Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-05-20
Fatal Omens.

selves upon lnherltlng certain omens,
whereby they are warned of deaths sp-
proach. Some are warned by a me-
teor's light, some by melancholy strains
of music floating from the mansion to
die away in the woods. A mysterious
knocking, never heard at any other
time, tells the lords of hampton that
one of their race is bound for the ST.
lent land. A stamping by unseen feet
on the palace floor predicates death
in the family of the ducal house of
Modens. A sturgeon forcing its way
up tine Trent toward Clifton Hall, is a
sign that the Cliftons of Nottingham
shire will have to put on mourning.
For some days before the death of the
heir of the Breretons, the trunk of a
tree is to be seen floating on the lake
near the family mansion. Two giant
owls perch upon the battlements of
Wardour Castle when an Arunders last
hour has come. If Devonshire Oxen
ham is about to die, white-breasted
bird flutters over the doomed ones
bed, A local ballad relates how on the
burial eve of Margaret, heiress of the
brave and generous Sir James Oxen
ham, q silver-breasted bird flew over
the wedding guests just as Sir James
rose to acknowledge their congratula-
tions. The next day the bride fell
dead at the altar, stabbed by a dis
carded lover. Howell saw tombstone
in stone cutters shop in Fleet street,
in 1852, inscribed with the names of
sundry persons, who thereby attested
the fact that John Oxenham, Mary, his
sister, James, his son, and Elizabeth,
his mother, had each and all died with
a white breasted bird futtering above
their beds. A family of Loeb RAMA,
Arran, know when one of their kin is
about to die by an invisible piper play
ing a lament on the hill side. When
death purposes visiting Mclean, of
Lochbury, the unwelcome caller is
heralded by the spirit of a battle-slain
ancestor ringing the bells on his fairy
bride, as he gallops twice round the
old homestead. As a rule, death-an-
nouncipg phantoms are of the feminine
gender. No Lady Holland expects to
shuttle off this mortal coil until she
has seen q shadowy counterfeit pre-
sentiment of herself. The Middletons,
of Yorkshire, as becomes an ancient
Catholic house, have Benedictine nun
to apprise them of q reduction in the
number of Middletons. A weeping,
moaning, earthly sprite warns the
Stanleys Of the death Of distinguished
member of the family. A hairy-armed
girl, called May Moullach, brings the
like sad news to the Grants of Grant;
the Bodach-am-dun, otherwise the
ghost of the hill, performs the Office
for the Grants of Rothemureus, and
most old Highland families boast their
own familiar bsnshee, whose wailing,
screaming and weeping tells them the
head of the house must make room for
his heir. Lady Fanshaw, visiting the
head of an Irish sept in his moated
baronial grange, was made aware that
banshees are not peculiar to Scotland.
Awakened at midnight by an awful un
earthly scream, she beheld, by the
light of the moon, q female form at the
window of her room, which was too far
from the ground for any woman of
mortal mould to reach. The creature
owned a pretty, pale face, and red
dishevelled hair, and was clad in the
garb of old-very old-Ireland. After
exhibiting herself for some time, the
interesting spectre shrieked twice and
vanished. When Lady Fanshsw told
her host what she had seen he was not
at all surprised. "a near relation,
said he, died last night in this castle.
We kept our expectation of the event
from you lest it should throw q cloud
ovar tho choerfu1 roceDtion which WAS
your due. Now, before such an event
happens in the family and castle, the
female spectre you saw always becomes
visible. She is believed to be the
spirit of q woman of inferior rank,
whom one of my ancestors married,
and whom he afterwards caused to be
drowned in the moat to expiate the
dishonor done to our race" If all
banshees originated in the same way,
the less the proprietors of such things
brag of the matter, the better.-AH the
Year Round.