The Rapping Spirit of Bergzabern.

— We had already heard tell of certain Spiritist phenomena which in 1852 caused a great stir in the Bavarian Rhineland, in the surroundings of Spira, and we even knew that an authentic account had been published in a German pamphlet. After long and fruitless searches, a lady, one of our subscribers from Alsace, showing on this occasion a zeal and a perseverance for which we shall be eternally grateful to her, finally managed to obtain a copy of that pamphlet and offered it to us. We give below its translation in extenso; it will doubtless be read with great interest, for, among so many others, it is one more proof that facts of this kind belong to all times and all countries, since they occurred at a time when people were only just beginning to speak of Spirits.

FOREWORD.

For several months a very strange occurrence has become the favorite subject of all conversations in our town and its surroundings. We refer to the Rapper, as it is called, of the house of the tailor Pierre Sanger.

Until now we have refrained from any account in our paper – the Journal of Bergzabern – of the manifestations that have taken place in that house since the 1st of January 1852. Since, however, they have drawn general attention, to such a degree that the authorities felt it their duty to ask Dr. Beutner for an explanation in this regard, and Dr. Dupping, of Spira, even went to the place to observe the facts, we can no longer evade the duty of giving them publicity.

Let our readers not expect any appraisal from us on the matter, for we would feel greatly embarrassed; we leave that task to those who, by the nature of their studies and of their position, are more apt to pronounce upon it, which, moreover, they will do without difficulty, should they manage to discover the reason for those effects. As for us, we shall limit ourselves to the simple account of the facts, especially of those which we witnessed or which we heard from persons worthy of belief, leaving the reader to form his own opinion.

F.-A. Blanck.

Editor of the Journal of Bergzabern.

May 1852.

On the 1st of January of this year , in the house where it dwelt and in a room next to the one it commonly occupied, the family of Pierre Sanger, of Bergzabern, heard a noise as of hammering, beginning with dull blows that seemed to come from afar and that gradually became stronger and more distinct. These blows gave the impression of being struck against the wall, near which stood the bed where his son, eleven years of age, slept. It was usually between half past nine and half past ten that the noise made itself heard. At first the Sanger couple paid it no great heed; but, as such a singularity repeated itself every night, they thought it might come from the neighboring house, where, by way of pastime, a sick man might amuse himself by drumming against the wall. However, the couple soon became convinced that the invalid was not, and could not be, the cause of the noise. The floor of the room was dug up, the wall torn down, but without any result. The bed was moved to the opposite side of the room; and then – a marvelous thing! – the noise came to be heard from that side, as soon as the boy fell asleep. It was very clear that the child somehow took part in the manifestation of that noise; as the police inquiries discovered nothing, people began to think that the phenomenon might be attributed to an illness of the boy or to a peculiarity of his constitution. However, nothing up to now has come to confirm that hypothesis. It is still an enigma for the physicians. With the passing of time, the matter only developed; the noise lasted beyond an hour, and the blows had more force. The child was changed to another room and another bed, but the rapper manifested itself in that other room, under the bed, on the bed, and on the wall. The blows were not identical; sometimes they were strong, sometimes weak and isolated, sometimes, finally, succeeding one another rapidly and following the rhythm of military marches and of dances.

The boy had occupied, for some days, the above-mentioned room when, during his sleep, it was noticed that he uttered short and incoherent words. They soon became more distinct and more intelligible; one would say the child was conversing with another person, over whom he had authority. Among the facts that occurred daily, the author of this pamphlet will relate one of which he was a witness: the child was in bed, lying on his left side. As soon as he fell asleep, the blows began, and he set about speaking thus: “You, you, beat a march.” And the rapper beat a march that closely resembled a march of Bavaria. At the order of “Halt!” given by the child, the rapper stopped. Then the child ordered: “Strike three, six, nine times,” and the rapper carried out the order. At a new order to strike 19 blows, 20 raps were heard; completely asleep, the child said: “That is not right, it is 20 blows,” and soon 19 blows were counted. Next, the boy ordered 30 blows: 30 raps were heard. “100 blows.” One could only count up to 40, so rapidly did the raps succeed one another. At the last blow, the boy said: “Very well; now 110.” Here one could only count about 50 raps. When the last blow sounded, the sleeper said: “That is not it, there were only 106,” and soon four more raps were heard to complete the number 110. Then he asked: “A thousand!”; only 15 blows were given. “Come now, say it!” There were 5 more raps and the rapper stopped. Then the bystanders had the idea of ordering the rapper directly, and it carried out the orders given to it. It fell silent at the order of “Halt! Silence! Peace!”. Then, of itself and without command, it resumed striking. In a corner of the room, in a low voice, one of the bystanders said that he wished to order, by thought alone, 6 raps. The experimenter stationed himself before the bed and did not say even a single word: the 6 raps were heard. Again by thought 4 blows were commanded and the 4 blows were struck. The same experiment was attempted by other persons, not always with success. Soon the child stretched his limbs, threw off the blanket, and rose. When he was asked what had happened, he answered that he had seen a large and ill-favored man, who kept himself before his bed pressing his knees. He added that he felt pain in his knees when the man struck. The child slept again and the same manifestations reproduced themselves until the clock in the room struck eleven. Suddenly the rapper stopped, the boy entered a tranquil sleep, which was recognized by the regularity of his breathing, and nothing more was heard that night. We observe that the rapper obeyed the command to beat military marches. Several persons affirmed that when a Russian, Austrian, or French march was asked of it, it was beaten with great exactness.

On the 25th of February, being asleep, the boy said: “You do not want to rap any more now, you want to scratch; well then! I want to see how you will do it.” Indeed, on the following day, the 26th, in place of the raps, a scratching was heard that seemed to come from the bed and that has manifested itself up to this day. The blows mingled with the scratching, sometimes alternately, sometimes simultaneously, in such a way that in march or dance tunes the scratching marked the first part and the blows the second. According to the request, the hour of the day and the age of the persons present were indicated by scratching or by sharp blows.

With regard to the age of the persons, there were sometimes errors, soon corrected on the 2nd or 3rd attempts, when it was said that the number of raps was not exact. Often, instead of giving the age requested, the rapper performed a march.

The child’s language, during sleep, became each day more perfect. What at first was nothing but simple words or very brief orders to the rapper, in time turned into an orderly conversation with his parents. Thus, one day he conversed with his eldest sister on religious matters and, in a tone of exhortation and instruction, told her that she ought to go to Mass, pray every day, and show submission and obedience to their parents. In the evening, he took up the same subject of conversation again; in his teachings there was nothing theological, but only some notions that one learns at school.

Before these discourses, for at least an hour blows and scratchings were heard, not only during the boy’s sleep, but even in the waking state. We saw him drink and eat while the raps and scratchings manifested themselves, and we also saw him, awake, give orders to the rapper, which were all carried out.

On the night of Saturday, the 6th of March, the boy having predicted to his father, during the day and completely awake, that the rapper would appear at nine o’clock, several persons gathered at the Sangers’ house. At nine o’clock exactly, four blows were struck on the wall with such violence that the bystanders were startled. Soon, and for the first time, the blows were given on the wood of the bed and on the outside; the bed shook all over. These blows manifested themselves on all sides of the bed, now in one place, now in another. The raps and the scratchings alternated on the bed. At an order from the boy and from the persons present, sometimes the blows were heard inside the bed, sometimes outside. Suddenly, the bed rose in different directions, while the blows were struck forcefully. More than five persons tried, without success, to make it return to the floor; having been let go, it swayed yet for a few moments, then resumed its natural position. This fact had already occurred once, before that public manifestation. Every night, too, the child made a kind of discourse. We shall speak of it very briefly.

First of all it must be noted that the boy, as soon as he lowered his head, soon fell asleep, and the raps and scratchings began. With the blows, he moaned, moved his legs, and seemed to feel unwell. The same did not occur with the scratchings. When the moment came to speak, he lay on his back and his face became pale, as did his hands and arms. With his right hand he made a sign, saying: “Come! come near my bed and join your hands: I am going to speak to you of the Savior of the world.” Then the blows and scratchings ceased, and all the bystanders listened with respectful attention to the discourse of the sleeper.

The child spoke slowly and in a very intelligible manner in pure German, which was quite surprising, all the more so as it was known that he was less advanced than his schoolmates, above all by reason of an ailment of the eyes that prevented him from studying. His discourses dealt with the life and actions of Jesus, from the age of twelve, of his presence in the temple with the scribes, of his benefits to Humanity and of his miracles; next, he dwelt upon the account of his sufferings, severely reproaching the Jews for having crucified him, in spite of his numerous acts of goodness and of his blessings. Concluding, the boy addressed to God a fervent prayer, beseeching that He “grant him the grace to bear, with resignation, the sufferings He had sent him, since He had chosen him to enter into communication with the Spirit.” He asked God not to let him die yet, for he was but a child and did not wish to go down into the dark tomb. His discourses ended, he recited in a solemn voice the Pater noster, after which he said: “Now you may come”; immediately the raps and scratchings began again. He spoke twice more to the Spirit and, on each of those occasions, the rapping Spirit stopped. He said a few more words and ended thus: “Now you may go away, in the name of God.” And he awoke.

During these conversations the boy’s eyes stayed tightly shut; the lips, however, moved; the persons nearest the bed could observe their movements. The voice was pure and harmonious.

Upon awakening, he was asked what he had seen and what had taken place. He answered: “The man who comes to see me.” “Where is he?” – “Near my bed, with the other persons.” “Did you see the other persons?” – “I saw all who were near my bed.”

It is easily understood that such manifestations met with many incredulous persons and that it was even supposed that this whole story was nothing but a mystification; but the father was incapable of charlatanry, especially of a charlatanism that would have required all the skill of a professional conjurer. He enjoyed the reputation of an upright and honest man.

To answer these suspicions and make them cease, the boy was taken to a strange house. He had hardly arrived there when the raps and scratchings made themselves heard. Moreover, a few days earlier he had gone with his mother to a small hamlet called Capelle, about half a league away, to the house of the widow Klein; he said he was tired; they laid him on a couch and soon the same phenomenon occurred. Several witnesses can confirm the fact. Although the child showed himself to be in good health, he must, in spite of that, be affected by an illness which, if it were not proved by the manifestations related above, would at least be proved by the involuntary movements of the muscles and by the nervous starts.

To conclude, we point out that a few weeks ago the child was conducted to the house of Dr. Beutner, where he was to remain, in order that the learned man might study more closely the phenomena in question. Since then all the noise has ceased in the Sangers’ house, coming, however, to occur in the house of Dr. Beutner.

Such are, in all their authenticity, the facts that took place. We deliver them to the public without passing any value judgment. Would that the more knowledgeable might give them a satisfactory explanation.

Blanck.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RAPPING SPIRIT OF BERGZABERN.

The explanation requested by the narrator we have just cited is easy; there exists only one, and the Spiritist Doctrine alone is capable of furnishing it. These phenomena have nothing extraordinary about them for whoever is familiar with those to which the Spirits have accustomed us. It is known what role certain persons attribute to the imagination. Doubtless, if the child had only had visions, the partisans of hallucination would have felt themselves to be entirely in the right. But here there were material effects of an unequivocal nature and which had a great number of witnesses; it would be necessary to imagine that all of them were hallucinated to the point of thinking they heard what in fact they did not hear and of seeing the furniture changing place; now, in that there would be a phenomenon still more extraordinary. For the incredulous there remains but one recourse: to deny; it is easier and dispenses with reasoning. Examining things from the Spiritist point of view, it becomes evident that the Spirit that manifested itself was inferior to that of the child, since it obeyed him; it was even subordinate to the bystanders, for they too gave it orders. If we did not know from the Doctrine that the so-called rapping Spirits are low on the scale, what took place would be a proof of it. Indeed, one would not conceive that an elevated Spirit, such as our learned men and philosophers, would come to amuse itself by beating marches and waltzes; in a word, playing the role of a mountebank, nor submitting itself to the caprices of human beings. It shows itself under the traits of an ill-favored man, a circumstance that can only corroborate this opinion; in general the moral character is reflected in the envelope. For us it is therefore demonstrated that the rapper of Bergzabern is an inferior Spirit, of the class of frivolous Spirits, who manifested itself as so many others have done and still do every day. Now, with what purpose did it come? The notice does not say that it was called; today, when one has more experience of these things, one would not let so strange a visitor come without inquiring what it wants. Therefore, we can only make a conjecture. It is true that it did nothing that revealed malice or ill intent; the boy experienced no disturbance, neither physical nor moral; only men could have disturbed his moral character, by wounding his imagination with ridiculous tales, and it is very good that they did not do so. However inferior that Spirit was, it was neither evil nor malevolent; it was simply one of those Spirits, so numerous, who, without cease and without our knowing it, surround us. On this occasion it may have acted out of mere caprice, just as it could also do so at the instigation of elevated Spirits, with a view to awakening the attention of men and convincing them of the reality of a superior power that is found outside the corporeal world. As for the boy, it is certain that he was one of those mediums of physical effects, endowed, in spite of themselves, with that faculty, and who are to the other mediums as natural somnambulists are to magnetic somnambulists. That faculty, directed by a man experienced in this new science, could have produced still more extraordinary things, capable of casting new light on these phenomena, which are marvelous only to those who do not understand them.

[Review of June 1858.]

THE RAPPING SPIRIT OF BERGZABERN.

II.

We extract the following passages from a new German pamphlet, published in 1853, by Mr. Blanck, editor of the journal of Bergzabern, on the rapping Spirit of which we spoke in our number of the month of May. The extraordinary phenomena related there, whose authenticity could not be put in doubt, prove that, in this respect, we have nothing to envy America. One will note, in this account, the meticulous care with which the facts were observed. It would be desirable that in similar cases the same attention and the same prudence be devoted. It is known today that phenomena of this kind do not result from a pathological state, but always denote, among those in whom they manifest themselves, an excessive sensitivity, easy to be overexcited. The pathological state is not the efficient cause, but can be consequent upon it. The mania for experimentation, in analogous cases, has more than once caused grave accidents that would not have occurred if Nature had been allowed to act of itself. In our Practical Instruction on the manifestations are found the counsels necessary to that end. Let us follow Mr. Blanck in his account: “The readers of our pamphlet, entitled The Rapping Spirits, have seen that the manifestations of Philippine Senger have an enigmatic and extraordinary character. We related those marvelous facts from their beginning up to the moment when the child was conducted to the royal physician of the canton. We shall now examine what took place from that day on.

When the child left the house of Dr. Bentner to return to the paternal home, the raps and scratchings began again in the house of father Senger; up to that moment, and even after the complete cure of the young girl, the manifestations were more striking and changed in nature. n In this month of November the Spirit began to whistle; next a noise was heard comparable to that of a wheelbarrow wheel turning on its dry and rusty axle; but the most extraordinary thing of all, incontestably, was the disorder of the furniture in Philippine’s room, n a disorder that lasted a fortnight. A slight description of the place seems to me essential. The room is approximately 18 feet in length by 8 in width; one reaches it through the common room. The door connecting these two rooms opens to the right. The child’s bed was placed to the right; in the middle there was a cabinet and, in the left corner, Senger’s worktable, in which two circular cavities had been made, covered by lids. On the night when the tumult began, Mrs. Senger and Francisque, her eldest daughter, were seated in the first room, near a table, occupied in shelling beans; suddenly a small wheel, hurled from the bedroom, fell near them. They were all the more frightened as they knew that no one, other than Philippine, then plunged in deep sleep, was in the room. Moreover, the little wheel had been hurled from the left side, although it was on the shelf of a small piece of furniture, placed to the right. Had it set off from the bed, it should have reached the door and stopped there; it became evident, therefore, that the child had nothing to do with the matter. While the Senger family was expressing its surprise at the occurrence, something fell from the table to the floor: it was a piece of cloth that, before, had been steeped in a basin full of water. Beside the little wheel there also lay a pipe bowl, the other half having stayed on the table. What made the thing still more incomprehensible was that the door of the cabinet where the small wheel was, before being thrown, was closed, the water in the basin was not stirred, and not a drop had been spilled on the table. Suddenly the child, always asleep, cried from the bed: Father, go away, it is throwing! Get out! They will throw at you too. They obeyed that order, and as soon as they had gone to the first room the pipe bowl was thrown with great force, without, however, breaking. A ruler, which Philippine used at school, followed the same path. The father, the mother, and their eldest daughter looked at one another in terror and, as they were reflecting on the course to take, a large plane of Mr. Senger’s and a large log of wood were hurled from his carpenter’s bench into the other room. On the worktable, the lids were in place and, in spite of that, the objects they covered had also been thrown far. On the same night the pillows of the bed were hurled onto the cabinet and the blanket thrown against the door. On another day they had placed at the girl’s feet, under the blanket, a flatiron weighing about six pounds; it was soon thrown into the other room; the handle had been removed and was found on a chair in the bedroom.

We were witnesses that chairs placed about three feet from the bed were knocked over and the windows opened, although they had been closed before, and this as soon as we had turned our backs to enter the neighboring room. Another time, two chairs were carried onto the bed, without disarranging the covers. On the 7th of October the window had been firmly closed and a white sheet stretched in front of it. As soon as we left the room, redoubled and so violent blows were given that the persons passing by on the street fled in terror. They ran to the room: the window was open, the sheet thrown over the small cabinet beside it, the cover of the bed and the pillows on the floor, the chairs with their legs in the air, and the child in her bed, protected only by her nightgown. For fourteen days Mrs. Senger occupied herself only with making the bed. Once they had left a harmonica on a chair: sounds were heard; rushing into the room, they found the child, as always, tranquilly lying in her bed; the instrument was on the chair, but no longer playing. One night Mr. Senger was leaving his daughter’s room when he received, on his back, the cushion of a seat. Another time, it was a pair of old slippers, shoes that were under the bed, or clogs that came at him. Many times also they blew out the lighted candle, placed on the worktable. The raps and scratchings alternated with this demonstration of the furniture. The bed seemed to move by an invisible hand. At the order of: “Rock the bed,” or “Lull the child,” the bed went and came, in one direction and the other, with noise; at the order of “Halt!” it stopped. We, who witnessed the fact, can affirm that four men who sat on the bed were lifted up as well, without being able to halt its movement; they were raised with the piece of furniture. At the end of fourteen days the disorder of the furniture ceased and other manifestations succeeded these. On the night of the 26th of October, there were in the room, among other persons, Mr. Louis Soëhnee, licentiate in Law, and Captain Simon, both of Wissembourg, as well as Mr. Sievert, of Bergzabern. At that moment Philippine Senger was plunged in magnetic sleep. n Mr. Sievert presented her with a paper containing hairs to see what she would do with them. She opened the paper without, however, putting the hairs in view, applied them to her closed eyelids and then drew them away, as if she wished to examine them at a distance, saying: “I should much like to know what this paper contains… They are the hairs of a lady whom I do not know… If she wishes to come, let her come… I cannot invite her, since I do not know her.” To the questions Mr. Sievert addressed to her, she did not answer; but, having placed the paper in the palm of her hand, which she extended and turned over, the paper remained suspended. Next she placed it on the tip of her index finger and with her hand, for a good while, described a semicircle, saying: “Do not fall,” and the paper kept itself on the tip of the finger; then, at the order of “Now fall,” it detached itself without her having made the slightest movement to cause its fall. Suddenly, turning toward the wall, she said: “Now I want to pin you to the wall”; and she applied the paper to the wall, where it stayed fixed for about 5 to 6 minutes, after which she removed it. A meticulous examination of the paper and of the wall revealed no cause of adhesion. We believe it a duty to inform that the room was perfectly lighted, which enabled us to examine these particularities completely. On the following night they gave her other objects: keys, coins, cigarette cases, rings of gold and of silver; all, without exception, remained suspended from her hand. They noted that silver adhered to her more easily than the other substances, for they had difficulty in removing the coins from her and that operation caused her pain. One of the most curious facts of this kind was the following: Saturday, the 11th of November, the officer who was present gave her his saber with the shoulder belt, weighing in all 4 pounds, according to verification made; the whole remained suspended from the medium’s finger, swaying for a good while. What is no less singular is that all the objects, whatever the material of which they were made, also remained suspended. This magnetic property was communicated by the simple contact of the hands to persons susceptible to the transmission of the fluid; of this we had several examples. A captain, Mr. Chevalier de Zentner, then serving in the garrison of Bergzabern, a witness of these phenomena, had the idea of placing a compass near the girl, to observe its variations. On the first attempt, the needle deviated 15 degrees, remaining immobile in the following ones, although the child held it in one of her hands and caressed it with the other. This experiment proved that these phenomena could not be explained by the action of the mineral fluid, all the more so because magnetic attraction is not exerted indifferently upon all bodies.

Usually, when the little somnambulist prepared to begin her sessions, she called into the room all the persons who were there. She simply said: “Come! Come!”, or else “Give, give.” Many times she was only set at ease when all the persons, without exception, were near her bed. Then she asked, with diligence and impatience, for some object; as soon as it was given to her, it attached itself to her fingers. It frequently happened that ten, twelve, or more persons were present and each one presented her with several objects. During the session she did not allow any of them to be taken from her; she seemed above all to prefer watches; she opened them with great skill, examined the movement, closed them, and then placed them beside herself to attend to something else. At the end, she returned to each one what they had entrusted to her; she examined the objects with her eyes closed and never mistook the owner. If anyone stretched out a hand to take what did not belong to him, she repelled him. How is one to explain this multiple distribution, and without error, to so great a number of persons? In vain they tried to do the same with their eyes open. The session ended and the strangers withdrawn, the raps and scratchings, momentarily interrupted, began again. It must be added that the child did not want anyone to stay at the foot of her bed, near the cabinet, which left a space of approximately one foot between the two pieces of furniture. If anyone interposed himself there, with a gesture she sent them away. And if they refused, she demonstrated great disquiet, ordering, with imperious gestures, that they leave the place. Once she exhorted the bystanders never to occupy the forbidden spot, because she did not want any trouble to befall anyone. So positive was this warning that no one forgot it thereafter. Some time afterward, to the raps and scratchings was joined a humming comparable to the sound produced by a thick cello string. A kind of whistling mingled with that humming. If anyone asked for a march or a dance, his desire was satisfied: the invisible musician showed himself very obliging. With the aid of the scratchings, it called by name the persons of the house or the strangers present; these understood to whom the calls were directed. At this call, the person designated answered yes, to give it to be understood that she knew it concerned her; then there was performed, in her honor, a piece of music, which sometimes gave rise to amusing scenes. If someone who was not called answered yes, the scratching made itself understood by a no, expressed in its own way, indicating that it had nothing to say to him at that moment. Such facts occurred for the first time on the night of the 10th of November and continue to manifest themselves up to this day. Here now is how the rapping Spirit proceeded to designate persons. For several nights, it had been noticed that, to the various invitations to do this or that thing, it answered by a sharp blow or by a prolonged scratching. As soon as the sharp blow was given, the rapper began to carry out what was wished of it; on the contrary, when it scratched, it did not satisfy the request. A physician then had the idea of taking the first noise for yes, and the second for no, this interpretation being thenceforth confirmed. It was also noticed that, by a series of more or less strong scratchings, the Spirit demanded certain objects from the persons present. By dint of attention, and noting the manner in which the noise was produced, one could understand the rapper’s intention. Thus, for example, Mr. Senger related that one morning, at break of day, he had heard noises modulated in a certain manner; without attaching to it any meaning, he perceived that they did not cease except when he was out of bed, thence understanding that they meant: “Arise.” It was thus that, little by little, he became familiar with this language and, by certain signs, could recognize the persons designated. The anniversary arrived of the day on which the rapping Spirit had manifested itself for the first time; numerous changes had operated in the state of Philippine Senger. The raps, the scratchings, and the hummings continued, but, to all these manifestations was joined a particular cry, which sometimes resembled that of a goose, sometimes that of a parrot or of some other large bird; at the same time, a sort of pecking was heard on the wall, similar to the noise of a bird’s peckings. At that time, Philippine Senger spoke much during sleep, seeming above all preoccupied with a certain animal, similar to a parrot, posted at the foot of the bed, crying and giving peckings on the wall. When the parrot was wished to be heard to cry, it emitted piercing cries. Various questions were put, to which it answered by cries of the same kind; several persons ordered it to say Kakatoès, and the word Kakatoès was distinctly heard, as if it had been pronounced by the bird itself. We shall be silent about the less interesting facts, limiting ourselves to relating what there was of most notable concerning the modifications that came over the girl’s physical state. Some time before Christmas the manifestations renewed themselves with more energy; the blows and the scratchings became more violent and lasted longer. More agitated than usual, Philippine often asked not to sleep in her bed but in that of her parents; she rolled in the bed, crying out: “I can no longer stay here; I am going to suffocate; they are going to shut me up in the wall; help!” And her calm only returned when they carried her to the other bed. She had hardly settled into it when very strong blows were heard above; they seemed to set off from the attic, as if a carpenter were hammering on the beams; sometimes they were so vigorous that the whole house was shaken, the windows vibrated, and the persons present felt the floor tremble beneath their feet; similar blows were given likewise against the wall, near the bed. To the questions put, the same raps answered as ordinarily, always alternating with the scratchings. No less curious, the facts that follow reproduced themselves many times: When all noise had ceased and the girl rested tranquilly in her little bed, she was many times seen to prostrate herself and join her hands, keeping her eyes closed; then she turned her head to all sides, now to the right, now to the left, as if something extraordinary attracted her attention. An amiable smile then ran over her lips; one would say she was addressing someone; she extended her hands and, by that gesture, it was understood that she was pressing the hands of some friends or acquaintances. She was also seen, after such scenes, to resume her first suppliant attitude, joining her hands anew and bowing her head until it touched the blanket, after which she straightened herself and shed tears. Then she sighed and seemed to pray with great fervor. In these moments her countenance was transformed: it became pale and acquired the expression of a woman of 24 to 25 years. Many times this state lasted more than half an hour, during which she only exclaimed ah! ah! The raps, the scratchings, the humming, and the cries ceased until the moment of awakening. Then the rapper again made itself heard, seeking to perform merry tunes, so as to dissipate the painful impression left on those present. Upon awakening, the child was very prostrate; she could scarcely raise her arms, and the objects presented to her no longer remained suspended on her fingers. Curious to know what she had experienced, they questioned her several times. Only after reiterated entreaties did she decide to recount that she had seen Christ led and crucified on Golgotha; that the grief of the holy women prostrate at the foot of the cross and the crucifixion had produced upon her an impression impossible to describe. She had also seen a number of women and virgins dressed in black, and young persons in long white garments, passing in procession through the streets of a beautiful city; finally, she had been led to a vast church, where she attended a funeral service.

In a short time the state of Philippine Senger altered in such a way as to cause disquiet regarding her health, because, being awake, she wandered and dreamed aloud; she did not recognize her parents, nor her sister, nor any other person, this state coming to aggravate itself still more by a complete deafness that persisted for a fortnight. We cannot be silent about what took place in that lapse of time.

Philippine’s deafness manifested itself from noon until three o’clock, she herself declaring that she would be deaf for a certain time and that she would fall ill. What is singular is that, at times, she recovered her hearing for about half an hour, at which she showed herself happy. She herself foretold the moment when the deafness would manifest itself and disappear. Once, among others, she announced that in the evening, at half past eight, she would hear clearly for half an hour; indeed, at the predicted hour she came to hear again, and this lasted until nine o’clock.

During the deafness her features were modified; her face acquired an expression of stupidity, which she lost as soon as she returned to the normal state. Nothing, then, made an impression upon her; she sat, looking at the persons present fixedly and without recognizing them. No one could make himself understood except by signs, to which she generally did not respond, limiting herself to fixing her eyes upon those who addressed words to her. Once she suddenly seized one of the persons present by the arm and said to him, pushing him: Who are you, then? In this situation she sometimes remained for more than an hour and a half immobilized on the bed. Her eyes kept themselves half-open and fixed on some point; from time to time they turned to the right and to the left, then returned to the same place. All sensibility seemed then dulled: the pulse scarcely beat and, when a lamp was placed before her eyes, she made no movement: one would say she was dead. During the deafness, one night when she was lying down, she happened to ask for a slate and a piece of chalk, then writing: “At eleven o’clock I will say something, but I require that you remain quiet and silent.” After these words she added five signs similar to Latin writing, but which none of the bystanders could decipher. It was written on the slate that no one understood those signs. In answer to that observation, she wrote: “It is not that you cannot read them!” And lower down: “It is not German, it is a foreign language.” Then, turning the slate over, she wrote on the other side: “Francisque (her eldest sister) will sit at the table and write what I dictate.” She accompanied these words with five signs similar to the first and handed over the slate. Noticing that such signs were still not understood, she asked for the slate back and added: “These are particular orders.” A little before eleven o’clock, she said: “Keep quiet; let all be seated and pay attention!” and, as eleven o’clock struck, she turned over in her bed and entered the habitual magnetic sleep. A few moments later she set about speaking, without interruption, for about half an hour. Among other things she declared that during the current year facts would occur that no one would understand, and that all the attempts made to explain them would be fruitless.

During the deafness of the young Senger girl the disorder of the furniture, the unexplained opening of the windows, and the extinguishing of the lights placed on the worktable repeated themselves several times. One night it happened that two caps, which were hung on a peg in the bedroom, were thrown onto the table of the other room, knocking over a cup full of milk that spread over the floor. The blows against the bed were so violent that they displaced it from its place; sometimes it was even noisily taken apart, without the raps being heard.

As there were still incredulous persons, or persons who attributed these singularities to a trick of the child, who, according to them, rapped or scratched with her feet or her hands, even though the facts had been verified by more than a hundred witnesses, and even though it had been ascertained that the young girl had her arms stretched out over the cover while the noises were produced, Captain Zentner devised a means of convincing them. He had brought from the barracks two very thick blankets, which were placed one on top of the other and both wrapped the mattress and the sheets of the bed; they were fleecy, in such a way that on them it would be impossible to produce the slightest noise by simple friction. Wearing a simple shirt and a sleeping gown, Philippine was placed on the blankets; hardly settled, the scratchings and blows occurred as before, now on the wood of the bed, now on the neighboring cabinet, according to the desire that was expressed. It happened many times that when someone hummed or whistled some tune the rapper accompanied it and the sounds perceived seemed to come from two, three, or four instruments: at the same time one heard scratching, rapping, whistling, and resounding, according to the rhythm of the tune sung. Many times also the rapper asked one of the bystanders to sing a song; it designated him by the process we already know and, when the person understood that it was to himself that the Spirit was addressing itself, he asked, in his turn, whether he should sing this or that tune; he was answered by yes or no. On singing the indicated tune, an accompaniment of hummings and whistlings made itself heard perfectly in time. After a merry piece of music, the Spirit frequently asked for the hymn: Great God, we praise Thee, or the song of Napoleon I. If it was asked to play this last song alone, or any other, it performed it from beginning to end. Things went thus in the Sengers’ house, whether by day or by night, during the sleep or in the waking state of the girl, until the 4th of March 1853, the time when the manifestations entered a new phase. That day was marked by a fact still more extraordinary than the preceding ones.

(Continued in the next number.)

Observation. – We hope that our readers will not reproach us for the length we have given to these curious details, and that they will read their continuation with no less interest. We shall make it noted that these facts do not come to us from across the sea, whose distance is a great argument, at least for certain skeptics; nor even do they come from across the Rhine, inasmuch as they took place within our frontiers, almost under our eyes and only six years ago.

As is seen, Philippine Senger was a very complex natural medium; besides the influence she exerted over the well-known phenomena of noises and movements, she was an ecstatic somnambulist. She conversed with incorporeal beings whom she saw; at the same time she saw those present and addressed words to them, although she did not always answer them, which proves that at certain moments she found herself isolated. For those who know the effects of the emancipation of the soul, the visions we relate have nothing that cannot be easily explained; in these moments of ecstasy it is probable that the Spirit of the child found itself transported to some distant country, where it attended, perhaps in recollection, a religious ceremony. One may wonder at the remembrance she retained upon awakening, but this fact is not unusual; for the rest, one may note that the remembrance was confused, it being necessary to insist much to provoke it. If we observe attentively what took place during the deafness, we shall recognize without difficulty a cataleptic state. Since that deafness was only temporary, it is evident that it did not provoke alterations in the organs of hearing. The same we can say of the momentary obliteration of the mental faculties, which had nothing pathological about it, seeing that, at a given instant, everything returned to the normal state. That kind of apparent stupidity resulted from a more complete detachment of the soul, whose excursions were made with greater liberty, leaving to the senses only organic life. Let one judge, then, the disastrous effect that would have resulted from a therapeutic intervention in such a circumstance! Phenomena of the same kind can occur at any moment; we could not, in that case, recommend greater circumspection; an imprudence can compromise health and even life. [Review of July 1858.]

THE RAPPING SPIRIT OF BERGZABERN.

III.

(THIRD ARTICLE.)

We continue to cite the pamphlet of Mr. Blanck, editor of the Journal of Bergzabern. n “The facts we are going to relate occurred from Friday, the 4th, to Wednesday, the 9th of March 1853; afterward, nothing similar occurred. At that time Philippine no longer slept in the room we know: her bed had been transferred to the neighboring room, where it still is at present. The manifestations took on so strange a character that it is impossible to admit their explanation by the intervention of men. Moreover, they are so different from those that had been observed previously, that all the initial opinions fell to the ground.

It is known that in the room where the young girl slept, the chairs and the other pieces of furniture were many times knocked over, the windows opened with a crash, under repeated blows. For five weeks she has remained in the common room, where, from the beginning of the night until the following morning, there is always a light; one can, then, see perfectly what takes place there. Here is the fact observed on Friday, the 4th of March:

Philippine was not yet lying down; she was in the midst of some persons who were conversing with the rapping Spirit when, suddenly, the drawer of a very large and heavy table, which was in the room, was pulled and pushed with great noise and with extraordinary impetuosity. The bystanders were strongly surprised by this new manifestation; at the same instant, the table itself began to move in all directions, advancing toward the fireplace, near which Philippine was seated. Pursued, so to speak, by the piece of furniture, she found herself obliged to leave her place and run to the middle of the room; but the table turned in that direction and stopped half a foot from the wall. They placed it in its usual place, from which it no longer moved; meanwhile, the boots that were beneath it, and which everyone could see, were thrown into the middle of the room, to the great terror of the persons present. One of the drawers began again to slide in its grooves, opening and closing twice, at first very briskly and, then, in an ever slower manner; when it was completely open, it happened to be shaken with a crash. Left on the table, a packet of tobacco changed place at every instant. The raps and scratchings were heard on the table. Philippine, who then enjoyed excellent health, was in the midst of the assembled persons and in no way seemed disquieted by all these strange things, which repeated themselves every night, since Friday; on Sunday, however, they were still more notable. Several times the drawer was pulled and pushed with violence. After having been in her former sleeping room, Philippine returned suddenly, was seized with magnetic sleep, and let herself fall into a chair, where several times the scratchings were heard. Her hands rested on her knees and the chair moved now to the right, now to the left, or forward and backward. The front legs of the chair were seen to rise, while the chair swayed in an impressive balance on its rear legs. Having been carried to the middle of the room, it became easier to observe this new phenomenon. Then, at a word of command, the chair turned, advanced, or drew back more or less quickly, now in one direction, now in another. During that singular dance the child’s feet dragged on the floor, as if they were paralyzed; through moans and bringing her hand to her brow several times, she gave it to be understood that she had a headache. Then, awakening suddenly, she set about looking to all sides, without understanding the situation: her malaise had left her. She lay down; then the raps and scratchings, before produced on the table, made themselves heard on the bed, with force and in an amusing manner. A little before, a small bell having produced spontaneous sounds, they had the idea of fastening it to the bed: it soon set about ringing and swaying. What there was of most curious in this circumstance was the fact that the bell remained immobilized and silent when the bed was raised and displaced. Toward midnight all the noise ceased and those present dispersed.

On Monday night, the 15th of May, they fastened a large bell to the bed; immediately a disagreeable and deafening noise made itself heard. On the same day, at noon, the windows and the door of the bedroom were opened, but in a silent manner.

We must say, too, that the chair in which Philippine sat, on the Friday and on the Saturday, carried by Mr. Senger to the middle of the room, seemed to him much lighter than usual: one would say that an invisible force sustained it. Wishing to push it, one of the bystanders met with not the slightest resistance: the chair seemed to slide of itself on the floor.

The rapping Spirit kept silent during three days: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week. Only on Easter Sunday did the blows begin again, imitating the sound of bells; they were rhythmic and composed a tune. On the 1st of April, changing garrison and drawn on by a band of music, the troops left the town. As they passed before the Sengers’ house, the rapping Spirit performed, on the bed, in its own manner, the same piece that was being played in the street. Some time before, they had heard in the room as it were the steps of someone, and as if sand had been thrown on the floor.

Preoccupied with the facts we have just related, the government of the Palatinate proposed to Mr. Senger to commit his daughter to a house of health, in Frankenthal, a proposal accepted. We know that in her new residence the presence of Philippine gave rise to the same prodigies as in Bergzabern, and that the physicians of that town, as much as ours, could not determine their cause. Moreover, we are informed that only the physicians have access to the young girl. Why did they take this measure? We are ignorant of it, and we do not allow ourselves to censure it; however, if what gave cause for it was not the result of some particular circumstance, we think they ought to let in, near the interesting child, if not everyone, at least the recommendable persons.” Observation. – We only came to knowledge of the different facts here set forth through the report that Mr. Blanck published of them; meanwhile, a circumstance has just put us in contact with one of the persons who most distinguished themselves in this case and who, in this regard, was so good as to furnish us with circumstantial documents of the highest interest. Through evocation, we likewise obtained quite curious and very instructive explanations of this rapping Spirit, given by itself. As these documents reached us very late, we shall defer their publication to the next number.

[1] We shall have occasion to speak of this child’s indisposition; since, however, after his cure the same effects reproduced themselves, this is an evident proof that they were independent of his state of health.

[2] Translator’s note: It is noted that there is a discrepancy on the part of the reporter of the pamphlet regarding the sex of the child responsible for the phenomena, here presented as a girl, instead of the boy described in the fascicle of the preceding month. The same we can say of the proper names, sometimes spelled Sanqer or Senqer, sometimes Beutner or Bentner.

[3]

A somnambulist from Paris had entered into relation with the young Philippine and, from then on, the latter fell spontaneously into somnambulism. On that occasion notable facts took place, which we shall relate another time. (Note of the French translator.)

[4] We owe to the courtesy of one of our friends, Mr. Alfred Pireaux, employee of the Post Office administration, the translation of this interesting pamphlet.