Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/87

Rh same dread is attached to it in Sussex, and Mrs. Latham, in her "West Sussex Superstitions," tells us that in a village where she once resided the direction of its rapid, undulating movement was always carefully observed, from an anxiety to ascertain where it would disappear, as it was believed to be

to the inhabitants of the house nearest that spot. Considerable alarm was on one occasion created by a pale light being observed to move over the bed of a sick person, and, after flickering for some time in different parts of the room, to vanish through the window. It happened, however, that the mystery was soon afterward cleared up, for, as Mrs. Latham tells us, "when reading in her room after midnight, all at once something fell upon the open page and appeared to have ignited it. She soon perceived that the light proceeded from a luminous insect, which proved to be the male glowworm." In the same way the "corpse-candle" in Wales, also called the "fetch-light," or "dead-man's candle," is regarded as an ominous sign, and believed to be a forerunner of death. Sometimes it appears in the form of a plain tallow-candle in the hand of a ghost, and at other times it looks like a "stately flambeau, stalking along unsupported, burning with a ghastly blue flame." It is considered dangerous to interfere with this fatal portent; and persons who have attempted to check its course are reported to have come severely to grief, many actually being struck down where they stood, as a punishment for their audacity. A Carmarthenshire tradition, recorded by Mr. Wirt Sikes, relates that one day, when the coach which runs between Llandilo and Carmarthen was passing by Golden Grove, three corpse-candles were observed on the surface of the water gliding down the stream which runs near the road. All the passengers saw them. A few days after, some men were about to cross the river near there, when one of them expressed his fear at venturing, as the river was flooded, and he remained behind. Thus the fatal number crossed the river—three—three corpse-candles having foretold their fate; and all were drowned. In conclusion, we would only add that Will-o'-the-Wisps have long ago happily disappeared from all marshes and lowlands as soon as drained and brought under cultivation—these "wild-fires," as they have been called, preferring some supposed haunted and desolate bog for their habitation.—Gentleman's Magazine.