relations at the very instant preceding the death of the person whose figure they put on. Sometimes there is a greater interval between the appearance and death."

In the "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. xxi. p. 148, parish of Monquhitter, we read, under the head of Opinion: "The Fye gave due warning by certain signs of approaching mortality." Again, p. 149: "The Fye has withdrawn his warning." Ibid. p. 150: Some observing to an old woman, when in the 99th year of her age, that in the course of nature she could not long survive" Aye," said the good old woman, with pointed indignation, "what Fye-token do you see about me ?" (a)

In the same work, vol. iii. 8vo. Edinb. 1792, p. 380, the minister of Applecross, in the county of Ross, speaking of the superstitions of that parish, says: “The Ghosts of the dying, called Tasks, are said to be heard, their cry being a repetition of the moans of the sick. Some assume the sagacity of distinguishing the voice of their departed friends. corpse follows the track led by the Tasks to the place of interment; and the early or late completion of the prediction is made to depend on the period of the night at which the Task is heard."

The

(3) "Who can alleage," says the author of the "Living Librarie," &c., fol. Lond. 1621, p. 283, "any certaine and firme reason why the blood runnes out of the wounds of a man

(a) In the same volume and page of the" Statistical Account of Scotland," is another anecdote, which shows with what indifference death is sometimes contemplated. "James Mackie, by trade a wright, was asked by a neighbour for what purpose some fine deal that he observed in his barn. It is timber for my coffin,' quoth James. 'Sure,' replies the neighbour, you mean not to make your own coffin; you have neither resolution nor ability for the task.'

Hoot away, man!' says James, if I were once begun, I'll soon ca't by hand.' The hand, but not the heart, failed him, and he left the task of making it to a younger operator."

This calls to my remembrance what certainly happened in a village in the county of Durham, where it is the etiquette for a person not to go out of the house till the burial of a near relation. An honest simple countryman, whose wife lay a corpse in his house, was seen walking slowly up the village. A neighbour ran to him and asked, "Where, in heaven, John, are you going?" "To the joiner's shop," said poor John, “to see them make my wife's coffin; it will be a little diversion for me."

murdred, long after the murder committed, if the murderer be brought before the dead bodie? Galeotus Martius, Jeronymus Maggius, Marsilius Ficinus, Valleriola, Joubert, and others, have offered to say something thereof." The same author immediately asks also: "Who (I pray you) can shew why, if a desperate bodie hang himselfe, suddenly there arise tempests and whirlewinds in the aire?"

In "Five Philosophical Questions answered," 4to. Lond. 1653, is the following:

"Why dead bodies bleed in the presence of their murtherers?"

"Good antiquity was so desirous to know the truth, that as often as naturall and ordinary proofes failed them, they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary wayes. Such, among the Jewes, was the Water of Jealousie, of which an adulteresse could not drink without discovering her guiltinesse, it making her burst. Such was the triall of the sieve, in which the vestall nun, not guilty of unchastity, as she was accused to be, did carry water of Tiber without spilling any. Such were the oathes upon St. Anthonies arme, of so great reverence, that it was believed that whosoever was there perjured would, within a year after, bee burned with the fire of that saint; and even in our times it is commonly reckoned that none lives above a yeare after they have incurred the excommunication of St. Geneviefe. And because nothing is so hidden from justice as murder, they use not only torments of the body, but also the torture of the soule, to which its passions doe deliver it over, of which feare discovering itselfe more than the rest, the judges have forgotten nothing that may make the suspected person fearfull; for besides their interrogatories, confronting him with witnesses, sterne lookes, and bringing before him the instruments of torture, as if they were ready to make him feele them-they persuade him that a carkase bleeds in the presence of his murtherers, because dead bodies, being removed, doe often bleed, and then he whose conscience is tainted with the synteresis of the fact, is troubled in such sort, that, by his mouth or gesture, he often bewrayes his owne guiltinesse, as not having his first motions in his owne power."

See, in the "Athenian Oracle," vol. i.

p.

106, a particular relation of a corpse falling a bleeding at the approach of a person supposed to have any way occasioned its death; where the phenomenon is thus accounted for: "The blood is congealed in the body for two or three days, and then becomes liquid again, in its tendency to corruption. The air being heated by many persons coming about the body, is same thing to it as motion is. 'Tis observed that dead bodies will bleed in a concourse of people when murderers are absent, as well as present, yet legislators have thought fit to authorize it, and use this tryal as an argument, at least, to frighten, though 'tis no conclusive one to condemn them." See more to the same purpose, p. 193.

That this has been a very old superstition in England may be learned from Matthew Paris, who states, that after Henry the Second's death, at Chinon, his son Richard came to view the body. "Quo superveniente, confestim erupit sanguis ex naribus Regis mortui ; ac si indignaretur spiritus in adventu ejus, qui ejusdem mortis causa esse credebatur, ut videretur sanguis clamare ad Deum." edit. 1684, p. 126.

Henry the Sixth's body, Stow says, was brought to St. Paul's in an open coffin, barefaced, where he bled; thence he was carried to the Blackfriers, and there bled. Annals, p. 424.

At Hertford Assizes, 4 Car. I., the following was taken by Sir John Maynard, Sergeant at Law, from the deposition of the minister of the parish where a murder was committed: "That the body being taken out of the grave thirty days after the party's death, and lying on the grass, and the four defendants (suspected of murdering her) being required, each of them touched the dead body, whereupon the brow of the dead, which before was of a livid and carrion colour, began to have a dew, or gentle sweat, arise on it, which increased by degrees, till the sweat ran down in drops on the face, the brow turn'd to a lively and fresh colour, and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it again three several times; she likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three times, and pulled it in again, and the finger dropt blood on the grass." The minister of the next parish, who also was present, being sworn, gave evidence exactly as

above. See "Gent. Mag." for Sept. 1731, vol. i. p. 395.

Mr. Park, in his copy of Bourne and Brand's "Popular Antiquities,” p. 101, on the prevailing opinion that when a person is murdered the corpse will bleed at the approach of the murderer, has inserted the following note:

"This opinion is sarcastically alluded to in the following lines of an early English epigrammatist :

"Phisition Lanio never will forsake

His golden patiente while his head doth ake; When he is dead, farewell. He comes not there;

He hath nor cause, nor courage to appearHe will not looke upon the face of death, Nor bring the dead unto her mother earth. I will not say, but if he did the deede, He must be absent-lest the corpse should bleed."-Bastard's "Chrestoleros," lib. v. ep. 22, ed. 1598.

One might add to this the very ill-timed jocular remark made by one to a physician attending a funeral: "So, doctor, I see you are going home with your work."

In "Wits, Fits, and Fancies," 4to. b. l. p. 83, is the following: "A gentlewoman went to church so concealed, that she thought nobody could know her. It chanced that her lover met her, and knew her, and spake unto her. Sir (she answered), you mistake me; how know ye me? All too well (replied the gentleman); for so soone as I met you, behold my wounds fell fresh a bleeding! Oh, hereof you only are guilty."

The Dead Ruttle, a particular kind of noise made in respiring by a person in the extremity of sickness, is still considered in the North, as well as in other parts, of England, as an Omen of Death. Levinus Lemnius, in his "Occult Miracles of Nature," lib. ii. ch. 15, is very learned concerning it: "In Belgica regione, totoque Septentrionalis plagæ tractu, morituri certa argumenta proferunt emigrandi, edito sonitu murmuloso, nec est, qui absque hujusmodi indicio vitam non finiat. Siquidem imminente morte sonum edunt, tanquam aquæ labentis per salebras, locaque anfractuosa atque incurva, murmur, aut qualem Siphunculi ac Fistulæ in aquæ ductibus sonitum excitant. Cùm enim vocalem arte

riam occludi contingat, spiritus qui confertim erumpere gestit, nactus angustum meatum, collapsamque fistulam, gargarismo quodam prodit, ac raucum per lævia murmur efficit, scatebrisque arentes deserit artus. Conglomeratus itaque spiritus, spumaque turgida commixtus, sonitum excitat, reciprocanti maris æstui assimilem. Quod ipsum in nonnullis etiam fit ob panniculos ac membranas in rugas contractas, sic ut spiritus obliquè ac sinuoso volumine decurrat. Hi, autem, qui valido sunt vastoque corpore, et qui violenta morte periunt, gravius resonant, diutiusque cum morte luctantur, ob humoris copiam ac densos crassosque spiritus. Iis vero qui extenuato sunt corpore, ac lenta morte contabescunt, minus impetuose lenique sonitu fertur Spiritus, ac sensim placideque extinguuntur, ac quodammodo obdormiscunt."

Among the Superstitions relative to Death may be ranked the popular notion that a pillow filled with the feathers of a pigeon prevents an easy Death.

To an inquiry of the "British Apollo," fol. Lond. 1710, vol. ii. No. 93, "that if any body be sick and lye a dying, if they lie upon pigeons' feathers they will be languishing and never die, but be in pain and torment." Answer is given: "This is an old woman's story. But the scent of pigeons' feathers is so strong, that they are not fit to make beds with, insomuch that the offence of their smell may be said (like other strong smells) to revive any body dying, and if troubled with hysteric fits. But as common practice, by reason of the nauseousness of the smell, has introduced a disuse of pigeons' feathers to make beds, so no experience doth or hath ever given us any example of the reality of the fact."

(4) Lupton, in his third book of "Notable Things," 13, (edit. 8vo. 1660, p. 53,) says: "If a firr tree be touched, withered, or burned with lightening, it signifies that the master or mistresse thereof shall shortly dye. Servius." Ibid. book ix. No. 6, we read: "If the forehead of the sick wax red, and his brows fall down, and his nose wax sharp and cold, and his left eye become little, and the corner of his eye run, if he turn to the wall, if his ears be cold, or if he may suffer no brightness, and if his womb fall, if he pull straws or the

cloaths of his bed, or if he pick often his nostrils with his fingers, and if he wake much, these are most certain tokens of Death."

Allan Ramsay, in his Poems, 4to. Edinb. 1721, p. 276, speaking of Edge-well Tree, describes it to be "an oak-tree which grows on the side of a fine spring, nigh the Castle of Dalhousie, very much observed by the country people, who give out, that before any of the family died, a branch fell from the Edgewell Tree. The old tree some few years ago fell altogether, but another sprung from the same root, which is now tall and flourishing, and lang be't sae."

In Petri Molinæi "Vates," p. 154, we read: "Si visitans Ægrum, lapidem inventum per viam attollat, et sub lapide inveniatur vermis se movens, aut formica vivens, faustum omen est, et indicium fore ut æger convalescat, si nihil invenitur, res est conclamata, et certa mors, ut docet Buchardus Decretorum, lib. xix."

Werenfels says, p. 7, "The superstitious person could wish indeed that his estate might go to his next and best friends after his death, but he had rather leave it to any body than make his will, for fear lest he should presently die after it."

(5) "The Wraith, or spectral appearance, of a person shortly to die (we read in the Introduction to the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," p. clxvi.), is a firm article in the creed of Scottish superstition. Nor is it unknown in our sister kingdom. See the story of the beautiful lady Diana Rich. Aubrey's Miscellanies,' p. 89."

"The Wraith of a living person," says Dr. Jamieson, "does not, as some have supposed, indicate that he shall die soon: although in all cases viewed as a premonition of the disembodied state. The season, in the natural day, at which the spectre makes its appearance, is understood as a certain presage of the time of the person's departure. If seen early in the morning, it forebodes that he shall live long, and even arrive at old age; if in the evening, it indicates that his death is at hand." Etymol. Dict. of Scot. Lang. in v.

Connected with Death Omens are the following curious extracts. In the Dialogue of "Dives and Pauper," fol. 1493, Firste Pre

cepte, chap. xlii. we read: "Dives. Is it leful to trust in these fastinges new found, to fle sodeyne dethe? Pauper. It is a grete foly to trust therein yf men were certayne by suche fastynge that they shuld nat die sodeynly but haue tyme of repentaunce, and to be shrevyne and houselyde, they shulde be the more rechelesse in their lyvynge, and the lesse tale yeve for to doo amys in hope of amendemente in their diyng. More sodeyn deth wyste I nevir that men hadde thanne I wyste theym have that have fastyd suche fastes seven yere about. And was their nevir soo moche sodeyn deth so longe reignynge in this londe as hath be sithe suche fastynge beganne." The time of this new fast seems to be pointed out in the following passage: I see no grounde ne reason whye it shuld be more medeful to fast alle Mondayes in the yere whan the Feeste of oure Lady in Lente fallyth on Monday, thanne to fast in worshyp of her Wednesdaye, Friday, or Saturday,"

66

Our ancient popular Death Omens are all enumerated in the well-known "Historie of Thomas of Reading," 4to. Lond. 1632, previous to his being murdered by his "Oasts." Signat. O 4 b: "There is no remedy but he should goe to Colebrooke that night; but by the way he was heavy asleepe, that he could scant keepe himself in the saddle; and when he came neere unto the towne, his nose burst out suddenly a bleeding." "Cole, beholding his Oast and Oastesse earnestly, began to start backe, saying, what aile you to looke so like

pale Death? good Lord, what have you done, that your hands are thus bloody? What, my hands, said his Oast? Why, you may see they are neither bloody nor foule; either your eyes doe greatly dazell, or else fancies of a troubled minde doe delude you." "With that the scritch-owle cried piteously, and anon, after, the night-raven sat croking hard by his window. Jesu have mercy upon me, quoth hee, what an ill-favoured cry doe yonder carrion birds make! and therewithal he laid him downe in his bed, from whence he never rose againe."

Watching in the church-porch for Death Omens (on the Eves of St. Mark and St. John Baptist) has been already noticed in the first volume of this work (pp. 115, 176, 186). The following relation on this subject is found in the "Athenian Oracle," vol. iii. p. 515 : "On last eve, nine others besides myself went into a church-porch, with an expectation of seeing those who should die that year; but about eleven o'clock I was so afraid that I left them, and all the nine did positively affirm to me, that about an hour after, the church-doors flying open," the minister (who, it seems, was much troubled that night in his sleep), with such as should die that year, did appear in order. Which persons they named to me, and they appeared then all very healthful, but six of them died in six weeks after, in the very same order that they appeared." Perhaps this comes more properly under the head of Divinations than Omens.

CORPSE CANDLES, says Grose, are very common appearances in the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke, and also in some other parts of Wales: they are called Candles, from their resemblance, not to the body of the Candle, but the fire; because that fire, says the honest Welshman, Mr. Davis, in a letter to Mr. Baxter, doth as much resemble material Candle-lights as eggs do

eggs saving that, in their journey, these Candles are sometimes visible and sometimes disappeared, especially if any one comes near to them, or in the way to meet them. On these occasions they vanish, but presently appear again behind the observer and hold on their course. If a little Candle is seen, of a pale bluish colour, then follows the Corpse, either of an abortive, or some infant: if a

larger one, then the Corpse of some one come to age. If there be seen two, three, or more, of different sizes, some big, some small, then shall so many Corpses pass together, and of such ages or degrees. If two Candles come from different places, and be seen to meet, the Corpses will do the same; and if any of these Candles be seen to turn aside, through some by-path leading to the church, the following Corpse will be found to take exactly the same way. Sometimes these Candles point out the places where persons shall sicken and die. They have also appeared on the bellies of pregnant women previous to their delivery; and predicted the drowning of persons passing a ford.

Another kind of fiery apparition peculiar to Wales, is, what is called the Tan-we or Tan-wed. This appeareth, says Mr. Davis, to our seeming, in the lower region of the air, straight and long, not much unlike a Glaive, mours, or shoots, directly and level (as who should say I'll hit), but far more

slowly than falling stars. It lighteneth all the air and ground where it passeth, lasteth three or four miles or more, for aught is known, because no man seeth the rising or beginning of it; and when it falls to the ground, it sparkleth and lighteth all about. These commonly announce the death or decease of freeholders by falling on their lands; and you shall scarce bury any such with us, says Mr. Davis, be he but a lord of a house and garden, but you shall find some one at his burial that hath seen this fire fall on some part of his lands.

Sometimes these appearances have been seen by the persons whose death they foretold: two instances of which Mr. Davis records as having happened in his own family. (1)

For a particular relation of the appearance of a FETCH-LIGHT, or DEAD-MAN'S CANDLE, to a gentleman in Carmarthenshire, see the "Athenian Oracle," vol. i. pp. 76, 77. See also, ibid. vol. iii. p. 150.

(1) See Aubrey's "Miscellanies," p. 176; Baxter's "World of Spirits," p. 131-137.

Bishop Hall, in his "Characters of Vertues and Vices," speaking of the superstitious man, says: "Some wayes he will not go, and some he dares not; either there are bugs, or he faineth them. Every lanterne is a ghost, and every noise is of chaines. He knowes not why, but his custom is to go a little about, and to leave the crosse still on the right hand."

In the "Cambrian Register," 8vo. 1796, p. 431, we read: "That, among the lower class of people, there is a general belief in the existence of apparitions, is unquestionable : but as to the lighted Candle springing up upon

the errand of Love, I believe that no person in Wales has ever before heard of it (the author is remarking on Pratt's Gleaner'); the traveller has probably confounded it with a very commonly-received opinion, that within the diocese of St. David's, a short space before Death, a Light is seen proceeding from the house, and sometimes, as has been asserted, from the very bed where the sick person lies, and pursues its way to the church where he or she is to be interred, precisely in the same track in which the funeral is afterwards to follow. This Light is called Canwyll Corpt, or the Corpse Candle."

THERE is a very singular marine superstition noted in "Petronius Arbiter;" it is that

no person in a ship must pare his Nails or cut his Hair, except in a Storm. (1) Bishop Hall,