A reincarnation poltergeist crossover?
A Strange Psychological Story.
(From our Malabar Correspondent).
There are more things in Malabar than were ever dreamt of by any Western Horatio in his philosophy – or by Mr Stead either. This is the first reflection that crossed my mind when I had listened to the following narrative of incidents that occurred in a North Malabar village some months ago. I heard the story from the lips of a member of the family in which it happened, and I may say that I know the gentleman well enough to warrant me in asserting that implicit reliance may be placed on whatever he states. He is an official, and at the time the following strange events transpired he was at home, spending a short holiday.
One afternoon, his little sister, a girl of about ten or eleven years of age, and a very quiet and docile little child, startled her mother and others in the house by indulging in the strangest and most unaccountable behaviour. The family belong to the Tier caste, and the little girl, on being approached by her mother or other inmates, scornfully resented the approach, exclaiming defiantly that she was a Nair, that the touch of a Tier would pollute her and that it was downright impertinence to expect her to partake of meals in a “low-caste” house. To be brief, all the child’s talk and attitude clearly showed that she was bent on personating a Nair – and what is more, a Nair of the masculine persuasion. The womenfolk of the house could not make head or tail of the girl’s hallucination, which, at the same time, they could see was no matter of humbug or pretence, but something which the girl could not help indulging in.
Presently, her brother (my informant) who had been out for a walk, returned home. As soon as he appeared before her, the child flew into a passion and questioned him about an umbrella which she declared she had lent to him, adding that she would never pay him a pice of the money she owed him, as he had brought her umbrella back damaged and useless. These and some other remarks addressed particularly to him recalled to his mind certain incidents which had transpired some eight or nine years previously when this little sister of his was only a child scarcely able to talk.
An idea suggested itself to him. He began addressing several questions to the apparently raving child. The answer in each case came direct, and even as expected, and my amazed friend could no longer blind himself to the startling and uncanny fact that this little innocent child was personating a Nair who had committed suicide in the neighbourhood some nine or ten years previously. This Nair had been a member of the family living next door to my friend’s house. He had been carrying on a criminal intimacy with a married woman of his own caste. The liaison had been exposed and a scene had followed which ended in the man’s blowing his brains out with a gun. Until the day of his death, the Nair and my informant had been on very friendly terms, and as may now be inferred, the latter had borrowed an umbrella from the former, who owed him some money.
Now the suicide, as I said, had taken place when the Tier child was only two or three years old. An, moreover, the child’s allusion to the umbrella bore on an incident that had transpired at a still remoter date, in fact, when the girl was a babe in arms. The child had no opportunity whatsoever of becoming acquainted, in a natural way, with the incidents that she treated of. She was questioned by my friend regarding one or two matters which only he and the Nair had known of. Still, her replies were not disappointing. There was no room to doubt that the spirit of the ill-starred suicide, which doubtless had been hovering about the scene of its flight from earth, had entered into the body of this little Tier girl. The sequel will strengthen the reasonableness of the theory.
As the girl’s fit showed signs of being prolonged, a devil driver had to be summmoned. He performed a long and elaborate course of mantrains and other mystic ceremonies, and somehow, after a couple of days, exorcised the foreign spirit, and restored the girl to herself. She was then questioned as to any strange experiences that might have befallen her prior to the evening on which the events here narrated began to transpire. She said that on that evening she had gone a little way into the next compound (the Nair’s) to gather some ragi seedlings. Near where she stood there was a little footbridge thrown across a drain. As she bent to pluck the seedlings, she was startled by the heavy thud of a stick falling on the plank of the bridge. She turned round, but could see no one. Thinking nothing more of the incident, she again began collecting the seedlings. A louder and more vigorous thumping again scared her. And again she could see no one. Terrified this time, she screamed and ran home.
At this stage began the strange events narrated above. It was found on enquiry that the Nair had blown his brains out very near the spot whence had proceeded the mysterious thumping that had alarmed the girl. It remains to be added that, shortly after it was expelled from the girl’s person, the spirit of the suicide (for such I presume it was) entered the body of another child, a much younger one, in a neighbouring house. There, too, charms and incantations succeeded in driving it, and since then the spirit has ceased to give trouble.
As I have already implied, I can vouch for the truth of every word of this story. What have psychologists and men generally who deal in “spooks” and other such strange phenomena of the spirit world to say to this narrative of facts that happened in an obscure Malabar village?
Madras Weekly Mail, 3rd September 1896.