I was never a believer in the existence of ghosts. While I was quite prepared to grant possible spiritual existence after physical death to living beings like man and even animals, I was not prepared to grant even the remotest possibility of such spiritual existence to inanimate objects like clothes, shawls and hats. I therefore did not believe any ghost story in which the ghosts were described by the clothes they wore. I have never heard a factual ghost story in which the ghost appeared naked. I have heard of a few experiences where the spiritual visitors appeared without any form. Cases where a feeling of coldness or a smell of food have been attributed to spiritual visitors are quite common.
To my knowledge most people who claim to have seen ghosts have identified them by the clothes they seemed to be wearing and these were clearly always similar to what the dead person would want to wear when alive. The only sensible hypothesis is to presume that the ghost turned up naked and that the person seeing it, out of a sense of decorum, unconsciously clothed it. On these premises we have to admit that the clothes were not seen but added by the mind to complete the picture. If one could imagine the clothes a ghost was wearing, there is no reason why one cannot imagine the ghost as well.
When in January l937 I found that the only suitable house, that was available for my occupation at the town I was posted to, was haunted, I was thrilled. Here was a chance to test my theory and also a possibility of obtaining first hand information on ghosts. I even thought of the possibility of inviting friends to spend the weekend with me and then recording their experiences, provided of course the ghost obliged.
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The house stood facing the sea on a small hillock and about eighty yards north of the main road to Tissamaharama along the south side of the Maha Lewaya at Hambantota. On the south side of the main road and opposite the house was the town cemetery, beyond that the sea beach and the sea. There were no other houses within a quarter of mile of the house. The front garden extended right to the main road while the back garden extended up to the jungle which fringed the Maha Lewaya on its southwest side. This lewaya was a large saltern over a square mile in extent. A loop road on the north side of the lewaya formed an alternative route to the road along the south side of the lewaya.
The house had remained vacant for about four years, ever since the owner’s son had committed suicide by shooting himself in the bedroom. Some pellet marks were still visible on the wall. Despite its neglected appearance it had the makings of a comfortable, well situated residence. The owner was unwilling to spend any money on reconditioning the house but was prepared to waive the first six months rent in lieu of any repairs and decoration that would be done by me. This arrangement suited me and I took over the keys. It was a very small house with one bed room, a dining room, a verandah and a car porch which had been enclosed to serve as sitting room and office.
I had the enclosed porch cleaned and made habitable so as to spend at least one night in the house with as little change to it as possible. This was through fear that the ghost might move out if we disturbed the place too much. I had a very early dinner at the Government Rest House at Hambantota and returned to the house soon after sunset. My staff consisting of a cook, chauffeur, and two labourers did likewise. The cook was superstitious, worried about the arrangement and very anxious to leave. The chauffeur did not believe in ghosts and was very keen on investigating. The labourers were disinterested and amused at the trouble taken to see a ghost.
Our first night was very interesting. To begin with the room had a musty smell which was nauseating and made sleep difficult. According to the cook this smell indicated the presence of the ghost. We could not counter this smell by burning incense for fear of ousting the ghost.
The first sounds early in the evening were traced to the movement of bats. They had been hanging from the roof timber and were moving out for a night's hunting for food. The next group of sounds was more difficult to trace. Most were however traced to the movement of snakes and other reptiles between the double layer of half round tiles on the roof. These sounds reduced steadily and ceased almost completely by midnight, perhaps due to the flashing of electric torches and the constant probing.
After midnight we became aware of other sounds outside but near the house. This were traced to civet cats moving in the shrubbery, flying foxes and owls. As dawn approached the twitter of birds and later the crowing of jungle fowl brought considerable relief after an anxious night. There was no evidence of a ghost. My staff came to the conclusion that the rumour was without foundation. The cook withdrew the notice to leave he gave me on the previous night.
Masons, carpenters and a few workmen renovated the house during the next four days. The result was a neat little house with a compound covered with sea sand, standing in a large park of shade trees. The musty smell had gone completely and the only sound at night was the sound of waves breaking on the sea shore.
On the sixth day the cook did not return after his morning round of shopping. The chauffeur who went to investigate came back with the news that the cook had, after hearing that the ghost appears on Thursdays, and that day being a Thursday, taken the bus to Colombo using the shopping money as travelling expenses. We ate out that night and ran an all-night vigil for the ghost, the chauffeur and I taking turns while the other two slept. The ghost failed to turn up and we were convinced that it didn't exist. I could not help feeling that had I found the house one day earlier my first night would have been a Thursday.
We soon discovered that traffic which normally used the road on the south side of the lewaya during the day preferred the road along the north side of the lewaya after dark and that local inhabitants avoided the area round the house at night. We took advantage of this fact when the hot season set in and left the doors and windows open all night to let in as much breeze as possible.
One night, probably just before dawn, I felt that I was being watched at very close quarters by someone. I was still partly asleep and can remember that I was aware of a large eye quite close to my face and on the right hand side of my bed. I do not know how long I lay with this feeling in my mind but I know that I felt very cold either due to the cold night air or through fright. I had during the past few months been expecting to see the ethereal visitor. Perhaps this was it.
I next remember a second glimpse of the visitor, this time it seemed to be an elderly dwarf about two and a half feet in height, with a queer head gear, the same large eye and a beard. I was also aware that although the visitor was standing very close to me, he was in no way hostile. While still half asleep I began thinking of the possibilities. Was this creature, I was reluctant to look at, a mittaya, that is a member of the primitive race of fierce hairy dwarfs, who lived in those parts in ancient times, whom our ancestors had driven into caves and walled up? It could not be as the dwarf race was known to be extinct. Then could it be a ghost of one of them? If so here was a chance to test my theory, whether ghosts came naked.
While trying to open my eyelids which seemed to be resisting my commands to open, and while for some reason I was nearly being convinced that ghosts did come naked, I was rudely awakened by a very loud BAA in my ears. I found myself wide awake. All, my theories crashed at the site of an old billy goat which had strayed into my bedroom through the open doors.
My dwarf fitted the fore part of the goat to perfection, the queer cap was the horns, the eye and the beard were just right, my imagination had supplied the dwarf with arm and hands and in all probability my glimpses had not reached the hind quarters of the goat. I even wonder whether my glimpses of the goat were by some sixth sense through closed eyelids, for had I opened my eyes I could have kept them open.
If I had lost consciousness through fright it would have been difficult to convince me that the dwarf was imaginary. If the goat had walked out without bleating I would still be in doubt of what I saw and continued to think that it may well have been the ghost of a dwarf. Anyway it was only a real goat and not the naked ghost of a dwarf. What a shame!
(November 16, 2011 was the 100th birth anniversary of the late
Deshabandu Ratnatunga) |
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