-](> 'THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these fiery maidens came occasionally to the village of Wtistersachsen 

 and mingled with the dancers at wakes. They sang with inexpressible 

 sweetness ; but they never remained beyond midnight. When their 

 allowed time had elapsed there always came flying a white dove, which 

 they followed. Then they went to the mountain singing, and soon 

 vanished out of the sight of the people who followed, watching them 

 with curiosity. A Normandy tradition says that the ignis fatuits is 

 the spirit of some unhappy woman, * who, as a punishment, is destined 

 to run la fouroUe to expiate her intrigues with a minister of the church ; 

 and on this account it is designated La Fourolle. A somewhat simi- 

 lar belief once prevailed in this country, for we are toldf that the 

 lights which are usually seen in churchyards and moorish places were 

 represented by the popish clergy to be " souls come out of purgatory 

 all in flame, to move the people to pray for their entire deliverance ; 

 by which they gulled them of much money to say mass for them, every 

 one thinking it might be the soul of his or her deceased relations." 

 This superstition is alluded to in the " Comical Pilgrim's Pilgrimage 

 into Ireland " (1723, page 92): "An ignis fatuiis the silly people deem 

 to be a soul broken out of purgatory." It is also said that the Will- 

 o'-the-Wisp is the soul of a priest J who has been condemned to ex- 

 piate his vows of perpetual chastity by wandering about ; and Mr. 

 Thoms says it is very probable that it is to some similar belief exist- 

 ing in this country at the time when he wrote that Milton alludes in 

 *' L' Allegro," when he says : 



"She was pinched and pulled, she said. 

 And he bv Friar's lanthorn led." 



Once more, in Altmark, Will-o'-the-Wisps are supposed to be souls 

 of lunatics unable to rest in their graves, and are known as " Light- 

 men." Although they may sometimes mislead, they often guide right- 

 ly, especially if a small coin be thrown them. 



Such, then, are some of the principal legends and superstitions 

 that have been connected with this strange phenomenon, the majority 

 of which, while investing it with a supernatural origin, regard it as an 

 object of terror ; and, on this account, in our own and other countries, 

 the peasantry still look upon it as a thing to be avoided. It was for- 

 merly thought to have something ominous in its nature, and to presage 

 death and other misfortune. Thus, in Buckingham shire, a species of 

 this phenomenon, locally known as "the wat," was said to haunt pris- 

 ons. Oftentimes before the arrival of the judges at the assizes it has, 

 we are told, been known to make its appearance like a little flame, be- 

 ing considered fatal to every prisoner to whom it became visible. The 



* See Mademoiselle Bosquet's "Normandie Romanesque ct Merveillcuse." 

 f "A Wonderful History of all the Storms, etc., and Lights that lead People out of 

 their Way in the Night," 1*704, 75, quoted by Brand, "Pop. Antiq." iii, 390. 



X Thoms's " Notelets on Shakespeare," 65. Brand's " Pop. Antiq.," iii, 402. 



