Colonel Meadows Taylor writes, in The Story of my Life (vol. ii., p.32): "The determination (to live unmarried) was the result of a verycurious and strange incident that befel me during one of my marches toHyderabad. I have never forgotten it, and it returns to this day tomy memory with a strangely vivid effect that I can neither repel norexplain. I purposely withhold the date of the year. In my very earlylife I had been deeply and devotedly attached to one in England, andonly relinquished the hope of one day winning her when the terribleorder came out that no furlough to Europe would be granted."One evening I was at the village of Dewas Kudea, after a very longafternoon and evening march from Muktul, and I lay down very weary;but the barking of village dogs, the baying of jackals and over-fatigue and heat prevented sleep, and I was wide awake and restless.Suddenly, for my tent door was wide open, I saw the face and figure sofamiliar to me, but looking older, and with a sad and troubledexpression; the dress was white and seemed covered with a profusion oflace and glistened in the bright moonlight. The arms were stretchedout, and a low plaintive cry of 'Do not let me go! Do not let me go!'reached me. I sprang forward, but the figure receded, growing fainterand fainter till I could see it no more, but the low plaintive tonesstill sounded. I had run barefooted across the open space where mytents were pitched, very much to the astonishment of the sentry onguard, but I returned to my tent without speaking to him. I wrote tomy father. I wished to know whether there were any hope for me. Hewrote back to me these words: 'Too late, my dear son--on the very dayof the vision you describe to me, A. was married'."The colonel did not keep his determination not to marry, for his Lifeis edited by his daughter, who often heard her father mention theincident, "precisely in the same manner, and exactly as it is in thebook". {103}If thinking of friends and lovers, lost or dead, could bring theirforms and voices before the eye and ear of flesh, there would be aworld of hallucinations around us. "But it wants heaven-sent momentsfor this skill," and few bridal nights send a vision and a voice tothe bed of a wakeful lover far away.Stories of this kind, appearances of the living or dying really at adistance, might be multiplied to any extent. They are all capable ofexplanation, if we admit the theory of telepathy, of a message sent byan unknown process from one living man's mind to another. Where morethan one person shares the vision, we may suppose that the influencecomes directly from A to B, C and D, or comes from A to B, and is byhim unconsciously "wired" on to B and C, or is "suggested" to them byB's conduct or words.In that case animals may be equally affected, thus, if B seemsalarmed, that may frighten his dog, or the alarm of a dog, caused bysome noise or smell, heard or smelt by him, may frighten B, C and D,and make one or all of them see a ghost.Popular opinion is strongly in favour of beasts seeing ghosts. Thepeople of St. Kilda, according to Martin, held that cows shared thevisions of second-sighted milk-maids. Horses are said to shy on thescene of murders. Scott's horse ran away (home) when Sir Walter sawthe bogle near Ashiestiel. In a case given later the dog shut up in aroom full of unexplained noises, yelled and whined. The same dog (anintimate friend of my own) bristled up his hair and growled before hismaster saw the Grey Lady. The Rev. J. G. Wood gives a case of a catwhich nearly went mad when his mistress saw an apparition. JeremyTaylor tells of a dog which got quite used to a ghost that oftenappeared to his master, and used to follow it. In "The Lady inBlack," a dog would jump up and fawn on the ghost and then run away ina fright. Mr. Wesley's mastiff was much alarmed by the family ghost.Not to multiply cases, dogs and other animals are easily affected bywhatever it is that makes people think a ghost is present, or by theconduct of the human beings on these occasions.Absurd as the subject appears, there are stories of the ghosts ofanimals. These may be discussed later; meanwhile we pass fromappearances of the living or dying to stories of appearances of thedead.
