or relatives buried in the churchyard, and it is the souls of these that come to fetch their kinsman or kinswoman.
All under the stars, and beneath the green tree,
All over the sward, and along the cold lea,
A little blue flame a-fluttering came;
It came from the churchyard for you or for me.
I sit by the cradle, my baby’s asleep,
And rocking the cradle, I wonder and weep.
O little blue light in the dead of the night,
O prithee, O prithee, no nearer to creep.
Why follow the church-path, why steal you this way?
Why halt in your journey, on threshold why stay?
With flicker and flare, why dance up the stair?
O I would! O I would! it were dawning of day.
All under the stars, and along the green lane,
Unslaked by the dew, and unquenched by the rain,
Of little flames blue to the churchyard steal two,
The soul of my baby! now from me is ta’en.
Baxter, in his Certainty of the World of Spirits, quotes a letter from Mr. John Davis of Gleneurglyn, 1656, in which he says that the corpse-candles do as much resemble material candle-light as eggs do eggs, saving that in their journey these candles are sometimes visible and sometimes disappear, especially if anyone comes near them, or in any way meet them. On these occasions they
