We had been chasing the ghost herd of the animals whose asylum in the Bayan tree which is located on the east bank of Tilkidara (canal of Tilak). We encountered the herd of ghosts in the opened airfields in the full moonlit night. In the year 1985, I was on holiday staying in my village West Tilak also spelt Tilok, Shaharpara, and Jagannathpur of Sunamganj district in Sylhet division of Bangladesh.
It was in the dry season when I was enjoying the vacation with my family members as well as my extended family, villagers and my childhood friends where we were playing football, and badminton and learned to play a card game called Black Maria which has become my favourite game.
In the evening, we friends decided to play cards, Black Maria, at night at my friend Abdul Wadud’s house in his Baithak Ghar or Bangla Ghor (an extra house built to entertain the guests, socialising with the neighbours and friends) in the Muftir Chawk (isle mufti) the Shahjir-bari of Shaharpara.
That night, as well as the weather, was very beautiful, and it was a full moon night with clear views. The players are my maternal nephew Jamal Miah, Abdul Wadud my uncle and Sunu Miah one of my cousins. They are all related to me as well as my childhood friends and we are almost the same age group.
They all belong to the clan of Shahjir Goshty which is the clan descent from Shahjir-bari of Shaharpara proper. Before my family moved to West Tilak, they were living in the School-bari of Shaharpara and belonged to the clan of the Baglar Goshty which is the clan descent from the Baglar-bari of Shaharpara proper.
At midnight, we had finished the games and I was ready to go to our home with Jamal. Jamal’s home was almost the same way although my home is twice as long in the distance as Jamal’s home. On the southern side of Muftir Chawk of Shahjir-bari and then to the east towards our homes.
We were on our way home and Jamal was going through the Muftir Chawk of Shahjir-barir’s Gupat (in the dry season, the way for the animal to go to grazing field or paddy field for plough as well as the cow cart or horse carriage and in the flood season waterway for canoe and boat or even all kind of rafts) besides the canal on the southern bank. We were walking towards the east of Shahjir-bari which is our way home.
At the end of the canal bank on the southern side, there is a field of Shahjir Goshty (called Shahjir-barir Bottiya) where their domestic animals gather before going to graze in a pasture in the hoar (wetland) where their domesticated livestock, such as cows in the water meadow and it is also the children’s playground.
When we reached the ground, we saw a flock of sheep grazing there we immediately thought that these sheep belonged to the Chawk Tilakian farmers because in the whole Shaharpara, they don’t have that many sheep except some in Chawk Tilak aka Lalar Chawk as far as our bits of knowledge.
The people of this area have rarely domesticated sheep because not many people like to eat them, so they prefer to be domesticating the goats which most people like to eat in these areas. Chawk Tilak is on the southern side of West Tilak football ground which is beside the southern side of the Tilkidara culvert bridge on the main dirt track road and which is almost on the way to our destinations.
Therefore, we thought of riding onto it to the end of the West Tilak football ground. So, there is one of the rams which is the dominant sheep in the flock with the extraordinary bigger size of rounded bighorn wrapped around with the tinsel in its horn and decorated with many artificial colours such as pink, green etc.
I made a deal with Jamal that I was going to catch the bighorn ram and ride onto it to the end of the football ground of West Tilak and then straightaway go after the bighorn dominant ram for the catch. We both tried our best to catch two sheep but unfortunately, we were just less than a foot or some inches, missing the catch.
But we did not give up and kept chasing them laughing loudly and saying to each other, we are very young energetics and also footballers and, in reality, we could run faster than these sheep but, we could not catch them now, earlier, we thought it could be the easy catch and will be the free ride.
After that, we changed our mind and started together running after the bighorn dominant ram for the catch, even though we two together tried very hard and used all our tractrix to catch it but failed again and again to catch the big horned. We ran after the flock of sheep to the very end of the northern side of West Tilak football ground where these sheep started to cross the canal called Tilkidara.
On the opposite bank of west Tilak Tilkidara, there is a Banyan tree on the Eastbank where these sheep went onto and then vanished into thin air. The location is on the northwest of Bosh-barir Bottiya (the field called Bos-bari’s field the northwest side of the field belongs to Hera Miah’s house who is in the clan of Shahjir Goshty) beside the southern side of Hera Miah’s house of West Tilak. To disappear completely in thin air in a mysterious way.
We began to tremble with apprehension for the first time and understood the reason why we couldn’t catch those sheep was that it was not the flock of sheep we were running after and we kept missing the catch by a few inches because it was the ghost herd of the animal which alongside mock about around with us for the durable time.
Now I had Goosebumps, it freaked me out and accelerated my heartbeat. Jamal said to me, “Maternal-uncle (mama) do not look back, just go straight to your home.” Now I start to feel fear because I’m going to be alone and it is spooky where my home is in the distance from Jamal’s home and it is creepy to be alone on the way to my home through the paddy field of West Tilak beside the southern side of Abdul Hanan’s house, who is my uncle and he belongs to the clan of Baglar Goshty.
Jamal’s home is immediately on the south side of the West Tilak football ground and he said; I’m not going to the shop on the main dirt track road of Shaharpara & Tilak now it is called Syedpur Road after the culvert bridge over the Tilkidara in the western side where one housing area newly building of Jamal’s paternal uncle Alais Miah of Shahjir Goshty from the paddy field immediate south of Jamal home.
At that time there were two grocery shops one of which was Jamal and another one of Ala Miah of Chawk Tilak where Jamal slept at night. On the next morning at the Jamal shop at his bench which is the sitting area for customers at the front of his shop, Chawk Tilakian boys are sitting down tightly as to-gather.
They saw me after I crossed the culvert bridge over Tilkidara, where together they started to laugh and then one of them said; Jamal Bhai did tell told us about 30 or 40 sheep you guys found in the field of Shahjir-barir Bottiya last night while they were grazing there, definitely, it’s not our sheep.
Those are not our sheep for real I am saying seriously it was the devils' herd, we don’t have that many sheep in our whole of Chawk Tilak or to-gathered in the whole area of greater Shaharpara. At night all of our sheep were locked at home and we never kept our sheep outside at night because of the fear of foxes eating them.
Now Jamal said to me, I straightaway went home last night but, what happened later in the night was our family servant was possessed by the ghost and he had been found in the morning under the Banyan tree where those sheep became invisible last night.
His mouth was full of bubbles of foaming saliva found under the broken branches and twigs together with the leaves of a Banyan tree which covered full of his face. He was found and recognised by the servants of Hera Miah’s family in the early morning while they were going to be ploughing in the paddy field.
Luckily my father has cured him of the possession of ghosts immediately. After he was cured when my dad asked him how he went there at night he answered that he didn’t know how he got there at night. After that he was so scared, this morning he left the job at our house and even the shop and ran back to his home leaving his half-month salary behind; said, Jamal.
Jamal's father was a Hafiz (a term used by Muslims for people who have completely memorised the Qur'an) therefore he managed to cure him at the right time. We heard many petrifying ghost stories of the flock of sheep found in the night that could transform into different animals and it is called the herd of ghosts.
In the past, from my elder generation, I heard lots of stories of the flock of sheep found at night which can be transformed into various animal forms to scare the people and it is the terrifying story of the ghost herd of the animal which I had been experienced asylums in the Banyan tree in the open airfield.
Locally it is called Hozorpal (herd of the ghost in sheep form). These paranormal activities are experienced by many other people in the area and therefore the story of the Hozorpal was told from generation to generation.
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