The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-10-20
GHOsTLY ARMIES IN THE SKY.
Phantom Legions, Which Tradition
Says, Visit the Scene of Great J.
RatfleS

Phantom Legions, Which Tradition
Says, Visit the Scene of Great :.
Battles.
Everyone who has read Kipling'S
story of the Lost Legion knows how
the ghosts of dead troopers of a re-
volted native regiment who were cut
Off by hillmen in the days of the great
mutiny in India wander by night, if
we may believe the descendants of
their n1urderers, about the cairns in
mountain valley which mark the
vesting place of their bones.
The story of phantom armies is an
old one and has existed in some form
in all ages and in all climes. There
are many places besides the Afghan
mountain valley where phantom war
riors fight again their battles On the
anniversary Of the COMBAT in which
they fell.
Most famous of all ghostly battles
is that which is fought every year
high in the air above the plains of
Chalons on the anniversary of that
great battle in which Attila and his
Huns were defeated 1853 years ago
by the Romans and their Frankish and
Saxon allies.
In that battle the loss of life was
greater than in any other fight rec
orded in history. Some authorities
place the number of the dead at 30O,-
900, while other historians estimate
it at 100000
Now, on the anniversary of the bat
tie, the peasants living on the plains
which surrounded Chalons declare
that they see above them cloudy leg
ions charging and countercharging-
Attila and Aetius struggling once
more for the dominion of the world.
In Rajputana, India, near the town
of Amir, there is plain on which
opens mountain defle. The natives
declare that often on a misty night
there will issue from the mountain
pass body of four or five hundred
warriors, mounted on Arab steeds and
clad in the sacred green which can
be worn by the descendants of the
prophet alone.
The troops ride with no sound of
spur jinglings or sabre clashing. The
feet of the horses make no sound,
and though they ride hard as if charg
ing in battle, there is stiffness over
the plain. Sometimes for hours at
time the spectral squadrons will
wheel and charge about and then,
squirting to the entrance of the noun
tain defile, will vanish.
The shadowy riders of the night
are, say the Musulmans of the Raj
putana, the ghosts of Hosein and his
followers, who were slaughtered up
on the plain of Kerbela, as the grand
son Of Mahomet was journeying to
Bagdad in response to an invitation
to be King Of Persia.
Why Hosein and his warriors
should make their ghostly charges
over the plains OF ,Rajputana, when
their slaughter took place hundreds
Of miles away on the plain of Bagdad,
It Is difficult to explain; but ghosts
are sometimes erratic.
Another place where phantom war
riors fight in the moonlight, according
to the tales Of the peasantry, is the
pass of Roncesvalles. in the Pyrenees,
where the rear guard Of the army Of
Charlemagne was overcome by the
Moors in 778. It was there that Rol-
and and Oliver fought and died with
the peers Of France.
Now, at night, the Paynim host and
the Paladins and Peers fight again in
the dark valley, and the mountaineer,
turning in his bed, hears from the de-
file the winding of the horn of Oliph-
ant calling back King Charles.
In 1744 considerable stir was made
in England by the appearance OF a
phantom army on the side of Southfell
mountain, between Penrith and Kes-
wick A number of people saw the
apparition and made affidavit to it.
A small army of horsemen sudden
ly appeared moving along the noun
tain side. where mortal horsemen
ne'er might ride" They were distinct
but rather diaphanous beings, and
made no sound as they galloped along
till they disappeared over the crest
of the mountain.
"The ghosts Of warriors slain in
some forgotten BATTLE said the peas
ants, and many more besides; but the
scientific men said. "Only mirage"
New York Sun.
uEoreinnD Onera