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Animal Ghosts -- Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter
ANIMAL GHOSTS
OR,
ANIMAL HAUNTINGS AND THE HEREAFTER
BY ELLIOTT O'DONNELL
AUTHOR OF
"THE SORCERY CLUB," "WERWOLVES," "BYWAYS OF GHOSTLAND," "SCOTTISH
GHOSTS," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND AND
WALES," "DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS," "FOR SATAN'S SAKE," "THE UNKNOWN
DEPTHS," "DINEVAH THE BEAUTIFUL," "JENNIE BARLOWE," "GHOSTLY
PHENOMENA," "MRS. E.M. WARD'S REMINISCENCES," ETC. ETC.
LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1913
_First Published November, 1913._
PREFACE
If human beings, with all their vices, have a future life, assuredly
animals, who in character so often equal, nay, excel human beings,
have a future life also.
Those who in the Scriptures find a key to all things, can find nothing
in them to confute this argument. There is no saying of Christ that
justifies one in supposing that man is the only being, whose existence
extends beyond the grave.
Granted, however, merely for the sake of argument, that we have some
ground for the denial of a future existence for animals, consider the
injustice such a denial would involve. Take, for example, the case of
the horse. Harming no one, and without thought of reward, it toils for
man all its life, and when too old to work it is put to death without
even the compensation of a well-earned rest. But if compensation be
God's law,--as I, for one, believe it to be--and also the _raison
d'être_ of a hereafter, then surely the Creator, whose chief claim to
our respect and veneration lies in the fact that He is just and
merciful, will take good care that the horse--the gentle, patient,
never-complaining horse--is well compensated--compensated in a golden
hereafter.
Consider again, the case of another of our four-footed friends--the
dog; the faithful, affectionate, obedient and forgiving dog, the dog
who is so often called upon to stand all sorts of rough treatment, and
is shot or poisoned, if, provoked beyond endurance, he at last rounds
on his persecutors, and bites. And the cat--the timid, peaceful cat
who is mauled, and all but pulled in two by cruel children, and beaten
to a jelly when in sheer agony and fright it scratches. Reflect again,
on the cow and the sheep, fed only to supply our wants; shouted at and
kicked, if, when nearly scared out of their senses, they wander off
the track; and pole-axed, or done to death in some equally atrocious
manner when the sickening demand for flesh food is at its height.
And yet, you say, these innocent, unoffending--and, I say,
martyred--animals are to have no future, no compensation. Monstrous!
Absurd! It is an effrontery to common sense, philosophy--anything,
everything. It is a damned lie, damned bigotry, damned nonsense. The
whole animal world will live again; and it will be man--spoilt,
presumptuous, degenerate man--who will not participate in another
life, unless he very much improves.
Think well over this,--you who preach the gospel of man's
pre-eminence;--you who prate of God and know nothing whatsoever about
Him! The horse, dog, cat,--even the wild animals, whose vices,
perchance, pale beside your own, may go to Heaven before you. The
Supreme Architect is neither a Nero, nor a Stuart, nor a clown. He
will recompense all who deserve recompense, be they great or
small--biped or quadruped.
It is to testify to a future existence for animals and to create a
wider interest in it that I have undertaken to compile this book; and
my object, I think, can best be achieved in my own way, the way of the
investigator of haunted places. The mere fact that there are
manifestations of "dead" people (pardon the paradox) proves some kind
of life after death for human beings; and happily the same proof is
available with regard a future life for animals; indeed there are as
many animal phantasms as human--perhaps more; hence, if the human
being lives again, so do his dumb friends.
Be comforted then, you who love your pets, and have been kind to them.
You will see them all again, on the soft undying pasture lands of your
Elysium and theirs.
Be warned, you--you who have despised animals, and have been cruel to
them. Who knows but that, in your future life, you may be as they are
now--in subjection?
* * * * *
My task in writing this book has been considerably lightened by the
extreme courtesy and kindness of Mr. Shirley, Mr. Eveleigh Nash, and
the Proprietors of the _Review of Reviews_, in allowing me to make use
of extracts and quotations from their most valuable works.
ELLIOTT O'DONNELL.
CONTENTS
PART I
CHAPTER I
CATS
PAGE
The Black Cat of the Old Manor House, Oxenby--Correspondence _re_ Cat
Phantasms--The Headless Cat of No. ----, Lower Seedley Road, Seedley,
Manchester--The Cat on the Post--Mystic Properties of Cats 3
CHAPTER II
DOGS
The Case of James Durham--The Grey Dog of ---- House, Birmingham--The
Dog in the Cupboard--How the Ghost of a Dog saved Life--A Precentor's
Adventure--Phantom Dog seen on Souter Fell--The Jumping Ghost--Dogs
seen before a Death--A Dog scared by a Canine Ghost--The Phantom
Dachshund of W---- Street, London, W.--An ALL Hallow Eve Ghost--The
Strange Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Dance--Phantasms of Living
Dogs--The Yellow Dog of K---- University--National Ghosts in the form
of Dogs--The Mauthe Doog--Spectral Hounds 57
CHAPTER III
HORSES AND THE UNKNOWN
A Phantom Cavalcade--The Miller on the Grey Horse--A Phantom Horse and
Rider--The White Horse of Eastover--The Afrikander's Story--Heralds of
Death--Phantom Coach in U.S.A.--A Story from Marseilles--Summary of
Horses--Phantasms of Living Horses--Horses and the Psychic Faculty of
Scent--Phantom Policeman and Horse--Phantom Huntsmen and Horses
139
CHAPTER IV
BULLS, COWS, PIGS, ETC.
The Kirk-grim--Phantasm of a Goat--Phantom Hogs of the Moat
Grange--Sheep--Spectre Flock of Sheep in Germany 212
PART II
CHAPTER V
WILD ANIMALS AND THE UNKNOWN
Animal Phantasms and the Moon--The Case of Martin Tristram--Phantasms
of Cat and Ape--Hauntings by a White Rabbit--John Wesley's
Ghost--Psychic Faculty in Hares and Rabbits 223
CHAPTER VI
INHABITANTS OF THE JUNGLE
Elephants, Lions, Tigers, etc.--The White Tiger--Jungle Animals and
Psychic Faculties 254
PART III
CHAPTER VII
BIRDS AND THE UNKNOWN
Case from _Occult Review_--Bird Hauntings in Russia--Hauntings in the
Country Church--Capt. Morgan's Experiences--Addenda--Old Authorities
on Bird Omens 273
CHAPTER VIII
A BRIEF RETROSPECT 300
PART I
DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE UNKNOWN