Cape Breton's Magazine

Malcolm: It's just like a lot of the fish on the fishing ground. When the people stop fishing there's no fish there. I heard this now in 1937. Tliey used to fish off Port Hood Island and Henry Island. And there was an awful lot of fish, everybody was fishing. And the reason, somebody told me that there's no fish is there's nobody fishing, there's no bait on the grounds. So why were the fish going to congregate there? Then the few that were fishing were going there and they weren't getting the fish they were supposed to get. It's the same with other things, like seeing things, like forerunners. Hugh: I'd like to see my own forerunner. I'd get the hell out of there right away. Malcolm: But it might take years. There used to be a theory if you saw this forerimner early in the morning it was going to take a long time but if you saw it late in the evening it was going to happen very soon. Hugh: Old MacLean on this day was haymaking, raking near the door and she seen this ball of light coming, fell right at the door, right aloi'side of him, and she started to cry. He said, "Don't cry. You may be ahead of me." It took 20 years, Mal? colm. He died ahead of her yes. But it was a forerunner. It dropped right near the man's toe. Sadie Campbell: They used to claim it was coming from the grave. Hugh: It's only a ball of light, you know. A big ball of light. Sadie: With a tail. Mal? colm: This light would go in the direction of the graveyard or come from that direc*> tion and stop at this man's house. One ball of light and a bit of tail on it. Sadie: Once it drops on the ground it lights up the whole building on the outside. Malcolm: It's an eerie light. You know it's not a natural thing. I have seen one in a house. My sister was with me. We were coming past this house. It was about mid? night I guess. It was in wintertime. We had a horse and sleigh. And this was a house where after 9 o'clock you'd never see light, they'd gone to bed. V/e stopped at the brook to water the mare. I looked up at the house and just joking with her, I said to my sister, "This old lady" • her name was Ann • "she must have bridge club or some- . thing tonight. The house is all lit up." It was a strange thing because we passed there hundreds of times and they never kept a light. Helen: The house was lighted upstairs and down. Malcolm: Oh, every window. And you could see, when we were pass? ing • there were barns between us, barns at the road, and when we got passed it and were about to turn up our own road, I looked back at the house again and we could still see it. But you could tell that it was an eerie light. Helen: And you couldn't see anybody moving in the house. Not a shadow in a window. Malcolm: A very short time after that the old lady died and it came a snowstorm. She had a son away and a daughter and they waked the body for four or five nights • maybe they were a whole week, waked the body. And that was a very unusual thing because two nights usually ...and there were lights on every night, all this time. People congregating at the wake. The house was lighted up every night. Hugh: How long did Margaret Campbell take? Helen: v'ell, you saw the forerunner of her funeral in 1925, June of 1925 and what year did she die? Malcolm: She died in '33. Helen: The forerunner wasn't a light. He saw a horse and wagon coming out of a driveway. Hugh: The horse and wagon. I didn't know who's funeral, remember. I was as near to it as you are. Right there at Angus MacLean's. And I said to her, "For God's sake, don't say anything. Somebody's going to die at Angus MacLean's." Helen: We were coming from a party. It was a Saturday night. We left the dance at 12 o'clock. People were very particular then about finishing up their parties at midnight. And we came up the road and at the end of this driveway he said, "Do you see anything?" Hugh: I saw the horse and wagon, the funeral procession coming out. I knew every? thing. I could have put ray hand just like that. But I was trying to show her. I knew the horses. And when she did die, these were the horses, Helen: He counted them when he saw the forerunner and when the procession came out through that driveway my bro? ther counted them too • and said to ray mother, "There's the funeral that Hughie saw." But that girl didn't belong in that house at all. That was the strangest part of it. And she was at that party the same as we were and went to Massachusetts and died 4 Miles East of the Causeway on Route 4 Causeway Shopping Centre All Services Available for your Shopping Convenience Better Health Centre ,'2'L 436 Charlotte St. MON-FRI. Sydney 2 Stores Vowa. from Canadian Tire We have a Large Range of Health, Vegetarian, Special Diet & Diabetic Poods TELE Natural Vitamins 562-1237 Food Supplements Natural Cosmetics CoO.D. Orders Accepted/Bulk Rates FREE NATURAL NUTRITION GUIDE k PkiCtB LIST Cape Breton.*'s Magazii)e/23