hose who have actually experienced these hauntings should surely
carry far more weight and command more attention than the statements of
those who only speak from hearsay; for it is, after all, only the
sensation of actual experience that can guide us in the study of this
subject; and, perhaps, through our "sensations" alone, the key to it
will one day be found. A phantasm produces an effect on us totally
unlike any that can be produced by physical agency--at least such is my
experience--hence, for those who have never come in contact with the
unknown to pronounce any verdict on it, is to my mind both futile and
absurd. Of one thing, at least, I am sure, namely, that banshees are no
more thought materialisations than they are cats--neither are they in
any way traceable to telepathy or suggestion; they are entirely due to
objective spirit forms. I do not base this assertion on a knowledge
gained from other people's experiences--and surely the information thus
gained cannot properly be termed knowledge--but from the sensations I
myself, as a member of an old Irish clan, have experienced from the
hauntings of the banshee--the banshee that down through the long links
of my Celtic ancestry, through all vicissitudes, through all changes of
fortune, has followed us, and will follow us, to the end of time.
Because it is customary to speak of an Irish family ghost by its generic
title, the banshee, it must not be supposed that every Irish family
possessing a ghost is haunted by the same phantasm--the same banshee.

In Ireland, as in other countries, family ghosts are varied and
distinct, and consequently there are many and varying forms of the
banshee. To a member of our clan, a single wail signifies the advent of
the banshee, which, when materialised, is not beautiful to look upon.
The banshee does not necessarily signify its advent by one wail--that of
a clan allied to us wails three times. Another banshee does not wail at
all, but moans, and yet another heralds its approach with music. When
materialised, to quote only a few instances, one banshee is in the form
of a beautiful girl, another is in the form of a hideous prehistoric
hag, and another in the form of a head--only a head with rough matted
hair and malevolent, bestial eyes.

_Scottish Ghosts_

When it is remembered that the ancestors of the Highlanders, _i.e._, the
Picts and Scots, originally came from Ireland and are of Formosian and
Milesian descent, it will be