LAugust, 
4|8 Will- o' -the- Wisp : a Confession. 
or rather where it is first observed. It is recorded as in 
many cases moving towards a pool or swamp, and there dis- * 
appearing. The light is said to be sometimes globular, 
spheroidally elongated, or pear-shaped, about the size of 
“two fists,” and varying in colour and brilliance, being 
sometimes visible even in the light of a full moon. 
So much for points authenticated by the accordant testi- 
mony of trustworthy observers. Popular tradition adds 
much more. The spectators are said to have sometimes 
received sudden blows or shocks. According to an old 
German story, some village children having irritated a Wisp 
by crying out— - 
“ Heerwisch ho, ho, ho ! 
Brennnst wie Hafer stroh !” 
it pursued them into a house, and stunned every person 
present by blows with its fiery wings. Folk-lore, indeed, 
distinctly personifies the Wisp, and ascribes to it the inten- 
tion to mislead the solitary traveller and entice him into a 
swamp or pond.* This view or superstition is by no means 
extinct, as will appear from the following extract from 
“ Light ” (June 24th, 1882, p. 296). A contributor of that 
journal, who uses the nom de plume “ Miror,” gives the fol- 
lowing account as narrated to him by an old cottager : — 
“ ‘When I was a ploughboy, at Purbeck, I was sent to 
the blacksmith, who lived some distance off, with some 
harness to be mended. The blacksmith was at chapel ; this 
delayed the work, and it was not till half-past nine in the 
evening that I could start for home. It was pitch dark, and 
as I went along a Jack-o’-Lantern came hopping before me. 
It was not above the size of your two fists. I was quite 
aware that Jack-o’-Lanterns came to lead you out of your 
path, so I kept my foot in the rut all along the country road, 
till he, the Jack-o’-Lantern, hopped over a gate where there 
was a pond close by, and tried to entice me there.’ 
“ At the above very evident testimony of evil intention 
the boy was overwhelmed with fright, and taking to his heels 
rushed, he knew not where, till he came to a house. There 
they took him in, and one of the inmates accompanied him 
over the fields, and put him on his way home. 
“‘I had not gone far,’ continued the old man, ‘before 
another Jack-o’-Lantern came hopping before me, and tried 
to entice me to a swamp which lay on one side of my way; 
* We cannot help here remarking that mediaeval tradition personified certain 
phases of the nightmare, as the terms Incubus and Succuba sufficiently 
testify. 
