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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
183
The
husband
of
Onkhari
does
not
say
how
she
disturbed
him,
but
the
manners
of
Egyptian
haunters,
just
what
they
remain
at
present,
may
be
gathered
from
a
magical
papyrus,
written
in
Greek.
Spirits
"wail
and
groan,
or
laugh
dreadfully";
they
cause
bad
dreams,
terror
and
madness;
finally,
they
"practice
stealthy
theft,"
and
rap
and
knock.
The
"theft"
(by
making
objects
disappear
mysteriously)
is
often
illustrated
in
the
following
tales,
as
are
the
groaning
and
knocking.
{188b}
St.
Augustine
speaks
of
hauntings
as
familiar
occurrences,
and
we
have
a
chain
of
similar
cases
from
ancient
Egypt
to
1896.
Several
houses
in
that
year
were
so
disturbed
that
the
inhabitants
were
obliged
to
leave
them.
The
newspapers
were
full
of
correspondence
on
the
subject.
The
usual
annoyances
are
apparitions
(rare),
flying
about
of
objects
(not
very
common),
noises
of
every
kind
(extremely
frequent),
groans,
screams,
footsteps
and
fire-raising.
Imposture
has
either
been
proved
or
made
very
probable
in
ten
out
of
eleven
cases
of
volatile
objects
between
1883
and
1895.
{188c}
Moreover,
it
is
certain
that
the
noises
of
haunted
houses
are
not
equally
audible
by
all
persons
present,
even
when
the
sounds
are
at
their
loudest.
Thus
Lord
St.
Vincent,
the
great
admiral,
heard
nothing
during
his
stay
at
the
house
of
his
sister,
Mrs.
Ricketts,
while
that
lady
endured
terrible
things.
After
his
departure
she
was
obliged
to
recall
him.
He
arrived,
and
slept
peacefully.
Next
day
his
sister
told
him
about
the
disturbances,
after
which
he
heard
them
as
much
as
his
neighbours,
and
was
as
unsuccessful
in
discovering
their
cause.
{189}
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