"David Mulhallen: Songs and Stories of Australia

GHOSTS AND OTHER SUPERSTITIONS

INTRODUCTION STRANGE LIGHTS THE LIGHT OF GREEN MOUNTAINS

I camped one night in an empty hut on the side of a lonely hill;
I didn't go much on empty huts, but the night was awful chill.
So I boiled my billy and had me tea, and seen that the door was shut,
Then I went to bed in an empty bunk by the side of the old slab hut.

It must have been about twelve o'clock – I was feeling cosy and warm –
When at the foot of me bunk I see a horrible ghostly form.
It seemed in shape to be half an ape with a head like a chimpanzee,
But wot the 'ell was it doin' there, and wot did it want with me?

You may say, if you please, that I had the D.Ts or call me a crimson liar,
But I wish you had seen it as plain as me with its eyes like coals of fire!
Then it gave a moan and a horrible groan that curdled me blood with fear,
And “There's only the two of us ere,” it ses, “there's only the two of us 'ere!”

I kept one eye on the old hut door and one on the awful brute;
I only wanted to dress meself and get to the door and scoot.
But I couldn't find where I'd left me boots, so I hadn't a chance to clear,
And “There's only the two of us here,” it moans, “there's only the two of us here!”

I hadn't a thing to defend meself, not even a stick or stone;
And “There's only two of us here!” it ses again, with a horrible groan
I thought I'd better make some reply, though I reckoned me end was near;
“By the holy smoke, when I find me boots there'll only be one of us here!”

I get me hands on me number tens and out of the door I scoots,
And I lit the whole hillside up with the sparks from my blucher boots.
So I've never slept in a hut since then, and I tremble and shake with fear
When I think of that horrible form wot moaned “There's only the two of us here!”

So writes bush poet Edward Harrington in one of his best known verses,
There's Only The Two Of Us Here',

Introduction

Ghost stories and other tales of mystery and superstition are common place, even in Australia. Invariably, they are associated with something that happened many years ago and range in subject from unexplained events to haunted buildings. Often, the story revolves around a person who has died suddenly and sometimes unexpectedly. For example, there are numerous stories of ghosts of people who were executed. We tend to laugh at this idea and the claim that the ghosts walk around with their heads tucked under their arms. Of course these are tall tales, but there is a serious side to ghost stories and the fact that the stories have often lasted through the ages suggests some may have an element of truth in them. Mostly though, stories of ghosts are to do with strange lights, odd sounds, a spooky feeling and the knowledge that there is something that is going on that is too hard to explain, which gives rise to the idea that a ghost is about.

As a boy, growing up in England, I have actually seen the suggestion of ghosts in a host of Roman chariots racing before storm clouds in the skies over Dartmoor. I don't know much about the background to the story of the ghostly clouds or why the Romans were charging over the Devon countryside, but the sight is very real and I must say quite exhilarating! So I tend to treat the idea of ghost stories with an open mind. Which brings me to Australia.

Years ago, during an interview with a well-known folk collector, I asked if the Australian tradition had many songs, verse and yarns about ghosts and other superstitions. The collector looked at me with some disdain and said “No!”. His eyes told me that he really thought the question somewhat ignorant – “As if Australia would have such a tradition! – This isn't Europe!” But why shouldn't there be ghost stories here? Certainly, the Aboriginal traditions are rich in superstition, not just in terms of the Dreaming, but in the sorts of stories that are told in general conversation and especially those told to children. Many of these are moral tales of warning, but they still use the theme of ghost stories and other tales of mystery and imagination. The Bunyip, for instance, is a warning to beware of the dangers of seemingly quiet waters. Whilst, the Min-Min Light and others like it are thought to be the ghosts of dead men. The Min-Min Light has been scaring the blazes out of Aboriginal people for centuries and more recently out of Europeans too.

In writing this series of articles for Swag Of Yarns, I am indebted to a number of reference books and writers, but most especially to Frank Cusack's book Australian Ghost Stories published by Heinemann. I presume the book was published in the 1960s, but by the time I found the book, in a second-hand shop, such details had been torn out. Also, I should thank folk singer John Dengate, who wrote a script and presented a show about songs and stories in the Australian folk tradition on the subject of ghosts, in 1990, for my ABC radio show Songs and Stories of Australia. Of equal acclaim is story-teller Anne E. Stewart who continues the tradition of ghost stories and was the first special guest I chose for a series of story-telling shows I presented in Melbourne for my other ABC Radio Program A Swag Of Yarns back in 1995. Their ideas compliment my own interest in folklore and the folk tradition. But I should say that there are a wealth of fictional short stories and poems written about ghosts by a long list of Australian writers. Some of these have been collected together in the Oxford Book Of Australian Ghost Stories, selected by Ken Gelder (Oxford University Press, Australia - 1994)

A SWAG OF YARNS

GHOSTS AND OTHER SUPERSTITIONS

Introduction