Bluenose Ghosts (15 page)

“So he said, ‘I'll make a bargain with the devil and he'll see that I keep it.' The rival then loaned him the horse and the prospective bridegroom rode triumphantly away. But when morning came the owner of the horse was greatly taken aback to find the animal standing beside the barn door. There was no sign of his rider. He became alarmed then for his safety, and made inquiries. He had never arrived at the home of his intended bride. Evidently in crossing the bay on the ice, horse and man had gone through, but the horse, having no part in the bargain, had got out. The man had drowned and his body was washed ashore in the spring. The owner of the horse stood over the drowned man and shook his head. He was heard to remark, ‘That's what happens when you make a bargain with the devil. He collects first.' ”

Still in Cape Breton we turn now to Marion Bridge for a story of a family named MacDonald. None connected with this unpleasant tale is still living. It was told by Mr. Alex Morrison of Marion Bridge who lived a mile and a half from the MacDonald home.

“There were two boys in the family and they were tough, and there was also a girl who was deformed. The boys used to beat their father and their mother and every evening a dog used to circle the field, only it wasn't a real dog. The MacDonald boys used to go down the road and fire shots to frighten people and it was thought that the dog was the devil. We didn't know whether the boys were in league with him, or whether he was waiting around to get them. Perhaps they were possessed of evil spirits that we read about in the Bible. It was always just about dark when the dog would be seen.

“In the house where they lived there was a fireplace and a backlog three feet long and heavy. People used to go to the house at night to see what would happen. After they got in, this backlog would be placed against the door but, no matter how securely they fixed it, the door would open just enough for a foot to be seen, like a hoof coming in the door. That was all that anybody ever saw when the door opened. As far as we knew the foot never came inside. This went on for a full year, and nobody could understand how any live animal could have moved that door. After that the boys were taken away and the dog was never seen again. That ended it.”

Although the devil himself does not appear in our next story, it tells of an evil man and what happened to him as the result of a cruel deed. It comes from Clarke's Harbour.

“There was a man at The Hawk (a village on Cape Sable Island) who was very bad. He was at the shore in the store (fish house) and when he went outside a sea gull flew very low. He reached out and grabbed it. He had been slitting fish and had his sharp knife in his hand, so he took his knife and slashed both its feet off. He swore an oath and said, ‘God damn you, get out and get your living the same way I have to.' He never saw the bird again but from that day his hands began to take on the appearance of claws. Years went by and at last he died. The day he was buried was overcast with drifting clouds, a weird sort of day. The man's hands were crossed over his breast, and everybody could see very plainly that they were no longer hands, but claws.

“As the coffin was resting on the ground and the minister was about to commit the body to the earth, he looked up and saw a black cat coming towards them fast. There are no houses nearby and therefore no cats wandering about the cemetery. There were about twelve people standing beside the grave. The minister went on, and the cat made its way between them and ran right over the casket. They brushed it hastily away, but afterwards none of them could tell where it went or if it just vanished.

“When they were returning from the funeral the undertaker said to the minister, ‘Did you ever see anything happen like that?' The minister said no, he never had and, to himself, hoped he never would again. The undertaker said, ‘I wonder if that was the cat that caught that poor bird?' Everybody knew the story, for the man had told it himself. They inquired all around, but nobody was ever able to place that cat and that was the only time it was seen on the island. Perhaps, they thought, it might be the seagull in the form of a cat, or it might even have been the devil.”

Another bad man story used to be told at Tiverton in Digby County to frighten children.

“There was a man whose name was Bramber, and this happened a very long time ago. He lived to be an old man but a very bad one, and everybody knew that he had an evil reputation. He went out of his house one night and disappeared. His shoes were on the steps when he went out and they were all that was ever found. People used to say that the devil had got him.”

Occasionally we hear of two men having been seen in a boat when, upon closer inspection, there was only one. “Tom McDonald used to live at Moser's River and he was supposed to have been very wicked although it was so long ago that nobody remembers just what it was that he did. He was a fisherman and fished alone. The other men could see two men in the boat when they were at a distance but the second one was never there when they got close to him. They always thought it was the devil.”

According to a story from Middle Musquodoboit, Ike Foley was responsible for his own death although he did not anticipate it when he spoke. “He was an awful man to swear. There was a hussock, a rock in the stream that bothered them when they were river-driving. He got mad and said if the devil would come he would go out and help him, and together they would take the rock out of that stream. The boys laughed at him and said if the devil's voice came he'd be too scared to go out, but that evening they heard it. Ike wouldn't go, but they all got after him and dared him, not thinking it was really the devil that they heard. It came three times, but still Ike wouldn't go. Next morning when they went out the rock was gone, and nobody knew who moved it. Shortly after that, Ike was walking on thin ice at that place and he fell through and got drowned. We always felt the devil got him and, after that, you could hear the devil's chains rattling whenever you went by.”

Another story of a rock that jammed logs in the centre of a river was told of a man named Cruikshanks and a logger in his employ. The place was Moser's River on our eastern shore. Here too the man said, “If the devil comes himself to move that rock I'll go and help him.” In this story Mr. Cruikshanks forced the man to go, never dreaming it was really the devil who called from outside. The logger was never seen again and, as in the previous case, the rock had been removed while the other men had slept. It is said that Mr. Cruikshanks regretted for the rest of his life that he had sent his man to his death.

The appearance of a second man in a boat may not always have a bad effect, according to a man from Tantallon.

“A man here was a pilot and an awful drinker and he used to go across to the Head of St. Margaret's Bay.This time he had been at the Prince of Wales Hotel and as usual had spent some time at the bar. As he was going home his engine stopped. He got mad and swore and said, ‘If the devil will come and help me it will be all right,' and he looked up and there was a fine-looking man beside him with a beaver hat and a frock coat. He wasn't too far gone in drink to recognize him for what he was, and he turned religious. Yes, he was a good man after that. A lot of people have told the story, and everybody knew about it at the time.”

From the preceding story it appears that people sometimes get a second chance. I am reminded now of an incident from French Village. “My father and Uncle Steve and Uncle Albert were fishing and had only a couple of fish, so Uncle Steve said, just for fun, ‘If we meet the devil we'll give them to him.' When they got to the road there was a great big animal larger than a dog. They all said it was an awful ugly thing, and different from any animal they'd ever seen or heard of. But they didn't give it the fish. They were scared to death and I guess they never said they'd give the devil anything again.”

Mr. Edward Gallagher of Chebucto Head had this to tell. “Ten people saw the devil when the Mary B. Grier was tied up one year at the Commercial Wharf at Boston. It was a cold frosty night and, if there had been anybody coming afoot, they would have heard him. Three times he came and peered around the foremast, and twice he went away without making any sound. The third time a bean crock was thrown at him. He had red eyes like a blaze of fire. It was thought he was a former owner, probably because that year they'd got the best catch ever, and he was jealous.”

Beans play a part in the next story which comes from Clarke's Harbour. In this case it was not the devil, but the Almighty who was challenged. The story was told me by the daughter of the man who had the experience. “Then Swim was cook on a boat. He used to swear a lot and he had a temper. One night he had a pot of beans in the oven and the pot came out and spilled. He got in a temper and put them back again. They came out a second time. This time he told God not to dare send those beans out again and to make sure he wired the oven door so they couldn't get out. But out they came.

“By this time he was so angry he went on deck and told God to come half-way down the mast and he'd meet Him and have it out. Nothing happened on deck but, no matter what he did with the beans that night, they kept coming out of the oven, and finally he had to give it up.”

Here now is what happens to a man who breaks the Sabbath day as told by a Negro at Sackville. “Two men went into the woods to shoot on Sunday and they had to stay in a camp. About ten o'clock that night they heard a ghost man hauling timber and a saw going, and trees going crash, and he was calling, ‘Timber! Timber!' all night till morning. He did that till the sun riz, driving horses and logging all night. That was his punishment for logging on a Sunday. He had to keep it up long after he died.

“My grandfather's brother kept on working after he died, too, because he didn't get the wood cut up that he was supposed to do. After he died you could hear the saw going squak squak squak, and the wood going blump blump. One moonlight night my father and his brother saw the man sawing, and the next day there was no wood sawed. What they seen looked like a big pile.

“Another man died without shingling his roof, and they used to see him pounding and pounding, but there was never any sound.” Conscience is such a strong force that a wrongdoer may suffer the tortures of the damned before he leaves this earth. “About eighty years ago a young girl had finished a visit with friends and, when it was time for her to leave, they got a ride for her with a young man who was going to her home at Marion Bridge. It is unlikely anything was known to his discredit or they would not have entrusted her to his care. This was the horse and buggy era and the night was dark. A light appeared upon the hillside and it came down the hill, crossed in front of the team, and disappeared on the other side. The girl was astonished and very frightened when her companion got down on his knees on the floor of the carriage and prayed fervently. He was so upset that he forgot all about the horse. It was necessary for her to take the reins until the light disappeared and the driver came to his senses.

“When he finally felt it was safe for him to raise his head he made a terse explanation. ‘That light was for me because I'm a bad man.' In what way he had erred she never knew, but he must have thought the devil was in that light and had come to get him.”

Only a man who believed that the devil was sometimes heard rattling his chains could have told the following anecdote upon himself. “One time I went to see my girl and as I was walking through the woods I heard the devil's chain following me. The faster I went, the faster he went, so I ran all the way home and was done out by the time I got there. The next week when I put my best pants on again I discovered a hole in the pocket and realized it was the change slipping down that had made the noise. But I'd heard so much in the lumber woods that I thought this must be a devil's warning, and I never went to see that girl again.”

With so many horrible stories told about the devil it is not surprising to hear of incidents in which the more courageous have impersonated him in order to make sport of the timid. This was told by Mr. Horace Johnston.

“When I was twenty I went up to Kentville to visit a friend who was married. He was building a house and he was getting plaster from a man who said he'd have to knock off because he was afraid the plaster pit was going to cave in underneath his barn. This put him in a jam, so I said, ‘Harness up your horse and we'll go tonight and get a load. He'll never know.' He had to have that plaster and it seemed like a good idea so away we went. We hitched the horse a little to one side where it couldn't be seen from the road.

“It was always claimed this place was haunted. While we were digging a crowd of men came along this way from Kentville and they were feeling pretty good. They'd had some Adam's wine or something.When they got abreast of the pit we kept quiet, and then we heard one fellow say, ‘They say this place is haunted. Let's go see if the devil's there.'They looked down and we could see them but they couldn't see us. He said, ‘Mr. Devil, if you're down there let's hear from you.' I was a stranger so they wouldn't recognize my voice, so I did the talking, and I says, ‘I'm down here, and if you don't come down I'm coming up to get you.' Well sir they started in to run, and they were that frightened they fell down and left two bottles of rum behind and they probably tell to this day how they heard the devil himself speaking from that pit.”

Devil's Island has been mentioned earlier, and you may wonder how it got its name. Enos Hartlan gives this explanation. “One night there was a party out there on the island.There was drinkin' and dancin' and old Caspar Henneberry was there. About one a.m. he went outside and when he came back he was all white and shakin'. ‘Boys,' he say, ‘my time is finished.' ‘Why?' they asked. ‘How do you know?'

“‘I know because I seen the devil on the bankin' (of the house) and he come in the form of a halibut.'