LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS.— OMENS, SIGNS AND 

 WARNINGS. 



BY MR. DENYS CORBET. 



I spoke to you some time ago about " Local Witchcraft," or 

 " Witchcraft in Guernsey," as one of the many superstitious 

 notions in which nine persons out of ten of our rural popula- 

 tion, at least, Avere firm believers some forty or fifty years ago, 

 if they are not so still. But, although I did not exhaust the 

 subject on that occasion, I do not mean to return to it 

 to-night, but rather to speak to you about another popular 

 delusion, quite as superstitious, if not more so, and which had 

 quite as many adherents as witchcraft, at the time to which I 

 refer, but which, I have every reason to believe, has now lost 

 much of its popularity, owing, no doubt, to the spread of 

 education, and, consequently, of civilisation — I mean the 

 belief in omens, signs and warnings. There was then scarcely 

 an old woman, or an old man either, to be found, at least in 

 that part of the country where I was born and brought up, 

 who was not quite an adept in the art of decyphering and 

 predicting, from the various ways in which either the fire ; or 

 the primitive fish- oil lamp, or cr asset, as it was called ; or even 

 the old-fashioned dip-candle — to say nothing of the farthing 

 rushlight — burned, what was to happen, not only on the 

 following day or week, but possibly for a month to come. 



To begin by the coal fire, for instance : — If it burnt dull, 

 it was a sure sign of rain ; if bright, it denoted easterly wind 

 and dry weather ; if it emitted a blueish flame, it was the 

 sure sign of a gale; if a greenish one, witches were abroad 

 and at their tricks ; if a piece of coal flew out, it was examined 

 most attentively, and, if it bore the least resemblance to a 

 ship or a boat, that denoted a sea voyage by the person 

 towards whom it flew ; or else either news from, or the speedy 

 arrival of, some seafaring relative or member of the family, 

 according to the manner in which the bit of coal was shaped ; 

 on the contrary, if it resembled a box or a coffin, it was a 

 warning of the death of some friend or relation. 



Infinite again were the deductions drawn from the various 

 fantastic shapes assumed by the coal or wood embers as they 

 burned in the old brick grate, or under the terpid, as it was, 



