The mattress of the
father was tenanted by something that wriggled like a snake. The
mattress was opened, nothing was found, and the disturbance began again
as soon as the bed was restored to its place. This occurred when the
farmer's children had been sent to a distance.
One cannot but be perplexed by the problem which these tales suggest.
Almost bare of evidence as they are, their great number, their wide
diffusion, in many countries and in times ancient and modern, may
establish some substratum of truth. Scott mentions a case in which the
imposture was detected by a sheriff's officer. But a recent anecdote
makes me almost distrust the detection.
Some English people, having taken a country house in Ireland, were vexed
by the usual rappings, stone-throwings, and all the rest of the business.
They sent to Dublin for two detectives, who arrived. On their first
night, the lady of the house went into a room, where she found one of the
policemen asleep in his chair. Being a lively person, she rapped twice
or thrice on the table. He awakened, and said: "Ah, so I suspected. It
was hardly worth while, madam, to bring us so far for this." And next
day the worthy men withdrew in dudgeon, but quite convinced that they had
discovered the agent in the hauntings.
But they had not!
On the other hand, Scott (who had seen one ghost, if not two, and had
heard a "warning") states that Miss Anne Robinson managed the Stockwell
disturbances by tying horsehairs to plates and light articles, which then
demeaned themselves as if possessed.
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