Research source

foster's daily democrat (dover, n.h.) 1873-current — spirit rapping

Date of account: Newspaper page published 1896-12-24
Location: dover, new hampshire, united states
Source: Chronicling America paranormal and anomalous-report excerpts
Reference: foster's daily democrat (dover, n.h.) 1873-current · 1896-12-24 · page 1
Rights: public_domain
Language: English OCR
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

A 1896-12-24 newspaper page contains wording relevant to “spirit rapping”. This is historical reporting or commentary preserved by the Library of Congress; it is not treated as verification that the described event occurred.

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 only

Slaves In the Spirit World. Spirit rapping is unknown to the natives of Borneo, but, according to the report of a recent traveler, they are not without methods of communication with departed friends. The oustoms of ‘‘Surmungup,” which take the place of table turning in Borneo, are curious, to say the least of it. When the friends of a dead chief wish to communiocate with him, they subscribe to gether and purchase a slave. Affer certain preliminary dancings and howlings, each subscriber drives his spear into the victim while at the same time he shouts out a message which he wishes to have conveyed by the slave to his friend in the other world. This ...

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This OCR excerpt may mix reporting, humour, folklore, syndicated copy, editorial comment and witness claims. Newspaper title, date and original page remain available for source-critical reading.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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