that didnt quite sound right but you know what I mean.Anyhoooooooooo, some of the best bits in the old FT are the readers letters. Some are rather pompous and rambling, but there are some real gems. And I was fumbling through some bits and pieces when I came up with the following, courtesy of a rather strange web-site.
The letter concern poltergeists......or does it?
As we have seen from countless other stories, polts behave in a certain way, as if they have to adhere to a certain set of rules.
FT133: 'In 1970 I was an eight-year-old girl in a family of four, and together with my parents, an aunt, an uncle and a servant girl called Aida, we lived in a big wooden house in the Philippines with my maternal grandparents.
One evening around Easter, we were all invited over by my paternal grandparents who lived nearby. As grandpa was having bouts of sinusitis, he stayed behind, along with his wife and Aida. After a while grandpa came over, panting and visibly shaken. He told us to come home at once as something strange was happening to Aida.
We hurried back amidst a slight shower, accompanied by some other relatives. Aida and my grandmother were huddled in the middle of the house, hugging each other. Our 17-year-old servant girl was crying hysterically. She came from a poor family in a faraway village and had been with us for about three years. She was short, dark and chubby, with very shiny white teeth. She was also tough and very determined, not easily scared. All of us children adored her.
Grandpa pointed to the stones forming a circle around the two women. He said it started half an hour earlier when, out of nowhere, stones came rolling towards Aida. Black and smooth, mostly about 1 inch (2.5cm) in diameter and with varying oval shapes, they stopped a few inches from her feet. Just then, Aida screamed as another stone came rolling across the shiny wooden floor. All of us children became equally frightened and some started crying. All the doors were closed and all the windows screened. Behind the house were tropical trees and acres of paddy fields. There was no possible entry.
The stones kept rolling, following Aida wherever she went. They came from different directions and time intervals, as if the thrower were playing with us. I will never forget the sound of them rolling on the wooden floor. Gradually overcoming our fright, we children started to collect the stones in a vase. There were none like them in our neighbourhood. They were warm to the touch, and dry. Had they been thrown from the street outside they would have been wet from the rain. The adults checked the house, and a neighbour let one of his hired hands go up into the ceiling to investigate, but he came back empty-handed.
That night, Aida slept on the floor of my grandparents’ room, too scared to stay on her own. All through the night we could hear the stones rolling and Aida’s occasional whimper. In the morning, the mosquito net under which she slept was surrounded by stones. Nothing happened during the day, but the stones resumed rolling at sunset, as they did for the next two weeks.
As Easter approached only about 10 stones appeared nightly, compared to the 20 or 30 previously. Many people came and asked for a stone or two, thinking they were from out of this world and would bring them luck. Being Catholic my family held daily prayer meetings and the local parish priest blessed the house. He was convinced that evil spirits were at work.
Then my mother met an old wise man in the market place, and told him of the phenomena. He said that Aida was being befriended by a playful gnome who wanted to attract her attention. Such creatures were invisible and usually harmless. To stop the stones, he advised that salt be spread outside the house at sunset. Reasoning that she had nothing to lose, my mother followed his instructions. She and my aunt started at the bottom of the front stairs and spread salt in opposite directions until they met at the back of the house. Much to everyone’s relief, the stones stopped appearing. Aida stayed with us for another two years and then moved to the city, taking with her a few of the stones that for two weeks made her life something to be remembered by all who knew her. '
http://www.angelfire.com/weird/junkyard/fortean.html
Classic poltergeistery but explained here by Gnomes..........
Hammy x x x
