitted to rest, and many of the ghost stories told of our old country houses describe the peculiar noises made by their ghostly tenants. The mother of the premier, George Canning, used to tell her experiences of a haunted house in Plymouth, where she stayed during a theatrical engagement. Having learnt from a Mr. Bernard, who was connected with the theatre, that he could obtain comfortable apartments for her at a moderate price, she accepted his offer. ‘There is,’ said he, ‘a house belonging to our carpenter that is reported to be haunted, and nobody will live in it. If you like to have it you may, and for nothing, I believe, for he is so anxious to get a tenant; only you must not let it be known that you do not pay any rent for it.’ It turned out as Mr. Bernard had informed her, for night after night she heard all such noises as are wont to proceed from a workshop, although, on examining every part of the house herself, she found nothing to account for this extraordinary series of noises.
Occasionally, it is said, before the perpetration of any dreadful crime, as murder, a supernatural sound is heard. A murder was committed, for instance, at Cottertown, of Auchanasie, near Keith, on January 11, 1797, in connection with which the following facts have been recorded: ‘On the day on which the deed was done, two men, strangers to the district, called at a farmhouse about three miles from the house in which lived the old folk that were murdered. Shortly before the tragic act was committed, a sound was heard passing along the road the two men were seen to take, in the direction of the place at which the murder was perpetrated. So loud and extraordinary was the noise that the people left their houses to see what it was that was passing. To the amazement of every one, nothing was to be seen, though it was moonlight, and moonlight so bright that it aroused attention. All believed something dreadful was to happen, and some proposed to follow the sound. About the time this discussion was going on, a blaze of fire arose on the hill of Auchanasie. The foul deed had been accomplished, and the cottage set on fire. By next day all knew of what the mysterious sound had been the forerunner.’345 At Wheal Vor Mine an unaccountable noise has been generally supposed to be a warning. On Barry Island, near Cardiff, it is said that certain ghostly noises were formerly heard in it—sounds resembling the clanking of chains, hammering of iron, and blowing of bellows, and which were supposed to be made by the fiends whom Merlin had set to work to frame the wall of crags to surround Carmarthen.
The following extract from Lockhart’s ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott’ records a strange noise which was heard while the new house at Abbotsford was being built, the novelist living in an older part, close adjoining: ‘Walter Scott to Daniel Terry, April 30, 1818.... The exposed state of my house has led to a mysterious disturbance. The night before last we were awakened by a violent noise, like drawing heavy boards along the new part of the house. I fancied something had fallen, and thought no more about it; this was about two in the morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very same noise occurred. Mrs. S., as you know, is rather timbersome, so up I got, with Beardie’s broad sword under my arm—
Bolt upright,
And ready to fight.
But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what occasioned the disturbance.’ Mr. Lockhart adds: ‘On the morning that Mr. Terry received the foregoing letter in London, Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting with him, and the chief subject of their conversation was the sudden death of George Bullock, which had occurred on the same night, and nearly as they could ascertain at the very hour when Scott was aroused from his sleep by the “mysterious disturbance” here described. This coincidence, when Scott received Erskine’s minute detail of what had happened in Tenterdon Street (that is, the death of Bullock, who had the charge of furnishing the new rooms at Abbotsford), made a much stronger impression on his mind than might be gathered from the tone of an ensuing communication.’ It seems that Bullock had been at Abbotsford, and made himself a great favourite with old and young. Sir Walter Scott, a week or two afterwards, wrote thus to Terry: ‘Were you not struck with the fantastical coincidence of our nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford, with the melancholy event that followed? I protest to you the noise resembled half a dozen men at work, putting up boards and furniture, and nothing can be more certain than that there was nobody on the premises at the time. With a few additional touches, the story would figure in Glanville or Aubrey’s collection. In the meantime you may set it down, with poor Dubisson’s warnings, as a remarkable coincidence coming under your own observation.’
In a paper by Mrs. Edwards, in ‘Macmillan’s Magazine,’ entitled ‘The Mystery of Pezazi,’ an account is given of constant disturbing sounds of nocturnal tree-felling heard near a bungalow in Ceylon, where examination proved that no trees had been felled. Mrs. Edwards, her husband, and their servants were on several occasions disturbed by these sounds, which were unmistakable and distinct. The Singhalese attribute these noises to a Pezazi, or spirit. A description of precisely the same disturbances occurs, writes Mr. Andrew Lang,346 in Sahagun’s account of the superstitions of the Aztecs, and it seems that the Galapagos Islands, ‘suthard of the line,’ were haunted by the midnight axe. ‘De Quincey,’ adds Mr. Lang, ‘who certainly had not heard the Ceylon story, and who probably would have mentioned Sahagun’s had he known it, describes the effect produced by the midnight axe on the nerves of his brother, Pink: “So it was, and attested by generations of sea-vagabonds, that every night, duly as the sun went down and the twilight began to prevail, a sound arose—audible to other islands, and to every ship lying quietly at anchor in that neighbourhood—of a woodcutter’s axe.... The close of the story was that after, I suppose, ten or twelve minutes of hacking and hewing, a horrid crash was heard, announcing that the tree, if tree it were, that never yet was made visible to daylight search, had yielded to the old woodman’s persecution.... The woodcutter’s axe began to intermit about the earliest approach of dawn, and as light strengthened it ceased entirely, after poor Pink’s ghostly panic grew insupportable.”’
Among the American Indians all the sounds that issued from caverns were thought to be produced by their spiritual inhabitants. The Sonora Indians say that departed souls dwell among the caves and nooks of their cliffs, and that echoes often heard there are their voices. Similarly, when explosions were heard, caused by the sulphurous gas from the rocks around the head-waters of Lake Ontario, the superstitious Indians attributed them to the breathing of the Manitous.347 The modern Dayaks, Siamese, and Singhalese agree with the Esths as to noises being caused by spirits. European folk-lore has long ascribed most of the unexplained noises to the agency of spirits, and to this day Franconian damsels go to a tree on St. Thomas’s Day, knock three times, and listen for the indwelling spirit to inform them from raps within what kind of husbands they are to have. Hence the night is known as ‘Little Knocker’s Night.’ There is the Poltergeist of the German, a mischievous spirit, who wanders about the house at night making all kinds of strange noises.
Footnotes
1 xxiii. 100; Keary’s Outlines of Primitive Belief, p. 284.
2 The Three Principles, chap. xix. ‘Of the Going Forth of the Soul.’
3 Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 252.
4 Primitive Culture, 1873, i. p. 457.
5 1st S. ii. p. 51.
6 Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 257.
7 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 433; Brinton’s Myths of the New World, p. 253.
8 Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-lore, 1867, p. 210.
9 1st S. i. p. 315.
10 Cf. ‘Nexosque resolveret artus,’ Virgil on the death of Dido. Æneid iv. 695.
11 See Dalyell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 302, and Notes and Queries, 1st S. iv. p. 350.
12 Ibid. i. p. 467.
13 1st S. iii. p. 84.
14 Kelly’s Indo-European Folk-lore, pp. 127-128.
15 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 43.
16 In a note to Redgauntlet, Letter xi.
17 Folk-lore Record, i. pp. 59-60.
18 Timon of Athens, iv. 3.
19 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 60-61.
20 See Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 145.
21 Iliad, ii. 852.
22 Illustrations of Shakspeare, 1839, pp. 324-326.
23 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 40.
24 Tylor’s Anthropology, 1881, p. 343.
25 See further instances in Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. pp. 440, 441.
26 Fiji and the Fijians, i. p. 242.
27 See Sir John Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 141.
28 Werewolves, p. 29.
29 See Chapter on Second Sight.
30 See Tylor’s Anthropology, p. 345; and Sir John Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man, p. 141; and H. Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, 1885, i. p. 777.
31 Principles of Sociology, 1885, i. p. 174.
32 De Anima, p. 9; see Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 456.
33 Principles of Sociology, 1885, i. p. 174.
34 See Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 457.
35 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 20.
36 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 456.
37 Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 253.
38 See Tylor’s Anthropology, 1881, p. 344.
39 Nineteenth Century, July 1885, pp. 143-144, ‘Transylvanian Superstitions,’ by Madame Emily de Laszowska Gerard.
40 Ralston’s Songs of the Russian People, p. 117.
41 Myths and Dreams, 1885, p. 184.
42 Myths and Myth-makers, 1873, p. 225.
43 See Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England, p. 373.
44 Fasti, v. 457.
45 Primitive Superstitions, p. 195.
46 The Origin of Civilisation, and the Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 140; see Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 263.
47 Brinton’s Myths of the New World, 1868, p. 257.
48 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, 1881, p. 193.
49 See Lecky’s Rationalism in Europe, 1870, i. p. 340; cf. Maury’s Légendes Pieuses, p. 124.
50 Primitive Culture, i. p. 455.
51 See Andrew Lang’s Myth, Ritual, Religion, i. p. 108.
52 Odyssey, xxiv.
53 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 451.
54 Night Side of Nature.
55 Yardley’s Supernatural in Fiction, p. 93.
56 Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 257.
57 Primitive Culture, ii. p. 29; Douce’s Illustrations of Shakespeare, pp. 450, 451.
58 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 126, note.
59 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. p. 166.
60 See Gregor’s Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, p. 68.
61 Edited by C. S. Burne.
62 Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco, 1886, Essays in the Study of Folk-songs, p. 8.
63 Study of Folk-songs, p. 2.
64 Study of Folk-songs, p. 8.
65 Ralston’s Songs of the Russian People, p. 121.
66 Study of Folk-songs, p. 21.
67 Folk-lore Record, 1879, iii. pp. 111, 112.
68 Folk-lore Record, 1879, iii. pp. 111, 112.
69 Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 119.
70 Gregor’s Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, p. 69.
71 Sir John Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation, p. 134.
72 Primitive Culture, ii. p. 120.
73 The Chinese: J. F. Davis, 1836, ii. pp. 139, 140.
74 Folk-lore of China, p. 73.
75 See Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 304.
76 Primitive Culture, ii. p. 28.
77 See Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, 1880, pp. 19, 20.
78 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii, p. 19.
79 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. pp. 94, 95.
80 Griffis, The Mikado’s Kingdom.
81 Denny’s Folk-lore of China; see Bassett’s Legends and Superstitions of the Sea, p. 296.
82 Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, 1881, p. 68.
83 Haunted Homes of England, 1881, p. 286.
84 Haunted Homes of England, 2nd S., pp. 222-225.
85 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 267.
86 British Goblins, pp. 143, 144.
87 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1855, part ii. p. 58.
88 See Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 324-325.
89 Quoted in Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 444.
90 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 1884, pp. 33-36.
91 See Book of Days, ii. p. 287.
92 Songs of the Russian People, p. 118.
93 Quoted by Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, 1872, ii. pp. 254, 255.
94 Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco, Study of Folk-songs p. 10; Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, i. p. 289.
95 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 126; Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. p. 211.
96 See Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, pp. 48, 49.
97 Jones’ Credulities, Past and Present, p. 376.
98 See Dasent’s Tales of the Norse, 1859, p. 230.
99 Jones’ Credulities, Past and Present, p. 373.
100 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, pp. 255, 256.
101 Hardwick’s Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore, 1872 p. 243; Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, i. p. 289. See Kelly’s Indo-European Folk-lore, p. 103.
102 See Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 331-335.
103 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 255.
104 Indo-European Folk-lore, pp. 104, 105.
105 Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 131.
106 Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England, p. 377.
107 Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 105, 106.
108 See Ibid. pp. 108-111.
109 See Hartshorne’s Salopia Antiqua, p. 522
110 Notes and Queries, 1st S. ii. p. 515.
111 Nineteenth Century, April 1885, p. 625.
112 See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. pp. 289, 290.
113 Nineteenth Century, April 1885, p. 625.
114 Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 250.
115 Ibid. p. 264.
116 Ibid. p. 266.
117 Book of Days, ii. p. 433.
118 See Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-lore, p. 91.
119 ‘West Sussex Superstitions,’ Folk-lore Record, i. p. 23.
120 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 274, 275.
121 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 275.
122 See Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 274-278.
123 See Wirt Sikes’ British Goblins, pp. 167-169.
124 See Roby’s Traditions of Lancashire; Homerton’s Isles of Loch Awe; Hardwick’s Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore, pp. 153-176.
125 Northern Mythology, iii. p. 219.
126 Ibid. ii. pp. 195-202.
127 Northern Mythology, ii. pp. 198, 199.
128 See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. pp. 102, 166, 167.
129 The Nineteenth Century, ‘Comparative Study of Ghost Stories,’ 1885, xvii. pp. 629, 630.
130 Rev. W. Gregor, Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, 1881, p. 69.
131 Yorkshire Oddities, ii. p. 105.
132 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 29, 30.
133 See Wirt Sikes’ British Goblins, pp. 219-221.
134 ‘Secrets of Sable Island,’ Harper’s Magazine.
135 See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. pp. 97, 202, 211; iii. pp. 11, 158, 268.
136 Songs of the Russian People, 1872, p. 116.
137 Folk-lore Record, 1878, i. p. 54.
138 Evolution of Light from the Living Subject.
139 Transactions Cardiff Natural Society, iv. p. 5.
140 Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 239.
141 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 219-221.
142 See ‘Essay on Fairy Superstitions’ in the Border Minstrelsy.
143 Rink’s Tales and Traditions of the Eskimos, p. 43.
144 Josselyn’s Two Voyages, p. 133.
145 Primitive Culture, i. p. 390.
146 See The Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany, 1877, i. pp. 288, 289.
147 Eastern Counties Collectanea, p. 3.
148 See Notes and Queries, 1st S. xii. p. 486, for another hole or pit story.
149 The Curate of Cranston, and other Stories, 1862, ‘Carriage and Four Ghosts.’
150 Notes and Queries, 1st S. v. p. 295.
151 Hardwick’s Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore, p. 130.
152 Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 112.
153 Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 113, 114.
154 A full account will be found in a paper by Mr. F. Ross, in the Leeds Mercury, 1884, entitled ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions.’
155 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 72-78.
156 Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, pp. 326-328.
157 Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland, pp. 163, 164.
158 See notes to Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, where much curious information will be found on this subject.
159 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 437.
160 Zoological Mythology, ii. p. 218.
161 Folk-songs of the Russian People, p. 118.
162 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 23.
163 Ibid. p. 42.
164 Miss Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, i. p. 380.
165 Occult Sciences, 1855, Elihu Rich, p. 188.
166 For works on this subject may be consulted, Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal; the Malleus Maleficarum of the Germans; Del Rio’s Disquisitiones Magicæ; and Occult Sciences, paper by Elihu Rich, pp. 189-191.
167 Gregor, Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, pp. 68, 69.
168 1799, i. p. 281.
169 See ‘Ghosts and Ghost-lore,’ Leisure Hour, 1871, pp. 334-766.
170 Life of Benvenuto Cellini.
171 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 143.
172 See also Real Ghost Stories. Edited by W. T. Stead.
173 Primitive Culture, ii. p. 153.
174 See Daily Telegraph, Nov. 17, 1890. Article on ‘Ghost Laying.’ Burns’s ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ turns on this point, and it is noticed by Sir Walter Scott in ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’ (Canto III. Stanza 13): ‘The running stream dissolv’d the spell.’
175 Romances of West of England, p. 470.
176 Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 107.
177 Lewin, Hill Tracts of Chittagong, p. 84.
178 See Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 145.
179 Fiji and the Fijians, i. p. 248.
180 Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 113.
181 Folk-songs of Russia, p. 320.
182 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. p. 275.
183 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 37.
184 Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 140, 141.
185 British Goblins, p. 165.
186 Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 138, 139.
187 Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 122, 123.
188 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 247.
189 Jabez Allies, Worcestershire.
190 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 337.
191 Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 125.
192 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 338.
193 See Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Legends, pp. 10-12.
194 Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. p. 265.
195 See Gentleman’s Magazine, 1855, part ii. pp. 58, 59.
196 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 155-159.
197 Jones: Credulities Past and Present, p. 92.
198 Romances of West of England, p. 366.
199 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, pp. 10, 11.
200 Quoted in Bassett’s ‘Legends of the Sea,’ from Livermore’s History of Block Island.
201 Life of Byron.
202 See Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 109.
203 Principles of Sociology, p. 219.
204 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 11.
205 Northern Mythology, ii. p. 203.
206 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 446.
207 Chap. II.
208 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 344.
209 See Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works, 1853, viii. p. 126.
210 Popular Romances of West of England, p. 372.
211 See Chapter on ‘Phantom Birds.’
212 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1764, p. 59.
213 See Moncure Conway’s Demonology and Devil Lore.
214 Night Side of Nature, 1854, p. 315.
215 See Notes and Queries, 5th S. xi. p. 334.
216 Chambers’s Encyclopædia, 1886, x. p. 179.
217 The Nineteenth Century, April 1865, p. 628; Myth, Ritual, and Religion, 1887, i. p. 104.
218 Fison’s Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 253.
219 1822, Part ii. pp. 598, 599.
220 Quoted in Mrs. Crowe’s Night Side of Nature, 1854, p. 181.
221 See Notes and Queries, 1st S. iii. 170.
222 Life and Times of Lord Brougham, written by himself, 1871.
223 See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, 1870, iii. p. 117.
224 Dr. F. G. Lee: Glimpses of the Supernatural; the subject has been discussed in Notes and Queries.
225 Comparative Study of Ghost Stories, April 1885, pp. 630, 631.
226 Certainty of a World of Spirits, p. 181.
227 Yardley’s Supernatural in Fiction, p. 94.
228 T. M. Jarvis: Accredited Ghost Stories, 1823
229 Chambers’s Popular Rhymes of Scotland, pp. 238, 239.
230 Jones’s Credulities Past and Present, p. 123.
231 See Hunt’s Popular Romances of West of England.
232 Wirt Sikes: British Goblins, p. 26.
233 See Chapter ‘Phantom Animals.’
234 Hunt’s Popular Romances of West of England, p. 354.
235 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, iii. p. 96.
236 Jones’s Credulities Past and Present, p. 138.
237 Popular Romances of West of England, p. 350.
238 Folk-lore Record, i. p. 54.
239 McAnally: Irish Wonders, p. 112.
240 Irish Wonders, 1888, p. 114.
241 Irish Wonders, p. 112.
242 Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland, p. 84.
243 British Goblins, pp. 212-216.
244 See Bassett’s Legends and Superstitions of the Sea, pp. 346, 347.
245 Quoted in Bassett’s Legends of the Sea, p. 351.
246 Poems: A Greypoint Legend, 1797.
247 The Wreck of the Schooner Breeze.
248 Romances of West of England, pp. 362-364.
249 Traditions and Fireside Stories of West Cornwall.
250 Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, p. 338.
251 Discoverie of Witchcraft.
252 Pop. Antiq. iii. p. 85.
253 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.
254 Quoted by Bassett in his Legends and Superstitions of the Sea, p. 288.
255 Ibid. p. 286.
256 Romances of West of England, p. 367.
257 Wirt Sikes: British Goblins.
258 A Discovery Concerning Ghosts, p. 3.
259 Night Side of Nature.
260 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 270.
261 See All the Year Round, June 22, 1867.
262 Primitive Culture, i. p. 480.
263 See Letourneau’s Sociology, p. 250; Sir John Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation, and Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 246.
264 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 159-180.
265 See Lord Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion, and Notes and Queries, July 1860.
266 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1855, pt. ii. pp. 58, 59.
267 More Ghost Stories, p. 64.
268 All the Year Round, December 24, 1870.
269 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 226-233.
270 Ibid. see p. 222.
271 More Ghost Stories, W. T. Stead, 1892, p. 63.
272 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 314, 315.
273 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 314, 315.
274 See Ibid. p. 315; Ingram’s Haunted Homes, pp. 266-277; More Ghost Stories, W. T. Stead.
275 Quoted in Book of Days, i. p. 649.
276 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 22.
277 See Tylor’s Primitive Culture, ii. p. 26.
278 Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 108.
279 Schoolcraft’s Indian Tribes, v. p. 270.
280 See Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, 1885, i. p. 199.
281 Ibid. p. 199.
282 The Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 109.
283 The Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 111.
284 Northern Mythology, ii. p. 20.
285 Bucolics, viii. p. 98.
286 Primitive Culture, ii. p. 30.
287 See Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 21.
288 Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland, p. 84.
289 Essay in the Study of Folk-Songs, pp. 14, 15.
290 Gill: Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, pp. 162, 163.
291 See Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 33.
292 Ibid. p. 30.
293 Northern Mythology, i. p. 286.
294 Cf. Othello, Act v. sc. 2.
295 Songs of the Russian People, pp. 115, 116.
296 Occult Sciences, 1855; Apparitions, pp. 80, 81.
297 See E. Yardley’s Supernatural in Fiction, pp. 29-31.
298 See Chapter on ‘Ghost Laying.’
299 Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 112; Ralston’s Songs of the Russian People, p. 319.
300 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 20.
301 Ibid. p. 29.
302 Ibid. p. 21.
303 ‘The Primitive Ghost,’ Contemporary Review, xlviii. p. 107.
304 Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, ii. p. 205.
305 See Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-lore, 1867, p. 63.
306 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1865, pt. ii. p. 564.
307 See Popular Irish Superstitions, by W. R. Wilde, p. 109.
308 More Ghost Stories, collected and edited by W. T. Stead, 1892, p. 22.
309 See Mrs. Crowe’s Night Side of Nature, 1854, p. 111.
310 Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 215.
311 Primitive Culture, 1891, i. p. 448.
312 Real Ghost Stories, W. T. Stead, p. 103.
313 Harland and Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-lore, p. 105.
314 Quoted by Mrs. Crowe, Night Side of Nature, p. 202.
315 Messrs. Gurney, Myers, and Podmore.
316 Phantasms of the Living, ii. p. 531.
317 Nineteenth Century, April 1865, p. 629.
318 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 48.
319 See Book of Days, ii. pp. 519-521.
320 See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, iii. p. 144.
321 Teutonic Mythology, ii. p. 827.
322 Hamlet, Act v. sc. 1.
323 See Folk-lore of Plants, pp. 12, 13.
324 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 293.
325 Principles of Sociology, 1885, pp. 357-359.
326 Nineteenth Century, April, 1882, p. 394; Superstitions of Modern Greece, by M. Le Baron d’Estournelles.
327 Primitive Superstitions, p. 288.
328 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, 2nd S. pp. 24, 25.
329 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 322.
330 Notes and Queries, 1st S. v. p. 195.
331 Popular Rhymes of Scotland, pp. 241-242.
332 Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 240.
333 Henderson’s Folk-lore of Northern Counties, pp. 247-248.
334 Wirt Sikes: British Goblins, pp. 151-152.
335 1865, pt. ii. pp. 706-707.
336 Primitive Superstitions, p. 310.
337 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 309.
338 See Ingram’s Haunted Homes, p. 53.
339 A Discovery Concerning Ghosts, 1864, pp. 18, 19.
340 Haunted Homes, p. 253.
341 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 145.
342 Mrs. Latham’s ‘West Sussex Superstitions,’ Folk-lore Record, i. p. 21.
343 See Tylor’s Primitive Culture, i. p. 146.
344 See Southey’s Life of Wesley.
345 Walter Gregor: Folk-lore of North-East of Scotland, pp. 205, 206.
346 Nineteenth Century, vol. xvii. p. 627.
347 Dorman’s Primitive Superstitions, p. 302.
Footnotes were renumbered and gathered at the end of the chapter to which they belong.
The following corrections were made, on page
89 “ledy” changed to “lady” (The lady in earth by her lord lay)
91 “Brazials” changed to “Brazilians” (The Brazilians imagined that the souls of the bad)
257 2nd “to” removed (a belief to which Falstaff alludes in)
320 “Ann” changed to “Amy” (the supposed scene of the murder of Lady Amy Bobsart)
369 “ninty-ninth” changed to “ninety-ninth” (when in the ninety-ninth year of her age)
439 “Becklington” changed to “Beckington” (Beckington Castle, 333)
439 “Bergmouch” changed to “Bergmönch” (Bergmönch, spectre so called, 269)
440 “Bodach Gartin” changed to “Bodacher, Garlin” (Bodacher Garlin, 221) and the word order changed
440 “Cassioway” changed to “Cassowary” (Cassowary, 111)
440 “Chibehas” changed to “Chibchas” (Chibchas, 184)
442 “Gurlinheg” changed to “Gurlinbeg” (Gurlinbeg, family of, 221)
444 “Lledwith” changed to “Lledrith” (Lledrith, 370)
444 “Wray” changed to “Way” (Mary Way, spectre so called, 152)
444 “Mazarine” changed to “Mazarin” (Mazarin, Duchess of, 254)
444 “Mohin” changed to “Mohun” (Mohun, Lord, 372)
445 “460-469” changed to “400-409” (Money hidden by ghosts, 400-409)
445 “Padfoit” changed to “Padfooit” (Padfooit, 113)
445 “Padfoot” added (Padfoot, 113)
445 “Josceline” changed to “Joceline” (Percy, Sir Joceline, 150)
445 “Potawatomies” changed to “Potawatomis” (Potawatomis, 184)
445 “Peverel” changed to “Peverell” (Sampford Peverell ghost, 322)
447 “Waddon” changed to “Waddow” (Waddow Hall, 327)
and in footnote 101: 2 words exchanged between lines, “Indo-” and “1872” (Folk-lore, 1872 p. 243;... See Kelly’s Indo-European Folk-lore).