Okay.....in one of the posts we were discussing types of ghost.
The Chinese have 20+ types of ghost by-the-way ~ just a little factiod for you

Anyway - there I go - off at a tangent again. I found this story, and although it's not really a traditional ghost story, it's still worth a read.
It's told by a man, who listened to his grandfather relate this tale many times. It is not clear if it took place in the US, but it seems to me to be perhaps from another country......maybe and Eastern European or even Indio-China.........

'When he was young he used to travel to the neighbouring villages to visit friends. He usually left his home (his mom's and dad's home) at noon and wasn't back until next day. That is he used to sleep in his friends' houses rather than make his way home in the dead of the night. You see he is not only superstitious but a great coward too.
Well one afternoon he decided to pay a visit to a friend of his at a nearby village, about 4 km away from ours. He had to cross through the fields in order to get there (and remember no street lights, no electricity back then). As he was walking he saw in front of him, at some distance, a tall old man walking slowly. He couldn't make out who the person was. When he approached him the old man turned and greeted him. Now grandpa (who by the time he was not grandpa at all, just a young man in his twenties if I have not mentioned it already) greeted him back making at once the following thought: "Well I do not know who he is and I, of course, know everyone in the village. He is a stranger - better be careful." They continued their walk together.
The old man started talking and mumbling and saying he had paid a visit to his sister and now he was heading home. "What's the name of your sister"? grand-pa asked and when he got his answer he thought that there was no lady at the village by that name. The guy continued mumbling and talking about persons he knew from the village and gossiping about their lives but grandpa KNEW NONE OF THEM. The old man even talked about houses and places that did not exist, at least there, then. He was tall, as I said before, looking old and kind of drained (now is this the word?) and very peculiar.
At some point grandpa started having a very bad feeling for the old man because he presumed that he may be a lunatic or something. A second thought was that the old man was just having a secret affair at the village and he was mumbling a whole lot of lies just in order to cover himself.
Anyway grandpa the brave decided that it was better to leave the old man behind somehow. It was already dark and he didn't want to take his chances about anything. He said to his fellow walker that he should step aside to answer nature's call. He entered some bushes near the road and then, well, he just made his way to another path.
But soon he got lost. He was wandering through the fields and could not find his way. An hour later he decided it was better for him to head back home instead of trying to going to his friends. Yes, eventually, he failed again to find his way. As he was walking in the fields (peach fields) he saw a lamp in the distance. Getting closer he saw what appeared to be an oil lamp hanging from a remote tree almost covered by bushes. Ok, he thought there's a fellow villager working late on his field, I'll go there and ask directions. "Is anybody there"? he yelled and approached the tree. Nobody was there but then the old man's head appeared from behind the bushes, evil grin on his face and all, and he said: "My dear lad, where have you been? I've lost you"!!!
By now grandpa was shaking with fear, absolutely convinced that the old man was a vampire ("how else could he made his way so fast to where I was? Impossible! Not even the wind rides so fast!"). He turned and ran all the way looking back and shouting profanities to the ‘vampire’ and urging him not to follow, which he didn't.
At last grandpa arrived to the village just before down and went home. His sister (still alive) remembers to this day how shaken he was. He could not say a word about what had happened to him. '



Ooooer!
Now be honest ........ you'd kak yourself wouldnt you?
Running away from it and it goes and finds you......creepy.........but a vampire?

Hammy x x x

That's the thing I've noticed about eastern culture, Hams. The definitions of words like Vampire and Ghost don't match our own western definitions. If that story had been set in the west, I would have instantly recognised it as a highway ghost story (minus the highway, and a car, of course )

Somehow, the storyteller has the entity labelled as a vampire, but unfortunately, it isn't clear why he comes to that conclusion.

Hi Cuff

Yes, many eastern countries believe more readily in vampires and blame them for everything.
As you say, had it happened in the west we would have classed it as a kind of hitch-hiker type story.
There is a universal belief in the dead rising to walk again, to find their families or to cause mayhem. In southern Ireland they believe that women who die in childbirth will come home for thebaby and take it back to the grave with them.



Eeek......what a thought!

Hammy x x x

erk.....not sure Cuffy.............will have a looky in my books later.

There is a specific name for these walking corpses (no - not Man U ) but I cant think at the moment.

No change there then..........

Hammy x x x

Awwwwwwww..........

Thank you honey - I knew it had a proper name...........but my brain is be-fuddled today!

Hammy x x x x x

I wonder if there are so many reported 'road ghosts' because when you take a road, you're going somewhere for a purpose - to not reach the destination is to not fulfil your purpose, and so leave you unsettled after death, which is reported to be the reason for many 'hauntings'.

Well done LB , I really like that theory , but just to add my two cents ....

In one of my old books it claimed that when a criminal in earlier centuries in the U.K. was sentenced to the Gibbet (I think that's the correct name . I no longer have the book , but it's a metal cage designed to hold people until they die of thirst or starvation .) they were often left at cross roads . It was a comon conception at the time that when the spirit was released from the body it would become confused and find it too dificult to get home and haunt the people who had sentenced them to death in the first place .

I like Loonboy's theory, too. It could explain why road ghosts tend toward the reacting type of `intelligent' ghost more often. Maybe they are lost spirits.

And Kismit's right about the hanging of criminals in gibbets at crossroads. I read somewhere it was also done for witches, too.

Hi, yes gibbets is correct. I live in the UK, and many areas are still connected with it.

There used to be a road called gibbets lane, but they changed the name!

As you may know, criminals and murderers and the likes used to be buried at crossroads, which added to the fear of crossroads etc

Well you could argue that point, but then again, how many people do we see on roads whom we know to be alive and well? Were we to see a ghost of someone on the road of whom we had no knowledge, then we would not know they had died and therefore would not see the apparition as a ghost. We wouldn't give it a second look...

...unless it was headless or something...

I think that some spirits become earthbound due to either the trauma of their passing or the misunderstanding of what has happened - i.e. they still think they are alive on the earth plane.

Maybe there are less hauntings after people meet untimeley ends because a great proportion of those who pass, go on to where they ought to be.

Hhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

*raises one eye-brow and tries to look intellectual*

I think many people associate roads with the idea of us all making a journey, and we make allegorical (is that a word?? did I just invent a word??) thing-a-mees about 'lost souls' wandering along until they find the light or the correct path or whatever.
And yes, burying suicides, vampires, criminals or a witches at cross-roads was designed to confuse the spirits so they wouldn't know where to go....kinda like me...I have NO sense of direction what-so-ever!

But whilst reasearching around these 'ere parts (oo-aar) I was surprised to hear from so many people who believe they have had some sort of encounter whilst driving.

Highway Hypnosis?
Or do we go into another state of mind which allows us to be more open to things?

So, in a round-a-bout-fiddle-fart-arse way I am saying that Teddy (Hi cup-cake ) has a valid point...........and so does Loon.......

*mental note to self ~ stop posting when you are half asleep Hammy*

Hammy x x x

*crawls out of toybox*

Hi Loon,