Welsh Folk-Lore / a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales

by Elias Owen

Death Watch.

This is a sound, like the ticking of a watch, made by a small insect. It is considered a sign of death, and hence its name, Death Watch.

A working man’s wife, whose uncle was ill in bed, told the writer, that she had no hopes of his recovery, because death ticks were heard night and day in his room. The man, who was upwards of eighty years old, died.