John Nicholson
Published: 2018-01-18
Total Pages: 192
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Excerpt from Folk Lore of East Yorkshire An Icelandic Saiga tells of a man who, standing at his cottage door, saw some souls pass through the air. Among them he recognised his own, and had scarcely time to relate the incident before he died. Very many similar stories stories not ancient, but very modern - are current to day among the old folks. Here is one. A man went on St. Mark's Eve to watch in the church porch, where he saw enter the church the shades of several he knew, followed by some mysterious unknown forms, carrying a coffin. He endeavoured to see the features of the corpse, but was unable to do so 5 though, in answer to his earnest longing, a whisper came through the quiet midnight air, 'tis yourself He went home, filled with fatal fear, took to his bed and died. The appearance of the wraith or form of the deceased is still as firmly believed to be a Sign of death as it was inthe days Of Olaf and though the bah-gest, * with its eyes as big as saucers, has ceased its terrifying rambles, and its growlings are no longer heard round the house of the doomed one, the howling of the yard dog has taken its place as an omen of death. The ancient belief that the spirit requires space or room to pass still receives credence; for when a person is dying a window or door is opened in order that the spirit may pass away easily. One of the most vivid recollections of my boyhood is the death-bed of a younger brother. On a low bed, near a corner of the room, lay the poor little fellow whose life was rapidly ebbing. By the bedside sat my aged grandmother, silently praying, and the only sounds in the room were the laboured breathing of the dying boy and the smothered sobs of the assembled relatives; and as the end drew near my grandmother directed that a door leading into another room should be opened, and that room was ever afterwards associated with ghosts and spirits. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
