Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer, celebrated traveler.

— The following account is taken from the Second Voyage Around the World, by Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer, page 345. “Considering that I am speaking of very strange things, I must make mention of an enigmatic occurrence that took place several years ago in Java and that caused so much sensation that it even came to attract the attention of the government. “In the residency of Cheribon there was a little house in which, as the people said, Spirits appeared. At nightfall, stones rained down from all sides into the room, and from all sides siri was spat. n Both the stones and the spittings fell very close to the persons who were in the room, without, however, striking or wounding them. It seems that everything was directed chiefly against a child. So much was said of this inexplicable case that the Dutch government finally charged a superior officer, in whom it had confidence, to examine it. He posted around the house trustworthy and faithful men, with the order not to allow the entry or exit of anyone whatsoever. He examined everything scrupulously and, taking onto his lap the designated child, sat down in the fatal room. At nightfall, as usual, the rain of stones and of siri began: everything fell near the officer and the child, without striking them. They examined each corner, each hole, again, but discovered nothing. The officer understood not a whit. He had the stones gathered, marked, and hidden in a place far away. It was all in vain: the same stones fell again into the room, at the same hour. Finally, to put an end to this inconceivable story, the governor had the house demolished.” The person who collected this fact, in 1853, was a truly superior woman, not so much for her learning and talent as for the incredible energy of her character. Apart from that ardent curiosity and that indomitable courage, which made of her the most extraordinary traveler that ever existed, Mrs. Pfeiffer had nothing eccentric about her. She was a woman of a gentle and enlightened piety, having given countless proofs of being far from superstitious. She undertook to relate only that which she herself had seen, or had obtained from a reliable source. (See the Review of Paris, of September 1, 1856, and the Dictionary of Contemporaries, by Vapereau). (Revue de Paris — Google Books. – Dictionnaire universel des contemporains — Google Books.)

[Evocation of Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer.]

Evocation of Mrs. Pfeiffer.

Answer. – Here I am.

Are you surprised at our appeal and at finding yourself among us?

Answer. – I am surprised at the rapidity of my journey.

How were you forewarned that we wished to speak with you?

Answer. – I was brought here without suspecting anything.

Yet you must have received some warning.

Answer. – An irresistible drawing.

Where were you when we called you?

Answer. – Beside a Spirit whom I have the mission to guide.

Were you conscious of the places you passed through to come here, or did you find yourself here suddenly, without transition? Answer. – Suddenly.

Are you happy as a Spirit?

Answer. – Yes. To be happier than this is impossible.

Whence came that pronounced taste for travel?

Answer. – I had been a sailor in a preceding life, and the taste I acquired for travel in that existence was reflected in this one, despite the sex I had chosen in order to free myself from it.

Did those travels contribute to your progress as a Spirit?

Answer. – Yes, because I made them with a spirit of observation, which was lacking to me in the preceding existence, where I occupied myself only with commerce and material things: it is for this reason that I imagined I would advance more in a sedentary life. But God, so good and so wise in His designs, which we cannot penetrate, permitted me to use my inclinations in favor of the progress I had requested.

Of the nations you visited, which one seemed to you the most advanced and earned your preference? Did you not say during your life that you would place certain tribes of Oceania above the civilized nations? Answer. – That was a mistaken idea. Today I prefer France, for I understand its mission and foresee its destiny.

What destiny do you foresee for France?

Answer. – I cannot tell you its destiny; but its mission is to spread progress, enlightenment, and, consequently, true Spiritism.

In what did the savages of Oceania seem to you more advanced than the Americans?

Answer. – Apart from the vices bound up with savage life, in them I had found serious and solid qualities that I did not find in the others.

Do you confirm the fact that is said to have occurred in Java and that is related in one of your works? Answer. – I confirm it in part; the case of the marked stones that were thrown again deserves explanation: they were similar stones, but not the same ones.

To what do you attribute that phenomenon?

Answer. – I did not know to what to attribute it. I asked myself whether, in fact, the devil existed, answering myself: No; and I left it at that.

Now that you are able to understand the cause, could you tell where those stones came from? Were they transported or fabricated especially by the Spirits? Answer. – They were transported. For them it was easier to bring them than to agglomerate them.

And whence came that siri? Was it made by them?

Answer. – Yes; it was easier and, moreover, inevitable, since it would have been impossible for them to find it already prepared.

What was the aim of those manifestations?

Answer. – As always, to attract attention and to cause the verification of a fact of which people were to speak and seek the explanation. Observation. – Someone remarks that such verification could not lead to any serious result among those peoples; but it is answered that there is a real result: through the account and the testimony of Mrs. Pfeiffer, it came to the knowledge of the civilized peoples, who comment on it and draw consequences from it. Moreover, it was the Dutch who were called to verify them.

There must have been a special motive, above all with regard to the child tormented by those Spirits? Answer. – The child possessed a favorable influence, that is all, for personally it suffered no touch.

Since these phenomena were produced by Spirits, why did they cease when the house was demolished?

Answer. – They ceased because they judged it useless to continue; do not ask, however, whether they would have been able to continue.

We thank you for having come and answered our questions.

Answer. – I am entirely at your orders.

THE STONES OF JAVA.

[Review of January 1860.]

Brussels, December 9, 1859.

Sir Director, I read in the Spiritist Review the fact related by Ida Pfeiffer concerning the stones fallen in Java, in the presence of a Dutch superior officer, with whom I was very closely connected in 1817, for it was he who lent me his pistols and served as witness in my first duel. He was called Michiels, of Maastricht, and became a general in Java. The letter that related the fact added that this fall of stones, in the isolated dwelling of the district of Cheribon, lasted no less than twelve days, without the sentinels posted by the general having discovered anything, nor he either, during the whole time he remained there. These stones, formed of a kind of pumice, seemed created in the air, a few feet from the ceiling. With them the general had several baskets filled; the inhabitants came to fetch them to make amulets and even remedies. This fact is very well known in Java, for it is repeated very frequently, above all the spittings of siri. Several children were pursued with stones in open country, without being struck. One would say that the prankster Spirits amused themselves in frightening people. Evoke the Spirit of General Michiels; perhaps he will explain the fact to you. Dr. Vanden Kerkhove, who lived a long time in Java, confirmed it to me, as I affirm to you that your Review becomes each day more interesting, more moralizing, and more sought after in Brussels. Accept, Jobard.

The well-known character of Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer, the stamp of veracity that marks all her accounts, leave us no doubt as to the reality of the phenomenon in question; but one understands all the importance that the letter of Mr. Jobard adds to it, through the testimony of the principal eyewitness charged with verifying the fact, and who had not the least interest in having it believed, had he recognized it to be false. In the first place, the spongy nature of that rain of stones might cause it to be attributed to a volcanic or aerolitic origin, and the skeptics would not fail to say that superstition had taken the place of a natural phenomenon. If we had only the testimony of the Javanese, the supposition would be well founded, and the stones, falling in open country, would no doubt come in support of that opinion. But General Michiels and Dr. Vanden Kerkhove were not Malays, and their affirmation has value. To this consideration, in itself very strong, it must be added that the stones did not fall only in the open air, but in the room where they seemed to be formed, at some distance from the ceiling: it is the general who affirms it. Now, we imagine that aerolites have never been seen to form in the atmosphere of a room. Admitting the meteorological or volcanic cause, the same could not be said of the spittings of siri, which the volcanoes have never vomited, at least to our knowledge. This hypothesis being set aside by the very nature of the facts, it remains to know how such substances could have been formed. We shall find their explanation in our article of the month of August 1859, on the Furnishings of Beyond the Tomb. [1] A preparation that the Javanese chew continually, and that gives to the mouth and the saliva the color of blood.