BURIED-ALIVE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 176, 27 July 1907, Page 6

BURIED-ALIVE.

A WHITE ARM THRUST OUT OF A

GRAVE

A "ghost" that eats has thrown th© towns of the Siang-fu district of China into- a commotion. The facts, as related in the North China Herald, are remarkable. On March 27 the thirty-year-old son of Tzi-lung, a schoolmaster, was thought to have died of typhus fever. His family being very poor, th© body was placed in a frail wood coffin, and buried only a few inches under the soil outside the western gate of the town of Siang-yang. On April 6 a man put his horse to graze on the spot. The Beast found good grass near the grave, and brought its foot down on the. soil abovo the cofhn the hd of which was broken. In a little while the owner of the horse saw a gaunt white arm thrust up through the hole made by the horse's hoof. . " Thinking the dead man's "gaost" was about to rise to avenge the insult ottered in the breaking of the coffin, the watcher hurried up 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 Tzilung. The watcher fled in terror to the town, where he told everyone he me* of what had happened. The ghost's" father urged that the ghost" should be left alone and not further disturbed; A large crowd, however, went out ?f I t cK to view tne wonder. The ghost kept begging most piteously to be let out. One man had courage enough to unearth the cover of the coffin completely, and open it, allowing the resurrected" man to sit up. Kice-soup and wine were brought and ravenously devoured by the "ghost," still sitting upright in his coffin, embedded m the earth. Finally the unhappy "ghost" was released and confined in a temple until he could prove himself to be a living man.