On Monday night the owner of a local plantation and his family had retired to rest when suddenly they were aroused by a great outcry from the 'Negro' quarters, which was immediately to the rear of the house. They heard men, women and children screaming in terror, creating a scene of utter pandemonium. His wife and him sprang from their bed. Their room was illuminated as brightly as by a flood of sunlight, though the light was of a bluish cast. At first they thought that the 'Negro' cabins were being consumed by fire. They rushed to the windows and beheld a sight that fairly curdled the blood in their veins with horror and filled their hearts with utmost terror. Their daughters, shrieking loudly, came flying into the room, hysterical with fear. They beheld, standing to the right of the upper cabin, near the fence that separated the 'Negro’s' garden from the house yard a creature of gigantic stature, and the most horrifying appearance. It was nearly as high as the cabin and had a monstrous head not similar in shape to that of an ape, with two short white horns above each eye, and it had long arms, covered with shaggy hair of an ashen hue that terminated in huge paws, not unlike those of a cat, and armed with huge and hooked claws. Its breast was as broad as that of a large sized ox, its legs resembled the front legs of a horse, and only the hoofs were cloven. It had a long tail armed with a dart shaped horn, which it was continually switching about. Its eyes glowed like two living coals of fire, while its nostrils and mouth were emitting sheets of blue colored flame, with a hissing sound, like the hissing of a serpent only a thousand fold louder. Its general color, save the arms, was a dull dingy brown. The air was powerfully impregnated with a smell of burning sulfur. The poor 'Negroes' were evidently laboring under extreme terror, and two of them, an old woman and a lad were actually driven to insanity by their fears and have not recovered their reason up to this writing. The strange creature then was enveloped in a spiral in a spiral column of flame that reached nearly to the top of the locust trees adjacent, and which hid its horrid form completely from view. The extinction of the flame was instantaneous, and with its disappearance they were relieved of the presence of this remarkable visitor. It was reported that the same or similar creature appeared on several nights at neighboring plantations.
Source: Anomalistic List - Jerome Clark, quoting Nathaniel G. Squires
No comments:
Post a Comment