Wraith

In Scottish tradition, a wraith is the spectral double of a living person — appearing to friends or family in their likenesse before death, presaging fate. James VI defined the term in Daemonologie (1597): 'When they appeare vpon that occasion, they are called Wraithes in our language.' Unlike a revenant ghost, the wraith appears before death, not after; it is an omen wearing a living face. The tradition is distinct from the Highland Bean Nighe or Banshee — the wraith is the dying person's own double, and to meet your own wraith on the road is the surest sign.