Ghost stories & myths
The White Lady
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The White Lady is the best known "ghost story" in Pictou Island folk lore.
There are several variations of the White Lady's origins, but the most popular tells of a young Island woman who had fallen in love with a sailor who was only visiting Pictou Island. The two were engaged before the sailor left for fishing season. The sailor's ship ran into heavy weather off of the coast of the Island and the entire crew was lost at sea. The woman was in denial that her fiance was lost, walking the Island's only road and shores in hopes that his ship would return. Eventually the woman's grief overcame her and she was found hanging in her father's barn. To this day, there are still skeptics who claim to have seen a young woman wearing a long white gown roaming the main road and beaches of
Pictou Island.
Variations of the White Lady include a baby born out of wedlock and lost early in life. These versions tell of the Lady searching for her lost child on the main road of Pictou Island.
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Photo, "The White Lady" courtesy of
the Pictou Historical Photograph Society via Novastory.ca
Card Parties on the Sabbath
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Card Parties are a popular pastime on Pictou Island. Still to this day, card parties are held almost weekly during peak seasons. But when the Island was an isolated township, and less of a recreational destination, several card parties would happen in one night and were well frequented across the community. Although these parties were a popular aspect of Island life, the Sabbath was still observed as a day of rest and all participation in card parties on Sundays was refrained from.
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To encourage pious behavior, a folk tale of a Sunday card party is frequently passed around on Pictou Island. The tale accounts of a card party where a silent stranger was in attendance - which was not uncommon in a fishing town, like Pictou Island. The party continues normally, until one of the players drops their cards and the group of Islanders reaches underneath the table to retrieve them. While gathering the cards, the stranger's feet are noticed. Where there should be two human feet, there are two cloven hooves. The stranger is intended to be the Devil in attendance at the Sunday card party, a warning to any future poker players who may wish to ignore the Sabbath.
Forerunners
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"Forerunners" is a name that refers to a premonition, event, or sign that acts as a warning for tragedy or death. Forerunners are predominant in Nova Scotian folk lore as an artifact of Celtic superstition.
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Forerunners on Pictou Island have taken the form of uneasiness or distress in the community. There are common accounts of the horses that pulled the Pictou Island hearse, as well as other live stock and pets, becoming upset and unruly several days before a community member has died. Also, there are tales of the doors and windows on the home of a deceased resident slamming shut while the body is being removed. In more severe cases, forerunners have been known to take the form of apparitions or strange noises in and around the homes of the predestined residents.
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Whether the belief in forerunners is based in experiential fact or pure superstition, their place in Pictou Island heritage has made a lasting impression on the Island community. In [. . .] the Pictou Island Community Association built a hearse house, dedicated to homing and preserving the hearse used in historic Island funerals, as well as a generating source of Island folklore.
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The Hearse House, courtesy of Pictou Island Community Association
Pictou Island Hearse House, courtesy of Pictou Island Community Association.
Phantom Ship of the Northumberland Strait
The Phantom Ship is a popular ghost story across the Maritime Provinces, including Mainland Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Because it is known to frequent the Northumberland Strait, there numerous sightings reported from Pictou Island, especially at the East end.
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The Phantom Ship is speculated to be an emigrant ship from Scotland that never made port in Pictou, others believe that the ship was destroyed during the war of 1812 and still haunts the waters in which it was burned. The existence and background of the Phantom Ship is just as most of its sightings. However, the ship's presence in Nova Scotian folk lore has stood the test of time and is still passed down in the present day.
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One account of the Phantom Ship from Pictou Island is as follows:
"Many Islanders had witnessed the phantom ship which appeared from time to time sailing to
the eastward between the Island and the Mainland. It was an old fashioned sailing ship with
its rigging and sails on fire, and would stay in view for an hour or so before seemingly drifting
off with the tide. As it went away, it seemed to retain the same shape and size"
- Eric Ross (1987)
"Pictou Island, Nova Scotia: The Rise and Fall of a Community", pg 15.
* Accounts of ghost tales and folk lore on Pictou Island sourced from local interviews and
Kenneth MacCallum's "Pictou Island, Nova Scotia: It's History and People" (2009).