Another blood-curdling story is that of four travellers who arrived by
night at an inn, but could obtain no other accommodation than a room in
which was lying the corpse of the landlord's daughter-in-law. Three of
the four were soon snoring; the fourth, however, remained awake, and
very soon heard a creaking of the trestles on which was the dead body
dressed out in paper robes, ready for burial. To his horror he saw the
girl get up, and go and breathe on his companions; so by the time she
came to him he had his head tucked well under the bedclothes. After a
little while he kicked one of the others; but finding that his friend
did not move, he suddenly grabbed his own trousers and made a bolt for
the door. In a moment the corpse was up and after him, following him
down the street, and gaining gradually on him, no one coming to the
rescue in spite of his loud shrieks as he ran. So he slipped behind
a tree, and dodged right and left, the infuriated corpse also dodging
right and left, and making violent efforts to get him. At length, the
girl made a rush forward with one arm on each side, in the hope of thus
grabbing her victim. The traveller, however, fell backwards and escaped
her clutch, while she remained rigidly embracing the tree. By and by he
was found senseless on the ground; and the corpse was removed from the
tree, but with great difficulty, as the fingers were buried in the bark
so deep that the nails were not even visible. The other three travellers
were found dead in their beds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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