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Animal Ghosts -- Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter

Elliot O'Donnell

_A Precentor's Story_

The late Mr. W.T. Stead, in his volume of _Real Ghost Stories_, narrates
the following, which by reason of its being witnessed by three people
simultaneously, may be regarded as highly evidential.

In reply to Mr. Stead's request to hear the anecdote the precentor says
(I quote him _ad verbum_):

"I was walking, about nine years ago, one night in August, about ten
o'clock, and about half a mile from the house where we are now sitting.
I was going along the public road between the hamlets of Mill of Haldane
and Ballock. I had with me two young women, and we were leisurely
walking along, when suddenly we were startled by seeing a woman, a child
about seven years old, and a Newfoundland dog jump over the stone wall
which was on one side of the road, and walk on rapidly in front of us. I
was not in the least frightened, but my two companions were very much
startled. What bothered me was that the woman, the child, and the dog,
instead of coming over the wall naturally one after the other, as would
have been necessary for them to do, had come over with a bound,
simultaneously leaping the wall, lighting on the road, and then hurrying
on without a word. Leaving my two companions, who were too frightened to
move, I walked rapidly after the trio. They walked on so quickly that it
was with difficulty that I got up to them. I spoke to the woman, she
never answered. I walked beside her for some little distance, and then
suddenly the woman, the child, and the Newfoundland dog disappeared. I
did not see them go anywhere, they simply were no longer there. I
examined the road minutely, at the spot where they had disappeared, to
see if it was possible for them to have gone through a hole in the wall
on either side; but it was quite impossible for a woman and a child to
get over a high dyke on either side. They had disappeared, and I only
regret that I did not try to pass my stick right through their bodies,
to see whether or not they had any resistance. Finding they had gone, I
returned to my lady friends, who were quite unnerved, and who, with
difficulty, were induced to go on to the end of their journey."

One of his companions, Mr. Stead goes on to explain, who heard him tell
the story at the time, corroborated the fact that it had made a great
impression on those who had seen it. Nothing was ever ascertained as to
any woman, child, or Newfoundland dog that had ever been in the district
before. When they got to Ballock they enquired of the keeper of the
bridge whether a woman, a child, and a dog had passed that way, but he
had seen nothing. The apparition had disappeared as suddenly as it had
appeared. Mr. Stead's article ends here. Of course, one can only surmise
as to the nature of the phenomena. No member of the Psychical Research
Society could do more--and in the absence of any authentic history of
the spot where the manifestations occurred, such a surmise can be of
little value. Since the phenomena were seen by three people at the same
time, it is quite safe to assume they were objective, but it is
impossible to lay down the law as to whether they were actual phantasms
of the dead--of a woman, child, and Newfoundland dog who had all three
met with some violent end--or phantasms of three living beings, who,
happening to think of that locality at the same time, had projected
their immaterial bodies there simultaneously. But whichever of these
alternatives be true, the same thing holds good in either case, viz.
that the Newfoundland dog had a spirit--and what applies to one dog
should assuredly apply to the generality, if not, indeed, to all.


_Phantom Dog seen on Souter Fell_

Miss Harriet Martineau, in her _English Lakes_, refers to certain
strange phenomena seen from time to time on Souter Fell.

In 1745, for example, a Mr. Wren and his servant saw, simultaneously, a
man and dog pursuing some horses along a razor-like ridge of rocks, on
which it was obviously impossible for any ordinary being to gain a bare
foothold, let alone walk. They watched the figures until the latter
suddenly vanished, when Mr. Wren and his servant, thinking, perhaps, the
man, dog, and horses had really fallen over the cliff, went to look for
them. They searched elsewhere, but despite their vigilance, nothing was
to be found, and convinced at last that what they had seen was something
superphysical, they came away mystified, and no doubt somewhat
frightened.

There is no suggestion to make here other than the manifestations may
have been the phantasms of a man, dog, and horses that at some former
date had been killed, either accidentally or purposely, in or near that
spot.


_The Jumping Ghost_

Mr. George Sinclair, in his work _Satan's Invisible World Discovered_,
gives a detailed account of hauntings in a house in Mary King's Close,
Edinburgh.

The house, at the time Mr. Sinclair writes, was occupied by Mr. Thomas
Coltheart, a law agent. Seated one afternoon at home reading, Mrs.
Coltheart was immeasurably startled at seeing, suspended in mid-air
gazing at her, the head of an old man. She uttered some sort of
exclamation, most probably a cry, and the apparition at once vanished.
Some nights later, when in bed, both she and her husband saw the same
head, which was presently joined by the head of a child, and a long,
naked arm, which tried to catch hold of them.

On another occasion, a member of the Coltheart family was greatly
alarmed by the sudden appearance of a large dog, which leaped on the
chair by her side, and as suddenly disappeared.

Every effort was made to lay the ghosts. Ministers--and one knows how
pious Scotch clergymen are--were called in, but their exhortations,
instead of dispelling or even minimizing the phenomena, only increased
them. It was a case of more prayers, more spooks; which state of
affairs, however complimentary to the ministers' powers of address, was
scarcely as comforting to the Colthearts, who, unable to bear the
strange sights and noises any longer, evacuated the premises. As no
other tenants could be found, the house was eventually pulled down, and
a row of fine modern buildings now occupy the site. As the history of
the place could never be traced with any degree of authenticity, one can
do no more than speculate as to the cause of the disturbances, which, I
am inclined to think, were due to the phantoms of people and animals
that had once actually lived and died there.


_Dogs seen before a Death_

Mrs. Crowe, in her _Night Side of Nature_, mentions the case of a young
lady named P----, who saw a big black dog twice suddenly appear and
disappear by her side, immediately before the death of her mother.

In _The Unseen World_ a story is also told of the phantasm of a big
black dog appearing on the bed of a Cornish child, doomed to die shortly
afterwards, the same dog invariably manifesting itself before the death
of any member of the child's family.

There are so many cases of a similar kind--one hears of them nearly
everywhere one goes--that one is led to believe some of them, at least,
must be true. There is no more reason to believe all ghost-story tellers
are liars, than there is to believe all parsons are liars--and this
being so, additional proof is afforded of the continuation of the dog's
life after death; for these family canine ghosts are more than probably
the phantasms of dogs that once belonged to families--maybe centuries
ago--and met their fate in some cruel and unnatural manner.
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