HARBINGER OF DEATH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21020, 8 May 1930, Page 15

HARBINGER OF DEATH.

IRISH FEARS AND SUPERSTITIONS How many people outside Ireland know that that strange, fantastic flickering light, which runs along the ground, is regarded there ns the certain harbinger of death by those who see it? (writes a special correspondent). “ Ignis fatuus ” was its classical name which I learned when I was at school in that emerald isle in which I was born, where the “little people” dwell and superstition rules rampant. Despite my scientific education, 1 have always believed in ghosts, fairies, and banshees —as a result, no doubt, ■of my early superstitious training. As a boy I often heard the cry of the banshee on the wild and desolate bog of Allen, listened with youthful terror to the_ howling of the dogs in the dead of night as they gave premonitory warning of the near approach of death to some of my family, and I have seen the will-o'-the-wisp, that strange but certain foreboder of death. It was when X was about 10 years of age that I saw that fitting light under circumstances which have printed its memory indelibly in my brain. I was staying with my grandfather, who lived in County Meath. As a treat, he took me with him one day to a fair which was being held in the town of Oldcastle, about 20 miles from our home At the fair my grandfather had bought some horses and cattle, the business connected with which detained him longer than he had intended, so that we did not start for our long drive home until night had ■ fallen. Part of the journey lay through a bog, bleak, barren, and dark. Th e narrow high road lay between two dykes, full of black and treacherous water which was quite deep enough to drown us if. by any -unlucky chance, we fell in. . By the time we reached this exceedingl? dangerous part of our journey, the darkness had increased so that it was difficult to see our way. The solitude was intense. Not a sound stirred the stillness My your nerves were tensely on the stretch. The place seemed made for spooks and ghosts and leprechauns. Suddenly the mare we were driving a blood animal, stopped short. My grandfather whipped her up, but she refused to move. She snorted and whinnied, and began backing until she nearly had the trap in the ditch. My grandfather got down, went to her head, and found her shivering and shaking, covered with sweat and form and giving every sign of extreme terror Try as he would he could not persuade the animal to move Suddenly, about 20 yards ahead of us we saw a weird, unearthly light cross the road and vanish in -the darkness. I crossed myself fervently and prayed to all the saints to protect us. As soon as the light had vanished the mare quietened down and allowed my grandfather to lead her past the spot where we had seen it. We reached home without any further adventure, but we had seen the will-o’-the-wisp, and though we said nothing to each other we knew that it presaged misfortune to us. Sure enough, within a few hours my grandfather took sick of pneumonia and died within the week.