THE RAPPINGS AT PREVORST. 143
And again he tells us, “In'.my own house, I can bear witness
not only to the sounds of throwing, knocking, &c. ; but a small
table was flung into a room without any visible means^the
pewter plates in the kitchen were hurled about, in the hearing of
the whole house, —circumstances laughable to others, and which
would be so to me, had I not witnessed them in my sound mind ;
but which become doubly significant, when I compare them to
many accounts I have heard of the like nature, where there was
no somnambule in question,”
Here we have phenomena precisely like those with which the
records of witchcraft, and the accounts of haunted houses, are
filled.
Speaking of a spirit who frequently came to her, Kerner
says, u His appearance was always preceded by knockings;
however suddenly a person flew to the place to try and detect
whence the noise proceeded, they could see nothing. If they
went outside, the knocking was immediately heard inside, and
vice-versa. However securely they closed the kitchen-door, nay,
if they tied it with cords, it was found open in the morning; and
though they frequently rushed to the spot on hearing it open or
shut, they never could lind anybody. Sounds as of breaking
wood, of pewter plates being knocked together, and the crack¬
ling of a fire in the oven, were also commonly heard; but the
cause of them could not be discovered. A sound resembling
that of a triangle was also frequently heard; and not only Mrs.
Häufte, but others of her family, often saw a spectral female
form. The noises in the house became at length so remarkable,
that her father declared he could stay in it no longer; and they
were not only audible to everybody in it, but to the passengers
in the street, who stopped to listen to them, as they passed.”
The Rev. Mr. Hermann wrote several questions for a spirit
who visited Mrs. Häufte to answer. From the time these were
shown to the spirit, Mr. Hermann “ found himself awakened at a
particular hour every night, and felt immediately an earnest dis¬
position to prayer. There was always, at the same time, a
knocking in his room, sometimes n the floor, and sometimes