August 21, 2025 • 21 mins
Dive into a captivating collection of ghostly tales where the spirits come not from the human realm, but from our beloved animal companions. Each chapter reveals spine-tingling stories of hauntings featuring dogs, cats, birds, jungle creatures, and more. Join Allyson Hester as she guides you through these eerie encounters that blend the supernatural with the animal kingdom.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part two of chapter seven and chapter eight of Animal Ghosts.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. This reading by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia.
Animal Ghosts by Elliot O'Donnell, Part two of chapter seven,
(00:23):
The Ghost of an Evil Bird. Henry Spicer, in his
Strange Things amongst Us tells the story of a Captain Morgan,
an honorable and vivacious gentleman, who, arriving in London in
eighteen blank, puts up for the night in a large,
old fashioned hotel. The room in which he slept was
full of heavy antique furniture, reminiscent of the days of
(00:46):
King George, the First, one of the worst periods in
modern English history for crime. Despite, however, his grimly suggestive surroundings,
Captain Morgan quickly got into bed and was soon asleep.
He was abruptly awakened by the sound of flapping, and
on looking up, he saw a huge black bird with
outstretched wings and fiery red eyes, perched on the rail
(01:10):
at the foot of the four poster bed. The creature
flew at him and endeavored to peck his eyes. Captain
Morgan resisted, and after a desperate struggle, succeeded in driving
it to a sofa in the corner of a room,
where it settled down and regarded him with great fear
in its eyes. Determined to destroy it, he flung himself
(01:31):
on the top of it, when, to his surprise and terror,
it immediately crumbled into nothingness. He left the house early
the next morning, convinced that what he had seen was
a ghost. But mister Spicer offers no explanation as to
how one should classify the phenomenon. It may have been
the earth bound spirit of the criminal or a viciously
(01:54):
inclined person who had once lived there, or it may
have been the phantom of an actual bird. Either alternative
is feasible. I have heard there is an old house
near Poole in Dorset and another in Essex which were
formerly haunted by spectral birds, and that as late as
eighteen sixty the phanfasm of a bird many times the
(02:16):
size of a raven, was so frequently seen by the
inmates of a house in Dean Street, Sohole that they
eventually grew quite accustomed to it. But bird hauntings are
not confined to houses, and are far more often to
be met with out of doors. Indeed, there are very
few woods and moors and commons that are not subjected
(02:37):
to them. I have constantly seen the spirits of all
manner of birds in the parks in Dublin and London.
Greenwich Park in particular, is full of them. Adendum to
birds and the unknown. Though their unlovely aspect and solitary
mode of life may in some measure account for the
(02:58):
prejudice and suspicion with which the owl, crow, raven, and
one or two other birds have always been regarded, there
are undoubtedly other and more subtle reasons for their unpopularity.
The ancients, without exception, credited these birds with psychic properties.
Pliny says these birds, crows and rooks, all of them
(03:20):
keep much prattling and are full of chat, which most
men take for an unlucky sign and presage of ill fortune. Ramsay,
in his work Elmenthologia in sixteen eighty eight, writes, if
a crow fly over the house and croak thrice, how
do they fear they or someone else in the family
(03:41):
shall die? The bittern is also a bird of ill Omen.
Alluding to this bird, Bishop Hall once said, if a
bittern flies over this man's head by night, he will
make his will. Whilst Sir Humphrey Davy wrote, I know
man of very high dignity, who was exceedingly moved by omens,
(04:04):
and who never went out shooting without a bittern's claw
fastened to his buttonhole by a riband which he thought
insured him good luck. Ravens and swallows both at times
prognosticate death. In Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem sixteen o two,
he says, by swallows lighting upon Pirus's tents and lighting
(04:27):
upon the mast of Antonius's ship sailing after Cleopatra to Egypt,
the soothsayers did prognosticate that Peirus should be slain at
Argos in Greece and Antonius in Egypt. He alludes to
swallows following Cyrus from Persia to Scythia, from which the
(04:48):
wise men foretold his death. Ravens followed Alexander the Great
from India to Babylon, which was regarded by all who
saw them as a fatal sign. Tis not or not
that the raven sings now on my left hand, and
croaking has once scraped the earth with its feet, wrote Plaudus.
(05:09):
Other references to the same bird are as follows. The
raven himself is horse that croaks the fatal entrance of
Duncan under my battlements, Macbeth, it comes o'er my memory,
as doth the raven or the infected house, boding to
all Othello that tolls the sick man's passport in her
(05:32):
hollow beak, and in the shadow of the silent night,
doth shake contagion from her sable wings. Jew of Malta,
is it not ominous in all countries where crows and
ravens croak upon trees? Huberdes the boding raven on her
cottage sat and with horse croakings warned us of our
(05:54):
fate The dirs in Cornwall, writes mister Hunt in his
work on popular Beliefs et cetera. Of the West of England.
It is believed that the croaking of a raven over
the house bodes evil to some of the family. The
following incident, given to me by a really intelligent man,
(06:15):
illustrates the feeling. One day our family were much annoyed
by the continual croaking of a raven over the house
Some of us believed it to be a token. Others
derided the idea, But one good lady, our next door
neighbors said, just mark the day and see if something
does not come of it. The day and the hour
(06:36):
were carefully noted. Months passed away, and unbelievers were loud
in their boastings and inquiries. After the token, the fifth
month arrived, and with it a black edged letter from
Australia announcing the death of one of the members of
the family in that country. On comparing the dates of
the death and the raven's croak, they were found to
(06:58):
have occurred on the same day. In an old number
of Notes and Queries, a correspondent relates that in Somerset
year the appearance of a single jackdaw is regarded as
a sure prognostication of evil. He goes on to add
that the men employed in the queries in Alvant George Clifton, Bristol,
(07:18):
had more than once noticed a jackdaw perched on the
chain that spanned the river prior to some catastrophe. Among them.
Dead magpies were once hung over the doorways of haunted
houses to keep away ghosts, it being almost universally believed
that all phantasms shared the same dread of this bird.
Ghosts of magpies themselves are, however, far from uncommon on
(07:44):
Dartmoor and Exmore. For example, I have seen several of them,
generally in the immediate vicinity of bogs or deep holes.
Witches were much attached to this bird, and were said
to often assume its shape after death. Magpies, says mister
William Jones, and his credulities past and present, are mysterious everywhere.
(08:06):
A lady living near Karlstad in Sweden grievously offended a
farm woman who came into the court of her house
asking for food. The woman was told to take that
magpie hanging upon the wall and eat it. She took
the bird and disappeared with an evil glance at the
lady who had been so ill advised as to insult
(08:28):
a fen whose magical powers, it is well known, bar
exceed those of the gypsies. Mister Jones, in the same
story says, presently the number increased, and the lady, who
at first had been amused, became troubled and tried to
drive them away by various devices. All was to no purpose.
(08:48):
She could not move without a large company of magpies,
and they became at length, so daring as to hop
on her shoulder. Footnote. This reads like hallucination. However, as
I have heard of similar cases in which there has
been no doubt as to the objectivity of the phenomena,
I see no reason why these magpies should not have
(09:11):
been objective too. In the footnote. Then she took to
her bed in a room with closed shutters, although even
this was not an effectual protection, for the magpies kept
tapping at the shutters day and night. Mister Jones ads
the lady's death is not recorded, but it is fully
expected that die. When she may, all the magpies of
(09:33):
Wormland will be present at her funeral. There is a
house in Great Russell Street, w C. Where the hauntings
take the form of a magpie that taps at one
of the windows every morning between two and three and
then appears inside the room, perched on what looks like
a huge alpine stick, suspended horizontally in the air, about
(09:55):
seven feet from the floor. The moment a sound is made,
the apparition vanishes. It is thought to be the spirit
of a magpie that was done to death in a
very cruel manner in that room. Many years ago. There
is a story current to the effect that a lady,
when visiting the British Museum one day, happened to pass
some slighting remark about one of the Egyptian mummy cases,
(10:18):
not the notorious one, and that on quitting the building,
she felt a sharp peck on her neck. She put
up her hand to the injured part and felt the
distinct impression of a bird's claw on it. She could
see nothing, However, that night, and for every succeeding night
for six weeks, she was awakened at two o'clock by
the phantom of an enormous magpie that fluttered over the
(10:41):
bed and was clearly visible to herself and her sister.
The phenomenon worried her so that she became ill and
was eventually ordered abroad. She went to Cairo and enjoyed
a brief respite. The hauntings, however, began again, and this
time became so perceived that she at last lost her
(11:02):
reason and had to be brought home and confined in
a private asylum, where she shortly afterwards died. Though I
cannot vouch for the truth of this story. I do
think it is somewhat risky to make fun of certain
of the Egyptian relics in the museum. They may be
haunted by something infinitely more alarming than the ghosts of magpies.
(11:23):
There are many sayings respecting the magpie as a harbinger
of ill luck. In Lankinsheer, for example, there is this
rhyme one for anger, two for mirth, three for a wedding,
four for a birth, five for rich, six for poor,
seven for a witch. I dare tell you no more.
From further north comes this couplet magpie, magpie, chatter and flea,
(11:48):
turn up thy tail and good luck fall me. Rooks again,
are very psychic birds. They always leave their haunts near
an old house shortly before a death takes place in
it calls their highly developed psychic faculty of scent enables
them to detect the advent of the phantom of death,
of which they have the greatest horror. A rook is
(12:10):
of great service when investigating haunted houses, as it nearly
always gives warning of the appearance of the unknown by
violent flappings of the wings, loud croaking, and other unmistakable
symptoms of terror. Owls, though no less sensitive to superphysical influence,
are not scared by it. They and bats alone, among
(12:32):
the many kinds of animals I have tested, take up
their abode in haunted localities, and with the utmost sang
Freud appeared to enjoy the presence of the unknown, even
in its most terrifying form. The owl has been associated
with the darker side of the unknown longer than any
other bird. In the Arundel family. A white owl is
(12:54):
said to be a sure indication of death. That Shakespeare
attached to no little importance to the fatal crying of
the bird may be gathered from the scene in Macbeth
when the murderer asks, didst thou not hear a noise?
And Lady Macbeth answers, I heard the owl scream and
the crickets cry, And the scene in Richard the Third
(13:17):
where Richard interrupts a messenger of evil news with the
words out on ye owls nothing but songs of death.
Gray speaks of moping owls, whilst Hogarth introduces the same
bird in the murder scene in his Four Stages of Cruelty.
Nor is the belief in the sinister prophetic properties of
(13:37):
the owl confined to the white races, we find it
everywhere among the Red Indians, West Africans, Siamese and Aborigines
of Australia. In Cornwall and in other corners of the country.
The crowing of a cock at midnight was formally regarded
as indicating the passage of death over the house. Also,
(13:59):
if a cock crow at a certain hour for two
or three nights in succession, it was thought to be
a sure sign of early death to some member of
the household. In Notes and Queries, a correspondent remarks that
crowing hens are not uncommon, that their crow is very
similar to the crow of a very young cock, and
must be taken as a certain precigement of some dire calamity.
(14:24):
It was generally held that in all haunted localities the
ghosts would at once vanish, not to appear again till
the following night at the first crowing of the cock
after midnight. I believe there is a certain amount of
truth in this At all events. Cocks, as I myself
have proved, are invariably sensitive to the presence of the superphysical.
(14:47):
The whistler is also a psychic bird spencer. In his
Fiery Queens alludes to it. Thus the whistler shrill that
whoso hears doth die, whilst Sir Walter Scott refers to
it in a similar sense in his Lady of the Lake.
The yellow Hammer was formerly the object of much persecution,
(15:10):
since it was believed that it received three drops of
the devil's blood on its feather every May morning and
never appeared without presiging ill luck. Parrots do not appear
to be very susceptible to the influence of the unknown,
and indicate little or no dread of superphysical demonstrations. Doves, wren's,
and robins are birds of good omen, and the many
(15:33):
superstitions regarding them are all associated with good luck. Doves
I have found, in particular, are very safe psychic barometers
in haunted houses. It is almost universally held to be
unlucky to kill a robin. A correspondent of Notes and
Queries remarks, I took the following down from the mouth
(15:54):
of a young miner. My father killed a robin and
had terrible bad luck after he had at that time
a pig which was ready for pipping. She had a
litter of seven, and they all died when the pig
was killed, the two hands went bad. Presently three of
the family had a fever, and my father himself died
(16:15):
of it. The neighbor said it was all through killing
the robin. George Smith, in his Six Pastorals seventeen seventy says,
I found a robin's nest within our shed, and in
the barn a wren has young one's bread. I never
take away their nest, nor try to catch the old ones,
(16:37):
lest a friend should die. Dick took a wren's nest
from the cottage side in ere A twelve month passed
his mother died. In Yorkshire. It was once firmly believed
that if a robin were killed, the cows belonging to
the family of the destroyer of the bird would for
some time only give bloody milk. At one time, and
(17:00):
perhaps even now, the robin and wren, out of sheer pity,
used to cover the bodies of those that died in
the woods with leaves. Webster, in his Tragedy of Vittoria
Corombina sixteen twelve, refers to this touching habit of these birds.
Thus call for the robin, red breast and the wren.
(17:21):
Since o'er the shady groves they hover, and with leaves
and flowers do cover the friendless bodies of unburied men,
not so harmless as the stormy petrel, whose advent is
looked upon by sailors as a sure sign of an
impending storm accompanied by much loss of life. The vulture
(17:41):
and eagle, obviously, on account of their ferocious dispositions, often
remain earth bound after death, and usually select as their
haunts spots little frequented by men. From what I have heard,
they are by far the most malignant of all bird ghosts,
and have even been known to inflicts physical injury on
those who have had the misfortune to pass the night
(18:04):
within their allotted precincts. End of Chapter seven, Chapter eight.
A brief retrospect. If I have failed to convince my
readers as to the reality of a future existence for
all species of mammalia, I trust I have at least
suggested to them the idea of probability in such a theory.
(18:26):
For did the belief that all animals possess imperishable spirits
similar to mankind only become general? I feel quite sure
that a marked improvement in our treatment of all the
so called brute creation and God alone knows how much
such an improvement is needed would speedily result. It is
still only the comparative few who are kind to animals.
(18:49):
The majority are either wholly indifferent or absolutely cruel. But
if children were made to realize that even insects have spirits, day,
at least us hope would cease to take delight in
pulling off the wings and legs of flies. Man has
hitherto entertained the ridiculously unjustifiable idea that all the animal
(19:12):
and insect world has been created solely for his benefit,
to be killed or to be kept alive entirely at
his discretion. Such an absurd and presumptuous belief ought to
be exploded once and for all. The animal world, so
all sane people must agree, was undoubtedly created to lead
(19:32):
the same free, untrammeled life as does man himself. Man,
save and cunning, is nothing superior either to the dog, horse,
or other mammelia. Indeed, he is not infrequently so inferior
that one cannot help thinking that possibly the higher spiritual
planes are not for him at all. But for those
(19:54):
who misnamed the lower creation have surpassed man in spirituality.
Let those who doubt this study the superphysical all around them.
Let them carefully watch animals and observe their propensities, their
psychic faculties of scent, sight, and hearing. They can easily
test them in any house or locality which has a
(20:17):
well established reputation for being haunted. They will then see
how close a relationship there really is between the animal
and the superphysical worlds. And if they want further proof
proof of a more material nature, let them search around
for some spot stated to be haunted by a ghostly
phenomenon in the form of a dog, horse, cat, or
(20:39):
other animal, and investigate there themselves. Such investigations have convinced me,
and surely by using these same methods with patience and perseverance,
other people might also be convinced. At all events, let
them try for a conviction like mine. A conviction that
an eternity exists for our canine pets and dumb friends
(21:02):
is certainly worth a lot of striving after, at least
so I think. End of chapter eight and end of
Animal Ghosts by Elliot O'Donnell, read by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia,
December two thousand eight.
Part two of chapter seven and chapter eight of Animal Ghosts.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. This reading by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia.
Animal Ghosts by Elliot O'Donnell, Part two of chapter seven,
(00:23):
The Ghost of an Evil Bird. Henry Spicer, in his
Strange Things amongst Us tells the story of a Captain Morgan,
an honorable and vivacious gentleman, who, arriving in London in
eighteen blank, puts up for the night in a large,
old fashioned hotel. The room in which he slept was
full of heavy antique furniture, reminiscent of the days of
(00:46):
King George, the First, one of the worst periods in
modern English history for crime. Despite, however, his grimly suggestive surroundings,
Captain Morgan quickly got into bed and was soon asleep.
He was abruptly awakened by the sound of flapping, and
on looking up, he saw a huge black bird with
outstretched wings and fiery red eyes, perched on the rail
(01:10):
at the foot of the four poster bed. The creature
flew at him and endeavored to peck his eyes. Captain
Morgan resisted, and after a desperate struggle, succeeded in driving
it to a sofa in the corner of a room,
where it settled down and regarded him with great fear
in its eyes. Determined to destroy it, he flung himself
(01:31):
on the top of it, when, to his surprise and terror,
it immediately crumbled into nothingness. He left the house early
the next morning, convinced that what he had seen was
a ghost. But mister Spicer offers no explanation as to
how one should classify the phenomenon. It may have been
the earth bound spirit of the criminal or a viciously
(01:54):
inclined person who had once lived there, or it may
have been the phantom of an actual bird. Either alternative
is feasible. I have heard there is an old house
near Poole in Dorset and another in Essex which were
formerly haunted by spectral birds, and that as late as
eighteen sixty the phanfasm of a bird many times the
(02:16):
size of a raven, was so frequently seen by the
inmates of a house in Dean Street, Sohole that they
eventually grew quite accustomed to it. But bird hauntings are
not confined to houses, and are far more often to
be met with out of doors. Indeed, there are very
few woods and moors and commons that are not subjected
(02:37):
to them. I have constantly seen the spirits of all
manner of birds in the parks in Dublin and London.
Greenwich Park in particular, is full of them. Adendum to
birds and the unknown. Though their unlovely aspect and solitary
mode of life may in some measure account for the
(02:58):
prejudice and suspicion with which the owl, crow, raven, and
one or two other birds have always been regarded, there
are undoubtedly other and more subtle reasons for their unpopularity.
The ancients, without exception, credited these birds with psychic properties.
Pliny says these birds, crows and rooks, all of them
(03:20):
keep much prattling and are full of chat, which most
men take for an unlucky sign and presage of ill fortune. Ramsay,
in his work Elmenthologia in sixteen eighty eight, writes, if
a crow fly over the house and croak thrice, how
do they fear they or someone else in the family
(03:41):
shall die? The bittern is also a bird of ill Omen.
Alluding to this bird, Bishop Hall once said, if a
bittern flies over this man's head by night, he will
make his will. Whilst Sir Humphrey Davy wrote, I know
man of very high dignity, who was exceedingly moved by omens,
(04:04):
and who never went out shooting without a bittern's claw
fastened to his buttonhole by a riband which he thought
insured him good luck. Ravens and swallows both at times
prognosticate death. In Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem sixteen o two,
he says, by swallows lighting upon Pirus's tents and lighting
(04:27):
upon the mast of Antonius's ship sailing after Cleopatra to Egypt,
the soothsayers did prognosticate that Peirus should be slain at
Argos in Greece and Antonius in Egypt. He alludes to
swallows following Cyrus from Persia to Scythia, from which the
(04:48):
wise men foretold his death. Ravens followed Alexander the Great
from India to Babylon, which was regarded by all who
saw them as a fatal sign. Tis not or not
that the raven sings now on my left hand, and
croaking has once scraped the earth with its feet, wrote Plaudus.
(05:09):
Other references to the same bird are as follows. The
raven himself is horse that croaks the fatal entrance of
Duncan under my battlements, Macbeth, it comes o'er my memory,
as doth the raven or the infected house, boding to
all Othello that tolls the sick man's passport in her
(05:32):
hollow beak, and in the shadow of the silent night,
doth shake contagion from her sable wings. Jew of Malta,
is it not ominous in all countries where crows and
ravens croak upon trees? Huberdes the boding raven on her
cottage sat and with horse croakings warned us of our
(05:54):
fate The dirs in Cornwall, writes mister Hunt in his
work on popular Beliefs et cetera. Of the West of England.
It is believed that the croaking of a raven over
the house bodes evil to some of the family. The
following incident, given to me by a really intelligent man,
(06:15):
illustrates the feeling. One day our family were much annoyed
by the continual croaking of a raven over the house
Some of us believed it to be a token. Others
derided the idea, But one good lady, our next door
neighbors said, just mark the day and see if something
does not come of it. The day and the hour
(06:36):
were carefully noted. Months passed away, and unbelievers were loud
in their boastings and inquiries. After the token, the fifth
month arrived, and with it a black edged letter from
Australia announcing the death of one of the members of
the family in that country. On comparing the dates of
the death and the raven's croak, they were found to
(06:58):
have occurred on the same day. In an old number
of Notes and Queries, a correspondent relates that in Somerset
year the appearance of a single jackdaw is regarded as
a sure prognostication of evil. He goes on to add
that the men employed in the queries in Alvant George Clifton, Bristol,
(07:18):
had more than once noticed a jackdaw perched on the
chain that spanned the river prior to some catastrophe. Among them.
Dead magpies were once hung over the doorways of haunted
houses to keep away ghosts, it being almost universally believed
that all phantasms shared the same dread of this bird.
Ghosts of magpies themselves are, however, far from uncommon on
(07:44):
Dartmoor and Exmore. For example, I have seen several of them,
generally in the immediate vicinity of bogs or deep holes.
Witches were much attached to this bird, and were said
to often assume its shape after death. Magpies, says mister
William Jones, and his credulities past and present, are mysterious everywhere.
(08:06):
A lady living near Karlstad in Sweden grievously offended a
farm woman who came into the court of her house
asking for food. The woman was told to take that
magpie hanging upon the wall and eat it. She took
the bird and disappeared with an evil glance at the
lady who had been so ill advised as to insult
(08:28):
a fen whose magical powers, it is well known, bar
exceed those of the gypsies. Mister Jones, in the same
story says, presently the number increased, and the lady, who
at first had been amused, became troubled and tried to
drive them away by various devices. All was to no purpose.
(08:48):
She could not move without a large company of magpies,
and they became at length, so daring as to hop
on her shoulder. Footnote. This reads like hallucination. However, as
I have heard of similar cases in which there has
been no doubt as to the objectivity of the phenomena,
I see no reason why these magpies should not have
(09:11):
been objective too. In the footnote. Then she took to
her bed in a room with closed shutters, although even
this was not an effectual protection, for the magpies kept
tapping at the shutters day and night. Mister Jones ads
the lady's death is not recorded, but it is fully
expected that die. When she may, all the magpies of
(09:33):
Wormland will be present at her funeral. There is a
house in Great Russell Street, w C. Where the hauntings
take the form of a magpie that taps at one
of the windows every morning between two and three and
then appears inside the room, perched on what looks like
a huge alpine stick, suspended horizontally in the air, about
(09:55):
seven feet from the floor. The moment a sound is made,
the apparition vanishes. It is thought to be the spirit
of a magpie that was done to death in a
very cruel manner in that room. Many years ago. There
is a story current to the effect that a lady,
when visiting the British Museum one day, happened to pass
some slighting remark about one of the Egyptian mummy cases,
(10:18):
not the notorious one, and that on quitting the building,
she felt a sharp peck on her neck. She put
up her hand to the injured part and felt the
distinct impression of a bird's claw on it. She could
see nothing, However, that night, and for every succeeding night
for six weeks, she was awakened at two o'clock by
the phantom of an enormous magpie that fluttered over the
(10:41):
bed and was clearly visible to herself and her sister.
The phenomenon worried her so that she became ill and
was eventually ordered abroad. She went to Cairo and enjoyed
a brief respite. The hauntings, however, began again, and this
time became so perceived that she at last lost her
(11:02):
reason and had to be brought home and confined in
a private asylum, where she shortly afterwards died. Though I
cannot vouch for the truth of this story. I do
think it is somewhat risky to make fun of certain
of the Egyptian relics in the museum. They may be
haunted by something infinitely more alarming than the ghosts of magpies.
(11:23):
There are many sayings respecting the magpie as a harbinger
of ill luck. In Lankinsheer, for example, there is this
rhyme one for anger, two for mirth, three for a wedding,
four for a birth, five for rich, six for poor,
seven for a witch. I dare tell you no more.
From further north comes this couplet magpie, magpie, chatter and flea,
(11:48):
turn up thy tail and good luck fall me. Rooks again,
are very psychic birds. They always leave their haunts near
an old house shortly before a death takes place in
it calls their highly developed psychic faculty of scent enables
them to detect the advent of the phantom of death,
of which they have the greatest horror. A rook is
(12:10):
of great service when investigating haunted houses, as it nearly
always gives warning of the appearance of the unknown by
violent flappings of the wings, loud croaking, and other unmistakable
symptoms of terror. Owls, though no less sensitive to superphysical influence,
are not scared by it. They and bats alone, among
(12:32):
the many kinds of animals I have tested, take up
their abode in haunted localities, and with the utmost sang
Freud appeared to enjoy the presence of the unknown, even
in its most terrifying form. The owl has been associated
with the darker side of the unknown longer than any
other bird. In the Arundel family. A white owl is
(12:54):
said to be a sure indication of death. That Shakespeare
attached to no little importance to the fatal crying of
the bird may be gathered from the scene in Macbeth
when the murderer asks, didst thou not hear a noise?
And Lady Macbeth answers, I heard the owl scream and
the crickets cry, And the scene in Richard the Third
(13:17):
where Richard interrupts a messenger of evil news with the
words out on ye owls nothing but songs of death.
Gray speaks of moping owls, whilst Hogarth introduces the same
bird in the murder scene in his Four Stages of Cruelty.
Nor is the belief in the sinister prophetic properties of
(13:37):
the owl confined to the white races, we find it
everywhere among the Red Indians, West Africans, Siamese and Aborigines
of Australia. In Cornwall and in other corners of the country.
The crowing of a cock at midnight was formally regarded
as indicating the passage of death over the house. Also,
(13:59):
if a cock crow at a certain hour for two
or three nights in succession, it was thought to be
a sure sign of early death to some member of
the household. In Notes and Queries, a correspondent remarks that
crowing hens are not uncommon, that their crow is very
similar to the crow of a very young cock, and
must be taken as a certain precigement of some dire calamity.
(14:24):
It was generally held that in all haunted localities the
ghosts would at once vanish, not to appear again till
the following night at the first crowing of the cock
after midnight. I believe there is a certain amount of
truth in this At all events. Cocks, as I myself
have proved, are invariably sensitive to the presence of the superphysical.
(14:47):
The whistler is also a psychic bird spencer. In his
Fiery Queens alludes to it. Thus the whistler shrill that
whoso hears doth die, whilst Sir Walter Scott refers to
it in a similar sense in his Lady of the Lake.
The yellow Hammer was formerly the object of much persecution,
(15:10):
since it was believed that it received three drops of
the devil's blood on its feather every May morning and
never appeared without presiging ill luck. Parrots do not appear
to be very susceptible to the influence of the unknown,
and indicate little or no dread of superphysical demonstrations. Doves, wren's,
and robins are birds of good omen, and the many
(15:33):
superstitions regarding them are all associated with good luck. Doves
I have found, in particular, are very safe psychic barometers
in haunted houses. It is almost universally held to be
unlucky to kill a robin. A correspondent of Notes and
Queries remarks, I took the following down from the mouth
(15:54):
of a young miner. My father killed a robin and
had terrible bad luck after he had at that time
a pig which was ready for pipping. She had a
litter of seven, and they all died when the pig
was killed, the two hands went bad. Presently three of
the family had a fever, and my father himself died
(16:15):
of it. The neighbor said it was all through killing
the robin. George Smith, in his Six Pastorals seventeen seventy says,
I found a robin's nest within our shed, and in
the barn a wren has young one's bread. I never
take away their nest, nor try to catch the old ones,
(16:37):
lest a friend should die. Dick took a wren's nest
from the cottage side in ere A twelve month passed
his mother died. In Yorkshire. It was once firmly believed
that if a robin were killed, the cows belonging to
the family of the destroyer of the bird would for
some time only give bloody milk. At one time, and
(17:00):
perhaps even now, the robin and wren, out of sheer pity,
used to cover the bodies of those that died in
the woods with leaves. Webster, in his Tragedy of Vittoria
Corombina sixteen twelve, refers to this touching habit of these birds.
Thus call for the robin, red breast and the wren.
(17:21):
Since o'er the shady groves they hover, and with leaves
and flowers do cover the friendless bodies of unburied men,
not so harmless as the stormy petrel, whose advent is
looked upon by sailors as a sure sign of an
impending storm accompanied by much loss of life. The vulture
(17:41):
and eagle, obviously, on account of their ferocious dispositions, often
remain earth bound after death, and usually select as their
haunts spots little frequented by men. From what I have heard,
they are by far the most malignant of all bird ghosts,
and have even been known to inflicts physical injury on
those who have had the misfortune to pass the night
(18:04):
within their allotted precincts. End of Chapter seven, Chapter eight.
A brief retrospect. If I have failed to convince my
readers as to the reality of a future existence for
all species of mammalia, I trust I have at least
suggested to them the idea of probability in such a theory.
(18:26):
For did the belief that all animals possess imperishable spirits
similar to mankind only become general? I feel quite sure
that a marked improvement in our treatment of all the
so called brute creation and God alone knows how much
such an improvement is needed would speedily result. It is
still only the comparative few who are kind to animals.
(18:49):
The majority are either wholly indifferent or absolutely cruel. But
if children were made to realize that even insects have spirits, day,
at least us hope would cease to take delight in
pulling off the wings and legs of flies. Man has
hitherto entertained the ridiculously unjustifiable idea that all the animal
(19:12):
and insect world has been created solely for his benefit,
to be killed or to be kept alive entirely at
his discretion. Such an absurd and presumptuous belief ought to
be exploded once and for all. The animal world, so
all sane people must agree, was undoubtedly created to lead
(19:32):
the same free, untrammeled life as does man himself. Man,
save and cunning, is nothing superior either to the dog, horse,
or other mammelia. Indeed, he is not infrequently so inferior
that one cannot help thinking that possibly the higher spiritual
planes are not for him at all. But for those
(19:54):
who misnamed the lower creation have surpassed man in spirituality.
Let those who doubt this study the superphysical all around them.
Let them carefully watch animals and observe their propensities, their
psychic faculties of scent, sight, and hearing. They can easily
test them in any house or locality which has a
(20:17):
well established reputation for being haunted. They will then see
how close a relationship there really is between the animal
and the superphysical worlds. And if they want further proof
proof of a more material nature, let them search around
for some spot stated to be haunted by a ghostly
phenomenon in the form of a dog, horse, cat, or
(20:39):
other animal, and investigate there themselves. Such investigations have convinced me,
and surely by using these same methods with patience and perseverance,
other people might also be convinced. At all events, let
them try for a conviction like mine. A conviction that
an eternity exists for our canine pets and dumb friends
(21:02):
is certainly worth a lot of striving after, at least
so I think. End of chapter eight and end of
Animal Ghosts by Elliot O'Donnell, read by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia,
December two thousand eight.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com