TEE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE. 71 



sea, it is a sign of a tempest. In taking, therefore, the latter position, 

 Ariel had fulfilled the commands of Prospero to raise a storm. This, 

 then, coincides with the following lines : * 



" Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars, 



With their glittering lanterns all at play 

 On the tops of the masts and tips of the spars, 



And I knew we should have foul weather that day." 



A curious illustration of this phenomenon is recorded in " Hakluyt's 

 Voyages " (1598, iii, 450) : "I do remember that in the great and bois- 

 terous storm of this foul weather, in the night there came upon the top 

 of our mainyard and mainmast a certain little light, much like unto 

 the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards call the Cuerpo Santo. 

 This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying from 

 mast to mast, and from top to top ; and sometimes it would be in two 

 or three places at once." This meteor was by some supposed to be a 

 spirit, and by others an exhalation of moist vapors, thought to be en- 

 gendered by foul and tempestuous weather. 



Referring, in the next place, to the legends associated with the 

 Will-o'-the-Wisp, we may mention that these, although differing in 

 many respects, generally invest this strange mimicry in nature with 

 the supernatural element, which is said to be generally exercised for 

 the purpose of deluding, in some way or other, the benighted traveler. 

 Indeed, it would seem that in past centuries whatever phenomena were 

 of an apparently illusive or hostile character were regarded by primi- 

 tive science as specially designed to work pain or evil, even although, 

 by way of treacherous bait, they might possess, the most attractive 

 qualities. Thus, as Mr. Conway has pointed out in his excellent work 

 on "Demonology and Devil Lore" (1880, ii, 212), because many a pil- 

 grim " perished through a confidence in the lake-pictures of the mirage 

 which led to carelessness about economizing his skin of water, the 

 mirage gained its present name Bahr Sheitan, or Devil's Water." 

 Thus, oftentimes, the harmless and beautiful phenomena in nature 

 have been invested with an evil name, simply because our ancestors, 

 living in the childhood of the world, were unable to comprehend their 

 meaning, and so, in all the freshness of their creative fancy, regarded 

 them as demoniacal agencies to thwart and hinder man's progress in 

 moral culture. Strange, therefore, as it may seem, we in our nine- 

 teenth century have in many of the legends that survive in this and 

 other countries relics of Aryan science, which, although meaningless 

 to the casual observer, yet embody the teaching of primitive man. 



In this country the AYill-o'-the-Wisp has been connected with the 

 fairy race from early times, a fact proved by its old name of Elf -fire. 

 The same notion, too, existed in Germany ; for Grimm informs us that 

 it was there formerly known as Elglicht, and in Denmark as Vaettylis. 



* 



Swainson's "Weather Lore," 193. 



