THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP AND ITS FOLK-LORE, yj 



same dread is attached to it in Sussex, and Mrs. Latham, in her " \Yest 

 Sussex Superstitions," * tells us that in a village where she once resided 

 the direction of its rapid, undulating movement was always carefully- 

 observed, from an anxiety to ascertain where it would disappear, as it 

 was believed to be 



" The hateful messenger of heavy things, 

 Of death and dolor telling " 



to the inhabitants of the house nearest that spot. Considerable alarm 

 was on one occasion created by a pale light being observed to move 

 over the bed of a sick person, and, after flickering for some time in 

 different parts of the room, to vanish through the window. It hap- 

 pened, however, that the mystery was soon afterward cleared up, for, 

 as Mrs. Latham tells us, " when reading in her room after midnight, 

 all at once something fell upon the open page and appeared to have 

 ignited it. She soon perceived that the light proceeded from a lumi- 

 nous insect, which proved to be the male glowworm." In the same 

 way the " corpse-candle " in Wales, also called the " fetch-light," or 

 " dead-man's candle," is regarded as an ominous sign, and believed to 

 be a forerunner of death. Sometimes it appears in the form of a plain 

 tallow-candle in the hand of a ghost, and at other times it looks like a 

 " stately flambeau, stalking along unsupported, burning with a ghast- 

 ly blue flame." f It is considered dangerous to interfere with this fatal 

 portent ; and persons who have attempted to check its course are re- 

 ported to have come severely to grief, many actually being struck 

 down where they stood, as a punishment for their audacity. A Car- 

 marthenshire tradition, recorded by Mr. Wirt Sikes, relates that one 

 day, when the coach which runs between Llandilo and Carmarthen was 

 passing by Golden Grove, three corpse-candles were observed on the 

 surface of the water gliding down the stream which runs near the road. 

 All the passengers saw them. A few days after, some men were about 

 to cross the river near there, when one of them expressed his fear at 

 venturing, as the river was flooded, and he remained behind. Thus 

 the fatal number crossed the river three three corpse-candles hav- 

 ing foretold their fate ; and all were drowned. In conclusion, we 

 would only add that Will-o'-the- Wisps have long ago happily disap- 

 peared from all marshes and lowlands as soon as drained and brought 

 under cultivation these "wild-flres," as they have been called, pre- 

 ferring some supposed haunted and desolate bog for their habitation. 

 GentlemavbS 3Iagazine. 



* "Folk-Lore Record," i, 52. \ Wirt Sikes, " British Goblins," 139. 



