Fear/paranormal Stories

 
Haunted cane
Never would pay 50,000 euros for a metal cane; Not even if it was haunted? Well the «Ghost Cane» actually went up for auction on eBay by Mary Anderson, which considered that to get rid richly object would alleviate fears of 6-year her son, who was convinced that the ghost of his grandfather had throniastei in spades. The policy of eBay even now expressly prohibits the sale of "intangible objects like souls and spirits", but allowed the woman to put on auction by accepting supplications for the sake of her child. There was of course an inviolable condition for the new proud owner of the accursed club: to write a letter to the six year old who will inform him that his cane and the integrated soul grandfather are doing fine in their new home. The new house so haunted the club is the casino Golden Palace, with rattan (and grandfather) to finds its place beside sandwich bearing the face of the Virgin Mary, for which the casino paid 20,000 other euro ...


  The demoniac chest
150 years ago somewhere in the American South, the Jacob Cooley ordered the Afro-American slave Hosea to build a chest for the first child of the landowner. And the servant did just that, only the master was not satisfied and beat him to death. The other slaves of the plantation then set about to avenge the unjustly shed their friend: owl sprinkled blood on the chest and put one who knew them to curse. Paradoxically, the newborn son of the boss died, and the next year 17 deaths wider family were connected to the chest. The curse was finally withdrawn by a woman who had assumed such powers and most harmless exposed to the History of Kentucky ...


The ring of Rudolph Valentino
The Valentino (1895-1926) was one of the first Hollywood stars of the era of silent cinema, which was lost prematurely (at age 31) of gastric perforation. Not a few of course those who saw behind the death of the ring he had bought from jeweler in 1920. Legend has it that Valentino showing jubilant the Acquisitions to a friend, who saw the same dream night with the actor dies. The next movies star was a fiasco and he died six years later. It was of course his partner, Pola Negri, which became seriously ill when he put on her finger with the ring to undermine both the career and the life itself of. Coincidences, some maintain. The curse does not end here: the Russ Colombo, the actor who portrayed Valentino in biopic of the star wore the ring and killed a few days later in an accident on the shooting. The ring was sold then to gangster Joe Casino, who does not wore for years until they received the assurance of "special" that the curse had now faded. Alas! When he put it on his finger would come years after the end of: he died within a week of rolling. And the list of misfortune continues, with the ring disappears but sometime in the 60s. Is in your hand?



The cursed painting
The "Boy Cries» (Crying Boy) was a mass produced reprontixion table Bruno Amadio which proved extremely popular in the West during the 50s and especially the British Isles. In the 80s of course the list could live a second glory when the tabloid newspaper «The Sun» interview hosted firefighter from Yorkshire, who claimed no less that the table was the only thing that survived a series of fires in homes the area! Even in ruins, the house to be burnt, the table always came out unscathed. And other firefighters testified his story, saying that indeed none of them dared to get a copy for the home. The newspaper did not leave the matter of course in peace, hosting interviews 'victims' and reaching the extremes launched a massive campaign to undo the curse, with people sending in hundreds of tables in the newspaper to the "burn rituals." Sometime intervened course the BBC, which concluded that the "fireproof" panel fault a layer of varnish with non-combustible properties. Was he wonder why its resistance to fire or extra-terrestrial forces as like the tabloid;




The bunk of spirits
In February 1987 in Wisconsin U.S. a young couple bought a used bunk bed for their children. And then things got extreme scary! Right from the first night, the kids got sick, radio stations change wildly, and both boys said they saw that night dream witch. The countless incidents of house Tallman have no end campfires not burned and disappeared at the sight of ... fire extinguisher up voices urging members Familia with their names. The pastor was asked to solve the mystery managed to stop paranormal phenomena for a while, only for a while though. At Christmas 1988 the father was tired from partying the spirits and burned the bunk in the garden. As you rightly assume, paranormal activity ceased ...




The skull roaring
We return to East Yorkshire, where the mysteries appear to have no end. The skulls shriek So the hall Burton Agnes Hall has its own history: the palace was built during the reign of Elizabeth I by Sir Henry Griffiths and his sisters. One of them fell ill certainly heavy and die before the other sisters promised that would remove the head from the body and kept it in one of the rooms of the villa, in a moment of delirium sadness imagine. Which of course did not happen, the girl buried "traditional" in the family tomb. In a short time but eerie cries in the night were heard constantly at home, with her sisters to visit the tomb and frozen with terror: the skull of the unfortunate girl had decomposed to such an extent that remained now only bones, the skull has simultaneously cut from the body. The father finally transposed head home, the cries stopped and the incident would end there if you do not die sometime the occupants of the residence. Why are the new owners decided to get rid of the macabre skull in the lounge, to live amazed horror scenes: the walls shaking every time you head left the front door of the house, the tables were falling and cries of despair vibrated the house. The descendants of Sir Henry realized then that the skull had to remain in the house, but decided to build the wall to escape the macabre spectacle, where it remains until today ...



The chair of death
The House Baleroy in Pennsylvania was built in 1911 and hosted objects not only priceless but and historical significance as the personal belongings of Thomas Jefferson. Apart of course from the important relics, the villa also has supernatural prestige! The last tenant of the villa, George Meade Easby, died in 2005, certainly not before it claims that all words paranormal phenomena taking place in the villa, with the ghosts of his relatives, including Jefferson's, strolling carefree aisles! The shocking story of course had to do with the Blue Room and the "Chair of Death" located there. The chair with blue upholstery, supposedly once belonged Bonaparte, is not the kind of seat would someone want to try. Countless paranormal investigators have concluded that within the resident ghost woman (!) When the spirit is there, a blue mist fills the room with anyone who tries to sit on the chair at that moment to be lost for good. To date, four brave men have defied the advice of specialists and ventured to die of course a little later ...


A bridal different from the others
As a daughter of Croesus the steel of the 19th century Elias Baker, the Anna could have everything that money guaranteed. Of course she wanted that money can not buy: true love. The teenager fell in love then a poor factory worker father and as the stereotype he wants, his father was outraged by the choice and forbade her to marry him. She then decided to remain a spinster and died as a spinster, with the bridal she bought her mother remains unsold. Yet the girl wore the dress that is so craved, but not in this world! The gown was until recently the home, which has now turned into a museum (Blair County Historical Society), in her room even in a glass case in front of a mirror. And here comes the good: many museum visitors ran distraught aisles watching the dress to swing in the showcase! The spirit of the girl rehearsing her wedding dress in front of the mirror, or at least so they want those responsible for the museum ...



  Annabel, the doll of Satan
Known investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren took in solving the mystery in the haunted doll in the early 70s. The retro doll was purchased as a gift from mother to daughter a little older, the student transfers to the home he shared with a roommate. And as one would expect, the paranormal started falling rain: the doll reportedly had the ability to move (!) With the girls to find it every time and another place. Even handwritten notes seem to leave the doll, with children grammatakia finish every time with the "help me". Shortly thereafter, blood stains appeared on the dress the doll with the girls call spiritualists and learn firsthand that the ghost of a 7 year old girl who was murdered at the exact same house had haunted doll. Then allowed to continue unfortunate ghost demon of course, with friends but the girls were not in line with their decision to find dark: many attacks from otherworldly forces occurred in the home, only to those who objected to the presence of the doll at home! As for the investigators concluded that indeed the spirit of the girl had haunted doll, which of course conveniently carried in their museum in Connecticut (Warren Occult Museum), with Annabel continues to move through the shop window and growling occasionally at adventurous visitors ...

The relation between Siren's song and human attract

In our days the humans love to hear "Arias" like operas or other songs with these characteristics! So in the Medieval Age the women who has that wonderful voice and a little beauty could attracted alot of men(or slept the because these songs are slackener) that mean that the villagers could easilly called them witches,Siren(mostly) ........... etc.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujAfhLLVM7E !!!

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In that Age the "schools" are in strange places mostly near the sea....the women who called witches by the villagers, leave their place and were isolated [to the sea (rock areas), in caves, marshes etc.]. So finally a lot of people who had lost or was sailors could hear them. The sailor who hear them by the sea went to the rock area and their ships crushed and the people who was lost follow the song and finally they was lost in mud or the animals bited or ate them...
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The people who sea or hear like that started to animated stories so that women was afraid from the society that means that the women were isolated and keep doing their lifes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SG6ZITbWpU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX2anEXG0eE

Dragonorama

Celtic Dragons

Buy Celtic Dragon Ring

Dragons were an important part of Celtic lore and various types of dragon occur commonly in Celtic art.

The appeal of Celtic art is strong today and you can buy celtic dragon representations on posters, T-shirts and even jewelry.

Land & Water

The celts were highly attuned to the land and dragons were believed to influence the land, being connected with the rolling hills etc. Areas frequented by dragons were
believed to possess special power and regular dragon paths could become ley lines. There is a clear similarity here with the Chinese Feng Shui dragon.

As well as the earth, Celtic dragons were strongly associated with water. Many Celtic dragons are forms of sea serpent. They are often repesented as a huge winged serpent, however unlike many other other Western dragons they usually had no legs.

The Circle of Life

In Celtic art and legend dragons are often pictured with their tails in their mouths, similar to the Norse Jormungandr. This circular symbolism is believed to represent the cyclic nature of the world and immortality.

Power

Dragons are, of course, powerful creatures. The dragon was therefore often used as a symbol of power with the local chief. An example of this can be found in the name
Pendragon (most famously the king of England Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur).

Irish Dragons

Dragons were extremely important in Irish mythology, however most of the legends were affected by the arrival of Christianity. Irish dragons were almost universally portrayed as evil satanic beasts and it is difficult to get to the original stories.

When Saint Patrick reached Ireland, according to Christian mythology, he began by ridding the country of snakes then went on to imprisoning the serpents and dragons.

One of the last dragons in Ireland was Paiste (Lig-na-Baste), a fire-breathing serpent from the beginning of time. He was still around when St Patrick died and was eventually subdued by the trickery of Saint Murrough. He still lives in the waters of Lough Foyle.

Celtic Dragons: Mythical Power Source

There is no more powerful symbol than Celtic dragons

To invoke such reverence from the Celts, who were one of the most fierce and rugged ethnic groups in ancient times, they must have been much more than just fire-breathing beasts.Although dragons are usually associated with Asia, these mythical creatures can be found in fairy tales and folklore all over the world, including Celtic Ireland.
In the secular world of Celtic chiefs and warriors, dragons are merely symbols of the power of the chief. Indeed the Celtic word for "chief" is Pendragon.
But in the esoteric world of spirituality, Celtic dragons represent much more...
What magical powers do these mysterious creatures possess that was so important that we can find tales including rituals of sacrifice to the mighty dragons?
According to Trevor Mendham of Dragonorama, "Dragons were an important part of Celtic lore. The Celts were highly attuned to the land and dragons were believed to influence the land.... Areas frequented by dragons were believed to possess special power."

Dragons have always been associated with the Power of the Land. Even today, in many esoteric rituals, people believe that invoking the "Eye of the Dragon" will increase their personal power. The ancient Druids believed the Earth itself was like the body of a dragon, and they built their sacred stone circles upon the "Power Nodes" of this body. They believed dragons connected us with the Earth's magnetism and healing waters.
Many of us have heard the mysteries of the "ley lines", especially in relation to the location of mystical sites such as Stonehenge and the site of many mysterious crop circles. What you may not know is that another way of saying "ley lines" is "Dragon lines".
In ancient Celtic Ireland, the "ley of the land" was not about the geographical, physical nature of one's surroundings. It had a much more powerful meaning than that.
To the ancient Celts, the "ley of the land" was a term describing how the Cosmic forces flowed through and influenced the area, as well as how the area itself affected those Cosmic forces. Dragons were thought to have a tremendous influence on the "ley of the land", hence the term "Dragon lines".
But far from the terrifying creatures we see in films, dragons were more than fire-breathing beasts with the power to destroy.
The Anglo-Saxon word "dragon" is derived from the Greek word meaning "to see clearly". They believed dragons had the gift of vision, wisdom, and prophecy. Dragons were considered the guardians of all knowledge and wisdom.
As Celtic artist Cari Buziak's design demonstrates, Celtic art often depicts Celtic dragons swallowing their tails in a never ending circle, symbolizing eternal life, much like the symbolism of knotwork and triskeles.
The dragons were revered like gods, believed to bring Earthly and Heavenly forces together. Celts believed dragons guarded the gate to both the Heavens and the Underworld.
As guardian spirits who protect the Earth and all living things, Celtic dragons are arguably the most powerful of all the Celtic symbols.

The Witch of the Porta alla Croce

"If any secret should sacred be,
Though it guarded the life of a family,
And any woman be there about,
She will die but what she will find it out;
And though it hurried her soul to well
That secret she must immediately tell."
--Sage Stuffing for Young Ducks. 

HERE are in Italy, as elsewhere, families to whom a fatality or tradition is attached. The following is a curious legend of the kind : 

LA FATTUCHIERA DELLA PORTA ALLA CROCE.
"There was a very old Florentine family which lived in a castle in the country. The elder or head of this family had always one room in which no one was ever allowed to enter. There he passed hours alone every day, and woe to any one who dared disturb him while there. And this had been the case for generations, and no one had ever found out what the secret was. This was, of course, a great vexation to the ladies of the family--perche la donna e sempre churiosa--women being always inquisitive.
"And most inquisitive of all was a niece of the old man, who had got it into her head that the secret was simply a great treasure which she might obtain. Therefore she resolved to consult with a certain witch, who would tell her what it was, and how she could enter the mysterious room. This sorceress lived hard by the Porta alla Croce, for there are always many witches in that quarter.
"The witch, who was a very large tall woman, made the niece go with her to an isolated small house, and thence along a path, the lady in advance. While so doing, the latter turned her head to look behind her, and at that instant heard the cry of a civetta or small owl. The witch exclaimed, 'My dear lady, what you wish for will hardly be granted ; I fear there is a great disaster awaiting you.'

 "Then they went into a field, and the fortune-teller produced a goblet of coloured glass, and called to the swallow, which is a bird of good omen, and to the small owl, which forebodes evil, and said, 'Whichever shall alight first on the edge of this cup will be a sign to you of success or failure,'
"But the first which came and sat upon the cup was the owl.

"Then the witch said, 'What there is in that room I cannot reveal, for it disturbs my soul far too much. But I know that the number of that room is thirteen, and you can infer for yourself what that portends ; and more I cannot tell you, save that you should be extremely careful and keep a cheerful heart -- otherwise there is great trouble awaiting you.'
"But the lady returned home in a great rage at her disappointment, and all the more resolved to enter the room. Then all the family finding this out, reproached her, and urged her not to be so distracted ; and she, being obstinate, only became the more determined ; for she was furious that she could not force an old man to reveal a secret which had been handed down for many generations, and which could only be confided to one, or to the eldest, when the old man should die.

"And at last her evil will or mania attained such command over her, that she resolved to kill all the family one by one, till the succession of the secret should come to her. And so, after boiling deadly herbs with care, she made a strong subtle poison. And by this means she put to death her parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and all the family, without remorse, so resolved was she to master the secret.

"The last to perish was her grandfather, and calling her to his bedside he said, 'We have all died by thy hand ; we who never did thee any harm ; and thou hast felt no remorse. This thou didst to gain a treasure, and bitterly wilt thou be disappointed. Thy punishment will begin when thou shalt learn what the thing was so long hidden ; truly there was sorrow enough therein, without the misery which thou hast added to it. That which thou wilt find in the chamber is a skull--the skull of our earliest ancestor, which must always be given to the care of the eldest descendant, and I now give it to thee. And this thou must do. Go every morning at seven o'clock into the room and close the windows. Then light four candles before the skull. In front of it there lies a great book in which is written the history of all our family, my life and thine; and see that thou do this with care, or woe be unto thee!'

"Therewith the old man died, and scarcely had he departed ere she called an old woman who was allied and devoted to the family, and in a rage told her all the secret. The old woman reproved her, saying that she would bring punishment on herself. But, without heeding this, the lady ran to the chamber, entered, and seeing the skull, gave it a kick and hurled it from the window, far below.

"But a minute after she heard a rattling sound, and looking at the window, there the skull was grinning at her. Again she threw it down, and again it returned, and was with her wherever she went; day after day, waking or sleeping, the skull was always before her eyes.
"At last fear came over her, and then horror, and she said to the old woman, 'Let us go to some place far, far away, and bury the skull. Perhaps it will rest in its grave.' The old woman tried to dissuade her, and they went to a lonely spot at a great distance, and there they dug long and deep.
"Dug till a great hole was made, and the lady standing on the edge dropped the skull into it. Then the hole spread into a great pit, flame rose from it--the edge crumbled away--the guilty woman fell into the fire, and the earth closed over it all, and there was no trace left of her.
"The skull returned to the castle and to its room ; people say it is there to this day. The old woman returned too, and being the last remote relation, entered into possession of the property."

There is perhaps not one well-educated person in society in England who has not had the opportunity to remark how very much any old family can succeed in being notorious if it can only once make it known that it has an hereditary secret. Novels will be written on it, every member of it will be pointed out everywhere, and people who do not know the name of a sovereign in Europe can tell you all about it and them. And the number is not small of those who consider themselves immensely greater because they have in some way mastered something which they are expected to keep concealed. I could almost believe that this " 'orrible tale" was composed as a satire on family secrets. But I believe that she who told it firmly believed it. Credo quia absurdum would not be well understood among humble folk in Italy.

"To this I may add," writes Flaxius, "that there is an English legend of a certain skull which always returned to a certain window in a tower. Apropos of which there is a poem called The Student and the Head in ' Hans Breitmann in Germany' (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895), prefaced by a remark to the effect that the subject is so extensive as to deserve a book--instancing the head of the physician Douban in the 'Arabian Nights,' with that of Orpheus, which spoke to Cyrus, and that of the priest of Jupiter, and another described by Trallianus, and the marvellously preserved head of a saint in Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, and the Witch's Head of Rider Haggard, with many more, not to speak of the talking Teraphim heads, and Friar Bacon's bust. With which a thoroughly exhaustive list should include the caput mortuum of the alchemists
"'And the dead-heads of the Press,'"

The Imp in the Mirror

A Fable for Mary


ONCE upon a time there lived in Milan, but a few steps from the De Cristoforis Gallery, an elderly lady, the Countess X., who was very rich and very homely and found great pleasure in entertaining her friends; and since she had an excellent cook, her friends never failed her. One evening eleven guests were gathered together in her parlor: a young widow, an English lady, a judge of the Appellate Division, a portly general, a spruce young lieutenant, a longhaired composer, and a threadbare poet, all of them celebrities, and four young men of fashion, whose time was fully occupied in doing nothing at all.

The discussion having turned upon the eternal comparison between the vanity of men and the vanity of women, the majority were of the opinion that the vainer sex was the masculine. But when the hostess declared, by way of example, that there was not a man living, no matter how old or sedate, capable of passing before a mirror without giving at least one approving glance at his own seductive image, two of her distinguished guests, the judge and the portly general, protested that this was not so, and that masculine vanity revealed itself in other ways. Straightway, a short, shrill peal of laughter echoed through the room. Each of the guests thought that it was the widow who had laughed, while the widow thought that the one who had laughed was the other lady, the Englishwoman. As a matter of fact, the laughter had come from a little imp, one of the sort that are always lying in wait, to tempt people to tell lies and commit sins of vanity.
Thereupon the discussion was dropped, partly because midnight was just striking. The two ladies arose, and the hostess with great cordiality invited the entire company to dine with her on the morrow, at six o'clock.
The morrow chancing to be a joyous, balmy April day, the guests all kept their dinner engagement, the ladies arriving by carriage, the gentlemen on foot, and each by himself. The judge and the general resided in the Via Alessandro Mazzoni; of the others, one came from the Via del Monte, another from the Via San Andrea, another from the Borgo Spesso, another from the Borgo Nuovo.
 In short, the route of everyone lay through the De Cristoforis Gallery, and in spite of the fact that they all passed through there between five forty-five and six o'clock, chance willed it that none of them should encounter any of the others on his way. The De Cristoforis Gallery, you know, has two branches, forming a right angle, with a mirror fitted into the corner, which everyone must pass in turning from one branch into the other, opposite the Trenk beer hall. Behind this mirror the malicious little imp had installed himself, and lay in wait for the guests, in order to put into effect his diabolical little jest. There passed, first of all, the general; and he glanced at himself in the mirror, out of one corner of his eye, and discovered, with a violent start, an ink-stain upon his left cheek. It lacked but five minutes to six; there was no longer time to return home. The general hastened his steps, holding a handkerchief against his face, and no sooner was he within the vestibule of the countess than he asked the butler for a towel and a little water. The butler ushered him into a bedchamber and was in the act of pouring water into a basin, when again there came a ring at the front door. This time it was the judge who entered, holding a handkerchief over his left cheek.
"Quick, for goodness' sake! get me a towel and some water!"
The butler led him into another bedchamber and poured him out some water. Another ring. This time it was the lieutenant, who said, holding one hand over his face:
"I am very sorry, but I have a pair of gloves the color of which rubs off. Is there any water?"
The servant, marveling greatly, led him into a third bedchamber. The bell sounded for the fourth time. It proved to be the musician, who said brusquely:

"Some water! Show me into a private room."
"Excuse me, sir," replied the butler stiffly, "but there are already three gentlemen washing themselves in three different rooms, and there is not another one vacant excepting the countess' own bedchamber. With your permission, I shall bring the water and towel out here."
"Bring them," replied the composer. The butler went and returned with the water and a towel. The other scrubbed his face and then examined the towel, to see if it was soiled ; and since the towel still remained quite clean, he scrubbed and looked, scrubbed and looked, and scrubbed again, with desperate energy. Still another pull at the door-bell. It was the famous poet, who entered in time to see his friend still violently scrubbing, and he said, "Bravo! Splendid! Just what I need myself!"
"Is my face clean?" demanded the other, turning his cheek for inspection.
"Perfectly."

The composer, delighted, passed in, to greet the countess, and there found the other ladies and the general. Next the bell was rung three successive times, by three of the young men of fashion, each of whom desired water, towels, and soap besides. The butler, with a great effort, refrained from laughing, and knew not where to turn next; his supply of towels having given out, he must needs obtain some from the housekeeper, and he hurried off to find her. The housekeeper lost her temper; and meanwhile, the front door-bell rang again, and no one opened the door. The countess also rang for someone to open it. Presently she rang again, and still no one answered. At last she arose and went out herself, to call her servants. Meanwhile the fourth of the fashionable young men, who was waiting outside the entrance, absorbed in the thought of a stain upon his cheek, heard the voice of his hostess; and fearing that he should meet her in the vestibule, he moistened his handkerchief with his tongue, and making sure that there was no one to see him commit the impropriety, scrubbed his left cheek as energetically as all the others had done. At last all the guests were assembled in the parlor; and the countess, who meanwhile had gathered some of the facts from her butler, said with, a smile:
"My dear general, what have you been doing to your cheek, to make it so red?"
Immediately, all the other guests of the male sex, remembering that they also must have one red cheek, each instinctively raised a hand to his face. The countess laughed; then one of the young men laughed, then another, then a third; then followed a general burst of merriment. Now that the ice was broken, the countess laid the facts before the other two ladies, and all three wished to know the wherefore of this extraordinary epidemic.
"For my part," replied the poet, "I need only tell you that a friend of my childhood, the Duchess Y., who has been like a sister to me, must have been biting the point of her pencil to-day; for, just before I came here, I met her at the railway station, and she kissed me, precisely where the spot was, on my cheek."
"I, on the contrary," said the judge, "think that I must have been stained with the hair dye of the Cabinet Minister R. He was in Milan to-day, and sent for me on a matter of the greatest importance. We are old friends; and he, in his familiar way, pinched my cheek between his thumb and forefinger. Since he uses hair-dye, it is most likely that his fingers were soiled with it."
"As for me," said the lieutenant, quite forgetting the story that he had already told of the gloves that shed their color," I had promised an aquarelle to Sarah Bernhardt, and I worked upon it up to the last moment, because she was in a hurry for it. Of course I must have spattered my face with the India ink."
"I," said the composer in his turn, "was just setting forth, when an idea came to me for the prelude to my fourth act—a lightning flash, you know, really and truly. I may say so, because I claim no credit for it; good ideas come to me just like that, mysteriously. I ran back, to jot down half a dozen bars, and undoubtedly in the excitement of writing them out, I must have daubed my face."
"It was like this," said the general, who was past his sixtieth year, "I take a great deal of exercise every day. At five o'clock this morning, I pulled myself up to the chin a number of times on the flying rings. It is quite likely that one of those rings was not clean and that I rubbed my face against it."
"I really do not understand how such a thing could have happened to me," said one of the young men of fashion. "It was this very day, not half an hour ago, that I used Shetland soap, an English toilet novelty, imported from London expressly for me, and which probably no one else in Milan knows about."
"Oh, I say! I say!" exclaimed two of his companions, "Didn't I get a cake yesterday? Didn't I get one the day before?"
"In that case," replied the first speaker, "there must have been some impurity in the Shetland soap!"
"That couldn't be!" exclaimed the fourth, the one who had made his toilet outside the door, "because I also use Shetland soap, and I have no reason to believe that there is any stain on my face. Look and see!"
"But, gentlemen," interrupted the countess, "you have explained to me that it must have been the soap, it must have been the ink, it must have been this, it must have been that! But now I should very much like to hear how you all happened to discover those stains on your faces, and why you did not discover them until after you left home."
There followed a rather lengthy silence.
"A friend—" began the poet, with some embarrassment. But at this moment, the general made up his mind to explain frankly.
"Let us own up! For my part, countess, I confess that I looked at myself in the mirror, in the De Cristoforis Gallery!"
"Well, I never!"—"Oh, the deuce!"—"Why, by Jove!" were the involuntary exclamations of the composer, the lieutenant, and one of the young men of fashion. "Aha!" exclaimed the ladies in their turn, as the truth dawned upon them; and they compelled these three to confess that they also had looked at themselves in the mirror. Then the ladies and the four acknowledged culprits joined in a vociferous attack upon the others, to force them also to make confession; and everyone, excepting the poet, who obstinately adhered to his story of a friend, ended by owning up to that confounded mirror in the gallery.
"Say, rather, gentlemen, that blessed mirror!" observed the countess, with a laugh. "Because I understand that without it you would all have cut a pretty figure before me to-night!"
"Much too pretty!" rejoined the general, "as Frederico will bear witness."
Frederico, the butler, entered at that moment to announce dinner.
"Isn't it true, Frederico," the general asked him, "that I had my face badly smirched? And all the others, too, didn't we?"
"To tell the truth," replied Fre

derico, "as for their excellencies, the general, the judge, and the lieutenant, I cannot say, since they kept their faces covered. But as for the other gentlemen, I saw quite plainly that they had not a spot upon them!"
All the men protested, but the butler adhered to his statement, and let it be plainly seen that he suspected the same to be true of the general and the lieutenant.
"Why, how is this?" exclaimed the countess. "There is magic at work! We shall not go in to dinner until we have solved this mystery!"
"The planchette, countess!" said the English lady, who was a spiritualist, and had often made experiments, together with her hostess. "We must question the planchette!"
No sooner said than done. The little board was brought in, and straightway started in to spin around, scratching and squeaking as though shaking with laughter; and upon being questioned as to the when, the how, and the wherefore of those enigmatic stains, it gave answer in due form:

Behind each mirror I may dwell;

Those stains,—the sort of lies I tell.

But all the lies you've heard since then

Were uttered by these gentlemen.

The Imp of the Gallery.

The gentlemen scarcely waited for the planchette to finish, before they broke forth in a hilarious uproar. "Come to dinner! Come to dinner! Hurry up! Hurry up! Fiddlesticks! Stuff and nonsense! Come to dinner! Come to dinner!" And bearing off with them the ladies, who were convulsed with laughter at their expense, and chiefly at the poet, his duchess, and his friend, they flung themselves into the dining-room like a hurricane.

The Dead Man in the Oak-Tree

THERE was a parcel of young fellows once who were a nuisance to everybody in Rome, for they were always at some mischievous tricks when it was nothing worse. But there was one of them who was not altogether so bad as the rest. For one thing, there was one practice of devotion he had never forgotten from the days when his mother taught him, and that was, to say a De Profundis whenever he saw a dead body carried past to burial. But what concerned his companions, was the fear lest he should some day perhaps take it into his head to reform, and in that case it was not impossible he might be led to give information against them.
At last they agreed that the best thing they could do was to put him out of the way. Quietly as their conspiracy was conducted, he saw there was something plotting, and determined to be out of reach of their murderous intentions; so he got up early one morning, and rode out of Rome.
On, on, on,² he went till he had left Rome many miles behind, and then he saw hanging in an oak-tree the body of a man all in pieces, among the branches.
For a moment he was overcome with horror at the sight; but, nevertheless, he did not forget his good practice of saying a De Profundis.
No sooner had he completed the psalm, than one by one the pieces came down from the tree and put themselves together, till a dead man stood before him, all complete. Gladly would he have spurred his horse on and got away from the horrible sight, but he was riveted to the spot, and durst not move, or scarcely take breath. But worse was in store, for now the dreadful apparition took hold of his bridle.

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'Fear nothing, young man!' said the corpse, in a tone, which though meant to be kind, was so sepulchral that it thrilled the ear. 'Only change places with me for a little space; you get up in the oak-tree, and lend your horse to me.'
The youth mechanically got off his horse, and climbed up into the tree, while the mangled corpse got on to the horse, and rode away back towards Rome. He had not been gone five minutes when he heard four shots³ fired.
Looking from his elevation in the direction of the sound, he saw his four evil companions, who had just fired their pieces into the corpse which rode his horse, without making it sit a bit less erect than before. Then he saw them go stealthily up to the figure and look at it, and then run away, wild with terror,
As soon as they had turned their backs, the corpse turned the horse's head round, and trotted back to the oak-tree.
'Now, my son,' said the corpse, alighting from the horse, 'I have done you this good turn because you said a De Profundis for me; but such interpositions don't befall a man every day. Turn over a new leaf, before a worse thing happens.'
Having said this, the dead body, piece by piece, replaced itself amid the branches of the oak-tree, where it had hung before.
The young man got on his horse again, penitent and thoughtful, and rode to a friary,⁴ where, after spending an edifying life, he died a holy death.
¹ 'II Morto della Quercia.'
² 'Camminò, camminò, camminò'
³ 'Quattro arquebuzate.'
⁴ 'Frateria,' a popular word for a monastery.