led Borthwyn, about half a
mile from the town. A great number of people came out to see these
lights; and after awhile they all but one disappeared, and this one
proceeded slowly towards the water's edge to a little bay where some
boats were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near the spot
saw the light advancing, they saw it also hover for a few seconds over
one particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or three days
afterwards, the man to whom that particular boat belonged was drowned in
the river, while he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in that very
boat."

As the corpse-candle is obviously a phantasm whose invariable custom is
to foretell death, it must, I think, be classified with that species of
elementals which I have named--for want of a more appropriate
title--CLANOGRIAN. CLANOGRIANS embrace every kind of national and family
ghost, such as The White Owl of the Arundels, the Drummer of the
Airlies, and the Banshee of the O'Neills and O'Donnells.

With regard to the origin of corpse-candles, as of all other
clanogrians, one can only speculate. The powers that govern the
superphysical world have much in their close keeping that they
absolutely refuse to disclose to mortal man. Presuming, however, that
corpse-candles and all sorts of family ghosts are analogous, I should
say that the former are spirits which have attached themselves to
certain localities, either owing to some great crime or crimes having
been committed there in the past, or because at some still more remote
period the inhabitants of those parts--the Milesians and Nemedhians, the
early ancestors of the Irish, dabbled in sorcery.

_Fire-coffins_

Who has not seen all manner of pictures in the fire? Who has not seen,
or fancied he has seen, a fire-coffin? A fire-coffin is a bit of red-hot
coal that pops mysteriously out of the grate in the rude shape of a
coffin, and is prophetic of death, not necessarily the death of the
beholder, but of someone known to him.

_The Death-watch_

Though this omen in a room is undoubtedly due to the presence in the
woodwork of the wall of a minute beetle of the timber-boring genus
ANOBIUM, it is a strange fact that its ticking should only be heard
before the death of someone, who, if not living in the house, is
connected with someone who does live in it. From this fact, one is led
to suppose that this minute beetle has an intuitive knowledge of
impending death, as is the case with cert