Brewer's: Corpse Candle

The ignis fatuus is so called by the Welsh because it was supposed to forbode death, and to show the road that the corpse would take. Also a large candle used at lich wakes —i.e. watching a corpse before interment. (German leiche, a corpse.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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