The Bell Witch: The Full Account by Pat Fitzhugh Page A

in their own voices.
    “I knew something was amiss that morning when
    Drewry wasn’t at breakfast and nobody could tell me
    where he was. I got on his track and caught up with
    him and Ol’ Sugar Mouth about twenty miles out and
    overtook them. I followed them a long way, listening
    to them talk about how they were going to approach
    the old fool when they got to Kentucky. I finally
    hopped out in front of them like an old, sick rabbit,”
    the Spirit exclaimed, “Ol’ Sugar Mouth told Drewry,
    ‘There is your Spirit; take her up in your lap, she
    looks tired!’ Then Drewry said, ‘If it didn’t look so
    sick, I’d shoot it and fry it up.’”
    Both men confirmed that what the Spirit said was
    indeed true, and Johnston insisted he was only
    joking when he mentioned the Spirit after seeing the
    rabbit.

    THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
    73
    Mize arrived at the Bell farm ten days later,
    boasting of his ability to cast out demons and evil
    Spirits. John Bell and other family members were
    not impressed by his comments as they had already
    heard essentially the same claims made by others
    before him. Mize was nevertheless welcomed into the
    Bell home and extended the same hospitality that all
    other guests received.
    After three days elapsed with no sign of the Spirit,
    Dr. Mize located an old shotgun and proclaimed that
    it did not work because the Spirit had placed a “hex”
    on it. He began cleaning the gun and adjusting its
    trigger mechanism as he uttered several words in a
    seemingly unknown tongue. He later took the gun
    outside and fired several shots, proclaiming that the
    gun worked because he had managed to remove the
    hex that the Spirit placed on it. Mize then informed
    John Bell that, because Spirits were “scared” of him,
    the Spirit would probably never return to the Bell
    farm.
    Dr. Mize stayed another night at the farm, mixing
    strange concoctions and performing various
    incantations to the amusement of the Bells and the
    other guests.
    After the Spirit had all it could take of Mize’s
    antics and pseudo-rituals, it finally spoke, asking a
    long series of irrelevant questions as if it was trying
    to annoy him. Despite his look of fear and worry, Dr.
    Mize continued performing his strange pseudo-
    rituals and incantations. After the questions had
    continued for several minutes, Mize exclaimed, “This
    is not any of your business, and you have no
    knowledge of what I am doing.” “Oh?” exclaimed the
    Spirit; “well you have omitted some very important
    ingredients from your mixture.” “And just what is
    that?” inquired the terrified wizard. “If you were a
    witch doctor you would know how to aerify that mess

    74 P A T
    F I T Z H U G H
    so as to pass into the aeriform state and see the
    Spirit that talks to you, and without asking all of
    those silly questions,” the Spirit responded. “What
    do you know about this business, anyhow?” inquired
    an astonished Dr. Mize. “You are nothing but an old
    fool, and you know nothing about what you’re
    pretending to do,” the Spirit replied.
    Overcome by fear and embarrassment, Dr. Mize
    reluctantly said to John Bell, “That ‘thing’ knows
    much more about the supernatural than I do, and I
    am sorry to say there is absolutely nothing I can do
    for you.” Mize mounted his horse early the next
    morning in anticipation of leaving the Bell farm as
    quickly as he could. However, his horse refused to
    move forward — rearing, snorting, and occasionally
    walking in small circles.
    The Spirit’s voice suddenly and gently blew
    through the treetops, “Oh, don’t worry you old rotten
    heap of donkey droppings, I’ll get that horse going for
    you.” The horse suddenly began to run fast, carrying
    Dr. Mize down the lane and to the road, then across
    the Red River as he clung to the horse’s mane for
    dear life.
    When the Spirit paid its customary visit to the
    Bells that evening, it gleefully told about how it had
    accompanied Dr. Mize