...continued from part twelve.
11. Letter from V. A. Shchapov to the former manager of the Iletsky villages, Major A. V. Pokotilov, in response to a request from the Orenburg branch of the Imperial Geographical Society dated January 18, 1871.
In fulfilling your request regarding the message about the miracles that have happened and are still happening at the present time, I only ask you to forgive me that my story may not be as coherent and consistent, but that it is true and not fictitious - I vouch for it and present witnesses who will confirm all this.
I will begin with the fact that on November 16, having returned from the small town of Iletsky to my farm, I learned from my family and employees that during my absence, namely from November 14 to 15, i.e. on the eve of Sunday, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, something unusual began to happen. Namely, as they told, at first they were frightened by a loud knock on the wall with a fist, then a defiant knock on the glass of the outside window facing the forest; then they clearly heard that above their heads, i.e. on the ceiling, someone was dancing, and this dance was so distinct and natural that at first they thought that it was our cook Maria, who was continuing to make fun of herself, whom my wife, for the sake of a joke, in order to entertain the child, made dance in the room that evening. According to the information, however, the cook was asleep; and the knocking, repeated from time to time, and the dancing did not cease until the morning. The following night, they said, about 11 o'clock the same thing was repeated again. Despite the fact that all the servants in our house (up to 6 people) were gathered and surrounded the house, strictly watching whether this was a joke of some eccentric or swindler, but all their observations and even shots from a gun near the house - did not lead to anything; the knocking on the wall, on the window and the dancing, with small breaks - all continued as before, so that they spent that night almost without sleep.
I listened to their story rather indifferently and mockingly, having been cleansed, so to speak, from all superstitions from my infancy, and I made my wife feel this by reproaching her for it; and I also gave them my word at the same time that if this story were repeated in my presence (which my wife wished, offended by my reproach), then I would undertake to explain to them that the phenomenon occurred, in my opinion, from some natural causes, of course, and not by the spell of the devil, on whom they now placed all the blame.
At about 10 o'clock in the evening, when everyone had gone to bed, and I was lying on the bed in the room next to my wife's, calmly reading a book, there was a rather cautious knock on the window, followed by a real dancing on the ceiling, which raised me to my feet. A few minutes later, there was a loud banging of a fist on the wall. I did not know what to think. It was difficult to accept that some scoundrel had decided to disturb us for the third night in a row and without any purpose, probably knowing that I was at home (I arrived at about 2 o'clock) and that he would not get away with it, especially since, as I said, shots had been fired the day before. Besides this, watching intently through the window, I could not notice anything despite all my efforts. The only thing left was to think that it was some madman who was somehow cleverly hiding, and with this thought, I, with a gun and accompanied by others, went to the outer eastern wall facing the forest. Approaching it, we all, to our general surprise, heard that the knocking of a fist had sounded near us, but only now we heard it from inside; while those who were in the room all unanimously asserted that they had clearly heard the knocking from outside. I myself, having entered the house, was truly convinced of this, when the old mother outside was putting crosses on the earthen wall. Before such a mysterious phenomenon I was already overwhelmed, because nothing came into my head that could explain it to myself.
After this, about an hour later, everything else ceased; nothing could be heard any more, and we fell asleep. I only knew that this was not an illusion of hearing, not a hallucination, but something so extraordinary that everyone around me called it “devilry” and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree, at least for a while.
The following nights were quiet, although occasionally certain things were repeated; for example, one evening the sofa began to jump for no apparent reason, and a knock was heard somewhere behind the wall, like a sack of flour falling, but all this was somehow vague.
But on December 20th an acquaintance came to spend the night with me and, having heard of miracles happening before, was very interested to hear something similar; and since I said that up to this point everything had been quiet, I could not guarantee success, but still, as an experiment, I resorted to artificially provoking this phenomenon, namely, forcing my cook Maria, a woman of a very cheerful character, to dance in the room, which she did. Although there was no reason to think that this phenomenon had any connection with dancing, nevertheless, after an hour or an hour and a half, to our general surprise, the performance began with the same phenomena, with the only difference that instead of dancing on the ceiling there now came drumming, first on the wall, and then on the window, and very tactful, and also one cannot say that it was monotonous, at times with a loud knock on the wall, which continued until 12 o'clock.
The following evening, that is, on the 21st, also at about 11 o'clock, to all the previous things there was added a wild hooting, which was heard in the chimney according to the general conclusion, and then the spontaneous flying of various things, for example, felt boots, shoes, etc., lying on the floor and quickly thrown up to the ceiling or forcefully hitting the door, the wall, etc.; at the same time it was noticed that sometimes the flying thing makes a hissing sound, or suddenly from under the bed something made of black linen, for example, a shirt, flies up and, falling on the floor covered with felt, produces a thud, as if from the fall of a heavy body.
On New Year's Eve several of my acquaintances gather at my place, and they are all extremely interested in hearing our miracles. In the evening, of course, our Maria danced beforehand, of course; and then, already around 2 o'clock, we went to bed and contemplated our miracles until 4 o'clock, which again burst into very sharp trills on the glass of the window in my wife's room, and even passed on to the glass door in the room itself. Here we again checked and were convinced of the strangeness of the phenomenon, that the knocking heard on the wall, firstly, is completely similar to blows from a fist, and secondly, those outside hear it from inside, and those in the room - from outside. This knocking passes to various objects in the room itself and is clearly felt by the hand when you put it to the wall, to the glass, or, for example, to the iron bed on which my wife sleeps. There were also hooting sounds and various sounds at the window, such as mooing, growling, etc. Someone would break into the door, which was locked with a hook, or suddenly, for no apparent reason, some object, for example, a handkerchief or some shoe, would rise from the floor or the stove and would hit something to the side with force. That evening my wife, who, to tell the truth, is not a coward, clearly saw in the window a hand stuck out between the shutters, the size, in her words, of a ten-year-old child, completely black in color, but with red nails, or, as she says, with translucent ones, i.e., when you bring your hand to a lighted candle, the color of your nails will be exactly that.
That same evening, in the same place by the window, she saw two of some kind of outgrowths, if one can put it that way, that is, like large leeches; but when she hastily called me from another room to marvel at this miracle, the vision had already disappeared.
I can assure you that during this time, as well as the rest of the time, she was in a completely normal condition and that in general she was not predisposed to any painful attacks.
On January 8, when two acquaintances were staying overnight with me, and when the drumming on the glass door was especially distinct, my wife saw a ball fly out opposite her, in the corner, from behind the headboard of the other bed, on which her mother was lying. According to her, it was dark crimson in color and not luminous, i.e., it did not emit light, but was only transparent and very similar to an inflated gutta-percha ball, which are usually sold; at first it was the size of a teacup, and then it began to turn in one place, increased in volume to the size of a tea saucer, and at the same time began to descend again near the wall and from under the bed (only in a smaller size), it rushed towards her, as a result of which she could not bear it and fainted with a weak cry. At this time her mother also confirmed that she had seen something red flash past her, and that at the same time she had already seen that my wife, having fallen from the bed, had lost consciousness. All this happened, of course, instantly, so that we did not have time to notice.
Until then it had been tolerable and even amusing to watch and listen to all these things, but since that evening, i.e. since the appearance of this, as stated in the letter (Geographical Society), famous ball, we have already begun to treat these phenomena with hostility, because, for example, this cursed knock on the window of my wife's room on January 9th was already heard during the day, at about 3 o'clock, when my wife lay down to rest, and after that on the same day it began to haunt her everywhere; so, for example, when she was sitting on the sofa having tea, a drumming began next to her on the arm of the sofa, and when I sat down in her place, the knocking moved again next to her onto the oilcloth of the sofa, etc.; it even sounded in the cupboard where she put the dishes, or when she went out into the pantry, and there it haunted her. It is clear that we were all worried, especially since she said that although she was not actually afraid of this knock, she felt weak and had a strong urge to sleep.
Fearing some consequences for her health, and especially for a mental disorder, we decided to go to Ilek for a while; there we met with a doctor I knew, Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov, who, surprised by our demons, reassured us by explaining, albeit superficially (since we were passing through), that this was probably a matter of electricity and magnetism, manifested as a result of the special composition of the soil under our house, and that all this was concentrated around my wife, since she, probably, also has special and individual predispositions to this. I think it is not superfluous to note that my wife is a woman of small stature, blonde, not particularly weak in build; her character is rather calm and concentrated, her temperament is rather phlegmatic.
These indications of the doctor, indeed, calmed us somewhat, and all of us, that is, whoever could understand anything in the slightest, ceased to attribute it to devilry. But since this greatly interested the doctor, the very next day we galloped back to our farm, located about 30 versts away on the river Kindel. There, after Maria's preliminary dance, we, at about 10 o'clock in the evening, observed repeated miracles in the form of knocks on the glass, on the wall, and all again in my wife's room, scratching behind the carpet, near her bed, while she was sleeping. But this time, as luck would have it, there were no sharp knocks or tosses, but, nevertheless, the fact was confirmed, and we were glad; and the doctor, taking advantage of this, made us a few more explanations - which convinced us even more that this was not devilry. But, in order not to remain under this impression, he advised leaving home for the city for a while.
During the 11 days we lived there, according to information from those who remained in the house on the farm, not once did any of them, either day or night, hear the slightest knock. But imagine our horror when, upon returning to the house on the 21st, and upon the onset of night, that is, as soon as my wife went to bed, the knocking and throwing of things in her room resumed again; moreover, a table knife lying on the stove was thrown with force, after other things, into the door, which forced us from then on to put away all the heavier things.
But before the discovery we made the following evening, i.e. on the 24th, everything that had happened before positively fades away, namely, at the time when my wife had already gone to bed and the drumming on the wall near her had begun, I was walking in the other room with my little daughter and singing to her: "I am a young gypsy..."; then my wife and others near her, including my good friend, Lukyan Semenovich Alekseyev, ask me to continue this motive, since it turns out that the drumming on the wall clearly echoes my singing. I change "gypsy" to "figurant", and they echo this motive quite correctly. In order to convince themselves of the musical ability of this echoing or accompanying force, L. S. starts a drawn-out Cossack song: "Not clear falcons...", and this knocking apparently tries to imitate the drawn-out tone of the song as carefully as possible: although it is noticeable that this is very difficult for him. But as soon as they change to a more cheerful tune, the sounds will become much sharper and more cheerful.
At last the wife took the child to her bed; the knocking ceased at once, and in spite of all our howling and efforts to somehow call it back, it remained stubbornly silent until the child, who had fallen asleep next to its mother, was placed in the cradle; and this force, as if delighted, at that very moment manifested itself by throwing both bundles lying on the floor near the bed against the wall.
In order to continue our experiments, my wife, at our request, moved to another bed in the same room, next to the glass door, on the other side of which, in another room, we all settled down for our musical studies.
The knocking on the glass became louder and clearer, and then the fun began, and all sorts of songs, polkas, marches, and mazurkas were performed brilliantly. But then the old woman, my mother, took it into her head to sing a prayer, and we quietly began to sing “Our Father.” What do you think happened? Not a peep – they were silent! Only at the end was a chord made. Thinking that there was little rhythm in this motive, we began “Easter”, as a rather lively motive; but no, you can’t fool them – not a sound, as if nothing had happened. But then, again, they immediately began the drawn-out, even deliberately interrupted “In the Meadows” – he echoed and, pausing at times, tried to hit the rhythm.
At that moment I called my worker, a Tatar, and asked him to sing a prayer in his own way, only more often, - silence. He started to sing "Allah Bismillah" twice, and not a sound in response. But when at that very moment I began to deliberately imitate the Tatar from "The Magic Gunslinger" with a recitative: "Oh, spirits, spirits, from the dungeon...", then the sound on the glass loudly and clearly beats out each beat. We begin simply to call, for example: knock once, and in response one blow is heard. Twice - and as many answering knocks!
We begin to make fraction, and the same fraction is heard clearly and skillfully made on the glass. I make all sorts of variations with sounds, even ordering their number, and there was never a mistake. We even had whole dialogues with various questions about the reason for the origin of all these phenomena, and it was answered that all this was done by an “evil spirit”, a “devil”, “let loose” into the house by a Cossack neighbor with whom I was having a dispute.
But then the child wakes up, the wife puts it next to her, and the sound dies down, and our efforts to call upon it remain in vain. We have noticed the same fact more than once during our musical studies, which suddenly stopped when I appeared in my wife's room. Even, according to witnesses, I did not have time to reach the threshold of her room, as the sound caused by some song had already died down, while the presence of others, who went to her room on purpose in turns, did not have the slightest effect on the drumming on the glass.
What is this? – they will ask us. – I don’t know! But that these are facts and that nothing here is distorted, perverted or exaggerated, many outside witnesses who heard it all with their own ears will vouch for this. For example, in addition to all our servants, the respected Fyodor Filippovich Solovyov, a man with information and even more not superstitious, was present three times; Fyodor Fyodorovich Feduleev; Doctor Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov; several traders from Ilek, such as Savin Ivanovich Syromyatnikov; the local chief, Vasily Ivanovich Zagrebin and Lukyan Semyonovich Alekseyev and others, a total of about 20 people.
Now I do not think it superfluous to add the fruits of our careful observations over the course of 24 months. Namely, we have become convinced that all these various sounds, which previously occurred immediately after Maria’s dance, are now repeated without her; and also that they occur exclusively near my wife, who has only to lie down in bed and calm down at any time, that is, during the day or at night, and this knocking is heard, either loudly, such as on the wall, on the bed, on the glass, or quietly, such as on the carpet, on the pillows, etc., but it is certainly heard; therefore, she alone is the culprit of all these phenomena, which sometimes continue for more than 2 hours, sometimes less than an hour, and also louder or quieter, more often or less often, as, therefore, it comes into her head. In a word, there is no sequence. Thus, for example, on the 23rd in the afternoon or the 24th in the evening it was in full swing, but yesterday nothing was heard; and today, as I write this rough draft, this power is acting up and walking around in full splendor, throwing things and drumming so loudly that my wife's bed is raised; despite the fact that it (the power) is being conjured by some sorcerer-healer Ivan Fyodorovich, who came of his own free will, and who has been telling since the evening about his power over spirits and curing many, supposedly, of various illnesses, so that he has become known almost "to the whole world", about which he asks, however, to make inquiries in the city of Barnaul, Tomsk province. This is also consistent, nothing to say!
In conclusion I will say one thing, that one must hear all this with one's own ears and see it in order to form a clear idea of all this, and a story, even ten times better than mine, will not produce even a hundredth part of the real impression. So, indeed, all this is strange and incomprehensible, that involuntarily, having cast aside electricity, which is little known to us, and magnetism, which is even less understandable, involuntarily one believes in devilry.
We hope, however, that with the help of people enlightened by science (who have now learned about this) – sooner or later – we will find the solution. And I will continue my observations and report them as needed.
With my respect to you, I have the honor to be your most humble servant.
Vasily Shchapov.
Izmailovsky farm. January 26, 1871.
PART FOURTEEN
11. Letter from V. A. Shchapov to the former manager of the Iletsky villages, Major A. V. Pokotilov, in response to a request from the Orenburg branch of the Imperial Geographical Society dated January 18, 1871.
In fulfilling your request regarding the message about the miracles that have happened and are still happening at the present time, I only ask you to forgive me that my story may not be as coherent and consistent, but that it is true and not fictitious - I vouch for it and present witnesses who will confirm all this.
I will begin with the fact that on November 16, having returned from the small town of Iletsky to my farm, I learned from my family and employees that during my absence, namely from November 14 to 15, i.e. on the eve of Sunday, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, something unusual began to happen. Namely, as they told, at first they were frightened by a loud knock on the wall with a fist, then a defiant knock on the glass of the outside window facing the forest; then they clearly heard that above their heads, i.e. on the ceiling, someone was dancing, and this dance was so distinct and natural that at first they thought that it was our cook Maria, who was continuing to make fun of herself, whom my wife, for the sake of a joke, in order to entertain the child, made dance in the room that evening. According to the information, however, the cook was asleep; and the knocking, repeated from time to time, and the dancing did not cease until the morning. The following night, they said, about 11 o'clock the same thing was repeated again. Despite the fact that all the servants in our house (up to 6 people) were gathered and surrounded the house, strictly watching whether this was a joke of some eccentric or swindler, but all their observations and even shots from a gun near the house - did not lead to anything; the knocking on the wall, on the window and the dancing, with small breaks - all continued as before, so that they spent that night almost without sleep.
I listened to their story rather indifferently and mockingly, having been cleansed, so to speak, from all superstitions from my infancy, and I made my wife feel this by reproaching her for it; and I also gave them my word at the same time that if this story were repeated in my presence (which my wife wished, offended by my reproach), then I would undertake to explain to them that the phenomenon occurred, in my opinion, from some natural causes, of course, and not by the spell of the devil, on whom they now placed all the blame.
At about 10 o'clock in the evening, when everyone had gone to bed, and I was lying on the bed in the room next to my wife's, calmly reading a book, there was a rather cautious knock on the window, followed by a real dancing on the ceiling, which raised me to my feet. A few minutes later, there was a loud banging of a fist on the wall. I did not know what to think. It was difficult to accept that some scoundrel had decided to disturb us for the third night in a row and without any purpose, probably knowing that I was at home (I arrived at about 2 o'clock) and that he would not get away with it, especially since, as I said, shots had been fired the day before. Besides this, watching intently through the window, I could not notice anything despite all my efforts. The only thing left was to think that it was some madman who was somehow cleverly hiding, and with this thought, I, with a gun and accompanied by others, went to the outer eastern wall facing the forest. Approaching it, we all, to our general surprise, heard that the knocking of a fist had sounded near us, but only now we heard it from inside; while those who were in the room all unanimously asserted that they had clearly heard the knocking from outside. I myself, having entered the house, was truly convinced of this, when the old mother outside was putting crosses on the earthen wall. Before such a mysterious phenomenon I was already overwhelmed, because nothing came into my head that could explain it to myself.
After this, about an hour later, everything else ceased; nothing could be heard any more, and we fell asleep. I only knew that this was not an illusion of hearing, not a hallucination, but something so extraordinary that everyone around me called it “devilry” and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree, at least for a while.
The following nights were quiet, although occasionally certain things were repeated; for example, one evening the sofa began to jump for no apparent reason, and a knock was heard somewhere behind the wall, like a sack of flour falling, but all this was somehow vague.
But on December 20th an acquaintance came to spend the night with me and, having heard of miracles happening before, was very interested to hear something similar; and since I said that up to this point everything had been quiet, I could not guarantee success, but still, as an experiment, I resorted to artificially provoking this phenomenon, namely, forcing my cook Maria, a woman of a very cheerful character, to dance in the room, which she did. Although there was no reason to think that this phenomenon had any connection with dancing, nevertheless, after an hour or an hour and a half, to our general surprise, the performance began with the same phenomena, with the only difference that instead of dancing on the ceiling there now came drumming, first on the wall, and then on the window, and very tactful, and also one cannot say that it was monotonous, at times with a loud knock on the wall, which continued until 12 o'clock.
The following evening, that is, on the 21st, also at about 11 o'clock, to all the previous things there was added a wild hooting, which was heard in the chimney according to the general conclusion, and then the spontaneous flying of various things, for example, felt boots, shoes, etc., lying on the floor and quickly thrown up to the ceiling or forcefully hitting the door, the wall, etc.; at the same time it was noticed that sometimes the flying thing makes a hissing sound, or suddenly from under the bed something made of black linen, for example, a shirt, flies up and, falling on the floor covered with felt, produces a thud, as if from the fall of a heavy body.
On New Year's Eve several of my acquaintances gather at my place, and they are all extremely interested in hearing our miracles. In the evening, of course, our Maria danced beforehand, of course; and then, already around 2 o'clock, we went to bed and contemplated our miracles until 4 o'clock, which again burst into very sharp trills on the glass of the window in my wife's room, and even passed on to the glass door in the room itself. Here we again checked and were convinced of the strangeness of the phenomenon, that the knocking heard on the wall, firstly, is completely similar to blows from a fist, and secondly, those outside hear it from inside, and those in the room - from outside. This knocking passes to various objects in the room itself and is clearly felt by the hand when you put it to the wall, to the glass, or, for example, to the iron bed on which my wife sleeps. There were also hooting sounds and various sounds at the window, such as mooing, growling, etc. Someone would break into the door, which was locked with a hook, or suddenly, for no apparent reason, some object, for example, a handkerchief or some shoe, would rise from the floor or the stove and would hit something to the side with force. That evening my wife, who, to tell the truth, is not a coward, clearly saw in the window a hand stuck out between the shutters, the size, in her words, of a ten-year-old child, completely black in color, but with red nails, or, as she says, with translucent ones, i.e., when you bring your hand to a lighted candle, the color of your nails will be exactly that.
That same evening, in the same place by the window, she saw two of some kind of outgrowths, if one can put it that way, that is, like large leeches; but when she hastily called me from another room to marvel at this miracle, the vision had already disappeared.
I can assure you that during this time, as well as the rest of the time, she was in a completely normal condition and that in general she was not predisposed to any painful attacks.
On January 8, when two acquaintances were staying overnight with me, and when the drumming on the glass door was especially distinct, my wife saw a ball fly out opposite her, in the corner, from behind the headboard of the other bed, on which her mother was lying. According to her, it was dark crimson in color and not luminous, i.e., it did not emit light, but was only transparent and very similar to an inflated gutta-percha ball, which are usually sold; at first it was the size of a teacup, and then it began to turn in one place, increased in volume to the size of a tea saucer, and at the same time began to descend again near the wall and from under the bed (only in a smaller size), it rushed towards her, as a result of which she could not bear it and fainted with a weak cry. At this time her mother also confirmed that she had seen something red flash past her, and that at the same time she had already seen that my wife, having fallen from the bed, had lost consciousness. All this happened, of course, instantly, so that we did not have time to notice.
Until then it had been tolerable and even amusing to watch and listen to all these things, but since that evening, i.e. since the appearance of this, as stated in the letter (Geographical Society), famous ball, we have already begun to treat these phenomena with hostility, because, for example, this cursed knock on the window of my wife's room on January 9th was already heard during the day, at about 3 o'clock, when my wife lay down to rest, and after that on the same day it began to haunt her everywhere; so, for example, when she was sitting on the sofa having tea, a drumming began next to her on the arm of the sofa, and when I sat down in her place, the knocking moved again next to her onto the oilcloth of the sofa, etc.; it even sounded in the cupboard where she put the dishes, or when she went out into the pantry, and there it haunted her. It is clear that we were all worried, especially since she said that although she was not actually afraid of this knock, she felt weak and had a strong urge to sleep.
Fearing some consequences for her health, and especially for a mental disorder, we decided to go to Ilek for a while; there we met with a doctor I knew, Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov, who, surprised by our demons, reassured us by explaining, albeit superficially (since we were passing through), that this was probably a matter of electricity and magnetism, manifested as a result of the special composition of the soil under our house, and that all this was concentrated around my wife, since she, probably, also has special and individual predispositions to this. I think it is not superfluous to note that my wife is a woman of small stature, blonde, not particularly weak in build; her character is rather calm and concentrated, her temperament is rather phlegmatic.
These indications of the doctor, indeed, calmed us somewhat, and all of us, that is, whoever could understand anything in the slightest, ceased to attribute it to devilry. But since this greatly interested the doctor, the very next day we galloped back to our farm, located about 30 versts away on the river Kindel. There, after Maria's preliminary dance, we, at about 10 o'clock in the evening, observed repeated miracles in the form of knocks on the glass, on the wall, and all again in my wife's room, scratching behind the carpet, near her bed, while she was sleeping. But this time, as luck would have it, there were no sharp knocks or tosses, but, nevertheless, the fact was confirmed, and we were glad; and the doctor, taking advantage of this, made us a few more explanations - which convinced us even more that this was not devilry. But, in order not to remain under this impression, he advised leaving home for the city for a while.
During the 11 days we lived there, according to information from those who remained in the house on the farm, not once did any of them, either day or night, hear the slightest knock. But imagine our horror when, upon returning to the house on the 21st, and upon the onset of night, that is, as soon as my wife went to bed, the knocking and throwing of things in her room resumed again; moreover, a table knife lying on the stove was thrown with force, after other things, into the door, which forced us from then on to put away all the heavier things.
But before the discovery we made the following evening, i.e. on the 24th, everything that had happened before positively fades away, namely, at the time when my wife had already gone to bed and the drumming on the wall near her had begun, I was walking in the other room with my little daughter and singing to her: "I am a young gypsy..."; then my wife and others near her, including my good friend, Lukyan Semenovich Alekseyev, ask me to continue this motive, since it turns out that the drumming on the wall clearly echoes my singing. I change "gypsy" to "figurant", and they echo this motive quite correctly. In order to convince themselves of the musical ability of this echoing or accompanying force, L. S. starts a drawn-out Cossack song: "Not clear falcons...", and this knocking apparently tries to imitate the drawn-out tone of the song as carefully as possible: although it is noticeable that this is very difficult for him. But as soon as they change to a more cheerful tune, the sounds will become much sharper and more cheerful.
At last the wife took the child to her bed; the knocking ceased at once, and in spite of all our howling and efforts to somehow call it back, it remained stubbornly silent until the child, who had fallen asleep next to its mother, was placed in the cradle; and this force, as if delighted, at that very moment manifested itself by throwing both bundles lying on the floor near the bed against the wall.
In order to continue our experiments, my wife, at our request, moved to another bed in the same room, next to the glass door, on the other side of which, in another room, we all settled down for our musical studies.
The knocking on the glass became louder and clearer, and then the fun began, and all sorts of songs, polkas, marches, and mazurkas were performed brilliantly. But then the old woman, my mother, took it into her head to sing a prayer, and we quietly began to sing “Our Father.” What do you think happened? Not a peep – they were silent! Only at the end was a chord made. Thinking that there was little rhythm in this motive, we began “Easter”, as a rather lively motive; but no, you can’t fool them – not a sound, as if nothing had happened. But then, again, they immediately began the drawn-out, even deliberately interrupted “In the Meadows” – he echoed and, pausing at times, tried to hit the rhythm.
At that moment I called my worker, a Tatar, and asked him to sing a prayer in his own way, only more often, - silence. He started to sing "Allah Bismillah" twice, and not a sound in response. But when at that very moment I began to deliberately imitate the Tatar from "The Magic Gunslinger" with a recitative: "Oh, spirits, spirits, from the dungeon...", then the sound on the glass loudly and clearly beats out each beat. We begin simply to call, for example: knock once, and in response one blow is heard. Twice - and as many answering knocks!
We begin to make fraction, and the same fraction is heard clearly and skillfully made on the glass. I make all sorts of variations with sounds, even ordering their number, and there was never a mistake. We even had whole dialogues with various questions about the reason for the origin of all these phenomena, and it was answered that all this was done by an “evil spirit”, a “devil”, “let loose” into the house by a Cossack neighbor with whom I was having a dispute.
But then the child wakes up, the wife puts it next to her, and the sound dies down, and our efforts to call upon it remain in vain. We have noticed the same fact more than once during our musical studies, which suddenly stopped when I appeared in my wife's room. Even, according to witnesses, I did not have time to reach the threshold of her room, as the sound caused by some song had already died down, while the presence of others, who went to her room on purpose in turns, did not have the slightest effect on the drumming on the glass.
What is this? – they will ask us. – I don’t know! But that these are facts and that nothing here is distorted, perverted or exaggerated, many outside witnesses who heard it all with their own ears will vouch for this. For example, in addition to all our servants, the respected Fyodor Filippovich Solovyov, a man with information and even more not superstitious, was present three times; Fyodor Fyodorovich Feduleev; Doctor Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov; several traders from Ilek, such as Savin Ivanovich Syromyatnikov; the local chief, Vasily Ivanovich Zagrebin and Lukyan Semyonovich Alekseyev and others, a total of about 20 people.
Now I do not think it superfluous to add the fruits of our careful observations over the course of 24 months. Namely, we have become convinced that all these various sounds, which previously occurred immediately after Maria’s dance, are now repeated without her; and also that they occur exclusively near my wife, who has only to lie down in bed and calm down at any time, that is, during the day or at night, and this knocking is heard, either loudly, such as on the wall, on the bed, on the glass, or quietly, such as on the carpet, on the pillows, etc., but it is certainly heard; therefore, she alone is the culprit of all these phenomena, which sometimes continue for more than 2 hours, sometimes less than an hour, and also louder or quieter, more often or less often, as, therefore, it comes into her head. In a word, there is no sequence. Thus, for example, on the 23rd in the afternoon or the 24th in the evening it was in full swing, but yesterday nothing was heard; and today, as I write this rough draft, this power is acting up and walking around in full splendor, throwing things and drumming so loudly that my wife's bed is raised; despite the fact that it (the power) is being conjured by some sorcerer-healer Ivan Fyodorovich, who came of his own free will, and who has been telling since the evening about his power over spirits and curing many, supposedly, of various illnesses, so that he has become known almost "to the whole world", about which he asks, however, to make inquiries in the city of Barnaul, Tomsk province. This is also consistent, nothing to say!
In conclusion I will say one thing, that one must hear all this with one's own ears and see it in order to form a clear idea of all this, and a story, even ten times better than mine, will not produce even a hundredth part of the real impression. So, indeed, all this is strange and incomprehensible, that involuntarily, having cast aside electricity, which is little known to us, and magnetism, which is even less understandable, involuntarily one believes in devilry.
We hope, however, that with the help of people enlightened by science (who have now learned about this) – sooner or later – we will find the solution. And I will continue my observations and report them as needed.
With my respect to you, I have the honor to be your most humble servant.
Vasily Shchapov.
Izmailovsky farm. January 26, 1871.
PART FOURTEEN
