Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/60

 Eebb&AXX, 1875.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOT E S. Ill, — FolkLyre, — Corps and Will-".*ps. Some thirty miles north of the favourite and fashionable station of Bangalore rises the great hill-fort of Nandidurg. Its summit being feet above the elevated Maisnr plateau, and commanding varied retching" pro? and the many buildings comprised hi the fort affording ample accommodation, it is often re- I to by health and holiday seeker its top a remarkable exhibition is sometimes seen, known to many as * the Nandidurg lights." Not having ever witnessed them myself* I will borrow an account that appeared in dras newspaper of last year. The correspond- ent w: ing" on a visit to the Sort, and looking at night from his windows, which commanded a view over all the country around, he was amazed and frightened at seeing " the whole tor miles and miles one blaze of lights, tho appearance being as of a v&si lighted by gas,— hundred of thousands of lights extending for miles and miles, dancing and glittering in alt directions, a weird, horrible, yet beautiful sight." On hurriedly asking a peon what was the meaning of it, lie was told " it was the bodies of all tho s who were killed in battle at Nandi; they all couiu np lights in their hinds." The opinion of the cor- respondent's host was that it was the people on the plains with, lights collecting while ants bhopgh Sheikh Daaddi c i w.'ii- corpse-candles, and eve borne by a body killed in action, yet he be- This bI
 * -ioii;illv seen from the lor:

inner, that, like tho com- 'b host, they so often rest sal with explanations of unusual phenomena so ob- viously inadequate as that advanced. A man : -veiling there would soon unravel the mystery : bat, though largo Engl i lh CO nitiis have long lived in the neighbourhood, no explanation seems to have ; red. It is not unlikely that some I the cause of this wonderful commonly seen after heavy rains, when some species of : union v of mole-Cricket, which i because in England the ignis ) . with some apparent probability! as- l to the English mole-crick . But the more iramediatfl concern of this note is with the peon's idea that the I seen by tho new I ent were borne by the bodies of the slain in battle, and its .y with the Welsh belief in corpse-eir In Wales the latter are called Oan '.and the popular belief is that a (short time before the death of a person a light is seen issuing from the sick-bed, or sometimes from hi trils, and taking its course to the churchyard along the very track the funeral is after v. to pursue. It is dangerous to stand in it Suine who have been so foolhardy have been struck down, and been long in recovering, but none are hurt who do not stand in the way. Some who have been bold enough to lie down by the wayside when tho corpse-candle passed aud look earnestly, have seen the resemblance of a skull carrying the candle, or sometim dark shadow, in shape of the person that die, carrying the candle let ween its forefingers, Bg the light before its face. In some parts of India when a man has been killed by a tiger, his ghost is believed to sit on the tig holding a light, by which it guides the beast to its prey. The cunning of old man-eaters, and tho difficulty in killing are ascribed to this ghostly guidance. In a paper read ! the Bengal Asiatic- Society, Mr. W. Theobald relates that in Burmah it is believed that there is a class of wizards whose heads become disso- d tiring the night, lingoncarrioj bodies remaining at horn is supposed to i mouth of ouc- . Tf a head be whilst s.i wandering, it screams to bo re]- ore than hours both and body p PhlS in one 07 Welsh belief. Mr, Theobald further says i ■ -mini in in the flat alluvi:il country oahal Hi I! from I iia; the prevailing . Mr. Tiu- laara and th has a sentence echoing the folk •■in ■ of the si ■ been ground assum- ing various sh; the eye of tho observer is turn