Observations on Ignis Fatuus. 249 
had wholly disappeared. His motions had dissipated the 
vapor, or perhaps his foot had closed the orifice from which 
itissued. To this instance another may be added. A young 
man and woman, walking home from an evening visit, ap- 
proached a light which they took for a lantern carried by 
some neighbor, but which on actually passing it, they found 
to be borne by no visible being ; and taking themselves to 
flight, burst into the nearest house, with such precipitation as 
to overturn the furniture, and impart no small share of their 
fright to the family. 
The circumstance that these lights usually appear over 
marshy grounds, explains another popular notion respecting 
them; namely, that they possess the power of Sag Sa 
persons into swamps and fens. To this superstition Parnell 
alludes in his Fairy Tale, in which he makes Will-o’the-wisp 
one of his dancing fairies ; 
* Then Will who bears the wispy fire, 
To trail the swains among the mire,” &c. 
In a misty night, they are easily mistaken for the light of a 
neighboring house, and the deceived traveller, directing his 
course towards it, meets with fences, ditches, and other ob- 
towards it. A bush or a bog, might have led to the same 
place, if he had happened to take it for his chimney top. 
Vor, XVIL—No. 2. 5 
