The Hourglass - Time Is Almost Out

The Victorians had many omens of death. In an extract from the book “The Victorian Book of the Dead” by Chris Woodyard. On a ship, a Tom Gray was spinning yarn, he had an audience of several men listening. Bill Graves, interrupting the yarn and springing from his seat, commands nearby sailors to catch a white pigeon before it flies on deck again, to which half a dozen sailors respond, “What pigeon?” Before the sailors could make further inquiry, an order was issued, this brought the stragglers of the watch on deck, and those below deck asked Tom to continue his yarn; but Tom apparently not conscious of their request said, in a sorrowful tone, “Poor Bill, he is not long for this world. The white pigeon which he saw was the angel of death, who appeared to me as he has done before, like a young man with an hour-glass in his hand, the sands of which had nearly run out. He was rigged in white, fastened around the waist with a band like fire, and the name of Bill Graves on it”. Hardly had he finished his description, when a thrilling cry rang fore and aft. “A man overboard!” All hands were on deck in an instant and a boat lowered, but all in vain. Poor Bill Graves sank to rise no more. 

In this abridged story from a newspaper called The National Era (8 December 1859 Atlantic Ocean) I can learn something, that the hourglass is a popular omen of death, but also notably, so is a white pigeon. The hourglass being an omen of death is a fairly obvious one, that the sands remaining in the upper half of the hourglass represent the time that a man has left to live. Although the symbolism makes sense, I can't help but wonder when and how the utilitarian purpose of an hourglass came to be associated with death. The white pigeon however is a slightly less obvious one, thinking about it though when reading through this book I’ve found that resplendent and magnificent sightings tend to be interpreted as omens of death, I’ve also found that the less common ones are more personal.

I have seen in quite a few pieces of antique mourning jewellery hourglass symbols, for example in wedding bands, or in the chains of necklaces as some of the links. I find mourning designs of the Victorian epoch to be particularly attractive, I think they’re intimate, and emotional while still holding beauty. I like to believe that the jeweller who crafted pieces of this style gave particular attention to detail and particular care in the crafting of mourning jewellery, simply because they will be so dear to the wearer.

The story above continues through Tom Gray, he recounted that he had seen the Angel of Death before. “The first time, shipmates, I saw him, was when I belonged to the British ten gun pelter Vulture, lying in the harbour of Sierra Leone. He had the fever on board, and over thirty men were down with it. I was sick at the time myself. The Angel of Death came down the main hatchway, and walked deliberately forward, among the hammocks. He was then dressed in a long flowing robe of orange and yellow, and in his right hand he held a scroll with the names of a dozen men on it, and in his left was the same hourglass that I saw this evening. He was very beautiful, had long curly hair of raven black, encircled by a band on which the words ‘Angel of Death’ seemed to blaze and burn”. Upon passing Tom, the Angel of Death said “not yet.”, then “passing from hammock to hammock, he retraced his steps toward the main hatchway, followed by the men whose names were on the scroll. A dozen men died that night.” Other experiences were recounted to the surrounding shipmates, the sum of which caused him to believe that the soul leaves the body before its life is extinct. This was an interesting point that Tom made because when reading through the book “Japanese Death Poems” by Yoel Hoffmann, I read several times that it is a Japanese belief that the spirit leaves the body at the moment of death in the form of a blue ball of fire floating in the air, that it stays close to the home of the deceased for 49 days. How fascinating that people in different parts of the world have different beliefs on what happens to the soul, or spirit after death. Considering that everybody witnesses the same or similar thing when attending death, I wonder where the different beliefs come from. For example, with my understanding of the heart and brain, I believe that the spirit or soul leaves the body shortly after death because as the heart stops beating the brain quickly begins to die and thus the soul leaves the body.