Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Demons and Apparitions. 247
It was revealed after thirty years by one of the maid-
servants, in the prospect of death. A Scottish journal
lately detailed the particulars of a case precisely similar,
which occurred at Falkirk. A family was disturbed by
the door-bell ringing violently at midnight. Windows
were broken ; the timber covering of a cellar was removed
at night. Several police-constables were set to watch,
but the door-bell continued to be rung, and other mis-
chief to be perpetrated. The soundings of the bell were
at length taken from the front door and also from the
kitchen, and on a difference of sound being remarked,
suspicion fell upon the servant, a girl of eighteen.
Having been charged with the offence, under circum-
stances which rendered denial altogether hopeless, she
acknowledged her guilt. She was brought before the
criminal authorities, and sentenced to imprisonment.
The Rev. Andrew Small, a pastor of the Secession
Church, who died in 1852, conceived himself the victim
of Satanic imps. In a volume which he published con-
cerning his supernatural persecution, he describes " the
imps " as entering his bed-chamber by the chimney,
through the keyhole, and by the hole of the bell- wire.
On effecting admission, the intruders proceeded to deprive
him of his bed-clothes, and to throw him upon the floor.
On one occasion the arch-enemy appeared in person ; he
wore " large hoofs and great horns," and there was " a
strong smell of brimstone about him."
There were four kinds of apparitions — the wraith, the
tutelary spirit, the genie, and the unrested ghost. The
first was a spiritual attendant, which remained with
every individual as a guardian from birth till death.
The wraith bore the aspect and was clad in the attire of
his human charge. He was constantly with him, accom-