had been murdered, in consequence of which his ghost still haunts the place."[1] This is a pre-historic burial, and the light seen must be either entirely imaginary or proceed from some other source than the body.
First among present day appearances, let us give some examples of the corpse-candle.
"———, in the Lergyside of Kintyre, says that when his grandmother was dying a candle was seen burning out in the close (outside in the lane or passage leading to the house)."
"His father, a joiner, having been in town (Campbeltown?), was returning at night when, as he neared his house, he saw a light in the window of his workshop. Suddenly the light disappeared, and he was left in darkness. On the following day, a person came requesting him to make a coffin, and the joiner at once concluded that he now had the explanation of the light he had seen the previous evening. He believed it to be a ghost light."
"A girl died in Kintyre, and on the morning of her death, an hour or two after the event, her brother came into the house and reported that he had seen a strange, bright light passing over his head, outside the house, which rose up and disappeared at about the height of the upper lintel of the door. One present remarked that 'it was she,' referring to the girl that had just died."
These phenomena were observed in the English-speaking part of Kintyre; when we go to the purely Gaelic districts the same appearances are differently named. A native of Coll calls such a light solus bais, a death-light; an Islay man calls it a solus corp, a corpse-light, or solus spiorad, a spirit-light.
"——— was going along the road one night and saw a light come out of a house and pass along the road, apparently at a short distance from the ground. It struck
- ↑ This and the following quotations are from correspondents of the writer, except where otherwise indicated.
