WARNING-GIVERS 
 
 
  CATTLE give warning of an earthquake 
by their uneasiness. 
  CHILDREN PLAYING SOLDIERS on a road 
is said to forebode approaching war. 
  COALS. A cinder bounding from the 
fire is either a purse or a coffin. Those 
which rattle when held to the ear are 
tokens of wealth; those which are mute 
and solid indicate sickness or death. 
  CORPSE CANDLES. The ignis fatuus, 
called by the Welsh canhwyll cyrph, or 
"corpse candle," prognosticates death. If 
small and of pale blue, it denotes the death 
of an infant; if large and yellow, the 
death of one of full age. 
  Captain Leather, chief magistrate of Belfast, 
in 1690, being shipwrecked on the Isle of Man, 
was told that thirteen of his crew were lost, for 
thirteen corpse candles had been seen moving 
towards the churchyard. It is a fact that thir- 
teen of the men were drowned in this wreck.- 
Sacheverell, Isle of Man, 15. 
  CRADLE. It forebodes evil to the child 
if any one rocks its cradle when empty.- 
American Superstition. 
  CPCjcETs.   Crickets in a house are a 
sign of good luck, but if they suddenly 
leave, it is a warning of death. 
  CROW (A). A crow appearing to one on 
the left hand side indicates some impend- 
ing evil to the person; and flying over a 
house, foretells evil at hand to some of the 
inmates. (See "Raven.") 
  Saepe sinistra cava prmdixit ab ilice cornex. 
                        Virgil, Eclogue, i. 
  CROWING OF A CocK. Themistocles was 
assured of his victory over Xerxes by the 
crowing of a cock, on his way to Artemi- 
sium the day before the battle.-Lloyd, 
Stratagems of Jerusalem, 285. 
  Crowing of a hen indicates approaching 
disaster. 
  DEATH-WARNINGS IN PRIVATE FAMILIES. 
  1. In Germany. Several princes of Ger- 
many have their special warning-givers of 
 
 
death. In some it is the roaring of a lion, 
in others the howling of a dog. In some 
it is the tolling of a bell or striking of a 
clock at an unusual time, in others it is a 
bustling noise about the castle.-The Liv- 
ing Library, 284 (1621). 
  2. In Berlin. A White Lady appears 
to some one of the household or guard, to 
announce the death of a prince of Hohen- 
zollern. She was duly seen on the eve of 
Prince Waldemar's death in 1879. 
  3. In Bohemia. "Spectrum fceminium 
vestitu lugubri apparere solet in arce 
quadam illustris familiv, antequam una 
ex conjugibus dominorum illorum e vita 
decebat."--Debrio, Disquisitiones Magice, 
592). 
  4. In Great Britain. In Wales the corpse 
candle appears to warn a family of im- 
pending death. In Carmarthen scarcely 
any person dies but some one sees his 
light or candle, 
  In Northumberland the warning light is 
called the person's waff, in Cumberland 
a swarth, in Ross a task, in some parts of 
Scotland a fye-token. 
  King James tells us that the wraith of 
a person newly dead, or about to die, ap- 
pears to his friends.-Demonology, 125. 
  Edgewell Oak    indicates ' the coming 
death of an inmate of Castle Dalhousie by 
the fall of one of its branches. 
  5. In Scotland. The family of Roth- 
murchas have the Bodachau Dun, or the 
Ghost of the Hill. 
  The Kinchardines have the Spectre of 
the Bloody Hand. 
  Gartinbeg House used to be haunted by 
Bodach Gartin. 
  The house of Tulloch Gorms used to be 
haunted by Maug Monlach, or the Girl 
with the Hairy Left Hand. 
  DEATH-WATCH (The). The tapping made 
by a small beetle called the death-watch 
is said to be a warning of death. 
 
 
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WARNING-GIVERS