and authentic character is conclusively demonstrated. This by no means follows; on the contrary, a hundred may be confident that they see an apparition, and the proof that they do not may be conclusive. In the middle ages thousands believed in Vampyrism. Less than two hundred years ago in Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Lorraine it was prevalent. "Some dreamed that these malicious specters took them by the throat, and, having strangled them, sucked their blood." Others believed that they actually saw them. At times when the imagination is greatly excited, and a belief in ghosts exists, they can be manufactured by the thousand, and thousands can see them. The colored people in the South have no trouble on this point. It is not an unusual occurrence for the ghosts of men hanged to appear to the prisoners in the jail, and though the officers may look at midnight, or whenever the ghost is said to appear, and can perceive nothing, scores of the prisoners are certain that they see the dreadful vision. An instance of this kind within a few years led to the permanent reformation of several persons.
Sailors, naturally superstitious, have great powers as ghost-seers. A vessel that sailed from Newcastle-upon-Tyne had on board a cook one of whose legs was shorter than the other, so that he walked in that way which in the vulgar idiom is called "with an up and a down." He died on the trip and was buried at sea. A few nights afterward the captain was told by the mate that the cook was walking before the ship, and that all hands were on deck to see him. Angry at being awakened, the captain told the mate to let the cook alone and race with him to see whether the ship or he would get first to Newcastle. But being further importuned the captain finally turned out. I will now quote the words of Mr. Ellis (who published
