LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS. 241 



scissors was used, and frequently the finger and thumb, for 

 few houses possessed such things as snuffers. This is illus- 

 trative of the following : A man was boasting that he never 

 was frightened of anything. " Then you never snuffed a candle 

 with your fingers," said someone who heard him. He was 

 silenced. But before snuffing, great notice was taken of the 

 manner in which the wick had burnt. If there appeared a 

 kind of bright head or ball at the end, it denoted a death in 

 the family or in the neighbourhood; the head itself repre- 

 senting that of the prieux-d'enterrment, as the person — 

 invariably a man, and, if possible, a nephew of the deceased 

 individual — was called, who went round, sometimes from one 

 end of the island to the other, inviting, by word of mouth, the 

 various friends and relations of the departed, to attend the 

 funeral. But, sometimes, the burnt end of the wick was flat ; 

 this was a sign of ghosts, and denoted the shroud in which 

 their dead bodies had been laid out. If very small, however, 

 it was a token of news, and meant a letter. The manner in 

 which the dip candle, and even the rushlight burnt, was 

 interpreted much in the same way, with this addition, that 



freat notice was taken of the various fantastic forms assumed 

 y the tallow, as it melted and ran down the candle or candle- 

 stick. If it formed a kind of handle, or handles, it was a 

 figure of those usually attached to both ends of a coffin, and 

 was another omen of death. 



Perhaps you will allow me to quote a few stanzas relating 

 to this subject of omens, from a poem in Guernsey-French, 

 composed by myself some forty years ago, and published some 

 ten or twelve years later in a volume of poetry in English, 

 French, and Guernsey-French, entitled : Les Fieilles d'la 

 Fouaret — The Leaves of the Forest This short extract relates 

 to the very subject of which I have been treating, viz., omens, 

 and it will show you that what I have just read is not mere 

 imagination, but a simple narrative of what I was in the habit 

 of seeing and hearing frequently when young. It must also 

 have made considerable impression on my mind at the time 

 to induce me to preserve the superstitions in the form of 

 verse. These stanzas form part of a description of what I 

 frequently saw and heard at evening parties in the country, 

 such as used regularly to take place among neighbours and 

 friends in the long winter evenings. Part of the poem relates 

 to other superstitious beliefs, but I will confine myself solely 

 to that which treats of the omens or warnings which we are 

 now considering. The piece is entitled : " Les VilVries clu 

 Vier G'llaume — Old Williams Evening Parties." 



