Most ancient burial-places are
haunted, and haunted by two species of the same genus: the one, the
spirits of whatever prehistoric forms of animal life lie buried there;
and the other, grotesque phantasms, often very similar to vagrarians in
appearance, but with distinct ghoulish propensities and an inveterate
hatred to living human beings. In my _Ghostly Phenomena_ I have referred
to the haunting of a druidical circle in the North of England, and also
to the haunting of a house I once rented in Cornwall, near Castle on
Dinas, by barrowvians; I have heard, too, of many cases of a like
nature. I have, of course, often watched all night, near barrows or
cromlechs, without any manifestations taking place; sometimes, even,
without feeling the presence of the Unknown, though these occasions have
been rare. At about two o'clock one morning, when I was keeping my vigil
beside a barrow in the South of England, I saw a phenomenon in the shape
of a hand--only a hand, a big, misty, luminous blue hand, with long
crooked fingers. I could, of course, only speculate as to the owner of
the hand, and I must confess that I postponed that speculation till I
was safe and sound, and bathed in sunshine, within the doors of my own
domicile.

Hauntings of this type generally occur where excavations have been made,
a barrow broken into, or a dolmen removed; the manifestations generally
taking the form of phantasms of the dead, the prehistoric dead. But
phenomena that are seen there are, more often than not, things that bear
little or no resemblance to human beings; abnormally tall, thin things
with small, bizarre heads, round, rectangular, or cone-shaped, sometimes
semi- or wholly animal, and always expressive of the utmost malignity.
Occasionally, in fact I might say often, the phenomena are entirely
bestial--such, for example, as huge, blue, or spotted dogs, shaggy
bears, and monstrous horses. Houses, built on or near the site of such
burial-places, are not infrequently disturbed by strange noises, and the
manifestations, when materialised, usually take one or other of these
forms. In cases of this kind I have found that exorcism has little or no
effect; or, if any, it is that the phenomena become even more emphatic.

CHAPTER VI

COMPLEX HAUNTINGS AND OCCULT BESTIALITIES

What are occult bestialities? Are they the spirits of human beings who,
when inhabiting material bodies, led thoroughly criminal lives; are they
the phantasms of