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| “Wodans wilde Jagd” by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1882) |
From the pages of The Night Side of Nature, or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers (1848)
(In the chapter Miscellaneous Phenomena)
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The late Lieutenant-General Robertson of Lawers, who served during the whole of the American war, brought home with him, at its termination, a negro, who went by the name of Black Tom, and who continued in his service. The room appropriated to the use of this man in the General's town residence, I speak of Edinburgh, was on the ground floor ; and he was heard frequently to complain that he could not rest in it, for that every night the figure of a headless lady, with a child in her arms, rose out of the hearth and frightened him dreadfully.
Of course nobody believed this story, and it was supposed to be the dream of intoxication, as Tom was not remarkable for sobriety ; but strange so say, when the old mansion was pulled down to build Gillespie's Hospital, which now stands on its site, there was found under the hearth-stone in that apartment, a box containing the body of a female, from which the head had been severed ; and beside her lay the remains of an infant wrapt in a pillow case, trimmed with lace. She appeared, poor lady, to have been cut off in the " blossom of her sins ;" for she was dressed, and her scissars were yet hanging by a ribbon to her side, and her thimble was also in the box, having, apparently, fallen from the shrivelled finger.
Now, whether we are to consider this a ghost, or a phenomenon of the same nature as that seen by Billing, it is difficult to decide. Somewhat similar is the following case, which I have borrowed from a little work entitled " Supernaturalism in New England." Not only does this little extract prove that the same phenomena, be they interpreted as they may, exist in all parts of the world, but I think it will be granted me, that although we have not here the confirmation that time furnished in the former instance, yet, it is difficult to suppose that this unexcitable person should have been the subject of so extraordinary a spectral illusion.
"Whoever has seen Great Pond, in the East parish of Haverhill, has seen one of the very loveliest of the thousand little lakes or ponds of New England. With its soft slopes of greenest verdure its white and sparkling sand-rim its southern hem of pine and maple, mirrored, with spray and leaf, in the glassy water its gracefal hill-sentinels round about, white with the orchard-bloom of spring, or tasselled with the corn of autumn its long sweep of blue waters, broken here and there by picturesque headlands it would seem a spot, of all others, where spirits of evil must shrink, rebuked and abashed, from the presence of the beautiful. Yet here, too, has the shadow of the supernatural fallen.
A lady of my acquaintance, a staid, unimaginative church member, states that a few years ago, she was standing in the angle formed by two roads, one of which traverses the pond shore, the other leading over the hill which rises abruptly from the water. It was a warm summer evening, just at sunset. She was startled by the appearance of a horse and cart of the kind used a century ago in New England, driving rapidly down the steep hill-side, and crossing the wall a few yards before her, without noise or displacing of a stone. The driver sat sternly erect, with a fierce countenance, grasp- ing the reins tightly, and looking neither to the right nor the left. Behind the cart, and apparently lashed to it, was a woman of gigantic size, her countenace convulsed with a blended expression of rage and agony, writhing and struggling, like Laocoon in the folds of the serpent. Her head, neck, feet, and arms were naked ; wild locks of grey hair streamed back from temples corrugated and darkened. The horrible cavalcade swept by across the street, and disappeared at the margin of the pond."
Many persons will have heard of the " Wild Troop of Rodenstein,"but few are aware of the curious amount of evidence there is in favour of the strange belief which prevails amongst the inhabitants of that region. The story goes, that the former possessor of the Castle of Rodenstein and Schnellert, were robbers and pirates, who committed, in conjunction, all manner of enormities ; and that, to this day, the troop, with their horses and carriages and dogs are heard, every now and then, wildly rushing along the road betwixt the two castles.
This sounds like a fairy tale ; yet so much was it believed, that up to the middle of the last century regular reports were made to the authorities in the neighbourhood, of the periods when the troop had passed. Since that, the Landgericht or Court Leet, has been removed to Furth, and they trouble them- selves no longer about the Rodenstein Troop ; but a traveller named Wirth, who a few years ago undertook to examine into the affair, declares the people assert that the passage of the visionary cavalcade still continues ; and they assured him that certain houses that he saw lying in ruins, were in that state, because, as they lay directly in the way of the troop, they were uninhabitable.
There is seldom anything seen, but the sound of carriage wheels, horses feet, smacking of whips, blowing of horns, and the voice of these fierce hunters of men urging them on, are the sounds by which they recognize that the troop is passing from one castle to the other ; and at a spot which was formerly a blacksmith's, but is now a carpenter's, the invisible Lord of Rodenstein still stops to have his horse shod. Mr. With copied several of the depositions out of the court records, and they are brought down to June 1764. This is certainly a strange story; but it is not much more so than that of the black man, which I know to be true.
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| Asgårdsreien [The Wild Hunt of Odin] (1872) by Peter Nicolai Arbo |
During the seven years war in Germany, a drover lost his life in a drunken squabble on the high road.
For some time there was a sort of rude tomb- stone, with a cross on it, to mark the spot where his body was interred ; but this has long fallen, and a mile-stone now fills its place. Nevertheless, it continues commonly asserted by the country people, and also by various travellers, that they have been deluded in that spot by seeing, as they imagine, herds of beasts, which on investigation prove to be merely visionary.
Of course, many people look upon this as a superstition ; but a very singular confirmation of the story occurred in the year 1826, when two gentlemen and two ladies were passing the spot in a post carriage. One of these was a clergyman, and none of them had ever heard of the phenomenon said to be attached to the place. They had been discussing the prospects of the minister, who was on his way to a vicarage, to which he had just been appointed, when they saw a large flock of sheep, which stretched quite across the road, and was accompanied by a shepherd and a long haired black dog. As to meet cattle on that road was nothing uncommon, and indeed they had met several droves in the course of the day, no remark was made at the moment, till suddenly each looked at the other and said, "What is become of the sheep?"
Quite perplexed at their sudden disappearance, they called to the postilion to stop, and all got out, in order to mount a little elevation and look around, but still unable to discover them, they now be- thought themselves of asking the postilion where they were ; when, to their infinite surprise, they learnt that he had not seen them.
Upon this, they bade him quicken his pace, that they might overtake a carriage that had passed them shortly before, and enquire if that party had seen the sheep ; but they had not.
Four years later, a postmaster, named J., was on the same road, driving a carriage, in which were a clergyman and his wife, when he saw a large flock of sheep near the same spot. Seeing they were very fine 'wethers, and supposing them to have been bought at a sheep- fair that was then taking place a few miles off, J. drew up his reins and stopped his horses, turning at the same time to the clergyman to say, that he wanted to enquire the price of the sheep, as he intended going next day to the fair himself.
Whilst the minister was asking him what sheep he meant, J. got down and found himself in the midst of the animals, the size and beauty of which astonished him. They passed him at an unusual rate, whilst he made his way through them to find the shepherd, when on getting to the end of the flock, they suddenly disappeared. He then first learnt that his fellow travellers had not seen them at all.
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| 'Fat Wethers.' Made by 'Thomas Dobbie' after 'Gourlay Steell' (1840) |
Now, if such cases as these are not pure illusions, which I confess I find it difficult to believe, we must suppose that the animals and all the extraneous circumstances are produced by the magical will of the spirit, either acting on the constructive imagination of the seers, or else actually constructing the etherial forms out of the elements at its command; just as we have supposed an apparition able to present himself with whatever dress or appliances he conceives ; or else we must conclude, these forms to have some relation to the mystery called PALINGNESIA which I have previously alluded to; although the motion and change of place renders it difficult to bring them under this category.
As for the animals, although the drover was slain, they were not; and therefore even granting them to have souls, we cannot look upon them as the apparitions of the flock. Neither can we consider the numerous instances of armies seen in the air to be apparitions ; and yet these phenomena are so well established, that they have been accounted for by supposing them to be atmospherical reflections of armies elsewhere, in actual motion. But how are we to account for the visionary troops which are not seen in the air, but on the very ground on which the seers themselves stand? Which was the case especially with those seen in Havarah Park, near Ripley, in the year 1812. These soldiers wore a white uniform, and in the centre was a personage in a scarlet one.
After performing several evolutions, the body began to march in perfect order to the summit of a hill, passing the spectators at the distance of about one hundred yards. They amounted to several hundreds, and marched in a column, four deep, across about thirty acres; and no sooner were they passed, than another body, far more numerous, but dressed in dark clothes arose and marched after them, without any apparent hostility. Both parties having reached the top of the hill, and there formed what the spectators called an L, they disappeared down the other side, and were seen no more; but at that moment, a volume of smoke arose like the discharge of a park of artillery, which was so thick that the men could not, for two or three minutes, discover their own cattle. They then hurried home to relate what they had seen, and the impression made on them is described as so great, that they could never allude to the subject without emotion.
One of them was a farmer of the name of Jackson, aged forty-five ; the other was a lad of fifteen, called Turner ; and they were at the time herding cattle in the park. The scene seems to have lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, during which time they were quite in possession of themselves, and able to make re- marks to each other on what they saw. They were both men of excellent character and un- impeachable veracity, insomuch that nobody who knew them doubted that they actually saw what they described, or, at all events, believed that they did. It is to be observed also, that the ground is not swampy, nor subject to any exhalations.
About the year 1750, a visionary army of the same description was seen in the neighbourhood of Inverness, by a respectable farmer, of Glenary, and his son. The number of troops was very great, and they had not the slightest doubt that they were otherwise than substantial forms of flesh and blood. They counted at least sixteen pairs of columns, and had abundance of time to observe every particular.
The front ranks marched seven abreast, and were accompanied by a good many women and children, who were carrying tin cans and other implements of cookery. The men were clothed in red, and their arms shone brightly in the sun. In the midst them was am animal, a deer or a horse, they could not distinguish which, that they were driving furiously forward with their bayonets. The younger of the two men observed to the other, that every now and then, the rear ranks were obliged to run to overtake the van ; and the elder one, who had been a soldier, remarked that that was always the case, and recommended him, if he ever served, to try and march in the front.
There was only one mounted officer ; he rode a grey dragoon horse, and wore a gold-laced hat, and blue Hussar cloak, with wide open sleeves lined with red. The two spectators observed him so particularly, that they said afterwards, they should recognize him anywhere. They were, however, afraid of being ill-treated, or forced to go along with the troops, whom they concluded had come from Ireland, and landed at Kyntyre ; and whilst they were climbing over a dyke to get out of their way, the whole thing vanished.
Some years since, a phenomenon of the same sort was observed at Paderborn, in Westphalia, and seen by at least thirty persons, as well as by horses and dogs, as was discovered by the demeanour of these animals, In October, 1836, on the very same spot, there was a review of twenty thousand men ; and the people then concluded, that the former vision was a second sight.
A. similar circumstance occurred in Stockton Forest, some years ago ; and there are many recorded elsewhere ; one especially, in the year 1686, near Lanark, where, for several afternoons, in the months of June and July there were seen, by numerous spectators, companies of men in arms, marching in order by the banks of the Clyde, and other companies meeting them, &c. &c. ; added to which, there were showers of bonnets, hats, guns, swords, &c., which the seers described with the greatest exactness. All who were present could not see these things, and Walker relates, that one gentleman, particularly, was turning the thing into ridicule, calling the seers " Damned witches and warlocks, with the second sight !" boasting that " The devil a thing he could see !" when he suddenly exclaimed, with fear and trembling, that he now saw it all ; and entreated those who did not see, to say nothing a change that may be easily accounted for, be the phenomena of what nature it may, by supposing him to have touched one of the seers, when the faculty would be communicated like a shock of electricity.
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| Batalla de Rocroi by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau |
With regard to the palingnesia, it would be necessary to establish that these objects had previously existed, and that, as Oetinger says, the earthly husk having fallen off, " the volatile essence had ascended perfect in form, but void of substance."
The notion supported by Baron Reichenbach that the lights seen in churchyards and over graves are the result of a process going on below, is by no means new ; for Gaffarillus suggested the same opinion in 1650; only he speaks of the appearances over graves and in churchyards as shadows, ombres, as they appeared to Billing; and he mentions, casually, as a thing frequently observed, that the same visionary forms are remarked on ground where battles have been fought, which he thinks arise out of a process betwixt the earth and the sun. When a limb has been cut off, some somnambules still discern the form of the member as if actually attached.
But this magical process is said to be not only the work of the elements, but also possible to man ; and that as the forms of plants can be preserved after the substance is destroyed, so can that of man, be either preserved or reproduced from the elements of his body.
In the reign of Louis XIV., three alchemists having distilled some earth, taken from the Cemetery of the Innocents, in Paris, were forced to desist, by seeing the forms of men appearing in their vials, instead of the philosopher's stone, which they were seeking, and a physician, who, after dissecting a body, and pulverising the cranium, which was then an article, admitted into the materia medica, had left the powder on the table of his laboratory, in charge of his assistant, the latter, who slept in an adjoining room, was awakened in the night, by hearing a noise, which, after some search, he ultimately traced to the powder; in the midst of which he beheld, gradually constructing itself, a human form.
First appeared the head, with two open eyes, then the arms and hands, and by degrees, the rest of the person, which subsequently assumed the clothes it had worn when alive. The man was of course frightened out of his wits ; the rather, as the apparition planted itself before the door, and would not let him go away, till it had made its own exit, which it speedily did. Similar results have been said to arise from experiments performed on blood.
I confess I should be disposed to consider these apparitions, if ever they appeared, cases of genuine ghosts, brought into rapport by the operations, rather than forms residing in the bones or blood. At all events, these things are very hard to believe ; but seeing we were not there, I do not think we have any right to say they did not happen ; or at least that some phenomena did not occur, that were open to this interpretation.
It is highly probable that the seeing of those visionary armies and similar prodigies is a sort of second sight ; but having admitted this, we are very little nearer an explanation. Granting that, as in the above experiments, the essence of things may retain the forms of the substance, this does not explain the seeing that which has not yet taken place, or which is taking place at so great a distance, that neither Oetinger's essence nor the superficial films of Lucretius can remove the difficulty......
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