How for the removal of the horse out of the stable was connected with the rest of the phenomena, it is impossible to say; but a similar circumstance has very lately occurred with regard to a dog that was locked up in the house in this neighborhood, which I have several times alluded to, where footsteps and rustlings are heard, doors are opened, and a feeling that some one is blowing or breathing upon them is felt by the inhabitants.
The holes burnt in the handkerchief are also quite in accordance with many other relations of the kind, especially that of the maid of Orlach, and also that of the Hammerschan family, mentioned in “Stilling’s Pneumatology,” when a ghost who had been, as he said, waiting one hundred and twenty years for some one to release him by their prayers, was seen to take a handkerchief, on which he left the marks of his five fingers, appearing like burnt spots. A bible that he touched was marked in the same manner; and these two mementoes of the apparition were carefully retained in the family. This particularity, also, reminds us of Lord Tyrone’s leaving the marks of his hand on Lady Beresord’s wrist, on which she ever afterward wore a black riband. In several instances I find it reported that when an apparition is requested to render himself visible to, or to enter into communication with, other persons besides those to whom he addresses himself, he answers that it is impossible; and in other cases, that he could do it, but that the consequences to those persons would be pernicious. This, together with the circumstance of their waiting so long for the right person, tends strongly to support the hypothesis that an intense magnetic rapport is necessary to any facility of intercourse. It also appears that the power of establishing this rapport with one or more persons, varies exceedingly among these denizens of a spiritual world, some being only able to render themselves audible, others to render themselves visible to one person, while a few seem to possess considerably greater powers or privileges.
Another particular to be observed is, that in many instances, if not in all, these spirits are what the Germans call gebannt, that is, banned, or proscribed, or, as it were, tethered to a certain spot, which they can occasionally leave, as Anton did the cellar at Wimmenthal, to which he was gebannt, but from which they can not free themselves. To this spot they seem to be attached, as by an invisible chain, whether by the memory of a crime committed there, or by a buried treasure, or even by its being the receptacle of their own bodies. In short, it seems perfectly clear, admitting them to be apparitions of the dead, that, whatever the bond may be that keeps them down, they can not quit the earth; they are, as St. Martin says, remainers, not returners, and this seems to be the explanation of haunted houses.
In the year 1827, Christian Eisengrun, a respectable citizen of Neckarsteinach, was visited by a ghost of the above kind, and the particulars were judically recorded. He was at Eherbach, in Baden, working as a potter, which was his trade, in the manufactory of Mr. Gehrig, when he was one night awakened by a noise in his chamber, and, on looking up, he saw a faint light, which presently assumed a human form, attired in a loose gown; he could see no head. He had his own head under the clothes; but it presently spoke, and told him that he was destined to release it, and for that purpose he must go to the catholic churchyard of Neckarsteinach, and there, for twenty-one successive days, repeat the following verse from the New Testament, before the stone sepulchre there:—
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? So, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.”—1 Cor. ii. 11.
The ghost having repeated his visits and his request, the man consulted his master what he should do, and he advised him not to trifle with the apparition, but to do what he required, adding that he had known many similar instances. Upon this, Eisengrun went to Neckarsteinach, and addressed himself to the catholic priest there, named Seitz, who gave him the same counsel, together with his blessing and also a hymn of Luther’s, which he bade him learn and repeat, as well as the verse, when he visited the sepulchre.
As there was only one stone sepulchre in the churchyard, Eisengrun had no difficulty in finding it; and while he performed the service imposed on him by the ghost, the latter stood on the grave with his hands folded as if in prayer; but when he repeated the hymn, he moved rapidly backward and forward, but still not overstepping the limits of the stone. The man, though very frightened, persevered in the thing for the time imposed, twenty-one days; and during this period he saw the perfect form of the apparition, which had no covering on its head except very white hair. It always kept its hands folded, and had large eyes, in which he never perceived any motion; this filled him with horror. Many persons went to witness the ceremony.
The surviving nephews and nieces of the apparition brought an action against Eisengrun, and they contrived to have him seized and carried to the magistrate’s house, one day, at the time he should have gone to the churchyard. But the ghost came and beckoned, and made signs to him to follow him, till the man was so much affected and terrified that he burst into tears. The two magistrates could not see the spectre, but feeling themselves affected with a cold shudder, they consented to his going.
He was then publicly examined in court, together with the offended family and a number of witnesses; and the result was, that he was permitted to continue the service for the twenty-one days, after which he never saw or heard more of the ghost, who had been formerly a rich timber-merchant. The terror and anxiety attendant on these daily visits to the churchyard, affected Eisengrun so much, that it was some time before he recovered his usual health. He had all his life been a ghost-seer, but had never had communication with any before this event.
The catholic priest, in this instance, appears to have been more liberal than the deceased timber-merchant, for the latter did not seem to like the Lutheran hymn which the former prescribed. His dissatisfaction, however, may have arisen from their making any addition to the formula he had himself indicated.