The Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian Ghost Stories, by S. Mukerji

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Title: Indian Ghost Stories
Second Edition

Author: S. Mukerji

Release Date: November 20, 2005 [EBook #17113]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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INDIAN GHOST STORIES

S. MUKERJI

_SECOND EDITION_

ALLAHABAD:

A.H. WHEELER & CO.

1917.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

I do not know whether writing ghost stories is a mistake.

Most readers will like a ghost story in which towards the end it is
found that the ghost was really a cat or a dog or a mischievous boy.

Such ghost stories are a source of pleasure, and are read as a pastime
and are often vastly enjoyed, because though the reader is a bit afraid
of what he does not know, still he likes to be assured that ghosts do
not in reality exist.

Such ghost stories I have often myself read and enjoyed. The last one I
read was in the December (1913) Number of the _English Illustrated
Magazine_. In that story coincidence follows coincidence in such
beautiful succession that a young lady really believes that she sees a
ghost and even feels its touch, and finally it turns out that it is only
a monkey.

This is bathos that unfortunately goes too far. Still, I am sure,
English readers love a ghost story of this kind.

It, however, cannot be denied that particular incidents do sometimes
happen in such a way that they take our breath away. Here is something
to the point.

"Twenty years ago, near Honey Grove, in Texas, James Ziegland, a wealthy
young farmer won the hand of Metilda Tichnor, but jilted her a few days
before the day fixed for the marriage. The girl, a celebrated beauty,
became despondent and killed herself. Her brother, Phil, went to James
Ziegland's home and after denouncing him, fired at him. The bullet
grazed the cheek of the faithless lover and buried itself in a tree.
Young Tichnor, supposing he had killed the man, put a bullet into his
own head, dying instantly. Ziegland, subsequently married