Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-06-30
VOICES IN THE AIR.
Sounds That Have Given Rise te
 Many Strange Expectations.

In the stillest nights there are sometimes sounds that are literally audible, for which we cannot ac- count. From the earliest times su. perstition has made such sounds her own, says the London Globe, she has dealt seriously with them, and framed mythologies from their mys- tery. Sometimes the sounds are sim ply isolated cries of a weird shrill. ness, and fancy has imagined the spirits of the dead passing on the lonely wind; shepherds watching in solitude at night and sailors on the wide sea we'll know such cries.
 Celtic poetry is full of them, bu. their folk lore is not limited to Celtic lands. At other times the cries are thicker and sharper, sounds as of shouting, yelping, barking, with a wild rush and hurry; listeners have pictured a phantom huntsman pass ing with panting hounds and horses. Other records tell of sounds like the clash of armies meeting in the air, and the phenomenon has always been taken as significant of coming war.
 Teutonic folk lore Is full of myths founded upon mysterious voices. lI the Hartz district there is the demon huntsman; we read of him in Bur gers ballad. Every glade of Ger man woodlands has It's spirit, such as the erl-king and his turing daughter, who beguiles the very child from his fathers arms. There was also tile strange piper of Hamelin, a tale that belongs not only to poetry, but to actual chronicle; what was the pipe that so magically drew first the rats and then the children?
 There Is kindred legend of a stranger who came into the HartL district, bearing a bagpipe. For every tune that he played a maiden died. Death has continually been as- sociated with the crying of the wind, or the solitary voice of birds, or with a strange mysterious music that trembling listeners have not been able to identify. Even extreme forms of orthodox faith have adopted the same popular fancies, converting the sounds into the voice of angels. An de-sen's Dying Child" and Tenny- sons May Queen" hear this celes- tial music, and understand its sum- mons.
 Mir Baring-Gould tells of a York shire farmer who spoke of hearing angel voices calling dying girl, when t aingels gang that road they're bound to talk bairns' souls wi 'em." Sometimes the voice has not come to draw the child to para A,.N 4- tne world of fairies. such as that reached by ''bonny Kilmeny." German peas ants used to caution their little ones not to listen 10 the voices they might hear. or they would be carried on by forest spirits.
 At times there have been strange voices heard at a ford-the cry of dead souls of those who have been drowned there. or 1t may be that the ferryman has been reused al night by a summoning call. and has beeh compelled 10 row an invisible com pany across the stream. his boat sink ing low and his arm straining. yet seeing no man. In like manner the keepers of toll gates have been aroused at nights. and called to open.
 Every lonely road. indeed, has its cries. especially such a road as. once busy. is now deserted: the echoing footsteps of passers long dead can still be heard by those who 1isrcu aright. There are hollow places also where a sound of buried bells comes as from the center of the earth. and stories of lost churches are told. nr the chimes are heard by the sea coast. and fishers tell of bells ths. have been lost in the waters. or o, church towers sueked down among the shingie and weed.
 On Dartmoor there are the wish hounds. chasing the souls of unbap- tized babies across the bozs and tors. the moormaa closes his door treDl- bling. the mother presses her child passionately to her breast
 On the sea coast there are hollow eaverrs to emit curious noises. and the surface of the water itself car convey sounds from long distances Tn Cornvzu the fisher folk say that where there have been vrecks the dead sailors may be heard ~hsilins their own names Sometimes when a fisher rffe thinks that her man may be drou1ed- she goes down to tte shore and calls his name If he is dead. she hears zn answer. siuiI~r fsncies finger among the Bretcn rezszntry-