s may be hallucinatory and only some
mortals may have the power of hearing them. If there are visual,
there may also be auditory hallucinations. {133} On the whole
Thyraeus thinks that the sounds may be real on some occasions, when
all present hear them, hallucinatory on others. But the sounds need
not be produced on the furniture, for example, when they seem to be
so produced. 'Often we think that the furniture has been all tossed
about, when it really has not been stirred.' The classical instance
of the disturbances which aroused Scott at Abbotsford, on the death
of his agent Bullock, is in point here. 'Often a hammer is heard
rapping, when there is no hammer in the house' (p. 82). These are
curious references to phenomena, however we explain them, which are
still frequently reported.

Thyraeus thinks that the air is agitated when sounds are heard, but
that is just the question to be solved.

As for visual phantasms, these Thyraeus regards as hallucinations
produced by spirits on the human senses, not as external objective
entities. He now asks why the sense of _touch_ is affected usually
as if by a cold body. Beyond assuming the influence of spirits over
the air, and, apparently, their power of using dead bodies as
vehicles for themselves, Thyraeus comes to no distinct conclusion.
He endeavours, at great length, to distinguish between haunters who
are ghosts of the dead, and haunters who are demons, or spirits
unattached. The former wail and moan, the latter are facetious. He
decides that to bury dead bodies below the hearth does not prevent
haunting, for 'the hearth has no such efficacy'. Such bodies are
not very unfrequently found in old English houses, the reason for
this strange interment is not obvious, but perhaps it is explained
by the superstition which Thyraeus mentions. One might imagine that
to bury people up and down a house would rather secure haunting than
prevent it. And, indeed, at Passenham Rectory, where the Rev. G. M.
Capell found seven skeletons in his dining-room, in 1874, Mrs.
Montague Crackanthrope and her nurse were 'obsessed' by 'a feeling
that some one was in the room,' when some one was _not_. {135}
Perhaps seven burials were not sufficient to prevent haunting. The
conclusion of the work of Thyraeus is devoted to exorcisms, and
orthodox methods of expelling spirits. The knockings which herald a
death are attributed to the Lares, a kind of petty mischievous
demons unattach