arent
vapour, similar to the Fata Morgana.' This is not much in the way of
explanation; but it is, as far as we know, all that can be had at
present. These facts, however, brought out a good many more; as the
spectral march of the same kind seen in Leicestershire in 1707, and
the tradition of the tramp of armies over Helvellyn, on the eve of the
battle of Marston Moor."

Other cases are cited in which flocks of spectral sheep have been seen
on certain roads, and there are of course various German stories of
phantom cavalcades of hunters and robbers.

Now in these cases, as so often happens in the investigation of occult
phenomena, there are several possible causes, any one of which would
be quite adequate to the production of the observed occurrences, but
in the absence of fuller information it is hardly feasible to do more
than guess as to which of these possible causes were in operation in
any particular instance.

The explanation usually suggested (whenever the whole story is not
ridiculed as a falsehood) is that what is seen is a reflection by
mirage of the movements of a real body of troops, taking place at a
considerable distance. I have myself seen the ordinary mirage on
several occasions, and know something therefore of its wonderful
powers of deception; but it seems to me that we should need some
entirely new variety of mirage, quite different from that at present
known to science, to account for these tales of phantom armies, some
of which pass the spectator within a few yards.

First of all, they may be, as apparently in the Westphalian case above
mentioned, simply instances of prevision on a gigantic scale--by whom
arranged, and for what purpose, it is not easy to divine. Again, they
may often belong to the past instead of the future, and be in fact the
reflection of scenes from the akashic records--though here again the
reason and method of such reflection is not obvious.

There are plenty of tribes of nature-spirits perfectly capable, if for
any reason they wished to do so, of producing such appearances by
their wonderful power of glamour (see _Theosophical Manual, No. V._,
p. 60), and such action would be quite in keeping with their delight
in mystifying and impressing human beings. Or it may even sometimes be
kindly intended by them as a warning to their friends of events that
they know to be about to take place. It seems as though some
explanation along these lines would be the most reasonable met