the irish servants working in and around the house tended on the whole to believe in ghosts , in the supernatural , and in the power of the mayfair women to make things happen they were what we must call highly superstitious hence their stories of what they saw or heard sometimes border on the fantastic , and often contain vivid and lurid passages of description nevertheless , this material is for obvious reasons - extremely significant and much of what was recounted by the irish servants has for us - a familiar ring to it .