Year: 1871

Having proved our discoveries in the
most satisfactory manner, we published
, the matter among our friends; and many
came to look at the ghost, and see it made
, and unmade; and l have no doubt that


some who have read this will be of that


number, and bear witness to the truth Of
what have written. have been tempted
to make this curious circumstance public


knowing on what much smaller grounds


houses have gained reputation for being


haunted, to the extreme terror of the in.


habitanTs, and great detriment of the


owner. And certainly the remarkable CO.


incidence of the former building having


been destroyed by fire, in which woman


and her baby perished, and the spectral


appearance of woman holding a child


being visible on the very spot where the


poor thing was last seen alive, whenever


that spot was illuminated by strong


blaze, was enough TO convince the most


incredulous. With this experience, there


fore, before me, l strongly advise any one


who sees or hears of ghost to examine


carefully all doors, windows, and other


means of conveying light, before he be-


leves his eyes or ears; and think may


venture to predict natural and simple


solution to the most alarming and mystic


rious apparition.


The second wonderful sight that 1 wit


messed was seen by myself alone, so my


readers must be good enough to credit me


with a truthful tongue while describe it.


was staying at Southsea. Southsea is


well known TO possess very clear atmos-
| phere, and sometimes an almost Mediter-


ranean moonlight. 1 was fond of the
moonlight, and slept with my blind up and
rrarr sNsNr- % had
faced the window, and the door of my
room was on the right, close to the beds
head. One night was restless. Though


very tired, could not sleep. My head


was turned rather to the left, and re-
Trained from moving, hoping so to coax
myself into forgetfulness. Finding this
useless, at last l turned suddenly round.


The strangest sight met me. The top of
the door was spanned by beautiful lumi-
nous arch, in color and shape more like a
lunar rainbow than anything else that
have ever seen. As, wonder stricken and
half alarmed, stared at this portentous
sign, it changed. The arch gradually
faded, and was succeeded by train of
fiery figures, to my unpractised eye, pre-
cisely like the hieroglyphics which l
had seen on Assyrian tombs and other
relics in the British Museum and else
where. The figures were of all shapes
pointed, curved, hooked, horned, broad,
slender, tapering; but all of the same lu-
minous appearance as the arch, though
some brighter and some fainter. The
most astonishing and awful part of it,
however, was, that the figures never re-
manned more than a second after they


were formed; they disappeared, regularly
and rapidly, as if one hand impressed
them on the wall, and the other followed
and blotted them out; to be succeeded by
new shapes, equally plain, bright and def
mite; in their turn melting away, and all
so exactly resembling Egyptian and AS
syrian characters that / feel sure had
master of those mysterious languages wit
messed them as l did, he would without
difficulty and in all good faith have given
US an English version of their meaning. l
watched this extraordinary sight for long
time. The letters frequently disappeared
altogether, and then the arch returned,
again to vanish, and be succeeded by new
forms of fire. repeat that am not be-
liever in visions, and wonderful and unac-
countable as was this one, l still assured
myself that it had natural cause, though
invisible as yet to me. called to mind my
former experience of the ghost on the
staircase, and determined to hunt out with
equal resolution the origin of this phan-
tom light l looked round and round, but
could see nothing in the room rejecting
or glittering, nothing but the simple
moonlight Illuminating the air outside.
Finally l got up, and after carefully
searching for any stray moonbeam that
might have fallen on some shining sub


stance, and finding none, looked out of
the window to see if the mystery could be
unraveled that way. But there was not
light to be seen anywhere; it was late-or
rather early-abOut two o'clock in the
mOrning-and the entire population of
Southsea appeared to be asleep. More
over, found that the moon was so far on
the right side of the house that she could
not possibly shine into my window; and
if, through any unsuspected chink, she
did contrive to throw in a ray or two,
from her position they must fall on the
exact opposite side to where the luminous
arch and fiery letters were now shifting
and shimmering. Consequently, l was
more puzzled than before and after hunt


ing with infinite care for any possible re-
fecting medium, and failing to discover
any such, decided that it was a matter
beyond my ken, and my best plan was to
go back to bed, and try to forget this un-
comfortable shining visitor in sleep.


The first part of this resolution l acted
on; the second was a failure. Sleep
could not, nor could keep my eyes off
my cleaning, glittering, uncannY- looking
neighbor. Suddenly change took place
the arch seemed to stand out from the wall,
and appeared about to descend upon my
head. This was too much even for my
philosophy. l jumped up in fright, and
retreated precipitately to the other end of
the room. watching the movements of the
enemy as Invent, more than half fearing
that it would run after me. However it
did not descend on the bed, but satisfied
apparently with having scared me away,
after waving about in the air for rev
seconds, returning to its former station,
slowly faded, and troop of dazzling HE
roglyphics rushed into its place. l had
now begun to feel, if not positively
frightened, at least seriously uneasy.
thought once or twice, should l wake up
any one in the house? but it seemed so
weak and foolish to disturb people out of
their sleep to look at spots of light dane
ing on a wall; also, l felt sure that l was
more likely myself to come at the cause |
than any one else, seeing how strong was |
my belief in natural causes and the fantas- |
tic power of rejecting light. But / could |
not go back to bed again. The recollec- |
ton of the descending arch unnerved me.
l sat down by the window, opposite the |
phantom letters, and tried to think of some |
possible solution to such an enigma. re- |
when a child, hearing a lady |
say, that she had once been nearly terrified |
to death by waking in the night and see
ing phosphoric light shining in her room.
But this could not be phosphorus, for, in |
the first place, the description given in no |
way tailed with my Eliminated wall The |
light this lady had spoken of was one |
large patch, dull and reddish in color; it |
remained mOtionless for a few minutes, i
and then disappeared altogether; the at
at the time being close, heavy, |
and charged with electricity, and severe |
at hand. Now the atmos- |
phere, at the present moment, vas clear as
crystal, fresh and pure, the sky a lovely |
blue, speckled all over with small summer |
clouds; evidently there was neither phos- /
phorus nor electricity overstepping its
bounds this night. What could that |
strange appearance signify? After think |
ing over every imaginable possibility, at
last had the bOldness to 90 m and touch |