342 Jach-o'-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 only 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 particularl}^ 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 

 hght 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. 



