NOTES ON GHOSTS AND GOBLINS. 423 



Again, it is curious how thoroughly the conventional 

 idea of a ghost or goblin is associated with the thought 

 of a shrouded face. It may be that this is partly due 

 to the circumstance that while the imagination may 

 quite commonly present to us the idea of a vision in all 

 points complete except in the face, it can be but rarely 

 that real objects are mistaken for the actual features of 

 a deceased friend. Be this as it may, the ghost has 

 been pictured with concealed face from time imme- 

 morial. So Flaxman draws the ghosts encountered by 

 Ulysses in Hades, and no really fearful ghost has shown 

 its face since the days when fear came upon Eliphaz, 

 the Temanite, 'and trembling which made all his 

 bones to shake ; when a spirit passed before his face 

 and the hair of his flesh stood up ; and the spirit stood 

 still ; but he could not discern the form thereof' 



It is curious that children, when they try to frighten 

 each other by ' making ghosts,' cover their heads. 

 There is another singular trick they have they make 

 horns to their heads with their forefingers. Why 

 should horns be regarded as peculiarly horrible ? The 

 idea can scarcely be referred to the times of our savage 

 ancestors, for the creatures they had chiefly to fear 

 were certainly not the horned animals. Yet the conven- 

 tional devil is horned, and, moreover, 'divideth the 

 hoof,' and is therefore a ruminating animal.* Did 



* The conventional dragon is a Pterodactylian reptile. Ruskin will 

 have it that Turner's picture of the Dragon guarding the Hesperidan 

 apples was a mental evolution of a Saurian reptile; but Turner himself 

 said he got the idea of his dragon at a pantomime at Drury Lane. 

 Utrum horum mavis accipe. It is a wide range from the greensand to 

 the greenroom. 



