" EEVIVAL " AT WHBLKHOLES. 327 



the general launching of the boats for the herring harvest, Psalm 

 John is wont to parade on the high cliff above the vUlage, looking 

 over the water for the expected and ever-welcome herring. 

 Many a weary vigil has been held on that cliff. Many a weary 

 foot has wandered over it during the fierce storms of the spring 

 time, and many a beacon fire has been lighted there, as the women 

 of the village sat at midnight looking across the turbulent sea, 

 questioniug with their anxious eyes each rolling billow that broke 

 upon the shore, as to the fate of those afar off on the ravening 

 deep. That cliff was the via dolorosa of Whelkholes. Many a 

 painful tragedy had been witnessed from its pathway; and it 

 led as weU to that last resting-place of the villagers, the church- 

 yard. It was from the pathway on the cliff, one hot autumn 

 night, that Psalm John saw seven corpse-candles move from the 

 village in a weird procession to the cemetery, and his prediction, 

 that a wreck would occur, and that here would be seven corpses^ 

 was too surely fulfilled. John always saw a corpse-candle before 

 a death, and all the people of the " Holes " believed in the 

 superstition. The fisher folk, as a body, are great believers 

 in apparitions and wraiths, and whenever a calamity of any kind 

 occurs, there is always some man or woman who was sure it 

 was to take place, as they had seen a funeral procession in 

 the clouds, seven days before, or heard the eerie tick of the 

 death-watch at midnight, or some other admonitory sign. 



Psalm John was a man who never took spirits, and who 

 attributed to them all the ills that came upon the people. After 

 the great storm, he persuaded most of the male inhabitants to 

 become temperance men. He then conducted a revival in the 

 village, which was much talked of even in places at a great 

 distance from Whelkholes. It was at the close of one very 

 scanty herring harvest, that the village broke out into a great 

 excitement. Psalm John had enunciated that the short fishing 

 was a judgment put upon the people for their sins, and one day, 

 while attending the funeral of an old friend, he felt impelled to 

 kneel down among the mourners and pour out his soul in prayer. 

 The scene was impressive. The gloaming was beginning to 

 obscure the scene ; the waves broke slow and murmuringly on 

 the beach as the beautiful words of the Hundredth Psahn, 



" All people that on earth, do dwell," 



broke on the stillness that had hitherto reigned around. One 

 of the women then stood out and addressed the little crowd in 



