Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/117

Rh of human incident to account for a natural phenomenon on which the form of the cloud has had no influence.

The legend of Maui, and all the fanciful cloud-names we have just described, are examples of the first kind of tale, while the story of Matsaganda is a typical specimen of the latter variety.

The images that people see in the sky depend on their attitude of mind and on any exciting ideas that may be prevailing at the time. For instance, before the siege of Jerusalem chariot-wheels were seen in the sky. These of course were halos, which sometimes form very curious and complex circles near the sun.

When the Turks were driven from the gates of Vienna there was observed in the sky a crescent reversed, with a sword through the centre. This was evidently the fragment of the halo whose centre is directly over the observer, which was only bright enough to show just above the sun, with a so-called "sun-pillar" or streak of white light shooting upwards from the sun through the halo. The outside of the halo would be downwards, and therefore look like a crescent reversed; while the bright stripe of light would suggest a sword to fighting-men.

Similarly the night before Culloden, King George, with two courtiers, observed from Windsor battlements a cloud resembling a thistle upside down, with the dim shadowy outline of a Scotchman, with targe and claymore, falling backwards.

And now coming nearer the present time, to the 22nd of September last, the St. Stephen's Review of London published the illustration I now show on the screen, together with the following letter:—

"Dear Sir,—I venture to enclose a rough sketch from nature of an extraordinary appearance presented in the clouds this day—September 16, 1887—between twelve and one o'clock, and to my mind it seemed like the British lion suppressing the uncrowned Irish harp. The harp vanished, and in its place came a clearly defined head of a man with a beard under the paw of the lion, and behind was a crowned female head. This wonderful appearance was clearly defined in white clouds on grey ... Yours faithfully,

Sept. 16, 1887. Luchie, North Berwick."