OTHER WITNESSES.

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a time, entirely alone in the castle, the coachmen being in the stables, and Kern having gone out. Yet the very same occurrences took place as before; nay, the snuffers, under his very eyes, were raised and whirled about. He kept the strictest watch on the doors and windows; but nothing could be discovered.

"Several other persons witnessed these phenomena, at various times; a bookseller named Dörfel, and the Head Ranger Radezensky. This last remained with them all night. But no rest had he. He was kept awake with constant peltings.

"Inspector Knetch, from Koschentin, resolved to spend a night with Hahn and Kern. There was no end of the peltings they had during the evening; but finally they retired to rest, leaving the candles burning. Then all three saw two table-napkins rise to the ceiling in the middle of the room, there spread themselves out, and finally drop, fluttering, to the floor. A porcelain pipebowl, belonging to Kern, flew around and broke to pieces. Knives and forks flew about; a knife fell on Hahn's head, striking him, however, with the handle only. Thereupon it was resolved, as these disturbances had now continued throughout two months, to move out of the room. Kern and Hahn's servant carried a bed into the opposite chamber. No sooner had they gone, than a chalybeate water-bottle that was standing in the room moved close to the feet of the two who remained behind. A brass candlestick also, that appeared to come out of a corner of the room, fell to the ground, before them. In the room to which they removed, they spent a tolerably quiet night, though they could still hear noises in the room they had left. This was the last disturbance."

Hahn winds up his narration as follows:

"The story remained a mystery. All reflection on these strange occurrences, all investigation, though most

carefully made, to discover natural causes for them, left the observers in darkness. No one could suggest any possible means of effecting them, even had there been, which there was not, in the village or the neighborhood, any one capable of sleight of hand. And what motive could there be? The old castle was worth nothing, except to its owner. In short, one can perceive no imaginable purpose in the whole affair. It resulted but in the disturbing of some men, and in the frightening of others; but the occupants of the room became, during the two entire months that the occurrence lasted, as much accustomed to them as one can become to any daily recurring annoyance."*

The above narrative is subscribed and attested by Hahn as follows:

"I saw and heard every thing, exactly as here set down; observing the whole carefully and quietly. I experienced no fear whatever; yet I am wholly unable to account for the occurrences narrated.

"Written this 19th of November, 1808.

"COUNCILOR HAHN.”

Dr. Kerner, in the fourth edition of his "Seherin von Prevorst," informs us that the above narrative, when first printed by him, called forth various conjectured explanations of the mystery; the most plausible of which was, that Kern, being an adept in sleight of hand, had, for his amusement, thus made sport of his companion. When the doctor communicated this surmise to Hahn, the latter replied that, if there were no other cause for rejecting such a suspicion, the thing was rendered absolutely impossible by the fact that some of the manifestations occurred not only when he, Hahn, was entirely alone in the room, but even when Kern was temporarily absent on a journey. He adds, that Kern again and

"Die Scherin von Prevorst," 4th ed., Stuttgart, 1846, pp. 495 to 504.

LETTER FROM COUNCILOR HAHN.

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again urged him to leave the room; but that he, (Hahn,) still hoping to discover some natural explanation of these events, persisted in remaining. Their chief reason for leaving at last was Kern's regret for the destruction of his favorite pipe, an article of value, which he had bought in Berlin, and which he highly prized. He adds, that Kern died of a nervous fever, in the autumn of 1807.

I

Writing to Dr. Kerner on the subject, from Ingelfingen, under date 24th August, 1828, that is, more than twenty years after the events occurred, Hahn says, "I omitted no possible precautions to detect some natural cause. am usually accused of too great skepticism rather than of superstition. Cowardice is not my fault, as those who know me intimately will testify. I could rely, therefore, on myself; and I can have been under no illusion as to the facts, for I often asked the spectators, 'What did you see?' and each time from their replies I learned that they had seen exactly the same as I did myself." ... "I am at this moment entirely at a loss to assign any cause, or even any reasonable surmise, in explanation of these events. To me, as to all who witnessed them, they have remained a riddle to this day. One must expect hasty judgments to be passed on such occurrences; and even in relating what has not only been seen by oneself but also by others yet alive, one must be satisfied to incur the risk of being regarded as the dupe of an illusion."*

Dr. Kerner further adds, that, in the year 1830, a gentleman of the utmost respectability, residing in Stuttgart, visited Slawensik for the purpose of verifying the above narrative. He there found persons who ridiculed the whole as a deceit; but the only two men he met with, survivors of those who had actually witnessed the events, confirmed to him the accuracy of Hahn's narrative in every particular.

"Seherin von Prevorst," pp. 506, 507.

250

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER.

This gentleman further ascertained that the Castle of Slawensik had been since destroyed, and that, in clearing away the ruins, there was found a male skeleton walled in and without coffin, with the skull split open. By the side of this skeleton lay a sword.

This being communicated to Hahn, he replies, very rationally, "One may imagine some connection between. the discovered skeleton, the female image seen by Kern, and the disturbances we witnessed; but who can really know any thing about it?" And he adds, finally,—

"It matters nothing to me whether others believe my narrative or not. I recollect very well what I myself thought of such things before I had actually witnessed them, and I take it ill of nobody that he should pass upon them the same judgment which I would have passed previous to experience. A hundred witnesses will work no conviction in those who have made up their minds never to believe in any thing of the kind. I give myself no trouble about such persons; for it would be labor lost."

This last letter of Hahn's is dated May, 1831. During a quarter of a century, therefore, he retained, and reiterated, his conviction of the reality and unexplained character of the disturbances at Slawensik.

From the same source whence the above is derived, I select another example, of a later date, and which has the advantage of having been witnessed by Kerner himself.

THE SEERESS OF PREVORST.

Disturbances in the village of Oberstenfeld,

1825-26.

Amid the mountains of Northern Wurtemberg, in the village of Prevorst, there was born, in the year 1801, Madame Fredericke Hauffe, since well known to the

THE SEERESS OF PREVORST.

251

world through Dr. Kerner's history of her life and sufferings, as the "Seeress of Prevorst."*

Even as a child Madame Hauffe was in the habit of seeing what she believed to be disembodied spirits, not usually perceptible, however, by those around her; and this peculiarity, whether actual faculty or mere hallucination, accompanied her through life.

Kerner gives many examples. Throughout the year 1825, while residing in the village of Oberstenfeld, not far from Löwenstein, in the northern portion of the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Madame Hauffe was visited, or believed herself to be so, by the appearance, usually in the evening, about seven o'clock, of a male figure of dark complexion, which, she alleged, constantly begged for her prayers. With the question of the reality of this appearance I have here nothing to do; but I invite attention to the attendant circumstances. Kerner says,

"Each time before he appeared, his coming was announced to all present, without exception, by the sound of knockings or rappings, sometimes on one wall, sometimes on another, sometimes by a sort of clapping in

"Die Seherin von Prevorst, Eröffnungen über das innere Leben des Menschen, und über das Hereinragen einer Geisterwelt in die unsere." By Justinus Kerner, 4th ed., Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1846, 8vo, pp. 559.

This work, of which there is an English translation by Mrs. Crowe, attracted much attention and criticism at the time of its first appearance, and since. It was reviewed in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" of July 15, 1842, and there spoken of as "one of the most strange and most conscientiously elaborated works that has ever appeared on such a subject." Of Dr. Kerner himself the reviewer speaks as one of the ornaments of Germany.

Another Review, of February, 1846, notices in terms equally favorable the work and its author. It accords to Kerner a high reputation in his own country, not only as physician, but for his literary talents, and as a man of learning and of piety,-a man whose sincerity and good faith cannot be doubted even by the most skeptical. The reviewer further declares that the book itself contains many truths which will have to be admitted into our system of physiology and psychology.