Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/235

Rh him as strange, but for the time he thought no more about it. Exactly a year from that day he saw a funeral leave that same house and go in the same direction in which the light had gone. He knew then that it was a solus bais he had seen." This was the experience of a Coll man in Mull, and in this case the interval between the appearance of the light and of the subsequent funeral was considerably above the average.

Here is another, somewhat of the same description. The stalk mentioned is a chimney-stalk, not a bean-stalk, like the celebrated "Jack's."

"M. McQ. was coming home one night after having convoyed a woman from his father's house to her home. It was in Tiree. He saw what appeared to him to be a great big stalk where he knew there was no stalk. It was nearly as large as a lighthouse tower, and it was in shape like a man. He got a fright and ran, but the tall figure kept up with him, and at the same distance. In the race he lost both his boots, for they had not been tied. On reaching home he went up-stairs where his room was, and when he got to his door he saw a light shining on the door. He had not been very long in bed until he was put up to give a man something he had come for which was needed for a funeral that was to be in the place. This explained the big thing and the light which he had seen."

A like occurrence is described by a Lochaber man as happening in his own district:

"M. was on his death-bed. Not long before his death his son and daughter saw quite distinctly a light moving from the house in the direction of the burying ground. They at once concluded that it was a death-warning and that their father's end was near, and so it was. The funeral went along the very ground where they had seen the light; the word used being tannasg."

Lights are frequently seen before a death by drowning at sea: