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)[(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.