The article deals with the problems of race and civilization in J. Buchan’s ghost stories. They are a notable example of the so-called Imperial Gothic, in which the other is represented by people belonging to other races and more primitive cultures. The idea of the past invading the present is typical of the genre, and in Buchan’s stories characters meet ancient Semitic ( The Grove of Ashtaroth ), African ( The Green Wildebeest ) and British Roman ( The Wind in the Portico ) gods the border of whose sacred territories they trespass. The ethnicity of those characters is also important: traces of non-European blood (African or Semitic) make them more vulnerable and inclined to awaken ancient roots, associated with a whole complex of negative traits: barbarity, femininity, bad health and unclear reason. Such motifs appear as a reflection upon the issues important for the era and widely discussed in scientific and scholarly treatises (Frazer’s and Tylor’s theory of ritual, Nordau’s degeneration, Lombroso’s physiognomics). Buchan’s approach is measured, with no strict binary oppositions and a visible elegiac note. Horror stories grow into multi-layered texts expressing the author’s philosophy of history.