MISTAKEN IDENTITY--CONCLUSION
We have given various instances of ghostly phenomena wherein the
witnesses have failed at first to realise that what they saw partook
in any way of the abnormal. There are also many cases where a so-called
ghost has turned out to be something very ordinary. Though more often
than not such incidents are of a very trivial or self-explanatory
nature (_e.g._ where a sheep in a churchyard almost paralysed a midnight
wayfarer till he summoned up courage to investigate), there are many
which have an interest of their own and which often throw into prominence
the extraordinary superstitions and beliefs which exist in a country.
Our first story, which is sent us by Mr. De Lacy of Dublin, deals with an
incident that occurred in the early part of last century. An epidemic
which was then rife in the city was each day taking its toll of the
unhappy citizens. The wife of a man living in Merrion Square was stricken
down and hastily buried in a churchyard in Donnybrook which is now
closed. On the night after the funeral one of the city police, or
"Charlies" as they were then called, passed through the churchyard on his
rounds. When nearing the centre he was alarmed to hear a sound coming
from a grave close at hand, and turning, saw a white apparition sit up
and address him. This was all he waited for; with a shriek he dropped his
lantern and staff and made off as fast as his legs would carry him. The
apparition thereupon took up the lamp and staff, and walked to Merrion
Square to the house of mourning, was admitted by the servants, and to the
joy of the whole household was found to be the object of their grief
returned, Alcestis-like, from the grave. It seems that the epidemic was
so bad that the bodies of the victims were interred hastily and without
much care: the unfortunate lady had really been in a state of coma or
trance, and as the grave was lightly covered, when she came to she was
able to force her way up, and seeing the "Charlie" passing, she called
for assistance.
An occurrence which at first had all the appearance of partaking of the
supernormal, and which was afterwards found to have a curious
explanation, is related by Dean Ovenden of St. Patrick's Cathedral,
Dublin. "At Dunluce Rectory, Co. Antrim," he writes, "I had a strange
experience. There was a force-pump attached to the back wall of the
house, and many people drew water from it, as it was better than any
obtained at that time in Bushmills. We used to notice, when going to bed,
the sound of someone working the pump. All the servants denied that they
ever used the pump between 11 P.M. and 12 midnight. I often looked out
of the back window when I heard the pump going, but could not see anyone.
I tied threads to the handle, but although they were found unbroken in
the morning the pumping continued, sometimes only for three or four moves
of the handle. On many nights no pumping was heard. The man-servant sat
up with a gun and the dog, but he neither saw nor heard anything. We gave
it up as a bad job, and still the pumping went on. After about two years
of this experience, I was one night alone in the house. It was a calm and
frosty night and I went to bed about 11.30 P.M. and lay awake; suddenly
the pump began to work with great clearness, and mechanically I counted
the strokes: they were exactly twelve. I exclaimed, 'The dining-room
clock!' I sprang from bed and went down, and found that the clock was
fast, as it showed two minutes past twelve o'clock. I set back the hands
to 11.55 and lay in bed again, and soon the pumper began as usual. The
explanation was that the vibration of the rising and falling hammer was
carried up to the bedroom by the wall, but the sound of the bell was
never heard. I found afterwards that the nights when there was no pumping
were always windy."
A man was walking along a country lane at night and as he was coming
round a bend he saw a coffin on the road in front of him. At first he
thought it was a warning to him that he was soon to leave this world; but
after some hesitation, he finally summoned up courage to give the thing a
poke with his stick, when he found that the coffin was merely an outline
of sea-weed which some passer-by had made. Whereupon he went on his way
much relieved.
The unbeliever will state that rats or mice are more often than not the
cause of so-called ghostly noises in a house. That, at any rate,
instances have happened where one or other of these rodents has given
rise to fear and trepidation in the inmates of a house or bedroom is
proved by the following story from a Dublin lady. She tells how she was
awakened by a most mysterious noise for which she could give no
explanation. Overcome by fear, she was quite unable to get out of bed,
and lay awake the rest of the night. When light came she got up: there
was a big bath in the room, and in it she found a mouse which had been
drowned in its efforts to get out. So her haunting was caused by what we
may perhaps call a ghost in the making.
The devil is very real to the average countryman in Ireland. He has given
his name to many spots which for some reason or other have gained some
ill-repute--the Devil's Elbow, a very nasty bit of road down in Kerry, is
an instance in point. The following story shows how prevalent the idea is
that the devil is an active agent in the affairs of this world.
A family living at Ardee, Co. Louth, were one night sitting reading in
the parlour. The two maids were amusing themselves at some card game in
the kitchen. Suddenly there was a great commotion and the two girls--both
from the country--burst into the sitting-room, pale with fright, and
almost speechless. When they had recovered a certain amount, they were
asked what was the matter; the cook immediately exclaimed, "Oh, sir! the
devil, the devil, he knocked three times at the window and frightened us
dreadfully, and we had just time to throw the cards into the fire and run
in here before he got us." One of the family, on hearing this,
immediately went out to see what had caused all this trepidation, and
found a swallow with a broken neck lying on the kitchen window-sill. The
poor bird had evidently seen the light in the room, and in its efforts to
get near it had broken its neck against the glass of the window.
An amusing account of a pseudo-haunting comes from County Tipperary, and
shows how extraordinarily strong is the countryman's belief in
supernatural phenomena. The incidents related occurred only a very short
time ago. A farmer in the vicinity of Thurles died leaving behind him a
young widow. The latter lived alone after her husband's death, and about
three months after the funeral she was startled one night by loud
knocking at the door. On opening the door she was shocked at seeing the
outline of a man dressed in a shroud. In a solemn voice he asked her did
she know who he was: on receiving a reply in the negative, he said that
he was her late husband and that he wanted £10 to get into heaven. The
terrified woman said she had not got the money, but promised to have it
ready if he would call again the next night. The "apparition" agreed,
then withdrew, and the distracted woman went to bed wondering how she was
to raise the money. When morning came she did not take long in telling
her friends of her experience, in the hope that they would be able to
help her. Their advice, however, was that she should tell the police,
and she did so. That night the "apparition" returned at the promised
hour, and asked for his money. The amount was handed to him, and in a low
sepulchral voice he said, "Now I leave this earth and go to heaven."
Unfortunately, as he was leaving, a sergeant and a constable of the
R.I. Constabulary stopped him, questioned him, and hauled him off to the
barracks to spend the remainder of the night in the cell, where no doubt
he decided that the haunting game has its trials.[14]
[Footnote 14: _Evening Telegraph_ for Dec. 10, 1913.]
An occurrence of very much the same description took place in County
Clare about three years ago. Again the departed husband returns to his
sorrowing wife, sits by the fire with her, chatting no doubt of old
times, and before he leaves for the other world is regaled with pig's
head and plenty of whisky. The visit is repeated the next night, and a
request made for money to play cards with down below: the wife willingly
gives him the money. Again he comes, and again he borrows on the plea
that he had lost the night before, but hoped to get better luck next
time. On the woman telling a neighbour a watch was kept for the dead
man's return, but he never came near the place again.
An account of a police-court trial which appeared in the _Irish Times_ of
31st December 1913 emphasizes in a very marked degree the extraordinary
grip that superstition has over some of the country people. A young woman
was on her trial for stealing £300 from the brother of her employer,
Patrick McFaul of Armagh. District Inspector Lowndes, in opening the case
for the Crown, told the bench that the money had been taken out of the
bank by McFaul to buy a holding, for the purchase of which negotiations
were going on. The money was carelessly thrown into a drawer in a
bedroom, and left there till it would be wanted. A short time afterwards
a fire broke out in the room, and a heap of ashes was all that was found
in the drawer, though little else in the room besides a few clothes was
injured. "The McFauls appeared to accept their loss with a complacency,
which could only be accounted for by the idea they entertained that the
money was destroyed through spiritual intervention--that there were
ghosts in the question, and that the destruction of the money was to be
taken as a warning directed against a matrimonial arrangement, into which
Michael McFaul was about to enter." The accused girl was servant to
the McFauls, who discharged her a few days after the fire: but before
this she had been into Derry and spent a night there; during her stay she
tried to change three £20 notes with the help of a friend. But change was
refused, and she had to abandon the attempt. "If some of the money was
burned, some of it was certainly in existence three days later, to the
amount of £60. One thing was manifest, and that was that an incredible
amount of superstition appeared to prevail amongst families in that
neighbourhood when the loss of such a sum as this could be attributed to
anything but larceny, and it could for a moment be suggested that it was
due to spiritual intervention to indicate that a certain course should
be abandoned."
CONCLUSION
The foregoing tales have been inserted, not in order that they may throw
ridicule on the rest of the book, but that they may act as a wholesome
corrective. If _all_ ghost stories could be subjected to such rigid
examination it is probable that the mystery in many of them would be
capable of equally simple solution--yet a remnant would be left.
And here, though it may seem somewhat belated, we must offer an apology
for the use of the terms "ghost" and "ghost story." The book includes
such different items as hauntings, death-warnings, visions, and
hallucinations, some of which obviously can no more be attributed to
discarnate spirits than can the present writer's power of guiding his pen
along the lines of a page; whether others of these must be laid to the
credit of such unseen influences is just the question. But in truth there
was no other expression than "ghost stories" which we could have used, or
which could have conveyed to our readers, within reasonable verbal
limits, as they glanced at its cover, or at an advertisement of it, a
general idea of the contents of this book. The day will certainly come
when, before the steady advance of scientific investigation, and the
consequent influencing of public opinion, the word "ghost" will be
relegated to limbo, and its place taken by a number of expressions
corresponding to the results obtained from the analysis of phenomena
hitherto grouped under this collective title. That day is approaching.
And so, though we have used the term throughout the pages of this book,
it must not therefore be assumed that we necessarily believe in "ghosts,"
or that we are bound to the theory that all, or any, of the unusual
happenings therein recorded are due to the action of visitants from the
Otherworld.
We may now anticipate one or two possible points of criticism. It might
be alleged that the publication of such a book as this would tend to show
that the Irish nation was enslaved in superstition. Without stopping to
review the question as to what should, or should not, be classed as
"superstition," we would rejoin by gleefully pointing to a leading
article in the _Irish Times_ of Jan. 27, 1914, which gives a short
account of a lecture by Mr. Lovett on the folklore of London. Folklore in
London! in the metropolis of the stolid Englishman! The fact is that the
Irish people are not one whit more superstitious than their cross-channel
neighbours, while they are surely on a far higher level in this respect
than many of the Continental nations. They _seem_ to be more
superstitious because (we speak without wishing to give any offence) the
_popular_ religion of the majority has incorporated certain elements
which may be traced back to pre-Christian times; but that they _are_
actually more superstitious we beg leave to doubt.
Another and more important series of objections is stated by one of our
correspondents as follows. "I must confess that I can never reconcile
with my conception of an All-Wise Creator the type of 'ghost' you are at
present interested in; it seems to me incredible that the spirits of the
departed should be permitted to return and indulge in the ghostly
repertoire of jangling chains, gurgling, etc., apparently for the sole
purpose of scaring housemaids and other timid or hysterical people." The
first and most obvious remark on this is, that our correspondent has
never read or heard a ghost story, save of the Christmas magazine type,
else he would be aware that the above theatrical display is _not_ an
integral part of the "ghostly repertoire"; and also that persons, who are
_not_ housemaids, and who can _not_ be classed as timid or hysterical,
but who, on the other hand, are exceedingly sober-minded, courageous, and
level-headed, have had experiences (and been frightened by them too!)
which cannot be explained on ordinary grounds. But on the main point our
correspondent is begging the question, or at least assuming as fully
proved a conclusion which is very far from being so. Is he quite sure
that the only explanation of these strange sights and weird noises
is that they are brought about by the action of departed spirits (we
naturally exclude cases of deliberate fraud, which in reality are very
unusual)? And if so, what meaning would he put upon the word "spirits"?
And even if it be granted that the phenomena are caused by the
inhabitants of another world, why should it be impossible to accept such
a theory, because of its _apparent_ incompatibility with any conception
of an All-Wise Creator, of whose workings we are so profoundly ignorant?
Are there not many things in the material world which _to the limited
human mind_ of our correspondent must seem puzzling, meaningless,
useless, and even harmful? He does not therefore condemn these offhand;
he is content to suspend judgment, is he not? Why cannot he adopt the
same attitude with respect to psychic phenomena? Our correspondent might
here make the obvious retort that it is _we_ who are begging the
question, not he, because such happenings as are described in this book
have no existence apart from the imaginative or inventive faculties of
certain persons. This would be equivalent to saying bluntly that a
considerable number of people in Ireland are either liars or fools, or
both. This point we shall deal with later on. Our correspondent belongs
to a type which knows nothing at all about psychical research, and is not
aware that some of the cleverest scientists and deepest thinkers of the
day have interested themselves in such problems. They have not found the
answer to many of them--goodness knows if they ever will this side of the
grave--but at least they have helped to broaden and deepen our knowledge
of ourselves, our surroundings, and our God. They have revealed to us
profundities in human personality hitherto unsuspected, they have
suggested means of communication between mind and mind almost incredible,
and (in the writer's opinion at least) these points have a very important
bearing on our conceptions of the final state of mankind in the world to
come, and so they are preparing the way for that finer and more ethical
conception of God and His Creation which will be the heritage of
generations yet unborn. The materialist's day is far spent, and its sun
nears the horizon.
Another objection to the study of the subjects dealt with in this book
is that we are designedly left in ignorance of the unseen world by a
Wise Creator, and therefore that it is grossly presumptuous, not to say
impious, on the part of man to make any attempt to probe into questions
which he has not been intended to study. Which is equivalent to saying
that it is impious to ride a bicycle, because man was obviously created
a pedestrian. This might be true if we were confined within a
self-contained world which had, and could have, no connection with
anything external to itself. But the very essence of our existence here
is that the material and spiritual worlds interpenetrate, or rather that
our little planet forms part of a boundless universe teeming with life
and intelligence, yet lying in the hollow of God's hand. He alone is
"Supernatural," and therefore Transcendent and Unknowable; all things in
the universe are "natural," though very often they are beyond our normal
experience, and as such are legitimate objects for man's research. Surely
the potential energy in the human intellect will not allow it to remain
at its present stage, but will continually urge it onwards and upwards.
What limits God in His Providence has seen fit to put upon us we cannot
tell, for every moment the horizon is receding, and our outlook becoming
larger, though some still find it difficult to bring their eyesight to
the focus consequently required. The marvellous of to-day is the
commonplace of to-morrow: "our notion of what is natural grows with our
greater knowledge."
Throughout the pages of this book we have, in general, avoided offering
explanations of, or theories to account for, the different stories. Here
something may be said on this point. As we have already pointed out, the
expression "ghost stories" covers a multitude of different phenomena.
Many of these may be explained as "hallucinations," which does not imply
that they are simply the effect of imagination and nothing more. "The
mind receives the hallucination as if it came through the channels of
sense, and accordingly externalises the impression, seeking its source in
the world outside itself, whereas in all hallucinations the source is
within the mind, and is not derived from an impression received through
the recognised organ of sense.[15]"
[Footnote 15: Prof. Sir W. Barren, _Psychical Research_, p. 111.]
Many of these hallucinations are termed "_veridical_", or truth-telling,
because they coincide with real events occurring to another person.
Illustrations of this will be found in Chapter VI, from which it would
appear that a dying person (though the power is not necessarily confined
to such) occasionally has the faculty of telepathically communicating
with another; the latter receives the impression, and externalises it,
and so "sees a ghost," to use the popular expression. Some hallucinations
are _auditory i.e._ sounds are heard which apparently do not correspond
to any objective reality. Incomprehensible though it may appear, it may
be possible for sounds, and very loud ones too, to be heard by one or
more persons, the said sounds being purely hallucinatory, and not causing
any disturbance in the atmosphere.
Some of the incidents may be explained as due to telepathy, that
mysterious power by which mind can communicate with mind, though what
telepathy is, or through what medium it is propagated, no one can tell as
yet. Belief in this force is increasing, because, as Professor Sir W.
Barrett remarks: "Hostility to a new idea arises largely from its being
unrelated to existing knowledge," and, as telepathy seems to the ordinary
person to be analogous to wireless telegraphy, it is therefore accepted,
or at least not laughed at, though how far the analogy really holds good
is not at all certain.
Again there is the question of haunted houses and places, to accounts of
which the first five chapters of this book are devoted. The actual
evidence for many of these may not come up to the rigorous standard set
by the S.P.R., but it is beyond all doubt that persons who are neither
fools, liars, nor drunkards firmly believe that they have seen and heard
the things related in these chapters (not to speak of Chapters VI-VIII),
or that they have been told such by those in whose statements they place
implicit confidence; while so certain are they that they are telling the
truth that they have not only written down the stories for the compilers,
but have given their names and addresses as well, though not always for
publication. Can we contemptuously fling aside such a weight of evidence
as unworthy of even a cursory examination? This would hardly be a
rational attitude to adopt. Various theories to account for these strange
hauntings have been formulated, which may be found on pp. 199-200 of Sir
William Barrett's _Psychical Research_, and so need not be given here.
Yet, when all is said and done, the very formulating of theories, so far
from solving problems, only raises further and more complex ones, perhaps
the greatest of which is, Have the spirits of the departed anything to
do with the matter? As we have shown, we hope with success, in the
preceding paragraphs, many "ghosts" have no necessary connection with the
denizens of the unseen world, but may be explained as being due to laws
of nature which at present are very obscure. Does this hold good of all
"ghosts," or are some of them to be placed to the credit of those who
have passed beyond the veil, or perhaps to spirits, good or evil, which
have never been incarnate? That is the problem for the future, for in
the present state of our knowledge it would be premature to give a direct
answer, either positive or negative.
This book was written with a twofold purpose: first, that of entertaining
our readers, in which we trust we have been successful; secondly, to
stimulate thought. For, strange though it may seem, authenticated "ghost
stories" have a certain educative value. Taking them at their lowest they
suggest inquiry into the strange workings of the human mind: at their
highest how many strange lines of inquiry do they not suggest? For it is
obvious that we have now arrived at one of those interesting periods in
the history of human thought which might be described as the return of
the pendulum. We are in the process of emerging from a very materialistic
age, when men either refused to believe anything that was contrary to
their normal experience, or else leavened their spiritual doctrines and
beliefs with the leaven of materialism. The pendulum has swung to its
highest point in this respect, and is now commencing to return, so
perhaps the intellectual danger of the future will be that men, instead
of believing too little, will believe too much. Now is the time for
laying a careful foundation. Psychical research, spiritualism, and the
like, are not ends in themselves, they are only means to an end. At the
present state of thought, the transition from the old to the new, from
the lower to the higher, it is inevitable that there must be confusion
and doubt, and the earnest thinker must be prepared to suspend judgment
on many points; but at a later stage, when all absurdity, error, and
fraud, now so closely connected with psychical research in its various
branches, will have been swept away, Truth will emerge and lift the human
race to a purer and loftier conception of God and His universe.
End of Project Gutenberg's True Irish Ghost Stories, by St John D Seymour