This, of course, was no other than the Banshee, which in times past has been the source of so much terror in Ireland.  Amongst the innumerable stories told of its appearance may be mentioned one related by Mrs. Lefanu, the niece of Sheridan, in the memoirs of her grandmother, Mrs. Frances Sheridan.  From this account we gather that Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the Banshee, and firmly maintained that the one attached to the Sheridan family was distinctly heard lamenting beneath the windows of the family residence before the news arrived from France of Mrs. Frances Sheridan’s death at Blois.  She adds that a niece of Miss Sheridan’s made her very angry by observing that as Mrs. Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English extraction, she had no right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy, and that therefore the Banshee must have made a mistake.

Likewise, many a Scotch family has its death-warning, a notable one being the Bodach Glass, which Sir Walter Scott has introduced in his “Waverley” as the messenger of bad-tidings to the MacIvors, the truth of which, it is said, has been traditionally proved by the experience of no less than three hundred years.  It is thus described by Fergus to Waverley:  “’You must know that when my ancestor, Ian nan Chaistel, wanted Northumberland, there was appointed with him in the expedition a sort of southland chief, or captain of a band of Lowlanders, called Halbert Hall.  In their return through the Cheviots they quarrelled about the division of the great booty they had acquired, and came from words to blows.  The Lowlanders were cut off to a man, and their chief fell the last, covered with wounds, by the sword of my ancestor.  Since that day his spirit has crossed the Vich Ian Vohr of the day when any great disaster was impending.’” Fergus then gives to Waverley a graphic and detailed account of the appearance of the Bodach:  “’Last night I felt so feverish that I left my quarters and walked out, in hopes the keen frosty air would brace my nerves.  I crossed a small foot bridge, and kept walking backwards and forwards, when I observed, with surprise, by the clear moonlight, a tall figure in a grey plaid, which, move at what pace I would, kept regularly about four yards before me.’

“‘You saw a Cumberland peasant in his ordinary dress, probably.’

“’No; I thought so at first, and was astonished at the man’s audacity in daring to dog me.  I called to him, but received no answer.  I felt an anxious troubling at my heart, and to ascertain what I dreaded, I stood still, and turned myself on the same spot successively to the four points of the compass.  By heaven, Edward, turn where I would, the figure was instantly before my eyes at precisely the same distance.  I was then convinced it was the Bodach Glass.  My hair bristled, and my knees shook.  I manned myself, however, and determined to return to my quarters.  My ghastly visitor glided before me until he reached the footbridge, there he stopped, and turned full round.  I must either wade the river or pass him as close as I am to you.  A desperate courage, founded on the belief that my death was near, made me resolve to make my way in despite of him.  I made the sign of the cross, drew my sword, and uttered, ‘In the name of God, evil spirit, give place!’