The Magic Arrows
There was once a young man who wanted to go on a journey. His mother provided him with sacks of dried meat and pairs of moccasins, but his father said to him:
"Here, my son, are four magic arrows. When you are in need, shoot one of them!"
The young man went forth alone, and hunted in the forest for many days. Usually he was successful, but a day came when he was hungry and could not find meat. Then he sent forth one of the magic arrows, and at the end of the day there lay a fat Bear with the arrow in his side. The hunter cut out the tongue for his meal, and of the body of the Bear he made a thank-offering to the Great Mystery.
Again he was in need, and again in the morning he shot a magic arrow, and at nightfall beside his camp-fire he found an Elk lying with the arrow in his heart. Once more he ate the tongue and offered up the body as a sacrifice. The third time he killed a Moose with his arrow, and the fourth time a Buffalo.
After the fourth arrow had been spent, the young man came one day out of the forest, and before him there lay a great circular village of skin lodges. At one side, and some little way from the rest of the people, he noticed a small and poor tent where an old couple lived all alone. At the edge of the wood he took off his clothes and hid them in a hollow tree. Then, touching the top of his head with his staff, he turned himself into a little ragged boy and went toward the poor tent.
The old woman saw him coming, and said to her old man:
"Old man, let us keep this little boy for our own! He seems to be a fine, bright-eyed little fellow, and we are all alone."
"What are you thinking of, old woman?" grumbled the old man. "We can hardly keep ourselves, and yet you talk of taking in a ragged little scamp from nobody knows where!"
In the meantime the boy had come quite near, and the old wife beckoned to him to enter the lodge.
"Sit down, my grandson, sit down!" she said, kindly; and, in spite of the old man's black looks, she handed him a small dish of parched corn, which was all the food they had.
The boy ate and stayed on. By and by he said to the old woman: "Grandmother, I should like to have grandfather make me some arrows!"
"You hear, my old man?" said she. "It will be very well for you to make some little arrows for the boy."
"And why should I make arrows for a strange little ragged boy?" grumbled the old man.
However, he made two or three, and the boy went hunting. In a short time he returned with several small birds. The old woman took them and pulled off the feathers, thanking him and praising him as she did so. She quickly made the little birds into soup, of which the old man ate gladly, and with the soft feathers she stuffed a small pillow.
"You have done well, my grandson!" he said; for they were really very poor.
Not long after, the boy said to his adopted grandmother:
"Grandmother, when you see me at the edge of the wood yonder, you must call out 'A Bear! there goes a Bear!'"
This she did, and the boy again sent forth one of the magic arrows, which he had taken from the body of his game and kept by him. No sooner had he shot, than he saw the same Bear that he had offered up, lying before him with the arrow in his side!
Now there was great rejoicing in the lodge of the poor old couple. While they were out skinning the Bear and cutting the meat in thin strips to dry, the boy sat alone in the lodge. In the pot on the fire was the Bear's tongue, which he wanted for himself.
All at once a young girl stood in the doorway. She drew her robe modestly before her face as she said in a low voice:
"I come to borrow the mortar of your grandmother!"
The boy gave her the mortar, and also a piece of the tongue which he had cooked, and she went away.
When all of the Bear meat was gone, the boy sent forth a second arrow and killed an Elk, and with the third and fourth he shot the Moose and the Buffalo as before, each time recovering his arrow.
Soon after, he heard that the people of the large village were in trouble. A great Red Eagle, it was said, flew over the village every day at dawn, and the people believed that it was a bird of evil omen, for they no longer had any success in hunting. None of their braves had been able to shoot the Eagle, and the chief had offered his only daughter in marriage to the man who should kill it.
When the boy heard this, he went out early the next morning and lay in wait for the Red Eagle. At the touch of his magic arrow, it fell at his feet, and the boy pulled out his arrow and went home without speaking to any one.
But the thankful people followed him to the poor little lodge, and when they had found him, they brought the chief's beautiful daughter to be his wife. Lo, she was the girl who had come to borow his grandmother's mortar!
Then he went back to the hollow tree where his clothes were hidden, and came back a handsome young man, richly dressed for his wedding. - Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends
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Aunt Rachel's Curse
On a headland near Plymouth lived "Aunt Rachel," a reputed seer, who made a scant livelihood by forecasting the future for such seagoing people as had crossed her palm. The crew of a certain brig came to see her on the day before sailing, and she reproached one of the lads for keeping bad company. "Avast, there, granny," interrupted another, who took the chiding to himself. "None of your slack, or I'll put a stopper on your gab." The old woman sprang erect. Levelling her skinny finger at the man, she screamed, "Moon cursers! You have set false beacons and wrecked ships for plunder. It was your fathers and mothers who decoyed a brig to these sands and left me childless and a widow. He who rides the pale horse be your guide, and you be of the number who follow him!"
That night old Rachel's house was burned, and she barely escaped with her life, but when it was time for the brig to sail she took her place among the townfolk who were to see it off. The owner of the brig tried to console her for the loss of the house. "I need it no longer," she answered, "for the narrow house will soon be mine, and you wretches cannot burn that. But you! Who will console you for the loss of your brig?"
"My brig is stanch. She has already passed the worst shoal in the bay."
"But she carries a curse. She cannot swim long."
As each successive rock and bar was passed the old woman leaned forward, her hand shaking, her gray locks flying, her eyes starting, her lips mumbling maledictions, "like an evil spirit, chiding forth the storms as ministers of vengeance." The last shoal was passed, the merchant sighed with relief at seeing the vessel now safely on her course, when the woman uttered a harsh cry, and raised her hand as if to command silence until something happened that she evidently expected. For this the onlookers had not long to wait: the brig halted and trembled—her sails shook in the wind, her crew were seen trying to free the cutter—then she careened and sank until only her mast-heads stood out of the water. Most of the company ran for boats and lines, and few saw Rachel pitch forward on the earth-dead, with a fierce smile of exultation on her face. The rescuers came back with all the crew, save one—the man who had challenged the old woman and revengefully burned her cabin. Rachel's body was buried where her house had stood, and the rock—before unknown—where the brig had broken long bore the name of Rachel's Curse. - Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
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The Nightly Terror
The following was submitted by a reader:
Hello - many years ago, a couple with 2 young boys moved into a venerable one-story house a few miles outside Portland, Oregon. The property was just down the road from us. We had known the wife through our church. After they had been in the house for a few months, they both began reporting strange activity. They had both heard something large and heavy enough to shake the ground with its footsteps come from the forest and walk around the outside of their house. In fact, it attempted to get in the house on several occasions. It also made growling and snorting noises. This happened several times, always at night.
On one occasion, the older of the two boys, then about 4, was heard talking with someone in his room during the late evening. The parents distinctly heard both the boy and a second, male voice. Both parents hurried into the room, to find the child reaching toward the open window, yelling, "No! No! Don't go! Don't go!" This was at first written off as an "invisible playmate", except that the window had been closed to keep the child warm and that he was not strong enough to open it alone.
The unknown being continued to prowl outside the house, and the family became horrified of what might happen if it got inside. They refused to go outside after sundown for any reason. After 6 months of fear and without the means to move, they discussed the situation with us one evening. We decided to try to eliminate it. Since both our husbands hunted deer and elk, they both had rifles if needed.
The men rigged spotlights all around the house, which was connected to a single switch inside. Late in the afternoon, they got into an old car that was parked on the property in plain sight of the house, and hunkered down out of sight. They remained there with some food, coffee and a walkie-talkie radio.
Shortly after sundown, we were inside the house and began to hear something walking the perimeter of the building. The ground shook with each step. We heard it slamming the walls, doors, and windows. I threw the switch for the lights, and the men stormed out of the car with rifles at the ready. They saw the tall weeds moving as though something large walk through it, but could not see what caused it. I was in contact with my husband by radio while we were inside hearing the sounds. The men heard nothing other than my voice on the radio.
We were terrified but, as a result of that night, there were no further disturbances at the house (as far as I know) and the family moved out a few months later. There had been several families in the residence since then, though none had reported any activity. The house was demolished recently to make room for a larger residence.
I will never forget the sound and fury we experienced that night. Most times when I mention the incident to others they usually say that it may have been a Sasquatch or another large animal roaming around. I doubt that very much since the men never heard or witnessed anything outside the house.
The real reason I am writing you is to get your opinion on a theory I have about this incident.
The woman had emotional issues and had several 'episodes' after she had given birth to her boys. I suppose this would be classified as postpartum depression nowadays. She was also very young, aged 16, when she was married to her 32 year-old husband. He was a member of a fundamentalist religious sect that is very strict when it came to family. In particular, she was expected to cater to all his needs - literally. I suspect that there was a lot of abuse, which then resulted in her emotional problems.
My question is - could this have been poltergeist activity? Could she have manifested a dark being or force?
I will end this email with one more disturbing detail. After the couple moved away, we rarely communicated again. They had moved to Idaho and lived in a very rural community. I was told later that the woman had died while giving birth to a fifth child - but I discovered soon after that she actually died of unknown circumstances that had never been made public. She was only 27. Thank you for reading - Rita
NOTE: though I don't know the full details of what happened in the family home, it is conceivable that this situation could have manifested into a poltergeist. These 'thought-form' entities are rarely benign and become quite strong in light of substantial emotional distress. If this fervent abuse continued after the family moved away, I suspect that the paranormal activity continued at the new location. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated circumstance. Stark abuse in any household can very easily result in a similar situation...Lon
The Poltergeist Phenomenon: An In-depth Investigation Into Floating Beds, Smashing Glass, and Other Unexplained Disturbances
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College of Saint Rose Hauntings
As humans, we have a tendency to recycle. This may not always extend to putting your empty water bottle in the right bin, but when it comes to old buildings, many times instead of tearing down old buildings, they will be reused and repurposed. This preservation of our history leads to many business districts being populated by gorgeous old buildings, an example of which is the beautiful Victorian offices lining Genesee Street.
While this classical architecture enhances the appeal of many small towns, from a paranormal stand-point it can complicate a case. When investigating a location that has been re-purposed, it can be hard to determine if the activity stems from the current or the previous use of the building. In some cases, there will be activity stemming from both periods of the building’s history, further complicating matters.
An example of this is the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Now a private college, Saint Rose has always had a religious background, and the haunting of one of their buildings reflects that history.
According to local legend, at least 4 buildings in the Saint Rose complex are haunted. Prior attendees report that these hauntings are so well-documented and accepted that the Dean of Students of the college conducts a yearly presentation on the hauntings.
The four ghosts that haunt the Saint Rose campus seem to be a diverse group of spirits. One is the ghost of a former priest on the property. He is assumed to date prior to the formation of the college. Also spotted are the ghosts of a little girl killed in a fire on the property, and a former gardener. One tied to the location of her death, the other tied to the property he must have loved. The most interesting ghost, and the one with the most tenuous connection to the college is the ghost who is believed to be a man who killed himself in Chicago. His connection to the college is not documented.
According to students, these ghosts make themselves frequently known. Screaming, and a little girls voice has reported, as has apparitions of spirits, objects going missing, bright lights, footsteps, and other strange noises.
The spirits of the College of Saint Rose demonstrate the odd configuration of spirits that collect at a location when buildings are reused beyond their additional purpose. Spirits collect that come from different backgrounds, and for different purposes. When investigating a location like this, you begin to wonder how these spirits feel about the passage of time, and the impact it has on their home. Does the priest understand that the buildings he occupied are now a dormitory? How does the gardener feel about the people now caring for the grounds he loved. As time continues to pass on, what new spirits will call this campus ‘home’? - Lite987
Video - Ghost Hunting in the Saint Rose Library
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