A TRUE GHOST STORY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXI, 23 November 1895, Page 649

A TRUE GHOST STORY.

HERE is an amusing ghost story, which has the merit of being true. A party of ladies and gentlemen were once travelling in India by boat up the great and sacred river, the Ganges, when one day they all landed at a little village and decided to spend the night there. They went to the house of a friend, but there was no one living there then but a Hindoo servant, who acted as caretaker. After the party had had supper they all retired for the night, and as they were very tired they soon fell asleep, in spite of the howling of the jackals. In the middle of the night a lady woke her husband, and, in a frightened whisper, said—‘William, what’s that ? Do you hear that strange noise ?’ But he could hear nothing except the buzzing and humming of thousands of insects, who never cease day or night in India. The gentleman, therefore, dozed off again ; but soon his wife woke him a second time. * There it is again,’ she said ; so he sat up and listened, and then he heard a strange scuffle going on in the next room, followed by * Thump, thump.’ He did not like the idea of venturing into the next room to find out what the noise meant for in India the natives are very cunning and treacherous. The gent’eman, therefore, thought it might be some dusky robber, or even murderer, for in those days—lam speaking of 30 years ago—dreadful murders and thefts took place, and no one was ever able to discover who did them. The other ladies and gentlemen then heard the noise, and felt anything but comfortable. They came out of their rooms, and all assembled on the landing, and listened at the door of the room where the noise came from. At last the gentlemen decided to burst open the door and seize the thief or murderer. Three of them each got a stout stick, and the others had their pistols ready. When they got into the room the thumping came nearer and nearer to them, and in the moonlight they saw advancing something with a black body and a shining head. Some one got a light, and they saw the figure face to face. And what do you think it was ? A little black kitten had evidently been very thirsty, and had gone about the house trying to find something to drink, and in poking his nose into everything, he had got it fixed tightly at last in a brass vessel called by the Indians a ' loteh.’ This he banged against the floor in the attempt to get rid of his uncomfortable headdress, and so innocently acted the part of a ghost.