Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-06-26
Fatal Omens.

Not few old families pride themselves
upon inheriting certain omens, whereby
they are warned of deaths approach.
Some are warned by meteors 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 silent land. A stamping
by unseen feet on the palace floor pre-
diets death in the family of the ducal
house of Modena. A sturgeon forcing
its way up the Trent toward Clifton Hall,
is 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 tree is to
be seen floating on the lake near the
family mansion. Two gialt owls perch
upon the battlements of Wardeur Castle
when an Arundels last hour has come
If Devonshire 0xenham is about to die.
a white-breasted bird Autters over The
doomed ones bed. A local ballad,relates
how on the bridal eve of Margaret, heir
ess Of the brave and generous Sir James
Oxenham, silver-breasted bird flew over
the wedding guests just as Sir James rose
to acknowledge their congratulations.
The next day the bride fell dead at the
altar, stabbed by a discarded lover.
Howell saw a tombstone in a stone cut
ter's shop in Fleet street. in 1882, in
scribed with the names of sundry per-
sons, who thereby attested the fact that
John Oxenham, Mary, his sister, James,
his son, and Elizabeth, his mother, had
each and all died with whte-breasted
bird futtering above their beds. A fami-
ly of Loeb RAMA, Arran, knew when one
of their kin is about to die, by an invisi-
BILE piper playing a lament on the hill-
side. When death proposes visiting q
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 around
the old homestead. As rule, death-an-
nouncing phantoms are of the feminine
gender. No Lady Holland expects to
shuttle off this mortal coil until she has
seen shadowy counterfeit presentment
of herself. The Middletons, of Yorkshire
as becomes an ancient Catholic house,
have Benedictine nun TO appraise them
of a reduction in the number of Middle
tons. A weeping, moaning, earthly
sprite warns the Stanleys of the death Of
a distinguished member Of the family.
A hairy armed girl, called Mary Meul-
ZACH, brings sad news to the Grants, Of
Grant; the Bodach-am dunn, otherwise
the ghost of the hill, performs the Office
for the Grants of Rothicmureus, and
most old Highland families boast their
own banshee, 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 hanshees are not pecu-
liar to Scotland. Awakened at midnight
by an awful uuearthly scream, she be-
held, by the light of the moon, female
form at the window of her room, which
was too far from the ground for any wo-
man 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-lreland. After
exhibiting herself for some time, the in
tcresting spectre shrieked twice and van
ished. When Lady Fsnshaw told her
host what she had seen, he was not at all
surprised. "A near relation" said be,
died last night in this castle. We kept
our expectation OF the event from yous
lest it should throw a cloud over the
cheerful reception which was your due
Now, before such an event happens IN
the family and castle, the female spectre
you saw always becomes visible. She y
believed to be the spirit Of woman OF
inferior rank, whom one Of my ancestors
married, and whom he sfterFard caused
to be drowned in the moat TO- ezPiAt,S5
the dishouor done to our race. al
banshees originated in the same way ne
less the proprietors of seuh things DRAG
of the matter, the better.