Sure 'tis some sorrowed maiden, come—
O'er a loved grave to weep:
Why does she bend so eagerly?
Why that death vigil keep?
O'er a loved grave to weep:
Why does she bend so eagerly?
Why that death vigil keep?
—The huntsman, ninth stanza
"The Ghoul" is an eighteen-stanza Decadent Narrative Poem written by Francis Saltus Saltus and included in his collection Honey and Gall in 1873. It is one of few pre-1927 American works of fiction to concern itself with ghouls.
A lone tomb stands somewhere deep in a labyrinthine forest. One night, a huntsman who got lost and slept himself through the noon back to alertness, comes across it at the same time that a beautiful woman visits it. The huntsman is taken aback by her striking appearance and stays in hiding to observe her. It appears that she's paying respect to a departed loved one up until she bends over and starts digging. She hauls the corpse up out of its grave, embraces it, and takes her first of many bites. The huntsman realizes that the woman is a ghoul and that she's not the only supernatural entity around. He tries to escape, but the ghoul spots him and enchants him with voice and gaze back to her. Mentally aware of the danger he's in but physically subdued with lust, he cannot resist the ghoul raping him to the brink of death. She doesn't kill him, but leaves him to die as her companions revelrously mock him. Come morning and two half-picked skeletons are the lingering proof of last night's cruelty.
Saltus partook in French literature and culture and additionally was a student of Théophile Gautier. This explains why "The Ghoul" would be right at home amidst 19th Century French ghoul fiction. Gautier wrote "The Dead Leman", an early piece of French ghoul fiction, and revisited the theme shortly in Captain Fracasse.
"The Ghoul" provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: The ghoul gets to eat not only the lone corpse she's had her eye on but also the huntsman lost in the woods. Or at least she kills him and perhaps it's her fae or bird companions that consume the huntsman's flesh.
- The Beastmaster: The ghoul is on good terms with the hell-kites, who obey her rule and eat from her prey if she so lets them. In real life, no "hell-kites" exist; it is a term William Shakespeare invented for Macbeth to invoke the image of a hellish bird of prey. Here, they're actual creatures, and might be the same as the "strange speckled night-birds" mentioned earlier in the poem.
- Bookends: The poem opens and closes with the four giant oak trees nearby the grave, having hinted at their significance but revealed nothing.
- Compelling Voice: The ghoul possesses a "bell-like voice" that she utilizes along with her hypnotic eyes to draw intended prey to her.
- Desecrating the Dead: As a ghoul, the woman feeds on corpse flesh. She is introduced digging up a corpse from its grave and ravenously devouring its flesh along with her pet birds. Thereafter, she attacks the huntsman and leaves him to die. By morning, he is a half-picked skeleton just like the earlier corpse, meaning either the ghoul came back when he had perished or her hell-kite, gnome, and elf associates took the dead huntsman as their meal.
- Dissonant Laughter: The ghoul first laughs when she sinks her teeth into the putrid corpse and tears of its flesh. She laughs again when the hell-kites share the corpse meat with her and she fatally rapes the huntsman with "childish joy".
- Distracted by the Sexy: The huntsman is instantly in awe of the strange woman's beauty and grace. Therefore, he fails to ask himself the important questions before she spots him: Why is a sickly-looking woman in fancy dress solitarily walking through the woods at midnight? How come her flowing robes are a spotless white when she emerges from the thicket? And why is she digging through the soil of a lone grave?
- Don't Go in the Woods: The huntsman had gotten lost in the woods and he chose to save his strength by taking a nap through the noonday's heat. He awakens by midnight and runs into the ghoul. Charmed by her beauty at first, by the time he realizes she is dangerous, she's already spotted him and puppeteered him into submission.
- Downer Ending: The huntsman, who's only crime is getting lost, cannot escape the ghoul. She takes control over his body while his mind stays clear, leaving him fully aware of all the horrors she inflicts on but unable to resist. Rather than kill him immediately, she rapes him and leaves him to die while her gnome companions celebrate his misery. And if that wasn't bad enough of a way to go, someone still eats him after he's expired.
- Enchanted Forest: The forest the huntsman gets lost in is inhabited by at minimum elves, gnomes, hell-kites, and a ghoul. There are also four ancient giant oak trees that or may not be sapient.
- Ethereal White Dress: The ghoul is clad in flowing robes of pure and spotless white, which goes well with her sickly pale skin. The huntsman compares her appearance to that of a sylph, failing to wonder in time how those robes haven't ripped and stained yet from her walk through the woods.
- The Fair Folk: The ghoul is accompanied by elves and gnomes, who delight in her visceral deeds. The ghoul herself may also be fae, because she is described as a "sylph-like creature" in possession of "ouphic glee".
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The huntsman hears the nearest hamlet kirk toll the midnight hour and possibly it's what awakens him. However, it's "droning clang" also arouses an "occult power", that being a vicious ghoul and her companions. It is possible that if the huntsman has stayed asleep, he'd not crossed her path.
- Grave-Marking Scene: The huntsman believes at first that the woman is visiting the grave of a loved one, but that becomes doubtful when she starts digging.
- Hypnotic Eyes: The ghoul possesses a "lascive glance" that she utilizes along with her compelling voice to draw intended prey to her.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: The ghoul embraces the corpse she digs up as a lover before she sinks her teeth into its putrid flesh and tears off piece after piece. When next she spots the huntsman, she ensnares him, making his body responsive to her will while his mind screams out. Rather than killing him right away, she rapes him, caressing him with "reeking, gory lips" from the previous corpse and draining "her victim's fire". She leaves him to expire and likely came back afterwards to eat his flesh still.
- Literal Maneater: The ghoul rapes the huntsman to the brink of death, but does not finish the kill. Instead, she leaves his broken body to expire on its own, which it does some time before dawn.
- Mood Whiplash: The poem goes from throwing eerie hints that something is wrong about the woods and the woman to a fairly detailed description of her intimately consuming a corpse's flesh. And it's pointedly not a fresh corpse either.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: The ghoul is a woman with sickly pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and carmine lips with an uncanny ability to keep her clothes in pristine condition where that should not be possible. She has a compelling voice, hypnotizing eyes, and she may be able to teleport. Accompanying her are elves, gnomes, and hell-kites, the latter of whom she allows to partake in her meals. Being a ghoul, her meals consist of human corpse flesh no matter the condition. She can dig through grave soil in short time to get her food. However, when dealing with a living person, or at least one to her liking, she may delay her meal to rape them first. The power in her voice and eyes comes in handy there.
- Post-Rape Taunt: The gnomes accompanying the ghoul romp and dance around the huntsman as he lays dying from the ghoul having raped him.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: The moment the huntsman becomes aware that the woman is a ghoul, he kneels in fervent prayer. The sound is absorbed by all the sounds the woods are rife with, but the ghoul spots him anyway.
- Riddle for the Ages: The location where all the action takes place is a lone tomb in the middle of the woods. Nothing is said of why it's there or who's in it or if the ghoul knew it was there or if she just happened upon it.
- Undeathly Pallor: The ghoul is beautiful but also wan and pallid, which signifies her supernatural identity.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Early on, the nearest hamlet kirk tolls the midnight hour. It is the hour that the lost huntsman awakens from his nap and that the ghoul rises to rob the lone grave. The two run into each other soon, with dire consequences for the huntsman.
