The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
VOICES IN THE AIR.
8 ounds That Have Given Rise TO Many
RtranKe Superstiti0ns.

Strange SuperstitionS.
In the stillest nights there are some-
times sounds that are literally audible;
for which we cannot account. From the
earliest times superstition has made such
sounds her own. says the London Globe:
she has dealt seriously with them, and
framed mythologies from their mystery.
Sometimes the sounds are simply isolated
cries Of a weird shrillness, 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 well know such cries.
Celtic poetry is full Of them; but their
folklore 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 passing with
painting hounds and horses. Other records
tell Of sounds like the clash Of armies meet
Ing in the air. and the phenomenon has
always been taken as significant OF coming
war.
Teutonic folklore is full Of myths founded
upon mysterious voices. In the Hartz
district there is the demon huntsman; we
read of him in Burgers ballad, Every
glade OF German woodlands has it's spir nit,
such as the Erl-king and his Turing daughter,
who beguiles the very child from his fathers
arms There was also the strange piper
of Hamelin, a tale that belongs not only
to poetry, but to actual chronicle; what
was the pipe that 80 magically drew first
the rats and then the children2
There is a kindred legend Of a stranger
who came into the Hartz district, bearing
a bagpipe. For every tune that he played
n maiden died. Death has continually
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 f%ancies, con-
verting the sounds into the voice of angels,
Andersen's Dying Child and Tennyson's
MAY Queen hear this celestial music,
and understand its m
Mr.. Baring-Gould tells Of a Yorkshire
farmer who spoke of hearing angel voices
that road they're bound to TAX bairns'
souls wi EN-" Sometimes the voice has
not come to draw the child to paradise
but to allure into an under world OF fairies,
such as that reached by 'bonny Kilmeny.'
German peasants used to caution their
little ones not to listen to the voices they
might hear. or they would be carried of
by forest spirits.
At times there have been strange voices
heard at a ford-the cry Of dead souls of
those who have been rowne there, or 1t
may be that the ferryman has been reused
at night by a summoning call and has been
compelled to row an invisible company
across the stream, his boat sinking 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 eohoing footsteps OF
passers long dead can still be heard by
those who listen Alright. There are hollow
places also where a sound OF buried bells
comes as from the centre OF the earth. and
stories OF lost churches are told, or the
chimes are heard by the sea coast, and
fishers tell of bells that have been lost in
the waters, or of church towers sucked down
among the single and weed.
On Dartmoor there are the Wish Hounds,
chasing the souls Of unbapticed babes
across the bogs and tors; the moorman
closes his door trembling, the mother presses
her child passionately to her breast.
On the sea coast there are hollow caverns
to emit curious noises, and the surface
Of the water itself can convey sounds from
long distances. In Cornwall the fisher
folk say that where there have been wrecks
the dead sailors may be heard mailing
their own Names Sometimes when a
fisher wife thinks that her ma. may be
drowned, she goes down to the shore and
calls his name. II he is dead, she hears
an answer. Similar fancies linger among
the Breton DeaSantry,