324 On Wiltshire Traditions, Charms and Superstitions. 



tree would ever after prove efficacious against cramp or lameness in 

 cattle ; a gentle tap with such a branch at once dispersing all ten- 

 dency to such ailments, which were absurdly supposed to be caused 

 by this, one of the most harmless creatures in existence, having run 

 over the animal so affected. Hence the ash-tree so treated was 

 known as the " Shrew-ash/'' and doubtless highly was it reverenced «, 

 and much was it accounted of by all who dwelt near. 1 



As to the many portents which are supposed to foretell death to 

 some member of the household, I do not know that the Wiltshire 

 peasant is more credulous of them than others ; though I can from 

 my own personal knowledge avouch that he implicitly believes in 

 some. Such, for instance, as the startling omen of a shroud in the 

 candle, when the tallow gutters off in a portentous ribbon : and 

 more than once has such candle been set aside in the cottage, and re- 

 served for my particular inspection. Such again as .the ominous 

 noise of the timber-loving beetle, commonly known as the " deaths 

 watch," and which the witty Dean of St. Patrick has thus pleasantly 

 described 



( ' A wood worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form : 



With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch, 



And chambermaids christen this worm a 1 death-watch : 7 



Beoause, like a watch, it always cries click; 



Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ! 



For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, 



If tl+e maggot cries click, when it scratches the post; 



But a kettle of scalding hot water ejected, 



Infallibly cures the timber affected; 



The omen is broken, the danger is over, 



The maggot will die, and the sick will recover." 



Such again as the alarming cry (for it is nothing else) of the 

 u deaths-head hawk moth" (Acherontia atroposj , which, though rarely 

 heard, never fails to predict a speedy end to the unhappy listener ; 

 while the markings on its back represent to his fertile imagination 

 the head of a perfect skeleton, with the limb-bones crossed beneath. 1 



1 See Rev. C. A. St. John's Forest Trees, vol. i., pp. 134-5, also White's 

 Selborne, 



; See Knapp's Journal of a Naturalist, p. 327» 



