I was
visiting a friend of mine in the interior of Bengal during our annual
summer holidays when I was yet a student. This friend of mine was the
son of a rich man and in the village had a large ancestral house where
his people usually resided. It was the first week of June when I reached
my friend's house. I was informed that among other things of interest,
which were, however, very few in that particular part of the country,
there was a large Pukka tank belonging to my friend's people which was
haunted.

What kind of Ghost lived in the tank or near it nobody could say, but
what everybody knew was this, that on _Jaistha Shukla Ekadashi_ (that is
on the eleventh day after the new moon in the month of Jaistha) that
occurs about the middle of June, the Ghost comes to bathe in the tank
at about midnight.

Of course, Jaistha Shukla Ekadashi was only 3 days off, and I decided to
prolong my stay at my friend's place, so that I too might have a look at
the Ghost's bath.

On the eventful day I resolved to pass the night with my friend and two
other intrepid souls, near the tank.

After a rather late dinner, we started with a bedding and a Hookah and a
pack of cards and a big lamp. We made the bed (a mattress and a sheet)
on a platform on the bank. There were six steps, with risers about 9"
each, leading from the platform to the water. Thus we were about 41/2
feet from the water level; and from this coign of vantage we could
command a full view of the tank, which covered an area of about four
acres. Then we began our game of cards. There was a servant with us who
was preparing our Hookah.

At midnight we felt we could play no longer.

The strain was too great; the interest too intense.

We sat smoking and chatting and asked the servant to remove the lamp as
a lot of insects was coming near attracted by the light. As a matter of
fact we did not require any light because there was a brilliant moon. At
one o'clock in the morning there was a noise as of rushing wind--we
looked round and found that not a leaf was moving but still the whizzing
noise as of a strong wind continued. Then we found something advancing
towards the tank from the opposite bank. There was a number of cocoanut
trees on the bank on the other side, and in the moonlight we could not
see clearly what it really was. It looked like a huge white elephant. It
approached the tank at a rapid pace--say the pace of a fast trotting
horse. From the bank it took a l