Hunting hauntings!

3500 years ago in Babylonia, a clay tablet which could fit into one’s palm was moulded. On it was carved instructions on how to make pesky spirits flee. In this manual, a forlorn bearded ghost is described as being led to a blissful eternal afterlife by his lover. This slim and slender phantom had been inhabiting people’s homes for ages irking them. This may be the details of one of the oldest spectres in history.

In 2022, I don’t know what the census and population distribution of apparitions are. When leaves change their colour and trees grow bare, autumnal nights grow colder and darker and Halloween sets in; humans think of those who are still hovering in the mortal world after they’ve breathed their last.

Old, dark and dreary houses are gradually being replaced by brightly lit tall modern buildings. I wonder if the ghouls find the spic and span modern buildings uncomfortable so flee miles away to a faraway village where there’s a deserted dilapidated cottage.

In chic urban cities maybe it’ll be tough to find ghosts for those who’ll be searching for hauntings this Halloween as per tradition. That’s why haunted houses are created where humans dress up as apparitions who are to scare the daylight out of the visitors.

Haunted Houses

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882

All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,

With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,

Along the passages they come and go,

Impalpable impressions on the air,

A sense of something moving to and fro.

 

There are more guests at table than the hosts

Invited; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,

As silent as the pictures on the wall.

 

The stranger at my fireside cannot see

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;

He but perceives what is; while unto me

All that has been is visible and clear.

 

....

 

The spirit-world around this world of sense

Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours

dense

A vital breath of more ethereal air.

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