frequent forlorn [1201]houses, which the Italians call foliots, most part
innoxious, [1202]Cardan holds; "They will make strange noises in the night,
howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again, cause great flame and
sudden lights, fling stones, rattle chains, shave men, open doors and shut
them, fling down platters, stools, chests, sometimes appear in the likeness
of hares, crows, black dogs," &c. of which read [1203]Pet Thyraeus the
Jesuit, in his Tract, _de locis infestis, part. 1. et cap. 4_, who will
have them to be devils or the souls of damned men that seek revenge, or
else souls out of purgatory that seek ease; for such examples peruse [1204]
Sigismundus Scheretzius, _lib. de spectris, part 1. c. 1._ which he saith
he took out of Luther most part; there be many instances. [1205]Plinius
Secundus remembers such a house at Athens, which Athenodorus the
philosopher hired, which no man durst inhabit for fear of devils. Austin,
_de Civ. Dei. lib. 22, cap. 1._ relates as much of Hesperius the Tribune's
house, at Zubeda, near their city of Hippos, vexed with evil spirits, to
his great hindrance, _Cum afflictione animalium et servorum suorum_. Many
such instances are to be read in Niderius Formicar, _lib. 5. cap. xii. 3._
&c. Whether I may call these Zim and Ochim, which Isaiah, cap. xiii. 21.
speaks of, I make a doubt. See more of these in the said Scheretz. _lib. 1.
de spect. cap. 4._ he is full of examples. These kind of devils many times
appear to men, and affright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at
[1206]noonday, sometimes at nights, counterfeiting dead men's ghosts, as
that of Caligula, which (saith Suetonius) was seen to walk in Lavinia's
garden, where his body was buried, spirits haunted, and the house where he
died, [1207]_Nulla nox sine terrore transacta, donec incendio consumpta_;
every night this happened, there was no quietness, till the house was
burned. About Hecla, in Iceland, ghosts commonly walk, _animas mortuorum
simulantes_, saith Joh. Anan, _lib. 3. de nat. daem._ Olaus. _lib. 2. cap.
2._ Natal Tallopid. _lib. de apparit. spir._ Kornmannus _de mirac. mort.
part. 1. cap. 44._ such sights are frequently seen _circa sepulchra et