Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This account of a particularly lively poltergeist appeared in the “Edmonton Journal,” August 15, 1939:

The Germans have a word for it; so have the Africans of the West Indies. The disciples of Herr Hitler call it "poltergeist"; the children of Mother Africa speak of it in awesome breath as "duppy" or "duppy 'pon de 'ouse.' The German word "poltergeist" is made up of the words "polter" meaning noisy and "geiste" meaning spirits. A "duppy." to the West Indian negro, is the ghost or spirit of one who has departed this life which returns to earth to avenge the wrongs to its corporeal master, But as to whether such uncanny events as are ascribed to "duppy 'pon de 'ouse" or poltergeist are occult, psychic or plain human prankstering, who can tell? Certainly, His Honor the Acting Magistrate who presided over the court in that weird and mysterious case in Grenada on a day in January in 1935 was as frankly mystified as anyone else who had listened to the two days' hearing of evidence. One witness after another including a police detective detailed to the case had corroborated a macabre story of ghostly goings on. The case was typical of many others of its kind in the West Indies.

It had started one night at around seven o'clock when the mother, two daughters and grandchild who lived together in a little house had been startled out of their wits by hearing stones falling on the roof of their home. Surprised and puzzled they had gone to the windows and looked out to see if by chance it had been a joke or the act of some mischievous person. In the meanwhile, queer things were happening inside the house. Entering one of the rooms one of the women was petrified with fear when a table suddenly advanced by itself towards her; as it did so, a chair following suit made two or three jumps in her direction. Elsewhere in the house a heavy iron moved itself along a shelf and a picture or two just left the wall and fell on the floor. All the while the stones continued to fall on the roof until at midnight they stopped as suddenly as they had begun.

The women cowered in fear in the darkness until daylight, the girl claiming to see strange people moving around in the house, who, however, were not visible to the others. The next morning they reported the matter to the police and that night several detectives were sent to investigate. Secreting themselves in the surroundings they waited and watched. They did not have to wait long. Suddenly the quiet of the night was broken with the steady thud of stones falling on the roof of the house.

Evidence was given that the detectives searched the grounds and surroundings but could find no one around. Again the little girl claimed to see the mysterious figure in white. The detectives went to the spot she pointed but could find no one although she claimed the figure was still standing there. The detective relates that one morning he went to the house and removed the stones from the roof and just as he had finished doing so the girl pointed to the roof and said she saw a man sitting there holding a parcel. Looking in the direction he could see no one but going to the spot which, by the way, he had just cleared off, he picked up a parcel which he found contained a script, a bottle containing some liquid and some loose powder which he turned over to the Chief Police.

The detective also states that while was in the house a stone came through the roof without leaving a hole and fell at his feet. The evidence of the detective corroborated practically in every detail that given by the mother, her daughters and grandchild and some of the crowd who had been attracted to the scene by curiosity. To cut a long story short these weird happenings continued nightly for several weeks. The mother relates that to propitiate the spirits she made a 'sacrifice.' This probably was in the form of a salacca, a mixture feast and 'burnt offering' practised by the more primitive and superstitious among the natives of this island. Apparently the spirits refused to be bought off so easily and the stone pelting and other queer doings continued.

Terrified, the occupants took refuge elsewhere visiting their home only in daylight. And then one night the house mysteriously took fire and dissolved away in flames. It was at the ensuing court of enquiry to investigate the source and origin of the fire that the amazing evidence recorded above was produced; and it was no wonder, indeed, that presiding magistrate decided that "no evidence could be found as to the cause or origin of fire."

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

What’s the Christmas season without a ghost or two?  The “Bristol Mercury,” January 13, 1823:

To the Editor of the Bristol Mercury. 

Sir--In my present excursions in this country, 

Through land of leeks, with Welshmen sped, 

From Afon Gwy to Dewi's Head, 

I may be enabled to send you some occasional communications if you think proper to find a corner in your Demi Cambrian Paper. 

A most extraordinary sensation has been lately excited in the village of Llandoga, midway between Chepstow and Monmonth. 

"The windows shake, the drawers crack, 

Each thinks that Nick's behind his back,

And hitches to the fire.”

On the 31st Dec. last, the house of Wm. Edwards, formerly a local preacher in the Wesleyan connexion, but now estranged from that society, was beset by some (as it is said) invisible spirit, which so violently disturbed the man and his family, by demolishing his earthen-ware, and breaking his glasses, in such unfriendly and unneighbourly manner, that he was obliged to remove to another house, farther up the village, when lo! this crockery-destroying demon pursued his victim to the new residence, and as he had acted on the last day of 1822, so he commenced on the first day of 1823 by kicking the remainder of the perishable furniture down the stairs, and other strange whims, almost too comical for the old gentleman or his imps to enact. On my passing through this village on Tuesday last, I endeavoured to catch the floating opinions of men's minds, of which the following is an epitome.

1. Mr. Edwards is of the opinion that it is the buffeting of Satan, on his determination to become a new man, and to enter again into a state of warfare with that enemy of mankind. 

2. A native of the diocese of St. David's will have it, that the preacher has sometime or other promised a ghost or sprite to meet it, in order to the discovery of hidden treasure, and that he has omitted, or forgotten his appointment. 

3. But some respectable informants there, are convinced that this affair forms a fit sequel to, or a triad with that of Ann Moore, the Tetbury Fasting Impostor, and Scratching Fanny, the Cocklane Ghost. 

An inquiring and well-informed public expects that Mr. Edwards will illustrate, if he can, for it certainly is a scandalous imposition of someone, but I will not say who, for fear of mistakes.

Mr. Editor, you will please to observe these are not the crudities of Tom Coryate, but of real events occurring in the travels of your old correspondent. 

THOMAS TICKLE. Jan. 9, 1825.

The Glidewell Ghost

"Louisville Courier-Journal," March 30, 1887, via Newspapers.com

Ghosts always have a way of popping up when you least expect them.  One of the most baffling aspects of poltergeist activity is its usual lack of any obvious "trigger" or underlying cause.  Life for its victims is perfectly normal one minute, awash in The Weird the next.  One prime example took place in Bucksville, Kentucky, in 1887.

The household of farmer Samuel H. Glidewell was utterly ordinary until one day early in March.  The first intimation that something was very, very out-of-the-ordinary came when the Glidewell daughters noticed that all the sheets and blankets had been removed from the beds and packed in a box upstairs.  This happened so repeatedly that for several days, the family was forced to keep a continuous watch on the upper rooms.  No one was seen, but the mysterious stripping of the beds somehow continued.  The minute the bedrooms were left unguarded, the bedclothing  would be removed and folded away.  Then, inexplicable streams of water would occasionally run across the rafters.  The family could only conclude that a monkey had escaped from some circus and could find nothing better to do than pack bedding and throw water about.  However, a minute search of the upstairs failed to uncover a monkey, or anyone else for that matter.

Their invisible visitor began to show more blatant hostility.  A plank was removed from the upstairs floor, and old boots and shoes were hurled at the occupants of the lower rooms.  Again, no person or animal could be found.  At night, the Glidewells could hear eerie sounds coming from upstairs, which sounded like the labored breathing of someone who was dying.  If anyone went up to investigate, on their return they would hear a sound of something heavy falling on the steps just behind them.  Furniture would somehow appear and disappear inside of locked rooms.  Perhaps most unsettlingly, one morning Glidewell's son noticed that his gun was missing from his bedroom.  It was eventually found in the adjoining room, with the hammer pulled back.

Not knowing what else to do, Glidewell called in the neighbors to see if any of them could get to the bottom of all this.  Two of them, described as "reliable men as can be found," went upstairs.  They too failed to see anything, but others waiting below suddenly found themselves drenched with water--water that came from no evident source.  These mysterious showers continued.  Without warning, people inside the house would have water fall on them, and others in the room could never see it fall.  A boy who came to see the now locally famed "ghost" ran into a closet to avoid getting drenched.  As anyone who knows the ways of spooks could have predicted, a stream of water cascaded down, soaking him to the skin.

The poltergeist continued to expand its repertoire.  It tore up carpets.  It continued to move furniture around.  On one occasion, a roaring fire was discovered in a securely locked room that had not been opened for years.  One night, the family was awakened by the sounds of violin music and dancing coming from that same locked room.  When the Glidewells finally worked up the courage to enter the room, nothing was found except a candle, which had just nearly burned to the bottom.  The next night, at the stroke of twelve, loud peals of laughter were heard coming from a closet under the staircase.  When one onlooker nervously opened the closet door and peeked inside, he was nearly drowned with a deluge of icy cold water, which was accompanied by more bursts of ghostly laughter.  The following morning when the family entered the dining room, they were greeted by a skull and crossbones at the head of the table.  At each plate was a small sprig of cedar.  [Note: Cedars, known as "burial trees," have a long folkloric connection to cemeteries and various death-related superstitions.  It's an easy guess that these sprigs were not intended to convey anything cheery to the Glidewells.]

This was the last straw for the beleaguered family.  They immediately abandoned the house, taking refuge with a neighbor.  While they were moving out their household goods, the table and chairs suddenly began dancing around the room.  When one of the Glidewells tried grabbing a chair, he received a shock as if from an electric battery.  This was followed by another peal of the sinister laughter.  

The local marshal, accompanied by a posse of armed men, did a prolonged search of the house.  They heard many strange noises, all interspersed with the bursts of mocking laughter, but could find no "rational" explanation for the phenomena.  They left puzzled, exhausted, and not a little unnerved.  

Unfortunately for the Glidewells, their ghost had no wish to be left behind.  It was obviously enjoying their company.  When they moved, so did the spirit, along with its usual bag of tricks.  In their new abode, the family heard the now-familiar demonic laughter and endured the now-familiar drenchings of cold water. One morning, they found that their milk supply had been replaced with a foul-smelling fluid.  On another occasion, the oil was removed from the lamps and replaced with this same repulsive liquid. Doors that had been left securely locked were found wide open.  The mysterious moving of furniture was so frequent as to become practically commonplace.

The strangest event of all took place in the new house.  One night, Mr. Glidewell was just dropping off to sleep when he was suddenly jerked wide awake by...something.  He had not heard or seen anything, but he realized there was some other presence in the room.  In a moment, a pale, bluish light became visible.   It seemed to radiate from outside the house.  When he cautiously crept to the window, he saw, about ten steps away, a ball of pale blue flame about three inches in diameter hovering several feet off the ground.  As he stared at the object, it began to wave to and fro, emitting a strange, flute-like music.  Then, the air around him was filled with an odd perfume, one so overpowering it caused him to collapse on the bed unconscious.  When Glidewell came to the next morning, he found that a wet, blood-red handkerchief of fine fabric, with the initial "U" embroidered in black silk, had been placed upon his forehead.  Although the handkerchief was exhibited to hundreds of curious onlookers, no one could identify it.

Poor Mr. Glidewell was psychologically destroyed by this experience.  It was reported that his "nervous system is shattered and it is feared that total derangement of the mind will speedily follow."  He was desperate to sell his property and move out of state--taking care not to leave the ghost his forwarding address--but he could find no one willing to take the "ghoul-disturbed" place at any price.  After this item, the story seems to have dropped out of the newspapers, so I cannot say when--or if--the Glidewells were finally rid of their persecution.

A man who had drowned many years previously was buried in what eventually became Glidewell's garden.  It was speculated that this man's spirit resented having his eternal rest disturbed, and so was taking a supernatural revenge against the interloping family.  Others suggested it was the spirit of a young girl who had committed suicide in the house in 1869, a short time before the Glidewells moved in.  Those remained only theories, of course.

It is notoriously difficult to get a straight answer out of a poltergeist.

The Poltergeist of Cambridge Castle

Cambridge Castle, 1730

Simon Ockley was Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge from 1711 until his death in 1720.  In 1718, he was briefly imprisoned in Cambridge Castle for debt, where his enforced stay was enlivened by the company of what we would today call a poltergeist.   Our sole source for Ockley’s brush with The Weird are from a series of letters he wrote to a “Dr. Keith” about the experience:

CAMBRIDGE, MAY 6th, 1718.

Sir,

I do not remember myself to have been worse in my whole lifetime than I was on Sunday last when to mend the matter I was plagued all night with a Caccodæmon that infests our castle after a very strange manner. He did not suffer me to get one wink of rest till after broad daylight, and not much then, for he is verily as troublesome in the day as the night at certain times.

I know these things are exploded as mere Chimeras in this (si Dus placet) discerning age; but they must give me leave to trust to my own experience rather than to their Cui bonos.

I felt him moving under the bed and heaving it up. I waited the event, whilst he entertained me with variety of sounds and capricious troublesome motions in different parts of the room. At last he gave such an explosion under the bed as seem'd to sound in my ears as loud as the largest cannon, and rais'd both me and the bed with the force of it.

I soon after heard him tapping at the top of my bed's head. I asked him what we were to have next? Immediately he flew through the boards that separate my bed chamber from the next room, and returned again with such violence that you would have imagined that he had shivered them all to pieces. Then giving a slight tap in the midst of a great boarded wooden chair that stands close by my bed's head, he seem'd to make such a noise as when a great cat leaps down upon the boards, but withall so hollow as if all his body except his feet had been made of copper. I look'd for him instantly, the moon shining very bright, but there was no appearance; then moving a little while at a distance he returned to his old tricks again.

Once he was whisking about in the corner of the room and made such a noise suppose as a cat would do playing with a piece of paper. I snatched the curtain immediately to see him, which he took so ill that I thought my great wooden chair had been coming directly at me; such a suddain terrible jarring noise did he make with it.

So civil he is that tho' the parlour where I live all the daytime is a good bow's shot distance from the chamber where I lodge, yet he now and then makes me a visit here; and not long since I was talking to an honest man about him, who is not over credulous in such cases, he made a proselyte of him at once by giving such a bounce as seem’d to shake the whole room and almost to blow me and my chair quite away, tho’ I could never perceive anything stir.

Yesterday about one o'clock he entertain'd us with a multitude of hollow thumps exactly resembling the fire of cannon at a distance. In the afternoon it was more like thunder.

The last night I design'd to entertain him by candle light, but perceiving that some people in the street had got a notion that I was going to conjure down a spirit, and besides that he was not so active as in the dark; to humour him in his own way I put out my candle and put myself in a posture for his reception. The first I heard of him was a leap from the windows like a cat; then the noise of two able threshers upon a boarded floor. Afterwards he twisted a long line making the same noise that the ropemakers do. He whistles admirably well and drives a cart or a gang of packhorses. I have heard the sound of the bells as distinctly as ever I did in my life. After he had entertained me thus for a while, I having rebuked him after such a manner as I thought most proper, I was resolved to endeavour to compose myself to sleep in spite of him which I did, but he would not let me rest long.

I fancy there is a gang of them, or else he is like the Old Man in Scarron's comical Romance, that used to act three parts at once viz.: the King. the Queen and the ambasadour.

But, after all it is no laughing matter. I am sure I do not find it so. It is exceedingly troublesome and terrible. There is something in the nature of those separated beings so different from flesh and blood as make their too near approach almost insupportable. God preserve us all from the Malignant influences of infernal powers for the sake of our blessed Lord the Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday my daughter was here, and having confess'd that there were unaccountable sounds, she wished they were louder. The spirit did not stay a great while before he gratified her request, and gave us a peal like thunder.

If anyone doubts the truth of this I am ready to resign my chamber to him with all my heart.

S. OCKLEY.

Ockley wrote to Keith again on May 23rd: 

Dear Sir,

I perceive you are under a mistake. You are not aware how much I converse in my thoughts with the invisible world. I never make any ostentation of it, for if I ever mention anything that goes any farther than Mathematical demonstration our people know just as much of it as I do about the situation of the cities in the moon. But you are a Gentleman to whom I have such obligations that it is not, nor ought to be, in my power to refuse you anything; but notwithstanding all those obligations were they ten times greater, they should not induce me to communicate anything of this kind, unless I had that same assurance that I have of your being thoroughly qualified to judge of things of this nature.

Whether or no the spirit haunts the castle I am not certain. I believ'd so at first, but this I am fully assured of, that his last visit was a particular Dispensation of Providence to me.

I have heard him make noises at a distance some months ago. I am not so acquainted with things of that nature as not to be able to distinguish those sounds from any other. I oftentimes said there was a spirit and was of course as often laughed at.

But once (I believe about 3 weeks ago) I had sent the keeper on an errand, it was about 9 o'clock at night, and my candle stood burning by my bedside, I heard upon the wall distinct rappings as if they had been upon wainscot; I anticipated your good advice. I recollected my spirits and resigned myself into the hands of the Father of Spirits under the protection of his blessed Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I knew very well that that was but the beginning, and lived in constant expectation to hear more of it, which I did frequently; and the reason why I gave you a particular account of Sunday night was because it was the most remarkable.

I was indeed of your opinion first. I took it to be an uneasy departed spirit, and thought it an act of charity to assist it; but all my labour was lost; I had no remedy left but fervent prayer, in which I spent the greater part of the night.

Not that I was scared, for I defye anyone to convict me of anything that ever looked like cowardice,* if I have any fault with relation to such matters it lyes in the other extreme.

N. B. So far as the asterisk was written as soon as I received your letter, since which time I have been under such a feaverish indisposition as has made me incapable of anything and perfectly listless. I slept well for two or three nights and began to recover my strength and spirits but they must of necessity decay again unless my troublesome guest, as you very properly call him, either leave this habitation, or I be removed to another. He is come back again as it were with double force; for these two last nights he has exercised me incessantly from ten till after four in the morning. Last night he gave near I believe an hundred strokes in the next room to me as loud as men make when they are rendering timber or breaking down wainscot! besides variety of rappings, hideous, hollow, inarticulate voices, besides several other inimitable sounds. This morning between three and four a'clock he was very busy in rubbing down a long table that stands in my room, and as he was whisking about, he now and then stumpt like one that has a wooden leg. You seem, Sir, to think that he is a ludicrous spirit, and that therefore he is never to be entertain'd or subdued in that way. I never did entertain him in that way, nor did he ever give me any reason.

I cannot yet be persuaded that he is a ludicrous spirit, nor the Soul of any person deceased. At present I take him to be a malignant evil Genius, of the same sort that I met with in Hand Alley, for the sounds and his manner are very much the same.

Nobody heard him but myself last night, and let me have been in never so great distress, I could neither have awakened any of them, nor have been able to gone out of my room.

I believe he would speak but cannot. I have thought sometimes to lay hold of some of his hollow tones but never could to any certainty. Whatsoever he is I do not desire to be farther informed by such conversation. If he is in any distress, nobody more ready than myself to serve him; but I do not desire he should distress me, which he do's exceedingly by robbing me of my rest, and exercising and debilitating my spirits. I have spoken to him several times, but he never returned a syllable of answer--a week's more such exercise would reduce me to a very bad condition.

S. OCKLEY.

Soon after this letter was written, Ockley was released and returned to his home at Swavesey.  However his supernatural troubles were not over.  On July 6th, he wrote to Keith from Swavesey:

Dear Sir,

You ask me, Sir, whether my spirit has left me or not. I cannot say that he has. About an hour ago my second daughter and I sitting in the kitchen, I heard a very great noise above stairs. Now you are to understand that I am a man the most impatient of noise of any man breathing. I took it for granted that the maid had been cleaning the rooms or making a bed, and had flung something about by accident, but having occasion to go upstairs I found the coast clear, and upon enquiry was inform'd that the maid was sent on an errand; all the rooms were immediately search'd, no cat, no dog, nothing visible.

I cannot close my letter before I acquaint you with one memoir relating to the spirit in Cambridge Castle. One night when all the prisoners were lock'd up in their rooms except two or three innocents, I had occasion to go to the house of office. As soon as I sat down and placed my candle on my left hand, the spirit came down with such force as you would have imagined would have dashed the whole partition to pieces. Such things are so far from diminishing my courage that they encrease it, for immediately I summon up all my spirits, and make the most regular Christian opposition that I am able, but as I have told you before I am not able to bear the influence of their vehicles, and I owe my present indisposition to that malignant power (so much by way of parenthesis). I immediately snatch'd up my candle in one hand, and opened the door with the other, but nothing appeared.

I knew very well that there was none of the prisoners could or would impose on me, for tho' I do not design to make going to Jayl a habit, yet common sense taught me to secure the friendship of the most impudent fellow in the crew. I hate mortally to have a piss-pot emptied upon my head, and then be answered that nobody did it. He would not I'm sure play any tricks with me because I was his best friend; besides if he would he could not, for I defye all mortal powers to impose upon me in such a case.

The sounds that those spirits make are inimitable, and their accursed Influence is supportable. However, I went up and ask'd him why he made such a noise (tho' I knew it was not he, but I was resolved to be thoroughly satisfied). The poor man was asleep, but upon my awaking him he answered that he had made no noise but had been composing himself to rest ever since he came to bed. I then took more particular notice of the building and observed that it was impossible for any of the prisoners (considering the situation of their lodgings) to have made any such noise in that place. I wrapt myself up in my gown and went thither again on purpose to see whether he would return. As soon as I was sat down he came with the same force, and gave such a jar to the door as if a man had kick'd at it with the utmost force. I saw the door jarr, as I did the first time, and opened it as quick as I could, but finding nothing went to bed. S. OCKLEY.

Dr. Keith replied on July 12th:

Rev. and Dear Sir,

I received your very acceptable letter of the 6th and rejoyced to see it dated from Swavesey. I am sorry first of all to hear of your indisposition and listlessness and especially of the weakness and tremor of your nerves. I shall set down a prescription or two at the end of this, which I desire you would use for about ten days or a fortnight. You may send for the powders mentioned in the first in two little vials, and weigh out 15 grains of each in the morning and evening when you take them. They will be the more effectual if you will add 5 grains of the Sal Succini to them, and therefore you may get one dram of this in a vial too. When you have weighed out of the powders mix them in a little conserve of Rosemary flowers, and take it by way of Bolus, drinking a cupfull of sage or sassafras tea after it. Tho' you don't mention any disorder in your stomach yet I think it fit to order a general litter for you in order to help your digestion, which I reckon to be one-half of the cure. If you hav't an honest Apothecary that's your friend your daughter may get the ingredients and boil them at home, and also the two waters to add to the liquor when it is strained out and cold. I pray God to give his blessing that they may be a means of your recovery. When you are in any tolerable condition to use it, I would recommend to you gentle exercise, and especially riding on horse-back.

In the next place I cannot but lament the negligence and imprudence of your friends both at Oxford and Cambridge, and indeed am at a loss how to account for either. In the meantime, you must take a good heart and do the best you can. And I hope you will especially since now you will be easier at home than ever. For I reckon the noise and disturbance that may come from the other spirit will be in all respects less sensible. cribed the whole of your three letters on the subject of the spirit in Cambridge Castle, and have here enclos'd them to be communicated to his Lordship at your leisure. I have not heard the least syllable of that of Hand Alley a great while. I often pass by the house and see it is still inhabited.

I remain very heartily, 

 Rev. Sir, 

Your sincere humble servant, JAMES KEΙΤΗ. 

We know nothing more about Ockley’s spectral visitor.  The professor died at Swavesey on August 9th, 1720.

Malekin of Dagworth Hall

Dagworth Hall as it looks today

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, medieval chronicles are a gold mine for those of us who like our history to be laced with a bit of the bizarre.  In between descriptions of wars, plagues, and other notable events, you are apt to suddenly find deadpan accounts of events that can be best described as barking mad.  

Ralph of Coggeshall was a monk in the Cistercian Abbey of (surprise!) Coggeshall, England.  From 1187 to 1224, he was the author of the Abbey’s “Chronicon Anglicanum.”  What earns our scribe a place in the hallowed halls of Strange Company is his description of an unusually weird…ghost?  Poltergeist?  Changeling?!

According to Ralph, during the reign of Richard I (1189-99) the residence of Sir Osberni de Bradewell at Daghewurthe [Dagworth Hall,] in Suffolk, was frequently visited by a “certain fantastical spirit,” who would converse with the family, always using the voice of a very small child.  The spirit called himself “Malekin.”  He said that his mother and brother lived in a nearby house, and they often scolded him for leaving them in order to speak to other people.

Malekin did and said many things that were “both wonderful and very funny,” although he had the disconcerting habit of revealing people’s secrets.  The knight and his family were initially terrified by their uninvited guest, but they gradually got used to his “words and silly actions,” and wound up casually conversing with him as they would any other member of the household.  Malekin sometimes spoke English, sometimes Latin, and would have learned discussions about the Scriptures with the family chaplain.

Malekin could be heard and felt, but he was only seen once.  “A certain maiden” of the family asked him to show himself to her, but he refused until she made a solemn vow not to touch him.  After this promise was made, he appeared briefly in her chamber, in the form of a small boy clothed in a white tunic.  Malekin told her that he was born in Lavenham, and that his mother had left him in a field where she was harvesting, after which he was “taken away” by unspecified entities.  He added that he had been in his “present position” for the past seven years, and that after another seven years he would be free to live with people again.  

Malekin claimed that he and “the others” had a hat which made them invisible.  He would often ask for food and drink, which, when it was placed on a certain chest, instantly disappeared.

So.  Ralph says no more about the elusive Malekin, but I think we can all agree that he told us plenty.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This odd little story appeared in the “Saint Paul Globe,” October 17, 1903:

COLUMBUS GROVE, Ohio, Oct. 15. Is the farm residence of George Arnold, a leading prohibition politician of the county, located about two and half miles north of here on the Ottawa pike. haunted, and what causes the strange sounds that emanate therefrom? This is the question which not only Mr. Arnold's folks are trying to solve, but neighbors and citizens of Columbus Grove as well. 

One week ago Saturday night the residence was entered and $35 and a revolver were taken from the bookcase in the living room. Mr. Arnold's pension voucher, which was with the money, was found lying on the floor.

Every night since the Arnolds have been troubled by intruders. When they heard strange sounds night after night an investigation was ordered.  Upon appearing at the front door they saw what appeared to be a man and a woman in a strange little cart in the lane which leads to the house from the road. They had no more than left the shelter of the house when the strange beings threw sticks and rocks at the family. It is said that as soon as members of the family leave the house, even though for but a short time, furniture is turned topsy-turvy and everything is strewn about. 

Becoming tired of the strange happenings and perplexed by the embarrassment which his family is compelled to suffer on account of the trouble, Mr. Arnold came to town and engaged a number of guards to watch the house.  One of these guards is ex-Night Watchman Jacob Sheets. Faithfully has he stood for the past several nights, but as yet not able to locate the mysterious sounds nor find any clew to the rock throwers. 

Arnold's first wife and several children died within short periods of one another of consumption. He married again and the children born of the second union assist him in taking care of his farm.

The children of the first union who are still living have gone out to make a way in the world. Most of the strange happenings are said to occur at the house during the absence of the wife. A year or so ago the Arnolds were bothered by mysterious visitors, but after a while, they ceased to come.

This all sounds very much like a poltergeist account, except the family’s attackers appear to have been corporeal--although this reporter seems to suggest that there was something not-quite-human about the mysterious rock-throwers.  In any case, I have been unable to find any resolution to the story.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This poltergeist case is sadly lacking in detail (I could not find any more informative reports,) but I thought the final line of the story made it worth sharing.  “Truth,” December 1, 1946:

The people of County Clare, Ireland, are agog with anxiety and perplexity at reports of the impish activities of a Poltergeist, which this week showed up in their midst! So strange is the situation which the poltergeist is stirring up, that profound interest is registered throughout the United Kingdom this week-end. A poltergeist is described as "a ghost which causes noises and gets up to all sorts of impish pranks." Many citizens of County Clare are inclined to believe that a Walt Disney creation has got loose and is causing all kinds of trouble.

A "Truth" correspondent in London got in touch with Ireland when the news was first received of the poltergeist. The correspondent says there appears to be some jealousy over Walt Disney visiting Dublin before County Clare. From the Ballymakea district of Mullagh there comes the story of a poltergeist which takes pride in throwing butter in the face of a farmer's wife and in scaring children out of their wits, in broad daylight. By way of repaying the hospitality, this poltergeist causes chairs to be smashed, windows and china broken, bread finger-printed and ash thrown in the stew. This, of course, does not include the unseemly behavior with the bedclothes.

A policeman at Quilty, in County Clare, told "Truth's" correspondent that the poltergeist disturbance was being investigated. They claim that the reports are true, believe in the occurrence, and are seriously investigating the "mischievous phenomena.” If the phenomena continues, there will be a "clerical investigation," the policeman added. 

People in Eire do not dismiss the affair as an "old wives' tale." 

It is pointed out that these poltergeists must not be confused with the benevolent little men called Leprechauns. Poltergeists are reputed "to be able to cause real damage and sometimes physical pain.” 

Spiritualists believe poltergeists to be the spirits of vicious monkeys.

Pastor Schupart Versus the Devil

Pastor Johann Gottfried Schupart (1677-1729) was one of the leading German Lutherans of his day, becoming Professor of Theology and eventually Rector at Giesing University.  However, the part of his career that has earned him a place in this blog deals with his lengthy battles with a supernatural force that he naturally described as “the devil,” but what we today would call an unusually violent and persistent poltergeist.

As we are now dealing with the subject of the fallen angels, and at the same time enquiring, "An Diabolus possit gere in corpus?"—I will tell what has happened to me—and I call the thrice-blessed Creator to witness that it is true—and I am prepared, upon demand, to substantiate it, not only with my own oath, but with the evidence of more than a hundred witnesses. I know well, it is true, that many old wives’ fables are mingled among the relations of ghostly happenings; but I earnestly assert, that in all my days I have never been superstitious, and have thought lightly of such things; but, though I kept no journal of the matter, I will relate what I remember. For six years I fought with the devil, and was never sure for one quarter of an hour that he would not wring my neck.

The beginning was so :—

I was lying asleep in bed in my cabinet, and my wife, who had a fever, was in the opposite bed, when, about one or two in the morning, some one or something came to the door, and gave it a blow hard enough to drive it into pieces. I sprang out of bed; but, though I had not been sound asleep, but only dozing, and though my wife was also much startled, I supposed that we had both dreamt it, and lay down again. And yet I had, none the less, my own thoughts about the matter, for a brother of mine, who was ill at the time, afterwards died. But I said to myself, “It’s only a dream!” and settled down again in bed. Then the door was struck again, just as hard as before, and I saw clearly that it was no dream; but I put it out of my mind.

Next evening, when the maid put the light on the table, the spirit struck it so that it fell a good distance off upon the floor, but continued standing and kept alight, which caused me much thought. And from that time forward these things went on. Stones, weighing six, eight, nine, ten pounds, were thrown at my head, as violently as if shot from a bow; they whistled through the air, and struck out the whole window—glass, lead and all. I was not touched by them, but I had to get new windows put in nearly every day. Often I did not take off my clothes for four weeks at a stretch. I was struck in the face, stuck with pins, bitten, so that men saw the marks of both rows of teeth; the two great teeth were there, and were as pointed and sharp as pins. After I had been at confession, I had always the greatest annoyances, and had, generally, after returning home, to pick up all my books, that had been thrown from the shelf and mixed up together. When I wanted to sleep, I had to lay one cheek on the pillow, and cover the other side with another pillow, to protect me from slaps in the face; even then I was pinched and even struck.

At last I used to set my back to the wall at night and read, and thus I read through Syen's Histoire de l’Eglise, four thick quartos. Once the house was set on fire, in seeming, as it were, and then I begged the Prince for a guard, urging that not only I, but other poor loyal subjects were endangered; and I said I wished to pick out honest and pious men, according to my own judgment; and this was granted me. And these guards saw how It beat me, and they got some boxes on the ear themselves, though they hit about them in the room with their swords.

In the presence of twelve persons, It struck my wife so hard on the cheeks that the sound was heard five rooms away. In another house, to which she had retired, I having gone out, she received, in the presence of three persons, more than fifty slaps on the face, till she said, "I might as well bear the blows in my own house as in another’s." But although the strokes resounded so terribly, they did not hurt as much as one would have supposed from the sound of them.

As things were so bad, I procured leave to include myself in the public prayers in the Church, and begged my hearers not to be scandalized, or to adopt sinful opinions, even if God should allow Satan to kill me, and I should be found lying dead in this place or in that. When I had evening prayers according to custom—for my congregation attended diligently—and the whole room was full of people who saw and heard all, I was, during the prayers, pricked, bitten, struck and pinched, till my wife and I had to cover our legs with the clothes of those sitting by us. Cords were thrown around my neck and my wife’s, so that, had we not been quick in pulling them off, we should have unquestionably been strangled. Of all my books, the Talmud had the most to suffer. The book of Church regulations was torn, also the prayer-books and hymn-books. It tore Hedinpro’s Testament and threw it at my feet. It tore the Gospel of St. John, and quod maxime notandum , when I was expounding the Epistle to the Romans in the course of my exordia, and had come to viii. 17 and 18.  It tore the leaf on which the text was—the leaf began with those verses—out of the book, so that, when I came into the pulpit, I had not got the text; but the leaf, torn into little pieces, was strewn on the bed of my wife, then lying sick at home.  Nothing was done to the Bible, save that the Fourth Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah was once splashed with ink.

Once when I was lying in bed, the carving-fork was flung at me, but only the handle struck me; the knife came immediately after the fork, but did me no damage. Another time this great knife was thrown at me again; I heard it come whistling like an arrow, and started; it hurt me, but did no material harm. Once I was sitting in my room in my shirt, and a very sharp little knife was hurled at my side; my wife heard it whiz by, and cried, “You’re surely hurt?” I looked, and there stuck the knife, but no harm had been done. And just as I was saying to my wife, that I clearly saw in this the Divine protection, a stone of a pound’s weight flew past my head, and smashed the window.

When I got into bed, I often lay down on pins, so that they bent, but they did not injure me. My pupils lodging in my house frequently found dirt and stones in their bags. The chairs were thrown about the room. I could see nothing, but one might mark something corporeal was at work, for once when I was going to church, my wig could not be found, and I could not have preached if, after sending to different persons, a certain Cammer-Rath had not lent me his. Now when I came into the pulpit with somebody else’s wig on, everybody at once supposed that some new misfortune had happened, and so, just after sermon, I was summoned to the Count, to dine with him. So I wanted to put on my new coat, but one of the sleeves was gone; I sent for my old one, but that too had only one sleeve. Meanwhile there was an uproar in the house, made by the cats and dogs, and the turtle doves that I kept in the sitting-room; it was as if they were all mad.

On the Monday, I said to my wife that I must have a coat in any case, and wanted to take the sleeve from the old coat and have it put into the new one; but when I took the coat, the sleeve was gone too, and there was I with two coats, which had only one sleeve between them. So I sent to the shop, for stuff to have a new suit made. Meanwhile, my wife went to the store-room, to see whether she had any cloth for lining left, and knelt down before a drawer. Then there fell something on her head, as heavily as if it had been a hundredweight, so that she began to cry out in a lamentable way; I rushed in, and there was my wife on her knees, with my stolen wig on her head. At this I fell into a state of excitement, and conjured the spirit, in a solemn manner, to bring me back the things it had taken—for all the hymn books were gone too. Just then I was called away to exhort a criminal, and told my wife that she should not stay in the house all alone, for the evil spirit would have to bring back the things, and it would not be well to let him do any more mischief. I had not been gone long—my wife was in the garden—when a terrible din began in my sitting-room, all the cats and dogs, the doves too, crying aloud, and tearing about. My wife rushed in, and saw a black bird, like a daw, fluttering about among our animals; she took heart, and resolved to kill it, but, as all the knives had had to be locked up, she had nothing to do it with; but she seized the spit, and thrust at the black bird. In that moment he vanished, my wife could not see whither; but blood lay in the spot where he had been, as I myself saw when I came home. The whole affair came into the courts, and my things were replaced, except the glasses, etc., that had been broken.

Once when I was summoned to court, I wanted first to eat a little sausage and salad. I ate only a small portion, and my wife took some also. In all my life I have never been so sick as this salad made me. My wife was also ill. The cat died, and the dog suffered after eating of it. Whether the devil had put in poison, and wanted to make away with me, I cannot now say, for some negligence or other circumstance may have been the cause; at any rate, this is what happened to me. 

Whenever I had a sword, I was safe from front attacks, for then It only threw things from behind me; but if I laid the sword aside, I received blows again.  When I was asleep, I was safe so long as two of the watchers held their swords over my face, but if they took them away, or ceased to brandish them, my torment began again. I used the Magic Balsam from the Prince’s Apothecary in Stuttgart, but it did no good.

Once when my wife's cheeks were all swollen, a surgeon sent me a book against magic. In this book I found a recipe, and had it made up at the apothecary’s. It was a fumigating powder. I laid it on the coals, and held my wife’s head over it by force, for she said she could not endure the pain the smoke caused her. I fetched a vessel, and drew from her mouth first a long black horsehair, and then much thread and other stuff, the full of half the vessel; the pains were then somewhat better, but as my wife still felt something, I held her head over the smoke again, and drew out such another horsehair; there was nothing more.

Once I was sitting and writing, when It took a bottle of brandy, and smashed it over me and my paper, so that I was quite "anointed” with the liquor. All this time I stayed in my house, and would not go for all the devil could do, though the authorities offered me another lodging. One day wanted to smoke, but my pipe and tobacco were gone. I managed to find them; the pipe had been filled. I was going to smoke, but noticing that the pipe was heavy, I cleaned it out, and found it full of dirt, with a little tobacco on the top. Curiously enough, It harmed no one in my house but my wife and myself, except a man who said, as he was keeping watch, and an uproar was going on upstairs, "If this wasn't a clergyman’s house, I should swear," and then, as in the heat of the moment he emitted a curse, a key hit him on the nose with a distinct sound.

Only once was I hurt by a knife, in the lower part of my leg; and I had an old sword lying in a press; this It took and threw at my wife, slightly injuring her foot; when she took the blade and wanted to shut it up again, It tore it out of her hand, and threw it maxima cum vehementia into the press, so that it stuck there. Then I took it into my hand, Saying, “Herr Teufel, if you have power, take it out of my hand," but nothing happened, so I shut the sword up again. It often took my jug of wine away, and brought it back; I drank it and suffered no harm. The rest I cannot now remember. But some time I will put it all down, and have a discussion upon it. I would not have missed the experience for three thousand reichsthaler, for it taught me the power of prayer; but I would not go through it again for that sum, either. You must not think that this went on continually for six years, for it would have been impossible to bear it; but from time to time it ceased, for eight days to a fortnight, now and then for four weeks, and once for a quarter of a year; after that it would be more violent. After my wife had hurt the bird with the spit, we had peace for a long time.

This is all. I call God the Almighty and Omniscient to witness that these things occurred as stated. How or in what manner it was done I do not know. In all my days I saw nothing, but heard and felt enough; and so I leave the matter to every man’s mature consideration.

"A Friendly, Sportive Hobgoblin"

Everard Feilding

The following tale comes to us courtesy of barrister/psychic researcher (not a combo one sees every day) Everard Feilding, in the form of two letters he sent his friend Hereward Carrington, who published them in the 1951 book “Haunted People.”  It is a rather delightful poltergeist account, complete with a supernatural snipe hunt!

Transylvania,

Jan. 26, 1914

Dear Carrington,

Your letter has just reached me in the middle of the most extraordinary adventure I have ever had. Last year, Crookes received a fantastic letter from a Hungarian lawyer, telling him of certain amazing things that had been happening to him and begging to be investigated. I was then ill and couldn’t come, but this time, finding myself within measureable reach, from Warsaw, I decided to come.

It felt like Dracula—a journey to a mysterious land, to stay in a country village with an unknown person round whom things equal to Home’s phenomena (if 1/10 of what he said was true) were happening. I didn’t know whether he was a lunatic or a liar, but I came.  And my journey has been repaid. I leave tomorrow, after about ten days in this country, with the mediums, ie., the lawyer and his wife, to hunt for buried treasure in Brittany! I shall spend a few days with Schrenck-Notzing, and also with la Tomezyk, with him, in Munich, and shall then take my mediums on, through Brittany, to London.

My lawyer has a Jinn. No less. A friendly, sportive hobgoblin, late a Roumanian, and now the most desirable imp that anyone could wish for. For most of the facts I have to depend on the lawyer, an excitable, very middleclass person, formerly much addicted to wine, gambling and women, good-hearted, hospitable, a spendthrift, hopelessly unbusiness-like, and absolutely staggered by the goings-on of his imp.

This creature first started operations at a time when, for lack of pence, the lawyer wanted to commit suicide. He suddenly found money in his pocket which he knew wasn’t there before. He thought he must have stolen it in a fit of aberration. Then money began to drop on to the table, and he thought he was mad. Then stones fell beside him as he walked out, and then gradually all sorts of things were chucked into his room at all hours of the day and night. Bromide tablets fell on his bed when he couldn’t sleep; bottles of Schnapps in his carriage of a cold night; cigarettes out of the air when he had run out of them, and cigars bearing the Emperor’s monogram!

As things materially eased then, the character of the phenomena changed, and now the things are mostly ancient and useless tagrags and bobtails, ranging from bottle-tops to an elderly pump, about 50 lbs. in weight and 4 feet long, slabs of marble, 5-foot poles, pieces of wood, heavy iron screws, pincers, knives, wire lampshades, toy animals--all hurtle into the room at unexpected moments…And they do: I have seen lots of them.  Two minutes after I first entered his room, a 5-foot pole fell at the other end of it--he and I being alone in it, and he at the opposite end (a room 30 ft. long.)  On another occasion, I being the first to enter the room, a 4 ft. pole jumped out at me from a corner which I was facing at a distance of 3 feet--the lawyer at the time just entering the door.  A glass fell very softly at my feet, the lawyer not being in the room at all, and the nearest person being not within 12 feet of me.  Cigarettes fall out of the air.  Objects which are put under the table change places, or disappear altogether within, once, one minute of having been put there, notwithstanding that we (he and his wife and I) are all sitting sideways with our feet well outside the legs of the table.  A rusty table-knife falls in the middle of the room while we are all sitting writing at the table.  The same 5 ft. pole before mentioned falls very gently at a distance of 6 ft. from the lawyer, sitting with me at the table.  If he had thrown it (as I tested) it would have made a devil of a noise.  Rappings all about the wall and quick rappings on the table, perhaps not evidential, but probably true, are heard.  And so on.  I am therefore tempted to believe the bigger things he tells me of, i.e., the pump which I have seen, and the marble slabs, which I have not.  The dinner table jumps up constantly at meals, again not strictly evidential, but I think true, as it could only be done by his wife, a frail little woman, with her feet under the chair, and I’m sure she doesn’t do it.

The Jinn communicates by Ouija, an alphabet on a card and a bottle-top into which he and his wife each put a finger, with enormous rapidity.  In addition to this is a romantic story, by writing, of a former incarnation, when he was a German Baron called Schindtreffer, who lived in Mindelheim, Bavaria--a place he says he never heard of--in 1700.  And further, of 9 cases of money and jewels and papers, said to have been sent with his son to Brittany in 1713, and buried in a particular place to avoid an attack by robbers.  A map is given of the exact whereabouts, with details of rivers and small villages, and the present aspect of the country.  An ordinance map having been sent for, these villages and rivers are found to exist.  And now nothing will satisfy him but to start forth and hunt, and another lawyer is putting up the journey money, partly because he is smitten with the romance of the thing, and partly to share in the possible treasure.  And I am to go too, to translate, as they can’t speak a word of French.  All kinds of family details are given of the Schindtreffer affair, including an “apport” of a photograph of a picture, said to be in the Munich gallery, of his then-wife, and brought by her!  This we shall investigate first.  We’ll see!

As ever,

E.F.

N.B. I don’t believe the Brittany story, but I do believe in the Jinn.

A short time later, Carrington received a follow-up report:

Just returned from Transylvania.  The lawyer and his wife, and I hope the Jinn too, are coming to stay with me here for a few days.  If he produces a pump in my dining room I shall be pleased.

My Transylvanians have gone, and I am left hopelessly puzzled by the whole business.  There were a considerable number of phenomena here, though nothing at all like they were in Hungary.  Nearly all could (though in some cases with great difficulty) be attributed to the wife.  They nearly all came at unexpected moments, and it was thus impossible to control them.  There was also fraud, e.g., when a snipe, which was found on the dinner-lamp (on indications of the spook at the end of dinner) was traced as having been bought by the wife in a neighboring shop.  At the same time, the circumstances of this “apport” are otherwise so curious--the lamp having previously been examined by the servant before dinner, and the snipe being so very obvious once it was seen--that it is almost unthinkable that it should have escaped observation.

If one accepts the possibility of a poltergeist, it is possible to suppose that part of the phenomenon, namely the purchase of the snipe, was carried through normally by the medium, and the remainder, namely the apport, by the spook.  She said she did not remember anything about the purchase, but in hypnosis I recovered the memory.  She said she was sitting in the park, and that her sister came to her and insisted upon her going with her, and bought the snipe, and then took it away after returning with her to the park.  Her husband, who was present, appeared amazed at this, and said he had no knowledge of any sister, and certainly none in London.  She then said that the sister was sitting in a chair in the room, and got up and went towards her, and then appeared to pursue a phantom round the room, upsetting everything as she went, ending up at the window, apparently very much frightened, and saying that her sister was outside, laughing at her.  Questioned after awakening, she said that she had an elder sister with whom she had not been on good terms, and who had died some ten years ago.  In hypnosis I also recovered the memory in similar conditions of another attempt to purchase something which she knew normally I had been unable to trace.

All this looks very much like double personality action, and therefore in the realm of subconscious and not conscious fraud, in a trance condition.  She does, as a matter-of-fact, fall very readily into trances, e.g., when I play the piano she falls spontaneously into a trance and dances, but her husband says that this is the first time he has any knowledge of a trance occurring outside the house.

As a result of five weeks’ intimate seeing of the people, I am more inclined to believe in their honesty than otherwise, but in view of the fraud it is impossible at present to put forward such a theory, excepting to anyone already familiar with these curious hypnoid conditions--and who has not seen, as I have, a certain number of phenomena under really good control.

The best controlled phenomena here were a rapid drumming on the table during dinner, exactly as though one were drumming with one’s fingers, although the hands were visible and the feet controlled--not concurrently, but immediately after--and seemed far away from any contact.  Besides, the noise was one which could not be made with the feet as far as I am aware.

I went with them last week to Brittany.  The man said he could not resume his ordinary work without having visited the place.  Excepting the names of small places, nothing was found correct, and he returned to Hungary much disappointed.  He appeared frightfully concerned about his wife’s “unconscious” fraud, and seemed terrified lest in this presumably trance condition she should do dishonest actions.  He begged me again to visit him in Hungary, and to carry-on the control in a still more rigorous manner, if the phenomena continue, and to bring someone with me to help.  I do wish you were here…

Unfortunately, the outbreak of WWI prevented any further investigation of the “Jinn,” which apparently ceased its operations after the lawyer and his wife returned to Transylvania.  Unsurprisingly, but disappointingly,  the Schindtreffer “buried treasure” was never located.

The Poltergeist of Ringcroft

The following are the most relevant extracts from a pamphlet published by the Reverend Alexander Telfair in 1695:  "A true relation of an apparition expressions and actings of a spirit which infected the house of Andrew Mackie in Ring-Croft of Stocking, in the paroch of Kerrick, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in Scotland."  It is a fascinating account of what we today would call one particularly destructive poltergeist.

Telfair prefaced his narrative by expressing his reluctance to appear "in print, to the view of the world."  However, his modesty was overcome by "the conviction and confutation of that prevailing spirit of atheism and infidelity in our time, denying, both in opinion and practice, the existence of spirits, and consequently a heaven and a hell; and imputing the voices, apparitions, and actings of good or evil spirits, to the melancholic disturbance or distemper of the brains and fancies of those who pretend to hear, see, or feel them."

In other words, Rev. Telfair was anticipating our modern world's insistence that alleged paranormal activities are "all in your head," and blowing a big raspberry.

After providing a long list of local worthies who were ready and eager to attest to the truth of his story, Telfair begins:

Whereas many are desirous to know the truth of the matter as to the evil spirit and its actings, that troubleth the family of Andrew Mackie in Ringcroft of Stocking, and are liable to be misinformed, as  I do find by the reports that come to my own ears of that matter, Therefore that satisfaction may be given, and such mistakes may be cured or prevented: I, the minister of the said Parish (who was present several times, and was witness to many of its actings, and have heard an account of the whole of its methods and actings from the persons present, towards whom, and before whom it did act) have given the ensuing, and short account of the whole matter, which l can attest to be the very truth as to that affair.

In the month of February, 1695, the said Andrew Mackie had some young beasts, which in the night-time were still loosed, and their bindings broken; he taking it to be the unruliness of the beasts, did make stronger and stronger bindings of withes and other things; but still all were broken. At last he suspected it to be some other thing, whereupon he removed them out of that place; and the first night thereafter, one of them was bound with a hair-tedder to the back of the house, so strait that the feet of the beast only touched the ground, but could not move no way else, yet it sustained no hurt. Another night, when the family were all sleeping, there was the full of an back-creel of peats set together in midst of the house-floor, and fire put in them; the smoke wakened the family, otherwise the house had been burnt; yet nothing all the while was either seen or heard. 

Upon the 7th of March there were stones thrown in the house, in all the places of it, but it could not be discovered from whence they came, what, or who threw them: after this manner it continued till the Sabbath, now and then throwing, both in the night and the day, but was busiest throwing in the night time.

Upon the Sabbath, being the 11th of March, the crook and potclips [implements for cooking pots]were taken away, and were a wanting four days, and were found at last on a loft where they had been sought several times before. This is attested by Charles Macklelane of Colline, and John Cairns in Hardhills. It was observed that the Stones which hit any person, had not half their natural weight, and the throwing was more frequent on the Sabbath, than at other times: and especially in time of prayer, above all other times, it was busiest, then throwing most at the person praying. The said Andrew Mackie told the matter to me upon Sabbath after sermon; upon the Tuesday thereafter I went to the house, did stay a considerable time with them, and prayed twice, and there was no trouble: then I came out with a resolution to leave the house, and as I was standing speaking to some men at the barn-end, I saw two little stones drop down on the croft at a little distance from me; and immediately some came crying out of the house, that it was become as ill as ever within, whereupon I went into the house again, and as I was at prayer, it threw several stones at me, but they did no hurt, being very small: and after there was no more trouble till the 18th day of March, and then it began as before, and threw more frequently greater stones, whose strokes were surer where they hit: and thus it continued to the 21st.

Then I went to the home and stayed a great part of the night, but was greatly troubled; stones, and several other things were thrown at me.  I was struck several times on the sides and shoulders, very sharply, with a great staff, so that those who were present heard the noise of the strokes: that night it threw off the bedside, and rapped upon the chests and boards as one calling for access.  This is attested by Charles Macklelane of Colline, William Mackminn, and John Tait in Torr.  That night, as I was once at prayer, leaning on a bed-side, I felt something pressing up my arm, and casting my eyes thither, perceived a little white hand and arm from the elbow down, but presently it vanished: it is to be observed, that notwithstanding all that was felt and heard, from the first to the last of this matter, there was never any thing seen, except that hand I saw, and a friend of the said Andrew Mackie's said he saw as it were a young man, redfaced, with yellow hair, looking in at the window; and other two or three persons, with the said Andrew his children, saw, at several times, as it were a young boy, about the age of 14 years, with gray cloths, and a bonnet on his head, but presently disappeared; as also what the three children saw sitting by the fireside. 

April. 3. It whistled several times, and cried wisht, wisht, this is attested by Andrew Tait. Upon the 4th of April, Charles Macklelane of Colline land-lord, with the said Andrew Mackie, went to a certain number of ministers met at Buttle, and gave them an account of the matter; whereupon these ministers made public prayers for the family, and two of their number, viz. Mr Andrew Howart, minister of Kells, and Mr John Murdo, minister of Corsmichael, came to the house and spent that night in fasting and praying : but it was very cruel against them, especially by throwing great stones, some of them about half an stone weight. It wounded Mr Andrew Ewart twice in the head, to the effusion of his blood, it pulled off his wig in time of prayer, and when he was holding out his napkin betwixt his hands, it cast a stone in the napkin, and therewith threw it from him: It gave Mr John Murdo several sore strokes; yet the wounds and bruises received did soon cure. 

There were none in the house that night escaped from some of its fury and cruelty: That night it threw a fiery peat among the people; but did no hurt, it only disturbed them in time of prayer: and also in the dawning, as they rose from prayer, the stones poured down on all who were in the house to their hurt: this is attested by Mr Andrew Mewart, Mr John Murdo, Charles Macklelane, and John Tait. 

Upon the 5th of April: It set some thatch straw in fire which was in the barnyard:  At night the house being very throng with neighbours, the stones were still thrown down among them : as the said Andrew Mackie his wife went to bring in some peats for the fire, when she came to the door she found a broad stone to shake under her foot, which she never knew to be loose before: she resolved with her self to see what was beneath it in the morning thereafter. Upon the 6th of April, when the house was quiet, she went to the stone, and there found seven small bones, with blood, and some flesh, all closed in a piece of old suddled [soiled] paper; the blood was fresh and bright, the sight whereof troubled her, and being afraid, laid all down again; and ran to Colline his house, being an quarter of a mile distant: but in that time it was worse than ever it was before; by throwing stones and fire balls, in and about the house, but the fire as it lighted did evanish: in that time it threw an hot stone into the bed betwixt the children, which burnt through the bed cloaths.

Upon the 9th of April, the bones were sent to the ministers, who were all occasionally met at Kirkcudbright, they appointed five of their number, viz. Mr John Murdo, Mr James Monteith, Mr John Mackmillan, Mr Samuel Spalding, and Mr William Falconer, with me, to go to the House, and spend so much time in fasting and praying as we were able.

Upon the 10th of April we went to the house, and no sooner did I begin to open my mouth, but it threw stones at me, and all within the house, but still worst at him who was at duty: it came often with such force upon the house that it made all the house to shake, it brake an hole through the timber and thatch of the house, and poured in great stones: it gripped, and handled the legs of some as with a man’s hand; it hoisted up the feet of others while standing on the ground, thus it did to William Lennox of Mill-house, myself, and others; in this manner it continued till ten o clock at night, but after that there was no more trouble. 

The 16th it continued whistling, groaning, whisling [whispering], and throwing stones in time of prayer; it cryed Bo, Bo, and Kick, Cuck, and shook men back and forward, and hoisted them up as if it would lift them off their knees. This is attested by Andrew Tait.

The 20th it continued throwing stones, whisling, and whisting with all its former words: when it hit any person, and said, Take you that till you get more, that person was sure immediately of another; but when it said, Take you that, the person got no more for a while. This is attested by John Tait.

The 21st, 22nd, 23rd, it continued casting stones, beating with staves and throwing peat-mud in the faces of all in the house, especially in time of prayer, with all its former tricks. The 24th being a day of humiliation appointed to be kept in the parish for that cause; all that day, from morning to night, it continued in a most fearful manner without intermission, throwing stones with such cruelty and force, all in the house feared lest they should be killed.

The 26th, it threw stones in the evening, and knocked on a chest several times as one to have access; and began to speak, and call those who were sitting in the house witches, and rakes, and said it would take them to hell.

Upon the 27th it set the house seven times in fire. The 28th, being the Sabbath, from sun rising to sun setting, it still set the house in fire; as it was quenched in one part, instantly it was fired in another: and in the evening, when it could not get its designs fulfilled in burning the house, it pulled down the end of the house, all the stone work thereof, so that they could not abide in it any longer, but went and kindled their fire in the stable.

Upon Tuesday's night, being the 3rd of April, Charles Macklelane of Colline, with several neighbours, were in the barn; as he was at prayer he observed a black thing in the corner of the barn, and it did increase, as if it would fill the whole house; he could not discern it to have any form, but as if it had been a black cloud, it was affrighting to them all; and then it threw bear chaff and other mud upon their faces, and after did grip several who were in the house by the middle of the body, by the arms and other parts of their bodies, so strait, that some said, for five days thereafter they thought they felt these grips: after an hour or two of the night was thus past there was no more trouble. This is attested by Charles Macklelane, Thomas Mackminn, Andrew Paline, John Cairns and John Tait. 

Upon Wednesday's night, being the 1st of May, it fired a little sheephouse; the sheep were got out safe, but the sheep house was wholly burnt. Since there hath not been any trouble about the house by night or by day. Now all things aforesaid being of undoubted verity, therefore I conclude with that of the Apostle, 1 Pet. v. 8, 9, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.”

Telfair could offer only one possible explanation for why the Mackie household was so bedeviled:

"Whereas one Macknaught, who sometimes before possessed that house, did not thrive in his own person or goods. It seems he had sent his son to a witch-wife, who lived then at the Routing-bridge, in the parish of Iron-gray, to enquire what might be the cause of the decay of his person and goods. The youth, meeting with some foreign soldiers, went abroad to Flanders, and did not return with an answer. Some years after, there was one John Redick in this parish, who, having had occasion to go abroad, met with the said young Macknaught in Flanders, and they knowing other, Macknaught enquired after his father and other friends; and finding the said John Redick was to go home, desired him to go to his father, or who ever dwelt in the Ring-croft, and desire them to raise the door-threshold, and search till they found a tooth, and burn it, for none who dwelt in that house would thrive till that was done. The said John Redick coming home, and finding the old man Macknaught dead, and his wife out of that place, did never mention the matter, nor further mind it, till this trouble was in Andrew Mackie's family, then he spoke of it, and told the matter to myself. Betwixt Macknaught's death, and Andrew Mackie's possession of this house, there was one Thomas Telfair, who possessed it some years; what way he heard the report of what the witch-wife had said to Macknaught's son, I cannot tell; but he searched the door-threshold, and found something like a tooth; did compare it with the tooth of man, horse, nolt [cattle], and sheep, (as he said to me), but could not say which it did resemble, only it did resemble a tooth. He did cast it in the fire, where it burnt like a candle, or so much tallow; yet he never knew any trouble about that house by night or by day, before or after, during his possession."

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Unfortunately, the following is all I could find about what was potentially an intriguing poltergeist case, but I thought it was still worth sharing.  The “New York Daily News,” April 21, 1962:

St. Brieuc, France, April 20-Police and church officials today were investigating reports of a "ghost" in two Brittany villages who is said to have "attacked" people's clothing. 

A man at Landebia recently found himself practically undressed in the market place after seams in his clothing had given away, the reports said. 

Large acid-like burns were said to have appeared on the clothes of a family in Henabbihen--while they were wearing them. The "ghost" slit all the bed-sheets of another family.

The Child of Mystery

Henry John “Johnny” Brophy was, to all outward appearances, a perfectly ordinary little boy.  Although described as “slightly crippled” (as a toddler, he had been run over by a carriage) he managed to lead a normal life.  His mother was still alive, and living in Madison, Wisconsin, but since the age of two Henry lived with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Kaut Lund, in nearby Mt. Horeb.  (It seems to be unrecorded why he wasn’t living with his mother, who had remarried after Henry’s father died.)  Until he was eleven years old, Henry gave no indication that he was about to get a brief nationwide fame as the “Child of Mystery.”

Young Henry’s descent into The Weird began on March 9, 1909.  As the boy was entering a side door of his home, he was hit in the back with a snowball.  The impact was so fierce, he was knocked to the ground.  Once he picked himself up, he looked outside for his attacker.  He saw nobody.

The next day, another large snowball hit him.  His grandparents joined him in the hunt for this phantom practical joker, but again, no one was in the vicinity.  The three of them shrugged--hey, life does funny things sometimes--and dismissed the mystery from their minds.

On March 11, as the trio sat down for dinner, things suddenly happened which were impossible to ignore.  Various objects--cups, bars of soap, spools of thread--began being hurled throughout the room by invisible hands, quite thoroughly terrifying the family, and, I presume, really ruining their meal.

The following day, Henry’s mother was in town in order to attend a funeral.  That evening, as they were all in the sitting room, the spectral Hurler of Inanimate Objects made another appearance.  Various household items suddenly flew through the air, and the furniture began moving itself around.  The sight was so shocking that Henry’s grandfather feared he would have a heart attack.  The family, not knowing what else to do, called in their minister, the Reverend Mostrom.  Mostrom soon arrived at the home, accompanied by a family friend, Sam Thompson.  The two men were greeted by a Bible, which threw itself off a table and landed at the Reverend’s feet.

When Mostrom, in an effort to calm the group, began playing a hymn on the organ, their invisible guest seemed to take offense.  A carving knife flew past him, embedding itself in the floor in front of Thompson.  This was soon followed by a hatpin.

"San Francisco Examiner," August 22, 1909, via Newspapers.com

The clergyman’s visit just seemed to accelerate the eerie assaults.  Lamps would suddenly and mysteriously shatter.  The hinges of doors would unaccountably lose their screws, causing them to fall to the floor.  Out of nowhere, the family would be pelted with coal.  It was noted that these frightening occurrences only happened when Henry was in the house, leaving many to conclude that he was somehow responsible.  However, others asked, how could an eleven-year-old of only average intelligence somehow fool all the adults around him?  

Some speculated that the household objects were moving because the house had both electricity and phone service.  Perhaps this was causing items to become literally electrified?  The Lunds were skeptical about this theory, choosing instead to believe that Henry had somehow been secretly hypnotized, and his trance state was somehow causing the uproar.  

In an effort to settle the question of whether Henry was--consciously or not--responsible for what was happening, he was sent to visit his uncle Andrew in Springfield.  The minute Henry walked through his uncle’s front door, a pail of water began spinning, dashing its contents on the floor.  A mirror crashed to the ground, shattering into fragments.

That question was being clearly answered.

Poor Henry was rapidly becoming unpopular among the other children, as it was impossible to play with him without things going right off the rails.  When he and another boy tried a game of marbles, the marbles not only kept disappearing, the ones that remained insisted on moving themselves.  The terrified boys both fled.  When Henry tried racing the other children, invisible hands pelted him with rocks and dirt clods.  Storekeepers refused to allow him into their shops, because whenever Henry came in, jars would fall off the shelves and break.  Even the family cat refused to go near him.

When Andrew brought the boy back to his grandparents, he included a present: a basket of eggs.  When he placed the basket on a table, he was unnerved to see an egg shoot out and shatter on Henry’s face.

The frazzled family decided to seek medical help.  Henry was examined by a number of doctors, who reported that he was physically normal.  These physicians said the boy must, in some unknown fashion, be playing a gigantic prank on everybody.  The Lunds then held a prayer meeting in their home, which just seemed to make matters worse.  One George Kingsley, who was both a doctor and a spiritualist, told the family that Henry was obviously a talented medium.  The strange events they were experiencing were merely due to the boy not having the training to control his psychic powers.  Another spiritualist claimed that Henry was surrounded by three spirits: two women and a man.  The publicity the boy was unwillingly attracting became so intense that the Lunds posted an announcement in the local paper, begging the crowds and reporters to leave them in peace.

Fortunately for the family, Henry’s “wild talents”--whatever may have been their source--soon faded away.  By the time of his marriage in 1917, he had long returned to being a perfectly ordinary mortal who, one hopes, spent the rest of his days in peaceful obscurity.