Animal Ghosts

ations with the unknown, I will commence with a ca

now. Hers was a personality that no lapse of time, nothing could efface; a personality that made itself felt

where for three years-prior to migrating to a Public School-I was well grounded

days were shockingly remunerated-and I know,-poor soul, she had to work monstro

t with us, and even to smile-Heavens! those smiles! And when-I can feel the tingling of my pulses at the bare mention of it-she spoke about herself, stat

lmost as fresh in my mind as when recounted. The one that appealed to me most, and which I have every reason to

ith cut grey stone, it had a majestic though very gloomy appearance, and seen from afar resembled nothing so much as a huge and grotesquely decorated sarcophagus. In the centre of its frowning and menacing front was the device of a cat, constructed out of black shingles, and having white

who experienced the same phenomena in the

he height of four or five stairs; and were pierced, at every floor, with rows of stone-mullioned windows. The flat wall between had larger windows, lighting the great hall, gallery, and upper apartm

in, and contained the winding stairs of the mansion; and whoever ascended

ing clamour of the assaulted casements. When a gale of wind took the building in front,

e corkscrew tails seemed contorted-especially at night-by the last agonies of rage convulsed. The porch doors stood open, except in tremendous weather; the inner ones were regularly shut and barred after all who entered. They led i

h of the hall and house, were sombre and handsome-truss-beams, corbels, girders and panels were of the blackest oak; and the general effect of all this, augmented, if any

can now particularize. Of these portals, one at each end conducted

unfurnished, and generally shut up. I say generally because there were times when either my mother or father-the servants

dark shadows that hung around the ingles and recesses of the rooms

t if I breathed, the whole passage was filled with hoarse reverberating echoes, that, in my affrighted ears, appeared to terminate in a series of mirthless, malevolent chuckles. Once, when fascinated beyond control, I stole on tiptoe along the passage, momentarily expecting a door to fly open and something grim and horrible to pounce out on me, I was brought to a standstill by a loud, clanging noise, as if a pail or some such utensil were set down very roughly on a stone floor. Then there was the sound of rushing footsteps and of someone hastily ascending the cellar staircase. In fearful anticipation as to what I

moned up courage to open my eyes, but when I did so, they alig

low and receding, and the rest of the face too long and narrow. The crown rose to a kind of peak, the ears were pointed and set very low down and far back. The mouth was very cruel and thin-lipped; the teeth were yellow and uneven. There was no hair on the face, but that on the head was red and matted. The eyes were obliquely set, pale blue, and full of an expression so absolutely malignant that every atom of blood in my veins seemed to congeal as I met their gaze. I could

faculties at length reasserting themselves, I turned round and f

ain impelled by a fascination I could not withstand to visit the same quarters. In sickly anticipation of what my eyes would alight on, I stole to the foot of the staircase and peeped cautiou

her go mad or die, something appeared-and, to my utter astonishment, it was a big, black cat! Limping painfully, it came towards me with a curious, gliding motion, and I perceived with a thrill of horror that it had been very cruelly maltreated. One of its eyes looked as if it had been gouged out-its ears were lacerated, w

. Though I did not then associate his death with the apparition of the cat, the latter shocked me muc

icy rush of wind, the door behind me slammed to violently, and a heavy object struck me with great force in the hollow of my back. With a cry of surprise and agony I turned sharply round, and there, lying on the floor, stretched out in the last convulsions of death, was the big black cat, maimed and bleeding as it had been on the previous occasion.

ing into the empty wing, and once again found myself within the haunted precincts. All was just as it had been on the occasion of my las

s crossing one of the rooms to make my exit, when a dark shad

he was hastening home through the fields

e the house and go out into the world to earn our living. We never went there again,

a good many years since I heard it, there is just a possibility of some

r Oxenby, and met, at a garden party, a Mr. and M

sts, and told them I had always

nby, but we have seen and heard such strange things since we have b

drop from the ceiling, and sometimes to be thrown at them. In one of the passages all sorts of queer sounds, such as whinings, meanings, screeches, clangings of pails and rattlings of chains, were heard, whilst something, no one could ever see distinctly,

rd. According to local tradition, handed down through many centuries by word of mouth, the house originally belonged to a knight, who, with his wife, was killed out hunting. He had only one child, a boy of about ten, who became a ward in chancery. The man appointed by the Crown as guardian to this child prov

the murderer and his offspring was the mutilation and boiling of a cat-the particular pet of the young heir, who was compelled to witness the whole revolting process. Years later, a

ardian, whose spirit would be the exact counterpart of his mind. The figure seen, and noises heard in the passage, point to the re-enaction of some tragedy, possibly the murder of the heir, or the slaughter of his cat, in either of which a bucket might easily have

e-has as yet annihilated the possibility of

from

ago, and I know it to be true. I have seen the rooms, etc. in the Old M

. O'D

2,

nimals, I reproduce (by permission of the Editor) the following letters

tt

oth

g till the old cook had succeeded in inducing the grey Persian cat to come in for the night. This was sometimes difficult, and then cook came up

d. "Iona" confirms our description. What I saw seemed dark and shadowy and yet unmistakably a cat. It seemed to me like the predecessor of Kitty, which was a black Persian; he had the same habit of coming in at night by

ane

tt

n Mulle

when cook came in to ask for Kitty (a silver-grey Persian cat) to settle him in the kitc

in, followed by cook, it struck me that the dark something could not have been Kitty, and Thanet and Iona made the remark simultaneously. Now we began to look for the dark one all

üg

tt

te the accounts written

ottage piano. I exclaimed simultaneously with my friends "What was that?" and shared their surpris

on

tt

Kit

could induce Kitty to sleep in his basket, and one day he would not eat any food in the kitchen, and his meals had to be given him outside. So I went down to please cook. Kitty was picked up, and while cook petted and stroked him, she knelt down and opened the cupboard. Kitty, stretch

n nursing when he was dying. "Oh, poor thing, when he was ill, he would creep into dark corners, so I put him in his basket into

üg

tt

ies's Story-A

rience at the age of four yea

ficient at the sport than the boy. When the cat died we none of us dared to break the news to the child, and were much surprised when he asked us to say why his cat only came to play with him

is grandfather came into his room, and stood at the front of his bed. At the very moment, the former had a seizure in his carriage while driving through the streets of Birmingham, from which he died without regaining consciousness;

nst

tt

's Story-"The O

iciently confident about her English to attempt to put down anything for publ

a favourite cat which was devoted to her, but its attachment doesn't seem to have been enough to make her happy, for she married a young sergeant named Lautenschlager, who might have been her son-or indeed her grandson-and who, as everyone said, courted her for her money. She died as long ago as 1869, and during her last illness the devoted cat was always with her.

ried on the business, and every day Lautenschlager used to walk over from Steinbach to see how she was getting on, returning in the evening to his wife, who used to relate to my mother that he frequently came home terrified an

and in its place he now had a considerable draper's shop in Michelstadt. He continued to walk over from Steinbach, where now the third w

the supernatural powers were treating him very hardly, and subjecting him to a real persecution. I have only the conversation of his wife and the gossip of the village to vouch for his sincerity, and the genuineness of the apparition is supported only by Lautenschlager's word, but his evident anger and agitation were accepted as genuine, and no one dreamed of doubt

years, and it made a marked change in his character. He became serious, and during the latter part

lin

tt

ral Fox

I had been seated only a few minutes when a little pug-dog of hers looked up in the dire

is he looking a

, and would never have known had he not, as I afterwards found, died out there. This is not only a case of the appearance of an animal after death, but also a case in which it was seen by another animal, as also by the medium. I am also told that the pug-dog who had this vision of my dog was once seen to pounce upon wh

" (M.

tt

Car, but walks in

go up the steps in front of me, as plain as I ever saw him in my life. It seemed he knew that I had taught him he must not go in the front way, because he would go a few steps and then turn round and look at me, as though he wanted to see how I was taking it, and I positively saw him go to th

n, your

jil

pson, Chicago,

tt

ylor's Experien

t lying on the sofa a short distance from where I sat. Suddenly I saw on my knee a large red and whit

iend, and in the end he shared the usual fate of pet

rned to me, and walked along the sofa to where our present cat, "Kim," was asleep. The spirit cat, with a look of almost human fun, patted Kim's head, the latter awaking with a start. Rufie-Oofie continued to make playful dabs at Kim's ears, Kim following each movement with glaring eyes, distinctly seeing and rea

jün

ter

i

hological experiences with

lying in my room the doctor insisted on her being destroyed. I felt that her life was no pleasure to her, and she was killed with chloroform. Three days afterwards in the afternoon I heard her come upstairs with her dragging hind-leg. I heard her steps com

n came from my own subconscious mind. I never saw the aura of a human being, but I once had a kind of vision of this dog, which experts have told me was her aura. I was sitting by the fire, somewhat somnolent, and he was lying on the hearthrug. All at once his golden brown coat disappeared, and I saw a mass of reddish brown or perhaps I should say brownish red, and on one s

for a week, that he was too weak to stand, and that if he were hers, she would have him put out of his misery at once. I wrote at once to the vet, telling him to telegraph "Curable" or "Hopeless," and to act accordingly. Meanwhile, I sat that afternoon in the Bürgerpark by myself and imagined the dog upon my lap, and myself stroking and healing him. After this I found myse

e Zail

veracity of which I have eve

o.- Lower Seedley Roa

e time a tenant of No. -- Lower Seedley Road, Seedley.

generality of solicitors, I am stodgy and unimaginative, whilst my wife is the most practical and matter-of-fact little woman you would meet in a day's march. Nor was there anything about the house that in any way suggested the su

this wise. I will q

bed. We had no light in the room-as Dick had a headache-save the fire, and that had burned so low that its feeble glimmering scarcely enabled us to see each other's face.

bout this room to-night-something in the atmosphere I cannot define, but which

stump Dick had had in his mouth, but an eye-a large, red and lur

ve our gaze from the hellish thing, we sat glued to our chairs staring at it. This state of affairs lasted till the clock in the hall

he electric light on in his room all night. Tremendous extravagance, but un

l noises on the landing, just as if a cat were being worried to death by dogs. Hark! there it is again.' And as she s

tige of any animal was to be seen. Moreover all the doors leading into the garden were shut and locked, and the windows closed. Not wishing to frighten Delia, I laughingly assured her the cat-a black Tom-was all right, that it was sitting on the roof of the summer-house, looking none the worse for its treatment, and that I

g down the stairs past me, and on peering over the banisters, I saw, looking up at me from the well of darkness beneath, two big red eyes, the counterparts of the one Dick and I had seen on October 11th. I threw a matchbo

at the time, flung them anywhere, and springing to her feet, flew to the spare room. The door was shut, but proceeding from within was the most appalling pandemonium of screeches and snarls, just as if some dog had got hold of a cat by the neck and was shaking it t

ames Barstow, retired oil merchant, to-day.

hing in the corner and wondering if it was a mouse-I ain't a bit afraid of mice, mum-I sat up in bed and was getting ready to strike a light-the matchbox was in my hand-when something heavy sprang right on the top of me and gave a loud growl in my ear. That finished me, mum-I fainted. When I came to myself, I was too frightened to stir, but lay with my head under the blankets till it was time to get u

ething fell into the bath with a loud splash. I turned to see what it was-

e Scriptures, when Dot-she is six to-day-came running up to me with a very scared expression in her eyes. 'Father,' she cried, plucking me by the sleeve, 'do hurry up. Mother is very ill.' Full of dreadful ant

occasions. No cat coming out and the mewing still continuing, I knelt down and peered under the sofa. There was no cat there. Had it been night I should have been very much afraid, but I could scarcely reconcile myself to the idea of ghosts with the room filled with sunshine. Resuming my seat I went on with my writing, but not for long. The mewing grew nearer. I distinctly heard something crawl out from under the sofa; there was then a pause, during which

ed everywhere-till I was worn out, for I know what Delia is-and was leaving the premises in full anticipation of being sent back again, when there was a loud commotion in the hall, just as if a dog had suddenly pounced on a cat, and the next moment a large tabby, with the head hewn away as Delia had described, rushed up to me and trie

the most outrageous fashion, even to the extent of encouraging him in acts of cruelty. To afford him amusement they used to buy rats for his dog-a fox-terrier-to worry, and on one occasion procured a stray cat, which the servants afterwards declared was mangled in the most shocking manner before being fin

t on t

Crowe narrates the following case of

s. M., "but as it is the only circumstance of the kind that ever happened

e habit of driving about the park and neighbourhood in a low pony phaeton, on which occasions I often accompanied him. One of our favourite excursions was to t

to a gate that led into a field. It was a common country gate with a post on each side, and on one of these posts sat a large white cat, the finest animal of the kind I had ever seen; and as I have a weakness for cats I stopped to admire this s

h a magnificent cat!' for I feared the approach of th

pulling up his hors

post. 'Isn't he a beauty? I wond

no cat,'

red he saw nothing, though puss sat there

James?' said I in great

large white ca

ms and carry it to the carriage; but as I drew near she jumped off the post, which was natural enough, but to my sur

id she go

her,' said the groom, standing up

d when I got into the carriage again my friend said he thought I and Ja

erdasher's; and while they were serving me I mentioned that I had seen a remarkably beautiful cat sitting on a

urchases, suspended their proceedings, looked at each ot

cat, ma'am?' sa

cat; a beautifu

lady's seen the white cat of C--. It

l soon be done, ma'am. The pony

, telling my friend that the cat was well known to

approached it turned its head and looked full towards me with its soft mild eyes, and a friendly expression, like that of a loving dog; and then, without moving from the post, it began to fade gradually away, as if it were a vapour, till it had quite disappeared. All this the groom saw as well as myself; and now there could b

was acquainted with that neighbourhood, and she said she

e, and after perusing the authoress's preface to

c Propert

tate of affairs may possibly be accounted for by the fact that cats, more than any other animals that live in houses, meet with sudden and unnatural ends, especially in the poorer districts, where the doctrine of kindness to animals has not a

at animal figured in the temples of the sun and moon, respectively, in ancient Egypt. According to Horapollo, the cat was worshipped in the T

because it loves warmth, but because the sun keeps off terrifying and antagonistic occult forces, to the influences of which the cat, above all other animals, is specially susceptible; a fact fully recognized by the Egyptians,

d spookism. The nocturnal habits of the cat, its love of prowling about during moonlight hours, and the spectacle of its two round, gleaming eyes, may, of course, as Plutarch seems to have thought, have suggested to the Egypti

ave proved to my own satisfaction, at least, that the

strates its advent, the dog, occasionally, is wholly undisturbed-the cat never. I have never yet had a cat with me th

ve that the moon most certainly does influence them-that moonlight nights are much more favourable to ghostly appearances than other nights. Hence-there is this much in common between the moon

ss the cat in the land of the Pharaohs. It seems to be inseparable from the esoteric side of Egyptian life. The go

e picture of all things strange and psychic, and from whom one cannot help supposing he may have chosen his occult inspiration-at his feet. So sure were the Egyptians that the cat possessed a soul that they deemed it worthy of the same funeral rites they bestowed on man.

eril. No one of them appreciated the cat and set a higher value on its mystic properties than the Sultan El-Daher-Beybas, who reigned in A.D. 1260, and has been compared with William of Tripoli for his courage, and with Nero for his cruelty. El-Daher-Beybas kept his palace swarming with cats, and-if we may give credence to tradition-

ejudice against these unfortunate animals on this account, that all through the Middle Ages we find them suffering such barbaric torture as only the perverted minds of a fanatical, priest-ridden p

ere was ever the remotest truth underlying these so-called phantastic suppositions of the past; yet, according to reliable testimony, there are, at the present moment, many houses in England haunted by phantasms in the form of black cats, of so sinister and hostile an appearance, that one can only assume that unless they are the actual spirits of cats, e

tune. Not a person in Normandy but believed, at one time, that the spectacle of a tortoiseshell cat, climbing a tree, foretold death from accident, and that a black cat crossing one's path, in the moonlight, presaged death from an epidemic. Two black cats viewed in the open between 4 and 7 a.m. were generally believed to predict a death; whereas a strange white cat, heard mewing on a doorstep, was loudly welcomed as the indicat

spit before a slow fire, and as soon as the wretched animal was well roasted, another took its place; victims being supplied without intermission, until their vociferous screams brought to the scene a number of ghostly cats who joined in the chorus. The desired climax was reached, when an enormous phantom cat suddenly appeared, and informed the operator that it was willing to grant him any one request if he would only refrain from his c

gers, or otherwise maltreating himself, as being unkind to an animal of this species. In the fairy lore of half Europe we have instances of luck-bringing cats-each country producing its own vers

that brought it into affinity and sympathy with the supernatural-or to quote the up-to-date term-superp

do this in the same manner as the shark, crow, owl, jackal, hyena, etc., viz. by their abnormally developed sense of smell. My own and other people's experience has led me to believe that when a person is about to die, some kind of ph

ome people, too, have this faculty. In a recent murder case, in the North of England, a rustic witness gave it in her evidence that she was sure a tragedy was abou

ce, unable to settle in any one spot for any length of time, had frequent fits of shivering, gone to the door, sniffed the at

xplain certain of the superstitions respecting them. Take, fo

it scents the phantom of death, and

associated with that person; and it is in connection with the latter that the spirit of the grave is present, employin

ertainty, the power to presage good fortune, simply because I have had no experience of it myself. Yet, ad

presentative of death; they, too, may also have some distinguishing scent (flowers have various od

hantoms, distinguishable also to the cat by their smell, a smell typical of cruelty-often of homicidal lunacy (I have particularly noticed how cats have shrunk from people who have afterwards become dangerously insane). Is this sense of smell, then, the keynote to the halo of mystery that has for all times surrounded the cat-that has led to its bitter persecution-that has made it the hero of fairy lore, the pet of old maids? I believe it is-I believe that in this psychic faculty of smell lies, in degree, the solution to the oft-asked riddle-why is the cat uncanny? Having then satisfied oneself on this point, namely, that cats are in the possession of rare psychic properties, is it likely that