Submitted by Constantine on
The Great Amherst Mystery was a poltergeist haunting the astonished the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, Canada in 1878. It centered on 18 year old Esther Cox.
“Esther Cox you are mine to kill,” said writing that mysteriously appeared on the wall of the girl’s bedroom. The haunting featured just about every type of poltergeist activity from outbreaks of fire and stone throwing to Esther’s stomach swelling to enormous size. This last effect was presumably the result of swallowing air, or some internal fermentation, for she reverted to her normal shapeliness after a, “loud report, like a clap of thunder but without any characteristic rumble.” This must have been one of the noisiest poltergeist bangs ever, for Esther’s mother leapt to the conclusion that her home had been struck by a meteorite and rushed to the bedroom of her youngest children to see if all was well with them. She found them sleeping peacefully and the house undamaged.
If, as it seems likely, the poltergeist’s “thunderclap” was Esther breaking wind with immense vigor, one is forced to consider that the knocks, bangs and drumming associated with poltergeists sometimes have a similar origin. It is perhaps significant that the noises made by a 17th century poltergeist as the ‘drummer of Tedworth’ were on at least one occasion accompanied by a “mysterious sulphurous smell,” which “those present found very offensive.”
No such smells were reported by those who witnessed the Amherst hauntings; perhaps there were none, or more likely, Victorian sensibilities prevented them from being mentioned.
Passage from Francis King, Sex, sin and sacrament, The Unexplained, Vol. 21, pgs, 2580- 2581