COALS. A cinder bounding from the fire is either a purse or a coffin. Those which rattle when held to the ear are tokens of wealth; those which are mute and solid indicate sickness or death. CORPSE CANDLES. The _ignis fatuus_, called by the Welsh _canhwyll cyrph_, or “corpse candle,” prognosticates death. If small and of pale blue, it denotes the death of an infant; if large and yellow, the death of one of full age. Captain Leather, chief magistrate of Belfast, in 1690, being shipwrecked on the Isle of Man, was told that thirteen of his crew were lost, for thirteen corpse candles had been seen moving towards the churchyard. It is a fact that thirteen of the men were drowned in this wreck.--Sacheverell, _Isle of Man_, 15. CRADLE. It forebodes evil to the child if any one rocks its cradle when empty.--_American Superstition._ CRICKETS. Crickets in a house are a sign of good luck, but if they suddenly leave, it is a warning of death. CROW (_A_). A crow appearing to one on the left hand side indicates some impending evil to the person; and flying over a house, foretells evil at hand to some of the inmates. (See “Raven.”) Sæpe sinistra cava prædixit ab ilice cornex. Virgil, _Eclogue_, i. CROWING OF A COCK. Themistoclês was assured of his victory over Xerxes by the crowing of a cock, on his way to Artemisium the day before the battle.--Lloyd, _Stratagems of Jerusalem_, 285. _Crowing of a hen_ indicates approaching disaster. DEATH-WARNINGS IN PRIVATE FAMILIES. 1. _In Germany._ Several princes of Germany have their special warning-givers of death. In some it is the roaring of a lion, in others the howling of a dog. In some it is the tolling of a bell or striking of a clock at an unusual time, in others it is a bustling noise about the castle.--_The Living Library_, 284 (1621). 2. _In Berlin._ A White Lady appears to some one of the household or guard, to announce the death of a prince of Hohenzollern. She was duly seen on the eve of Prince Waldemar’s death in 1879. 3. _In Bohemia._ “Spectrum fœminium vestitu lugubri apparere solet in arce quadam illustris familiæ, antequam una ex conjugibus dominorum illorum e vita decebat.”--Debrio, _Disquisitiones Magicæ_, (592). 4. _In Great Britain._ In Wales the corpse candle appears to warn a family of impending death. In Carmarthen scarcely any person dies but some one sees his light or candle. In Northumberland the warning light is called the person’s _waff_, in Cumberland a _swarth_, in Ross a _task_, in some parts of Scotland a _fye-token_. King James tells us that the wraith of a person newly dead, or about to die, appears to his friends.--_Demonology_, 125. Edgewell Oak indicates the coming death of an inmate of Castle Dalhousie by the fall of one of its branches. 5. _In Scotland._ The family of Rothmurchas have the Bodachau Dun, or the Ghost of the Hill.