Headless on the Load

My father was from Sunne in Jämtland. As a young man, he worked for the priest in Sunne. One day he had been out driving. When he came to Vallebron on his way home in the evening, the horses stopped, and it was impossible to get them to move. Then he stepped in front of the horse and looked through the bridle on the horse. He then saw that there were three headless men sitting on the load, who were completely white. They immediately ran from the load and down into the river, and then the horses became so unruly that he could barely manage them. When he got over the bridge, a burning tallow candle was running along in the ditch up there, and it followed him for a full half-mile. When he got home, the horses were white with foam. The priest came out, and then father got scared, because the priest was protective of the horses. But the priest said nothing. When they came into the kitchen, the priest said to his wife: "Now you must give Johan a proper schnapps," and he got it. The priest himself went out and was gone until late at night. Early in the morning, the priest came in to Dad and asked what he had encountered at Vallebron. Dad denied it, but the priest wouldn't give up, so Dad had to tell him what he had encountered. Then the priest laughed and said that he could well believe it. He himself had once come riding over the bridge and had barely managed to get across. There had, in the blink of an eye, been so terribly much old leaves on the bridge that it reached up to the horse's belly. But that, of course, was just an illusion.