| THE DRIP
Category: Purposeful apparition From: Colby, pp. 32-33; Jones, pp. 14, 186 Where: Near West Chazy, northern New York state When: undetermined, but before 1946 Who: Married couple, unnamed but identities known to Dr. Louis C. Jones and his students How close to source: Told to a Mrs. John O’Brien of Herkimer , NY , by the woman involved Phenomena: A man living near West Chazy , NY, decided to go fishing in a small local lake. He cast off in a flat-bottom boat, taking his dog for company. He had no luck for hours, and he finally rowed out to the middle of the lake, hoping that fish might be lurking in the deepest part. His dog started to tremble and whine.
The man’s hook became entangled in something, and simultaneously his dog barked and jumped around. The animal would not be still, even after being threatened and hit. Finally the fisherman tugged his line free, but to his astonishment the dog sprang into the water and swam to shore. The man reeled up his line and found what appeared to be a large tangle of human hair caught in his multi-hook lure. Also caught in the hair was a gold barrette clasp that looked to be quite valuable. He took the mess home and showed it to his wife. The fisherman intended to let the hair dry out so that it would be easier to remove the tangled gold clasp. His wife felt ambivalent about the grotesque discovery, but the barrette was so beautiful she let her husband hang the clump of hair by the fireplace. The drip of water from the hair seemed unusually loud to the couple – and it seemed to continue long after the hair should have dried. They left it by the fire, but to their horror, around midnight a woman’s voice filled the room. The vocal apparition announced that she, the owner of the barrette, had been murdered and dumped in the lake, and she demanded that her remains be recovered and buried. The fisherman and his wife could not bring themselves to tell the police, partly because of greed and partly because the story was so unbelievable. The ghostly voice did not speak again, but the sound of water dripping continued. Drip, drip, drip – the noise went on for days. Eventually the couple’s nerves broke and they contacted the authorities. The lake was dragged and the body recovered. Oddities: There are many tales of hauntings by disembodied heads, hands, and bodies partially denuded or mutilated, but I’ve never heard of haunted hair before. Ending: We are not told whether the couple kept the barrette or not. I’d have given it up. Legend: C. B. Colby’s account ends with, “The dog never returned,” which smacks of a folklorish addition. Explanation: Although quite eerie with its endless drip (to say nothing of the unpleasant image of a sodden wad of hair torn from a lake bottom), this sounds like a straightforward case of a spirit wishing to be laid to rest by the proper burial of the body. Comments: One of the creepier stories found in Colby’s collection, I assumed “The Drip” was a simple urban legend – until I read Things That Go Bump in the Night by college professor and folklorist Louis C. Jones. Between 1940 and 1946, Jones encouraged students from the New York State College for Teachers, Albany , to spread out and collect New York folk tales, mostly in the form of ghost stories. A very prosaic line from Jones’ book states that “Mrs. John O’Brien of Herkimer heard about the talking hair from the woman who heard it talk.” Quite an eye-opener! Colby, Carroll B. Weirdest People in the World (New York: Popular Library, 1965). Jones, Louis C. Things that Go Bump in the Night (New York: Hill and Wang, 1959).
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