Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 437, page 39 by Various Authors
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ght, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth sward on which they walked, a tall shrub, here and there, stood erect and motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by the mystical words of the moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over her: she looked round upon the accustomed scene, as if in some new and strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable thrill.
'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch.'
'But look longer--look better--look steadfastly. Is it still so definite?'
'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle'----
'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do you see?'
'I see it still! But it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
'Has it a head?' asked the moonshee in an anxious whisper.
'Yes; it is complete in all its parts: but now it melts--floats--disappears.'
'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous--such is the will of Heaven!' The experiment was tried on many other occasions by the young lady, and always with similar success, although never without a certain degree of trepidation, even after she had learned that the spectral appearance in the heavens was nothing more than the picture retained on the retina of the eye. She never saw the phantom without a head, which accounts for her being alive to this day; or even wanting a limb, although she has not been without her share of the trials of the world. It can easily be conceived, however, that certain conditions of the atmosphere may produce these phenomena, which are regarded by the Hindoo seer as sure tokens of death or disaster.
This superstition is not more unreasonable than the mistakes o