The mysterious events of more than a century ago on the Izmailovsky farm in the Ural region remain a sensation. Rumors about them reached the members of the Orenburg branch of the Imperial Geographical Society, who sent a corresponding request to Major A. V. Pokotilov, manager of the Iletsk villages. He thought it good to ask the owner of the farm, V. Schapov, for explanations, and eight days after the request received a detailed message from him.
Dear sir Alexander Vasilievich! Fulfilling your request regarding the message about the miracles that have taken place and are still happening at the present time, I only ask you to excuse that my story will come out, maybe not so coherent and consistent, but for the fact that it is true and not fictional, I vouch and expose witnesses that will confirm all this. To begin with, on November 16, returning from the Iletsk town to my farm, I learned from my family and employees that during my absence, it was from November 14 to November 15, that is, on the eve of Sunday, at about 2 a.m. something extraordinary. Namely, as they said, at first they were frightened by a strong knock on the wall with their fist, then causing a knock on the glass of the outer window overlooking the forest; then they clearly hear that over their heads, that is, on the ceiling, someone is dancing,and this dance was so distinct and natural that at first they thought that it was our cook Marya, whom my wife, for the sake of a joke, to entertain the child, made to dance in the room that evening, was still making fun. It turned out, however, that the cooking was asleep, and the knocking, repeated from time to time, and the dancing did not stop until morning. The next night, they said, at about 2 pm the same story repeated itself. Despite the fact that all the employees in our house (up to 6 people) were gathered and cordoned off the house, they strictly monitored whether this was a joke of some eccentric or fraudster, but all their observations and even shots from a gun near the house did not lead to what; knocking on the wall, at the window and dancing with short interruptions - everything went on as before, so that even that night they spent almost no sleep. I listened to their story rather indifferently and mockingly,being cleansed from an early age, so to speak, of all superstitions, and made his wife feel it, reproaching her for it; and also gave them at the same time the word that if this story repeats itself in my presence (which my wife wished, taking offense at my reproach), then I undertake to explain to them the phenomenon that occurred, in my opinion, from some reasons, of course, natural, and not by the delusion of the devil, on whom they now blamed all the blame. At about 10 pm, when everyone went to bed, and at that time, lying on the bed in the room adjacent to my wife’s room, I calmly read a book, like a rather careful knock on the window, and then really dancing on the ceiling lifted me to my feet. A few minutes later, there is a strong banging against the wall. I didn't know what to think. It was hard to admitso that some scoundrel would decide for the third night in a row and disturb us without any purpose. probably knowing that I was at home (I arrived at 2 o'clock) and that it would not go unpunished for him, especially since, as I said, shots were made the day before. Other than that, staring out the window. with all my efforts I could not notice anything. There was only one thing left to think. that he was some crazy man who somehow cleverly hides himself, and with this thought, I set off with a gun and accompanied by others to the outer eastern wall facing the forest. Having approached her, we all, to our general surprise, heard that a knock with a fist rang out near us, but only now we could already hear it from within, while everyone in the room unanimously claimed that they clearly heard the knock outside. I myself, having entered the house, was really convinced of this,when outside the old mother put crosses on the rubble. Before such a mysterious phenomenon, I already gave up, because there was nothing in my head that could explain this to myself. After that, about an hour later, everything else stopped: nothing was heard anymore, and we fell asleep. I only knew that this was not an illusion of hearing, not a hallucination, but something so extraordinary that everyone around me dubbed "devilry" and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree at least for a while. In the following nights it was quiet, although from time to time and some things repeated, like that. For example, once in the evening a sofa jumped for no reason, and there was a knock somewhere behind the wall, similar to the fall of a coolie with flour, but all this was somehow vague.because there was nothing in my head that could explain this to myself. After that, about an hour later, everything else stopped: nothing was heard anymore, and we fell asleep. I only knew that it was not an illusion of hearing, not a hallucination, but something so extraordinary that everyone around me dubbed "devilry" and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree at least for a while. In the following nights it was quiet, although from time to time and some things repeated, like that. For example, once in the evening a sofa jumped for no reason, and there was a knock somewhere behind the wall, similar to the fall of a coolie with flour, but all this was somehow vague.because there was nothing in my head that could explain this to myself. After that, about an hour later, everything else stopped: nothing was heard anymore, and we fell asleep. I only knew that this was not an illusion of hearing, not a hallucination, but something so extraordinary that everyone around me dubbed "devilry" and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree at least for a while. In the following nights it was quiet, although from time to time and some things repeated, like that. For example, once in the evening a sofa jumped for no reason, and there was a knock somewhere behind the wall, similar to the fall of a cooler with flour, but all this was somehow vague.but something so extraordinary that everyone around me dubbed me "devilry" and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree at least for a while. In the following nights it was quiet, although from time to time and some things repeated, like that. For example, once in the evening a sofa jumped for no reason, and there was a knock somewhere behind the wall, similar to the fall of a coolie with flour, but all this was somehow vague.but something so extraordinary that everyone around me dubbed me "devilry" and with which, sad as it was, I had to agree at least for a while. In the following nights it was quiet, although from time to time and some things repeated, like that. For example, once in the evening a sofa jumped for no reason, and there was a knock somewhere behind the wall, similar to the fall of a cooler with flour, but all this was somehow vague.
But on December 20, an acquaintance comes to spend the night with me and, having heard earlier about the miracles taking place, is very interested in hearing something like that: and since I said that everything was quiet before. then I could not vouch for success, but nevertheless, as an experiment, I resorted to an artificial challenge to this phenomenon, namely, forcing her cookery, Marya, a woman of a very cheerful character, to dance in the room, which she did. Although there was no reason to think that this phenomenon had any connection with dancing, however, an hour or an hour and a half later, to our general surprise, the performance began with the same phenomena, with the only difference that instead of a dance on the ceiling was now heard drumming, first at the wall, and then at the window. and very tactful, and one cannot also say that it is monotonous, at times with a strong knock on the wall,lasted until 12 hours. The next evening, that is, on the 21st, also at about 2 o'clock, everything was still joined by a wild sound, which, according to the general conclusion, was heard in the pipe, and then the spontaneous flying of various things, for example, felt boots, boots, etc. lying on the floor and quickly thrown up to the ceiling or with force hitting the door, wall, etc.; at the same time, it was noticed that sometimes a flying thing emits a hiss, or suddenly something from black linen, for example, a shirt, is thrown up from under the bed, and, falling on the floor covered with felts, makes a knock, as if from the fall of a heavy body. On New Year's Eve, several people of my acquaintances gather at my place, and all of them are extremely interested in hearing our miracles. In the evening, of course, our Marya danced first, properly, and then,at about 2 o'clock we went to bed and contemplated our miracles until 4 o'clock, again bursting into very sharp trills on the glass of the window in the wife's room and even crossing the glass door in the room itself. Here we again checked and became convinced of the strangeness of the phenomenon that the knock heard on the wall, firstly, is completely similar to punches, and secondly, those outside are heard from the inside, and those in the room - outside. This knock is transferred to different objects in the room itself and is clearly felt by the hand when it is applied to the wall, to the glass, or, for example, to the iron bed on which my wife is sleeping. They heard a hoot, and various sounds at the window, in the house of mooing, growling, etc. Then someone bangs on the door, locked on a hook, or for no apparent reason, suddenly some thing, for example, a handkerchief,or something from the shoe rises from the floor or stove and bounces forcefully somewhere to the side. That evening my wife, who, to tell the truth, was not from a cowardly dozen, clearly saw in the window a hand protruding between the shutter, the size of, in her words, like that of a ten-year-old child, completely black, but with red nails, or, as she says, with translucent, that is, when you bring your hand to a lighted candle, then the color of your nails will be exactly that. On the same evening, at the same place in the window, she saw two kind of appendages, so to speak, that is, like large leeches, but when she hastily called me from another room to marvel at this miracle, the vision had already disappeared. I can assure you that she in this, as in the rest of the time,was in a completely normal state and that in general she was not predisposed to any painful seizures. On January 8, when two acquaintances were spending the night with me, and when the drumming on the glass door was especially distinct, my wife saw a ball flying out against her. in the corner, from behind the headboard of the other bed on which my mother was lying. The color, she said, was dark crimson and not luminous, that is, it did not emit light from itself, but only transparent and looked very much like an inflated gutta-percha ball, which are usually on sale; at the first time of its appearance, it was about the size of a teacup, and then it began to turn in one place, increased in volume to the size of a tea saucer, and with this it began to sink again near the wall and already from under the bed (only in a smaller size), on her,as a result, she could not stand it and fainted with a faint cry. At this time, her mother also confirmed that she had seen something red flashed past her, and that at the same time she had already seen that my wife, having dropped out of bed, had fainted. All this happened, of course, instantly, so that we did not have time to notice. Until then it was still bearable and even funny to watch and listen to all these things, but from that evening, that is, from the appearance of this, as stated in the letter (Geogr. Obs.), The famous ball, we already began to be hostile to these phenomena, because, for example, this damned knock on the window of the wife's room on January 9 rang out in the afternoon, around 3 o'clock, when the wife lay down to rest, and after that on the same day he began to pursue her everywhere; so, for example, when she was sitting on the couch for tea, she drummed next to her on the couch handle,and when I sat down in her place, the knock passed again next to her to the oilcloth of the sofa, etc.; even heard in the closet where she put the dishes, or when she went out into the pantry, and there he followed her. It is clear that we were all agitated, especially as she said that although, in fact, she was not afraid of this knock, but at the same time she felt weak and a strong urge to sleep. Fearing any consequences for her health, and especially mental breakdown, we decided to go to Ilek for a while; It was there that we met with my friend, Doctor Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov, who, surprised by our divas, reassured us by explaining, albeit superficially (since the matter was passing through), that this was probably a matter of electricity and magnetism, manifested as a result of the special composition of the soil under our house,and that all this is grouped around my wife, since she probably also has special individual predispositions for this. I think it is not superfluous to note that my wife is a woman of short stature, blonde, of a constitution not particularly weak; character is rather calm and focused, temperament is rather phlegmatic. These instructions from the doctor really calmed us down a little, and we all, that is, anyone who could understand anything in the slightest degree, stopped attributing it to devilry. But since this greatly interested the doctor, the next day we rode back to our farm, located about 30 miles on the river. Kindele. There, according to Marya's preliminary dance, at about 10 pm we observed repeated miracles in the form of knocking on glass, on the wall, and again in the wife's room, scratching behind the carpet, near her bed, while she was sleeping. But this time, as if on purpose, there were no sharp knocks or tosses, but nevertheless the fact was confirmed, and we were glad, and the doctor, taking advantage of this, made us a few more explanations, which convinced us even more that this was not devilry … But, in order not to remain under this impression, he advised to leave home for the city for a while. During the 11 days that we lived there, according to information from those who remained in the house on the farm, not once did not one of them, day or night, hear the slightest knocking. But imagine our horror when we return to the house. On the 21st, and at nightfall. t. from. as soon as my wife lay down, the knocking and throwing of things in her room resumed again; and the table knife, lying on the stove, with force, after other things, was thrown at the door, which forced us from now on to clean up more and more heavy things. But before the discovery we made the next evening, that is, on the 24th, everything that had previously turned positively pale, namely, at the time when my wife had already gone to bed and drumming on the wall around her began, I walked in another room with his daughter and sang to her: "I am a young gypsy …", then my wife and others around her. including my good friend, Lukyan Semyonovich Alekseev, ask me to continue this tune, because it turns out that drumming on the wall clearly echoes my singing. I change the "gypsy" to the "figurant", and they echo me quite rightly and this motive. To be convinced of the musical ability of this echoing or accompanying force, L. S. starts a drawn-out Cossack song: "Not clear falcons …" hard. But as soon as you change to a more cheerful tune, the sounds will go much sharper and more fun. Finally the wife took the child to her bed; the knocking stopped at once, and already for all our howls and efforts in some way to cause it again, he remained stubbornly silent until then. until the child, asleep beside the mother, was put in the cradle, and this force, as if rejoicing, at the same moment showed itself, throwing both bundles lying on the floor by the bed against the wall. In order to continue our experiments, my wife, at our request, moved to another bed in the same room, next to a glass door, on the other side of which, in another room, we all settled down for our music lessons. The knocking on the glass was louder and clearer, and then the fun began and all kinds of songs, polkas, marches and mazurkas were brilliantly performed. But to the old woman, my mother,we decided to sing a prayer, and we quietly dragged on "Our Father"; what do you think? no guogu - silence! Only at the end a chord is made. Thinking that there is little tact in this motive, we started Easter as a rather lively motive; but no, you won't deceive - not a sound, as if nothing had happened. But then again they immediately begin a drawn-out, even deliberately with interruptions. "In the pockets" - echoes and, from time to time paused, tries to get in time. At this time, I called my worker, a Tatar, and asked him to sing a prayer in his own way, only more often - silence. Twice he was mistaken for "Allah Bismillah", and not a sound in response. And as at that very moment I began to deliberately recitatively imitate the Tatar from The Magic Archer: "Oh, spirits, spirits, from the dungeon …", the sound through the glass loudly and distinctly knocks out every beat. We start by simply calling, for example: we will knock once,and one blow is heard in response. Two times - and the same number of reciprocal knocks! We begin to make a shot, and a distinct and skillfully made shot of the same shot is heard on the glass. I make all sorts of variations with sounds, even ordering a number of them, and there was never a mistake. They even conducted whole dialogues with various questions about the cause of the origin of all these phenomena, and it was replied that all this was done by an "evil spirit", "devil", "let loose" into the house by one Cossack neighbor, with whom I was having a lawsuit. But then the child wakes up, the wife puts it next to her, and the sound dies down, and our efforts to call it remain in vain. We noticed the same fact more than once in the course of musical studies, which stopped at once even when I appeared in my wife's room. Even. according to witnesses, I did not have time to reach the threshold of her room, as the sound caused by some song,was already silent, while the presence of others, who deliberately walked alternately to her room, did not have the slightest effect on the drumming on the glass. - What it is? - they will ask us. - I don't know! But that these are facts and that nothing has been distorted, perverted or exaggerated here, many outside witnesses will vouch for this, having heard all this with their own ears. So, for example, in addition to all our servants, three times there was the respected Fyodor Filippovich Soloviev, a man with information and even more than not superstitious; Fedor Fedorovich Feduleev; Dr. Alexander Dmitrievich Shustov; several merchants from Ilek, like Savin Ivanovich Syromyatnikov; the local chief, Vasily Ivanovich Zagrebin and Lukyan Semyonovich Alekseev and others, up to 20 people in total. Now I consider it useful to add the fruits of our careful observations over 1 1/2 months. We were the ones who made surethat all these various sounds, which previously occurred immediately after Marya's dance, are now repeated without her; and also that they are performed exclusively around my wife, who has only to go to bed and calm down, whenever, that is, day or night - and this knock is heard, or loudly, somehow: on the wall, into a bed, in glass, or quietly, like: on a carpet, on pillows, etc., but you will certainly hear it; therefore, she alone is the culprit of all these phenomena, which sometimes last more than 2 hours, sometimes less than an hour, and also louder or quieter, more or less, like. it means he will. In a word, there is no consistency. So, for example, on 23 in the afternoon or 24 in the evening it was in full swing, but yesterday nothing was heard; but today, when I write this rough draft, this force is strange and prowls in full splendor,throwing things and drumming so hard that his wife's bed rises: despite the fact that her (strength) is conjured by some sorcerer-sorcerer Ivan Fedorovich, who has stopped by on his hunt, who told in the evening about his power over spirits and who healed many supposedly from various diseases, so that he became known almost "to the whole world", about which he asks, however, to make inquiries in the city of Barnaul, Tomsk province. This is also consistent, there is nothing to say! In conclusion, I will say one thing, that you need to hear all this with your own ears and see in order to form a clear idea of all this for yourself, and a story, even ten times better than mine, will not produce even a hundredth part of a real impression. So it really is all strange and incomprehensible that, unwittingly, throwing aside the electricity unfamiliar to us, and even less understandable magnetism, you involuntarily believe in devilry. We hope, however, that with the help of people enlightened by science (who have now learned about this) people - sooner or later - we will find a solution. And I will continue to observe and report them as needed. With my respect to you, I have the honor to be your most humble servant Izmailovsky farm
Vasily SHAPOV January 26, 1871