ANTS USED IN SORCERY? by Franz Hartmann

It sometimes seems as if we were at the eve of a new period of witchcraft, like that of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, where it was even by learned people believed that insects and worms, lice and fleas could be produced by magic spells.

Modem science, of course, does not believe in spontaneous generation. Nevertheless, the following facts, communicated to me by Mr. A. W., a personal friend of mine, may go to indicate that the mysteries of generation of ants may not yet be fully scientifically investigated or known.

He writes:

« In the year 1885 there died at G___ an elder brother of mine, who for twenty-five years had been a Catholic priest at that place. He left a small farm, which by his last will and testament he made over to the convent of T___; but as there were certain obligations connected with this inheritance, the convent refused to accept it, and it came into my possession. Being fond of farming I moved into the little cottage and took charge of the place.

I had only one neighbor, and he had a very bad reputation. I received many warnings, advising me to beware of him, he being a very dangerous person, and it was said that he was a sorcerer and his wife nothing less than a witch.

Of course I laughed at these reports, because I believed neither in witchcraft nor sorcery, nor in anything of a spiritual or religions kind. I was a thorough materialist and rationalist, and prided myself in ignoring everything that could not be demonstrated to my physical senses. I would have considered it beneath my dignity to give to such popular superstitions so much as a thought.

However, I had a very material reason to keep away from my neighbor; because among other things with which my farm was encumbered was a lease upon a bam belonging to that neighbor, which my brother had used for drying his hops. Now I found that the lease-holder had the habit of not merely pocketing the rent, but also stealing as much as he could of the hops, and to make an end of this robbery I paid him my lease in advance, but made no more use of his bam.

My neighbor, finding his income thus inconveniently cut down, became furious and tried to revenge himself upon me on every occasion, sneering at me and using offensive language whenever I happened to come within sight of him. He tried his best to damage my property, and I was finally forced to get a bulldog to protect my house.

One day about noon, I was walking in my garden, which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, when I beheld William — for so I will call him — standing at the other side of the fence, making faces at me and using abusive language. For a while I tried to ignore his presence; but finally his vituperations were so strong that I became exasperated beyond endurance, and rushed towards him, intending to strike him.

In my fury, however, I forgot the barbed wire and running against it, wounded my hand. This caused an outburst of hilarity on the part of William and an outburst of wrath on my own, so much so that I cursed him to his face.

This was the last I ever saw of him, and when a few weeks afterwards I inquired about him at the village, I was told that he was ill with intestinal obstruction and not expected to live. Two days afterwards he died, and everybody in the village rejoiced over his death.

While he lived they were all afraid of him and dared not say anything against him; but now, as he was beyond doing harm their tongues became loosened and characterized him without mercy.

A couple of days passed in peace; but one morning at about eight o’clock, just as the funeral bell was ringing for William, I went toward the village to attend to some business, when it suddenly began to snow. In a few minutes the ground was covered.

All at once I saw at a short distance ahead of me what seemed to be a black ribbon about five inches wide stretching across the road, and as I came nearer, I found that this black streak consisted of innumerable travelling ants.

This was the more surprising to me, as I knew that ants usually sleep in winter and do not travel through the snow or over the hard frozen soil. Moreover, these ants were of enormous size, each nearly half an inch, with round heads and of a black color.

They came out of a big hole in the ground at the wayside in never-ending quantities, crossing the road and rushing in the direction of my farm. This circumstance made me suspect that they intended mischief. I turned back and arrived at my house just in time to oppose the invaders. They had already attempted to enter my cottage, and were scaling the walls.

During the whole day I and a servant attempted to defend the premises against these terrible ants — by using hot water and brooms, ashes and quicklime. Thousands were killed, but there was no end of newcomers, and while we were defending the cottage, another party invaded the bam and the stable.

It was late in the night when I went to bed, but I did not sleep, for suddenly tremendous noises or raps were heard upon the wall next to the head end of my bed. It seemed as if the wall had split in two; blows followed one after another. I got up and lit a light. I examined the walls and discovered nothing; but while I stood before one spot of the wall, the raps commenced on another.

I repeat, that the idea of there being any ghosts never entered my mind, and I would have treated any such suggestion with the utmost contempt. Nevertheless, these noises continued night after night, making the nights almost intolerable, until at last I became used to it. For seven years these troubles continued, but my scepticism remained the same.

At last I took a severe illness, and the doctors did not know what to make of it. Some called it “neuralgia.” I suffered terribly, my body was as it were paralyzed; I could not move, and had to lie still like a piece of wood. The least noise caused me agonies, and still I had to bear these loud knocks and blows on the wall.

I also noticed that they came and went with a certain regularity, and it began to dawn upon my mind that they might have some intelligent, although invisible cause. The thought struck me that perhaps the ghost of William might be connected with these phenomena, and although I at first rejected this idea, the thought finally grew into an interior conviction, which I could not ignore.

One morning, while half awake, I had the feeling as if some monster were attempting to penetrate into my body. I thought I saw an enormous animal, half spider, half scorpion, letting itself down on a self-spun thread from the ceiling; but when it came near my face, it gave a jump and seemed to disappear in a hole in the wall. But there was no hole.

I now remembered that in my youth I had been taught that we should pray for the dead, and the thought came to me, that if these things were caused by the restless ghost of William, perhaps if I were to pray for him, he would leave me in peace. However, I found praying to be a difficult job. I could not forget all the mischief which William had done to me, and each rap on the wall sent a pain through my body, as if I were struck by a spear.

Finding that my prayers were useless, I began to curse; this only seemed to increase the noises; but at length they suddenly ceased. I felt that night terribly lonesome and desolate, as if some part of myself had become separated from me, or as if my best friend had been carried to the grave, and I almost wished that the ghost of William would return from the place to where I had sent him, and make his raps again.

On the next morning I noticed that I could move my arms and legs, and after some exertion I was able to sit up in my bed, and eventually to leave it with assistance. Great was my joy when I found I could descend the stairs and re-enter my writing-room, which was situated directly below the room where I used to sleep.

All day I remained in my writing-room, attending to a pile of letters which had accumulated upon my desk during my illness. It was already dark, and I was sitting in my comfortable chair, when I distinctly heard somebody moving in my bedroom above. This somebody seemed to drag himself slowly with heavy trailing steps towards the descending staircase, and then I heard a heavy fall, as if a body had fallen downstairs.

There was no one in the house at that time except myself and no one could have produced the noise; but the same thing occurred on the next and the following day at the same hour. Raps on the wall were heard occasionally, but they grew weaker, and at the same time I grew stronger in health.

In the meantime, the ants had done a great deal of damage to the bam and also found their way into the cottage. Outwardly the walls showed no signs, but after removing the plaster it was found that the woodwork in many places was eaten up ; rafters and sleepers were only a spongy mass, and had to be replaced by new ones one after another.

These ants did their work as thoroughly as the white ants in India; but they had no resemblance to them. All my efforts to get rid of them were of no avail. The more I killed, the more they seemed to be increasing in numbers, and in the year 1905, getting tired of the struggle, I left the place. I have never seen or heard of such a queer kind of ants again. Could they have been products of the astral plane? »

(The Occult Review, March 1909, vol. 9, p.132-134, “Some Occult Happenings”)