THE MYRTLES PLANTATION- Fact behind the haunting

THE LEGENDARY MYRTLES PLANTATION IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LOUISIANA HAS LONG BEEN REGARDED AS ONE OF “AMERICA’S MOST HAUNTED HOUSES”. AND WHILE SCORES OF GHOST HUNTERS WILL SWEAR TO THE FACT THAT THE HOUSE IS INFESTED WITH GHOSTS, THESE SAME INVESTIGATORS WOULD BE PUZZLED TO LEARN THAT FEW OF THE STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED ALONG AS “FACT” ACTUALLY OCCURRED.

THIS HOUSE IS CERTAINLY HAUNTED -- BUT NOT FOR ANY OF THE REASONS THAT WE HAVE BEEN TOLD FOR SO LONG! FOR THE FIRST TIME, DISCOVER THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE MYRTLES AND ITS PLETHORA OF GHOSTS AND HAUNTING!

Handprints in the mirrors, footsteps on the stairs, mysterious smells, vanishing objects, death by poison, hangings, murder and gunfire -- the Myrtles Plantation in the West Feliciana town of St. Francisville, Louisiana holds the rather dubious record of hosting more ghostly phenomena than just about any other house in the country. But what could be more dubious than the honor itself -- perhaps some of the questionable history that has been presented to “explain” why the house is so haunted in the first place!

Long perceived as one of the most haunted house in America, the Myrtles attracts an almost endless stream of visitors each year and many of them come in search of ghosts. It is not our purpose here to do anything to discourage these visitors from coming -- or even to discourage them to looking for the ghosts that they can almost certainly find here. The purpose of this article is to question the “facts” as they have been presented by several generations of Myrtles owners and guides -- facts and history that many of them know is blatantly false. We have no wish to try and debunk the ghosts, merely the identities that they have been given over the years. The Myrtles, according to hundreds of people who have encountered the unexplained here, is haunted -- but not for the reasons that we have all been told.

But why go to the trouble to debunk the myths that have been created over the last fifty-some-odd years? Surely, they aren’t hurting anyone, so why bother to expose them as the creation of rich imaginations? To that, we can only say that no dedicated ghost hunter should be afraid to seek the truth. As the history of a house is the most important key to discovering just why it might be haunted in the first place, it seems to be imperative to discover the real history of the site. It has often been recommended to sift through the legends and folklore of the place in a search for a kernel of truth. This is exactly what we did in the article that follows --- we have examined the lore in a search for the truth and have found it. It might not be as glamorous as the legends of the Myrtles Plantation that we have all heard about but it is certainly strange. The real history of the plantation is filled with death, tragedy and despair, leading us to wonder why a fanciful history was created in its place. That question will likely never be answered but many others will.

THE HISTORY OF THE MYRTLES PLANTATION:
THE TRUTH & THE LEGENDS

Since the Myrtles were built by David Bradford in 1794, it has allegedly been the site of the scene of at least 10 murders. In truth, only one person was ever murdered here but as has been stated already, some of the people who have owned the house have never let the truth stand in the way of a good story. But as you will soon see, the plantation has an unusual history that genuinely did occur -- and one that could (and has) left its own real ghosts behind.

David Bradford was born in America to Irish immigrants and was one of five children. In 1777. He purchased a tract of land and a small stone house near Washington County, Pennsylvania. He became a successful attorney, businessman and Deputy Attorney General for the county. His first attempt to marry ended only days before his wedding (nothing is known about this) but he later met and married Elizabeth Porter in 1785 and started a family.

As his family and business grew, Bradford needed a larger home and built a new one in the town of Washington. The house became well known in the region for its size and remarkable craftsmanship, with a mahogany staircase and woodwork imported from England. Many of the items had to be transported from the east coast and over the Pennsylvania mountains at great expense. Bradford would use the parlor of the house as an office, where he would meet with his clients.

Unfortunately, he was not able to enjoy the house for long. In October 1794, he was forced to flee the house, leaving his family behind. Bradford became involved in the infamous Whiskey Rebellion and legend has it that President George Washington placed a price on the man’s head for his role in the affair. The Whiskey Rebellion took place in western Pennsylvania and really began as a series of grievances over high prices and taxes forced on those living along the frontier at that time. The complaints eventually erupted into violence when a mob attacked and burned down the home of a local tax collector. In the months that followed, residents resisted a tax that had been placed on whiskey and while most of the protests were nonviolent, WashingtonBradford left the region on the advice of some of the other principals in the affair.

After leaving Washington, Bradford first went to Pittsburgh. Leaving his family in safety, he traveled down the Ohio River to the Mississippi. He eventually settled near Bayou Sara, near what is now St. Francisville, Louisiana. Bradford was no stranger to this area. He had originally traveled here in 1792 to try and obtain a land grant from Spain. When he returned in 1796, he purchased 600 acres of land and a year later, built a modest, eight-room home that he named “Laurel Grove”. He lived there alone until 1799, when he received a pardon for his role in the Whiskey Rebellion from newly elected President John Adams. He was given the pardon for his assistance in establishing a boundary line, known historically as “Ellicott’s Line” between SpainUnited States.

After receiving the pardon, Bradford returned to Pennsylvania to bring his wife and five children back to Louisiana. He returned again to Pennsylvania in 1801 to try and sell his home but after two years passed with no buyers, he finally agreed to trade the home and property for 230 barrels of flour that were to be delivered to his home in Bayou Sarah. At the time, New Orleans

While living in Bayou Sarah, Bradford occasionally took in students who wanted to study the law. One of them, Clark Woodrooff, not only earned a law degree but he also married his teacher's daughter, Sarah Mathilda.

Clark Woodrooff was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut in August 1791. Having no desire to follow in his father's footsteps as a farmer, he left Connecticut at the age of 19 and sought his fortune on the Mississippi River, ending up in Bayou Sarah. He arrived in 1810, the same year that citizens of the Feliciana parish rose up in revolt against the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge. They overthrew the Spanish and then set up a new territory with its capital being St. Francisville. The territory extended from the Mississippi River to as far east as the PerdidoRiverMobile.

Still seeking to make his fortune, Woodrooff placed an advertisement in the new St. Francisville newspaper, the Time Piece , in the summer of 1811. He informed the public that "an academy would be opening on the first Monday in September for the reception of students." He planned to offer English, grammar, astronomy, geography, elocution, composition, penmanship and Greek and Latin languages. The academy was apparently short-lived for in 1814, he joined Colonel Hide's cavalry regiment from the Feliciana parish to fight alongside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. When the smoke cleared and the War of 1812 had ended, Woodrooff returned to St. Francisville with the intention of studying law.

He began his studies with Judge David Bradford and soon earned his degree. He also succumbed to the charms of the Bradford daughter, the lovely Sarah Mathilda. Their romance blossomed under the shade of the crape myrtles that reportedly gave the home its lasting name. The young couple was married on November 19, 1817 and for their honeymoon, Woodrooff took his new bride to the Hermitage, the Tennessee home of his friend, Andrew Jackson.

After the death of David Bradford, Woodrooff managed Laurel Grove for his mother-in-law, Elizabeth. He expanded the holdings of the plantation and planted about 650 acres of indigo and cotton. Together, he and Sarah Mathilda had three children, Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia. Tragically though, their happiness would not last.

On July 21, 1823, Sarah Mathilda died after contacting yellow fever. The disease was spread through a number of epidemics that swept through Louisiana in those days. Hardly a family in the region went untouched by tragedy and despair. Although heartbroken, Woodrooff continued to manage the plantation and to care for his children with help from Elizabeth. But the dark days were not yet over… On July 15, 1824, his only son James, also died from yellow fever and two months later, in September, Cornelia Gale was also felled by the dreaded disease.

Woodrooff's life would never be the same but he managed to purchase the farm outright from his mother-in-law. She was quite elderly by this time and was happy to see the place in good hands. She continued to live at Laurel Grove with her son-in-law and granddaughter Octavia until her death in 1830.

After Elizabeth died, Woodrooff turned his attentions away from farming to the practice of law. He and Octavia moved away from Laurel Grove and he left the plantation under the management of a caretaker. He was appointed to a judge's position over District D in Covington, Louisiana and he served in this capacity until April 1835. On January 1, 1834, he sold Laurel Grove to Ruffin Grey Stirling.

By this time, Woodrooff was living on Rampart Street in New Orleans and had changed the spelling of his last name to "Woodruff". He had also been elected as the president of public works for the city. During this period, Octavia was sent to a finishing school in New Haven, ConnecticutNew Orleans.

In 1840, the Louisiana governor, Isaac Johnson, appointed Woodruff to the newly created office of Auditor of Public Works and he served for one term. Then, at 60 years of age, he retired and moved to Oaklawn to live with Octavia and her husband. He devoted the remainder of his life to the study of chemistry and physics and died on November 25, 1851. He was buried in the GirodStreet Cemetery in New Orleans.

An interesting side note to the story concerns this cemetery. The graveyard fell into great disrepair and was eventually abandoned. In the 1960's, the city hoped to renovate this part of the city and sent out a notice to families that the cemetery was going to be moved to a new location on Canal Street. The bodies that were not claimed were gathered and placed in large drums, then buried in a mass grave under the Hope Mausoleum. Clark Woodruff was one of those who was not claimed. The old Girod Street Cemetery was once located under the present-day site of the New Orleans Superdome.

In 1834, Laurel Grove was purchased by Ruffin Grey Stirling. The Stirling's were a very wealthy family who owned several plantations on both sides of the Mississippi River. On January 1, Ruffin Grey Stirling and his wife, Mary Catherine Cobb, took over the house, land, buildings and all of the slaves that had been bought from Elizabeth Bradford by her son-in-law.

Since the Stirling's were so well thought of in the community, they needed a house that was befitting their social status. They decided to remodel Laurel Grove. Stirling added the broad central hallway of the house and the entire southern section. The walls of the original house were removed and repositioned to create four large rooms that were used as identical ladies and gentlemen's parlors, a formal dining room and a game room. Year-long trips to Europe to purchase fine furnishings resulted in the importation of skilled craftsmen as well. Elaborate plaster cornices were created for many of the rooms, made from a mixture of clay, Spanish moss and cattle hair. On the outside of the house, Stirling added a 107-foot long front gallery that was supported by cast-iron support posts and railings. The original roof of the house was extended to encompass the new addition, copying the existing dormers to maintain a smooth line. The addition had higher ceilings than the original house so the second story floor was raised one foot. The completed project nearby doubled the size of David Bradford's house and in keeping with the renovations, the name of the plantation was officially changed to the "Myrtles".

Four years after the completion of the project, Stirling died on July 17, 1854 of consumption. He left his vast holdings in the care of his wife, Mary Cobb, who most referred to as a remarkable woman. Many other plantation owners stated that she "had the business acumen of a man", which was high praise for a woman in those days, and she managed to run all of she and her husband's farms almost single-handedly, for many years.

In spite of this, the family was often visited by tragedy. Of nine children, only four of them lived to be old enough to marry. The oldest son, Lewis, died in the same year as his father and daughter Sarah Mulford's husband was actually murdered on the front porch of the house after the Civil War. The war itself wreaked on the Myrtles and the Stirling family. Many of the family's personal belongings were looted and destroyed by Federal soldiers and the wealth that they had accumulated was ultimately in worthless Confederate currency. To make matters worse, Mary Cobb had been invested heavily in sugar plantations that had been ravaged by the war. She eventually lost all of her property. She never let the tragedies of the war, and others that followed after, overcome her however and she held onto the Myrtles until her death in August 1880. She is buried next to her husband in a family plot at Grace Church in St. Francisville.

On December 5, 1865, Mary Cobb hired, William Drew Winter, the husband of her daughter, Sarah Mulford, to act as her agent and attorney and to help her manage the plantation lands. As part of the deal, she gave Sarah and William the Myrtles as their home.

William Winter had been born to Captain Samuel Winter and Sarah Bowman on October 28, 1820 in Bath, Maine. Little is known about his life or how he managed to meet Sarah Mulford Stirling. However, they were married on June 3, 1852 at the Myrtles and together; they had six children, Mary, Sarah, Kate, Ruffin, William and Francis. Kate died from typhoid at the age of three. The Winter's first lived at Gantmore plantation, near Clinton, Louisiana and then bought a plantation on the west side of the Mississippi known as Arbroath.

Twelve years after the death of Ruffin Stirling, and after the Civil War, William was named as agent and attorney by Mary Stirling to help her with the remaining lands, including Ingleside, Crescent Park, Botany Bay and the Myrtles. In return, Mary gave William the use of the Myrtles as his home. Times were terrible though and Winter was unable to hold onto it. By December 1867, he was completely bankrupt and the Myrtles was sold by the U.S. Marshal to the New York Warehouse & Security Company on April 15, 1868. Two years late however, on April 23,the property was sold back Mrs. Sarah M. Winter as the heir of her late father, Ruffin G. Stirling. It is unknown just what occurred to cause this reversal of fortune but it seemed as though things were improving for the family once again.

But soon after, tragedy struck the Myrtles once more. According to the January 1871 issue of the Point Coupee Democrat newspaper, Winter was teaching a Sunday School lesson in the gentlemen's parlor of the house when he heard someone approach the house on horseback. After the stranger called out to him and told him that he had some business with him, Winter went out onto the side gallery of the house and was shot. He collapsed onto the porch and died. Those inside of the house, stunned by the sound of gunfire and the retreating horse, hurried outside to find the fallen man. Winter died on January 26, 1871 and was buried the following day at Grace Church. The newspaper reported that a man named E.S. Webber was to stand trial for Winter's murder but no outcome of the case was ever recorded. As far as is known, Winter's killer remains unidentified and unpunished.

Sarah was devastated by the incident and never remarried. She remained at the Myrtles with her mother and brothers until her death in April 1878 at the age of only 44.

After the death of Mary Cobb Stirling in 1880, the Myrtles was purchased by Stephen Stirling, one of her sons. He bought out his brothers but only maintained ownership of the house until March 1886. There are some who say that he squandered what was left of his fortune and lost the plantation in a game of chance but most likely, the place was just too deep in debt for him to hold onto. He sold the Myrtles to Oran D. Brooks, ending his family's ownership. Brooks kept it until January 1889 when, after a series of transfers, it was purchased by Harrison Milton Williams, a Mississippi widower who brought his young son and second wife, Fannie Lintot Haralson, to the house in 1891.

Injured during the Civil War, in which he began service as a 15 year-old Confederate cavalry courier, Williams planted cotton and gained a reputation as a hard-working and industrious man. He and his family, which grew to include his wife and seven children, kept the Myrtles going during the hard times of the post-war South. But tragedy was soon to strike the Myrtles again.

During a storm, the Williams' oldest son, Harry, was trying to gather up some stray cattle and fell into the Mississippi and drowned. Shattered with grief, Harrison and Fannie turned over management of the property to their son Surget Minor Williams, who married a local girl named Jessie Folkes and provided a home at the Myrtles for his spinster sister and maiden aunt Katie. Secretly called "the colonel" behind her back, Katie was a true Southern character. Eccentric and kind, but with a gruff exterior, she kept life interesting at the house for years.

By the 1950's, the property surrounding the house had been divided among the Williams heirs and the house itself was sold to Marjorie Munson, an Oklahoma widow who had been made wealthy by chicken farms. It was at this point, they say, that the ghost stories of the house began. They started innocently enough but soon, what may have been real-life ghostly occurrences took on a "life" of their own. near mobilized a militia and sends them into suppress the rebellion. Once the protests were brought under control, and the was suffering from a shortage of flour and he thought he could sell the barrels and make back any money that he had lost in the trade. However, until the day that he died in 1817, he never received the shipment of flour. He tried repeatedly for years to settle the debt but it simply never happened. but she returned home to live with her father in 1836. Two years later, she married Colonel Lorenzo Augustus Besancon and moved to his plantation, Oaklawn, five miles north of

THE GHOSTS STORIES OF THE MYRTLES:
SEPARATING TRUTH FROM FICTION

There is no question that the most famous ghostly tale of the Myrtles is that of Chloe, the vengeful slave who murdered the wife and two daughters of Clark Woodruff in a fit of jealously and anger. Those who have been reading the article so far have already guessed that there are some serious flaws in this story but for the sake of being complete, we have include the story here as it has long been told by owners and guides at the house.

THE LEGEND OF CHLOE

According to the story, the troubles that led to the haunting began in 1817 when Sarah Mathilda married Clark Woodruff. Sara Matilda had given birth to two daughters and was carrying a third child, when an event took place that still haunts the Myrtles today.

Woodruff, had a reputation in the region for integrity with men and with the law, but was also known for being promiscuous. While his wife was pregnant with their third child, he started an intimate relationship with one of his slaves. This particular girl, whose name was Chloe, was a household servant who, while she hated being forced to give in to Woodruff's sexual demands, realized that if she didn't, she could be sent to work in the fields, which was the most brutal of the slave's work.

Eventually, Woodruff tired of Chloe and chose another girl with whom to carry on. Chloe feared the worst, sure that she was going to be sent to the fields, and she began eavesdropping on the Woodruff family's private conversations, dreading the mention of her name. One day, the Judge caught her at this and ordered that one of her ears be cut off to teach her a lesson and to put her in her place. After that time, she always wore a green turban around her head to hide the ugly scar that the knife had left behind.

What actually happened next is still unclear. Some claim that what occurred was done so that the family would just get sick and then Chloe could nurse them back to health and earn the Judge's gratitude. In this way, she would be safe from ever being returned to the fields. Others say that her motives were not so pure though and that what she did was for one reason only -- revenge!

For whatever reason, Chloe put a small amount of poison into a birthday cake that was made in honor of the Woodruff's oldest daughter. In with the flour and sugar went a handful of crushed oleander flowers. The two children, and Sarah Mathilda, each had slices of the poisoned cake but Woodruff didn't eat any of it. Before the end of the day, all of them were very sick. Chloe patiently attended to their needs, never realizing (if it was an accident) that she had given them too much poison. In a matter of hours, all three of them were dead.

The other slaves, perhaps afraid that their owner would punish them also, dragged Chloe from her room and hanged her from a nearby tree. Her body was later cut down, weighted with rocks and thrown into the river. Woodruff closed off the children's dining room, where the party was held, and never allowed it to be used again as long as he lived. Tragically, his life was cut short a few years later by a murderer. To this day, the room where the children were poisoned has never again been used for dining. It is called the game room today.

Since her death, the ghost of Chloe has been reported at the Myrtles and was even accidentally photographed by a past owner. The plantation still sells picture postcards today with the cloudy image of what is purported to be Chloe standing between two of the buildings. The former slave is thought to be the most frequently encountered ghost at the Myrtles. She has often been seen in her green turban, wandering the place at night. Sometimes the cries of little children accompany her appearances and at other times, those who are sleeping are startled awake by her face, peering at them from the side of the bed.

I am sure that after reading this story, even the most non-discerning readers have discovered a number of errors and problems with the tale. In fact, there are so many errors that it's difficult to know where to begin. However, to start, it's a shame that the character of Clark Woodruff has been so thoroughly damaged over the years with stories about his adulterous affairs with his slaves and claims that he had the ear cut off of one of his lovers. Sadly, these stories have been accepted as fact, even though no evidence whatsoever exists to say that they are true. In fact, history seems to show that Woodruff was very devoted to his wife and in fact, was so distraught over her death that he never remarried.

Before we get to the problem of Chloe's existence, we should also examine the alleged murders of Sarah Mathilda and her two daughters. In this case, the legend has twisted the truth so far that it is unrecognizable. Sarah Mathilda was not murdered. She died tragically from yellow fever (according to historical record) in 1823. Her children, a son and a daughter - not both daughters, died more than a year after she did. They certainly did not die from the result of a poisoned birthday cake. Also, with this legend, Octavia would not have existed at all (her mother was supposed to have been pregnant when murdered) but we know that she lived with her father, got married and lived to a ripe old age. In addition, Woodruff was not killed either. He died peacefully at his daughter and son-in-law's plantation in 1851.

The key to the legend of course, is Chloe, the murderous slave. The problem with this is that as far as we can tell, Chloe never existed at all. Not only did she not murder members of the Woodruff family but it's unlikely that the family ever even had a slave by this name. While living in Louisiana, researcher David Wiseheart's curiosity about the history and haunting of the Myrtles was so great that he spent countless hours tracking down information about the plantation. It would be his disappointment that, while looking through the properties records of the Woodruff family, that he learned that they had not owned a slave, nor was there any record of a slave, by the name of Chloe (or even Cleo, as she appears in some versions of the story).

So who did such a story get started?

In the 1950's, the Myrtles was owned by wealthy widow Marjorie Munson, who began to notice that odd things were occurring in the house, according to local stories. Wondering if perhaps the old mansion might be haunted, she asked around and that's when the legend of "Chloe" got its start. According to the granddaughter of Harrison and Fannie Williams, Lucile Lawrason, her aunts used to talk about the ghost of an old woman who haunted the Myrtles and who wore a green bonnet. They often laughed about it and it became a family story. She was never given a name and in fact, the "ghost" with the green bonnet from the story was described as an older woman, never as a young slave who might have been involved in an affair with the owner of the house. Regardless, someone repeated this story of the Williams' family ghost to Marjorie Munson and she soon penned a song about the ghost of the Myrtles, a woman in a green beret.

As time wore on, the story grew and changed. The Myrtles changed hands several more times and in the 1970's, it was restored again under the ownership of Arlin Dease and Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Ward. During this period, the story grew even larger and was greatly embellished to include the poison murders and the severed ear. Up until this point though, it was largely just a story that was passed on by word of mouth and it received little attention outside of the area. All of that changed though when James and Frances Kermeen Myers passed through on a riverboat and decided to purchase the Myrtles. The house came furnished with period antiques and enough ghost stories to attract people from all over the country.

Soon, the story of the Myrtles was appearing in magazines and books and receiving a warm reception from ghost enthusiasts, who had no idea that what they were hearing was a badly skewed version of the truth. The house appeared in a November 1980 issue of LIFE magazine but the first book mention that I have been able to find about the house was in Richard Winer's book Houses of Horror. Both of them mentioned the poison deaths of Sarah Mathilda and her daughters.

MORE MURDERS!

As time went on and more books and television shows came calling at the Myrtles, the story changed again and this time, took on even more murders. In addition to the deaths of Sarah Mathilda, her daughters and Chloe, it was alleged that as many as six other people had also been killed in the house. One of them, Lewis Stirling, the oldest son of Ruffin Grey Stirling, was claimed to have been stabbed to death in the house over a gambling debt. However, burial records in St. Francisville state that he died at the age of 23 in October 1854 from yellow fever.

According to legend, three Union soldiers were killed in the house after they broke in and attempted to loot the place. They were allegedly shot to death in the gentlemen's parlor, leaving bloodstains on the floor that refused to be wiped away. Once fanciful account has it that years later, after the Myrtles was opened as an inn, a maid was mopping the floor and came to a spot that, no matter how hard she pushed, she was unable to reach. Supposedly, the spot was the same size as a human body and this was said to have been where one of the Union soldiers fell. The strange phenomenon was said to have lasted for a month and has not occurred since. The only problem with this story is that no soldiers were ever killed in the house. There are no records or evidence to say that there were and in fact, surviving family members denied the story was true. If the ghostly incident occurred, then it must have been caused by something else.

Another murder allegedly occurred in 1927, when a caretaker at the house was killed during a robbery. Once again, no record exists of this crime and something as recent as this would have been widely reported. The only event even close to this, which may have spawned this part of the story, occurred when the brother of Fannie Williams, Eddie Haralson, was living in a small house on the property. He was killed while being robbed but this did not occur in the main house, as the story states

The only verifiable murder to occur at the Myrtles was that of William Drew Winter and it differs wildly from the legends that have been told. As described previously, Winter was lured out of the house by a rider, who shot him to death on the side porch. It is here where the stories take a turn for the worse. In the legend, Winter was shot and then mortally wounded, staggered back into the house, passed through the gentlemen's parlor and the ladies parlor and onto the staircase that rises from the central hallway. He then managed to climb just high enough to die in his beloved's arms on exactly the 17th step. It has since been claimed that ghostly footsteps have been heard coming into the house, walking to the stairs and then climbing to the 17th step where they, of course, come to an end.

While dramatic, this event never happened either. Winter was indeed murdered on the front porch by an unknown assailant but after being shot, he immediately fell down and died. His bloody trip through the house never took place --- information that was easily found in historical records.

Valerie Liska

PRSG Online Member

The legend of JERSEY DEVIL

The Jersey Devil, the supposed mythical creature of the New Jersey Pinelands, has haunted New Jersey and the surrounding areas for the past 260 years. This entity has been seen by over 2,000 witnesses over this period. It has terrorized towns and caused factories and schools to close down, yet many people believe that the Jersey Devil is a legend, a mythical beast, that originated from the folklore of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Others disagree with this point of view. The following text will show there is evidence to support the existence of an animal or supernatural bring known as the Jersey Devil. The evidence consists of the stories of the Jersey Devil's origin, the sightings of it, and finally, the theories on it.

There are many different versions of the birth of the Jersey Devil. One of the most popular legends says a Mrs. Shrouds of Leeds Point, NJ made a wish that if she ever had another child, she want it to be a devil. Her next child was born misshapen and deformed. She sheltered it in the house, so the curious couldn't see him. On stormy night, the child flapped it's arms, which turned into wings, and escaped out the chimney and was never seen by the family again. A Mrs. Bowen of Leeds point said, "The Jersey Devil was born in the Shrouds house at Leeds Point." 1 Another story that also placed the birth at Leeds Point said that a young girl fell in love with a British soldier during the Revolutionary War. The people of Leeds Point cursed her. When she gave birth, she had a devil. Some people believe the birth of the devil was punishment for the mistreatment of a minister by the Leeds folk.

Another story placed the birth in Estelville, NJ. Mrs. Leeds, of Estelville, finding out she was pregnant with her 13th child, shouted,"I hope it's a devil". She got her wish. The child wad born with horns, a tail, wings, and a horse-like head. The creature revisited Mrs. Leeds everyday. She stood at her door and told it to leave. After awhile, the creature got the hint and never returned.

Burlington, NJ, also claims to be the birthplace of the Jersey Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a horses head, bat wings and a forked tail. It beat everyone present and flew up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exercised the devil for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890.

There are many other versions of the legend. The legends say it was the 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, or 13th child, It was born normal or deformed, and the mother confined it to the cellar or the attic. Although there are many discrepancies in all of these stories, there are 3 pieces of evidence that tie all of the legends of the Jersey Devil's origin together.

The first thing that ties the legends together is the name "Leeds". Whether the mothers name was Leeds or the birth place was Leeds Point, all of the stories include the name Leeds. Alfred Heston, the Atlantic County Historian, believes that the devil could be a Leeds or a Shrouds baby. He discovered that a Daniel Leeds opened land in Great Egg Harbor, NJ, in 1699. His family lived in Leeds Point. He also discovered a Samuel Shrouds, Sr. came to Little Egg Harbor, NJ, in 1735 and lived right across the river from the house of Mother Leeds. The 3rd fact ties in the Burlington story with the others stories. Professor Fred MacFadden of Coppin State College, Baltimore, found that a "devil" was mentioned in writings from Burlington as early as 1735. He also indicated that the word Burlington was used to was the word used to names the area from the city of Burlington to the Atlantic Ocean. This means that the name that is now used for the birthplace such as Leeds point or Estelville, could be the same place referred to in the Burlington Legend.

The origins provide some validity to the existence of the Jersey Devil, but the sightings are the most substantial pieces of evidence. The sightings have been divided up into 3 time periods, pre 1909, January 16-23, 1909, and post 1909.

From the pre 1909 era, few documented records of sightings still exist. The ones that do confirm the existence of the devil.

In the early 19th century, Commodore Stephen Decatur, a naval hero, was testing cannon balls on the firing range when he saw a strange creature flying across the sky. He fired and hit the creature but it kept right on flying across the field. Joseph Bonaparte, former king of Spain and brother of Napoleon, saw the Jersey Devil in Bordentown, NJ, between 1816 and 1839 while he was hunting. In 1840-41 many sheep and chickens were killed by a creature with a piercing scream and strange tracks. In 1859-94, the Jersey Devil was seen and numerous times and reportedly carried off anything that moved in Haddonfield, Bridgeton, Smithville, Long Branch, Brigantine, and Leeds Point. W.F. Mayer of New York noticed while visiting the Pine Barrens, most of the locals would not venture out after dark. The devil was sighted by George Saarosy, A prominent business man, at the NJ/NY border. This was the last reported sighting before the turn of the century.

In 1903, Charles Skinner, author of American Myths and Legends, claimed that the legend of the devil had run it's course and that in the new century, NJ would hear no more of the devil. New Jersey rested easy with that thought for 6 years, until the week of January 16-23. 1909. During this week, the devil would leave his tracks all over South Jersey and Philadelphia. He was seen by over 1,000 people. This was his largest appearance ever.

It all started early Sunday morning, January 16, 1909. Thack Cozzens of Woodbury, NJ, saw a flying creature with glowing eyes flying down the street. In Bristol, PA, John Mcowen heard and saw the strange creature on the banks of the canal. Patrol James Sackville fired at the creature as it flew away screaming. E.W. Minister, Postmaster of Bristol, PA, also saw a bird-like creature with a horses head that had a piercing scream. When daylight came, the residents of Bristol found hoof prints in the snow. Two local trappers said they had never seen tracks like those before.

On Monday, the Lowdens of Burlington, NJ, found hoof prints in their yard and around their trash, which was half eaten. Almost every yard in Burlington had these strange hoof prints in them. The prints went up trees, went from roof to roof, disappeared in the middle of the road, and stopped in the middle of open fields. The same tracks were also found in Columbus, Hedding, Kinhora and Rancocas. A hunt was organized to follow the tracks but the dogs wouldn't follow the trail.

On the 19th the Jersey Devil made his longest appearance of the week. At 2:30 am, Mr & Mrs. Nelson Evans of Gloucester were awakened by a strange noise. They watched the devil from their window for 10 minutes. Mr. Evans described the creature they saw:

It was about three feet and half high, with a head like a collie dog and a face like a horse. It had a long neck, wings about two feet long, and its back legs were like those of a crane, and it had horse's hooves. It walked on its back legs and held up two short front legs with paws on them. It didn't use the front legs at all while we were watching. My wife and I were scared, I tell you, but I managed to open the window and say, 'Shoo', and it turned around barked at me, and flew away

Tuesday afternoon 2 professional hunters tracked the devil for 20 miles in Gloucester. The trail jumped 5 foot fences and went under 8 inch spaces. The hoof prints were found in more parts of South Jersey. A group of observers in Camden, NJ, saw the devil. It barked at them and then took off into the air.

The next day, a Burlington police officer and the Reverend John Pursell of Pemberton saw the Jersey Devil. Rev. Pursell said, "Never saw anything like it before".3 Posses in Haddonfield found tracks that ended abruptly. In Collingswood, NJ, a posse watched the devil fly off toward Moorestown. Near Moorestown, John Smith of Maple Shade saw the devil at the Mount Carmel Cemetery. George Snyder saw the devil right after Mr. Smith and their descriptions were identical. In Riverside, NJ, hoof prints were found on roof tops and also around a dead puppy.

On Thursday, the Jersey Devil was seen by the Black Hawk Social Club. He was also seen by a trolley full of people in Clementon as it circled above them. The witnesses descriptions matched others from the days before. In Trenton, Councilman E.P. Weeden heard the flapping of wings and then found hoof prints outside his door. The prints were also found at the arsenal in Trenton. As the day wore on the Trolleys in Trenton and New Brunswick had armed drivers to ward off attacks. The people in Pitman filled churches. Chickens had been missing all week throughout the Delaware Valley, but when the farmers checked their yards that day, they found their chickens dead, with no marks on them. The West Collingswood Fire Department fired their hose at the devil. The devil retreated at first, but then charged and flew away at the last second.

Later that night, Mrs. Sorbinski of Camden heard a commotion in her yard. She opened the door to see the Jersey Devil standing there with her dog in it's grip. She hit the devil with a broom until it let go of her dog and flew away. She started screaming until her neighbors came over. Two police officers arrived at her house where over 100 people had gathered. The crowd heard a scream coming from Kaigan Hill. The mob ran toward the creature on the hill. The Policed shot at it and the devil flew off into the night. The streets of Camden were empty after this.

On Friday, Camden police officer Louis Strehr saw the Jersey Devil saw the devil drinking from a horses trough. The school in Mt Ephraim was closed because no students came in. Mills and factories in Gloucester and Hainesport had to close because none of the employees came to work. Many New Jersey residents wouldn't leave their houses, even in daylight. Officer Merchant of Blackwood drew a sketch of the creature he saw. His sketch coincided with the descriptions from earlier in the week. Jacob Henderson saw the devil in Salem and described it as having "wings and a tail"4. The devil was only seen once more in 1909 in February.

Since 1909, the Jersey Devil has continued to be sighted by people all over New Jersey. The number of sightings that have been reported to the authorities has dwindled over the years. This could be attributed to the fact that people don't want to be branded as crazy. Even though the number of reported sightings has dropped, there's still a considerable amount of sightings in the post 1909 era.

IN 1927, a cab driver on his way to Salem got a flat tire. He stopped to fix the tire. As he was doing this, creature that stood upright and was covered with hair, landed on the roof of his cab. The creature shook his car violently. He fled the scene, leaving the tire and jack behind. Phillip Smith, who was known as a sober and honest man, saw the devil walking down the street in 1953. The characteristic screams of the Jersey Devil were heard in the woods near Woodstown, NJ, in 1936.

Around 1961, 2 couples were parked in a car in the Pine Barrens. They heard a loud screeching noise outside. Suddenly the roof of the car was smashed in. They fled the scene, but returned later. Again they heard the loud screech. They saw a creature flying along the trees, taking out huge chinks of bark as it went along.

There have been other sightings since 1909, such as the Invasion of Gibbsboro in 1951. The people there saw the devil over a 2 day period. In 1966, a farm was raided and 31 ducks, 3 geese, 4 cats, and 2 dogs were killed. One of the dogs was a large german Shepard which had it's throat ripped out. In 1981, a young couple spotted the devil at Atsion Lake in Atlantic County.

In 1987, in Vineland an aggressive german Shepard was found torn apart and the body gnawed upon. the body was located 25 feet from the chain which had been hooked to him. Around the body were strange tracks that no one could identify.

The sightings and prints are the most substantial evidence that exists. Many of the theories on the Jersey Devil are based upon that evidence. Some theories can be proven invalid, while others seem to provide support for the Jersey Devil's existence.

One theory is that the Jersey Devil is a bird. Mrs. Cassidy of Clayton thought it was an invasion of scrowfoot ducks. The scrowfoot duck is much too small to be mistaken for the devil. Others believe the devil is really a sand hill crane. The crane used to live in South Jersey until it was pushed out by man. The sand hill crane weighs about 12 lbs., is 4 foot high, and a wingspan of 80 inches. It avoids man but if confronted it will fight. It has a loud scream whooping voice that can be heard at a distance. This could account for the screams heard by witnesses. The crane also eats potatoes and corn. This could account for the raids on crops. This theory doesn't explain , however, the killing of live stock. It also doesn't explain why people described the devil as having a horses head, bat wings and tail, all of which the crane doesn't have.

Professor Bralhopf said that" the tracks were made by some prehistoric animal form the Jurassic period"5. He believes the creature survived underground in a cavern. An expert from the Smithsonian Institute had a theory about ancient creatures surviving underground. He said the Jersey Devil was a Pterodactyl. The Academy of Natural Sciences could find no record of any creature, living or extinct, that resembles the Jersey Devil.

Jack E. Boucher, author of Absagami Yesteryear, has a theory in which he believes the devil was a deformed child. He thinks Mrs. Leeds had a disfigured child and kept it locked away in the house. She grew sick and couldn't feed the child anymore. It escaped out of hunger and raided local farms for food. This doesn't take into account the incredible life span of the devil. The child would have been 174 years old in 1909. It also doesn't account for the sightings of the devil flying.

Only a small amount of the sightings and footprints could be hoaxes. The Jersey Devil has been seen by reliable people such as police, government officials, postmasters, businessman, and other people whose "integrity is beyond question."6 As for the hoof prints, even if some were hoaxes, There is still no way to explain most of the tracks, especially the ones on roof tops and tracks that ended abruptly as if the creature took wing.

The last theory is the most controversial one. Many people believe that the Jersey Devil could be the very essence of evil, embodied. It is said that the devil is an "uncanny harbinger of war"7. and appears before any great conflict. The jersey devil was sighted before the start of the Civil War. It was also seen right before the Spanish American War and WW I. In 1939, before the start of WW II, Mount Holly citizens were awakened by the noise of hooves on their roof tops. The Devil was seen on December 7, 1941, right before Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was also seen right before the vietnam War.

The Jersey Devil's habit of being a forerunner to wars could be because of his possible demonic origins. In 1730, Ben Franklin reported a story about a witchcraft trial near Mt Holly, NJ. One of the origin legends say that Mother Leeds was a witch. The devil's birth could have been a result of a witches curse.

Other facts support the supernatural theory are the reports of the death of the devil. When Commodore Decatur fired a cannon ball at the devil, it went through him and he was unaffected.

In 1909, a track walker on the electric railroad saw the devil fly into the wires above the tracks. There was a violent explosion which melted the track 20 feet in both directions. No body was found and the devil was seen later in perfect health. In 1957, the Department of Conservation found a strange corpse in a burned out area of the pines. It was a partial skeleton, feathers, and hind legs of an unidentifiable creature. The devil was thought to be dead, but reappeared when the people of New Jersey thought that this time his death was real. Each time he is reported dead, he returns. Sometimes this year. The Jersey Devil will be 260 years old. It seems the devil is immortal, which a supernatural being would be. Another thing that supports this theory is the incredible distances the devil could fly in a short period of time. No animal could travel as fast as the devil did in 1909 when he was sighted in South Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York through out the week.

None of these theories can give a definitive answer to what the Jersey Devil was or is, but the sightings prove there is something out there. Whether the Jersey devil is a bird or a demon, is still left ot speculation. The people of New Jersey have definitely seen something out there lurking in the Pine Barrens.

By Dave Juliano

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Paracrypt RSG Team

Vampire and Werewolf...

Werewolves

Description

Werewolves are men who change into vicious often man-eating wolves or wolfmen during a full moon. The first half of the name, "werewolf", comes from the Teutonic wer, meaning "man"; therefore werewolf literally means "man-wolf". Although this is the most common belief in lycanthropy, there are numerous others that describe the voluntary or involuntary transformation from man to bears, big cats, hyenas, and other fierce creatures.

Often, werewolfism is passed on through tainted blood and can only be ended in death. It is said that shooting using silver bullets is very effective in killing werewolves, as is forcing them to drink salt water or splashing them with holy water. In some cultures, a blow to the head of a werewolf using an iron rod will free the man from werewolf possession.

Location

Werewolves were primarily sighted in various rural parts of Europe. However, their presence and the appearance other were-animals has also been seen in North America and other regions of the world. This includes Asia (were-tigers & bears), Africa (were-hyenas), Central America (were-coyotes), and New Zealand (were-lizards).

History/Origin

The belief began in the lycanthropy figures in Greek mythology, where Zeus, furious when he learns that Lykaon served him and the other gods human flesh, turns Lykaon into a wolf.

Despite the modern belief that werewolves are nothing more than characters in the newest horror flicks, there was a time that they were feared as a real-life menace. In the 16^th century, areas suffering from bad weather, disastrous harvest, wolf attacks, and burgeoning crime rates needed someone or something to take the blame. As a result, the werewolf became a common and easy scapegoat. Even human mass murderers were declared werewolves.

Reason Behind Creation/Possible Explanation

Of all the possible types of transformations, the werewolf is the most common in Europe, probably because the wolf was the predator most feared by the Europeans. Medieval and later chronicles describe wolf attacks on humans during hard winters and wartime. The development of the concept of werewolves may also be attributed to the vicious warriors in northern Europe, known as wolfmen or berserkers. These notoriously murderous and feared men clad themselves in suits made from wolf pelts.

At the same time, the belief began that honoured ancestors would become wolves after death in Germany. Consequently, names such as Wolfgang, Wolfhard, Wolfbrand began to spring up in hopes that the wolf spirits would enter them and give the soldiers strength and courage. The combination of these events led to wolves became associated with violence and eventually the devil.

Other than the growing relationship between wolves and evil, there were medical disorders that occurred from time to time that may have furthered people’s fears. These made victims of the illnesses appear to have characteristics of werewolfism or convinced that they had become animals. The first disease is called porphyria. It is characterized by yellow, hairy skin that is extremely sensitive to light, forcing the sufferers to go out only at night or risk tissue damage. Ulcers may also cause their hands to become deformed and paw-like. Even their behaviour becomes erratic and red pigments appear in their teeth and urine. The result is a convincing "werewolf".

Sometimes hallucinogens can also play a part in creating werewolves, either through self-administered forms or poisonings. A man with ergot poisoning reportedly escaped from seven straight jackets, lost all his teeth biting through a leather strap, and bent two iron bars on the hospital window while trying to flee from a tiger he believed to be chasing him. Werewolf salves have also been concocted that make people feel as if they were transformed into wolves.

Vampires

The vampire, a creature of the night that rises from the grave to feast on the blood of the living, has terrorized the minds of people of every culture around the world for centuries. Although vampire legends has existed since ancient time, it was not made popular until the novel Dracula by Bram Stroker was published in 1897. Since then, the figure of the vampire can now be seen in all forms of media available including movies, books, and card games.

Location/Map

Variations of the vampire myth can be found in every culture around the world, but those from Slovenia are the most prominent.

Description

There are many variations to the appearance of the vampire. Its form is seen to be human, but can so appear grotesquely distorted, with long nails curved like claws, bloodshot eyes, and deathly pallor. The popular, modern depiction of a vampire is a tall, thin, aristocratic man, dressed in a black suit and a long black cape. He has retractable fangs that are used to the blood from the neck of its victims. He can be a deceiver, luring his young victims through sexual attraction and desire.

Vampires appear undead in their graves, their bodies completely fresh with no traces of decay or rigor mortis (the condition after death which involves the stiffening of the body). There are even signs of rejuvenation like hair, nail, and skin growth. Fresh blood is often seen around the mouth area.

They come out at night from their graves between nightfall and down, hunting down innocent victims to drain their blood. Some vampires in Poland and Russia appear from moon to midnight. Not all vampires drink blood, but steals things that are perhaps even more valuable to a human, such as youth, hope, and love. They have the ability to fly, as well as to change forms into a bat, or other animals, and to mist. They are able to control creatures like rats and wolves, and the elements. Some have the ability to turn invisible.

In most vampire legends, they are required to sleep either in coffins, or return to their graves. They have a need to return to the earth of their homeland each night, or carry their native soil around with them. They cannot cross running water, see their reflection in a mirror, or enter a place uninvited.

Vampires from Different Cultures

Although the more common vampire lore is confined to the resurrected corpse of male humans, there are other variations from different cultures. The Malaysian believed in the penangglan or the langsuir, a female vampire that preys on houses where a birth has taken place, which led to the custom of hanging up a branch of thistle in order to trap her. Some believed that these vampires must place the throat of their victims to the back of their necks to feed, and therefore prefer infants and children. They are credited with a fondness of fish.

Civatateo are Mexican vampires that have the magical powers of a priest. They are noblewomen who died during childbirth who stalk travelers at crossroads and haunts temples and churches. In the Malay Peninsula and parts of Polynesia, they have a vampire that is conceived as a head with entrails attached called the penangal who attack human and their blood.

The Manananggal is the Filipino version of vampire, and is said to be unwilling or unable to touch the tail of a dried stingrays.

In Slavonic countries, the vampire is said to have only one nostril, and possess a sharp point at the end of its tongue, similar to the sting of a bee.

To Become a Vampire

Vampires are believed to be created in a number of ways. It could be a child born under certain omens, someone who committed suicide or came to a violent end, or have been cursed by their parents or the Church. It is a common practice in England to drive an ash stake through the breast of all suicide victims until 1823. A cat, other animals, even a young boy, jumping over a corpse would turn it into a vampire, as well as a bird flying over it.
According to the Servians and Bulgarians, unclean spirits enter into the bodies of criminals and other evil-natured persons, who then become vampires.

Even inanimate objects can turn into vampires, including pumpkins, watermelon and other fruits left out past a certain amount of time, door latches that are left unlatched for too long, as well as dogs, horses, sheep, and snakes.
In Transylvania, it is believed that whoever was killed by a vampire will become one.
Vampire Protection

Holy symbols are often used for protection against the vampire including the cross or crucifix and holy water. Garlic is the most popular vampire repellent, and hawthorn and mountain ash (rowan), is also used. Some believe that the scattering of seeds is also a good defense because the vampire would become so involved in counting every single seed that they would allow its target to escape.

The Wallachians believed that the dead can be prevented from returning to life by driving a long nail through the skull of the corpse and placing a thorny stem of a wild rosebush upon the body. One way prevent a person from becoming a vampire is to rub the body with the lard of a pig killed on St. Ignatius’s Day. For vampire detection, they place a young boy on a black horse and walk them around the cemetery. If the horse refuses to pass over a certain grave, it means that a vampire lies within it.

In Poland and Russia, it is believed that one may become immune from the attacks by eating bread made with flour mixed with the blood of vampires.

To Kill a Vampire

The various methods of destroying a vampire include cremation, beheading, exposure to sunlight, and driving a stake through the heart. Other ways are to touch it with a crucifix and drenching it with holy water and garlic. It is also believed by some cultures that by stealing the left sock of a vampire, filling it with stones, and then throwing it into a river would destroy the creature.

Dhampirs are believed to be a vampire’s child and are the only people capable of seeing invisible vampires. Therefore, they often lend out their services as vampire hunters.

In Bulgaria, a vampire can be destroyed by trapping it in a bottle and throwing it into a fire. This is accomplished by chasing it with a picture of a saint to a specially prepared bottle baited with the vampire’s favourite food, for they believed that vampires only have a thirst for human blood when their human food supply ran out. Once the vampire is inside the bottle containing a fragment of an eikon or holy picture, it will be trapped inside.

History

The vampire is one of the oldest and most global myths of all. There are variations of creatures who rises from the dead to drink the blood of the living in almost every culture around the world. However, the vampire lore of the Slavic people are the most prominent.

The word ‘vampire’ comes from the Slavi word ‘obyri’ and ‘obiri’ which evolved into the Bulgarian word ‘vampir". It is also believed to have to be derived from the Servian word, ‘wampira’. Another name for vampires is ‘Nosferatu’, which might have originated from the Greek word ‘nosophoros’ meaning "plague-carrier", or that it evolved from the Old Slavonic word ‘nosufur-atu’. Russians, Morlacchians, inhabitants of Montenegro, Behemians, Servians, and Arnauts know the vampire as wukodalak, vurkulaka, or vrykolaka, which means ‘wolf-fairy’.

The origin in the vampire has been credited to Greek Christianity, but references of this myth can be found in earlier times, in Chaldean and Assyrian tablets. It is believed that the early vampire legends were developed to explain things that nature could not, like mysterious deaths and wasting diseases. For instance, the Greek vampire lamiani attacked babies and pregnant women so that miscarriage and still-born can be explained.

The Romans believed that the dead bodies of certain people could be raised from their graves by magic, as long as the body was not decomposed. The only way to prevent this was to cremate the remains.

From Greece and Rome, vampire lore spread throughout Austria, Hungary, Lorraine, Poland, Romania, Iceland, and the British Isles. It reached its height in the period from 1723 to 1735, when a vampire-related epidemic broke out in Hungary and Servia. The belief continued to gradually spread to the rest of the world, including the Asian countries and Africa.

In countries that believe suicide victims become vampires when they die, the myth is used to help the love ones cope with their deaths. By performing the vampire rituals to destroy the corpse through staking and cementation, for instance, it destroys the dead person’s psychological attachment to the living, allowing his family and friends to cope with their grief and move on.

Literary Connections

British author Bram Stroker popularized the vampire in his 1897 his novel Dracula about a Transylvanian vampire. The character of Count Dracula was supposedly based on Vlad Tepes, Romania’s fierce warrior king. He ruled Walachia in the 15th century as Vlad III. He earned the nicknamed Vlad the Impaler because of his habit for impaling his enemies on wooden stakes and then beheading them. He was the son of Vlad Dracul, and the rightful holder of the name Dracula, for the name means Son of Dracul. It also means son of the dragon or devil. However, Vlad did not have any vampiric tendencies besides his barbarism.

Before Stroker, vampire literature was rare. The most popular pre-Dracula stories include Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer, and The Vampyre: A Tale by John Polidori.

Interesting Facts

Blood is extremely fattening- a litre can provide approximately a thousand calories of high-fat, high-protein nutrition

Porphyria is a rare medical condition whose sufferers display certain characteristics very similar to vampires. Its victims cannot make an adequate amount of blood, and one treatment is to give blood to the patient. However, this is done through injection, and not by ingestion. Porphyria suffers are also very sensitive to light, and burns severely in the sun. Therefore, like the vampire, they tend to avoid sunlight.

The novel Dracula was prevented from being published in Romania until 1993, because Vlad Tepes, the actual character Count Dracula was based on, was a respected historical figure in Romania. The vampire concept surrounding the character caused it to be banned under communist rule

J Dee
Singapore

Mirror and Superstitous

Look into any mirror ... Do you see a ghost? Or does a real ghost see you? Invisible and watching you from the other side in it's backwards world.

Many old mirrors thick and old and silver back stained are said to be haunted by the ghosts of those that died. their image forever frozen or trapped in the glass. Some recent stories on eBay tell of people selling their antique mirrors that were either bought or passed down the generations in their familes and said to be very haunted . It is said by some that if a ghost or lost soul wanders your home during the night, a mirror can capture it. An old New Orleans Voodoo way to capture a ghost was to put a large standing mirror in your bedroom door way. When the ghost thinking it is a door enters the mirror it is forever trapped in the rooms that were reflected in it when caught not the real rooms.

Bloody Mary The Face In The Mirror

A urban legend of sorts states: If you go into the bathroom and look into the mirror with the lights off and the room completely black, and then say 'Bloody Mary' thirteen times, a woman will appear and scratch your face off. The research into Bloody Mary goes back to 1978, when folklorist Janet Langlois published her essay on the legend. Belief in summoning the mirror-witch was even at that time widespread throughout the U.S.

Mary is summoned whenever young teen aged girls get together for a sleepover, but boys have been known to call on her too. The 'Bloody Mary' legend was common in the early 1970s. Typically performed the "ritual" in bathrooms, because the bathrooms of suburban homes had large mirrors and were easily darkened even during the day since they had no windows. In latter years after the release of the movie Clive Barker's Candyman (1992) calling upon him became more popular. Many do believe the Candyman's Movies premise is based on fact and try summoning him even today.

Helen Lyle is a student who decides to write a thesis about local legends and myths. She visits a part of the town, where she learns about the legend of Cabrini Green and the Candyman, a one-armed man with a hook who appears to you in your bathroom when you say his name five times, in front of a mirror. Of course, Helen doesn't believe all this stuff, but the people of the area are really afraid. When she ignores their warnings and begins her investigation in the places that he is rumored to appear, a series of horrible murders begins.

In the 1998 movie Urban Legend, two co-eds try to summon an evil spirit by chanting 'Bloody Mary.' In an episode of television's The X Files ("Syzygy," original air date 26 January 1996), two teenage girls lure a rival for a boy's affections into the bathroom — and a "Bloody Mary" ritual — during a birthday party. They prevent her from leaving the bathroom, and the camera cuts to the rest of the partygoers downstairs, who hear a crash of breaking glass and a scream.

Mirror ... Mirror on the wall you make my skin creep and crawl. Whose the ghost that resides within... The spirts of the dead the lost or my next of kin!

Fear of mirrors probably arose from the time when the first humans saw their reflections in a pool of water and once they had got over their initial shock of seeing someone or something, believed that the image was their soul or spirit and to endanger it would mean risking injury to the other self. Also since ancient times, mirrors were said to have magical powers, including the power to foretell the future and were considered to be devices of the gods. Thus breaking a mirror would end its powers and bring untold miseries and misfortunes upon the one whose reflection it last held. Or even damning a trapped spirit to a hell that only the Devil himself knew exisited.

All is Vanity Charles Allan Gilbert, American Illustrator, 1873 - 1929.

The Vanity is considered by many to be one of the finest optical illusions ever conceived. Reproductions of this illusion continue to be popular more than 100 years after the drawing first appeared in print.

The painting is an ambiguous illusion with an allegorical theme, as the title suggests. The two aspects become clear as you study the figure. It can be seen as either, a beautiful girl gazing at her reflection in a large mirror; or the scene can be realized as a grinning human skull. The girl's two heads make up the eye sockets of the skull, her vanity items, and an embroidered table cloth form the teeth and jaws.

The reason for the popularity of the artwork is clear; stunning realism, style, and exquisite detail performed flawlessly by a master illustrator. Charles Gilbert learned his amazing style in New York, and Paris.

Mirrors are the perfect example of an everyday household furnishing attached with countless superstitions. Probably the most common belief concerning mirrors is that their breakage causes seven years of bad luck. But does Breaking a mirror with a real ghost locked in it set it free to haunt you? Consider this: Was the ghost trapped their on his own or placed their by some force to trap it to save others from the haunting the ghost could cause? In New Orleans Voodoosit are said to use a grand spell to capture household haunting ghosts in Zombie bottles or large mirrors. The mirrors which render the ghost harmless only to haunt the world that is reflected in the mirror. Not the Real world we live in. One custom unique to New Orleams voodoo is to watch ( particualrly if it is a bad or evil spirit or ghost) wander into a room or door way reflected in the mirror then to smash it trapping the ghost forever to roam into a different eternity and not haunt your house any longer. And to tell if a old mirror given to you or purchased is haunted place to tall white candles no further then 12 inches apart . Do this at midnight. Focus your eyes at the space between the two candles if it is haunted you will see the ghost!

STROZZI, Bernardo
(b. 1581, Genova, d. 1644, Venezia) Old Woman at the Mirror
c. 1615
Oil on canvas, 132 x 108 cm
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

The theme of this painting has a long tradition: the old woman who has not learned to give her life any other meaning but that of ornament and vanity, and who is unable to see the truth or recognize her true self in the mirror. Strozzi's formulation, however, is both individual and new. It makes the most of the surface values, deliberately contrasting the wrinkled skin of the old woman with the fresh complexion of her servant and juxtaposing the firm and rounded forms of youth with the withered slackness of old age. He reveals in the mirror that the old woman's red cheeks are painted with rouge, and he places a blossoming, scented rose in her wrinkled hand. He also shows us the uncriticizing complacency on her face, leaving it up to the spectator to deduce a sense of embarrassment, emptiness, transparent illusion and moral warning.

As for the seven-year period, the ancient Romans believed that life renewed itself every seven years. If the person looking into the mirror were of ill health, their image would break the mirror and the run of bad luck would continue for seven years, at the end of which their life would be renewed, ending the curse.

But if you do not wish seven years of ill-luck, a variety of remedies are available to counter the curse of the mirror, including some crazy ones like taking all the pieces and throwing them into running water or pounding the broken mirror into tiny fragments so that no piece can reflect anything ever again or taking the pieces outside & burying them in moonlight. There is also help for those who are too lazy or too busy, just leave the breakage the way it was for seven hours and then clean it up immediately after the hours are up.In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus killed Medusa by using a mirrored shield so as not to gaze upon her monstrous appearance (she turned anyone who looked at her to stone.)

In English literature, a famous example is Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, in which protagonist Alice uses a mirror as a portal to a strange alternate world. A common use is that of scrying with a mirror. In Canterbury Tales, "The Squire's Tale" describes a magical mirror that can look over a king's realm; similarly, in The Faerie Queene, Merlin enchants a mirror to have this power. Another example, from the German tales of the brothers Grimm, is Snow White, in which the Wicked Queen consults a magic mirror to determine the identity of the most beautiful woman in the world; this mirror is capable of scrying the forest and finding Snow White. In modern fantasy, the mirror of Galadriel, in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.

Mirrors, along with labyrinths, figure prominently in the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who often used them as symbols of infinity, impersonation, and illusion. In Dreamtigers, he writes of fearing that his reflection would move independently or change shape before his eyes. In Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, a fictional heresiarch declares that "mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men."

Similarly, Edgar Allan Poe expresses an aversion to mirrors in The Philosophy of Furniture:

Regarded apart from its reflection, the mirror presents a continuous, flat, colourless, unrelieved surface, – a thing always and obviously unpleasant. Considered as a reflector, it is potent in producing a monstrous and odious uniformity: and the evil is here aggravated, not in merely direct proportion with the augmentation of its sources, but in a ratio constantly increasing. In fact, a room with four or five mirrors arranged at random, is, for all purposes of artistic show, a room of no shape at all. If we add to this evil, the attendant glitter upon glitter, we have a perfect farrago of discordant and displeasing effects.

In the Harry Potter series of novels, the Mirror of Erised is a magic mirror that reflects its viewer, not physically, but representing the viewer's deepest desires. Also featured in the series is a type of device (a dark detector) that functions as a mirror, depicting not only the gazer but also a number of shadowy figures in the background; they are enemies and their proximity to the viewer represents their imminent threat.

In Bram Stoker's Dracula the count (Dracula) has no reflection in a mirror (and no shadow).

In Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, Kilgore Trout calls mirrors "leaks," and tells people he believes they lead to other worlds. He often tells people that where he is from "taking a leak" means stealing a mirror.

Venus Effect

The Venus effect is a phenomenon in the psychology of perception, named after Diego Velázquez's painting The Rokeby Venus. Viewers of the painting assume that Venus is admiring her own reflection in the mirror. However, since the viewer sees her face in the mirror, Venus would actually be looking at the viewer, not at herself.

La Venus del espejo, also known as The Rokeby Venus, is a painting by Diego Velázquez in the National Gallery, London. It dates from 1644 to 1648.

In the painting the goddess Venus is depicted lying on a bed, looking into a mirror held up by Cupid. The face reflected in the dimmed mirror appears to be that of an older woman, which has long intrigued experts. Some think it is a commentary on the vanity of beauty which is transitory due to aging. Some think the face in the mirror was over-painted by another artist at a later time. Another explanation is that the face is not aged, merely out of focus, a sharper face would distract our immediate attention from the form of Venus. By seeing the nude first, and the face afterwards, we are "caught" in voyeurism. The face in the mirror is also substantially larger than it should be, and the mirror is angled such that, in reality, it would reflect a different part of the goddess's body.

The painting is unique for being the only surviving female nude by Velázquez, and one of only two such paintings in all of 17th-century Spanish art, which was often censored by the Spanish Inquisition. It was revolutionary for its depiction of the nude female form with its back facing the viewer. The composition has only three main colours: red, white and grey, which include the pigment of Venus's skin.

This psychological "trick" is often used in the cinema, where an actor will be shown apparently looking at himself in the mirror, with the camera just out of shot. In fact, the actor will be looking at the camera and just be pretending to see himself in the mirror.

The difference in relative sizes of the real face and the reflected face makes it possible to estimate the distance the viewer was from the object when they formed the image.

In Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera Erik (the Phantom) uses a revolving room of mirrors to torment his captives. Erik also hides behind a one way mirror when teaching Christine how to sing. In Erik's lair all of the mirrors are hidden behind curtains as Erik is afraid of his own face. At the end of the film of The Phantom of the Opera the Phantom breaks out of his solitude by smashing a mirror and entering an underground tunnel.

Mirrors appear in the Bhagavad Gita (3.38): As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust.

In Chinese Literature, the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, a Taoist monk has a two sided mirror that is capable of reflecting truth from the main screen, while the back screen shows the distorted truth.

In most fantasy stories and games, mirrors are often items that have great magical power, such as being able to oversee the activities of others in locations far away, being gateways to other realms or its most common application of being used to redirect an opponent's attack back at them.

Mirrors, typically large and unframed, are frequently used in interior decoration to create an illusion of space, and amplify the apparent size of a room.

The softness of old mirrors is sometimes replicated by contemporary artisans for use in interior design. These reproduction antiqued mirrors are works of art and can bring color and texture to an otherwise hard, cold reflective surface. It is an artistic process that has been attempted by many and perfected by few.

Ghost And Mirror Superstitions

Never look into a mirror by candlelight, it may show you a very haunted version of your home.

If you stare into a mirror between two tall white candles you might see the spirit of a loved one who has passed away. And their soul is stuck in your mirror.

Always cover a haunted mirror during a thunderstorm lightning will release the ghosts.

It is considered a bad omen to receive a mirror from a deceased persons home as a present.

If a mirror in the house falls and breaks on its own, A evil ghost is trying to escape it's mirror prison.

A baby should never be shown its own reflection before it is a year old, else it will stutter or grow no bigger than it is or die before it turns one.

Many families cover a mirror if someone dies, as they believe that the mirror will capture the dead person’s soul, thus preventing its entry into heaven. When a person is bad in life many say let them be trapped in mirror it is better then going to Hell!

And if someone sees their reflection in a mirror from a room where someone has recently died, they will die soon too.

It is said that if ghost wanders your home during the night, a mirror can capture it.

Early mirrors were often little more than a sheet of polished metal, often silver or copper, for example the Aranmula kannadi. Most modern mirrors consist of a thin layer of aluminum deposited on a sheet of glass. This layer is called the Tain. They are back silvered, where the reflecting surface is viewed through the glass sheet; this makes the mirror durable, but lowers the image quality of the mirror due to extraneous reflections from the front surface of the glass (ordinary glass typically reflects around 4% of the light). This type of mirror reflects about 80% of the incident light. The "back side" of the mirror is often painted or coated in some way to completely seal the metal from corrosion.

Mirrors for precision optical applications are more likely to have the reflective coating on the front surface of the mirror, to eliminate reflection from the glass. Metal films on the front surface are generally covered with a thin, transparent coating to protect them from corrosion. This is often made of silica. In some cases this coating may also enhance reflectivity.

The Devil's Looking Glass

A mirror is an object with a surface that has good specular reflection; that is, it is smooth enough to form an image. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface. Curved mirrors are also used, to produce magnified or demagnified images or focus light. Mirrors are most commonly used for personal grooming, decoration, and architecture. Mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes and lasers, cameras, and industrial machinery. Most mirrors are designed for visible light, however, mirrors designed for other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are also used, especially in optical instruments.

Magic Mirrors

They bring bad luck The help tell the future. Before mirrors came along, any reflective surface was considered to be magical and credited with the ability to look into the future. In ancient mythology we can often find the gods and goddesses, as well as mere mortals, looking into the still water to catch a glimpse of their fate. The power of reflective surfaces to captivate and deceive are also featured strongly in such myths as Narcissusand Snow White. Reflective surfaces like shiny metals and mirrors were also used to receive messages from the gods.

Queen Elizabeth's court magician and well-known alchemist, John Dee, used a mirror for scrying. He has been credited with prophesying the plot to kill King James in 1605.

Because mirrors were thought to hold the key to the future, to break one was to shatter your own future. One of the techniques devised to reverse the bad luck was to bury all the pieces deep within the earth. Another superstition for breaking a mirror was that shortly thereafter a family member would die.

(As email to PRSG by Kirsten Scholl, Budapest)