in our sight, that, too, is only part of the illusion. The door did
not open; the curtain was not lifted. Nay, if the wrist or hand of
the seer is burned or withered, as in a crowd of stories, the ghost's
hand did not produce the effect. It was produced in the same way as
when a hypnotised patient is told that "his hand is burned," his fancy
then begets real blisters, or so we are informed, truly or not. The
stigmata of St. Francis and others are explained in the same way. {70}
How ghosts pull bedclothes off and make objects fly about is another
question: in any case the ghosts are not _seen_ in the act.

Thus the clothes of ghosts, their properties, and their actions
affecting physical objects, are not more difficult to explain than a
naked ghost would be, they are all the "stuff that dreams are made
of". But occasionally things are carried to a great pitch, as when a
ghost drives off in a ghostly dogcart, with a ghostly horse, whip and
harness. Of this complicated kind we give two examples; the first
reckons as a "subjective," the second as a veracious hallucination.

THE OLD FAMILY COACH

A distinguished and accomplished country gentleman and politician, of
scientific tastes, was riding in the New Forest, some twelve miles
from the place where he was residing. In a grassy glade he discovered
that he did not very clearly know his way to a country town which he
intended to visit. At this moment, on the other side of some bushes a
carriage drove along, and then came into clear view where there was a
gap in the bushes. Mr. Hyndford saw it perfectly distinctly; it was a
slightly antiquated family carriage, the sides were in that imitation
of wicker work on green panel which was once so common. The coachman
was a respectable family servant, he drove two horses: two old ladies