THE NIGGER'S HEAD.—A DOCTO: DIFEICULTY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 307, 8 May 1869, Page 2

THE NIGGER'S HEAD.— A DOCTO: DIFEICULTY.

(From St. James 1 Magazine.) Many years ago, a young surgeon was < nected with a public hospital in a sea] town in the south of England. During course of this connection, a certain patien negro, was brought into the institution ; so came under our friend's professional not His observant eye soon discerned thatthere something very remarkable in the poor bli fellow's skull ; but whether the peculia thus noticed by him was in the shape of skull, or in some lncrbid condition of its i stance, Ido not now know. Neither does all matter. The precise state of the patie head is of no importance to my tale. W is alone of importance is to remember the doctor's knowledge of its condition hi great effect on himself, and caused him resolve, if the patient should die, to sec it. In case he failed to preserve the ra life, he determined to possess his h Events favoured his design. Notwithsti ing every effort, the patient died in the pital, and after death, by some means which I never could obtain a clear acco the dead man's head was severed from body, and passed into the hands of the geon who had desired it perhaps as a kin payment for " medicine and attendan But then cam.c the awkward question ho convey it to his house. It would hardl to walk through the streets with two hct one black in his hands, and the other win probably very white— on his shoulders, was not every man, again, who could trusted to carry such such a peculiar pi for him, especially as the extraordi nature of the emergency seems to have quired such immediate action as to prec the possibility of anything like careful p ing. ( The issue was, that the ardent ye student, hastily wrapping up the sev head in a handkerchief, boldly left the pital gates with his treasure in his ha and set off on foot to his house. At first doctor with his precious but disagree burden hastened nervously through streets, but he soon came to a steep slop which his path lay. The steep ascent te nated at the top in a still steeper fligl stone steps. Up this sharp ascent, an these arduous steps, the two-headed flew. But, alas ! — so fate would have just at this critical juncture, the unatta head, as we may call it, contrived to sliji from the hankerchief, and fell with a h< " thud " on the steps, bounding up again, so leaping and descending towards the i at the foot. Quick as thought the d< turned, and dashed down the steps in put But in vain ! The head was was first 01 slope. The head careered down it sw and triumphantly. Near the bottom of slope, the door of a decent looking cot stood open. Towards this,— right thr< it — away out of sight — with headlong bj the head went. After it, in despair and te with panting breath and dilated eyes — that seemed to see nothing except the dark object of pursuit— the eager pui rushed in. To seize the head as it lay or floor at the farther side of the room, ai rush out again, to tear away up the f and the steps, all this the doctor did i quickly than I can write. He reached dwelling in safety, and went in; he did i had desired to do, whatever that was, the skull ; he attended duly to his lios and other labours, and the whole affair seemed to belong to what poets call the " past." But it is a' difficult thing to ascei when we can really, speak of the past as I dead. Even if 'dead, it is not always bu and even if dead and buried both, sft as t

entirely concealed from other men's sight, it by no means follows that the ghost of it will be concealed from our own. Many a con-science-chamber is thus haunted by the spectres of past gr'lt. Accordingly, a short time subsequent to the occurrence described, a summons came to my medical friend in the ordinary course of Irs practice, asking him to visit a new patient who was in a very bad way. After noting the name and residence, he set out. Judge of Hs dismay when he found that he had to go to that very part of the town along which he had travelled once before with the negro's skull in h's care; and not only so, but further, that he had to visit the very house through the door of which on that memorable occasion he had passed so rapidly in and out. There was nothing, however, for it but to go through that same door once again, only this time, if possible, with a degree of deliberation and calmness which should be a perfect contrast to his previous excessive agitation aid hurry. He found his patient, a widow woman of advanced age, in an exceedingly nervous state. To his great relief, however, she did not appear to have the slightest recollection of ever having seen him before. So that he began to think, " It's all right; either she d : d not see me at all, or she does not recognise me." But presently she told him that which made his fears rise again. In endeavouring to understand her malady, and in making the usual enquiries with that view, he discovered that she had recently esperienced'a great fright, and that it was, in fact, to this fright she attributed her illness. " The thing happened," she said, "in this way. You must know, sir, that my poor dear husband was a good deal in foreign parts in h's earlier days ; and so, sir, I am sorry to 6ay he had sometb'ng to do with what they call the slave trade. O^en and ofien, sir, afterwards, he used to talk to me about it, and about its wickedness and cruelty, and very uncomfortable, in consequence, he often was in his n i! nd. Well, sir, the other day — I believe it was Tuesday three weeks — (the doctor had private reasons for remembering that day very well) — I was sitting downstairs all alone, thinlrng over all these things, and feeling very unhappy like in myself, when what should I see all of a sudden — the street door was open, sir, you understand — " The doctor did understand only too well, but thought it best to say, " Oh, indeed ! " " Yes, sir, the door was wide open, sir, as I said ; and as I sat there thinking and looking, what shov'd I see all of a sudden, as plainly as I see you at this moment, but the ghost of a black man's head come rolling in on the floor I Oh, it did give me such an awful turn." " Very likely," he replied, not knowing what else to say, " and what then ? " " Oh, then, sir, thtre came worse ! " " Worse ? What can you mean ? " He asked this question, I need hardly sa!y, with great curiosity and some alarm, and was all attention to catch her reply. How far that reply was satifactory the reader must judge. " Yes, sir," she went on, " thera came worse — very much worse — for (raising herself up, and speaking very solemnly and distinctly almost into Iris ear), the devil himself rushed in immediately afterwards, caught up the head, and flew out ! "