110 



RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



there in the sunbeam of the vapours to create a likeness of a ship ? 

 We might have seen our own shadows on the Auchtermaunshohe, 

 because, as learned men say, those clouds reflect them ; but where 

 were the masts and the ship's crew " I did not say I saw them," 

 said Hermanwald gravely ; and Hendrig mused a long time be- 

 fore he answered — "Perhaps I have read and thought too much 

 on this subject, because I wished to find an excuse or a reason for 

 my feelings. Both have been easily found, and it is no shame to 

 say I may be one of those who have been duped by the recollect- 

 ed images too strongly impressed, or by the power which the eye 

 possesses of presenting those images as if real. Cardan saw the 

 apparition of a son he feared was in danger ; and Dr. Donne saw 

 the wife he loved so fondly passing through his room in Paris, 

 with her long hair loose and her dead infant in her arms, when 

 both, in fact, were in London. These and all that we hear of fa- 

 miliar demons or warning ghosts, seem very reasonably referred 

 by modern physicians to the eye's creations, not to wilful delusion 

 or imposture ; the eye being aided and swayed by such images as 

 possess or disease the brain.^ No wonder, therefore, if I saw, or 

 thought I saw, the Ship of the Dead in that atmospheric mirror ; 

 or if I now imagine that I see in the river which runs beside us, 

 the upright body of a man floating half-raised above the water, 

 and looking sternly at us." Hermanwald and his attendant paused, 

 drawing back from Hendrig with surprise and horror. " There is 

 no such spectre visible to your eyes," continued the young man, 

 smiling faintly — " but I have seen it in every flood and sea I have 

 passed since my fifth year ; and I see the same man with his lank 

 wet hair, his large scarred forehead, and his hammock sewn loosely 

 round his shoulders, moving by my side, whether I am on horse- 

 back or on foot, alone or in company ; and his glazed eye seems 

 fixed on me, as it fixes now." 



They were now at the foot of a shelving eminence, hung thickly 

 with black pines, intertwined over the narrow steps hewn between 



* The visions of Ben Jonson, of Tasso, and many others, more ancient, 

 seem to be of this clas class. The first volumes of the " Memoirs of Lit- 

 erature/' published in 1774, contain very diverting instances; and Dr. Fer- 

 riar has collected some merry ones, especially the story of a Highland lady, 

 who possessed one half of a gentleman's ghost while her sister was visited 

 by the other. Some of the Hanoverian locks above mentioned, rudely re- 

 semble the ribs and stern of a ship, and this might have produced the vision- 

 ary Ship of the Dead. 



