FOLK LORE.

_Presages of Death_.--The Note by Mr. C. FORBES (Vol. ii., p. 84.) on
"High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity or Death,"
reminded me of a collection of authorities I once made, for academical
purposes, of a somewhat analogous bearing,--I mean the ancient belief in
the existence of a power of prophecy at that period which immediately
precedes dissolution.

The most ancient, as well as the most striking instance, is recorded in
the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis:--

"And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together
_that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last
days_.... And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,
he gathered up his feet into his bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people."

Homer affords two instances of a similar kind: thus, Patroclus
prophesies the death of Hector (Il. [Greek: p] 852.)[1]:--

[Greek: "Ou thaen oud autos daeron beae alla toi aedae
Agchi parestaeke Thanatos kai Moira krataiae,
Chersi dament Achilaeos amnmonos Aiakidao."][2]

Again, Hector in his turn prophesies the death of Achilles by the hand
of Paris (Il. [Greek: ch.] 358.):--

[Greek: "Phrazeo nun, mae toi ti theon maenima genomai
Aemati to ote ken se Pharis kai phoibus Apollon,