THE KISS OF DEATH. Strange Superstition of Monterey Mexicans.
The Santa Cruz ghost which has been engrossing the attention of the citizens of that famous wateringplace by its midnight revelries recalls a legend of San Juan, in the adjoining country, told the writer many years ago by a narrator no less credible than a good old Spanish priest, with whom the writer happened to be .staying on a few da}'s' visit. One morning after breakfast I expressed a wish to stroll into the ancient graveyard attached to the old adobe church of that quaint little Mexican town. The old padre, with the kindness and courtesy characteristic of the simple missionary fathers, at once acceded and acpompained the writer, relating as we walked among the graves the brief history of some who lay quietly beneath. " Here," he observed, with a quiet smile as he pointed to a grave in tho middle of the cemetery, " here is a grave which the simple old Mexican families around here look upon with unusual interest, if not with actual awe." " A murder?" "No, no ! something much ttranger. I havo tried to combat the idea, and while I would be addressing the people they would say, "Si Si Padre." They would assent to all I said, but the belief remained and does remain indelible. " A spirit," ho began, "is said to have appeared to eveiyono buried in that grave, and to warn the family whenever any of them is about to pass away. ' " Its appearance, which is generally madein the following manner, is believed to be uniformly fatal, being an omen of death to those who are so unhappy as to meet with it. "When a funeral takes place the spirit is said to watch the person who remains last in the graveyard, over whom it possesses a fascinating iniluence. "If the person be a young man the spirit takes the shape of a fascinating female inpires him with a charmed passion and exacts a promise that he will meet her at tho graveyard a month from that day. The promise is sealed with a kiss that communicates a deadly tainc to him who complies. " The spirit then disappears. No sooner does the person from whom it received the promise and the kiss pass the boundary of the churchyard than he remembers the history of the spectre. Ho sinks into despair and insanity, and dies. If, on the contrary, the spectre appears to a female, it assumes the form of a young man of exceeding elegance and beauty." The padre showed mo the grave of a young person about IS years of age, who was said four months before to have fallen a victim to it. ''Ten months ago," the father said, "a man gave the promise and the fatal kis^, and consequently .looked upon himself as lo>fc. He took a fever and : died, and was buried on the day appointed for the meeting, which was exactly a month after the tatal interview. " Incredible as it may appear, the friends of these two persons solemnly declared to me that the particulars of the interview were repeatedly detailed by the two persons without the slightest variation. ''There aie several cases of the same kind mentioned, but the two cases alluded to are the only ones that came within my personal knowledge. "It appears, however, that the spectre does not confine its operations to the graveyard only. There have been instances mentioned of its appearance at weddings and social parties, where it never failed to secure its victims by dancing them into pleuritic fevers. '' On being questioned as to what he might think of such possibleoceurrences, the good father simply smiled and shook his head.
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Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 3
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617THE KISS OF DEATH. Strange Superstition of Monterey Mexicans. Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 3
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