FOLK-LORE FROM UNST. 191 



and met the advances of human beings with a sort of 

 pleasure. But his love of mischief usually brought all 

 friendly overtures to abrupt conclusions. A witch 

 who craved to know all the secrets of Trowland was 

 rather assiduous in cultivating the old bachelor's 

 acquaintance, and after a time she persuaded him into 

 marrying her — he relying upon the assurance that her 

 " art " knew how to prevent the death he dreaded. We 

 know what happened to another who was similarly 

 beguiled by a woman's tongue. 



I greatly regret that an authentic account has not 

 been preserved regarding this Trow's further history, 

 but it breaks off at his marriage, and nothing further 

 is known than that from this remarkable couple sprang 

 a race differing from ordinary Trows, and soon becoming 

 known by the name of Finis.* Those beings appear 

 before a death, personating the individual who is to 

 die. Sometimes they are seen by the person himself, 

 sometimes by his friends, more often by "unchancie 

 folk." If we were acquainted with the moral govern- 

 ment of Trowland we should doubtless discover some 

 profound theory why the Finis should be the offspring 

 of a Trow who feared death. The witch, whose charms 

 proved so irresistible to the bachelor Trow, is said to 

 have paid a clandestine visit to her mother, and to 

 have divulged on that occasion many secrets hitherto 

 unknown to mortals. She had evidently created no 



"Finis." Certainly this word is the same as that which often 

 appears at the end of a volume. A Finis being the apparition which 

 appears before death, before the end. 



