In an Encounter with Spirits

Per Perssons-Brunnström in Brunne, Stigsjö, is still alive, though he is old now. He is a truly honorable and trustworthy old man. My father, in his lifetime, and Per were like brothers. To him, Per had recounted an adventure he experienced on Bölelia, between Starred and Böle. One day, he had driven a gentleman from Brunne to Västanå; the gentleman had his own carriage, so Per got to ride home and lead the other horse. Suddenly, the horses stopped. When he looked, the road was blocked by a strange procession of some kind of invisible retinue, but what this was, father had not received further information about. Nevertheless, he was detained there for a long time, and during this time, the horses remained calm. Finally, the road opened, and then the horses set off at a full gallop all the way home to Brunne. They were so frightened that they didn't take the time to follow the usual, correct path up to the farm, but took a shortcut under the carriage bridge. In the last moment, Per managed to lie flat along the horse's back, and had he not done so, he would surely have been killed, for it was so low that the bridge scraped him along his back.

I myself have traveled over that Bölelia countless times, in both light and darkness, but only once have I had a small adventure there. Both shafts simultaneously came loose from the hames in the harness. It happened so precisely at the same moment that only one thud was heard when they hit the ground. I don't particularly like to believe in such supernatural things, but it is certain that this did not happen by chance but must have been due to someone's doing. I had certainly tightened the straps into the harness pins – a real coachman never forgets such things – and even if I had forgotten, the harness pins could hardly have jumped out simultaneously like that.