I read the story,'The Ghost and the Bone-Setter' (1838) in Ghost Stories and Mysteries [of J. Sheridan LeFanu, (more usually spelled 'Le Fanu')]. This story comes from The Purcell Papers. The author writes as,an unnamed narrator who inherited the papers of a parish priest named Francis Purcell, who had an interest in local traditions and wrote them down.

After mentioning an interesting superstition about what happens to the most recently buried corpse in a churchyard until another corpse is buried, we get the actual story.

The story is told in Irish dialect. The person telling it is the teacher son of Terry Neil the bone-setter.

It seems that Sir Phelim's castle is haunted by the spirit of his grandfather, the old squire. Whenever the family is away, one of their tenants has to sit in the room where the old squire's portrait is hanging, or the ghost emerges from it and causes mischief.

This night it's Terry Neil's turn. He's managed to get Lawrence the steward to sit with him, but old Larry falls asleep. Terry has to deal with the ghost by himself.

Notes:

a. The story is using 'quare' [queer] in its old meaning of being odd or strange.

b. For the supposed use of the 'n' word as an adjective, add a 'd' between the 'r' and the 'ly' and you'll get an old word for stingy, which is the word meant.

c. For 'bliggard,' read 'blaggard'.


This story is meant to be humorous, parts of it are. However, I do not find humor in persons of lower social class misusing big words and not realizing how they're contradicting themselves. Still, I was amused by the plot and something the ghost let slip.. ( )