342 Jack-o 1 -the- Lantern. 



sticks projecting from the adjacent stack of fagots 

 also glow as if touched with fire. So vivid is the 

 light that at the first glance it is quite startling as 

 if the whole collection of wood were just on the point 

 of bursting into flame. In passing old hollow trees 

 sometimes they appear illuminated from within : the 

 light proceeds from the decaying ' touchwood.' Old 

 willow trees are sometimes streaked with such light 

 from the top to the foot of the trunk. As this phos- 

 phorescence is onry occasional, it would seem to de- 

 pend on the condition of the atmosphere. 



I once noticed what looked like a glowworm on a 

 window-blind at night, but there was no glowworm 

 there ; the light was of a pale greenish hue. In the 

 morning an examination showed that the linen was 

 decayed and almost rotten just in that particular 

 spot, and it had slightly turned color. Glow- 

 worms are uncommon in the district which has been 

 more particularly described. 



The ignis fatuus is almost extinct ; so much so that 

 Jack-o'-the-Lantern has died out of the village folk- 

 lore. On one occasion, however, I saw what at a 

 distance seemed a bright light shining in a ditch 

 where two hedges met. Thinking some mischief was 

 going on, I went to the spot, when the light dis-. 

 appeared ; but on retiring, after a search which proved 

 that no one was about, it came into view again. A 

 second time I approached, and a second time the 

 light died out. A few nights afterwards it was there 

 again and must clearly have been some kind of ignis 

 fatuus. There was a small quantity of stagnant 

 water in the ditch, and a good deal of rotting wood 

 branches fallen from trees. 



