Being naturally greatly astonished and perturbed, I made careful inquiries, and, at length--for the North…
- Date of account
- Published 1911
- Source
- Byways of Ghost-Land
- Reference
- Byways of Ghost-Land · selected passage 109
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
Being naturally greatly astonished and perturbed, I made careful inquiries, and, at length--for the North Country rustic is most reticent and difficult to "draw"--succeeded in extracting from three of them the reason for the general exodus
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyBeing naturally greatly astonished and perturbed, I made careful inquiries, and, at length--for the North Country rustic is most reticent and difficult to "draw"--succeeded in extracting from three of them the reason for the general exodus. The houses are all HAUNTED! There was nothing amiss with them, they informed me, till about three weeks ago, when they all heard all sorts of alarming noises--crashes as if every atom of crockery they possessed was being broken; bangs on the panels of doors; hideous groans; diabolical laughs; and blood-curdling screams. Nor was that all; some of them vowed they had seen things--horrible hairy hands, with claw-like nails and knotted joints, that came out of dark corners and grabbed at them; naked feet with enormous filthy toes; and faces--HORRIBLE faces that peeped at them over the banisters or through the windows; and sooner than stand any more of it--sooner than have their wives and bairns frightened out of their senses, they would sacrifice a quarter's rent and go.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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