Carrying A Corpse.

A WOODSMAN who had been to market was returning home with his pole across his shoulder, when suddenly he felt it become very heavy at the end behind him, and looking round he saw attached to it the headless trunk of a man. In great alarm, he got his pole quit of the burden and struck about him right and left, whereupon the body disappeared. He then hurried on to the next village, and when he arrived there in the dusk of the evening, he found several men holding lights to the ground as if looking for something. On asking what was the matter, they told him that while sitting together a man’s head had fallen from the sky into their midst; that they had noticed the hair and beard were all draggled, but in a moment the head had vanished. The woodsman then related what had happened to himself; and thus one whole man was accounted for, though no one could tell whence he came. Subsequently, another man was carrying a basket when some one saw a man’s head in it, and called out to him; whereupon he dropped the basket in a fright, and the head rolled away and disappeared.

負尸

有樵夫赴市，荷杖而歸，忽覺杖頭如有重負。回顧，見一無頭人懸繫其上。大驚，脫杖亂擊之，遂不復見。駭奔，至一村。時已昏暮，有數人爇火照地，似有所尋。近問訊，蓋眾適聚坐，忽空中墮一人頭，鬚髮蓬然，倏忽已渺。樵人亦言所見，合之適成一人，究不解其何來。後有人荷籃而行，忽見其中有人頭，人訝詰之，始大驚，傾諸地上，宛轉而沒。