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mysteries |
An African Pregnancy Test |
Other Information |
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Described by Andrew MacKenzie, a prominent researcher of ghost phenomena and author of several books on the subject, as 'one of the strangest accounts I have ever come across', this story of the haunting of a cottage in Zulu Africa in 1952 is highly intriguing. It was related by Margaret Leigh and concerns her time in Africa when she was doing occupational therapy at a mission hospital in the Transkei, South Africa, where her husband was doing research work. They were living in a cottage 'which had a thatched circular living room with a small built-in cupboard on the thick rough-hewn stone wall'. The front door was heavy timber with no knocker. The cottage stood in a dry, empty, dusty landscape. Later to have significance, a friend staying with the couple remarked, on seeing Margaret playing with her cat, Tivy, that she (Margaret) was acting 'as if [she] was broody'. Shortly after this there was a knock at the door and Tivy leapt off the window sill on which he habitually sat sunning himself and went out of the room. On this first occasion they opened the door but could find no one there. On subsequent occasions, after they had become used to the haunting, of which this was their first taste, they ceased bothering to open the door, often to the puzzlement of guests. If invited to open the door, the guests would also discover no one there. As Margaret related, when the ghost entered they heard a shuffling limp, crossing from the door to the couch where he would sit down. Then he would get up and go to the cupboard in the wall; then back to the couch. After talking to a local man Margaret's husband was able to determine that the apparition was that of 'Cousin John', the dead cousin of the widow's husband, who had once lived in the cottage. Of the actual movement of the apparition, the local man explained that Cousin John stored his drinks in the cupboard, and told his wife, who disapproved, never to go there as there was a bees' nest in it. Perhaps significantly, John and his wife had been childless when the haunting first began. The knocking and presence of 'Cousin John' grew more frequent later that year when Margaret became pregnant. Several people who came to the cottage were unsettled or refused to remain there and even those who knew the story found it difficult to believe that the door could be banged on so loudly by 'nothing'. It seems that after the birth of Margaret's child the haunting came to an end. Later they returned to England. Some three years later Margaret and her husband revisited the mission and visited Tivy and the cottage. Without being prompted, the new owners asked if the couple had ever heard knocking at the front door and found no one there. Margaret made the connection immediately and declared, 'Your wife is pregnant.' The husband denied this, of course, not knowing at the time that his wife would give birth nine months later! It appeared that Cousin John, for some reason never determined, liked to be around pregnant women. |
Place: Zulu, Africa Source: A. M. Date: 1952 |