''The presence of the dead can manifest in many different ways; but almost always, the same clues are found: shaking dishes, prolonged scratching, various and ill-defined noises, creaking furniture, candle going out (without the slightest draft appearing), broken windows and sometimes even broken doors attest that the soul of the deceased is not at rest. It is therefore to avoid the emotions provoked by such demonstrations that the peasant has masses said, and above all those of quarantine and the end of the year, always reputed to be exceptionally effective.
The dead can also manifest this need in an even more explicit way. Thus, in the region of Angoulême, he strikes a certain number of knocks to indicate the number of masses which are necessary for him; this is what happened around 1905 to the Camus d'Agris in the canton of La Rochefoucauld. The deceased had been in the ground for a week when his wife heard, one night, three knocks on the clock: his deceased was asking for three masses. She made him say them, and, with peace of mind, he no longer returned to wander about the house.''
Ghosts, The Devils Gospels, Claude Seignolles
