Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/279

Rh other ghosts. He held a situation in one of the merchants' offices on the beach at Madras.

It was customary for a peon or watcher to stay all night at this office, and some difficulty was experienced in getting a man to fulfil the duty. The reason given for refusal to take the post of watchman was that the place was haunted by the ghost of a punkahman who had met with an accidental death on the spot. This punkahman in years gone by had served the head of the firm as a body servant while his master was in the office. His duties were to meet his master on arrival, carry his office-box upstairs, where the merchant sat, return to the carriage for the tiffin-basket, and make a third journey to fetch the water-goglet and tumbler. One day, in returning for the water-bottle, the man tripped, fell' down the stairs, and broke his neck. He had a tall, spare figure, and was always dressed in a spotless white Mahratta dress, the coat being full at the waist and reaching to the feet. The dress is seen at the present time on the servants of the Madras Club. He wore a muslin turban of blue check of a peculiar pattern, unlike anything that is used in the present day.

Soon after his death he was met by the night-watchman running up and down stairs as if in the performance of his duties. If there had been nothing more to disturb them but his appearance the servants might not have objected. The peculiar feature of the haunting was, that wherever the night-watchman slept he found himself in a different place on awaking. The move was made without the knowledge of the sleeper. Nothing was felt: he merely awoke in a different spot from the one in which he had laid himself down.

The watchman became nervous and took a companion to keep him company. It made no difference. In the morning the two men found themselves in another part of the house. Then a party watched, keeping awake all