Another, whose belief in ghosts was doubtful, reckoned she knew various cases to be facts, in which men hid treasures under a spell, that could be removed if a person could devise the counterspell, by hitting, even accidentally, on what the original spell had been.[8]
7
‘If you want ghost-stories, I can tell them as well as another; but mind I don’t believe such things,’ said another.
‘Tell me what you’ve heard, then.’
‘Well, I have heard say that there was a woman in the Monti,[9] and not so long ago either, who was always finding money about the house, and that too, in places where she knew no one could have put it. The first thing in the morning when she got up she would find it on the floor all about the room. Or if she got up from her work in the middle of the day, though she knew no one had come in, there it would be.
‘One day she saw three silver papetti[10] on the floor. It wasn’t that there was no silver money ever to be seen, and nothing but dirty paper notes, and half of them false, as it is now o’ days. It was in the time of the Pope, and there was plenty of silver for those who had money at all, but still, to see three silver papetti lying on the floor all of a sudden was a sight for anyone.
‘It looked so strange that she hesitated before she picked it up. But at last she made up her mind and took it. No sooner had she done so than a spirit appeared before her, and said, “Come down with me into the cellar and I’ll show you something.”
‘“No, thank you, sir,” said the woman, not knowing what to do for fear.
‘“Nonsense! come down, you shan’t be hurt,” said the spirit.