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The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, a fiction by Andrew Lang |
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_ Footnotes {0a} Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., p. 115. By Professor William James, Harvard College, Macmillan's, London, 1890. The physical processes believed to be involved, are described on pp. 123, 124 of the same work. {0b} Op. cit., ii., 130. {4} Story received from Miss ---; confirmed on inquiry by Drumquaigh. {5a} Phantasms of the Living, ii., 382. {5b} To "send" a dream the old Egyptians wrote it out and made a cat swallow it! {8} See "Queen Mary's Jewels" in chapter ii. {10} Narrated by Mrs. Herbert. {11a} Story confirmed by Mr. A. {11b} This child had a more curious experience. Her nurse was very ill, and of course did not sleep in the nursery. One morning the little girl said, "Macpherson is better, I saw her come in last night with a candle in her hand. She just stooped over me and then went to Tom" (a younger brother) "and kissed him in his sleep." Macpherson had died in the night, and her attendants, of course, protested ignorance of her having left her deathbed. {11c} Story received from Lady X. See another good case in Proceedings of the Psychical Society, vol. xi., 1895, p. 397. In this case, however, the finder was not nearer than forty rods to the person who lost a watch in long grass. He assisted in the search, however, and may have seen the watch unconsciously, in a moment of absence of mind. Many other cases in Proceedings of S.P.R. {13} Story received in a letter from the dreamer. {16} Augustine. In Library of the Fathers, XVII. Short Treatises, pp. 530-531. {18} St. Augustine, De Cura pro Mortuis. {20} The professor is not sure whether he spoke English or German. {24} From Some Account of the Conversion of the late William Hone, supplied by some friend of W. H. to compiler. Name not given. {28} What is now called "mental telegraphy" or "telepathy" is quite an old idea. Bacon calls it "sympathy" between two distant minds, sympathy so strong that one communicates with the other without using the recognised channels of the senses. Izaak Walton explains in the same way Dr. Donne's vision, in Paris, of his wife and dead child. "If two lutes are strung to an exact harmony, and one is struck, the other sounds," argues Walton. Two minds may be as harmoniously attuned and communicate each with each. Of course, in the case of the lutes there are actual vibrations, physical facts. But we know nothing of vibrations in the brain which can traverse space to another brain. Many experiments have been made in consciously transferring thoughts or emotions from one mind to another. These are very liable to be vitiated by bad observation, collusion and other causes. Meanwhile, intercommunication between mind and mind without the aid of the recognised senses--a supposed process of "telepathy"--is a current explanation of the dreams in which knowledge is obtained that exists in the mind of another person, and of the delusion by virtue of which one person sees another who is perhaps dying, or in some other crisis, at a distance. The idea is popular. A poor Highland woman wrote to her son in Glasgow: "Don't be thinking too much of us, or I shall be seeing you some evening in the byre". This is a simple expression of the hypothesis of "telepathy" or "mental telegraphy". {31} Perhaps among such papers as the Casket Letters, exhibited to the Commission at Westminster, and "tabled" before the Scotch Privy Council. {35a} To Joseph himself she bequeathed the ruby tortoise given to her by his brother. Probably the diamonds were not Rizzio's gift. {35b} Boismont was a distinguished physician and "Mad Doctor," or "Alienist". He was also a Christian, and opposed a tendency, not uncommon in his time, as in ours, to regard all "hallucinations" as a proof of mental disease in the "hallucinated". {39a} S.P.R., v., 324. {39b} Ibid., 324. {42} Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. v., pp. 324, 325. {43} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 495. {45a} Signed by Mr. Cooper and the Duchess of Hamilton. {45b} See Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 91. {48} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 522. {50} The case was reported in the Herald (Dubuque) for 12th February, 1891. It was confirmed by Mr. Hoffman, by Mr. George Brown and by Miss Conley, examined by the Rev. Mr. Crum, of Dubuque.--Proceedings, S.P.R., viii., 200-205. Pat Conley, too, corroborated, and had no theory of explanation. That the girl knew beforehand of the dollars is conceivable, but she did not know of the change of clothes. {56a} Told by the nobleman in question to the author. {56b} The author knows some eight cases among his friends of a solitary meaningless hallucination like this. {58} As to the fact of such visions, I have so often seen crystal gazing, and heard the pictures described by persons whose word I could not doubt, men and women of unblemished character, free from superstition, that I am obliged to believe in the fact as a real though hallucinatory experience. Mr. Clodd attributes it to disorder of the liver. If no more were needed I could "scry" famously! {60a} Facts attested and signed by Mr. Baillie and Miss Preston. {60b} Story told to me by both my friends and the secretary. {62} Memoires, v., 120. Paris, 1829. {66} Readers curious in crystal-gazing will find an interesting sketch of the history of the practice, with many modern instances, in Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. v., p. 486, by "Miss X.". There are also experiments by Lord Stanhope and Dr. Gregory in Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism, p. 370 (1851). It is said that, as sights may be seen in a glass ball, so articulate voices, by a similar illusion, can be heard in a sea shell, when "It remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there". {68} A set of scientific men, as Lelut and Lombroso, seem to think that a hallucination stamps a man as mad . Napoleon, Socrates, Pascal, Jeanne d'Arc, Luther were all lunatics. They had lucid intervals of considerable duration, and the belief in their lunacy is peculiar to a small school of writers. {69a} A crowd of phantom coaches will be found in Messrs. Myers and Gurney's Phantasms of the Living. {69b} See The Slaying of Sergeant Davies of Guise's. {70} Principles of Psychology, by Prof. James of Harvard, vol. ii., p. 612. Charcot is one of sixteen witnesses cited for the fact. {74} Story written by General Barter, 28th April, 1888. (S.P.R.) Corroborated by Mrs. Barter and Mr. Stewart, to whom General Barter told his adventure at the time. {75} Statement by Mr. F. G., confirmed by his father and brother, who were present when he told his tale first, in St. Louis. S.P.R. Proceedings, vol. vi., p. 17. {76} S.P.R., viii., p. 178. {77} Mrs. M. sent the memorandum to the S.P.R. "March 13, 1886. Have just seen visions on lawn--a soldier in general's uniform, a young lady kneeling to him, 11.40 p.m." {78} S.P.R., viii., p. 178. The real names are intentionally reserved. {80a} Corroborated by Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Elliot nearly fainted. S.P.R., viii., 344-345. {80b} Oddly enough, maniacs have many more hallucinations of hearing than of sight. In sane people the reverse is the case. {82} Anecdote by the lady. Boston Budget, 31st August, 1890. S.P.R., viii., 345. {85a} Tom Sawyer, Detective. {85b} Phantasms of the Living, by Gurney and Myers. {85c} The story is given by Mr. Mountford, one of the seers. {86} Journal of Medical Science, April, 1880, p. 151. {88} Catholic theology recognises, under the name of "Bilocation," the appearance of a person in one place when he is really in another. {91a} Phantasms, ii., pp. 671-677. {91b} Phantasms of the Living. {91c} Mr. E. B. Tylor gives a Maori case in Primitive Culture. Another is in Phantasms, ii., 557. See also Polack's New Zealand for the prevalence of the belief. {92} Gurney, Phantasms, ii., 6. {93} The late Surgeon-Major Armand Leslie, who was killed at the battle of El Teb, communicated the following story to the Daily Telegraph in the autumn of 1881, attesting it with his signature. {95a} This is a remarkably difficult story to believe. "The morning bright and calm" is lit by the rays of the moon. The woman (a Mrs. Gamp) must have rushed past Dr. Leslie. A man who died in Greece or Russia "that morning" would hardly be arrayed in evening dress for burial before 4 a.m. The custom of using goloshes as "hell-shoes" (fastened on the Icelandic dead in the Sagas) needs confirmation. Men are seldom buried in eye-glasses--never in tall white hats.--Phantasms of the Living, ii., 252. {95b} From a memorandum, made by General Birch Reynardson, of an oral communication made to him by Sir John Sherbrooke, one of the two seers. {101} This is an old, but good story. The Rev. Thomas Tilson, minister (non-conforming) of Aylesford, in Kent, sent it on 6th July, 1691, to Baxter for his Certainty of the World of Spirits. The woman Mary Goffe died on 4th June, 1691. Mr. Tilson's informants were her father, speaking on the day after her burial; the nurse, with two corroborative neighbours, on 2nd July; the mother of Mary Goffe; the minister who attended her, and one woman who sat up with her--all "sober intelligent persons". Not many stories have such good evidence in their favour. {103} Phantasms, ii., 528. {111} "That which was published in May, 1683, concerning the Daemon, or Daemons of Spraiton was the extract of a letter from T. C., Esquire, a near neighbour to the place; and though it needed little confirmation further than the credit that the learning and quality of that gentleman had stampt upon it, yet was much of it likewise known to and related by the Reverend Minister of Barnstaple, of the vicinity to Spraiton. Having likewise since had fresh testimonials of the veracity of that relation, and it being at first designed to fill this place, I have thought it not amiss (for the strangeness of it) to print it here a second time, exactly as I had transcribed it then."-- BOVET. {118} Shchapoff case of "The Dancing Devil" and "The Great Amherst Mystery". {121} Additional MSS., British Museum, 27,402, f. 132. {122} Really 1628, unless, indeed, the long-continued appearances began in the year before Buckingham's death; old style. {127} It may fairly be argued, granting the ghost, his advice and his knowledge of a secret known to the countess, that he was a hallucination unconsciously wired on to old Towse by the mind of the anxious countess herself! {129a} Hamilton's Memoirs. {129b} Mrs. Thrale's Diary, 28th November, 1779. {129c} Diary of Lady Mary Coke, 30th November, 1779. {130a} See Phantasms, ii., 586. {130b} The difficulty of knowing whether one is awake or asleep, just about the moment of entering or leaving sleep is notorious. The author, on awaking in a perfectly dark room, has occasionally seen it in a dim light, and has even been aware, or seemed to be aware, of the pattern of the wall paper. In a few moments this effect of light disappears, and all is darkness. This is the confused mental state technically styled "Borderland," a haunt of ghosts, who are really flitting dreams. {131} Life of Lockhart. {132} The author has given authorities in Blackwood's Magazine March, 1895. A Mr. Coulton (not Croker as erroneously stated) published in the Quarterly Review, No. 179, an article to prove that Lyttelton committed suicide, and was Junius. See also the author's Life of Lockhart. {140} A prominent name among the witnesses at the trial. {141} The report of the trial in the Scots Magazine of June, 1754 (magazines appeared at the end of the month), adds nothing of interest. The trial lasted from 7 a.m. of June 11 till 6 a.m. of June 14. The jury deliberated for two hours before arriving at a verdict. {142} Sydney, no date. {144} Phantasms, ii., 586, quoting (apparently) the Buckingham Gazette of the period. {145a} Oddly enough a Mr. William Soutar, of Blairgowrie, tells a ghost story of his own to the S.P.R.! {145b} I put them for convenience at the foot.--W. L. L. {146a} The dogs in all these towns (farms) of Mause are very well accustomed with hunting the fox. {146b} Blair (Blairgowrie) is the kirk-town of that parish, where there is also a weekly market: it lies about a mile below Middle Mause on the same side of the river. {146c} Knockhead is within less than half a mile of Middle Mause, and the Hilltown lies betwixt the two. We see both of them from our window of Craighall House. {148a} This George Soutar died about two or three years ago, and was very well known to William. {148b} The Isle is a spot of ground in the wood of Rychalzie, about a mile above Middle Mause, on the same side of the river. {149a} Glasclune is a gentleman of the name of Blair, whose house lies about three-quarters of a mile south-west from Middle Mause. {149b} He said the voice answered him as if it had been some distance without the door. {150} Besides the length of time since the murder was committed, there is another reason why all the bones were not found, viz., that there is a little burn or brook which had run for the space of twenty years, at least, across upon the place when the bones were found, and would have carried them all away had it not been that the bush, at the side of which they were buried, had turned the force of the stream a little from off that place where they lay, for they were not more than a foot, or at most a foot and a half, under ground, and it is only within these three years that a water-spate has altered the course of the burn. {151} The course of the river (the Ericht) is from north to south. Middle Mause lies on the west side of it, and Craighall on the east. {155a} With reference to the last statement in Mr. Newton's notes see the Journal of Sir Walter Scott (edit., 1891, p. 210) under date 13th June, 1826. {155b} L'Homme Posthume. {155c} Denny's Folklore of China. {156} Story received in a letter from Lieutenant --- of H.M.S gunboat ---. {157} He fought at Culloden, of course for King George, and was appealed to for protection by old Glengarry. {158a} Fox's hole. {158b} How did Inverawe get leave to wear the Highland dress? {160} In every version of the story that I have heard or read Ticonderoga is called St. Louis, and Inverawe was ignorant of its other name. Yet in all the histories of the war that I have seen, the only name given to the place is Ticonderoga. There is no mention of its having a French name. Even if Inverawe knew the fort they were to storm was called Ticonderoga, he cannot have known it when the ghost appeared to him in Scotland. At that time there was not even a fort at Ticonderoga, as the French only erected it in 1756. Inverawe had told his story to friends in Scotland before the war broke out in America, so even if in 1758 he did know the real name of the fort that the expedition was directed against, I don't see that it lessens the interest of the story.--E. A. C. The French really called the place Fort Carillon, which disguised the native name Ticonderoga. See Memoirs of the Chevalier Johnstone.--A. L. {162} Abercromby's force consisted of the 27th, 42nd, 44th, 46th, 55th, and battalions of the 60th Royal Americans, with about 9000 Provincials and a train of artillery. The assault, however, took place before the guns could come up, matters having been hastened by the information that M. de Levy was approaching with 3000 French troops to relieve Ticonderoga garrison. {177a} I know one inveterate ghost produced in an ancient Scottish house by these appliances.--A. L. {177b} Such events are common enough in old tales of haunted houses. {177c} This lady was well known to my friends and to Dr. Ferrier. I also have had the honour to make her acquaintance. {179} Apparently on Thursday morning really. {182} She gave, not for publication, the other real names, here altered to pseudonyms. {186} Phantasms, ii., 202. {188a} Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, i., fascic. 2. {188b} Examples cited in Classical Review, December, 1896, pp. 411, 413. {188c} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 45-116. {189} See "Lord St. Vincent's Story". {190} Anecdote received from the lady. {191} Story at second-hand. {192} See The Standard for summer, 1896. {196} I have once seen this happen, and it is a curious thing to see, when on the other side of the door there is nobody. {198a} S.P.R., iii., 115, and from oral narrative of Mr. and Mrs. Rokeby. In 1885, when the account was published, Mr. Rokeby had not yet seen the lady in grey. Nothing of interest is known about the previous tenants of the house. {198b} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. viii., p. 311. {199} Letter of 31st January, 1884. {200} Six separate signed accounts by other witnesses are given. They add nothing more remarkable than what Miss Morton relates. No account was published till the haunting ceased, for fear of lowering the letting value of Bognor House. {201} Mr. A. H. Millar's Book of Glamis, Scottish History Society. {202} This account is abridged from Mr. Walter Leaf's translation of Aksakoff's Predvestniki Spiritizma, St. Petersburg, 1895. Mr. Aksakoff publishes contemporary letters, certificates from witnesses, and Mr. Akutin's hostile report. It is based on the possibility of imitating the raps, the difficulty of locating them, and the fact that the flying objects were never seen to start. If Mrs. Shchapoff threw them, they might, perhaps, have occasionally been seen to start. S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 298. Precisely similar events occurred in Russian military quarters in 1853. As a quantity of Government property was burned, official inquiries were held. The reports are published by Mr. Aksakoff. The repeated verdict was that no suspicion attached to any subject of the Czar. {205} The same freedom was taken, as has been said, with a lady of the most irreproachable character, a friend of the author, in a haunted house, of the usual sort, in Hammersmith, about 1876. {206} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 49. {212} John Wesley, however, places Hetty as next in seniority to Mary or Molly. We do not certainly know whether Hetty was a child, or a grown-up girl, but, as she always sat up till her father went to bed, the latter is the more probable opinion. As Hetty has been accused of causing the disturbances, her age is a matter of interest. Girls of twelve or thirteen are usually implicated in these affairs. Hetty was probably several years older. {220} 30th January, 1717. {221} Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus, 1726. Preface to part ii., Mompesson's letters. {222} Gentleman's Magazine, November, December, 1872. {223} This happened, to a less degree, in the Wesley case, and is not uncommon in modern instances. The inference seems to be that the noises, like the sights occasionally seen, are hallucinatory, not real. Gentleman's Magazine, Dec., 1872, p. 666. {229} S.P.R. Proceedings, vol. xii., p. 7. {232} Demon Possession in China, p. 399. By the Rev. John L. Nevius, D.D. Forty years a missionary in China. Revel, New York, 1894. {233a} Translated from report of Hsu Chung-ki, Nevius, p. 61. {233b} Nevius, pp. 403-406. {234} Op. cit., p. 415. There are other cases in Mr. Denny's Folklore of China. {239a} The Great Amherst Mystery, by Walter Hubbell. Brentano, New York, 1882. I obtained some additional evidence at first hand published in Longman's Magazine. {239b} The sources for this tale are two Gaelic accounts, one of which is printed in the Gael, vol. vi., p. 142, and the other in the Glenbard Collection of Gaelic Poetry, by the Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair, p. 297 ff. The former was communicated by Mr. D. C. Macpherson from local tradition; the latter was obtained from a tailor, a native of Lochaber, who emigrated to Canada when about thirty years of age. When the story was taken down from his lips in 1885, he was over eighty years old, and died only a few months later. {246} John Arnason, in his Icelandic Folklore and Fairy Tales (vol. i., p. 309), gives the account of this as written by the Sheriff Hans Wium in a letter to Bishop Haldorr Brynjolfsson in the autumn of 1750. {249} Huld, part 3, p. 25, Keykjavik, 1893. {259} As at Amherst! {272} Written out from tradition on 24th May, 1852. The name of the afflicted family is here represented by a pseudonym. {273} From Eyrbyggja Saga, chaps, l.-lv. Froda is the name of a farm on the north side of Snaefell Ness, the great headland which divides the west coast of Iceland. {292} Fact. {299} Cornhill Magazine, 1896. {300} This story should come under the head of "Common Deathbed Wraiths," but, it is such an uncommon one!
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