Bluenose Ghosts

by Helen Creighton

  Here too I learned of an old belief in the Hartlan family where I had gone for my first songs. It probably came from the German side of their family, and was said to have been practised by some of the older generation. They had claimed that if they put the lights out on Christmas Eve and sat in a room together, the dead of the family would come back and sit with them. Not, I should think, the most pleasant way to spend a Christmas Eve.

  There is an old belief that grass will not grow on certain spots, and this is borne out by another story from this source. They said that there had been a mutiny at sea many years ago and several men were hanged for it on George’s Island. One of these men said he had nothing to do with the killings on board; he had only taken some of the gold. His protests did no good, and he was hanged with the rest but, before the noose was drawn, he declared that the ground upon which the people stood to watch his hanging would never be able to grow grass.

  Mr. Richard Hartlan, who gave me much of my first instruction in folklore, at one time owned a five dollar gold piece which he kept wrapped in a black handkerchief. There was a stone wall on their property where a ghost used to like to sit and it was near the Ghost House that they later abandoned. Mr. Hartlan enjoyed sitting there too and one day he took the gold piece along and sat with it in his hand. He may have been dreaming of the pirate ships that had left chests on Moser’s Island and Back Cole Breaker on the Cow Bay shore. At any rate he absent-mindedly laid the coin and handkerchief down and forgot about them. When he remembered them a few hours later he hastened back, but handkerchief and coin had disappeared. The whole family came out to look. In those days there would have been neither visitors nor prowlers, so they assumed the ghost had taken it, particularly as it made only one more appearance and was never seen again.

  A man at Upper Tantallon said, “My father had to cross a brook to see my mother when he was courting, and it’s an old belief that a ghost can’t cross water. Everybody knows that, and another thing everybody knows is that animals can see a ghost that humans can’t see, and they see it sooner. This time he had a little black dog with him. They were coming along the bank and this little dog was fighting something all the way. It was behind my father but he couldn’t see anything at all and when they came to the brook it stopped. Father always felt that he’d have got hurt that night if the dog hadn’t been there, because he was sure it was a ghost and that it would have attacked him. That was the only time it ever happened to him.”

  Some years ago Dean Lloyd of All Saints Cathedral in Halifax passed away and he was mourned greatly by all who knew him. Two weeks after his death one of his fellow clergy–men was attending the Sunday evening service when he saw the Dean go into the pulpit and look over the congregation as he always did. He thought his affection for his old friend and his sense of loss in the place where he had seen him so often had caused him to imagine this, so he made no mention of it. Some time later, however, one of the ladies of the congregation told him she had experienced a strange thing, and described exactly what he had seen. They checked the time and the service, and they were the same.

  Seabright seems to go in for very tall ghosts. “A Seabright man used to go out every night. He was a bold old fellow and he’d never go home till twelve. He got to Prang’s Lot by a brook one night and it was light enough for him to see an awful big man standing there. He was as tall as a tree and had arms like logs and he was all speckled. The Seabright man was very frightened but nothing happened to him and he was able to go on his way. There had been something happen there once like a death.”

  At Sambro the Gilkies told of a Scottish soldier who hanged himself at Sambro Light and, after that, people saw his ghost for years, and they could hear him throwing casks around. Enos Hartlan may have been right when he said “a person that takes his own life isn’t happy.”

  A mystery from Sheet Harbour goes this way. “As kids we used to go back to Heffler’s gold mine and one day there was a chap from Halifax named Fraser with us. A storm was coming up that might have caused it, though I don’t see how it could, but the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard came from the sky. The boys heard it and were petrified.”

  A Shelburne mystery did not take long to solve. “A number of us went out once with a buckboard and coming home we had to get out to fix the harness. While we were there a man with a long grey overcoat came out of the ground and stood with his arm on the wagon and looked at us. Then he went to the buckboard and did the same. There were prominent people among us and they were all mystified because he was so well dressed, and it would seem that some one would have known him. It was not until we left that one of them said, ‘Do you realize that was Morvan’s Hill we were on?’ We remembered then that this hill had a ghost.”

  I have mentioned before that many pedlars seem to have been murdered in this Province. One was on the Hollow Mountain Road and passersby say they hear a singing and it says, “Don’t kill me.” The pedlar at Thorne’s Cove is satisfied to jump out and frighten people, while another at Green Oak in Colchester County does no more than make an appearance. About a mile from the Causeway linking Cape Breton with the peninsula a dog that is not a dog is supposed to be the spirit of a murdered pedlar, while another pedlar whistles. They never seem to be vindictive, but just want to draw attention to their sorry plight.

  Mrs. McGillivray of Marion Bridge said, “Cousin Catherine was dying and I was there. The pillows were behind her and we were supporting her, and as she was passing she said in a surprised voice as though she were greeting some one she hadn’t expected to see,‘Papa!’ Was she seeing her father through the veil that separates this world from the next?” This story makes me think of my own father’s passing and how he suddenly sat up in bed, weak as he was, and looked far beyond me as at some distant goal. In that moment I became aware that I could be of no further use to him. He seemed to be struggling to keep his hold on the life he had loved, but a force far greater had taken possession of him. This must have lasted for several minutes during which time he breathed but was no longer a part of this mortal life. It is not at all uncommon for the aged to see their loved ones around them before they die. My mother saw various deceased members of her family. Whether they actually see them, or just go back to childhood memories, who of us can say?

  HEADLESS GHOSTS

  Spectacle Island lies about ten miles south of Yarmouth and ten miles west of Pubnico. Mr. Stanislas Pothier said, “The story was given by word of mouth from an old Frenchman who told some friends of mine to go to Spectacle Island and they would find a treasure. First thing they would find an oak tree and they would find a big flat rock with a row of beach rocks all around it. They were to go down further until they found another rock and, a little beyond that, they would come to Captain Kidd’s gold. Seven or eight men went and it came out as he said, and they dug to the third rock. He had said if they found the rock there would be snakes and lizards come out, but they were not to mind them but to grab the gold. It was all going nicely when one man got out of the hole and he put a bucket over his head. They looked up and thought he was a headless man and they were so scared they ran away. But many times since then they’ve seen men walking around on that island when there wasn’t supposed to be anyone there. Two different men were on the island and they knew they were alone and they saw a third man. He was seen again only a couple of years ago by two men who were sleeping on the island, but there was nobody there. There used to be sounds of a ship’s anchors, but that hasn’t been heard for years. One Monday morning a bunch of fishermen and many women and children saw a man on the island and there was no dory and nobody there. They used to make a lot of it.”

  One evening I climbed up a very steep hill at Glen Margaret where a charming woman lived who told me a number of stories. Among other entries in my note book is the following. “Father said when he was a young man he used to go out in the evenings. At the first end of Hackett’s Cove at Devany’s Brook there was a story that people were always seeing a woman come up out
of the water with something white over her like a sheet and she had no head. One night he met two girls running towards him and they said at the three brooks—Devany’s Brook that is—they had seen this woman come up out of the water with no head. That’s all I know about it. I guess nobody stayed long enough to find out anything more about her.”

  Another headless woman is one of my rare cases of suicide. This was a Mrs. McLaughlin of Victoria Beach who got up one morning many years ago and washed and dressed all the children, including the baby. It is so long since it happened that the motive for her suicide has been forgotten if, indeed, it was ever known. After finishing her chores she walked to the cliff and jumped over. Since then a headless woman wearing an apron has been seen there. Also, but probably having no connection with Mrs. McLaughlin, dogs without heads have appeared there.

  At the foot of the long hill going to Seabright a headless woman has been reported, but nothing else is known about her.

  Liverpool is the scene of our next story. “At Cape La Have a man had to go out at twelve o’clock at night on the first day of March to put a buoy down. From the same village another man went out at the same time to mow a swath, and what you mowed was your own piece. Well, this night as they were going to their different businesses they met, and it was at the spot where there is an old cannon. They both swore they saw an old-timer sitting on top of one of the old cannons in old-fashioned clothes and no head on. He was wearing a long split-tail coat.”

  Another headless man was reported from Victoria Beach. “He used to be seen up by Big Pond. They claim there is money there and the headless man is an indication.”

  The headless man who appeared at Upper Granville came mounted on horseback. He could be seen riding past a certain house with his head carried under his arm, and people often refused to pass over the bridge at night for fear of seeing him.You could hardly blame them.Twice I was told about this unwelcome visitor in Granville but he seems to have done nothing more than frighten the beholder. At Elgin, New Brunswick, I heard of a covered bridge at Bennett Lake where the ghost of a headless man used to come out.

  An East Chester woman said, “My uncle was a contractor, and when I was fifteen he and I were going home to Mahone Bay from Western Shore. When we were in the woods I heard a horse and it seemed to be so close that I could almost feel its breath. I looked around and what I saw was a horse all right, but there was a man sitting on it with no head. My uncle didn’t see it, and I was too scared to speak until we got home and then all he said was, ‘That’s nothing. Lots of people have seen that horse and rider.’ Since then I have asked many people but nobody seems to know who the rider is supposed to be.”

  Captain Hatfield of Port Greville told of seeing a headless dog. He and one of his shipmates were on their way home from a sea trip. They were six or seven miles from Port Greville at a place known as the Ghost Hollow and they had been warned not to pass it after dark. They had an old team-horse and a lash and, when they were about two-thirds of the way up Mill Hill, a big white dog appeared at his side.

  “The horse just stopped as if it had come to anchor but I wasn’t frightened. I sang out ‘Look at that dog,’ and I jumped off the team and took the lash and struck the dog, and the lash went right through the dog as if it wasn’t there at all and it didn’t touch anything till it came to the rocks behind. Then the dog went under the wagon and disappeared. The man who was with me was scared to death. I was a lad of fifteen or sixteen then and I often went over that same place afterwards, but I never saw it again.”

  Our other stories of headless ghosts are mostly in the chapters on buried treasure and haunted houses. In some of these the ghost speaks, and in one case his breath is felt as he stands behind the person. You may wonder how that is possible, just as I have done. My conclusion is that the heads are there all right, but not visible to the human eye. My reason is this.

  You will have noticed in all these stories that a ghost appears as it will be most easily recognized by the person it wants to impress, or in the manner in which it met a sudden death. Decapitation would be such a death. Or it may be identified by a characteristic gesture as Alex was when he moved the belaying pin up and down on his shoulder in the way his friend Dan always thought of him, as though just showing his face and form were not enough. Some people come back with deformities like the lame mother and the carpenter you have read about, not because their bodies have not been restored, but to leave no doubt of their identification. Thus a person who has lost his head wishes to bring out this important point and therefore the head becomes invisible. I have no authority for this belief, but to me it seems reasonable. If a ghost has the power or ability to reveal himself in garments of his own choosing and accessories, like the father whose son remarked that he appeared complete with watch chain without which he could not imagine him, then why could he not conceal his head if it suited his purpose?

  Chapter EIGHT

  SO MANY WANDERING WOMEN

  Each item of folklore that I collect is typed on an index card and filed away for future use. When I agreed to write this book I took out my file on ghosts and separated the stories under headings, and these headings became the chapters you have been reading. I had no idea until then that women are so restless after death and I was astonished at the thickness of the pile under this listing. Why are they so loath to settle down when life is over, and why do they wander about so much more than men? And almost always alone, poor things.

  Of course many reported female ghosts are no more than mist rising wraith-like from road or marsh. This meets the cooler air and assumes a woman’s form and her long flowing garments. It might float briefly above ground and then vanish as suddenly as it came. A timid person would take one look and run, not waiting to see the mist dissipate, nor to look for a physical cause. Old Enos Hartlan with all his belief in ghosts said, “They’re nothin’ but a puff of air.” This may be true in many cases but there are others that cannot be dismissed so easily. Take the Grey Lady for example.

  The scene for the Grey Lady was Stony Beach in Annapolis County just below the Habitation. She got her name from the colour of her clothing which never seemed to vary. Many years ago a vessel came to the Annapolis Basin and a boat was launched and went ashore. In the boat, according to Mrs. Burpee Bishop of Greenwich, there were two people, a man and a woman. When it returned, the woman was no longer there. A fisherman from Victoria Beach explained it this way.

  “Up to Stony Beach there is a woman with no head. They claim there was once a deep-water fisherman who ran ships to foreign ports. He was married and had a family and one time he was going away on a long voyage when he got in with a nice young woman very handsome and he carried her on the ship for a long while. It was an Annapolis ship. At that time nice ships were built here.

  “When he come back he had this woman and he didn’t know what to do with her.They claim that he took her ashore and killed her, and she is the woman they see there. They claim that this woman wants to tell somebody about it, but nobody has ever had pluck enough to ask her. They say if you ask her in the name of the Lord that she will tell you. The reason she had no head is they claim he beheaded her, because she would appear sometimes with a head and sometimes without, but she was always dressed in grey.”

  If the Grey Lady really wanted to unburden her soul she should have realized that Rev. Mr. Gretorex would have been only too pleased to hear her story. He had always been interested in apparitions but, when he took his wife and a friend driving shortly after their arrival at Granville Ferry, he had no expectation of meeting one. Yet when they got to Stony Beach they saw a lady in grey gliding along beside them wearing a short skirt, a shawl, and a bonnet. Her feet did not seem to touch the ground, and she kept her place shortly ahead of them. They attempted to pass, as Mrs. Gretorex wished to see the face under the bonnet but, as they drew up beside her she disappeared. It was noted at the time that the third person in the carriage did not see her.

  When they returned to Gran
ville Ferry they told their experience and then learned the sad story of the captain’s paramour. Mr. Gretorex felt sorry for her and wished to give her Christian burial. He looked in vain on subsequent trips but he never saw her again. It is an old belief that you will never see a ghost if you are looking for one. Be that as it may, the horse must have seen her because it sometimes shied and had to be led off the road when it got near this place. Yet even with this help it was never definite enough for him to say “this is the exact spot” and hope to unearth her bones. This happened about sixty years ago and he always regretted that he had not spoken to her on their only encounter and that he was never given a second opportunity.

  Dr. Robinson of Annapolis Royal used to hear the story of the Grey Lady and, if my memory serves me faithfully, it was from his family that I learned of his meeting with her. It happened one night when he was driving home from a call. He came to an elbow in the road where there was a small bridge that crossed a brook, and there were alder thickets that grew close to the side of the road. As he drew near the bridge his horse stopped. The doctor urged it on but it snorted and jumped and stamped. He got out of his old-fashioned gig with its big spider wheels and went to the horse’s head.There he saw the Grey Lady standing in front of the horse and trying to stop him. As he approached, she disappeared from sight. The horse was so agitated that he took it by the bridle and led it along. When they got to the bridge he discovered that it had been washed out by a spring freshet and, if he had not been stopped in this extraordinary way, he would probably have had a bad accident. He recalled then that other people had told of seeing her on this bridge, and that her appearance was usually a warning of one kind or another. This was a foggy night when he would not have been able to see the gap until too late.