UNKNOWN

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 172, 20 July 1907, Page 13

UNKNOWN

A WHITE ABM THRUST OUT OF A GRAVE. A "ghost" that- eats has thrown the towns of Siang-fu district ot China into a commotion. The tacts, as related In the "North China Herald" are remarkable. On Hard) 27 the thirty-year-old son of Tzi-lung, a school-teacher, was thought to have died of typhus fever. His family being very poor, the body was placed in a frail wood coffin and buried only a few inches under the soil outside the western gatta of theHown of Sianyang. On April 6 a. man put his horse to graze on thp epot. The beast found good grass near The grave, and brought its foot down on the soil above the coffin, the lid of whi'ih was broSen. In a little while the owner of the hone saw a gannt white arm thrust up through the hole made bj the horse's hoof. Thinking the dead man's "ghost" was about to rise to arenge the insult offered in the breaking of the coffin, the watcher hurried np and began shovelling earth into the hole to keep the "ghost" down. A muffled voice expostulated and begged to be freed, claiming to be the living son of Tzi-lung. The watcher fled in terror to the town, where he told everyone he met of what had happened. The "ghosfe" father urged that the "ghost" should be left alone and not further disturbed. A large crowd, however, went out of the oity to view the wonder. The "ghost" kept most piteonsly to be let out. One man had courage enough to unearth the cover of the coffin completely, and open it, allowing the "resurrected"' man ti ait up. Rice-soup and twine were brought and ravenously devoured by the "ghost," still sitting upright in .his coffin, embedded in the earth. Finally, the unhappy "ghost" wae released and confined in a temple until he couid prove himself to be a. living man.