ed in
the cave: seeing the twinkling of a star through the vista of the two
outer chambers, we all set off as hard as we could run, our feelings of
alarm being increased to desperation when we perceived that something
was chasing us in the darkness, while the roar seemed to increase every
moment. How we did tear along! The devil take the hindmost seemed about
to be literally fulfilled; and we raised stifling clouds of dust, as we
scrambled up the steep slope which led to the outer door. "So then,"
thought I, "the stories of gins, and ghouls, and goblins, that I have
read of and never believed, must be true after all, and in this city of
the dead it has been our evil lot to fall upon a haunted tomb!"

Breathless and bewildered, the carpenter and I bolted out of this
infernal palace into the open air, mightily relieved at our escape from
the darkness and the terrors of the subterranean vaults. We had not been
out a moment, and had by no means collected our ideas, before our alarm
was again excited to its utmost pitch.

The evil one came forth in bodily shape, and stood revealed to our eyes
distinctly in the pale light of the moon.

While we were gazing upon the appearance, the carpenter's son, whom we
had quite forgotten in our hurry, came creeping out of the doorway of
the tomb upon his hands and knees.

"Why, father!" said he, after a moment's silence, "if that is not old
Fatima's donkey, which has been lost these two days! It is lucky that we
have found it, for it must have wandered into this tomb, and it might
have been starved if we had not met with it to-night."

The carpenter looked rather ashamed of the adventure; and as for myself,
though I was glad that nothing worse had come of it, I took comfort in
the reflection that I was not the first person who had been alarmed by
the proceedings of an ass.

I have related the history of this adventure because I think that, on
some foundation like this, many well-accredited ghost stories may have
been founded. Numerous legends and traditions, which appear to be
supernatural or miraculous, and the truth of which has been attested and
sworn to by credible witnesses, have doubtless arisen out of facts which
actually did occur, but of which some essential particulars have been
either concealed, or had escaped notice; and thus many marvellous
histories have gone abroad, which are so well attested, that although
common sense forbids their being believed, they cannot be pro