ut this
vase back again in the ground, with what it contained, or if he did
not do so he would kill his eldest son. The laborer gave no heed to
these threats, and in a few days his eldest son was found dead in his
bed. A little time after, the same spectre appeared to him again,
reiterating the same order, and threatening to kill his second son.
The laborer gave notice of all this to his master, Theodore de Gaza,
who came himself to his farm, and had everything put back into its
place. This spectre was apparently a demon, or the spirit of a pagan
interred in that spot.

Michael Glycas[478] relates that the emperor Basilius, having lost his
beloved son, obtained by means of a black monk of Santabaren, power to
behold his said son, who had died a little while before; he saw him,
and held him embraced a pretty long time, until he vanished away in
his arms. It was, then, only a phantom which appeared in his son's
form.

In the diocese of Mayence, there was a spirit that year which made
itself manifest first of all by throwing stones, striking against the
walls of a house, as if with strong blows of a mallet; then talking,
and revealing unknown things; the authors of certain thefts, and other
things fit to spread the spirit of discord among the neighbors. At
last he directed his fury against one person in particular, whom he
liked to persecute and render odious to all the neighborhood,
proclaiming that he it was who excited the wrath of God against all
the village. He pursued him in every place, without giving him the
least moment of relaxation. He burnt all his harvest collected in his
house, and set fire to all the places he entered.

The priests exorcised, said their prayers, dashed holy water about.
The spirit threw stones at them, and wounded several persons. After
the priests had withdrawn, they heard him bemoaning himself, and
saying that he had hidden himself under the hood of a priest, whom he
named, and accused of having seduced the daughter of a lawyer of the
place. He continued these troublesome hauntings for three years, and
did not leave off till he had burnt all the houses in the village.

Here follows an instance which bears connection with what is related
of the ghosts of Hungary, who come to announce the death of their near
relations. Evodius, Bishop of Upsala, in Africa, writes to St.
Augustine, in 415,[479] that a young man whom he had with him, as a
writer, or secretary, and who led a life of rare i