In the 19th century India was seen as a mysterious country filled with exotic places and unknown cultural practices. Though the west had been in trade communications with the east for centuries, it was still a great mystery in many ways. And so as a result the cultures did not fuse at this point in substantial ways. Then, in the past 75 years tourism has grown substantially. But one thing the two cultures can agree on is the presence of mysterious forces in the universe – including ghosts. And one of the strangest legends is that of Dumas.
The basics of the legend often change from one telling to the next. Some will say these incidents start with the simple feeling of being watched, or the mysterious sudden appearance of extraordinarily thin figures staring on the horizon. Unlike many of the western stories of paranormal occurrences, Western accounts of the haunting in Dumas seem to have carried over their perception of the mysterious element of the compounding Eastern culture as well.
With Dumas, there is a great deal of western influence it seems in some of the stories, as a primary source of western contact with the area is a nearby resort in Surat. One of the key times of year to have visitors is during the month of October, which of course makes it understandable that the enigma in the water could mix with the other stories being told at the time when Halloween rolls around.
It’s said if visitors start to move toward the waters in Dumas they sometimes begin to hear voices and whispers traveling on the wind as though they are encountering a strange relic from either the past or distant far off vistas. Given time, and if the visitor continues to approach the water the voices will become clearer – sometimes being depicted as appearing behind them instead of in front of them, though they do seem to get louder as they get closer to the water. As visitors continue to approach the waters, they will begin to ripple and go from completely still in the inky blackness of night into a rippling flowing dynamic pool of unknown purpose.
One account in particular notes the wild dogs living outside of Surat sometimes occasionally visit the area. As one visitor approached the water and didn’t heed the strange voices on the wind they suddenly saw what looked like a swarm of black dogs running toward them. Within seconds they were overtaken by the pack, but rather than attacking them they continued to run past – revealing whines of terror as they ran making sounds as though they were in flight from something. The anonymous subject of this account quickly found themselves running away from the waters as well, not wishing to encounter whatever had terrified the pack of dogs.