Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-11
THE ANIMAL WORLD
Has It's Spooks Just Like Poor
Humans.
GEOLOGICAL WRAITHs
WEIRD STORIES TOLD OF THE
"RoLLING GALE"
Ill-Used Brutes Are Supposed to Re
turn in Spirit Form and
Haunt Tormentors.

Haunt Tormentora.
| Written for The Evening Star by William Thorp.
| A negro, shrieking with terror and trem-
bling in every limb. ran on to the veranda
of planters house in. Trinidad one even
ing and flung himself at the planters feet
| in a dead faint. =
Whats the matter, Bob?" asked the
planter. after he had brought the man to
| and given him a stiff drink of whisky
John Awful Man put obeah pom you.
| eh?' abiding to famous witch doctor of
| the neighborhood.
mo. massa.'' was the reply "Wusser
| dan dat! see de r-llin' calf In de bush
| JUS now. Him eyes shine like fab and
him chain go clank-a -clank- clank. De
blessed Lord hab mercy pom me- I die
| soon. fo sure
Nothing could persuade the man that he
| was not doomed that he had only seen
! a harmless and perfectly natural white
| calf. He fell in a state of hopeless melan-
choly, and soon afterward died of Slight
attack of malarial fever-'from pure
| funk as the doctor said.
The Rolling Calf.''
The rolling calf" is the most famous of
| the many animal ghosts firmly believed in
..
Indeed. throughout the world there is no
animal ghost which causes people greater
uneasiuess
1t is white calf of enormous sze-as
big as an elephant. if some accounts may
be trusted. Its eyes blaze like two live
Goals and roll fearsomely from side to
side; hence its name. A heavy chain en-
circles it's body and drags behind on the
| ground for many yards. clanking weirdly
| in the stiffness of the tropical night
me apparitIon is supposed to presage
death. or. at least. some terrible misfor-
tune And. or course. nearly every negro
who meets white calf straying at night
in the jungle or on a lonely mountain road
lmagines that he has seen the dreaded
rolling calf
There is only one way to render the
phantom harmless When it appears
knife or machete must instantly be stuck
| IN the ground. with the edge toward the
calf. Then, like Mephistopheles. held back
by the sign of the bcross. it cannot ap-
proach or do any evil On this account a
west Indian negro will seldom go out at
night without his machete.
Worlds Belief in Spectral Beasts.
The belief in animal ghosts is common
to most savage and barbarian races, as
we'll as to many civilized people 1t is
| natural that this should be So because
most savages credit animals with souls and
a future existence equally with men They
| think that after death
THE hunter still the deer pursues
The hunter and the deer a shade
Therefore. If they believe that the ghosts
of men revisit these ':pale glimpses of the
MOON they must believe. in order to be
| logical. that the ghosts of animals do the
SINE, This is the true explanation of the
| numerous stories Of agkostly animals which
| the traveller hears IN all parts of the world
| The red Indians belief that the souls of
| slam ANIMALS went 10 the happy hunt
| ing grounds. as well as the souls of slain
warriors, is well known. But it is not so
we'll known that among certain tribes it
was the custom 10 beg pardon of an ami
| NAL before killing it. and even to stick the
pipe Of peace in it's mouth If there was
| time to do so before it's spirit fled. This
was to prevent the animal from coming
back in ghostly form to haunt lis slayer.
The same superstition may be met with
| in many other parts of the world-in india
| In Assam in New Guinea. among the Eve
| speaking negro tribes of the west coast OF
| Africa, among the Waiomgomo Indians of
Venezuela, and in the interior of NADIA
gaScar.
The people OF Assam firmly believe that
| il a man takes care to beg pardon with
| due form and ceremony the ghosts of all
| the birds and beasts he SllyS in this life
| will become his property in the next world
| 1t is rather annoying to an English planter
| in that country TO have to wait for his din
ner while his servant goes through ei1bo-
J rate prOpitiatory rites before he kills
| chicken
| The "Pale Horse"
| No animal ghost has been more firmly be-
| lieyed in for many centuries by many mill
| liens of people than the pale Horse" 1t
| dates back to the days of cellnd.c sages
and Morse legends. Today it is article
! OF faith with the peasants of Iceland. of
| the northern part of Norway and Sweden
of some of the northern provinces of Rus
| STA. and even with some of the Scottish
/ highlanders.
When a man is about to die the pale
Horse'-white, shadowy, ghostly-cones
| out of the dark night and halts before
| the door Of his house. Then he must arise
from his death-bed drink life's stirrup-cup
mount the spectral steed and ride off to
| that undiscovered country from whose
| bourne 70 traveller returns"
In the days when he wrote poetry instead
| of guiding Americas foreign policy John
| Hay took this curious myth for the theme
| of one of his best poems, THE Stirrup
| Cup
| My short and happy day Is done.
| And at my door the Pale Horse stands
| To carry me TO Cpknown lands.
''His whinny shriil his paving Eo.f
| Sound dreadful gathering storm;
And must leave this shelterng roof.
| And joys Of life so soft and warm
| Tender and warm the joys of life
Good friends. the faithful and the true
My rosy children and my wife.
So sweet to kiss, so fair to view.
$50 sweet to kiss so fair to view
The night comes down. the lights burn blue;
And ut my door the Pa.e Horse stands
To bear me forth to unknown lands.
The Spectral Elephant.
| India is full of animal ghosts from the
| Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Ghost tigers,
| ghost jackals and ghost elephants haunt
| half the jungles of that vast country, if the
| natives may be believed. Here is typical
| story: .,e-ers
by the beard Of my father. Sahib, 1
speak straight words" said an old Mahom-
| edan mahout. lone evening we were hunt
! ing wild elephants in the jungle for our
| lord, the Maharaja of Gidhaur. I saw
| large tusker alone by pool His color was
| grayish-white. and my heart beat fast, for
I thought Allah had been gracious to me,
do <Iok