ed," said he, "by the most distressing
cries that ever fell upon my ears. Shrieks of horror and cries of mercy
I could hear from most of the negroes of three plantations, amounting in
all to about six or eight hundred. While earnestly listening for the
cause, I heard a faint voice near the door calling my name: I arose,
and, taking my sword, stood at the door. At this moment I heard the same
voice still beseeching me to rise and saying, 'O! my God, the world is
on fire!' I then opened the door, and it is difficult to say which
excited me most, the awfulness of the scene or the distressed cries of
the negroes. Upward of one hundred lay prostrate on the ground, some
speechless, and some with the bitterest cries, but most with their
hands raised, imploring God to save the world and them. The scene was
truly awful, for never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell
toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same."

Those harmless meteors, the _ignes fatui_, which hover above moist and
fenny places in the night-time, emitting a glimmering light, have been
regarded by the ignorant as malicious spirits endeavoring to deceive the
bewildered traveler and lead him to destruction. The plaintive note of
the mourning dove, the ticking noise of the little insect called the
death-watch, the howling of a dog in the night-time, the meeting of a
bitch with whelps, or a snake lying in the road, the breaking of a
looking-glass, and even the falling of salt from the table, and the
curling of a fiber of wick in a burning candle, together with many other
equally harmless incidents, have been regarded with apprehensions of
terror, being considered as unfailing signs of impending disasters or of
approaching death.

Dr. Dick remarks, that in the Highlands of Scotland--and it should be
borne in mind that the Scotch are, as a nation, better instructed, and
more moral and religious in their habits, than any other people in
Europe--the motions and appearances of the clouds were, not long ago,
considered ominous of disastrous events. On the evening before new
year's day, if a black cloud appeared in any part of the horizon, it was
thought to prognosticate a plague, a famine, or the death of some great
man in that part of the country over which it seemed to hang; and in
order to ascertain the place threatened by the omen, the motions of the
clouds were often watched through the whole night. In the same country,
the inhabitants