IGNES FATLI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 59

IGNES FATLI.

By a Banker.

Amongst the natural phenomena which, ao far, had not been satisfactorily explained by scientists, and even at this day of advanced knowledge remains an unsolved mystery, is the strange lambent flame which hovers over churchyards, marshes, and undrained swamps, scientifically known as ignis fatuus, and popularly termed "Will o' the Wisp, Jack o Lanthorn and other fanciful names. This" strange fire, if that cau be called a fire which does not burn— varies very much in appearance. Sometimes it presents the aspect of a ball of fire dancing and rolling about ovor the mardh in playful glee, now and again, perhaps, when striking against a shrulxor other obstruction scattering a shower of smaller balls, which in their turn would dance and play about, not necessarily, however, in tha wake of the parent ball, which continues its wayward career, now shining with a fierji red light, now changing into yellow or amber, then fading into an undefined greenish tint, to burst out again into a purple blaze, Hia erratic illumination at length, perhaps, aftei gambolling about in quite frolicsome mood, ascending high up in th« air until it is lo3t to view.

And sometimes the mock flame presents a more weird and ghostly appearance. The belated wayfarer, who is traversing a low-lying churchyard at " the witching hour of midnight" sees, a short distance from him, a. spectral presence hovering about the tombs, which his terrified imagination immediately regards as a disembodied spirit, a \eritabl® ghost. The phantom apparition faintly shines with a quivering sort of lambent flame, sometimes slowly receding, sometimes advancing, tho frightened nerves of the terror-struck wayfarer exaggerating the harmless illumined column into a menacing ghoul escaped from tho place of punishment, and seeking in vain for the mortal remains of its former fleohly habitation, and, resenting his intrusion, momentarily intending to seize and ca,rry him. off to some terrible inferno. With palpitating heart he flees away, stumbling over tombs,, until perhaps at length in the darkness ho plunges headlong into an open grave, and is discovered the next morning by the gravediggerd in a pitiable plight, and gradually recovering from the horror of his abject terror. And all this because he is so utterly simple and witless as to believe that there are such thing.-) as " ghosts " ; and to imagine that; it would be jiermitted that lost souls should bo allowed a respite from the place of punishment, in order to frighten a few silly girls or intellectually weak men ! For we may be quita certain that souls in Paradise, even if they had the power, would not wish to do ao, and would prefer the glories of the third heaven to masquerade in a sheet in an obscure village churchyard at dead of night. It is, however, unquestioned that sorcerers from the very earliest ages have had the occult (and divinely forbidden) power, by means of what is now called hypnotism, of making even a number of persons congregated together believe that they can see objects^ which have no real existence, and can even in some cases compel persons to believe that they have seen a " ghost." Some of the marvellous tricks of Indian jugglers appear to be produced by this agency, as the detective camera, which cannot be hypnotised, incontestibly proves that the oxtraordinary events which we believe we have seen with our very eyes did not take place, but were only an hallucination produced by the wizard's hypnotic power. Sometimes, in the gloaming 1 , the ignis fatuus playing about at the edge of a morass is a strikingly attractive spectacle, but woe be to him who attempts to pursue one of, the dancing fairies, for it will probably lead him into the morass, into which he may sink deeper and deeper down, the more he struggles the quicker his living entombment! And just so is it with the silly youth who, in the pursuit of so-called pleasure, finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into the miry morass of sin, whence the only possible means of rescue is by la}'ing hold of the hand of Him who lias atoned for those sins. If he refuses or neglects to do this the horrible pit must shut its mouth upon him for ever !