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diff --git a/old/20644-8.txt b/old/20644-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72e2e63 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20644-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5861 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Hallowe'en, by Ruth Edna Kelley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Hallowe'en + +Author: Ruth Edna Kelley + +Release Date: February 21, 2007 [EBook #20644] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzan Flanagan, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: HALLOWE'EN FESTIVITIES. + +_From an Old English Print_] + + + + The + Book of Hallowe'en + + By + + RUTH EDNA KELLEY, A. M. + + _Lynn Public Library_ + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + BOSTON + + LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + * * * * * + + Published, August, 1919 + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, + BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + The Book of Hallowe'en + + Norwood Press + BERWICK & SMITH CO. + NORWOOD, MASS. + U. S. A. + + * * * * * + + _To my Mother and the memory of my Father + who inspired and encouraged me + in the writing of this + book_ + + * * * * * + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book is intended to give the reader an account of the origin +and history of Hallowe'en, how it absorbed some customs belonging +to other days in the year,--such as May Day, Midsummer, and +Christmas. The context is illustrated by selections from ancient +and modern poetry and prose, related to Hallowe'en ideas. + +Those who wish suggestions for readings, recitations, plays, and +parties, will find the lists in the appendix useful, in addition to +the books on entertainments and games to be found in any public +library. + +Special acknowledgment is made to Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Company +for permission to use the poem entitled "Hallowe'en" from "The +Spires of Oxford and Other Poems," by W. M. Letts; to Messrs. +Longmans, Green & Company for the poem "Pomona," by William Morris; +and to the Editors of _The Independent_ for the use of five poems. + + RUTH EDNA KELLEY. + + LYNN, _1919_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + +I. SUN-WORSHIP. THE SOURCES OF HALLOWE'EN 1 + +II. THE CELTS: THEIR RELIGION AND FESTIVALS 5 + +III. SAMHAIN 16 + +IV. POMONA 23 + +V. THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY. ALL SAINTS'. ALL SOULS' 27 + +VI. ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF HALLOWE'EN OMENS 33 + +VII. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND 35 + +VIII. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN SCOTLAND + AND THE HEBRIDES 59 + +IX. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND AND MAN 82 + +X. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN WALES 101 + +XI. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 107 + +XII. THE TEUTONIC RELIGION. WITCHES 119 + +XIII. WALPURGIS NIGHT 136 + +XIV. MORE HALLOWTIDE BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 142 + +XV. HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 149 + + "FOUR POEMS" 172 + + MAGAZINE REFERENCES TO HALLOWE'EN ENTERTAINMENTS 179 + + SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF READINGS, RECITATIONS, AND PLAYS 182 + + INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 184 + + INDEX 188 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Hallowe'en Festivities _Frontispiece_ + FACING PAGE +In Hallowe'en Time 34 + +The Witch of the Walnut-Tree 100 + +The Witches' Dance (_Valpurgisnacht_) 138 + +Fortune-Telling 148 + +Hallowe'en Tables, I 156 + +Hallowe'en Tables, II 158 + +No Hallowe'en without a Jack-o'-lantern 178 + + + + +The Book of Hallowe'en + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SUN-WORSHIP. THE SOURCES OF HALLOWE'EN + + +If we could ask one of the old-world pagans whom he revered as his +greatest gods, he would be sure to name among them the sun-god; +calling him Apollo if he were a Greek; if an Egyptian, Horus or +Osiris; if of Norway, Sol; if of Peru, Bochica. As the sun is the +center of the physical universe, so all primitive peoples made it +the hub about which their religion revolved, nearly always +believing it a living person to whom they could say prayers and +offer sacrifices, who directed their lives and destinies, and could +even snatch men from earthly existence to dwell for a time with +him, as it draws the water from lakes and seas. + +In believing this they followed an instinct of all early peoples, a +desire to make persons of the great powers of nature, such as the +world of growing things, mountains and water, the sun, moon, and +stars; and a wish for these gods they had made to take an interest +in and be part of their daily life. The next step was making +stories about them to account for what was seen; so arose myths and +legends. + +The sun has always marked out work-time and rest, divided the year +into winter idleness, seed-time, growth, and harvest; it has always +been responsible for all the beauty and goodness of the earth; it +is itself splendid to look upon. It goes away and stays longer and +longer, leaving the land in cold and gloom; it returns bringing the +long fair days and resurrection of spring. A Japanese legend tells +how the hidden sun was lured out by an image made of a copper plate +with saplings radiating from it like sunbeams, and a fire kindled, +dancing, and prayers; and round the earth in North America the +Cherokees believed they brought the sun back upon its northward +path by the same means of rousing its curiosity, so that it would +come out to see its counterpart and find out what was going on. + +All the more important church festivals are survivals of old rites +to the sun. "How many times the Church has decanted the new wine of +Christianity into the old bottles of heathendom." Yule-tide, the +pagan Christmas, celebrated the sun's turning north, and the old +midsummer holiday is still kept in Ireland and on the Continent as +St. John's Day by the lighting of bonfires and a dance about them +from east to west as the sun appears to move. The pagan Hallowe'en +at the end of summer was a time of grief for the decline of the +sun's glory, as well as a harvest festival of thanksgiving to him +for having ripened the grain and fruit, as we formerly had +husking-bees when the ears had been garnered, and now keep our own +Thanksgiving by eating of our winter store in praise of God who +gives us our increase. + +Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit, lends us the harvest element of +Hallowe'en; the Celtic day of "summer's end" was a time when +spirits, mostly evil, were abroad; the gods whom Christ dethroned +joined the ill-omened throng; the Church festivals of All Saints' +and All Souls' coming at the same time of year--the first of +November--contributed the idea of the return of the dead; and the +Teutonic May Eve assemblage of witches brought its hags and their +attendant beasts to help celebrate the night of October 31st. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CELTS: THEIR RELIGION AND FESTIVALS + + +The first reference to Great Britain in European annals of which we +know was the statement in the fifth century B. C. of the Greek +historian Herodotus, that Ph[oe]nician sailors went to the British +Isles for tin. He called them the "Tin Islands." The people with +whom these sailors traded must have been Celts, for they were the +first inhabitants of Britain who worked in metal instead of stone. + +The Druids were priests of the Celts centuries before Christ came. +There is a tradition in Ireland that they first arrived there in +270 B. C., seven hundred years before St. Patrick. The account of +them written by Julius Cæsar half a century before Christ speaks +mainly of the Celts of Gaul, dividing them into two ruling classes +who kept the people almost in a state of slavery; the knights, who +waged war, and the Druids who had charge of worship and sacrifices, +and were in addition physicians, historians, teachers, scientists, +and judges. + +Cæsar says that this cult originated in Britain, and was +transferred to Gaul. Gaul and Britain had one religion and one +language, and might even have one king, so that what Cæsar wrote of +Gallic Druids must have been true of British. + +The Celts worshipped spirits of forest and stream, and feared the +powers of evil, as did the Greeks and all other early races. Very +much of their primitive belief has been kept, so that to Scotch, +Irish, and Welsh peasantry brooks, hills, dales, and rocks abound +in tiny supernatural beings, who may work them good or evil, lead +them astray by flickering lights, or charm them into seven years' +servitude unless they are bribed to show favor. + +The name "Druid" is derived from the Celtic word "druidh," meaning +"sage," connected with the Greek word for oak, "drus," + + "The rapid oak-tree-- + Before him heaven and earth quake: + Stout door-keeper against the foe. + In every land his name is mine." + + TALIESIN: _Battle of the Trees._ + +for the oak was held sacred by them as a symbol of the omnipotent +god, upon whom they depended for life like the mistletoe growing +upon it. Their ceremonies were held in oak-groves. + +Later from their name a word meaning "magician" was formed, showing +that these priests had gained the reputation of being dealers in +magic. + + "The Druid followed him and suddenly, as we are told, struck him + with a druidic wand, or according to one version, flung at him a + tuft of grass over which he had pronounced a druidical + incantation." + + O'CURRY: _Ancient Irish._ + +They dealt in symbols, common objects to which was given by the +interposition of spirits, meaning to signify certain facts, and +power to produce certain effects. Since they were tree-worshippers, +trees and plants were thought to have peculiar powers. + +Cæsar provides them with a galaxy of Roman divinities, Mercury, +Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, who of course were worshipped under +their native names. Their chief god was Baal, of whom they believed +the sun the visible emblem. They represented him by lowlier tokens, +such as circles and wheels. The trefoil, changed into a figure +composed of three winged feet radiating from a center, represented +the swiftness of the sun's journey. The cross too was a symbol of +the sun, being the appearance of its light shining upon dew or +stream, making to the half-closed eye little bright crosses. One +form of the cross was the swastika. + +To Baal they made sacrifices of criminals or prisoners of war, +often burning them alive in wicker images. These bonfires lighted +on the hills were meant to urge the god to protect and bless the +crops and herds. From the appearance of the victims sacrificed in +them, omens were taken that foretold the future. The gods and other +supernatural powers in answer to prayer were thought to signify +their will by omens, and also by the following methods: the ordeal, +in which the innocence or guilt of a person was shown by the way +the god permitted him to endure fire or other torture; exorcism, +the driving out of demons by saying mysterious words or names over +them. Becoming skilled in interpreting the will of the gods, the +Druids came to be known as prophets. + + "O Deirdré, terrible child, + For thee, red star of our ruin, + Great weeping shall be in Eri-- + Woe, woe, and a breach in Ulla. + + * * * * * + + "Thy feet shall trample the mighty + Yet stumble on heads thou lovest." + + TODHUNTER: _Druid song of Cathvah._ + +They kept their lore for the most part a secret, forbidding it to +be written, passing it down by word of mouth. They taught the +immortality of the soul, that it passed from one body to another at +death. + + "If, as those Druids taught, which kept the British rites, + And dwelt in darksome groves, there counselling with sprites, + When these our souls by death our bodies do forsake + They instantly again do other bodies take----" + + DRAYTON: _Polyolbion._ + +They believed that on the last night of the old year (October 31st) +the lord of death gathered together the souls of all those who had +died in the passing year and had been condemned to live in the +bodies of animals, to decree what forms they should inhabit for the +next twelve months. He could be coaxed to give lighter sentences by +gifts and prayers. + +The badge of the initiated Druid was a glass ball reported to be +made in summer of the spittle of snakes, and caught by the priests +as the snakes tossed it into the air. + + "And the potent adder-stone + Gender'd 'fore the autumnal moon + When in undulating twine + The foaming snakes prolific join." + + MASON: _Caractacus._ + +It was real glass, blown by the Druids themselves. It was supposed +to aid the wearer in winning lawsuits and securing the favor of +kings. + +An animal sacred to the Druids was the cat. + +"A slender black cat reclining on a chain of old silver" guarded +treasure in the old days. For a long time cats were dreaded by the +people because they thought human beings had been changed to that +form by evil means. + +The chief festivals of the Druids fell on four days, celebrating +phases of the sun's career. Fires of sacrifice were lighted +especially at spring and midsummer holidays, by exception on +November 1st. + +May Day and November Day were the more important, the beginning and +end of summer, yet neither equinoxes nor solstices. The time was +divided then not according to sowing and reaping, but by the older +method of reckoning from when the herds were turned out to pasture +in the spring and brought into the fold again at the approach of +winter--by a pastoral rather than an agricultural people. + +On the night before Beltaine ("Baal-fire"), the first of May, fires +were burned to Baal to celebrate the return of the sun bringing +summer. Before sunrise the houses were decked with garlands to +gladden the sun when he appeared; a rite which has survived in +"going maying." The May-Day fires were used for purification. +Cattle were singed by being led near the flames, and sometimes bled +that their blood might be offered as a sacrifice for a prosperous +season. + + "When lo! a flame, + A wavy flame of ruddy light + Leaped up, the farmyard fence above. + And while his children's shout rang high, + His cows the farmer slowly drove + Across the blaze,--he knew not why." + + KICKHAM: _St. John's Eve._ + +A cake was baked in the fire with one piece blacked with charcoal. +Whoever got the black piece was thereby marked for sacrifice to +Baal, so that, as the ship proceeded in safety after Jonah was cast +overboard, the affairs of the group about the May-Eve fire might +prosper when it was purged of the one whom Baal designated by lot. +Later only the symbol of offering was used, the victim being forced +to leap thrice over the flames. + +In history it was the day of the coming of good. Partholon, the +discoverer and promoter of Ireland, came thither from the other +world to stay three hundred years. The gods themselves, the +deliverers of Ireland, first arrived there "through the air" on May +Day. + +June 21st, the day of the summer solstice, the height of the sun's +power, was marked by midnight fires of joy and by dances. These +were believed to strengthen the sun's heat. A blazing wheel to +represent the sun was rolled down hill. + + "A happy thought. + Give me this cart-wheel. + I'll have it tied with ropes and smeared with pitch, + And when it's lighted, I will roll it down + The steepest hillside." + + HAUPTMANN: _Sunken Bell._ + (Lewisohn _trans._) + +Spirits were believed to be abroad, and torches were carried about +the fields to protect them from invasion. Charms were tried on that +night with seeds of fern and hemp, and dreams were believed to be +prophetic. + +Lugh, in old Highland speech "the summer sun" + + "The hour may hither drift + When at the last, amid the o'erwearied Shee-- + Weary of long delight and deathless joys-- + One you shall love may fade before your eyes, + Before your eyes may fade, and be as mist + Caught in the sunny hollow of Lu's hand, + Lord of the Day." + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +had for father one of the gods and for mother the daughter of a +chief of the enemy. Hence he possessed some good and some evil +tendencies. He may be the Celtic Mercury, for they were alike +skilled in magic and alchemy, in deception, successful in combats +with demons, the bringers of new strength and cleansing to the +nation. He said farewell to power on the first of August, and his +foster-mother had died on that day, so then it was he set his +feast-day. The occasion was called "Lugnasad," "the bridal of Lugh" +and the earth, whence the harvest should spring. It was celebrated +by the offering of the first fruits of harvest, and by races and +athletic sports. In Meath, Ireland, this continued down into the +nineteenth century, with dancing and horse-racing the first week of +August. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SAMHAIN + + +On November first was Samhain ("summer's end"). + + "Take my tidings: + Stags contend; + Snows descend-- + Summer's end! + + "A chill wind raging, + The sun low keeping, + Swift to set + O'er seas high sweeping. + + "Dull red the fern; + Shapes are shadows; + Wild geese mourn + O'er misty meadows. + + "Keen cold limes each weaker wing, + Icy times-- + Such I sing! + Take my tidings." + + GRAVES: _First Winter Song._ + +Then the flocks were driven in, and men first had leisure after +harvest toil. Fires were built as a thanksgiving to Baal for +harvest. The old fire on the altar was quenched before the night of +October 31st, and the new one made, as were all sacred fires, by +friction. It was called "forced-fire." A wheel and a spindle were +used: the wheel, the sun symbol, was turned from east to west, +sunwise. The sparks were caught in tow, blazed upon the altar, and +were passed on to light the hilltop fires. The new fire was given +next morning, New Year's Day, by the priests to the people to light +their hearths, where all fires had been extinguished. The blessed +fire was thought to protect the year through the home it warmed. In +Ireland the altar was Tlactga, on the hill of Ward in Meath, where +sacrifices, especially black sheep, were burnt in the new fire. +From the death struggles and look of the creatures omens for the +future year were taken. + +The year was over, and the sun's life of a year was done. The +Celts thought that at this time the sun fell a victim for six +months to the powers of winter darkness. In Egyptian mythology one +of the sun-gods, Osiris, was slain at a banquet by his brother +Sîtou, the god of darkness. On the anniversary of the murder, the +first day of winter, no Egyptian would begin any new business for +fear of bad luck, since the spirit of evil was then in power. + +From the idea that the sun suffered from his enemies on this day +grew the association of Samhain with death. + + "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, + Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere. + Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the wither'd leaves lie dead; + They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread. + The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrub the jay + And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day. + + "The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, + And the wild rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow: + But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, + And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, + Till fell the frost from the cold clear heaven, as falls the + plague on men, + And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade, + and glen." + + BRYANT: _Death of the Flowers._ + +In the same state as those who are dead, are those who have never +lived, dwelling right in the world, but invisible to most mortals +at most times. Seers could see them at any time, and if very many +were abroad at once others might get a chance to watch them too. + + "There is a world in which we dwell, + And yet a world invisible. + And do not think that naught can be + Save only what with eyes ye see: + I tell ye that, this very hour, + Had but your sight a spirit's power, + Ye would be looking, eye to eye, + At a terrific company." + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +These supernatural spirits ruled the dead. There were two classes: +the Tuatha De Danann, "the people of the goddess Danu," gods of +light and life; and spirits of darkness and evil. The Tuatha had +their chief seat on the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish +Sea, and brought under their power the islands about them. On a +Midsummer Day they vanquished the Fir Bolgs and gained most of +Ireland, by the battle of Moytura. + +A long time afterwards--perhaps 1000 B. C.--the Fomor, sea-demons, +after destroying nearly all their enemies by plagues, exacted from +those remaining, as tribute, "a third part of their corn, a third +part of their milk, and a third part of their children." This tax +was paid on Samhain. It was on the week before Samhain that the +Fomor landed upon Ireland. On the eve of Samhain the gods met them +in the second battle of Moytura, and they were driven back into the +ocean. + +As Tigernmas, a mythical king of Ireland, was sacrificing "the +firstlings of every issue, and the scions of every clan" to Crom +Croich, the king idol, and lay prostrate before the image, he and +three-fourths of his men mysteriously disappeared. + + "Then came + Tigernmas, the prince of Tara yonder + On Hallowe'en with many hosts. + A cause of grief to them was the deed. + Dead were the men + Of Bamba's host, without happy strength + Around Tigernmas, the destructive man of the north, + From the worship of Crom Cruaich. 'T was no luck for them. + For I have learnt, + Except one-fourth of the keen Gaels, + Not a man alive--lasting the snare! + Escaped without death in his mouth." + + _Dinnsenchus of Mag Slecht_ (Meyer _trans._). + +This was direct invocation, but the fire rites which were continued +so long afterwards were really only worshipping the sun by proxy, +in his nearest likeness, fire. + +Samhain was then a day sacred to the death of the sun, on which had +been paid a sacrifice of death to evil powers. Though overcome at +Moytura evil was ascendant at Samhain. Methods of finding out the +will of spirits and the future naturally worked better then, charms +and invocations had more power, for the spirits were near to help, +if care was taken not to anger them, and due honors paid. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +POMONA + + +Ops was the Latin goddess of plenty. Single parts of her province +were taken over by various other divinities, among whom was Pomona +(_pomorum patrona_, "she who cares for fruits"). She is represented +as a maiden with fruit in her arms and a pruning-knife in her hand. + + "I am the ancient apple-queen. + As once I was so am I now-- + For evermore a hope unseen + Betwixt the blossom and the bough. + + "Ah, where's the river's hidden gold! + And where's the windy grave of Troy? + Yet come I as I came of old, + From out the heart of summer's joy." + + MORRIS: _Pomona._ + +Many Roman poets told stories about her, the best known being by +Ovid, who says that she was wooed by many orchard-gods, but +preferred to remain unmarried. Among her suitors was Vertumnus +("the changer"), the god of the turning year, who had charge of the +exchange of trade, the turning of river channels, and chiefly of +the change in nature from flower to ripe fruit. True to his +character he took many forms to gain Pomona's love. Now he was a +ploughman (spring), now a fisherman (summer), now a reaper +(autumn). + +At last he took the likeness of an old woman (winter), and went to +gossip with Pomona. After sounding her mind and finding her averse +to marriage, the woman pleaded for Vertumnus's success. + + "Is not he the first to have the fruits which + are thy delight? And does he not hold thy + gifts in his joyous right hand?" + + OVID: _Vertumnus and Pomona._ + +Then the crone told her the story of Anaxarete who was so cold to +her lover Iphis that he hanged himself, and she at the window +watching his funeral train pass by was changed to a marble statue. +Advising Pomona to avoid such a fate, Vertumnus donned his proper +form, that of a handsome young man, and Pomona, moved by the story +and his beauty, yielded and became his wife. + +Vertumnus had a statue in the Tuscan Way in Rome, and a temple. His +festival, the Vortumnalia, was held on the 23d of August, when the +summer began to wane. Garlands and garden produce were offered to +him. + +Pomona had been assigned one of the fifteen _flamina_, priests +whose duty it was to kindle the fire for special sacrifices. She +had a grove near Ostia where a harvest festival was held about +November first. Not much is known of the ceremonies, but from the +similar August holiday much may be deduced. Then the deities of +fire and water were propitiated that their disfavor might not ruin +the crops. On Pomona's day doubtless thanks was rendered them for +their aid to the harvest. An offering of first-fruits was made in +August; in November the winter store of nuts and apples was opened. +The horses released from toil contended in races. + +From Pomona's festival nuts and apples, from the Druidic Samhain +the supernatural element, combined to give later generations the +charms and omens from nuts and apples which are made trial of at +Hallowe'en. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY. ALL SAINTS'. ALL SOULS' + + +The great power which the Druids exercised over their people +interfered with the Roman rule of Britain. Converts were being made +at Rome. Augustus forbade Romans to became initiated, Tiberius +banished the priestly clan and their adherents from Gaul, and +Claudius utterly stamped out the belief there, and put to death a +Roman knight for wearing the serpent's-egg badge to win a lawsuit. +Forbidden to practise their rites in Britain, the Druids fled to +the isle of Mona, near the coast of Wales. The Romans pursued them, +and in 61 A. D. they were slaughtered and their oak groves cut +down. During the next three centuries the cult was stifled to +death, and the Christian religion substituted. + +It was believed that at Christ's advent the pagan gods either died +or were banished. + + "The lonely mountains o'er + And the resounding shore + A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament. + From haunted spring and dale, + Edged with poplar pale, + The parting genius is with sighing sent. + With flower-inwoven tresses torn + The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn." + + MILTON: _On the Morning of Christ's Nativity._ + +The Christian Fathers explained all oracles and omens by saying +that there was something in them, but that they were the work of +the evil one. The miraculous power they seemed to possess worked +"black magic." + +It was a long, hard effort to make men see that their gods had all +the time been wrong, and harder still to root out the age-long +growth of rite and symbol. But on the old religion might be grafted +new names; Midsummer was dedicated to the birth of Saint John; +Lugnasad became Lammas. The fires belonging to these times of year +were retained, their old significance forgotten or reconsecrated. +The rowan, or mountain ash, whose berries had been the food of the +Tuatha, now exorcised those very beings. The trefoil signified the +Trinity, and the cross no longer the rays of the sun on water, but +the cross of Calvary. The fires which had been built to propitiate +the god and consume his sacrifices to induce him to protect them +were now lighted to protect the people from the same god, declared +to be an evil mischief-maker. In time the autumn festival of the +Druids became the vigil of All Hallows or All Saints' Day. + +All Saints' was first suggested in the fourth century, when the +Christians were no longer persecuted, in memory of all the saints, +since there were too many for each to have a special day on the +church calendar. A day in May was chosen by Pope Boniface IV in 610 +for consecrating the Pantheon, the old Roman temple of all the +gods, to the Virgin and all the saints and martyrs. Pope Gregory +III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's to the same, and that day was +made compulsory in 835 by Pope Gregory IV, as All Saints'. The day +was changed from May to November so that the crowds that thronged +to Rome for the services might be fed from the harvest bounty. It +is celebrated with a special service in the Greek and Roman +churches and by Episcopalians. + +In the tenth century St. Odilo, Bishop of Cluny, instituted a day +of prayer and special masses for the souls of the dead. He had been +told that a hermit dwelling near a cave + + "heard the voices and howlings of devils, which complained + strongly because that the souls of them that were dead were taken + away from their hands by alms and by prayers." + + DE VORAGINE: _Golden Legend._ + +This day became All Souls', and was set for November 2d. + +It is very appropriate that the Celtic festival when the spirits of +the dead and the supernatural powers held a carnival of triumph +over the god of light, should be followed by All Saints' and All +Souls'. The church holy-days were celebrated by bonfires to light +souls through Purgatory to Paradise, as they had lighted the sun to +his death on Samhain. On both occasions there were prayers: the +pagan petitions to the lord of death for a pleasant dwelling-place +for the souls of departed friends; and the Christian for their +speedy deliverance from torture. They have in common the +celebrating of death: the one, of the sun; the other, of mortals: +of harvest: the one, of crops; the other, of sacred memories. They +are kept by revelry and joy: first, to cheer men and make them +forget the malign influences abroad; second, because as the saints +in heaven rejoice over one repentant sinner, we should rejoice over +those who, after struggles and sufferings past, have entered into +everlasting glory. + + "Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, + Yet were the fields in bud. + And the harvest,--when shall it rise again + Up through the fire and flood? + + * * * * * + + "Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, + Was it not all to save + Harvest of bread?--Harvest of men? + And the bright years, wave on wave? + + _"Search not, search not, my way-worn; + Search neither weald nor wave. + One is their heavy reaping-time + To the earth, that is one wide grave."_ + + MARKS: _All Souls' Eve._ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF HALLOWE'EN OMENS + + +The custom of making tests to learn the future comes from the old +system of augury from sacrifice. Who sees in the nuts thrown into +the fire, turning in the heat, blazing and growing black, the +writhing victim of an old-time sacrifice to an idol? + +Many superstitions and charms were believed to be active at any +time, but all those and numerous special ones worked best on +November Eve. All the tests of all the Celtic festivals have been +allotted to Hallowe'en. Cakes from the May Eve fire, hemp-seed and +prophetic dreams from Midsummer, games and sports from Lugnasad +have survived in varied forms. + +Tests are very often tried blindfold, so that the seeker may be +guided by fate. Many are mystic--to evoke apparitions from the +past or future. Others are tried with harvest grains and fruits. +Because skill and undivided attention is needed to carry them +through successfully, many have degenerated into mere contests of +skill, have lost their meaning, and become rough games. + +Answers are sought to questions about one's future career; chiefly +to: when and whom shall I marry? what will be my profession and +degree of wealth, and when shall I die? + +[Illustration: IN HALLOWE'EN TIME.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND + + +Ireland has a literature of Hallowe'en, or "Samhain," as it used to +be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the +twelfth centuries, but the events were thought to have happened +while paganism still ruled in Ireland. + +The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time +in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given +to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was +called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve +to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm +animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place +changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the +cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way +of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so +that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones +back; or one might boil egg-shells in the sight of the changeling, +who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries +of life he had never seen such a thing before. + +Brides too were stolen. + + "You shall go with me, newly married bride, + And gaze upon a merrier multitude; + White-armed Nuala and Ængus of the birds, + And Feacra of the hurtling foam, and him + Who is the ruler of the western host, + Finvarra, and the Land of Heart's Desire, + Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, + But joy is wisdom, time an endless song." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +In the first century B. C. lived Ailill and his queen Medb. As they +were celebrating their Samhain feast in the palace, + + "Three days before Samhain at all times, + And three days after, by ancient custom + Did the hosts of high aspiration + Continue to feast for the whole week." + + O'CIARAIN: _Loch Garman._ + +they offered a reward to the man who should tie a bundle of twigs +about the feet of a criminal who had been hanged by the gate. It +was dangerous to go near dead bodies on November Eve, but a bold +young man named Nera dared it, and tied the twigs successfully. As +he turned to go he saw + + "the whole of the palace as if on fire before him, and the heads + of the people of it lying on the ground, and then he thought he + saw an army going into the hill of Cruachan, and he followed + after the army." + + GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._ + +The door was shut. Nera was married to a fairy woman, who betrayed +her kindred by sending Nera to warn King Ailill of the intended +attack upon his palace the next November Eve. Nera bore summer +fruits with him to prove that he had been in the fairy _sid_. The +next November Eve, when the doors were opened Ailill entered and +discovered the crown, emblem of power, took it away, and plundered +the treasury. Nera never returned again to the homes of men. + +Another story of about the same time was that of Angus, the son of +a Tuatha god, to whom in a dream a beautiful maiden appeared. He +wasted away with love for her, and searched the country for a girl +who should look like her. At last he saw in a meadow among a +hundred and fifty maidens, each with a chain of silver about her +neck, one who was like the beauty of his dream. She wore a golden +chain about her throat, and was the daughter of King Ethal Anbual. +King Ethal's palace was stormed by Ailill, and he was forced to +give up his daughter. He gave as a reason for withholding his +consent so long, that on Samhain Princess Caer changed from a +maiden to a swan, and back again the next year. + + "And when the time came Angus went to the loch, and he saw the + three times fifty white birds there with their silver chains + about their necks, and Angus stood in a man's shape at the edge + of the loch, and he called to the girl: 'Come and speak with me, + O Caer!' + + "'Who is calling me?' said Caer. + + "'Angus calls you,' he said, 'and if you do come, I swear by my + word I will not hinder you from going into the loch again.'" + + GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._ + +She came, and he changed to a swan likewise, and they flew away to +King Dagda's palace, where every one who heard their sweet singing +was charmed into a sleep of three days and three nights. + +Princess Etain, of the race of the Tuatha, and wife of Midir, was +born again as the daughter of Queen Medb, the wife of Ailill. She +remembers a little of the land from which she came, is never quite +happy, + + "But sometimes--sometimes--tell me: have you heard, + By dusk or moonset have you never heard + Sweet voices, delicate music? Never seen + The passage of the lordly beautiful ones + Men call the Shee?" + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +even when she wins the love of King Eochaidh. When they have been +married a year, there comes Midir from the Land of Youth. By +winning a game of chess from the King, he gets anything he may ask, +and prays to see the Queen. When he sees her he sings a song of +longing to her, and Eochaidh is troubled because it is Samhain, and +he knows the great power the hosts of the air "have then over those +who wish for happiness." + + "Etain, speak! + What is the song the harper sings, what tongue + Is this he speaks? for in no Gaelic lands + Is speech like this upon the lips of men. + No word of all these honey-dripping words + Is known to me. Beware, beware the words + Brewed in the moonshine under ancient oaks + White with pale banners of the mistletoe + Twined round them in their slow and stately death. + It is the feast of Sáveen" (Samhain). + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +In vain Eochaidh pleads with her to stay with him. She has already +forgotten all but Midir and the life so long ago in the Land of +Youth. + + "In the Land of Youth + There are pleasant places; + Green meadows, woods, + Swift grey-blue waters. + + "There is no age there, + Nor any sorrow. + As the stars in heaven + Are the cattle in the valleys. + + "Great rivers wander + Through flowery plains. + Streams of milk, of mead, + Streams of strong ale. + + "There is no hunger + And no thirst + In the Hollow Land, + In the Land of Youth." + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +She and Midir fly away in the form of two swans, linked by a chain +of gold. + +Cuchulain, hopelessly sick of a strange illness brought on by Fand +and Liban, fairy sisters, was visited the day before Samhain by a +messenger, who promised to cure him if he would go to the +Otherworld. Cuchulain could not make up his mind to go, but sent +Laeg, his charioteer. Such glorious reports did Laeg bring back +from the Otherworld, + + "If all Erin were mine, + And the kingship of yellow Bregia, + I would give it, no trifling deed, + To dwell for aye in the place I reached." + + _Cuchulain's Sick-bed._ (Meyer _trans._) + +that Cuchulain went thither, and championed the people there +against their enemies. He stayed a month with the fairy Fand. Emer, +his wife at home, was beset with jealousy, and plotted against +Fand, who had followed her hero home. Fand in fear returned to her +deserted husband, Emer was given a Druidic drink to drown her +jealousy, and Cuchulain another to forget his infatuation, and they +lived happily afterward. + +Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it +was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign +of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth +century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi +got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one +Hallowe'en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion +was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious +beings were assigned to them or to the devil as followers. + + "_Maire Bruin:_ + Are not they, likewise, the children of God? + + _Father Hart:_ + Colleen, they are the children of the fiend, + And they have power until the end of Time, + When God shall fight with them a great pitched battle + And hack them into pieces." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was +put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before +Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who +no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying +the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, +burned up the city with his fiery breath. + +These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," +which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, +where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open +only on November Eve + + "For the fairy mounds of Erinn are always + opened about Hallowe'en." + + _Expedition of Nera._ (Meyer _trans._) + +when the throngs of spirits, fairies, and goblins trooped out for +revels about the country. The old Druid idea of obsession, the +besieging of a person by an evil spirit, was practised by them at +that time. + + "This is the first day of the winter, and to-day the + Hosts of the Air are in their greatest power." + + WARREN: _Twig of Thorn._ + +If the fairies wished to seize a mortal--which power they had as +the sun-god could take men to himself--they caused him to give +them certain tokens by which he delivered himself into their hands. +They might be milk and fire-- + + "_Maire Bruin:_ + A little queer old woman cloaked in green, + Who came to beg a porringer of milk. + + _Bridget Bruin:_ + The good people go asking milk and fire + Upon May Eve--woe to the house that gives, + For they have power over it for a year." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +or one might receive a fairy thorn such as Oonah brings home, which +shrivels up at the touch of St. Bridget's image; + + "Oh, ever since I kept the twig of thorn and hid it, I have seen + strange things, and heard strange laughter and far voices + calling." + + WARREN: _Twig of Thorn._ + +or one might be lured by music as he stopped near the fort to watch +the dancing, for the revels were held in secret, as those of the +Druids had been, and no one could look on them unaffected. + +A story is told of Paddy More, a great stout uncivil churl, and +Paddy Beg, a cheerful little hunchback. The latter, seeing lights +and hearing music, paused by a mound, and was invited in. Urged to +tell stories, he complied; he danced as spryly as he could for his +deformity; he sang, and made himself so agreeable that the fairies +decided to take the hump off his back, and send him home a straight +manly fellow. The next Hallowe'en who should come by the same place +but Paddy More, and he stopped likewise to spy at the merrymaking. +He too was called in, but would not dance politely, added no +stories nor songs. The fairies clapped Paddy Beg's hump on his +back, and dismissed him under a double burden of discomfort. + +A lad called Guleesh, listening outside a fort on Hallowe'en heard +the spirits speaking of the fatal illness of his betrothed, the +daughter of the King of France. They said that if Guleesh but knew +it, he might boil an herb that grew by his door and give it to the +princess and make her well. Joyfully Guleesh hastened home, +prepared the herb, and cured the royal girl. + +Sometimes people did not have the luck to return, but were led away +to a realm of perpetual youth and music. + + "_Father Hart._ What are you reading? + + _Maire Bruin._ How a Princess Edane, + A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard + A voice singing on a May Eve like this, + And followed, half awake and half asleep, + Until she came into the land of faery, + Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, + Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, + Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue; + And she is still there, busied with a dance, + Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood, + Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +If one returned, he found that the space which seemed to him but +one night, had been many years, and with the touch of earthly sod +the age he had postponed suddenly weighed him down. Ossian, +released from fairyland after three hundred years dalliance there, +rode back to his own country on horseback. He saw men imprisoned +under a block of marble and others trying to lift the stone. As he +leaned over to aid them the girth broke. With the touch of earth +"straightway the white horse fled away on his way home, and Ossian +became aged, decrepit, and blind." + +No place as much as Ireland has kept the belief in all sorts of +supernatural spirits abroad among its people. From the time when on +the hill of Ward, near Tara, in pre-Christian days, the sacrifices +were burned and the Tuatha were thought to appear on Samhain, to as +late as 1910, testimony to actual appearances of the "little +people" is to be found. + + "'Among the usually invisible races which I have seen in Ireland, + I distinguish five classes. There are the Gnomes, who are + earth-spirits, and who seem to be a sorrowful race. I once saw + some of them distinctly on the side of Ben Bulbin. They had + rather round heads and dark thick-set bodies, and in stature were + about two and one-half feet. The Leprechauns are different, being + full of mischief, though they, too, are small. I followed a + Leprechaun from the town of Wicklow out to the Carraig Sidhe, + "Rock of the Fairies," a distance of half a mile or more, where + he disappeared. He had a very merry face, and beckoned to me with + his finger. A third class are the Little People, who, unlike the + Gnomes and Leprechauns, are quite good-looking; and they are very + small. The Good People are tall, beautiful beings, as tall as + ourselves.... They direct the magnetic currents of the earth. The + Gods are really the Tuatha De Danann, and they are much taller + than our race.'" + + WENTZ: _Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries._ + +The sight of apparitions on Hallowe'en is believed to be fatal to +the beholder. + + "One night my lady's soul walked along the wall like a cat. Long + Tom Bowman beheld her and that day week fell he into the well and + was drowned." + + PYLE: _Priest and the Piper._ + +One version of the Jack-o'-lantern story comes from Ireland. A +stingy man named Jack was for his inhospitality barred from all +hope of heaven, and because of practical jokes on the Devil was +locked out of hell. Until the Judgment Day he is condemned to walk +the earth with a lantern to light his way. + +The place of the old lord of the dead, the Tuatha god Saman, to +whom vigil was kept and prayers said on November Eve for the good +of departed souls, was taken in Christian times by St. Colomba or +Columb Kill, the founder of a monastery in Iona in the fifth +century. In the seventeenth century the Irish peasants went about +begging money and goodies for a feast, and demanding in the name of +Columb Kill that fatted calves and black sheep be prepared. In +place of the Druid fires, candles were collected and lighted on +Hallowe'en, and prayers for the souls of the givers said before +them. The name of Saman is kept in the title "Oidhche Shamhna," +"vigil of Saman," by which the night of October 31st was until +recently called in Ireland. + +There are no Hallowe'en bonfires in Ireland now, but charms and +tests are tried. Apples and nuts, the treasure of Pomona, figure +largely in these. They are representative winter fruits, the +commonest. They can be gathered late and kept all winter. + +A popular drink at the Hallowe'en gathering in the eighteenth +century was milk in which crushed roasted apples had been mixed. It +was called lambs'-wool (perhaps from "La Mas Ubhal," "the day of +the apple fruit"). At the Hallowe'en supper "callcannon," mashed +potatoes, parsnips, and chopped onions, is indispensable. A ring is +buried in it, and the one who finds it in his portion will be +married in a year, or if he is already married, will be lucky. + + "They had colcannon, and the funniest things were found in + it--tiny dolls, mice, a pig made of china, silver sixpences, a + thimble, a ring, and lots of other things. After supper was over + all went into the big play-room, and dived for apples in a tub of + water, fished for prizes in a basin of flour; then there were + games----" + + TRANT: _Hallowe'en in Ireland._ + +A coin betokened to the finder wealth; the thimble, that he would +never marry. + +A ring and a nut are baked in a cake. The ring of course means +early marriage, the nut signifies that its finder will marry a +widow or a widower. If the kernel is withered, no marriage at all +is prophesied. In Roscommon, in central Ireland, a coin, a sloe, +and a bit of wood were baked in a cake. The one getting the sloe +would live longest, the one getting the wood was destined to die +within the year. + +A mould of flour turned out on the table held similar tokens. Each +person cut off a slice with a knife, and drew out his prize with +his teeth. + +After supper the tests were tried. In the last century nut-shells +were burned. The best-known nut test is made as follows: three nuts +are named for a girl and two sweethearts. If one burns steadily +with the girl's nut, that lover is faithful to her, but if either +hers or one of the other nuts starts away, there will be no happy +friendship between them. + +Apples are snapped from the end of a stick hung parallel to the +floor by a twisted cord which whirls the stick rapidly when it is +let go. Care has to be taken not to bite the candle burning on the +other end. Sometimes this test is made easier by dropping the +apples into a tub of water and diving for them, or piercing them +with a fork dropped straight down. + +Green herbs called "livelong" were plucked by the children and hung +up on Midsummer Eve. If a plant was found to be still green on +Hallowe'en, the one who had hung it up would prosper for the year, +but if it had turned yellow or had died, the child would also die. + +Hemp-seed is sown across three furrows, the sower repeating: +"Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee; and her that is to +be my true love, come after me and draw thee." On looking back over +his shoulder he will see the apparition of his future wife in the +act of gathering hemp. + +Seven cabbage stalks were named for any seven of the company, then +pulled up, and the guests asked to come out, and "see their +sowls." + + "One, two, three, and up to seven; + If all are white, all go to heaven; + If one is black as Murtagh's evil, + He'll soon be screechin' wi' the devil." + +Red Mike "was a queer one from his birth, an' no wonder, for he +first saw the light atween dusk an' dark o' a Hallowe'en Eve." When +the cabbage test was tried at a party where Mike was present, six +stalks were found to be white, but Mike's was "all black an' fowl +wi' worms an' slugs, an' wi' a real bad smell ahint it." Angered at +the ridicule he received, he cried: "I've the gift o' the night, I +have, an' on this day my curse can blast whatever I choose." At +that the priest showed Mike a crucifix, and he ran away howling, +and disappeared through a bog into the ground. + + SHARP: _Threefold Chronicle._ + +Twelve of the party may learn their future, if one gets a clod of +earth from the churchyard sets up twelve candles in it, lights and +names them. The fortune of each will be like that of the +candle-light named for him,--steady, wavering, or soon in darkness. + +A ball of blue yarn was thrown out of the window by a girl who held +fast to the end. She wound it over on her hand from left to right, +saying the Creed backwards. When she had nearly finished, she +expected the yarn would be held. She must ask "Who holds?" and the +wind would sigh her sweetheart's name in at the window. + +In some charms the devil was invoked directly. If one walked about +a rick nine times with a rake, saying, "I rake this rick in the +devil's name," a vision would come and take away the rake. + +If one went out with nine grains of oats in his mouth, and walked +about until he heard a girl's name called or mentioned, he would +know the name of his future wife, for they would be the same. + +Lead is melted, and poured through a key or a ring into cold water. +The form each spoonful takes in cooling indicates the occupation +of the future husband of the girl who poured it. + + "Now something like a horse would cause the jubilant maiden to + call out, 'A dragoon!' Now some dim resemblance to a helmet would + suggest a handsome member of the mounted police; or a round + object with a spike would seem a ship, and this of course meant a + sailor; or a cow would suggest a cattle-dealer, or a plough a + farmer." + + SHARP: _Threefold Chronicle._ + +After the future had been searched, a piper played a jig, to which +all danced merrily with a loud noise to scare away the evil +spirits. + +Just before midnight was the time to go out "alone and unperceived" +to a south-running brook, dip a shirt-sleeve in it, bring it home +and hang it by the fire to dry. One must go to bed, but watch till +midnight for a sight of the destined mate who would come to turn +the shirt to dry the other side. + +Ashes were raked smooth on the hearth at bedtime on Hallowe'en, and +the next morning examined for footprints. If one was turned from +the door, guests or a marriage was prophesied; if toward the door, +a death. + +To have prophetic dreams a girl should search for a briar grown +into a hoop, creep through thrice in the name of the devil, cut it +in silence, and go to bed with it under her pillow. A boy should +cut ten ivy leaves, throw away one and put the rest under his head +before he slept. + +If a girl leave beside her bed a glass of water with a sliver of +wood in it, and say before she falls asleep: + + "Husband mine that is to be, + Come this night and rescue me," + +she will dream of falling off a bridge into the water, and of being +saved at the last minute by the spirit of her future husband. To +receive a drink from his hand she must eat a cake of flour, soot, +and salt before she goes to bed. + +The Celtic spirit of yearning for the unknown, retained nowhere +else as much as in Ireland, is expressed very beautifully by the +poet Yeats in the introduction to his _Celtic Twilight_. + + "The host is riding from Knocknarea + And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare; + Caolte tossing his burning hair, + And Niam calling: 'Away, come away; + + "'And brood no more where the fire is bright, + Filling thy heart with a mortal dream; + For breasts are heaving and eyes a-gleam: + Away, come away to the dim twilight + + "'Arms are heaving and lips apart; + And if any gaze on our rushing band, + We come between him and the deed of his hand, + We come between him and the hope of his heart.' + + "The host is rushing twixt night and day, + And where is there hope or deed as fair? + Caolte tossing his burning hair, + And Niam calling: 'Away, come away.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN SCOTLAND AND THE HEBRIDES + + +As in Ireland the Scotch Baal festival of November was called +Samhain. Western Scotland, lying nearest Tara, center alike of +pagan and Christian religion in Ireland, was colonized by both the +people and the customs of eastern Ireland. + +The November Eve fires which in Ireland either died out or were +replaced by candles were continued in Scotland. In Buchan, where +was the altar-source of the Samhain fire, bonfires were lighted on +hilltops in the eighteenth century; and in Moray the idea of fires +of thanksgiving for harvest was kept to as late as 1866. All +through the eighteenth century in the Highlands and in Perthshire +torches of heath, broom, flax, or ferns were carried about the +fields and villages by each family, with the intent to cause good +crops in succeeding years. The course about the fields was sunwise, +to have a good influence. Brought home at dark, the torches were +thrown down in a heap, and made a fire. This blaze was called +"Samhnagan," "of rest and pleasure." There was much competition to +have the largest fire. Each person put in one stone to make a +circle about it. The young people ran about with burning brands. +Supper was eaten out-of-doors, and games played. After the fire had +burned out, ashes were raked over the stones. In the morning each +sought his pebble, and if he found it misplaced, harmed, or a +footprint marked near it in the ashes, he believed he should die in +a year. + +In Aberdeenshire boys went about the villages saying: "Ge's a peat +t' burn the witches." They were thought to be out stealing milk and +harming cattle. Torches used to counteract them were carried from +west to east, against the sun. This ceremony grew into a game, when +a fire was built by one party, attacked by another, and defended. +As in the May fires of purification the lads lay down in the smoke +close by, or ran about and jumped over the flames. As the fun grew +wilder they flung burning peats at each other, scattered the ashes +with their feet, and hurried from one fire to another to have a +part in scattering as many as possible before they died out. + +In 1874, at Balmoral, a royal celebration of Hallowe'en was +recorded. Royalty, tenants, and servants bore torches through the +grounds and round the estates. In front of the castle was a heap of +stuff saved for the occasion. The torches were thrown on. When the +fire was burning its liveliest, a hobgoblin appeared, drawing in a +car the figure of a witch, surrounded by fairies carrying lances. +The people formed a circle about the fire, and the witch was tossed +in. Then there were dances to the music of bag-pipes. + +It was the time of year when servants changed masters or signed up +anew under the old ones. They might enjoy a holiday before resuming +work. So they sang: + + "This is Hallaeven, + The morn is Halladay; + Nine free nichts till Martinmas, + As soon they'll wear away." + +Children born on Hallowe'en could see and converse with +supernatural powers more easily than others. In Ireland, evil +relations caused Red Mike's downfall (q. v.). For Scotland Mary +Avenel, in Scott's _Monastery_, is the classic example. + + "And touching the bairn, it's weel kenn'd she was born on + Hallowe'en, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair + than ither folk." + +There is no hint of dark relations, but rather of a +clear-sightedness which lays bare truths, even those concealed in +men's breasts. Mary Avenel sees the spirit of her father after he +has been dead for years. The White Lady of Avenel is her peculiar +guardian. + +The Scottish Border, where Mary lived, is the seat of many +superstitions and other worldly beliefs. The fairies of Scotland +are more terrible than those of Ireland, as the dells and streams +and woods are of greater grandeur, and the character of the people +more serious. It is unlucky to name the fairies, here as elsewhere, +except by such placating titles as "Good Neighbors" or "Men of +Peace." Rowan, elm, and holly are a protection against them. + + "I have tied red thread round the bairns' throats, and given ilk + ane of them a riding-wand of rowan-tree, forbye sewing up a slip + of witch-elm into their doublets; and I wish to know of your + reverence if there be onything mair that a lone woman can do in + the matter of ghosts and fairies?--be here! that I should have + named their unlucky names twice ower!" + + SCOTT: _Monastery._ + +"The sign of the cross disarmeth all evil spirits." + +These spirits of the air have not human feelings or motives. They +are conscienceless. In this respect Peter Pan is an immortal fairy +as well as an immortal child. While like a child he resents +injustice in horrified silence, like a fairy he acts with no sense +of responsibility. When he saves Wendy's brother from falling as +they fly, + + "You felt it was his cleverness that interested him, and not the + saving of human life." + + BARRIE: _Peter and Wendy._ + +The world in which Peter lived was so near the Kensington Gardens +that he could see them through the bridge as he sat on the shore of +the Neverland. Yet for a long time he could not get to them. + +Peter is a fairy piper who steals away the souls of children. + + "No man alive has seen me, + But women hear me play, + Sometimes at door or window, + Fiddling the souls away-- + The child's soul and the colleen's + Out of the covering clay." + + HOPPER: _Fairy Fiddler._ + +On Hallowe'en all traditional spirits are abroad. The Scotch +invented the idea of a "Samhanach," a goblin who comes out just at +"Samhain." It is he who in Ireland steals children. The fairies +pass at crossroads, + + "But the night is Hallowe'en, lady, + The morn is Hallowday; + Then win me, win me, and ye will, + For weel I wot ye may. + + "Just at the mirk and midnight hour + The fairy folk will ride. + And they that wad their true-love win, + At Miles Cross they maun bide." + + _Ballad of Tam Lin._ + +and in the Highlands whoever took a three-legged stool to where +three crossroads met, and sat upon it at midnight, would hear the +names of those who were to die in a year. He might bring with him +articles of dress, and as each name was pronounced throw one +garment to the fairies. They would be so pleased by this gift that +they would repeal the sentence of death. + +Even people who seemed to be like their neighbors every day could +for this night fly away and join the other beings in their revels. + + "This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en + When a' the witchie may be seen; + Some o' them black, some o' them green, + Some o' them like a turkey bean." + +A witches' party was conducted in this way. The wretched women who +had sold their souls to the Devil, left a stick in bed which by +evil means was made to have their likeness, and, anointed with the +fat of murdered babies flew off up the chimney on a broomstick with +cats attendant. Burns tells the story of a company of witches +pulling ragwort by the roadside, getting each astride her ragwort +with the summons "Up horsie!" and flying away. + + "The hag is astride + This night for a ride, + The devils and she together: + Through thick and through thin, + Now out and now in, + Though ne'er so foul be the weather. + + * * * * * + + "A thorn or a burr + She takes for a spur, + With a lash of the bramble she rides now. + Through brake and through briers, + O'er ditches and mires, + She follows the spirit that guides now." + + HERRICK: _The Hag._ + +The meeting-place was arranged by the Devil, who sometimes rode +there on a goat. At their supper no bread or salt was eaten; they +drank out of horses' skulls, and danced, sometimes back to back, +sometimes from west to east, for the dances at the ancient Baal +festivals were from east to west, and it was evil and ill-omened to +move the other way. For this dance the Devil played a bag-pipe made +of a hen's skull and cats' tails. + + "There sat Auld Nick, in shape o' beast; + A tousie tyke, black, grim, and large, + To gie them music was his charge: + He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl, + Till roof and rafters a' did dirl."[1] + + BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._ + +[1] Ring. + +The light for the revelry came from a torch flaring between the +horns of the Devil's steed the goat, and at the close the ashes +were divided for the witches to use in incantations. People +imagined that cats who had been up all night on Hallowe'en were +tired out the next morning. + +Tam o' Shanter who was watching such a dance + + "By Alloway's auld haunted kirk" + +in Ayrshire, could not resist calling out at the antics of a +neighbor whom he recognized, and was pursued by the witches. He +urged his horse to top-speed, + + "Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg, + And win the key-stane of the brig; + There at them thou thy tail may toss, + A running stream they dare na cross!" + + BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._ + +but poor Meg had no tail thereafter to toss at them, for though she +saved her rider, she was only her tail's length beyond the middle +of the bridge when the foremost witch grasped it and seared it to +a stub. + +Such witches might be questioned about the past or future. + + "He that dare sit on St. Swithin's Chair, + When the Night-Hag wings the troubled air, + Questions three, when he speaks the spell, + He may ask, and she must tell." + + SCOTT: _St. Swithin's Chair._ + +Children make of themselves bogies on this evening, carrying the +largest turnips they can save from harvest, hollowed out and carved +into the likeness of a fearsome face, with teeth and forehead +blacked, and lighted by a candle fastened inside. + +If the spirit of a person simply appears without being summoned, +and the person is still alive, it means that he is in danger. If he +comes toward the one to whom he appears the danger is over. If he +seems to go away, he is dying. + +An apparition from the future especially is sought on Hallowe'en. +It is a famous time for divination in love affairs. A typical +eighteenth century party in western Scotland is described by Robert +Burns. + +Cabbages are important in Scotch superstition. Children believe +that if they pile cabbage-stalks round the doors and windows of the +house, the fairies will bring them a new brother or sister. + + "And often when in his old-fashioned way + He questioned me,... + Who made the stars? and if within his hand + He caught and held one, would his fingers burn? + If I, the gray-haired dominie, was dug + From out a cabbage-garden such as he + Was found in----" + + BUCHANAN: _Willie Baird._ + +Kale-pulling came first on the program in Burns's _Hallowe'en_. +Just the single and unengaged went out hand in hand blindfolded to +the cabbage-garden. They pulled the first stalk they came upon, +brought it back to the house, and were unbandaged. The size and +shape of the stalk indicated the appearance of the future husband +or wife. + + "Maybe you would rather not pull a stalk that was tall and + straight and strong--that would mean Alastair? Maybe you would + rather find you had got hold of a withered old stump with a lot + of earth at the root--a decrepit old man with plenty of money in + the bank? Or maybe you are wishing for one that is slim and + supple and not so tall--for one that might mean Johnnie Semple." + + BLACK: _Hallowe'en Wraith._ + +A close white head meant an old husband, an open green head a young +one. His disposition would be like the taste of the stem. To +determine his name, the stalks were hung over the door, and the +number of one's stalk in the row noted. If Jessie put hers up third +from the beginning, and the third man who passed through the +doorway under it was named Alan, her husband's first name would be +Alan. This is practised only a little now among farmers. It has +special virtue if the cabbage has been stolen from the garden of an +unmarried person. + +Sometimes the pith of a cabbage-stalk was pushed out, the hole +filled with tow, which was set afire and blown through keyholes on +Hallowe'en. + + "Their runts clean through and through were bored, + And stuffed with raivelins fou, + And like a chimley when on fire + Each could the reek outspue. + + "Jock through the key-hole sent a cloud + That reached across the house, + While in below the door reek rushed + Like water through a sluice." + + DICK: _Splores of a Hallowe'en._ + +Cabbage-broth was a regular dish at the Hallowe'en feast. Mashed +potatoes, as in Ireland, or a dish of meal and milk holds symbolic +objects--a ring, a thimble, and a coin. In the cake are baked a +ring and a key. The ring signifies to the possessor marriage, and +the key a journey. + +Apple-ducking is still a universal custom in Scotland. A sixpence +is sometimes dropped into the tub or stuck into an apple to make +the reward greater. The contestants must keep their hands behind +their backs. + +Nuts are put before the fire in pairs, instead of by threes as in +Ireland, and named for a lover and his lass. If they burn to ashes +together, long happy married life is destined for the lovers. If +they crackle or start away from each other, dissension and +separation are ahead. + + "Jean slips in twa, wi' tentie[1] e'e; + Wha 't was, she wadna tell; + But this is _Jock_, an' this is _me_, + She says in to hersel; + He bleez'd owre her, an' she owre him, + As they wad never mair part; + Till fuff! he started up the lum,[2] + And Jean had e'en a sair heart + To see't that night." + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Careful. + +[2] Chimney. + +Three "luggies," bowls with handles like the Druid lamps, were +filled, one with clean, one with dirty water, and one left empty. +The person wishing to know his fate in marriage was blindfolded, +turned about thrice, and put down his left hand. If he dipped it +into the clean water, he would marry a maiden; if into the dirty, a +widow; if into the empty dish, not at all. He tried until he got +the same result twice. The dishes were changed about each time. + +This spell still remains, as does that of hemp-seed sowing. One +goes out alone with a handful of hemp-seed, sows it across ridges +of ploughed land, and harrows it with anything convenient, perhaps +with a broom. Having said: + + "Hemp-seed, I saw thee, + An' her that is to be my lass + Come after me an' draw thee----" + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +he looks behind him to see his sweetheart gathering hemp. This +should be tried just at midnight with the moon behind. + + "At even o' Hallowmas no sleep I sought, + But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought. + I scattered round the seed on every side, + And three times three in trembling accents cried, + 'This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, + Who shall my true-love be, the crop shall mow.'" + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +A spell that has been discontinued is throwing the clue of blue +yarn into the kiln-pot, instead of out of the window, as in +Ireland. As it is wound backward, something holds it. The winder +must ask, "Wha hauds?" to hear the name of her future sweetheart. + + "An' ay she win't, an' ay she swat-- + I wat she made nae jaukin; + Till something held within the pat, + Guid Lord! but she was quakin! + But whether 't was the Deil himsel, + Or whether 't was a bauk-en'[1] + Or whether it was Andrew Bell, + She did na wait on talkin + To speir[2] that night." + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Cross-beam. + +[2] Ask. + +Another spell not commonly tried now is winnowing three measures of +imaginary corn, as one stands in the barn alone with both doors +open to let the spirits that come in go out again freely. As one +finishes the motions, the apparition of the future husband will +come in at one door and pass out at the other. + + "'I had not winnowed the last weight clean out, and the moon was + shining bright upon the floor, when in stalked the presence of my + dear Simon Glendinning, that is now happy. I never saw him + plainer in my life than I did that moment; he held up an arrow as + he passed me, and I swarf'd awa' wi' fright.... But mark the end + o' 't, Tibb: we were married, and the grey-goose wing was the + death o' him after a'.'" + + SCOTT: _The Monastery._ + +At times other prophetic appearances were seen. + + "Just as she was at the wark, what does she see in the moonlicht + but her ain coffin moving between the doors instead of the + likeness of a gudeman! and as sure's death she was in her coffin + before the same time next year." + + ANON: _Tale of Hallowe'en._ + +Formerly a stack of beans, oats, or barley was measured round with +the arms against sun. At the end of the third time the arms would +enclose the vision of the future husband or wife. + +Kale-pulling, apple-snapping, and lead-melting (see Ireland) are +social rites, but many were to be tried alone and in secret. A +Highland divination was tried with a shoe, held by the tip, and +thrown over the house. The person will journey in the direction the +toe points out. If it falls sole up, it means bad luck. + +Girls would pull a straw each out of a thatch in Broadsea, and +would take it to an old woman in Fraserburgh. The seeress would +break the straw and find within it a hair the color of the +lover's-to-be. Blindfolded they plucked heads of oats, and counted +the number of grains to find out how many children they would have. +If the tip was perfect, not broken or gone, they would be married +honorably. + +Another way of determining the number of children was to drop the +white of an egg into a glass of water. The number of divisions was +the number sought. White of egg is held with water in the mouth, +like the grains of oats in Ireland, while one takes a walk to hear +mentioned the name of his future wife. Names are written on papers, +and laid upon the chimney-piece. Fate guides the hand of a +blindfolded man to the slip which bears his sweetheart's name. + +A Hallowe'en mirror is made by the rays of the moon shining into a +looking-glass. If a girl goes secretly into a room at midnight +between October and November, sits down at the mirror, and cuts an +apple into nine slices, holding each on the point of a knife before +she eats it, she may see in the moonlit glass the image of her +lover looking over her left shoulder, and asking for the last piece +of apple. + +The wetting of the sark-sleeve in a south-running burn where "three +lairds' lands meet," and carrying it home to dry before the fire, +was really a Scotch custom, but has already been described in +Ireland. + + "The last Hallowe'en I was waukin[1] + My droukit[2] sark-sleeve, as ye kin-- + His likeness came up the house staukin, + And the very grey breeks o' Tam Glen!" + + BURNS: _Tam Glen._ + +[1] Watching. + +[2] Drenched. + +Just before breaking up, the crowd of young people partook of +sowens, oatmeal porridge cakes with butter, and strunt, a liquor, +as they hoped for good luck throughout the year. + +The Hebrides, Scottish islands off the western coast, have +Hallowe'en traditions of their own, as well as many borrowed from +Ireland and Scotland. Barra, isolated near the end of the island +chain, still celebrates the Celtic days, Beltaine and November Eve. + +In the Hebrides is the Irish custom of eating on Hallowe'en a cake +of meal and salt, or a salt herring, bones and all, to dream of +some one bringing a drink of water. Not a word must be spoken, nor +a drop of water drunk till the dream comes. + +In St. Kilda a large triangular cake is baked which must be all +eaten up before morning. + +A curious custom that prevailed in the island of Lewis in the +eighteenth century was the worship of Shony, a sea-god with a Norse +name. His ceremonies were similar to those paid to Saman in +Ireland, but more picturesque. Ale was brewed at church from malt +brought collectively by the people. One took a cupful in his hand, +and waded out into the sea up to his waist, saying as he poured it +out: "Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you'll be so +kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware, for enriching our ground the +ensuing year." The party returned to the church, waited for a given +signal when a candle burning on the altar was blown out. Then they +went out into the fields, and drank ale with dance and song. + +The "dumb cake" originated in Lewis. Girls were each apportioned a +small piece of dough, mixed with any but spring water. They kneaded +it with their left thumbs, in silence. Before midnight they pricked +initials on them with a new pin, and put them by the fire to bake. +The girls withdrew to the farther end of the room, still in silence. +At midnight each lover was expected to enter and lay his hand on +the cake marked with his initials. + +In South Uist and Eriskay on Hallowe'en fairies are out, a source +of terror to those they meet. + + "Hallowe'en will come, will come, + Witchcraft will be set a-going, + Fairies will be at full speed, + Running in every pass. + Avoid the road, children, children." + +But for the most part this belief has died out on Scottish land, +except near the Border, and Hallowe'en is celebrated only by +stories and jokes and games, songs and dances. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN ENGLAND AND MAN + + +Man especially has a treasury of fairy tradition, Celtic and Norse +combined. Manx fairies too dwell in the middle world, since they +are fit for neither heaven nor hell. Even now Manx people think +they see circles of light in the late October midnight, and little +folk dancing within. + +Longest of all in Man was Sauin (Samhain) considered New Year's +Day. According to the old style of reckoning time it came on +November 12. + + "To-night is New Year's night. + Hogunnaa!" + _Mummers' Song._ + +As in Scotland the servants' year ends with October. + +New Year tests for finding out the future were tried on Sauin. To +hear her sweetheart's name a girl took a mouthful of water and two +handfuls of salt, and sat down at a door. The first name she heard +mentioned was the wished-for one. The three dishes proclaimed the +fate of the blindfolded seeker as in Scotland. Each was blindfolded +and touched one of several significant objects--meal for +prosperity, earth for death, a net for tangled fortunes. + +Before retiring each filled a thimble with salt, and emptied it out +in a little mound on a plate, remembering his own. If any heap were +found fallen over by morning, the person it represented was +destined to die in a year. The Manx looked for prints in the +smooth-strewn ashes on the hearth, as the Scotch did, and gave the +same interpretation. + +There had been Christian churches in Britain as early as 300 A. D., +and Christian missionaries, St. Ninian, Pelagius, and St. Patrick, +were active in the next century, and in the course of time St. +Augustine. Still the old superstitions persisted, as they always do +when they have grown up with the people. + +King Arthur, who was believed to have reigned in the fifth century, +may be a personification of the sun-god. He comes from the +Otherworld, his magic sword Excalibur is brought thence to him, he +fights twelve battles, in number like the months, and is wounded to +death by evil Modred, once his own knight. He passes in a boat, +attended by his fairy sister and two other queens, + + "'To the island-valley of Avilion; + Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, + Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies + Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard-lawns + And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea----'" + + TENNYSON: _Passing of Arthur._ + +The hope of being healed there is like that given to Cuchulain (q. +v.), to persuade him to visit the fairy kingdom. Arthur was +expected to come again sometime, as the sun renews his course. As +he disappeared from the sight of Bedivere, the last of his knights, + + "The new sun rose bringing the new year." + + _Ibid._ + +Avilion means "apple-island." It was like the Hesperides of Greek +mythology, the western islands where grew the golden apples of +immortality. + +In Cornwall after the sixth century, the sun-god became St. +Michael, and the eastern point where he appeared St. Michael's +seat. + + "Where the great vision of the guarded mount + Looks toward Namancos, and Bayona's hold." + + MILTON: _Lycidas._ + +As fruit to Pomona, so berries were devoted to fairies. They would +not let any one cut a blackthorn shoot on Hallowe'en. In Cornwall +sloes and blackberries were considered unfit to eat after the +fairies had passed by, because all the goodness was extracted. So +they were eaten to heart's content on October 31st, and avoided +thereafter. Hazels, because they were thought to contain wisdom and +knowledge, were also sacred. + +Besides leaving berries for the "Little People," food was set out +for them on Hallowe'en, and on other occasions. They rewarded this +hospitality by doing an extraordinary amount of work. + + "--how the drudging goblin sweat + To earn his cream-bowl duly set, + When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, + His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn + That ten day-laborers could not end. + Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, + And stretcht out all the chimney's length + Basks at the fire his hairy strength." + + MILTON: _L'Allegro._ + +Such sprites did not scruple to pull away the chair as one was +about to sit down, to pinch, or even to steal children and leave +changelings in their places. The first hint of dawn drove them back +to their haunts. + + "When larks 'gin sing, + Away we fling; + And babes new borne steal as we go, + And elfe in bed + We leave instead, + And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!" + + JONSON: _Robin Goodfellow._ + +Soulless and without gratitude or memory spirits of the air may be, +like Ariel in _The Tempest_. He, like the fairy harpers of Ireland, +puts men to sleep with his music. + + "_Sebastian._ What, art thou waking? + + _Antonio._ Do you not hear me speak? + + _Sebastian._ I do; and, surely, + It is a sleepy language; and thou speak'st + Out of thy sleep: What is it thou didst say? + This is a strange repose, to be asleep + With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, + And yet so fast asleep." + + SHAKSPERE: _The Tempest._ + +The people of England, in common with those who lived in the other +countries of Great Britain and in Europe, dreaded the coming of +winter not only on account of the cold and loneliness, but because +they believed that at this time the powers of evil were abroad and +ascendant. This belief harked back to the old idea that the sun had +been vanquished by his enemies in the late autumn. It was to forget +the fearful influences about them that the English kept festival +so much in the winter-time. The Lords of Misrule, leaders of the +revelry, "beginning their rule on All Hallow Eve, continued the +same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification, commonlie +called Candelmas day: In all of which space there were fine and +subtle disguisinges, Maskes, and Mummeries." This was written of +King Henry IV's court at Eltham, in 1401, and is true of centuries +before and after. They gathered about the fire and made merry while +the October tempests whirled the leaves outside, and shrieked round +the house like ghosts and demons on a mad carousal. + + "The autumn wind--oh hear it howl: + Without--October's tempests scowl, + As he troops away on the raving wind! + And leaveth dry leaves in his path behind. + + * * * * * + + "'Tis the night--the night + Of the graves' delight, + And the warlock[1] are at their play! + + Ye think that without + The wild winds shout, + But no, it is they--it is they!" + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Devils. + +Witchcraft--the origin of which will be traced farther on--had a +strong following in England. The three witches in _Macbeth_ are +really fates who foretell the future, but they have a kettle in +which they boil + + "Fillet of a fenny snake, + + * * * * * + + Eye of newt, and toe of frog, + Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, + Adder's fork, and blindworm's sting, + Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, + For a charm of powerful trouble----" + + SHAKSPERE: _Macbeth._ + +They connect themselves thereby with those evil creatures who +pursued Tam o' Shanter, and were servants of the Devil. In 1892 in +Lincolnshire, people believed that if they looked in through the +church door on Hallowe'en they would see the Devil preaching his +doctrines from the pulpit, and inscribing the names of new witches +in his book. + +The Spectre Huntsman, known in Windsor Forest as Herne the Hunter, +and in Todmorden as Gabriel Ratchets, was the spirit of an ungodly +hunter who for his crimes was condemned to lead the chase till the +Judgment Day. In a storm on Hallowe'en is heard the belling of his +hounds. + + "Still, still shall last the dreadful chase + Till time itself shall have an end; + By day they scour earth's cavern'd space, + At midnight's witching hour, ascend. + + "This is the horn, the hound, and horse, + That oft the lated peasant hears: + Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross, + When the wild din invades his ears." + + SCOTT: _Wild Huntsman._ + +In the north of England Hallowe'en was called "nut-crack" and +"snap-apple night." It was celebrated by "young people and +sweethearts." + +A variation of the nut test is, naming two for two lovers before +they are put before the fire to roast. The unfaithful lover's nut +cracks and jumps away, the loyal burns with a steady ardent flame +to ashes. + + "Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame, + And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name. + This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd, + That in a flame of brightest color blaz'd; + As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow, + For 't was thy nut that did so brightly glow." + + GAY: _The Spell._ + +If they jump toward each other, they will be rivals. If one of the +nuts has been named for the girl and burns quietly with a lover's +nut, they will live happily together. If they are restless, there +is trouble ahead. + + "These glowing nuts are emblems true + Of what in human life we view; + The ill-matched couple fret and fume, + And thus in strife themselves consume, + Or from each other wildly start + And with a noise forever part. + But see the happy, happy pair + Of genuine love and truth sincere; + + With mutual fondness, while they burn + Still to each other kindly turn: + And as the vital sparks decay, + Together gently sink away. + Till, life's fierce ordeal being past, + Their mingled ashes rest at last." + + GRAYDON: _On Nuts Burning, Allhallows Eve._ + +Sometimes peas on a hot shovel are used instead. + +Down the centuries from the Druid tree-worship comes the spell of +the walnut-tree. It is circled thrice, with the invocation: "Let +her that is to be my true-love bring me some walnuts;" and directly +a spirit will be seen in the tree gathering nuts. + + "Last Hallow Eve I sought a walnut-tree, + In hope my true Love's face that I might see; + Three times I called, three times I walked apace; + Then in the tree I saw my true Love's face." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +The seeds of apples were used in many trials. Two stuck on cheeks +or eyelids indicated by the time they clung the faithfulness of the +friends named for them. + + "See from the core two kernels brown I take: + This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, + And Booby Clod on t'other side is borne; + But Booby Clod soon drops upon the ground, + A certain token that his love's unsound; + While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last. + Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +In a tub float stemless apples, to be seized by the teeth of him +desirous of having his love returned. If he is successful in +bringing up the apple, his love-affair will end happily. + + "The rosy apple's bobbing + Upon the mimic sea-- + 'T is tricksy and elusive, + And glides away from me. + + "One moment it is dreaming + Beneath the candle's glare, + Then over wave and eddy + It glances here and there. + + "And when at last I capture + The prize with joy aglow, + I sigh, may I this sunshine + Of golden rapture know + + "When I essay to gather + In all her witchery + Love's sweetest rosy apple + On Love's uncertain sea." + + MUNKITTRICK: _Hallowe'en Wish._ + +An apple is peeled all in one piece, and the paring swung three +times round the head and dropped behind the left shoulder. If it +does not break, and is looked at over the shoulder it forms the +initial of the true sweetheart's name. + + "I pare this pippin round and round again, + My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain: + I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head. + A perfect 'L' upon the ground is read." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +In the north of England was a unique custom, "the scadding of +peas." A pea-pod was slit, a bean pushed inside, and the opening +closed again. The full pods were boiled, and apportioned to be +shelled and the peas eaten with butter and salt. The one finding +the bean on his plate would be married first. Gay records another +test with peas which is like the final trial made with kale-stalks. + + "As peascods once I plucked I chanced to see + One that was closely filled with three times three; + Which when I crop'd, I safely home convey'd, + And o'er the door the spell in secret laid;-- + The latch moved up, when who should first come in, + But in his proper person--Lubberkin." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +Candles, relics of the sacred fire, play an important part +everywhere on Hallowe'en. In England too the lighted candle and the +apple were fastened to the stick, and as it whirled, each person in +turn sprang up and tried to bite the apple. + + "Or catch th' elusive apple with a bound, + As with the taper it flew whizzing round." + +This was a rough game, more suited to boys' frolic than the ghostly +divinations that preceded it. Those with energy to spare found +material to exercise it on. In an old book there is a picture of a +youth sitting on a stick placed across two stools. On one end of +the stick is a lighted candle from which he is trying to light +another in his hand. Beneath is a tub of water to receive him if he +over-balances sideways. These games grew later into practical +jokes. + +The use of a goblet may perhaps come from the story of "The Luck of +Edenhall," a glass stolen from the fairies, and holding ruin for +the House by whom it was stolen, if it should ever be broken. With +ring and goblet this charm was tried: the ring, symbol of marriage, +was suspended by a hair within a glass, and a name spelled out by +beginning the alphabet over each time the ring struck the glass. + +When tired of activity and noise, the party gathered about a +story-teller, or passed a bundle of fagots from hand to hand, each +selecting one and reciting an installment of the tale till his +stick burned to ashes. + + "I tell ye the story this chill Hallowe'en, + For it suiteth the spirit-eve." + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +To induce prophetic dreams the wood-and-water test was tried in +England also. + + "Last Hallow Eve I looked my love to see, + And tried a spell to call her up to me. + With wood and water standing by my side + I dreamed a dream, and saw my own sweet bride." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +Though Hallowe'en is decidedly a country festival, in the +seventeenth century young gentlemen in London chose a Master of the +Revels, and held masques and dances with their friends on this +night. + +In central and southern England the ecclesiastical side of +Hallowtide is stressed. + +Bread or cake has till recently (1898) been as much a part of +Hallowe'en preparations as plum pudding at Christmas. Probably this +originated from an autumn baking of bread from the new grain. In +Yorkshire each person gets a triangular seed-cake, and the evening +is called "cake night." + + "Wife, some time this weeke, if the wether hold cleere, + An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare. + Remember you, therefore, though I do it not, + The seed-cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot." + + TUSSER: _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, 1580. + +Cakes appear also at the vigil of All Souls', the next day. At a +gathering they lie in a heap for the guests to take. In return they +are supposed to say prayers for the dead. + + "A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake; have mercy on + all Christen souls for a Soule-cake." + + _Old Saying._ + +The poor in Staffordshire and Shropshire went about singing for +soul-cakes or money, promising to pray and to spend the alms in +masses for the dead. The cakes were called Soul-mass or "somas" +cakes. + + "Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake; + Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake. + One for Peter, two for Paul, + Three for them who made us all." + + _Notes and Queries._ + +In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in +memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth +issued commands against this practice. + +In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go +about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches. +If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence +could remain near. + +In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about +the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in +Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory. + +Like the Bretons, the English have the superstition that the dead +return on Hallowe'en. + + "'Why do you wait at your door, woman, + Alone in the night?' + 'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger, + To show him a light. + He will see me afar on the road, + And be glad at the sight.' + + "'Have you no fear in your heart, woman, + To stand there alone? + There is comfort for you and kindly content + Beside the hearthstone.' + But she answered, 'No rest can I have + Till I welcome my own.' + + "'Is it far he must travel to-night, + This man of your heart?' + 'Strange lands that I know not, and pitiless seas + Have kept us apart, + And he travels this night to his home + Without guide, without chart.' + + "'And has he companions to cheer him?' + 'Aye, many,' she said. + 'The candles are lighted, the hearthstones are swept, + The fires glow red. + We shall welcome them out of the night-- + Our home-coming dead.'" + + LETTS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[Illustration: THE WITCH OF THE WALNUT-TREE.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WALES + + +In Wales the custom of fires persisted from the time of the Druid +festival-days longer than in any other place. First sacrifices were +burned in them; then instead of being burned to death, the +creatures merely passed through the fire; and with the rise of +Christianity fire was thought to be a protection against the evil +power of the same gods. + +Pontypridd, in South Wales, was the Druid religious center of +Wales. It is still marked by a stone circle and an altar on a hill. +In after years it was believed that the stones were people changed +to that form by the power of a witch. + +In North Wales the November Eve fire, which each family built in +the most prominent place near the house, was called Coel Coeth. +Into the dying fire each member of the family threw a white stone +marked so that he could recognize it again. Circling about the fire +hand-in-hand they said their prayers and went to bed. In the +morning each searched for his stone, and if he could not find it, +he believed that he would die within the next twelve months. This +is still credited. There is now the custom also of watching the +fires till the last spark dies, and instantly rushing down hill, +"the devil (or the cutty black sow) take the hindmost." A +Cardiganshire proverb says: + + "A cutty[1] black sow + On every stile, + Spinning and carding + Every Allhallows' Eve." + +[1] Short-tailed. + +November Eve was called "Nos-Galan-Gaeof," the night of the winter +Calends, that is, the night before the first day of winter. To the +Welsh it was New Year's Eve. + +Welsh fairy tradition resembles that in the near-by countries. +There is an old story of a man who lay down to sleep inside a +fairy ring, a circle of greener grass where the fairies danced by +night. The fairies carried him away and kept him seven years, and +after he had been rescued from them he would neither eat nor speak. + +In the sea was the Otherworld, a + + "Green fairy island reposing + In sunlight and beauty on ocean's calm breast." + + PARRY: _Welsh Melodies._ + +This was the abode of the Druids, and hence of all supernatural +beings, who were + + "Something betwixt heaven and hell, + Something that neither stood nor fell." + + SCOTT: _The Monastery._ + +As in other countries the fairies or pixies are to be met at +crossroads, where happenings, such as funerals, may be witnessed +weeks before they really occur. + +At the Hallow Eve supper parsnips and cakes are eaten, and nuts and +apples roasted. A "puzzling jug" holds the ale. In the rim are +three holes that seem merely ornamental. They are connected with +the bottom of the jug by pipes through the handle, and the +unwitting toper is well drenched unless he is clever enough to see +that he must stop up two of the holes, and drink through the third. + +Spells are tried in Wales too with apples and nuts. There is +ducking and snapping for apples. Nuts are thrown into the fire, +denoting prosperity if they blaze brightly, misfortune if they pop, +or smoulder and turn black. + + "Old Pally threw on a nut. It flickered and then blazed up. + Maggee tossed one into the fire. It smouldered and gave no + light." + + MARKS: _All-Hallows Honeymoon._ + +Fate is revealed by the three luggies and the ball of yarn thrown +out of the window: Scotch and Irish charms. The leek takes the +place of the cabbage in Scotland. Since King Cadwallo decorated his +soldiers with leeks for their valor in a battle by a leek-garden, +they have been held in high esteem in Wales. A girl sticks a knife +among leeks at Hallowe'en, and walks backward out of the garden. +She returns later to find that her future husband has picked up the +knife and thrown it into the center of the leek-bed. + +Taking two long-stemmed roses, a girl goes to her room in silence. +She twines the stems together, naming one for her sweetheart and +the other for herself, and thinking this rhyme: + + "Twine, twine, and intertwine. + Let his love be wholly mine. + If his heart be kind and true, + Deeper grow his rose's hue." + +She can see, by watching closely, her lover's rose grow darker. + +The sacred ash figures in one charm. The party of young people seek +an even-leaved sprig of ash. The first who finds one calls out +"cyniver." If a boy calls out first, the first girl who finds +another perfect shoot bears the name of the boy's future wife. + +Dancing and singing to the music of the harp close the evening. + +Instead of leaving stones in the fire to determine who are to die, +people now go to church to see by the light of a candle held in the +hand the spirits of those marked for death, or to hear the names +called. The wind "blowing over the feet of the corpses" howls about +the doors of those who will not be alive next Hallowe'en. + +On the Eve of All Souls' Day, twenty-four hours after Hallowe'en, +children in eastern Wales go from house to house singing for + + "An apple or a pear, a plum or a cherry, + Or any good thing to make us merry." + +It is a time when charity is given freely to the poor. On this +night and the next day, fires are burned, as in England, to light +souls through Purgatory, and prayers are made for a good wheat +harvest next year by the Welsh, who keep the forms of religion very +devoutly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE + + +The Celts had been taught by their priests that the soul is +immortal. When the body died the spirit passed instantly into +another existence in a country close at hand. We remember that the +Otherworld of the British Isles, peopled by the banished Tuatha and +all superhuman beings, was either in caves in the earth, as in +Ireland, or in an island like the English Avalon. By giving a +mortal one of their magic apples to eat, fairies could entice him +whither they would, and at last away into their country. + +In the Irish story of Nera (q. v.), the corpse of the criminal is +the cause of Nera's being lured into the cave. So the dead have the +same power as fairies, and live in the same place. On May Eve and +November Eve the dead and the fairies hold their revels together +and make excursions together. If a young person died, he was said +to be called away by the fairies. The Tuatha may not have been a +race of gods, but merely the early Celts, who grew to godlike +proportions as the years raised a mound of lore and legends for +their pedestal. So they might really be only the dead, and not of +superhuman nature. + +In the fourth century A. D., the men of England were hard pressed +by the Picts and Scots from the northern border, and were helped in +their need by the Teutons. When this tribe saw the fair country of +the Britons they decided to hold it for themselves. After they had +driven out the northern tribes, in the fifth century, when King +Arthur was reigning in Cornwall, they drove out those whose cause +they had fought. So the Britons were scattered to the mountains of +Wales, to Cornwall, and across the Channel to Armorica, a part of +France, which they named Brittany after their home-land. In lower +Brittany, out of the zone of French influence, a language something +like Welsh or old British is still spoken, and many of the Celtic +beliefs were retained more untouched than in Britain, not clear of +paganism till the seventeenth century. Here especially did +Christianity have to adapt the old belief to her own ends. + +Gaul, as we have seen from Cæsar's account, had been one of the +chief seats of Druidical belief. The religious center was Carnutes, +now Chartrain. The rites of sacrifice survived in the same forms as +in the British Isles. In the fields of Deux-Sèvres fires were built +of stubble, ferns, leaves, and thorns, and the people danced about +them and burned nuts in them. On St. John's Day animals were burned +in the fires to secure the cattle from disease. This was continued +down into the seventeenth century. + +The pagan belief that lasted the longest in Brittany, and is by no +means dead yet, was the cult of the dead. Cæsar said that the Celts +of Gaul traced their ancestry from the god of death, whom he called +Dispater. Now figures of l'Ankou, a skeleton armed with a spear, +can be seen in most villages of Brittany. This mindfulness of +death was strengthened by the sight of the prehistoric cairns of +stones on hilltops, the ancient altars of the Druids, and dolmens, +formed of one flat rock resting like a roof on two others set up on +end with a space between them, ancient tombs; and by the Bretons +being cut off from the rest of France by the nature of the country, +and shut in among the uplands, black and misty in November, and +blown over by chill Atlantic winds. Under a seeming dull +indifference and melancholy the Bretons conceal a lively +imagination, and no place has a greater wealth of legendary +literature. + +What fairies, dwarfs, pixies, and the like are to the Celts of +other places, the spirits of the dead are to the Celts of Brittany. +They possess the earth on Christmas, St. John's Day, and All +Saints'. In Finistère, that western point of France, there is a +saying that on the Eve of All Souls' "there are more dead in every +house than sands on the shore." The dead have the power to charm +mortals and take them away, and to foretell the future. They must +not be spoken of directly, any more than the fairies of the +Scottish border, or met with, for fear of evil results. + +By the Bretons of the sixth century the near-by island of Britain, +which they could just see on clear days, was called the Otherworld. +An historian, Procopius, tells how the people nearest Britain were +exempted from paying tribute to the Franks, because they were +subject to nightly summons to ferry the souls of the dead across in +their boats, and deliver them into the hands of the keeper of +souls. Farther inland a black bog seemed to be the entrance to an +otherworld underground. One location which combined the ideas of an +island and a cave was a city buried in the sea. The people imagined +they could hear the bells of Ker-Is ringing, and joyous music +sounding, for though this was a city of the dead, it resembled the +fairy palaces of Ireland, and was ruled by King Grallon and his +fair daughter Dahut, who could lure mortals away by her beauty and +enchantments. + +The approach of winter is believed to drive like the flocks, the +souls of the dead from their cold cheerless graves to the food and +warmth of home. This is why November Eve, the night before the +first day of winter, was made sacred to them. + + "When comes the harvest of the year + Before the scythe the wheat will fall." + + BOTREL: _Songs of Brittany._ + +The harvest-time reminded the Bretons of the garnering by that +reaper, Death. On November Eve milk is poured on graves, feasts and +candles set out on the tables, and fires lighted on the hearths to +welcome the spirits of departed kinsfolk and friends. + +In France from the twelfth to the fourteenth century stone +buildings like lighthouses were erected in cemeteries. They were +twenty or thirty feet high, with lanterns on top. On Hallowe'en +they were kept burning to safeguard the people from the fear of +night-wandering spirits and the dead, so they were called +"lanternes des morts." + +The cemetery is the social center of the Breton village. It is at +once meeting-place, playground, park, and church. The tombs that +outline the hills make the place seem one vast cemetery. On All +Souls' Eve in the mid-nineteenth century the "procession of tombs" +was held. All formed a line and walked about the cemetery, calling +the names of those who were dead, as they approached their +resting-places. The record was carefully remembered, so that not +one should seem to be forgotten. + +"We live with our dead," say the Bretons. First on the Eve of All +Souls' comes the religious service, "black vespers." The +blessedness of death is praised, the sorrows and shortness of life +dwelt upon. After a common prayer all go out to the cemetery to +pray separately, each by the graves of his kin, or to the "place of +bones," where the remains of those long dead are thrown all +together in one tomb. They can be seen behind gratings, by the +people as they pass, and rows of skulls at the sides of the +entrance can be touched. In these tombs are Latin inscriptions +meaning: "Remember thou must die," "To-day to me, and to-morrow to +thee," and others reminding the reader of his coming death. + +From the cemetery the people go to a house or an inn which is the +gathering-place for the night, singing or talking loudly on the +road to warn the dead who are hastening home, lest they may meet. +Reunions of families take place on this night, in the spirit of the +Roman feast of the dead, the Feralia, of which Ovid wrote: + + "After the visit to the tombs and to the ancestors who are no + longer with us, it is pleasant to turn towards the living; after + the loss of so many, it is pleasant to behold those who remain of + our blood, and to reckon up the generations of our descendants." + + _Fasti._ + +A toast is drunk to the memory of the departed. The men sit about +the fireplace smoking or weaving baskets; the women apart, knitting +or spinning by the light of the fire and one candle. The children +play with their gifts of apples and nuts. As the hour grows later, +and mysterious noises begin to be heard about the house, and a +curtain sways in a draught, the thoughts of the company already +centred upon the dead find expression in words, and each has a tale +to tell of an adventure with some friend or enemy who has died. + +The dead are thought to take up existence where they left it off, +working at the same trades, remembering their old debts, likes and +dislikes, even wearing the same clothes they wore in life. Most of +them stay not in some distant, definite Otherworld, but frequent +the scenes of their former life. They never trespass upon daylight, +and it is dangerous to meet them at night, because they are very +ready to punish any slight to their memory, such as selling their +possessions or forgetting the hospitality due them. L'Ankou will +come to get a supply of shavings if the coffins are not lined with +them to make a softer resting-place for the dead bodies. + +The lively Celtic imagination turns the merest coincidence into an +encounter with a spirit, and the poetic temperament of the +narrators clothes the stories with vividness and mystery. They tell +how the presence of a ghost made the midsummer air so cold that +even wood did not burn, and of groans and footsteps underground as +long as the ghost is displeased with what his relatives are doing. + +Just before midnight a bell-man goes about the streets to give +warning of the hour when the spirits will arrive. + + "They will sit where we sat, and will talk of us as we talked of + them: in the gray of the morning only will they go away." + + LE BRAZ: _Night of the Dead._ + +The supper for the souls is then set out. The poor who live in the +mountains have only black corn, milk, and smoked bacon to offer, +but it is given freely. Those who can afford it spread on a white +cloth dishes of clotted milk, hot pancakes, and mugs of cider. + +After all have retired to lie with both eyes shut tight lest they +see one of the guests, death-singers make their rounds, chanting +under the windows: + + "You are comfortably lying in your bed, + But with the poor dead it is otherwise; + You are stretched softly in your bed + While the poor souls are wandering abroad. + + "A white sheet and five planks, + A bundle of straw beneath the head, + Five feet of earth above + Are all the worldly goods we own." + + LE BRAZ: _Night of the Dead._ + +The tears of their deserted friends disturb the comfort of the +dead, and sometimes they appear to tell those in sorrow that their +shrouds are always wet from the tears shed on their graves. + +Wakened by the dirge of the death-singers the people rise and pray +for the souls of the departed. + +Divination has little part in the annals of the evening, but one in +Finistère is recorded. Twenty-five new needles are laid in a dish, +and named, and water is poured upon them. Those who cross are +enemies. + +In France is held a typical Continental celebration of All Saints' +and All Souls'. On October 31st the children go asking for flowers +to decorate the graves, and to adorn the church. At night bells +ring to usher in All Saints'. On the day itself the churches are +decorated gaily with flowers, candles, and banners, and a special +service is held. On the second day of November the light and color +give way to black drapings, funeral songs, and prayers. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TEUTONIC RELIGION. WITCHES + + +The Teutons, that race of northern peoples called by the Romans, +"barbarians," comprised the Goths and Vandals who lived in +Scandinavia, and the Germans who dwelt north of Italy and east of +Gaul. + +The nature of the northern country was such that the people could +not get a living by peaceful agriculture. So it was natural that in +the intervals of cattle-tending they should explore the seas all +about, and ravage neighboring lands. The Romans and the Gauls +experienced this in the centuries just before and after Christ, and +England from the eighth to the tenth centuries. Such a life made +the Norsemen adventurous, hardy, warlike, independent, and quick of +action, while the Celts were by nature more slothful and fond of +peaceful social gatherings, though of quicker intellect and wit. + +Like the Greeks and Romans, the Teutons had twelve gods and +goddesses, among whom were Odin or Wotan, the king, and his wife +Freya, queen of beauty and love. Idun guarded the apples of +immortality, which the gods ate to keep them eternally young. The +chief difference in Teutonic mythology was the presence of an evil +god, Loki. Like Vulcan, Loki was a god of fire, like him, Loki was +lame because he had been cast out of heaven. Loki was always +plotting against the other gods, as Lucifer, after being banished +from Heaven by God, plotted against him and his people, and became +Satan, "the enemy." + + "Him the Almighty Power + Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky + With hideous ruin and combustion down + To bottomless perdition, there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal fire, + Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms." + + MILTON: _Paradise Lost._ + +It was this god of evil in Teutonic myth who was responsible for +the death of the bright beautiful sun-god, Baldur. Mistletoe was +the only thing in the world which had not sworn not to harm Baldur. +Loki knew this, and gave a twig of mistletoe to Baldur's blind +brother, Hodur, and Hodur cast it at Baldur and "unwitting slew" +him. Vali, a younger brother of Baldur, avenged him by killing +Hodur. Hodur is darkness and Baldur light; they are brothers; the +light falls a victim to blind darkness, who reigns until a younger +brother, the sun of the next day, rises to slay him in turn. + +Below these gods, all nature was peopled with divinities. There +were elves of two kinds: black elves, called trolls, who were +frost-spirits, and guarded treasure (seeds) in the ground; and +white elves, who lived in mid-heaven, and danced on the earth in +fairy rings, where a mortal entering died. Will-o'-the-wisps +hovered over swamps to mislead travellers, and jack-o'-lanterns, +the spirits of murderers, walked the earth near the places of their +crimes. + +The Otherworlds of the Teutons were Valhalla, the abode of the +heroes whom death had found on the battlefield, and Niflheim, "the +misty realm," secure from the cold outside, ruled over by Queen +Hel. Valkyries, warlike women who rode through the air on swift +horses, seized the heroes from the field of slaughter, and took +them to the halls of Valhalla, where they enjoyed daily combats, +long feasts, and drinking-bouts, music and story-telling. + +The sacred tree of the Druids was the oak; that of the Teutonic +priests the ash. The flat disk of the earth was believed to be +supported by a great ash-tree, Yggdrasil, + + "An ash know I standing, + Named Yggdrasil, + A stately tree sprinkled + With water the purest; + Thence come the dewdrops + That fall in the dales; + Ever-blooming, it stands + O'er the Urdar-fountain." + + _Völuspa saga._ (Blackwell _trans._) + +guarded by three fates, Was, Will, and Shall Be. The name of Was +means the past, of Will, the power, howbeit small, which men have +over present circumstances, and Shall Be, the future over which man +has no control. Vurdh, the name of the latter, gives us the word +"weird," which means fate or fateful. The three Weird Sisters in +_Macbeth_ are seeresses. + +Besides the ash, other trees and shrubs were believed to have +peculiar powers, which they have kept, with some changes of +meaning, to this day. The elder (elves' grave), the hawthorn, and +the juniper, were sacred to supernatural powers. + +The priests of the Teutons sacrificed prisoners of war in +consecrated groves, to Tyr, god of the sword. The victims were not +burned alive, as by the Druids, but cut and torn terribly, and +their dead bodies burned. From these sacrifices auspices were +taken. A man's innocence or guilt was manifested by gods to men +through ordeals by fire; walking upon red-hot ploughshares, holding +a heated bar of iron, or thrusting the hands into red-hot +gauntlets, or into boiling water. If after a certain number of +days no burns appeared the person was declared innocent. If a +suspected man, thrown into the water, floated he was guilty; if he +sank, he was acquitted. + +The rites of the Celts were done in secret, and it was forbidden +that they be written down. Those of the Teutons were commemorated +in Edda and Saga (poetry and prose). + +In the far north the shortness of summer and the length of winter +so impressed the people that when they made a story about it they +told of a maiden, the Spring, put to sleep, and guarded, along with +a hoard of treasure, by a ring of fire. One knight only could break +through the flames, awaken her and seize the treasure. He is the +returning sun, and the treasure he gets possession of is the wealth +of summer vegetation. So there is the story of Brynhild, pricked by +the "sleep-thorn" of her father, Wotan, and sleeping until Sigurd +wakens her. They marry, but soon Sigurd has to give her up to +Gunnar, the relentless winter, and Gunnar cannot rest until he has +killed Sigurd, and reigns undisturbed. Grimms' story of Rapunzel, +the princess who was shut up by a winter witch, and of Briar-Rose, +pricked by a witch's spindle, and sleeping inside a hedge which +blooms with spring at the knight's approach, mean likewise the +struggle between summer and winter. + +The chief festivals of the Teutonic year were held at Midsummer and +Midwinter. May-Day, the very beginning of spring, was celebrated by +May-ridings, when winter and spring, personified by two warriors, +engaged in a combat in which Winter, the fur-clad king of ice and +snow, was defeated. It was then that the sacred fire had been +kindled, and the sacrificial feast held. Judgments were rendered +then. + +The summer solstice was marked by bonfires, like those of the Celts +on May Eve and Midsummer. They were kindled in an open place or on +a hill, and the ceremonies held about them were similar to the +Celtic. As late as the eighteenth century these same customs were +observed in Iceland. + +A May-pole wreathed with magical herbs is erected as the center of +the dance in Sweden, and in Norway a child chosen May-bride is +followed by a procession as at a real wedding. This is a symbol of +the wedding of sun and earth deities in the spring. The May-pole, +probably imported from Celtic countries, is used at Midsummer +because the spring does not begin in the north before June. + +Yule-tide in December celebrated the sun's turning back, and was +marked by banquets and gayety. A chief feature of all these feasts +was the drinking of toasts to the gods, with vows and prayers. + +By the sixth century Christianity had supplanted Druidism in the +British Isles. It was the ninth before Christianity made much +progress in Scandinavia. After King Olaf had converted his nation, +the toasts which had been drunk to the pagan gods were kept in +honor of Christian saints; for instance, those to Freya were now +drunk to the Virgin Mary or to St. Gertrude. + +The "wetting of the sark-sleeve," that custom of Scotland and +Ireland, was in its earliest form a rite to Freya as the northern +goddess of love. To secure her aid in a love-affair, a maid would +wash in a running stream a piece of fine linen--for Freya was fond +of personal adornment--and would hang it before the fire to dry an +hour before midnight. At half-past eleven she must turn it, and at +twelve her lover's apparition would appear to her, coming in at the +half-open door. + + "The wind howled through the leafless boughs, and there was every + appearance of an early and severe winter, as indeed befell. Long + before eleven o'clock all was hushed and quiet within the house, + and indeed without (nothing was heard), except the cold wind + which howled mournfully in gusts. The house was an old farmhouse, + and we sat in the large kitchen with its stone floor, awaiting + the first stroke of the eleventh hour. It struck at last, and + then all pale and trembling we hung the garment before the fire + which we had piled up with wood, and set the door ajar, for that + was an essential point. The door was lofty and opened upon the + farmyard, through which there was a kind of thoroughfare, very + seldom used, it is true, and at each end of it there was a gate + by which wayfarers occasionally passed to shorten the way. There + we sat without speaking a word, shivering with cold and fear, + listening to the clock which went slowly, tick, tick, and + occasionally starting as the door creaked on its hinges, or a + half-burnt billet fell upon the hearth. My sister was ghastly + white, as white as the garment which was drying before the fire. + And now half an hour had elapsed and it was time to turn.... This + we did, I and my sister, without saying a word, and then we again + sank on our chairs on either side of the fire. I was tired, and + as the clock went tick-a-tick, I began to feel myself dozing. I + did doze, I believe. All of a sudden I sprang up. The clock was + striking one, two, but ere it could give the third chime, mercy + upon us! we heard the gate slam to with a tremendous noise...." + + "Well, and what happened then?" + + "Happened! before I could recover myself, my sister had sprung to + the door, and both locked and bolted it. The next moment she was + in convulsions. I scarcely knew what happened; and yet it + appeared to me for a moment that something pressed against the + door with a low moaning sound. Whether it was the wind or not, I + can't say. I shall never forget that night. About two hours + later, my father came home. He had been set upon by a highwayman + whom he beat off." + + BORROW: _Lavengro._ + +Freya and Odin especially had had power over the souls of the dead. +When Christianity turned all the old gods into spirits of evil, +these two were accused especially of possessing unlawful learning, +as having knowledge of the hidden matters of death. This unlawful +wisdom is the first accusation that has always been brought against +witches. A mirror is often used to contain it. Such are the +crystals of the astrologers, and the looking-glasses which on +Hallowe'en materialize wishes. + +From that time in the Middle Ages when witches were first heard of, +it has nearly always been women who were accused. Women for the +most part were the priests in the old days: it was a woman to whom +Apollo at Delphi breathed his oracles. In all times it has been +women who plucked herbs and concocted drinks of healing and +refreshment. So it was very easy to imagine that they experimented +with poisons and herbs of magic power under the guidance of the now +evil gods. If they were so directed, they must go on occasions to +consult with their masters. The idea arose of a witches' Sabbath, +when women were enabled by evil means to fly away, and adore in +secret the gods from whom the rest of the world had turned. There +were such meeting-places all over Europe. They had been places of +sacrifice, of judgment, or of wells and springs considered holy +under the old religion, and whither the gods had now been banished. +The most famous was the Blocksberg in the Hartz mountains in +Germany. + + "Dame Baubo first, to lead the crew! + A tough old sow and the mother thereon, + Then follow the witches, every one." + + GOETHE: _Faust._ (Taylor _trans._) + +In Norway the mountains above Bergen were a resort, and the +Dovrefeld, once the home of the trolls. + + "It's easy to slip in here, + But outward the Dovre-King's gate opens not." + + IBSEN: _Peer Gynt._ (Archer _trans._) + +In Italy the witches met under a walnut tree near Benevento; in +France, in Puy de Dome; in Spain, near Seville. + +In these night-ridings Odin was the leader of a wild hunt. In +stormy, blustering autumn weather + + "The wonted roar was up among the woods." + + MILTON: _Comus._ + +Odin rode in pursuit of shadowy deer with the Furious Host behind +him. A ghostly huntsman of a later age was Dietrich von Bern, +doomed to hunt till the Judgment Day. + +Frau Venus in Wagner's _Tannhäuser_ held her revels in an +underground palace in the Horselberg in Thuringia, Germany. This +was one of the seats of Holda, the goddess of spring. Venus herself +is like the Christian conception of Freya and Hel. She gathers +about her a throng of nymphs, sylphs, and those she has lured into +the mountain by intoxicating music and promises. "The enchanting +sounds enticed only those in whose hearts wild sensuous longings +had already taken root." Of these Tannhäuser is one. He has stayed +a year, but it seems to him only one day. Already he is tired of +the rosy light and eternal music and languor, and longs for the +fresh green world of action he once knew. He fears that he has +forfeited his soul's salvation by being there at all, but cries, + + "Salvation rests for me in Mary!" + + WAGNER: _Tannhäuser._ + +At the holy name Venus and her revellers vanish, and Tannhäuser +finds himself in a meadow, hears the tinkling herd-bells, and a +shepherd's voice singing, + + "Frau Holda, goddess of the spring, + Steps forth from the mountains old; + She comes, and all the brooklets sing, + And fled is winter's cold. + + * * * * * + + Play, play, my pipe, your lightest lay, + For spring has come, and merry May!" + + _Tannhäuser._ (Huckel _trans._) + +praising the goddess in her blameless state. + +By the fifteenth century Satan, taking the place of the gods, +assumed control of the evil creatures. Now that witches were the +followers of the Devil, they wrote their names in his book, and +were carried away by him for the revels by night. A new witch was +pricked with a needle to initiate her into his company. At the +party the Devil was adored with worship due to God alone. Dancing, +a device of the pagans, and hence considered wholly wicked, was +indulged in to unseemly lengths. In 1883 in Sweden it was believed +that dances were held about the sanctuaries of the ancient gods, +and that whoever stopped to watch were caught by the dancers and +whirled away. If they profaned holy days by this dancing, they were +doomed to keep it up for a year. + +At the witches' Sabbath the Devil himself sometimes appeared as a +goat, and the witches were attended by cats, owls, bats, and +cuckoos, because these creatures had once been sacred to Freya. At +the feast horse-flesh, once the food of the gods at banquets, was +eaten. The broth for the feast was brewed in a kettle held over the +fire by a tripod, like that which supported the seat of Apollo's +priestess at Delphi. The kettle may be a reminder of the one Thor +got, which gave to each guest whatever food he asked of it, or it +may be merely that used in brewing the herb-remedies which women +made before they were thought to practise witchcraft. In the kettle +were cooked mixtures which caused storms and shipwrecks, plagues, +and blights. No salt was eaten, for that was a wholesome substance. + +The witches of Germany did not have prophetic power; those of +Scandinavia, like the Norse Fates, did have it. The troll-wives of +Scandinavia were like the witches of Germany--they were cannibals, +especially relishing children, like the witch in _Hansel and +Grethel_. + +From the fourteenth to the eighteenth century all through Europe +and the new world people thought to be witches, and hence in the +devil's service, were persecuted. It was believed that they were +able to take the form of beasts. A wolf or other animal is caught +in a trap or shot, and disappears. Later an old woman who lives +alone in the woods is found suffering from a similar wound. She is +then declared to be a witch. + + "There was once an old castle in the middle of a vast thick wood; + in it lived an old woman quite alone, and she was a witch. By day + she made herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but regularly at + night she became a human being again." + + GRIMM: _Jorinda and Joringel._ + +"Hares found on May morning are witches and should be stoned," +reads an old superstition. "If you tease a cat on May Eve, it will +turn into a witch and hurt you." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WALPURGIS NIGHT + + +Walpurga was a British nun who went to Germany in the eighth +century to found holy houses. After a pious life she was buried at +Eichstatt, where it is said a healing oil trickled from her +rock-tomb. This miracle reminded men of the fruitful dew which fell +from the manes of the Valkyries' horses, and when one of the days +sacred to her came on May first, the wedding-day of Frau Holda and +the sun-god, the people thought of her as a Valkyrie, and +identified her with Holda. As, like a Valkyrie, she rode armed on +her steed, she scattered, like Holda, spring flowers and fruitful +dew upon the fields and vales. When these deities fell into +disrepute, Walpurga too joined the pagan train that swept the sky +on the eve of May first, and afterwards on mountain-tops to +sacrifice and to adore Holda, as the priests had sacrificed for a +prosperous season and a bountiful harvest. + +So this night was called Walpurgis Night, when evil beings were +abroad, and with them human worshippers who still guarded the old +faith in secret. + +This is very like the occasion of November Eve, which shared with +May first Celtic manifestations of evil. Witches complete the list +of supernatural beings which are out on Hallowe'en. All are to be +met at crossroads, with harm to the beholders. A superstition goes, +that if one wishes to see witches, he must put on his clothes wrong +side out, and creep backward to a crossroads, or wear wild radish, +on May Eve. + +On Walpurgis Night precaution must be taken against witches who may +harm cattle. The stable doors are locked and sealed with three +crosses. Sprigs of ash, hawthorn, juniper, and elder, once sacred +to the pagan gods, are now used as a protection against them. +Horseshoes are nailed prongs up on the threshold or over the door. +Holy bells are hung on the cows to scare away the witches, and they +are guided to pasture by a goad which has been blessed. Shots are +fired over the cornfield. If one wishes, he may hide in the corn +and hear what will happen for a year. + +Signs and omens on Walpurgis Night have more weight than at other +times except on St. John's Day. + + "On Walpurgis Night rain + Makes good crops of autumn grain," + +but rain on May Day is harmful to them. + +[Illustration: THE WITCHES' DANCE (VALPURGISNACHT.) + +_From Painting by Von Kreling._] + +Lovers try omens on this eve, as they do in Scotland on Hallowe'en. +If you sleep with one stocking on, you will find on May morning in +the toe a hair the color of your sweetheart's. Girls try to find +out the temperament of their husbands-to-be by keeping a linen +thread for three days near an image of the Madonna, and at midnight +on May Eve pulling it apart, saying: + + "Thread, I pull thee; + Walpurga, I pray thee, + That thou show to me + What my husband's like to be." + +They judge of his disposition by the thread's being strong or +easily broken, soft or tightly woven. + +Dew on the morning of May first makes girls who wash in it +beautiful. + + "The fair maid who on the first of May + Goes to the fields at break of day + And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree + Will ever after handsome be." + + _Encyclopedia of Superstitions._ + +A heavy dew on this morning presages a good "butter-year." You will +find fateful initials printed in dew on a handkerchief that has +been left out all the night of April thirtieth. On May Day girls +invoke the cuckoo: + + "Cuckoo! cuckoo! on the bough, + Tell me truly, tell me how + Many years there will be + Till a husband comes to me." + +Then they count the calls of the cuckoo until he pauses again. + +If a man wears clothes made of yarn spun on Walpurgis Night to the +May-shooting, he will always hit the bull's-eye, for the Devil +gives away to those he favors, "freikugeln," bullets which always +hit the mark. + +On Walpurgis Night as on Hallowe'en strange things may happen to +one. Zschokke tells a story of a Walpurgis Night dream that is more +a vision than a dream. Led to be unfaithful to his wife, a man +murders the husband of a former sweetheart; to escape capture he +fires a haystack, from which a whole village is kindled. In his +flight he enters an empty carriage, and drives away madly, crushing +the owner under the wheels. He finds that the dead man is his own +brother. Faced by the person whom he believes to be the Devil, +responsible for his misfortunes, the wretched man is ready to +worship him if he will protect him. He finds that the seeming Devil +is in reality his guardian-angel who sent him this dream that he +might learn the depths of wickedness lying unfathomed in his +heart, waiting an opportunity to burst out. + +Both May Eve and St. John's Eve are times of freedom and +unrestraint. People are filled with a sort of madness which makes +them unaccountable for their deeds. + + "For you see, pastor, within every one of us a spark of paganism + is glowing. It has outlasted the thousand years since the old + Teutonic times. Once a year it flames up high, and we call it St. + John's Fire. Once a year comes Free-night. Yes, truly, + Free-night. Then the witches, laughing scornfully, ride to + Blocksberg, upon the mountain-top, on their broomsticks, the same + broomsticks with which at other times their witchcraft is whipped + out of them,--then the whole wild company skims along the forest + way,--and then the wild desires awaken in our hearts which life + has not fulfilled." + + SUDERMANN: _St. John's Fire._ (Porter _trans._) + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MORE HALLOWTIDE BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS + + +Only the Celts and the Teutons celebrate an occasion actually like +our Hallowe'en. The countries of southern Europe make of it a +religious vigil, like that already described in France. + +In Italy on the night of All Souls', the spirits of the dead are +thought to be abroad, as in Brittany. They may mingle with living +people, and not be remarked. The _Miserere_ is heard in all the +cities. As the people pass dressed in black, bells are rung on +street corners to remind them to pray for the souls of the dead. In +Naples the skeletons in the funeral vaults are dressed up, and the +place visited on All Souls' Day. In Salerno before the people go to +the all-night service at church they set out a banquet for the +dead. If any food is left in the morning, evil is in store for the +house. + + "Hark! Hark to the wind! 'T is the night, they say, + When all souls come back from the far away-- + The dead, forgotten this many a day! + + "And the dead remembered--ay! long and well-- + And the little children whose spirits dwell + In God's green garden of asphodel. + + "Have you reached the country of all content, + O souls we know, since the day you went + From this time-worn world, where your years were spent? + + "Would you come back to the sun and the rain, + The sweetness, the strife, the thing we call pain, + And then unravel life's tangle again? + + "I lean to the dark--Hush!--was it a sigh? + Or the painted vine-leaves that rustled by? + Or only a night-bird's echoing cry?" + + SHEARD: _Hallowe'en._ + +In Malta bells are rung, prayers said, and mourning worn on All +Souls' Day. Graves are decorated, and the inscriptions on tombs +read and reread. For the poor is prepared an All Souls' dinner, as +cakes are given to the poor in England and Wales. The custom of +decorating graves with flowers and offering flowers to the dead +comes from the crowning of the dead by the ancients with +short-lived blooms, to signify the brevity of life. + +In Spain at dark on Hallowe'en cakes and nuts are laid on graves to +bribe the spirits not to disturb the vigils of the saints. + +In Germany the graves of the dead are decorated with flowers and +lights, on the first and second of November. To drive away ghosts +from a church a key or a wand must be struck three times against a +bier. An All Souls' divination in Germany is a girl's going out and +asking the first young man she meets his name. Her husband's will +be like it. If she walks thrice about a church and makes a wish, +she will see it fulfilled. + +Belgian children build shrines in front of their homes with +figures of the Madonna and candles, and beg for money to buy cakes. +As many cakes as one eats, so many souls he frees from Purgatory. + +The races of northern Europe believed that the dead returned, and +were grieved at the lamentations of their living relatives. The +same belief was found in Brittany, and among the American Indians. + + "Think of this, O Hiawatha! + Speak of it to all the people, + That henceforward and forever + They no more with lamentations + Sadden souls of the departed + In the Islands of the Blessèd." + + LONGFELLOW: _Hiawatha._ + +The Chinese fear the dead and the dragons of the air. They devote +the first three weeks in April to visiting the graves of their +ancestors, and laying baskets of offerings on them. The great +dragon, Feng-Shin, flies scattering blessings upon the houses. His +path is straight, unless he meets with some building. Then he turns +aside, and the owner of the too lofty edifice misses the blessing. + +At Nikko, Japan, where there are many shrines to the spirits of the +dead, masques are held to entertain the ghosts who return on +Midsummer Day. Every street is lined with lighted lanterns, and the +spirits are sent back to the otherworld in straw boats lit with +lanterns, and floated down the river. To see ghosts in Japan one +must put one hundred rush-lights into a large lantern, and repeat +one hundred lines of poetry, taking one light out at the end of +each line; or go out into the dark with one light and blow it out. +Ghosts are identified with witches. They come back especially on +moonlit nights. + + "On moonlight nights, when the coast-wind whispers in the + branches of the tree, O-Matsue and Teoyo may sometimes be seen, + with bamboo rakes in their hands, gathering together the needles + of the fir." + + RINDER: _Great Fir-Tree of Takasago._ + +There is a Chinese saying that a mirror is the soul of a woman. A +pretty story is told of a girl whose mother before she died gave +her a mirror, saying: + +"Now after I am dead, if you think longingly of me, take out the +thing that you will find inside this box, and look at it. When you +do so my spirit will meet yours, and you will be comforted." When +she was lonely or her stepmother was harsh with her, the girl went +to her room and looked earnestly into the mirror. She saw there +only her own face, but it was so much like her mother's that she +believed it was hers indeed, and was consoled. When the stepmother +learned what it was her daughter cherished so closely, her heart +softened toward the lonely girl, and her life was made easier. + +By the Arabs spirits were called Djinns (or genii). They came from +fire, and looked like men or beasts. They might be good or evil, +beautiful or horrible, and could disappear from mortal sight at +will. Nights when they were abroad, it behooved men to stay under +cover. + + "Ha! They are on us, close without! + Shut tight the shelter where we lie; + With hideous din the monster rout, + Dragon and vampire, fill the sky." + + HUGO: _The Djinns._ + +[Illustration: FORTUNE-TELLING.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA + + +In Colonial days Hallowe'en was not celebrated much in America. +Some English still kept the customs of the old world, such as +apple-ducking and snapping, and girls tried the apple-paring charm +to reveal their lovers' initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to +see their faces. Ballads were sung and ghost-stories told, for the +dead were thought to return on Hallowe'en. + + "There was a young officer in Phips's company at the time of the + finding of the Spanish treasure-ship, who had gone mad at the + sight of the bursting sacks that the divers had brought up from + the sea, as the gold coins covered the deck. This man had once + lived in the old stone house on the 'faire greene lane,' and a + report had gone out that his spirit still visited it, and caused + discordant noises. Once ... on a gusty November evening, when the + clouds were scudding over the moon, a hall-door had blown open + with a shrieking draft and a force that caused the floor to + tremble." + + BUTTERWORTH: _Hallowe'en Reformation._ + +Elves, goblins, and fairies are native on American soil. The +Indians believed in evil _manitous_, some of whom were water-gods +who exacted tribute from all who passed over their lakes. Henry +Hudson and his fellow-explorers haunted as mountain-trolls the +Catskill range. Like Ossian and so many other visitors to the +Otherworld, Rip Van Winkle is lured into the strange gathering, +thinks that he passes the night there, wakes, and goes home to find +that twenty years have whitened his hair, rusted his gun, and +snatched from life many of his boon-companions. + + "My gun must have cotched the rheumatix too. Now that's too bad. + Them fellows have gone and stolen my good gun, and leave me this + rusty old barrel. + + "Why, is that the village of Falling Waters that I see? Why, the + place is more than twice the size it was last night--I---- + + "I don't know whether I am dreaming, or sleeping, or waking." + + JEFFERSON: _Rip Van Winkle._ + +The persecution of witches, prevalent in Europe, reached this side +of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. + + "This sudden burst of wickedness and crime + Was but the common madness of the time, + When in all lands, that lie within the sound + Of Sabbath bells, a witch was burned or drowned." + + LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._ + +Men and women who had enemies to accuse them of evil knowledge and +the power to cause illness in others, were hanged or pressed to +death by heavy weights. Such sicknesses they could cause by keeping +a waxen image, and sticking pins or nails into it, or melting it +before the fire. The person whom they hated would be in torture, or +would waste away like the waxen doll. Witches' power to injure and +to prophesy came from the Devil, who marked them with a +needle-prick. Such marks were sought as evidence at trials. + +"Witches' eyes are coals of fire from the pit." They were attended +by black cats, owls, bats, and toads. + +Iron, as being a product of fire, was a protection against them, as +against evil spirits everywhere. It had especial power when in the +shape of a horseshoe. + + "This horseshoe will I nail upon the threshold. + There, ye night-hags and witches that torment + The neighborhood, ye shall not enter here." + + LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._ + +The holiday-time of elves, witches, and ghosts is Hallowe'en. It is +not believed in here except by some children, who people the dark +with bogies who will carry them away if they are naughty. + + "Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers-- + An' when he went to bed at night, away upstairs, + His mammy heerd him holler, an' his daddy heerd him bawl, + An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all! + + An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' + press, + An' seeked him up the chimbley-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess; + But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout! + An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you, ef you don't watch out!" + + RILEY: _Little Orphant Annie._ + +Negroes are very superstitious, putting faith in all sorts of +supernatural beings. + + "Blame my trap! how de wind do blow; + And dis is das de night for de witches, sho! + Dey's trouble going to waste when de ole slut whine, + An' you hear de cat a-spittin' when de moon don't shine." + + RILEY: _When de Folks is Gone._ + +While the original customs of Hallowe'en are being forgotten more +and more across the ocean, Americans have fostered them, and are +making this an occasion something like what it must have been in +its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States +are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries. +All superstitions, everyday ones, and those pertaining to Christmas +and New Year's, have special value on Hallowe'en. + +It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry. Mischievous spirits +choose it for carrying off gates and other objects, and hiding them +or putting them out of reach. + + "Dear me, Polly, I wonder what them boys will be up to to-night. + I do hope they'll not put the gate up on the shed as they did + last year." + + WRIGHT: _Tom's Hallowe'en Joke._ + +Bags filled with flour sprinkle the passers-by. Door-bells are rung +and mysterious raps sounded on doors, things thrown into halls, and +knobs stolen. Such sports mean no more at Hallowe'en than the +tricks played the night before the Fourth of July have to do with +the Declaration of Independence. We see manifested on all such +occasions the spirit of "Free-night" of which George von Hartwig +speaks so enthusiastically in _St. John's Fire_ (page 141). + +Hallowe'en parties are the real survival of the ancient merrymakings. +They are prepared for in secret. Guests are not to divulge the fact +that they are invited. Often they come masked, as ghosts or witches. + +The decorations make plain the two elements of the festival. +For the centerpiece of the table there may be a hollowed pumpkin, +filled with apples and nuts and other fruits of harvest, or +a pumpkin-chariot drawn by field-mice. So it is clear that this +is a harvest-party, like Pomona's feast. In the coach rides a +witch, representing the other element, of magic and prophecy. +Jack-o'-lanterns, with which the room is lighted, are hollowed +pumpkins with candles inside. The candle-light shines through holes +cut like features. So the lantern becomes a bogy, and is held up at +a window to frighten those inside. Corn-stalks from the garden +stand in clumps about the room. A frieze of witches on broomsticks, +with cats, bats, and owls surmounts the fireplace, perhaps. A full +moon shines over all, and a caldron on a tripod holds fortunes +tied in nut-shells. The prevailing colors are yellow and black: a +deep yellow is the color of most ripe grain and fruit; black stands +for black magic and demoniac influence. Ghosts and skulls and +cross-bones, symbols of death, startle the beholder. Since +Hallowe'en is a time for lovers to learn their fate, hearts and +other sentimental tokens are used to good effect, as the Scotch +lads of Burns's time wore love-knots. + +Having marched to the dining-room to the time of a dirge, the +guests find before them plain, hearty fare; doughnuts, gingerbread, +cider, popcorn, apples, and nuts honored by time. The Hallowe'en +cake has held the place of honor since the beginning here in +America. A ring, key, thimble, penny, and button baked in it +foretell respectively speedy marriage, a journey, spinsterhood, +wealth, and bachelorhood. + + "Polly was going to be married, Jennie was going on a long + journey, and you--down went the knife against something hard. The + girls crowded round. You had a hurt in your throat, and there, + there, in your slice, was the horrid, hateful, big brass thimble. + It was more than you could bear--soaking, dripping wet, and an + old maid!" + + BRADLEY: _Different Party._ + +[Illustration: A WITCH TABLE. + +AN OWL TABLE. + +HALLOWE'EN TABLES, I.] + +The kitchen is the best place for the rough games and after-supper +charms. + +On the stems of the apples which are to be dipped for may be tied +names; for the boys in one tub, for the girls in another. Each +searcher of the future must draw out with his teeth an apple with a +name which will be like that of his future mate. + +A variation of the Irish snap-apple is a hoop hung by strings from +the ceiling, round which at intervals are placed bread, apples, +cakes, peppers, candies, and candles. The strings are twisted, then +let go, and as the hoop revolves, each may step up and get a bite +from whatever comes to him. By the taste he determines what the +character of his married life will be,--whether wholesome, acid, +soft, fiery, or sweet. Whoever bites the candle is twice +unfortunate, for he must pay a forfeit too. An apple and a bag of +flour are placed on the ends of a stick, and whoever dares to seize +a mouthful of apple must risk being blinded by flour. Apples are +suspended one to a string in a doorway. As they swing, each guest +tries to secure his apple. To blow out a candle as it revolves on a +stick requires attention and accuracy of aim. + +[Illustration: A WITCHES'-CALDRON TABLE. + +A BLACK-CAT TABLE. + +HALLOWE'EN TABLES, II.] + +The one who first succeeds in threading a needle as he sits on a +round bottle on the floor, will be first married. Twelve candles +are lighted, and placed at convenient distances on the floor in a +row. As the guest leaps over them, the first he blows out will +indicate his wedding-month. One candle only placed on the floor and +blown out in the same way means a year of wretchedness ahead. If it +still burns, it presages a year of joy. + +Among the quieter tests some of the most common are tried with +apple-seeds. As in England a pair of seeds named for two lovers are +stuck on brow or eyelids. The one who sticks longer is the true, +the one who soon falls, the disloyal sweetheart. Seeds are used in +this way to tell also whether one is to be a traveler or a +stay-at-home. Apple-seeds are twice ominous, partaking of both +apple and nut nature. Even the number of seeds found in a core has +meaning. If you put them upon the palm of your hand, and strike it +with the other, the number remaining will tell you how many letters +you will receive in a fortnight. With twelve seeds and the names of +twelve friends, the old rhyme may be repeated: + + "One I love, + Two I love, + Three I love, I say; + Four I love with all my heart: + Five I cast away. + Six he loves, + Seven she loves, + Eight they both love; + Nine he comes, + Ten he tarries, + Eleven he courts, and + Twelve he marries." + +Nuts are burned in the open fire. It is generally agreed that the +one for whom the first that pops is named, loves. + + "If he loves me, pop and fly; + If he hates me, live and die." + +Often the superstition connected therewith is forgotten in the +excitement of the moment. + + "When ebery one among us toe de smallest pickaninny + Would huddle in de chimbley cohnah's glow, + Toe listen toe dem chilly win's ob ole Novembah's + Go a-screechin' lack a spook around de huts, + 'Twell de pickaninnies' fingahs gits to shakin' o'er de embahs, + An' dey laik ter roas' dey knuckles 'stead o' nuts." + + IN WERNER'S _Readings, Number 31_. + +Letters of the alphabet are carved on a pumpkin. Fate guides the +hand of the blindfolded seeker to the fateful initial which he +stabs with a pin. Letters cut out of paper are sprinkled on water +in a tub. They form groups from which any one with imagination may +spell out names. + +Girls walk down cellar backward with a candle in one hand and a +looking-glass in the other, expecting to see a face in the glass. + + "Last night 't was witching Hallowe'en, + Dearest; an apple russet-brown + I pared, and thrice above my crown + Whirled the long skin; they watched it keen; + I flung it far; they laughed and cried me shame-- + Dearest, there lay the letter of your name. + + "Took I the mirror then, and crept + Down, down the creaking narrow stair; + The milk-pans caught my candle's flare + And mice walked soft and spiders slept. + I spoke the spell, and stood the magic space, + Dearest--and in the glass I saw your face! + + "And then I stole out in the night + Alone; the frogs piped sweet and loud, + The moon looked through a ragged cloud. + Thrice round the house I sped me light, + Dearest; and there, methought--charm of my charms! + You met me, kissed me, took me to your arms!" + + OPPER: _The Charms._ + +There are many mirror-tests. A girl who sits before a mirror at +midnight on Hallowe'en combing her hair and eating an apple will +see the face of her true love reflected in the glass. Standing so +that through a window she may see the moon in a glass she holds, +she counts the number of reflections to find out how many pleasant +things will happen to her in the next twelve months. Alabama has +taken over the Scotch mirror test in its entirety. + +A girl with a looking-glass in her hand steps backward from the +door out into the yard. Saying: + + "Round and round, O stars so fair! + Ye travel, and search out everywhere. + I pray you, sweet stars, now show to me, + This night, who my future husband shall be!" + +she goes to meet her fate. + + "So Leslie backed out at the door, and we shut it upon her. The + instant after, we heard a great laugh. Off the piazza she had + stepped backward directly against two gentlemen coming in. + + "Doctor Ingleside was one, coming to get his supper; the other + was a friend of his.... 'Doctor John Hautayne,' he said, + introducing him by his full name." + + WHITNEY: _We Girls._ + +A custom that is a reminder of the lighted boats sent down-stream +in Japan to bear away the souls of the dead, is that which makes +use of nut-shell boats. These have tiny candles fastened in them, +are lighted, and named, and set adrift on a tub of water. If they +cling to the side, their namesakes will lead a quiet life. Some +will float together. Some will collide and be shipwrecked. Others +will bear steadily toward a goal though the waves are rocked in a +tempest. Their behavior is significant. The candle which burns +longest belongs to the one who will marry first. + +The Midsummer wheel which was rolled down into the Moselle River in +France, and meant, if the flames that wreathed it were not +extinguished, that the grape-harvest would be abundant, has +survived in the fortune wheel which is rolled about from one guest +to another, and brings a gift to each. + +The actions of cats on Hallowe'en betoken good or bad luck. If a +cat sits quietly beside any one, he will enjoy a peaceful, +prosperous life; if one rubs against him, it brings good luck, +doubly good if one jumps into his lap. If a cat yawns near you on +Hallowe'en, be alert and do not let opportunity slip by you. If a +cat runs from you, you have a secret which will be revealed in +seven days. + +Different states have put interpretations of their own on the +commonest charms. In Massachusetts the one who first draws an apple +from the tub with his teeth will be first married. If a girl steals +a cabbage, she will see her future husband as she pulls it up, or +meet him as she goes home. If these fail, she must put the cabbage +over the door and watch to see whom it falls on, for him she is to +marry. A button concealed in mashed potato brings misfortune to the +finder. The names of three men are written on slips of paper, and +enclosed in three balls of meal. The one that rises first when they +are thrown into water will disclose the sought-for name. + +Maine has borrowed the yarn-test from Scotland. A ball is thrown +into a barn or cellar, and wound off on the hand. The lover will +come and help to wind. Girls in New Hampshire place in a row three +dishes with earth, water, and a ring in them, respectively. The one +who blindfolded touches earth will soon die; water, will never +marry; the ring, will soon be wedded. + +To dream of the future on Hallowe'en in Pennsylvania, one must go +out of the front door backward, pick up dust or grass, wrap it in +paper, and put it under his pillow. + +In Maryland girls see their future husbands by a rite similar to +the Scotch "wetting of the sark-sleeve." They put an egg to roast, +and open wide all the doors and windows. The man they seek will +come in and turn the egg. At supper girls stand behind the chairs, +knowing that the ones they are to marry will come to sit in front +of them. + +The South has always been famous for its hospitality and good +times. On Hallowe'en a miniature Druid-fire burns in a bowl on the +table. In the blazing alcohol are put fortunes wrapped in tin-foil, +figs, orange-peel, raisins, almonds, and dates. The one who +snatches the best will meet his sweetheart inside of a year, and +all may try for a fortune from the flames. The origin of this +custom was the taking of omens from the death-struggles of +creatures burning in the fire of sacrifice. + +Another Southern custom is adapted from one of Brittany. Needles +are named and floated in a dish of water. Those which cling side by +side are lovers. + +Good fortune is in store for the one who wins an apple from the +tub, or against whose glass a ring suspended by a hair strikes with +a sharp chime. + +A very elaborate charm is tried in Newfoundland. As the clock +strikes midnight a girl puts the twenty-six letters of the +alphabet, cut from paper, into a pure-white bowl which has been +touched by the lips of a new-born babe only. After saying: + + "Kind fortune, tell me where is he + Who my future lord shall be; + From this bowl all that I claim + Is to know my sweetheart's name." + +she puts the bowl into a safe place until morning. Then she is +blindfolded and picks out the same number of letters as there are +in her own name, and spells another from them. + +In New Brunswick, instead of an apple, a hard-boiled egg without +salt is eaten before a mirror, with the same result. In Canada a +thread is held over a lamp. The number that can be counted slowly +before the thread parts, is the number of years before the one who +counts will marry. + +In the United States a hair is thrown to the winds with the stanza +chanted: + + "I pluck this lock of hair off my head + To tell whence comes the one I shall wed. + Fly, silken hair, fly all the world around, + Until you reach the spot where my true love is found." + +The direction in which the hair floats is prophetic. + +The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, +and hold a Scotch party, using Burns's poem _Hallowe'en_ as a +guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom +that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now. +"Cyniver" has been borrowed from Wales, and the "dumb-cake" from +the Hebrides. In the Scotch custom of cabbage-stalk pulling, if the +stalk comes up easily, the husband or wife will be easy to win. The +melted-lead test to show the occupation of the husband-to-be has +been adopted in the United States. If the metal cools in round +drops, the tester will never marry, or her husband will have no +profession. White of egg is used in the same way. Like the Welsh +test is that of filling the mouth with water, and walking round the +house until one meets one's fate. An adaptation of the Scottish +"three luggies" is the row of four dishes holding dirt, water, a +ring, and a rag. The dirt means divorce, the water, a trip across +the ocean, the ring, marriage, the rag, no marriage at all. + +After the charms have been tried, fagots are passed about, and by +the eerie light of burning salt and alcohol, ghost stories are +told, each concluding his installment as his fagot withers into +ashes. Sometimes the cabbage stalks used in the omens take the +place of fagots. + +To induce prophetic dreams salt, in quantities from a pinch to an +egg full, is eaten before one goes to bed. + + "'Miss Jeanette, that's such a fine trick! You must swallow a + salt herring in three bites, bones and all, and not drink a drop + till the apparition of your future spouse comes in the night to + offer you a drink of water.'" + + ADAMS: _Chrissie's Fate._ + +If, after taking three doses of salt two minutes apart, a girl goes +to bed backward, lies on her right side, and does not move till +morning, she is sure to have eventful dreams. Pills made of a +hazelnut, a walnut, and nutmeg grated together and mixed with +butter and sugar cause dreams: if of gold, the husband will be +rich; if of noise, a tradesman; if of thunder and lightning, a +traveler. As in Ireland bay-leaves on or under a man's pillow cause +him to dream of his sweetheart. Also + + "Turn your boots toward the street, + Leave your garters on your feet, + Put your stockings on your head, + You'll dream of the one you're going to wed." + +Lemon-peel carried all day and rubbed on the bed-posts at night +will cause an apparition to bring the dreaming girl two lemons. For +quiet sleep and the fulfilment of any wish eat before going to bed +on Hallowe'en a piece of dry bread. + +A far more interesting development of the Hallowe'en idea than +these innocent but colorless superstitions, is promised by the +pageant at Fort Worth, Texas, on October thirty-first, 1916. In the +masque and pageant of the afternoon four thousand school children +took part. At night scenes from the pageant were staged on floats +which passed along the streets. The subject was _Preparedness for_ +_Peace_, and comprised scenes from American history in which peace +played an honorable part. Such were: the conference of William Penn +and the Quakers with the Indians, and the opening of the East to +American trade. This is not a subject limited to performances at +Hallowtide. May there not be written and presented in America a +truly Hallowe'en pageant, illustrating and befitting its noble +origin, and making its place secure among the holidays of the +year? + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + Bring forth the raisins and the nuts-- + To-night All-Hallows' Spectre struts + Along the moonlit way. + No time is this for tear or sob, + Or other woes our joys to rob, + But time for Pippin and for Bob, + And Jack-o'-lantern gay. + + Come forth, ye lass and trousered kid, + From prisoned mischief raise the lid, + And lift it good and high. + Leave grave old Wisdom in the lurch, + Set Folly on a lofty perch, + Nor fear the awesome rod of birch + When dawn illumes the sky. + + 'Tis night for revel, set apart + To reillume the darkened heart, + And rout the hosts of Dole. + 'Tis night when Goblin, Elf, and Fay, + Come dancing in their best array + To prank and royster on the way, + And ease the troubled soul. + + The ghosts of all things, past parade, + Emerging from the mist and shade + That hid them from our gaze, + And full of song and ringing mirth, + In one glad moment of rebirth, + Again they walk the ways of earth, + As in the ancient days. + + The beacon light shines on the hill, + The will-o'-wisps the forests fill + With flashes filched from noon; + And witches on their broomsticks spry + Speed here and yonder in the sky, + And lift their strident voices high + Unto the Hunter's moon. + + The air resounds with tuneful notes + From myriads of straining throats, + All hailing Folly Queen; + So join the swelling choral throng, + Forget your sorrow and your wrong, + In one glad hour of joyous song + To honor Hallowe'en. + + J. K. BANGS _in Harper's Weekly, Nov. 5, 1910_. + + + + + HALLOWE'EN FAILURE + + Who's dat peekin' in de do'? + Set mah heart a-beatin'! + Thought I see' a spook for sho + On mah way to meetin'. + Heerd a rustlin' all aroun', + Trees all sort o' jiggled; + An' along de frosty groun' + Funny shadders wriggled. + + Who's dat by de winder-sill? + Gittin' sort o' skeery; + Feets is feelin' kind o' chill, + Eyes is sort o' teary. + 'Most as nervous as a coon + When de dawgs is barkin', + Er a widder when some spoon + Comes along a-sparkin'. + + Whass dat creepin' up de road, + Quiet like a ferret, + Hoppin' sof'ly as a toad? + Maybe hit's a sperrit! + Lordy! hope dey ain't no ghos' + Come to tell me howdy. + I ain't got no use for those + Fantoms damp an' cloudy. + + Whass dat standin' by de fence + Wid its eyes a-yearnin', + Drivin' out mah common-sense + Wid its glances burnin'? + Don't dass skeercely go to bed + Wid dem spookses roun' me. + Ain't no res' fo' dis yere head + When dem folks surroun' me. + + Whass dat groanin' soun' I hear + Off dar by de gyardin? + Lordy! Lordy! Lordy dear, + Grant dis sinner pardon! + I won't nebber--I declar' + Ef it ain't my Sammy! + Sambo, what yo' doin' dar? + Yo' can't skeer yo' mammy! + + CARLYLE SMITH _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 29, 1910_. + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite + All are on their rounds to-night,-- + In the wan moon's silver ray + Thrives their helter-skelter play. + + Fond of cellar, barn, or stack + True unto the almanac, + They present to credulous eyes + Strange hobgoblin mysteries. + + Cabbage-stumps--straws wet with dew-- + Apple-skins, and chestnuts too, + And a mirror for some lass + Show what wonders come to pass. + + Doors they move, and gates they hide + Mischiefs that on moonbeams ride + Are their deeds,--and, by their spells, + Love records its oracles. + + Don't we all, of long ago + By the ruddy fireplace glow, + In the kitchen and the hall, + Those queer, coof-like pranks recall? + + Eery shadows were they then-- + But to-night they come again; + Were we once more but sixteen + Precious would be Hallowe'en. + + JOEL BENTON _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 31, 1896_. + + +[Illustration: NO HALLOWE'EN WITHOUT A JACK-O'-LANTERN.] + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + A gypsy flame is on the hearth, + Sign of this carnival of mirth. + Through the dun fields and from the glade + Flash merry folk in masquerade-- + It is the witching Hallowe'en. + + Pale tapers glimmer in the sky, + The dead and dying leaves go by; + Dimly across the faded green + Strange shadows, stranger shades, are seen-- + It is the mystic Hallowe'en. + + Soft gusts of love and memory + Beat at the heart reproachfully; + The lights that burn for those who die + Were flickering low, let them flare high-- + It is the haunting Hallowe'en. + + A. F. MURRAY _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 30, 1909._ + + + + +Magazine References to Hallowe'en Entertainments + + +CHARADES: + + Charades, menu, tests. H. Bazar, 32:894. + +CHILDREN'S PARTIES: + + Fortune games for very little children. St. N., 23:33. + Hallowe'en fortunes for boys and girls. Delin., 66:631. + Masquerade, games, tests. W. H. C., 35:43. + Decorations. W. H. C., 36:34. + Old-fashioned games. St. N., 35:51. + Children's celebration of Hallowe'en. St. N., 32:1124. + +CHURCH PARTIES: + + Mystic party. L. H. J., 22:57. + For Young People's Soc. L. H. J., 26:34. + "Phantom fair." W. H. C., 39:32. + +CLUB PARTIES: + + For Country Club. Invitation. Costumes. Supper. Dance. + W. H. C., 41:30. + "Candle-light café." W. H. C., 42. Oct., 1915. + +COSTUMES: + + Delin., 78:258. + +COUNTRY-HOUSE PARTY: + + Country Life, 18:624. + +DANCES: + + Dances, drills, costumes. Delin., 78:258. + Hallowe'en party. W. H. C., 40:39. + Barn party. W. H. C., 34:30. + +DECORATIONS AND FAVORS: + + Autumn-leaf decorations and prizes. Delin., 64:638. + Cobweb party. Delin., 91:44. + Hall: Handicraft for handy girls. + Place-cards, verses. L. H. J., 28:50. + L. H. J., 31:40. + H. Bazar, 39:1046. + L. H. J., 20:48. + L. H. J., 16:38. + Cinderella party. W. H. C., 34:30. + Favors. H. Bazar, 45:516. + Nut favors. W. H. C., 32:53. + Original decorations. W. H. C., 32:32. + Fads and frills. W. H. C., 32:24. + +GAMES AND FORTUNES: + + Witchery games for Hallowe'en. Delin., 64:576. + H. Bazar., 33:1650. + L. H. J., 20:48. + L. H. J., 25:58. + Blain: Games for Hallowe'en. + Quaint customs. H. Bazar, 46:578. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + Witches' think cap. L. H. J., 32:29. + Hallowe'en happenings. St. N., 35:51. + +INVITATIONS: + + H. Bazar, 33:1650. + +PARTIES (miscellaneous): + + H. Bazar, 28 pt. 2:841. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + L. H. J., 29:105. + L. H. J., 30:103. + Nut-crack night party. H. Bazar, 41:1106. + Nut-crack party. H. Bazar, 38:1092. + Novel party. W. H. C., 31:42. + Yarn party. L. H. J., 26:63. + L. H. J., 23:68. + L. H. J., 14:25. + Barn party. W. H. C., 34:30. + Novel party with musical accompaniment. Musician, 18:665. + Cotter's Saturday night. W. H. C., 38:40. + "Ghosts I have met" party. Pantomime. W. H. C., 37:27. + Two jolly affairs. W. H. C., 39:32. + Tryst of witches. Good H., 53:463. + Tam o' Shanter party. Delin., 85:26. + Jolly good time. Delin., 74:367. + Hints for Hallowe'en hilarities. L. H. J., 27:46. + Jolly party. L. H. J., 19:41. + Hallowe'en fun. L. H. J., 33:33. + Pumpkin stunt party. W. H. C., 45. Oct., 1917. + Character party. W. H. C., 45. Oct., 1917. + +SCHOOL PARTIES: + + "Cotter's Saturday night." W. H. C., 38:40. + High school party. W. H. C., 42:34. + How the college girl celebrates Hallowe'en. W. H. C., 31:16. + +SUPPERS, TABLE DECORATIONS, MENUS: + + Hallowe'en suppers. H. Bazar, 35:1670. + H. Bazar, 37:1063. + L. H. J., 24:78. + L. H. J., 16:38. + W. H. C., 40:39. + W. H. C., 43:35. + H. Bazar, 44:641. + H. Bazar, 45:507. + Hallowe'en party table. L. H. J., 29:44. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + Hallowe'en supper. Good H., 53:569. + +The pages refer always to the October number of the year. + + + + +Supplementary List of Readings, Recitations, and Plays + + * * * * * + + TITLE AUTHOR SOURCE + + _All Hallowe'en_ (story) All the Year Round, + 60:347 + _All Souls' Eve_ (story) Hopper Eng. Illus. Mag., 18:225 + _All Souls' Eve_ (story) Lyall Temple Bar., 124:379 + _Black cat_ (story) Poe + _Boogah Man_ Dunbar Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Brier-Rose_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Broomstick brigade_ J. T. Wagner 6 Barclay St., N. Y. City + _Bud's fairy tale_ (poem) Riley Child-world + Children's Play with musical + accompaniment Musician, 16:693 + _Corn-song_ (poem) Whittier + _Elder-tree mother_ (story) Andersen Fairy tales + _Fairies_ (poem) Allingham + _Fairy and witch_ (play) Nelson Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Feast of the little lanterns_ + (operetta) Bliss + _Fisherman and the genie_ _Arabian Nights_ + (story) + _Ghost_ (story) O'Connor + _Ghosts I have met_ Bangs + _Ghost's touch_ (story) Collins + _Golden arm_ (story) Clemens _How to tell a story_ + _Goblin stone_ (play) Wickes Child's Book, p. 127 + _Guess who_ (song and drill) Murray Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Hallowe'en adventure_ McDonald Canad. Mag., 12:61 + (story) + + _Hallowe'en adventure_ Koogle Eldridge Entertainment + (play) House + _Hallowe'en frolic_ Cone St. N. 20 pt. 1:15 + (poem) + _Haunted gale_ (play) Wormwood Eldridge Entertainment + House + _House in the wood_ Grimm Fairy tales + (story) + _Little Butterkin_ Asbjornsen _Fairy tales from the + (story) far north_ + _Little Donna Juana_ Brooks + (story) + _Mother Goose recital_ Musician, 21:633 + _Nix of the mill-pond_ Grimm Fairy tales + (story) + _Peter Pan in Kensington_ Barrie + _Gardens_ (story) + _Rapunzel_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Red shoes_ (story) Andersen Fairy tales + _Scarecrows a-roaming_ Eldridge Entertainment + (play) House + _Seein' things_ (poem) Field Love songs of childhood + _Snow-white_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Straw phantom_ (pantomime) Blackall St. N., 44:1133 + _Testing of Sir Gawayne_ Merington _Festival plays_, + (play) p. 211 + _Voyage of Bran_ Meyer + _Walpurgisnight_ (story) Zschokke + _Wind in the rose-bush_ Freeman + (story) + + + + +INDEX TO QUOTATIONS + + * * * * * + + TITLE |AUTHOR |PAGE |SOURCE + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + _All-hallows honeymoon_ | | |New Eng. Magazine, + (story) |Marks |104 | 37:308 + _All Souls' Eve_ (poem) |Marks, J.P.|31-32 | + _Ancient Irish_ |O'Curry |7 | + _Ballad of Tam Lin_ | |65 |Child's Ballads + _Battle of the trees_ |Taliesin |7 |_Neo-druidical heresy_ + _Caractacus_ (poem) |Mason |11 | + _Celtic twilight_ (poem | | | + in introduction to) |Yeats |58 | + _Charms_ (poem) |Opper |161 |Munsey, 30:285 + _Comus_ (play) |Milton |131 | + _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_|Gregory |37-38- | + | |39 | + _Cuchulain's sick-bed_ | |42 | + _Death of the flowers_ |Bryant |18-19 | + (poem) | | | + _Different party_ |Bradley |156-157|Harper's Bazar, 41:131 + (story) | | | + _Dinnsenchus of Mag | |21 |_Neo-druidical heresy_ + Slecht_ | | | + _Djinns_ (poem) |Hugo |148 | + _Druid song of Cathvah_ | | | + (poem) |Todhunter |9 | + _Expedition of Nera_ | |44 | + "Fair maid who" | |139 |Encyc. of Superstitions + _Fairy-faith in Celtic | | | + countries_ |Wentz |48-49 | + _Fairy fiddler_ (poem) |Hopper |64 | + _Fasti_ |Ovid |114 | + _Faust_ (play) |Goethe |130 | + _First winter song_ | | | + (poem) |Graves |16 | + "Five hundred points" |Tusser |98 | + _Giles Corey of the Salem| | | + Farms_ (play) |Longfellow |151-152| + _Golden Legend_ |De Voragine|30 | + _Great fir-tree of | | | + Takasago_ (story) |Rinder |146 |_Old-world Japan_ + "Green fairy island" |Parry |103 |Welsh Melodies + _Hag_ (poem) |Herrick |66-67 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Burns |73-74- | + | |75 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Coxe |18-19- | + | |88-89- | + | |96 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Letts |99-100 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Sheard |143 |Canadian mag., 36:33 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Bangs |172-173|Harper's Weekly, Nov. + | | | 5, 1910 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Benton |176-177|Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 31, 1896 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Murray |178 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 30, 1909 + _Hallowe'en Failure_ |Smith |175 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + (poem) | | | 29, 1910 + _Hallowe'en or Christie's|Adams |169 |Scribner's, 3:26 + fate_ (story) | | | + _Hallowe'en in Ireland_ |Trant |51 |_Dewdrops and Diamonds_ + _Hallowe'en Fantasy_ |Pyle |49 |Harper's Bazar, 31, pt. + (play), | | | 2: 947 + (Priest and the Piper)| | | + _Hallowe'en reformation_ |Butterworth|149-150|Century, 27:48 + (story) | | | + _Hallowe'en wish_ (poem) |Munkittrick|93-94 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 27, 1900 + _Hiawatha_ (poem) |Longfellow |145 | + _Immortal Hour_ (play) |Sharp |39-40- |Fortn. Rev. 74:867 + | |41 | + _Jorinda and Joringel_ |Grimm |135 |Grimm's Fairy Tales + (story) | | | + _L'Allegro_ (poem) |Milton |86 | + _Land of Heart's Desire_ | |36-43- | + (play) |Yeats |45-47 | + _Lavengro_ (story) |Borrow |129 | + _Little Orphant Annie_ |Riley |152-153| + _Loch Garman_ |O'Ciarain |36 | + _Lycidas_ (poem) |Milton |85 | + _Macbeth_ (play) |Shakspere |89 | + _Monastery_ (story) |Scott |62-63- | + | |76-103 | + _Night of the dead_ |Le Braz |116-117|_Legend of the dead_ + "On nuts burning" |Graydon |91-92 | + _On the morning of | | | + Christ's nativity_ | | | + (poem) |Milton |28 | + _Paradise Lost_ (poem) |Milton |120 | + _Passing of Arthur_ |Tennyson |84 | + (poem) | | | + _Pastorals_ (poem) |Gay |74-75- | + | |92-93- | + | |94-95- | + | |97 | + _Peer Gynt_ (play) |Ibsen |131 | + _Peter and Wendy_ (story)|Barrie |64 | + _Polyolbion_ (poem) |Drayton |10 | + _Pomona_ (poem) |Morris |23 | + _Rip Van Winkle_ (play) |Jefferson |150-151| + _Robin Goodfellow_ (poem)|Johnson |86 | + _St. John's Eve_ (poem) |Kickham |12 | + _St. John's Fire_ (play) |Sudermann |141 | + _St. Swithin's Chair_ | | | + (poem) |Scott |69 | + "Soul, soul" | |98 |Notes and Queries + _Spell_ (poem) |Gay |91 | + _Splores of a Hallowe'en_| | | + (poem) |Dick |72 | + _Sunken bell_ (play) |Hauptmann |14 | + _Tale of Hallowe'en_ | | | + (story) | |76 |Leisure Hour, 23:765 + _Tam Glen_ (poem) |Burns |79 | + _Tam o' Shanter_ (poem) |Burns |67-68 | + _Tannhäuser_ (play) |Wagner |132-133| + _Tempest_ (play) |Shakspere |67 | + _Three-fold chronicle_ |Sharp |54-56 |Harper's, 73:842 + (story) | | | + _Tom's Hallowe'en joke_ |Wright |154 |_Dewdrops and Diamonds_ + (story) | | | + _Twig of thorn_ (play) |Warren |44-45 | + _Vertumnus and Pomona_ |Ovid |24 | + (poem) | | | + _Völuspa_ (poem) | |122 | + _We girls_ (story) |Whitney |162-163| + "When comes the harvest" |Botrel |112 |_Songs of Brittany_ + _When de folks is gone_ |Riley |153 | + (poem) | | | + "When ebery one" | |160 |Werner's Readings, + | | | No. 31 + _Wild huntsman_ (poem) |Scott |90 | + _Willie Baird_ (poem) |Buchanan |70 | + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX + + + Aberdeenshire, 60 + + Adder-stone, (serpent's-egg badge), 11, 27 + + Ailill, 36-38, 39 + + Ale, 80, 103 + + All Hallows Eve, 29, 88, 102, 106. See also Hallowe'en + + All Saints', 4, 29-30, 110, 118, 126 + + All Souls', 4, 30-31, 98-99, 106, 110, 113, 118, 142, 144 + + Alphabet, 96, 160, 166-167 + + America, 149, 153 + + Anaxarete, 24 + + Angus, 36, 38-39 + + Ankou, 109, 115 + + Apollo, 1, 129, 134 + + Apparitions. See Ghosts + + Apples, 23, 26, 50-53, 72, 77-78, 92, 95, 103-104, 106-107, 115, + 120, 149, 155, 157-158, 161, 162, 164, 166 + + Apple-island, 85 + + Apple-seeds, 92-93, 158-159 + + Arabs, 147 + + Ariel, 87 + + Armorica, 108 + + Arthur, King, 84, 108 + + Ash-tree, 63, 105, 122, 137; + berries of, 29 + + Ashes, 56, 60, 68, 83 + + Augury. See Omens + + August, Roman festival in, 25-26 + + August first, Celtic festival of, 15 + + Augustus, 27 + + Avilion (Avalon), 84-85, 107 + + Ayrshire, 68 + + + Baal, 8, 12-13, 17 + + Baal-fire, 12 + + Baldur, 120-121 + + Balmoral, 61 + + Barra, 79 + + Bats, 134, 152, 155 + + Bay-leaves, 170 + + Bean, 94 + + Bedivere, 84 + + Belgian, 144 + + Beltaine, 12, 79 + + Bells, 99, 111, 116, 118, 132, 137, 142, 154 + + Benevento, 131 + + Bergen, 130 + + Black, 156 + + Black sheep, 17, 50 + + Black sow, 102 + + "Black vespers," 113 + + Blindfolded seekers, 33, 70, 73, 77-78, 83, 160 + + Blocksberg, 130, 141 + + Boats, 146, 163 + + Bochica, 1 + + Bonfires, 3, 8-9, 12, 13, 17, 21, 50, 59-61, 101-102, 125; + to light through Purgatory, 31, 106; + to protect from evil, 29, 101 + + Boniface, 29 + + Border, Scottish, 62, 81, 111 + + Bretons, 99, 110-111 + + Briar, 57 + + Briar-Rose, 125 + + Bride, 36 + + Britain, 5-6, 27, 87, 109, 111 + + British Isles, 5, 107, 109, 126 + + Brittany, 108-109, 142, 145, 166 + + Brynhild, 124 + + Buchan, 59 + + Button, 156, 164 + + + Cabbages, 53-54, 70-72, 77, 95, 104, 164, 168-169 + + Cadwallo, King, 104 + + Caer, 38 + + Cæsar, 5-8, 109 + + Cake, 13, 33, 79, 97-98, 103, 144, 145, 156 + + Callcannon, 51 + + Canada, 167 + + Candlemas Day, 88 + + Candles, 50, 53, 55, 59, 69, 80, 95-96, 99, 112, 118, 145, 155, + 158, 163 + + Cardiganshire, 102 + + Carnutes, 109 + + Cat, 11, 49, 66, 68, 134, 152, 155, 164 + + Catskill Mts., 150 + + _Celtic twilight_, 58 + + Celts, classes of, 5; + beliefs, 6, 15, 18, 30, 33, 79, 82, 107-110, 124, 125, 142; + characteristics of, 115, 119 + + Cemeteries, 54-55, 113-114, 142 + + Changelings, 35-36, 86 + + Charms. See Omens + + Chartrain, 109 + + Cherokees, 3 + + Chinese, 145 + + Christ, 4-5, 27, 119 + + Christian religion, 3, 27-31, 50, 59, 83, 101, 109, 126, 129; + in Britain, 27, 129; + in Ireland, 42; + in Brittany, 109; + in Scandinavia, 126 + + Christmas, 3, 97, 110, 154 + + Church, 3-4, 30-31, 80, 89, 113, 118, 143, 144; + festivals, 3 + + Circle, 8 + + Claudius, 27 + + Cluny, 30 + + Coel Coeth, 101 + + Coins, 51-52, 72, 156 + + Colonies, 149 + + Columb Kill. See St. Colomba + + Connaught, 35 + + Continent, 3, 118 + + Corn, 138; + -stalks, 155 + + Cornwall, 85, 108 + + Creed, 55 + + Crom Croich (Cruaich), 20-21 + + Cross, sun-symbol, 8; + Christian, 29, 42, 63, 137; + -roads, 65, 103, 137 + + Cruachan, 35, 37 + + Cuchulain, 41-42, 84 + + Cuckoos, 134, 139-140 + + Cyniver, 105, 168 + + + Dagda, 39 + + Dahut, 111 + + Dance, 3, 44, 56, 61, 67, 80, 81-82, 103, 106, 126, 133 + + Danann. See Tuatha De Danann + + Danu, 20 + + Dathi, 43 + + Dead, 19-20, 30, 37, 98-99, 109-117, 129, 142 _et seq._; + return, 4, 99, 107, 114-117, 145, 146, 149; + disturbed by weeping, 117, 145 + + Death, 10, 112, 156; + Lord of. See Saman. + Samhain associated with, 20-21, 30-31; + prophesied, 52, 57, 60, 65, 83, 102, 106 + + Decoration of graves, 118, 144 + + Delphi, 129, 134 + + Derbyshire, 99 + + Deux-Sèvres, 109 + + Devil, 43, 50, 55, 57, 66-68, 89, 102, 133-135, 140 + + Dew, 136, 139 + + Dietrich von Bern, 131 + + Dishes, 73, 83, 104, 165, 168 + + Dispater, 109 + + Dissatisfied, 39-40, 57-58, 132, 141 + + Djinns, 147-148 + + Doll, wax, 151 + + Dolmens, 110 + + Dorsetshire, 99 + + Dovrefeld, 130 + + Dragon, 145 + + Dreams, 140; + prophetic, 14, 57, 79, 165, 169 + + Drink, 57, 79 + + Druid, meaning, 6-7; + draught, 42; + festivals, 11, 26, 101; + lamps, 73; + stone, 11; + stones, 110; + wand, 7; + -fire, 50, 166 + + Druids, 9-11, 29, 42-43, 92, 103, 109-110, 122-123, 126; + as priests, 5-6; + powers of, 7, 27 + + "Drus," 6 + + Dumb-cake, 80, 168 + + Dwarfs, 110 + + + Earth, 54, 83, 165 + + Edane, 47. See also Etain + + Edda, 124 + + Egg, 165, 167; + white of, 77-78, 168; + -shells, 36 + + Egyptian beliefs, 1, 18 + + Eichstatt, 136 + + Elder, 123, 137 + + Elizabeth, Queen, 99 + + Elm, 63 + + Elves, 121, 149, 152 + + Emer, 42 + + England, 87, 89, 97, 99, 106, 108, 119, 144 + + English, 149 + + Eochaidh, 39-40 + + Episcopalians, 30 + + Eriskay, 81 + + Etain, 39-40 + + Ethal, 38 + + Europe, 87, 130, 135, 142, 145 + + Excalibur, 84 + + Exorcism, 9, 29, 42 + + + Fagots, 96, 169 + + Fairies, 6, 44, 46, 49, 61-65, 81-82, 84-85, 96, 103, 107, 110, + 149 + + Fand, 41-42 + + Fates, 89, 123, 134 + + Feast, of dead, 116, 143; + of poor, 144 + + Feng-Shin, 145 + + Feralia, 114 + + Fern, 14, 59 + + Finistère, 110, 117 + + Fir Bolgs, 20 + + Fire, 21, 23, 45, 123-125; + -god, 120; + spirits of, 147 + + Fires, 11, 17, 28-29, 50, 52, 101, 109, 112. See also Bonfires + + _Flamina_, 25 + + Flour, 52, 57, 154, 158 + + Flowers, 118, 144 + + Fomor, 20, 35 + + Footprints, 57, 60, 83 + + "Forced-fire," 17 + + Fort Worth, 170 + + Forts, fairy, 37, 44, 46 + + France, 108, 110, 112, 118, 131, 142 + + Franks, 111 + + "Free-night," 141, 154 + + Freya, 120, 127, 129, 131, 134 + + "Furious Host," 131 + + Future, questions about, 34, 69 + + + Gabriel Ratchets, 90 + + Gaul, 5-6, 27, 109, 119 + + Germans, 119 + + Germany, 130, 131, 134, 136, 144 + + Ghosts, 49, 63, 69, 76-77, 88, 116, 127, 144, 146, 152, 155. + See also Dead + + Glass, 10-11, 96, 166 + + Gnomes, 48 + + Goat, 67-68, 134 + + Goblin, 35-36, 61, 64, 149, 153 + + Gods of Ireland. See Tuatha De Danann + + "Good Neighbors," 63 + + "Good People," 45, 49 + + Goths, 119 + + Grallon, 111 + + Great Britain. See Britain + + Greek, 1, 5, 6, 30, 85, 120 + + Gregory, 29-30 + + Guleesh, 46 + + Gunnar, 124 + + + Hair, 77, 96, 138, 166-167 + + Hallowe'en, 3-4, 35, 43, 46, 49-50, 61, 64-66, 68, 72, 79, 81, + 85, 89, 90, 95-96, 99, 103, 105, 106, 112, 129, 138, 140, + 142, 144, 149, 152, 154, 164, 165, 170; + pagan, 3, 21; + charms at, 26, 33, 53, 56; + born on, 54, 62 + + _Hallowe'en_, poem, 70, 168 + + _Hansel and Grethel_, 134 + + Hares, 135 + + Hartz Mts., 130 + + Harvest, 3-4, 15, 17, 25, 30-31, 34, 59, 69, 97, 106, 112, 137, + 155 + + Hawthorn, 123, 137 + + Hazel, 85 + + Hearts, 156 + + Hebrides, 79 + + Hel, 122, 131 + + Hemp, 14, 33, 53, 74 + + Henry VIII, 99 + + Henry Hudson, 150 + + Herbs, 46-47, 53, 66, 126, 129-130 + + Herne the Hunter, 90 + + Herodotus, 5 + + Hesperides, 85 + + Highlands, 59, 65, 77 + + Hodur, 121 + + Holda, 131-132, 136 + + Holiday, 61 + + Hollow Land, 41 + + Holly, 63 + + Hoop, 157 + + Horselberg, 131 + + Horseshoes, 138, 152 + + Horus, 1 + + Husking-bees, 3 + + + Iceland, 125 + + Idun, 120 + + Immortality, 10, 85, 107, 120 + + Indians, 3, 145, 150 + + Invocation, 21, 92 + + Iona, 50 + + Iphis, 24 + + Ireland 3, 5, 13, 15, 17, 20, 35, 48-50, 59, 62, 72-73, 78-80, + 104, 107, 127, 170; + belief in fairies, 6, 35 + + Irish Sea, 20 + + Iron, 152 + + Italy, 119, 131, 142 + + Ivy, 57 + + + Jack-o'-lantern, 49-50, 69, 121, 155 + + Japan, 2, 146 + + Jokes, 154 + + Jonah, 13 + + Juniper, 123, 137 + + Jupiter, 8 + + + Kale. See Cabbages + + Kensington Gardens, 64 + + Ker-Is, 111 + + Kettle, 89, 134, 155 + + Key, 55, 72, 144, 156 + + + Laeg, 42 + + "Lambswool," 51 + + Lammas, 28 + + Lancashire, 99 + + Land of Heart's Desire, 36 + + Land of Youth, 40 + + "Lanterns of the dead," 112 + + Lanterns in Japan, 146 + + Latin. See Rome + + Lead-melting, 55-56, 77, 168 + + Leek, 104-105 + + Legends, origin of, 2 + + Lemons, 170 + + Leprechauns, 48 + + Lewis, 80 + + Liban, 41 + + Lincolnshire, 89 + + "Little People," 48-49, 85 + + "Livelong," 53 + + Loki, 120 + + London, 97 + + Lords of Misrule, 88 + + Love-knots, 156 + + Lucifer, 120 + + "Luck of Edenhall," 96 + + Luggies. See Dishes + + Lugh, 14-15 + + Lugnasad, 15, 28, 33 + + + _Macbeth_, 123 + + Magic, 7, 15, 155; + black, 28, 156 + + Maine, 165 + + Malt, 80 + + Malta, 144 + + Man, Isle of, 20, 82 + + Manitous, 150 + + Mars, 8 + + Martinmas, 62 + + Mary, Virgin, 29, 126, 132, 138, 145 + + Mary Avenel, 62 + + Maryland, 165 + + Massachusetts, 164 + + Master of the Revels, 97 + + May-bride, 126 + + May Eve and Day, 4, 11-13, 29, 33, 45, 47, 107, 125, 135, 136, + _et seq._; + -fires, 13, 61; + -pole, 126; + -ridings, 125; + -shooting, 140 + + Meal, 83, 164 + + Meath, 15, 17 + + Medb, 36, 39 + + Meg, 68 + + "Men of Peace," 63 + + Mercury, 8, 15 + + Midir, 39-41 + + Middle Ages, 129 + + Midsummer, 3, 11, 20, 28, 33, 53, 125, 146 + + Milk, 45, 51, 112 + + Minerva, 8 + + Mirror, 85, 129, 146-147, 149, 161-162 + + _Miserere_, 142 + + Mistletoe, 7, 40, 120 + + Modred, 84 + + Mona, 27 + + _Monastery_, 62 + + Moon, 40, 74, 76, 77, 146, 155, 162 + + Moray, 59 + + Moytura, 20, 22, 35 + + Music, 36, 39-40, 43-47, 56, 64, 67, 87, 111 + + Myths, origin of, 2 + + + Naples, 142 + + Needles, 117, 133, 151, 158, 166 + + Negroes, 153 + + Nera, 37, 107 + + Net, 83 + + Neverland, 64 + + New Brunswick, 167 + + New Hampshire, 165 + + New Year, 82, 102, 154. See also Year's end + + New Year's Day, 17 + + Niflheim, 122 + + Nikko, 146 + + Norse, 80, 82, 119, 134 + + Norway, 1, 126, 130 + + "Nos Galan Gaeof," 102 + + November, Eve, 33, 35, 37, 44, 50, 59, 79, 101-102, 107, 112, + 137; + first, 4, 11, 16, 25-26, 137, 144; + in Rome, 30; + second, 30, 118, 144 + + Nuts, 26, 33, 50-52, 73, 90-92, 103-104, 109, 115, 144, 155, + 159-160, 169 + + + Oak, 6-7, 27, 40, 122 + + Oats, 55, 77 + + Oatmeal cakes, 79 + + Obsession, 44 + + October 31st, 4, 10, 17, 50, 82, 85, 118 + + Odin, 120, 124, 129, 131 + + "Oidhche Shamhna," 50 + + Olaf, 126 + + Omens, 14, 22, 26, 50-52, 104, 117, 137; + from sacrifices, 9, 17, 33, 123, 166; + evil, 28 + + Oonah, 45 + + Ops, 23 + + Ordeal, 9, 123-124 + + Osiris, 1, 18 + + Ossian, 47-48, 150 + + Ostia, 25 + + Otherworld, 19, 39, 42, 47, 84, 103, 107, 111, 115, 121, 146, 150 + + Ovid, 24, 114 + + Owls, 134, 152, 155 + + + Paddy Beg, 46-47 + + Paddy More, 46-47 + + Paganism, 30, 35, 59, 109, 141 + + Pageant, 170 + + Pantheon, 29 + + Paradise, 31 + + Partholon, 13 + + Parties, Hallowe'en, 155 + + Peace, 171 + + Peas, 92, 94 + + Pelagius, 83 + + Pennsylvania, 165 + + Perthshire, 59 + + Peru, 1 + + Peter Pan, 63-64 + + Ph[oe]nicians, 5 + + Picts, 108 + + Piper, fairy, 43-44, 64, 87 + + Pixies, 103, 110 + + Pomona, 4, 23-26, 50, 85, 155 + + Pontypridd, 101 + + _Preparedness for Peace_, 170 + + Procopius, 111 + + Prophets, + Druids as, 9, 43; + witches as, 89, 134, 151 + + Pumpkins, 155, 160 + + Purgatory, 31, 99, 106, 145 + + Puy de Dome, 131 + + "Puzzling-jug," 103-104 + + + Races, 15, 26 + + Rapunzel, 125 + + Red Mike, 54, 62 + + Rick, 55 + + Ring, 51-52, 55, 72, 96, 156, 165, 168 + + Rip Van Winkle, 150 + + Rome, 8, 23-30, 114, 119-120; + relations to Druids, 27; + All Saints' in, 32 + + Roses, 105 + + Rowan. See Ash-tree + + + Sacrifices, 20, 109, 137; + to Baal, 8-9, 11-13, 17, 101; + omens from, 33; + to Tyr, 123 + + St. Augustine, 83 + + St. Bridget, 45 + + St. Colomba, 50 + + St. Gertrude, 126 + + St. John's Day and Eve, 3, 28, 109, 110, 137, 141 + + St. Kilda, 79 + + St. Michael, 85 + + St. Ninian, 83 + + St. Odilo, 30 + + St. Patrick, 5, 43, 83 + + Saga, 124 + + Salerno, 142 + + Salt, 57, 67, 79, 82, 83, 134, 169 + + Saman, 10, 31, 50, 80 + + Samhain (Sáveen), 16, 18, 20-22, 26, 31, 35-36, 38, 40-41, 43, + 48, 59, 65, 82 + + Samhnagan, 60 + + Samhanach, 64 + + Sark. See Shirt + + Satan, 120, 133 + + Sauin. See Samhain + + Scandinavia, 119, 126, 134 + + Scotland, 59, 78, 79, 81, 82, 99, 104, 127, 156; + belief in fairies in, 6, 62-64 + + Scots, 108 + + Seasons, 1 + + Seaweed, 80 + + Secrecy, 45, 77-78, 124, 155; + in Druid rites, 9-10, 124 + + Seed-cake, 97 + + Seeds, 14, 92, 121 + + Serpent's-egg. See Adder-stone + + Seville, 131 + + Shee, 39 + + Shirt-sleeve, wetting the, 56, 78-79, 126-129, 165 + + Shoe, 77, 170 + + Shony, 80 + + Shropshire, 98 + + "Sid," 37, 49. See also Forts + + Sigurd, 124 + + Sîtou, 18 + + Sleep, 39, 47, 87, 124-125 + + Sloe, 52, 85 + + Snakes. See Adder-stone + + Snap-apple. See Apples + + Sol, 1 + + Soul-cakes. See Cake + + South, 165 + + South Uist, 81 + + Sowens, 79 + + Spain, 131, 144 + + Spectre Huntsman, 90 + + Spirits, 6, 20, 103; + abroad, 14, 22, 31, 35, 44, 48; + evil, 4, 18, 20, 56, 63, 87, 99, 129 + + Staffordshire, 98 + + Stones, 60, 101-102, 106, 109 + + Stories, 81, 96, 149, 169 + + Straw, 77, 99 + + Strunt, 79 + + "Summer's end," 3-4, 11-12, 16, 25, 44 + + Sun-god, 1-3, 8, 15, 44, 84-85, 87, 120-121, 124, 126, 136; + -worship, 21; + -wise, 3, 17, 60, 67 + + Superstitions, 33, 62, 83, 135, 153-154 + + Swans, 38-39, 41 + + Swastika, 8 + + Sweden, 126, 133 + + Symbols, 7-8, 28 + + + Tam o' Shanter, 68-69, 89 + + Tannhäuser, 131-133 + + Tara, 17, 21, 43, 48, 59 + + _Tempest_, 87 + + Teuton, 108, 124, 142 + + Teutonic, 4, 125 + + Thanksgiving, 3-4; + for harvest, 59 + + Thimble, 51, 72, 83, 156 + + Thor, 134 + + Thorn, 45 + + Thread, 138, 167 + + Thuringia, 131 + + Tiberius, 27 + + Tigernmas, 20-21 + + "Tin Islands," 5 + + Tlactga, 17 + + Toads, 152 + + Toasts, 126 + + Todmorden, 90 + + Torches, 14, 60-61, 68, 99 + + Tree-worship, 7-8, 92, 123 + + Trefoil, 8, 29 + + Trinity, 29 + + Tripod, 65, 134, 155 + + Trolls, 121, 130, 150 + + Tuatha De Danann, 20, 29, 38-39, 43, 48-50, 107-108 + + Tub, 53, 93, 96, 160; + apples in. See Apples + + Tyr, 123 + + + United States, 153 + + + Valhalla, 121-122 + + Vali, 121 + + Valkyries, 122, 136 + + Vandals, 119 + + Venus, 131-132 + + Vertumnus, 24-25 + + Vortumnalia, 25 + + Vulcan, 120 + + Vurdh, 123 + + + Wales, 27, 101, 105, 106, 108, 144, 168; + belief in fairies in, 6 + + Walnut-tree, 92 + + Walpurga, 136 + + Ward, Hill of. See Tara + + Water, 57, 68, 97, 165 + + Wedding of sun and earth, 126, 136 + + "Weird Sisters," 123 + + Wendy, 64 + + Wheel, + sun-symbol, 8, 13, 17; + of fortune, 163 + + White Lady, 62 + + Wild Huntsman, 90, 131 + + Will-o'-the-wisps, 121 + + Windsor Forest, 90 + + Winnowing, 75-76 + + Winter, first day of, 18, 44, 87, 102, 112 + + Witches, 4, 60-61, 65-69, 89, 99, 101, 129-131, 133-135, 146, 155 + + Witchcraft, 4, 81, 89, 134 + + Wood, 52, 57, 97 + + Wotan. See Odin + + + Yarn, 55, 75, 104, 140, 165 + + Year's end, 10, 17-18, 84 + + Yellow, 156 + + Yggdrasil, 122 + + Yorkshire, 97 + + Yule, 3, 126 + + + Zschokke, 140 + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + Represented the "oe" ligature as [oe]. + + Adjusted placement of footnotes. + + Page 88: Retained alternate spelling of "Candelmas" in quoted + material versus standard spelling in index. + + Page 182: Standardized punctuation. + + Pages 191 & 194: Standardized index cross-reference words. + + Page 204: Standardized spelling of "sick-bed." + + Page 207: Standardized spelling of _Völuspa_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Hallowe'en, by Ruth Edna Kelley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN *** + +***** This file should be named 20644-8.txt or 20644-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20644/ + +Produced by Suzan Flanagan, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Hallowe'en + +Author: Ruth Edna Kelley + +Release Date: February 21, 2007 [EBook #20644] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzan Flanagan, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: HALLOWE'EN FESTIVITIES. + +_From an Old English Print_] + + + + The + Book of Hallowe'en + + By + + RUTH EDNA KELLEY, A. M. + + _Lynn Public Library_ + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + BOSTON + + LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + * * * * * + + Published, August, 1919 + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, + BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + The Book of Hallowe'en + + Norwood Press + BERWICK & SMITH CO. + NORWOOD, MASS. + U. S. A. + + * * * * * + + _To my Mother and the memory of my Father + who inspired and encouraged me + in the writing of this + book_ + + * * * * * + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book is intended to give the reader an account of the origin +and history of Hallowe'en, how it absorbed some customs belonging +to other days in the year,--such as May Day, Midsummer, and +Christmas. The context is illustrated by selections from ancient +and modern poetry and prose, related to Hallowe'en ideas. + +Those who wish suggestions for readings, recitations, plays, and +parties, will find the lists in the appendix useful, in addition to +the books on entertainments and games to be found in any public +library. + +Special acknowledgment is made to Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Company +for permission to use the poem entitled "Hallowe'en" from "The +Spires of Oxford and Other Poems," by W. M. Letts; to Messrs. +Longmans, Green & Company for the poem "Pomona," by William Morris; +and to the Editors of _The Independent_ for the use of five poems. + + RUTH EDNA KELLEY. + + LYNN, _1919_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + +I. SUN-WORSHIP. THE SOURCES OF HALLOWE'EN 1 + +II. THE CELTS: THEIR RELIGION AND FESTIVALS 5 + +III. SAMHAIN 16 + +IV. POMONA 23 + +V. THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY. ALL SAINTS'. ALL SOULS' 27 + +VI. ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF HALLOWE'EN OMENS 33 + +VII. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND 35 + +VIII. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN SCOTLAND + AND THE HEBRIDES 59 + +IX. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND AND MAN 82 + +X. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN WALES 101 + +XI. HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 107 + +XII. THE TEUTONIC RELIGION. WITCHES 119 + +XIII. WALPURGIS NIGHT 136 + +XIV. MORE HALLOWTIDE BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 142 + +XV. HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 149 + + "FOUR POEMS" 172 + + MAGAZINE REFERENCES TO HALLOWE'EN ENTERTAINMENTS 179 + + SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF READINGS, RECITATIONS, AND PLAYS 182 + + INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 184 + + INDEX 188 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Hallowe'en Festivities _Frontispiece_ + FACING PAGE +In Hallowe'en Time 34 + +The Witch of the Walnut-Tree 100 + +The Witches' Dance (_Valpurgisnacht_) 138 + +Fortune-Telling 148 + +Hallowe'en Tables, I 156 + +Hallowe'en Tables, II 158 + +No Hallowe'en without a Jack-o'-lantern 178 + + + + +The Book of Hallowe'en + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SUN-WORSHIP. THE SOURCES OF HALLOWE'EN + + +If we could ask one of the old-world pagans whom he revered as his +greatest gods, he would be sure to name among them the sun-god; +calling him Apollo if he were a Greek; if an Egyptian, Horus or +Osiris; if of Norway, Sol; if of Peru, Bochica. As the sun is the +center of the physical universe, so all primitive peoples made it +the hub about which their religion revolved, nearly always +believing it a living person to whom they could say prayers and +offer sacrifices, who directed their lives and destinies, and could +even snatch men from earthly existence to dwell for a time with +him, as it draws the water from lakes and seas. + +In believing this they followed an instinct of all early peoples, a +desire to make persons of the great powers of nature, such as the +world of growing things, mountains and water, the sun, moon, and +stars; and a wish for these gods they had made to take an interest +in and be part of their daily life. The next step was making +stories about them to account for what was seen; so arose myths and +legends. + +The sun has always marked out work-time and rest, divided the year +into winter idleness, seed-time, growth, and harvest; it has always +been responsible for all the beauty and goodness of the earth; it +is itself splendid to look upon. It goes away and stays longer and +longer, leaving the land in cold and gloom; it returns bringing the +long fair days and resurrection of spring. A Japanese legend tells +how the hidden sun was lured out by an image made of a copper plate +with saplings radiating from it like sunbeams, and a fire kindled, +dancing, and prayers; and round the earth in North America the +Cherokees believed they brought the sun back upon its northward +path by the same means of rousing its curiosity, so that it would +come out to see its counterpart and find out what was going on. + +All the more important church festivals are survivals of old rites +to the sun. "How many times the Church has decanted the new wine of +Christianity into the old bottles of heathendom." Yule-tide, the +pagan Christmas, celebrated the sun's turning north, and the old +midsummer holiday is still kept in Ireland and on the Continent as +St. John's Day by the lighting of bonfires and a dance about them +from east to west as the sun appears to move. The pagan Hallowe'en +at the end of summer was a time of grief for the decline of the +sun's glory, as well as a harvest festival of thanksgiving to him +for having ripened the grain and fruit, as we formerly had +husking-bees when the ears had been garnered, and now keep our own +Thanksgiving by eating of our winter store in praise of God who +gives us our increase. + +Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit, lends us the harvest element of +Hallowe'en; the Celtic day of "summer's end" was a time when +spirits, mostly evil, were abroad; the gods whom Christ dethroned +joined the ill-omened throng; the Church festivals of All Saints' +and All Souls' coming at the same time of year--the first of +November--contributed the idea of the return of the dead; and the +Teutonic May Eve assemblage of witches brought its hags and their +attendant beasts to help celebrate the night of October 31st. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CELTS: THEIR RELIGION AND FESTIVALS + + +The first reference to Great Britain in European annals of which we +know was the statement in the fifth century B. C. of the Greek +historian Herodotus, that Ph[oe]nician sailors went to the British +Isles for tin. He called them the "Tin Islands." The people with +whom these sailors traded must have been Celts, for they were the +first inhabitants of Britain who worked in metal instead of stone. + +The Druids were priests of the Celts centuries before Christ came. +There is a tradition in Ireland that they first arrived there in +270 B. C., seven hundred years before St. Patrick. The account of +them written by Julius Caesar half a century before Christ speaks +mainly of the Celts of Gaul, dividing them into two ruling classes +who kept the people almost in a state of slavery; the knights, who +waged war, and the Druids who had charge of worship and sacrifices, +and were in addition physicians, historians, teachers, scientists, +and judges. + +Caesar says that this cult originated in Britain, and was +transferred to Gaul. Gaul and Britain had one religion and one +language, and might even have one king, so that what Caesar wrote of +Gallic Druids must have been true of British. + +The Celts worshipped spirits of forest and stream, and feared the +powers of evil, as did the Greeks and all other early races. Very +much of their primitive belief has been kept, so that to Scotch, +Irish, and Welsh peasantry brooks, hills, dales, and rocks abound +in tiny supernatural beings, who may work them good or evil, lead +them astray by flickering lights, or charm them into seven years' +servitude unless they are bribed to show favor. + +The name "Druid" is derived from the Celtic word "druidh," meaning +"sage," connected with the Greek word for oak, "drus," + + "The rapid oak-tree-- + Before him heaven and earth quake: + Stout door-keeper against the foe. + In every land his name is mine." + + TALIESIN: _Battle of the Trees._ + +for the oak was held sacred by them as a symbol of the omnipotent +god, upon whom they depended for life like the mistletoe growing +upon it. Their ceremonies were held in oak-groves. + +Later from their name a word meaning "magician" was formed, showing +that these priests had gained the reputation of being dealers in +magic. + + "The Druid followed him and suddenly, as we are told, struck him + with a druidic wand, or according to one version, flung at him a + tuft of grass over which he had pronounced a druidical + incantation." + + O'CURRY: _Ancient Irish._ + +They dealt in symbols, common objects to which was given by the +interposition of spirits, meaning to signify certain facts, and +power to produce certain effects. Since they were tree-worshippers, +trees and plants were thought to have peculiar powers. + +Caesar provides them with a galaxy of Roman divinities, Mercury, +Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, who of course were worshipped under +their native names. Their chief god was Baal, of whom they believed +the sun the visible emblem. They represented him by lowlier tokens, +such as circles and wheels. The trefoil, changed into a figure +composed of three winged feet radiating from a center, represented +the swiftness of the sun's journey. The cross too was a symbol of +the sun, being the appearance of its light shining upon dew or +stream, making to the half-closed eye little bright crosses. One +form of the cross was the swastika. + +To Baal they made sacrifices of criminals or prisoners of war, +often burning them alive in wicker images. These bonfires lighted +on the hills were meant to urge the god to protect and bless the +crops and herds. From the appearance of the victims sacrificed in +them, omens were taken that foretold the future. The gods and other +supernatural powers in answer to prayer were thought to signify +their will by omens, and also by the following methods: the ordeal, +in which the innocence or guilt of a person was shown by the way +the god permitted him to endure fire or other torture; exorcism, +the driving out of demons by saying mysterious words or names over +them. Becoming skilled in interpreting the will of the gods, the +Druids came to be known as prophets. + + "O Deirdre, terrible child, + For thee, red star of our ruin, + Great weeping shall be in Eri-- + Woe, woe, and a breach in Ulla. + + * * * * * + + "Thy feet shall trample the mighty + Yet stumble on heads thou lovest." + + TODHUNTER: _Druid song of Cathvah._ + +They kept their lore for the most part a secret, forbidding it to +be written, passing it down by word of mouth. They taught the +immortality of the soul, that it passed from one body to another at +death. + + "If, as those Druids taught, which kept the British rites, + And dwelt in darksome groves, there counselling with sprites, + When these our souls by death our bodies do forsake + They instantly again do other bodies take----" + + DRAYTON: _Polyolbion._ + +They believed that on the last night of the old year (October 31st) +the lord of death gathered together the souls of all those who had +died in the passing year and had been condemned to live in the +bodies of animals, to decree what forms they should inhabit for the +next twelve months. He could be coaxed to give lighter sentences by +gifts and prayers. + +The badge of the initiated Druid was a glass ball reported to be +made in summer of the spittle of snakes, and caught by the priests +as the snakes tossed it into the air. + + "And the potent adder-stone + Gender'd 'fore the autumnal moon + When in undulating twine + The foaming snakes prolific join." + + MASON: _Caractacus._ + +It was real glass, blown by the Druids themselves. It was supposed +to aid the wearer in winning lawsuits and securing the favor of +kings. + +An animal sacred to the Druids was the cat. + +"A slender black cat reclining on a chain of old silver" guarded +treasure in the old days. For a long time cats were dreaded by the +people because they thought human beings had been changed to that +form by evil means. + +The chief festivals of the Druids fell on four days, celebrating +phases of the sun's career. Fires of sacrifice were lighted +especially at spring and midsummer holidays, by exception on +November 1st. + +May Day and November Day were the more important, the beginning and +end of summer, yet neither equinoxes nor solstices. The time was +divided then not according to sowing and reaping, but by the older +method of reckoning from when the herds were turned out to pasture +in the spring and brought into the fold again at the approach of +winter--by a pastoral rather than an agricultural people. + +On the night before Beltaine ("Baal-fire"), the first of May, fires +were burned to Baal to celebrate the return of the sun bringing +summer. Before sunrise the houses were decked with garlands to +gladden the sun when he appeared; a rite which has survived in +"going maying." The May-Day fires were used for purification. +Cattle were singed by being led near the flames, and sometimes bled +that their blood might be offered as a sacrifice for a prosperous +season. + + "When lo! a flame, + A wavy flame of ruddy light + Leaped up, the farmyard fence above. + And while his children's shout rang high, + His cows the farmer slowly drove + Across the blaze,--he knew not why." + + KICKHAM: _St. John's Eve._ + +A cake was baked in the fire with one piece blacked with charcoal. +Whoever got the black piece was thereby marked for sacrifice to +Baal, so that, as the ship proceeded in safety after Jonah was cast +overboard, the affairs of the group about the May-Eve fire might +prosper when it was purged of the one whom Baal designated by lot. +Later only the symbol of offering was used, the victim being forced +to leap thrice over the flames. + +In history it was the day of the coming of good. Partholon, the +discoverer and promoter of Ireland, came thither from the other +world to stay three hundred years. The gods themselves, the +deliverers of Ireland, first arrived there "through the air" on May +Day. + +June 21st, the day of the summer solstice, the height of the sun's +power, was marked by midnight fires of joy and by dances. These +were believed to strengthen the sun's heat. A blazing wheel to +represent the sun was rolled down hill. + + "A happy thought. + Give me this cart-wheel. + I'll have it tied with ropes and smeared with pitch, + And when it's lighted, I will roll it down + The steepest hillside." + + HAUPTMANN: _Sunken Bell._ + (Lewisohn _trans._) + +Spirits were believed to be abroad, and torches were carried about +the fields to protect them from invasion. Charms were tried on that +night with seeds of fern and hemp, and dreams were believed to be +prophetic. + +Lugh, in old Highland speech "the summer sun" + + "The hour may hither drift + When at the last, amid the o'erwearied Shee-- + Weary of long delight and deathless joys-- + One you shall love may fade before your eyes, + Before your eyes may fade, and be as mist + Caught in the sunny hollow of Lu's hand, + Lord of the Day." + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +had for father one of the gods and for mother the daughter of a +chief of the enemy. Hence he possessed some good and some evil +tendencies. He may be the Celtic Mercury, for they were alike +skilled in magic and alchemy, in deception, successful in combats +with demons, the bringers of new strength and cleansing to the +nation. He said farewell to power on the first of August, and his +foster-mother had died on that day, so then it was he set his +feast-day. The occasion was called "Lugnasad," "the bridal of Lugh" +and the earth, whence the harvest should spring. It was celebrated +by the offering of the first fruits of harvest, and by races and +athletic sports. In Meath, Ireland, this continued down into the +nineteenth century, with dancing and horse-racing the first week of +August. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SAMHAIN + + +On November first was Samhain ("summer's end"). + + "Take my tidings: + Stags contend; + Snows descend-- + Summer's end! + + "A chill wind raging, + The sun low keeping, + Swift to set + O'er seas high sweeping. + + "Dull red the fern; + Shapes are shadows; + Wild geese mourn + O'er misty meadows. + + "Keen cold limes each weaker wing, + Icy times-- + Such I sing! + Take my tidings." + + GRAVES: _First Winter Song._ + +Then the flocks were driven in, and men first had leisure after +harvest toil. Fires were built as a thanksgiving to Baal for +harvest. The old fire on the altar was quenched before the night of +October 31st, and the new one made, as were all sacred fires, by +friction. It was called "forced-fire." A wheel and a spindle were +used: the wheel, the sun symbol, was turned from east to west, +sunwise. The sparks were caught in tow, blazed upon the altar, and +were passed on to light the hilltop fires. The new fire was given +next morning, New Year's Day, by the priests to the people to light +their hearths, where all fires had been extinguished. The blessed +fire was thought to protect the year through the home it warmed. In +Ireland the altar was Tlactga, on the hill of Ward in Meath, where +sacrifices, especially black sheep, were burnt in the new fire. +From the death struggles and look of the creatures omens for the +future year were taken. + +The year was over, and the sun's life of a year was done. The +Celts thought that at this time the sun fell a victim for six +months to the powers of winter darkness. In Egyptian mythology one +of the sun-gods, Osiris, was slain at a banquet by his brother +Sitou, the god of darkness. On the anniversary of the murder, the +first day of winter, no Egyptian would begin any new business for +fear of bad luck, since the spirit of evil was then in power. + +From the idea that the sun suffered from his enemies on this day +grew the association of Samhain with death. + + "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, + Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere. + Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the wither'd leaves lie dead; + They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread. + The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrub the jay + And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day. + + "The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, + And the wild rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow: + But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, + And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, + Till fell the frost from the cold clear heaven, as falls the + plague on men, + And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade, + and glen." + + BRYANT: _Death of the Flowers._ + +In the same state as those who are dead, are those who have never +lived, dwelling right in the world, but invisible to most mortals +at most times. Seers could see them at any time, and if very many +were abroad at once others might get a chance to watch them too. + + "There is a world in which we dwell, + And yet a world invisible. + And do not think that naught can be + Save only what with eyes ye see: + I tell ye that, this very hour, + Had but your sight a spirit's power, + Ye would be looking, eye to eye, + At a terrific company." + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +These supernatural spirits ruled the dead. There were two classes: +the Tuatha De Danann, "the people of the goddess Danu," gods of +light and life; and spirits of darkness and evil. The Tuatha had +their chief seat on the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish +Sea, and brought under their power the islands about them. On a +Midsummer Day they vanquished the Fir Bolgs and gained most of +Ireland, by the battle of Moytura. + +A long time afterwards--perhaps 1000 B. C.--the Fomor, sea-demons, +after destroying nearly all their enemies by plagues, exacted from +those remaining, as tribute, "a third part of their corn, a third +part of their milk, and a third part of their children." This tax +was paid on Samhain. It was on the week before Samhain that the +Fomor landed upon Ireland. On the eve of Samhain the gods met them +in the second battle of Moytura, and they were driven back into the +ocean. + +As Tigernmas, a mythical king of Ireland, was sacrificing "the +firstlings of every issue, and the scions of every clan" to Crom +Croich, the king idol, and lay prostrate before the image, he and +three-fourths of his men mysteriously disappeared. + + "Then came + Tigernmas, the prince of Tara yonder + On Hallowe'en with many hosts. + A cause of grief to them was the deed. + Dead were the men + Of Bamba's host, without happy strength + Around Tigernmas, the destructive man of the north, + From the worship of Crom Cruaich. 'T was no luck for them. + For I have learnt, + Except one-fourth of the keen Gaels, + Not a man alive--lasting the snare! + Escaped without death in his mouth." + + _Dinnsenchus of Mag Slecht_ (Meyer _trans._). + +This was direct invocation, but the fire rites which were continued +so long afterwards were really only worshipping the sun by proxy, +in his nearest likeness, fire. + +Samhain was then a day sacred to the death of the sun, on which had +been paid a sacrifice of death to evil powers. Though overcome at +Moytura evil was ascendant at Samhain. Methods of finding out the +will of spirits and the future naturally worked better then, charms +and invocations had more power, for the spirits were near to help, +if care was taken not to anger them, and due honors paid. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +POMONA + + +Ops was the Latin goddess of plenty. Single parts of her province +were taken over by various other divinities, among whom was Pomona +(_pomorum patrona_, "she who cares for fruits"). She is represented +as a maiden with fruit in her arms and a pruning-knife in her hand. + + "I am the ancient apple-queen. + As once I was so am I now-- + For evermore a hope unseen + Betwixt the blossom and the bough. + + "Ah, where's the river's hidden gold! + And where's the windy grave of Troy? + Yet come I as I came of old, + From out the heart of summer's joy." + + MORRIS: _Pomona._ + +Many Roman poets told stories about her, the best known being by +Ovid, who says that she was wooed by many orchard-gods, but +preferred to remain unmarried. Among her suitors was Vertumnus +("the changer"), the god of the turning year, who had charge of the +exchange of trade, the turning of river channels, and chiefly of +the change in nature from flower to ripe fruit. True to his +character he took many forms to gain Pomona's love. Now he was a +ploughman (spring), now a fisherman (summer), now a reaper +(autumn). + +At last he took the likeness of an old woman (winter), and went to +gossip with Pomona. After sounding her mind and finding her averse +to marriage, the woman pleaded for Vertumnus's success. + + "Is not he the first to have the fruits which + are thy delight? And does he not hold thy + gifts in his joyous right hand?" + + OVID: _Vertumnus and Pomona._ + +Then the crone told her the story of Anaxarete who was so cold to +her lover Iphis that he hanged himself, and she at the window +watching his funeral train pass by was changed to a marble statue. +Advising Pomona to avoid such a fate, Vertumnus donned his proper +form, that of a handsome young man, and Pomona, moved by the story +and his beauty, yielded and became his wife. + +Vertumnus had a statue in the Tuscan Way in Rome, and a temple. His +festival, the Vortumnalia, was held on the 23d of August, when the +summer began to wane. Garlands and garden produce were offered to +him. + +Pomona had been assigned one of the fifteen _flamina_, priests +whose duty it was to kindle the fire for special sacrifices. She +had a grove near Ostia where a harvest festival was held about +November first. Not much is known of the ceremonies, but from the +similar August holiday much may be deduced. Then the deities of +fire and water were propitiated that their disfavor might not ruin +the crops. On Pomona's day doubtless thanks was rendered them for +their aid to the harvest. An offering of first-fruits was made in +August; in November the winter store of nuts and apples was opened. +The horses released from toil contended in races. + +From Pomona's festival nuts and apples, from the Druidic Samhain +the supernatural element, combined to give later generations the +charms and omens from nuts and apples which are made trial of at +Hallowe'en. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY. ALL SAINTS'. ALL SOULS' + + +The great power which the Druids exercised over their people +interfered with the Roman rule of Britain. Converts were being made +at Rome. Augustus forbade Romans to became initiated, Tiberius +banished the priestly clan and their adherents from Gaul, and +Claudius utterly stamped out the belief there, and put to death a +Roman knight for wearing the serpent's-egg badge to win a lawsuit. +Forbidden to practise their rites in Britain, the Druids fled to +the isle of Mona, near the coast of Wales. The Romans pursued them, +and in 61 A. D. they were slaughtered and their oak groves cut +down. During the next three centuries the cult was stifled to +death, and the Christian religion substituted. + +It was believed that at Christ's advent the pagan gods either died +or were banished. + + "The lonely mountains o'er + And the resounding shore + A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament. + From haunted spring and dale, + Edged with poplar pale, + The parting genius is with sighing sent. + With flower-inwoven tresses torn + The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn." + + MILTON: _On the Morning of Christ's Nativity._ + +The Christian Fathers explained all oracles and omens by saying +that there was something in them, but that they were the work of +the evil one. The miraculous power they seemed to possess worked +"black magic." + +It was a long, hard effort to make men see that their gods had all +the time been wrong, and harder still to root out the age-long +growth of rite and symbol. But on the old religion might be grafted +new names; Midsummer was dedicated to the birth of Saint John; +Lugnasad became Lammas. The fires belonging to these times of year +were retained, their old significance forgotten or reconsecrated. +The rowan, or mountain ash, whose berries had been the food of the +Tuatha, now exorcised those very beings. The trefoil signified the +Trinity, and the cross no longer the rays of the sun on water, but +the cross of Calvary. The fires which had been built to propitiate +the god and consume his sacrifices to induce him to protect them +were now lighted to protect the people from the same god, declared +to be an evil mischief-maker. In time the autumn festival of the +Druids became the vigil of All Hallows or All Saints' Day. + +All Saints' was first suggested in the fourth century, when the +Christians were no longer persecuted, in memory of all the saints, +since there were too many for each to have a special day on the +church calendar. A day in May was chosen by Pope Boniface IV in 610 +for consecrating the Pantheon, the old Roman temple of all the +gods, to the Virgin and all the saints and martyrs. Pope Gregory +III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's to the same, and that day was +made compulsory in 835 by Pope Gregory IV, as All Saints'. The day +was changed from May to November so that the crowds that thronged +to Rome for the services might be fed from the harvest bounty. It +is celebrated with a special service in the Greek and Roman +churches and by Episcopalians. + +In the tenth century St. Odilo, Bishop of Cluny, instituted a day +of prayer and special masses for the souls of the dead. He had been +told that a hermit dwelling near a cave + + "heard the voices and howlings of devils, which complained + strongly because that the souls of them that were dead were taken + away from their hands by alms and by prayers." + + DE VORAGINE: _Golden Legend._ + +This day became All Souls', and was set for November 2d. + +It is very appropriate that the Celtic festival when the spirits of +the dead and the supernatural powers held a carnival of triumph +over the god of light, should be followed by All Saints' and All +Souls'. The church holy-days were celebrated by bonfires to light +souls through Purgatory to Paradise, as they had lighted the sun to +his death on Samhain. On both occasions there were prayers: the +pagan petitions to the lord of death for a pleasant dwelling-place +for the souls of departed friends; and the Christian for their +speedy deliverance from torture. They have in common the +celebrating of death: the one, of the sun; the other, of mortals: +of harvest: the one, of crops; the other, of sacred memories. They +are kept by revelry and joy: first, to cheer men and make them +forget the malign influences abroad; second, because as the saints +in heaven rejoice over one repentant sinner, we should rejoice over +those who, after struggles and sufferings past, have entered into +everlasting glory. + + "Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, + Yet were the fields in bud. + And the harvest,--when shall it rise again + Up through the fire and flood? + + * * * * * + + "Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, + Was it not all to save + Harvest of bread?--Harvest of men? + And the bright years, wave on wave? + + _"Search not, search not, my way-worn; + Search neither weald nor wave. + One is their heavy reaping-time + To the earth, that is one wide grave."_ + + MARKS: _All Souls' Eve._ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF HALLOWE'EN OMENS + + +The custom of making tests to learn the future comes from the old +system of augury from sacrifice. Who sees in the nuts thrown into +the fire, turning in the heat, blazing and growing black, the +writhing victim of an old-time sacrifice to an idol? + +Many superstitions and charms were believed to be active at any +time, but all those and numerous special ones worked best on +November Eve. All the tests of all the Celtic festivals have been +allotted to Hallowe'en. Cakes from the May Eve fire, hemp-seed and +prophetic dreams from Midsummer, games and sports from Lugnasad +have survived in varied forms. + +Tests are very often tried blindfold, so that the seeker may be +guided by fate. Many are mystic--to evoke apparitions from the +past or future. Others are tried with harvest grains and fruits. +Because skill and undivided attention is needed to carry them +through successfully, many have degenerated into mere contests of +skill, have lost their meaning, and become rough games. + +Answers are sought to questions about one's future career; chiefly +to: when and whom shall I marry? what will be my profession and +degree of wealth, and when shall I die? + +[Illustration: IN HALLOWE'EN TIME.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND + + +Ireland has a literature of Hallowe'en, or "Samhain," as it used to +be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the +twelfth centuries, but the events were thought to have happened +while paganism still ruled in Ireland. + +The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time +in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given +to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was +called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve +to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm +animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place +changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the +cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way +of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so +that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones +back; or one might boil egg-shells in the sight of the changeling, +who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries +of life he had never seen such a thing before. + +Brides too were stolen. + + "You shall go with me, newly married bride, + And gaze upon a merrier multitude; + White-armed Nuala and AEngus of the birds, + And Feacra of the hurtling foam, and him + Who is the ruler of the western host, + Finvarra, and the Land of Heart's Desire, + Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, + But joy is wisdom, time an endless song." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +In the first century B. C. lived Ailill and his queen Medb. As they +were celebrating their Samhain feast in the palace, + + "Three days before Samhain at all times, + And three days after, by ancient custom + Did the hosts of high aspiration + Continue to feast for the whole week." + + O'CIARAIN: _Loch Garman._ + +they offered a reward to the man who should tie a bundle of twigs +about the feet of a criminal who had been hanged by the gate. It +was dangerous to go near dead bodies on November Eve, but a bold +young man named Nera dared it, and tied the twigs successfully. As +he turned to go he saw + + "the whole of the palace as if on fire before him, and the heads + of the people of it lying on the ground, and then he thought he + saw an army going into the hill of Cruachan, and he followed + after the army." + + GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._ + +The door was shut. Nera was married to a fairy woman, who betrayed +her kindred by sending Nera to warn King Ailill of the intended +attack upon his palace the next November Eve. Nera bore summer +fruits with him to prove that he had been in the fairy _sid_. The +next November Eve, when the doors were opened Ailill entered and +discovered the crown, emblem of power, took it away, and plundered +the treasury. Nera never returned again to the homes of men. + +Another story of about the same time was that of Angus, the son of +a Tuatha god, to whom in a dream a beautiful maiden appeared. He +wasted away with love for her, and searched the country for a girl +who should look like her. At last he saw in a meadow among a +hundred and fifty maidens, each with a chain of silver about her +neck, one who was like the beauty of his dream. She wore a golden +chain about her throat, and was the daughter of King Ethal Anbual. +King Ethal's palace was stormed by Ailill, and he was forced to +give up his daughter. He gave as a reason for withholding his +consent so long, that on Samhain Princess Caer changed from a +maiden to a swan, and back again the next year. + + "And when the time came Angus went to the loch, and he saw the + three times fifty white birds there with their silver chains + about their necks, and Angus stood in a man's shape at the edge + of the loch, and he called to the girl: 'Come and speak with me, + O Caer!' + + "'Who is calling me?' said Caer. + + "'Angus calls you,' he said, 'and if you do come, I swear by my + word I will not hinder you from going into the loch again.'" + + GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._ + +She came, and he changed to a swan likewise, and they flew away to +King Dagda's palace, where every one who heard their sweet singing +was charmed into a sleep of three days and three nights. + +Princess Etain, of the race of the Tuatha, and wife of Midir, was +born again as the daughter of Queen Medb, the wife of Ailill. She +remembers a little of the land from which she came, is never quite +happy, + + "But sometimes--sometimes--tell me: have you heard, + By dusk or moonset have you never heard + Sweet voices, delicate music? Never seen + The passage of the lordly beautiful ones + Men call the Shee?" + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +even when she wins the love of King Eochaidh. When they have been +married a year, there comes Midir from the Land of Youth. By +winning a game of chess from the King, he gets anything he may ask, +and prays to see the Queen. When he sees her he sings a song of +longing to her, and Eochaidh is troubled because it is Samhain, and +he knows the great power the hosts of the air "have then over those +who wish for happiness." + + "Etain, speak! + What is the song the harper sings, what tongue + Is this he speaks? for in no Gaelic lands + Is speech like this upon the lips of men. + No word of all these honey-dripping words + Is known to me. Beware, beware the words + Brewed in the moonshine under ancient oaks + White with pale banners of the mistletoe + Twined round them in their slow and stately death. + It is the feast of Saveen" (Samhain). + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +In vain Eochaidh pleads with her to stay with him. She has already +forgotten all but Midir and the life so long ago in the Land of +Youth. + + "In the Land of Youth + There are pleasant places; + Green meadows, woods, + Swift grey-blue waters. + + "There is no age there, + Nor any sorrow. + As the stars in heaven + Are the cattle in the valleys. + + "Great rivers wander + Through flowery plains. + Streams of milk, of mead, + Streams of strong ale. + + "There is no hunger + And no thirst + In the Hollow Land, + In the Land of Youth." + + SHARP: _Immortal Hour._ + +She and Midir fly away in the form of two swans, linked by a chain +of gold. + +Cuchulain, hopelessly sick of a strange illness brought on by Fand +and Liban, fairy sisters, was visited the day before Samhain by a +messenger, who promised to cure him if he would go to the +Otherworld. Cuchulain could not make up his mind to go, but sent +Laeg, his charioteer. Such glorious reports did Laeg bring back +from the Otherworld, + + "If all Erin were mine, + And the kingship of yellow Bregia, + I would give it, no trifling deed, + To dwell for aye in the place I reached." + + _Cuchulain's Sick-bed._ (Meyer _trans._) + +that Cuchulain went thither, and championed the people there +against their enemies. He stayed a month with the fairy Fand. Emer, +his wife at home, was beset with jealousy, and plotted against +Fand, who had followed her hero home. Fand in fear returned to her +deserted husband, Emer was given a Druidic drink to drown her +jealousy, and Cuchulain another to forget his infatuation, and they +lived happily afterward. + +Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it +was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign +of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth +century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi +got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one +Hallowe'en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion +was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious +beings were assigned to them or to the devil as followers. + + "_Maire Bruin:_ + Are not they, likewise, the children of God? + + _Father Hart:_ + Colleen, they are the children of the fiend, + And they have power until the end of Time, + When God shall fight with them a great pitched battle + And hack them into pieces." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was +put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before +Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who +no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying +the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, +burned up the city with his fiery breath. + +These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," +which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, +where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open +only on November Eve + + "For the fairy mounds of Erinn are always + opened about Hallowe'en." + + _Expedition of Nera._ (Meyer _trans._) + +when the throngs of spirits, fairies, and goblins trooped out for +revels about the country. The old Druid idea of obsession, the +besieging of a person by an evil spirit, was practised by them at +that time. + + "This is the first day of the winter, and to-day the + Hosts of the Air are in their greatest power." + + WARREN: _Twig of Thorn._ + +If the fairies wished to seize a mortal--which power they had as +the sun-god could take men to himself--they caused him to give +them certain tokens by which he delivered himself into their hands. +They might be milk and fire-- + + "_Maire Bruin:_ + A little queer old woman cloaked in green, + Who came to beg a porringer of milk. + + _Bridget Bruin:_ + The good people go asking milk and fire + Upon May Eve--woe to the house that gives, + For they have power over it for a year." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +or one might receive a fairy thorn such as Oonah brings home, which +shrivels up at the touch of St. Bridget's image; + + "Oh, ever since I kept the twig of thorn and hid it, I have seen + strange things, and heard strange laughter and far voices + calling." + + WARREN: _Twig of Thorn._ + +or one might be lured by music as he stopped near the fort to watch +the dancing, for the revels were held in secret, as those of the +Druids had been, and no one could look on them unaffected. + +A story is told of Paddy More, a great stout uncivil churl, and +Paddy Beg, a cheerful little hunchback. The latter, seeing lights +and hearing music, paused by a mound, and was invited in. Urged to +tell stories, he complied; he danced as spryly as he could for his +deformity; he sang, and made himself so agreeable that the fairies +decided to take the hump off his back, and send him home a straight +manly fellow. The next Hallowe'en who should come by the same place +but Paddy More, and he stopped likewise to spy at the merrymaking. +He too was called in, but would not dance politely, added no +stories nor songs. The fairies clapped Paddy Beg's hump on his +back, and dismissed him under a double burden of discomfort. + +A lad called Guleesh, listening outside a fort on Hallowe'en heard +the spirits speaking of the fatal illness of his betrothed, the +daughter of the King of France. They said that if Guleesh but knew +it, he might boil an herb that grew by his door and give it to the +princess and make her well. Joyfully Guleesh hastened home, +prepared the herb, and cured the royal girl. + +Sometimes people did not have the luck to return, but were led away +to a realm of perpetual youth and music. + + "_Father Hart._ What are you reading? + + _Maire Bruin._ How a Princess Edane, + A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard + A voice singing on a May Eve like this, + And followed, half awake and half asleep, + Until she came into the land of faery, + Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, + Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, + Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue; + And she is still there, busied with a dance, + Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood, + Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top." + + YEATS: _Land of Heart's Desire._ + +If one returned, he found that the space which seemed to him but +one night, had been many years, and with the touch of earthly sod +the age he had postponed suddenly weighed him down. Ossian, +released from fairyland after three hundred years dalliance there, +rode back to his own country on horseback. He saw men imprisoned +under a block of marble and others trying to lift the stone. As he +leaned over to aid them the girth broke. With the touch of earth +"straightway the white horse fled away on his way home, and Ossian +became aged, decrepit, and blind." + +No place as much as Ireland has kept the belief in all sorts of +supernatural spirits abroad among its people. From the time when on +the hill of Ward, near Tara, in pre-Christian days, the sacrifices +were burned and the Tuatha were thought to appear on Samhain, to as +late as 1910, testimony to actual appearances of the "little +people" is to be found. + + "'Among the usually invisible races which I have seen in Ireland, + I distinguish five classes. There are the Gnomes, who are + earth-spirits, and who seem to be a sorrowful race. I once saw + some of them distinctly on the side of Ben Bulbin. They had + rather round heads and dark thick-set bodies, and in stature were + about two and one-half feet. The Leprechauns are different, being + full of mischief, though they, too, are small. I followed a + Leprechaun from the town of Wicklow out to the Carraig Sidhe, + "Rock of the Fairies," a distance of half a mile or more, where + he disappeared. He had a very merry face, and beckoned to me with + his finger. A third class are the Little People, who, unlike the + Gnomes and Leprechauns, are quite good-looking; and they are very + small. The Good People are tall, beautiful beings, as tall as + ourselves.... They direct the magnetic currents of the earth. The + Gods are really the Tuatha De Danann, and they are much taller + than our race.'" + + WENTZ: _Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries._ + +The sight of apparitions on Hallowe'en is believed to be fatal to +the beholder. + + "One night my lady's soul walked along the wall like a cat. Long + Tom Bowman beheld her and that day week fell he into the well and + was drowned." + + PYLE: _Priest and the Piper._ + +One version of the Jack-o'-lantern story comes from Ireland. A +stingy man named Jack was for his inhospitality barred from all +hope of heaven, and because of practical jokes on the Devil was +locked out of hell. Until the Judgment Day he is condemned to walk +the earth with a lantern to light his way. + +The place of the old lord of the dead, the Tuatha god Saman, to +whom vigil was kept and prayers said on November Eve for the good +of departed souls, was taken in Christian times by St. Colomba or +Columb Kill, the founder of a monastery in Iona in the fifth +century. In the seventeenth century the Irish peasants went about +begging money and goodies for a feast, and demanding in the name of +Columb Kill that fatted calves and black sheep be prepared. In +place of the Druid fires, candles were collected and lighted on +Hallowe'en, and prayers for the souls of the givers said before +them. The name of Saman is kept in the title "Oidhche Shamhna," +"vigil of Saman," by which the night of October 31st was until +recently called in Ireland. + +There are no Hallowe'en bonfires in Ireland now, but charms and +tests are tried. Apples and nuts, the treasure of Pomona, figure +largely in these. They are representative winter fruits, the +commonest. They can be gathered late and kept all winter. + +A popular drink at the Hallowe'en gathering in the eighteenth +century was milk in which crushed roasted apples had been mixed. It +was called lambs'-wool (perhaps from "La Mas Ubhal," "the day of +the apple fruit"). At the Hallowe'en supper "callcannon," mashed +potatoes, parsnips, and chopped onions, is indispensable. A ring is +buried in it, and the one who finds it in his portion will be +married in a year, or if he is already married, will be lucky. + + "They had colcannon, and the funniest things were found in + it--tiny dolls, mice, a pig made of china, silver sixpences, a + thimble, a ring, and lots of other things. After supper was over + all went into the big play-room, and dived for apples in a tub of + water, fished for prizes in a basin of flour; then there were + games----" + + TRANT: _Hallowe'en in Ireland._ + +A coin betokened to the finder wealth; the thimble, that he would +never marry. + +A ring and a nut are baked in a cake. The ring of course means +early marriage, the nut signifies that its finder will marry a +widow or a widower. If the kernel is withered, no marriage at all +is prophesied. In Roscommon, in central Ireland, a coin, a sloe, +and a bit of wood were baked in a cake. The one getting the sloe +would live longest, the one getting the wood was destined to die +within the year. + +A mould of flour turned out on the table held similar tokens. Each +person cut off a slice with a knife, and drew out his prize with +his teeth. + +After supper the tests were tried. In the last century nut-shells +were burned. The best-known nut test is made as follows: three nuts +are named for a girl and two sweethearts. If one burns steadily +with the girl's nut, that lover is faithful to her, but if either +hers or one of the other nuts starts away, there will be no happy +friendship between them. + +Apples are snapped from the end of a stick hung parallel to the +floor by a twisted cord which whirls the stick rapidly when it is +let go. Care has to be taken not to bite the candle burning on the +other end. Sometimes this test is made easier by dropping the +apples into a tub of water and diving for them, or piercing them +with a fork dropped straight down. + +Green herbs called "livelong" were plucked by the children and hung +up on Midsummer Eve. If a plant was found to be still green on +Hallowe'en, the one who had hung it up would prosper for the year, +but if it had turned yellow or had died, the child would also die. + +Hemp-seed is sown across three furrows, the sower repeating: +"Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee; and her that is to +be my true love, come after me and draw thee." On looking back over +his shoulder he will see the apparition of his future wife in the +act of gathering hemp. + +Seven cabbage stalks were named for any seven of the company, then +pulled up, and the guests asked to come out, and "see their +sowls." + + "One, two, three, and up to seven; + If all are white, all go to heaven; + If one is black as Murtagh's evil, + He'll soon be screechin' wi' the devil." + +Red Mike "was a queer one from his birth, an' no wonder, for he +first saw the light atween dusk an' dark o' a Hallowe'en Eve." When +the cabbage test was tried at a party where Mike was present, six +stalks were found to be white, but Mike's was "all black an' fowl +wi' worms an' slugs, an' wi' a real bad smell ahint it." Angered at +the ridicule he received, he cried: "I've the gift o' the night, I +have, an' on this day my curse can blast whatever I choose." At +that the priest showed Mike a crucifix, and he ran away howling, +and disappeared through a bog into the ground. + + SHARP: _Threefold Chronicle._ + +Twelve of the party may learn their future, if one gets a clod of +earth from the churchyard sets up twelve candles in it, lights and +names them. The fortune of each will be like that of the +candle-light named for him,--steady, wavering, or soon in darkness. + +A ball of blue yarn was thrown out of the window by a girl who held +fast to the end. She wound it over on her hand from left to right, +saying the Creed backwards. When she had nearly finished, she +expected the yarn would be held. She must ask "Who holds?" and the +wind would sigh her sweetheart's name in at the window. + +In some charms the devil was invoked directly. If one walked about +a rick nine times with a rake, saying, "I rake this rick in the +devil's name," a vision would come and take away the rake. + +If one went out with nine grains of oats in his mouth, and walked +about until he heard a girl's name called or mentioned, he would +know the name of his future wife, for they would be the same. + +Lead is melted, and poured through a key or a ring into cold water. +The form each spoonful takes in cooling indicates the occupation +of the future husband of the girl who poured it. + + "Now something like a horse would cause the jubilant maiden to + call out, 'A dragoon!' Now some dim resemblance to a helmet would + suggest a handsome member of the mounted police; or a round + object with a spike would seem a ship, and this of course meant a + sailor; or a cow would suggest a cattle-dealer, or a plough a + farmer." + + SHARP: _Threefold Chronicle._ + +After the future had been searched, a piper played a jig, to which +all danced merrily with a loud noise to scare away the evil +spirits. + +Just before midnight was the time to go out "alone and unperceived" +to a south-running brook, dip a shirt-sleeve in it, bring it home +and hang it by the fire to dry. One must go to bed, but watch till +midnight for a sight of the destined mate who would come to turn +the shirt to dry the other side. + +Ashes were raked smooth on the hearth at bedtime on Hallowe'en, and +the next morning examined for footprints. If one was turned from +the door, guests or a marriage was prophesied; if toward the door, +a death. + +To have prophetic dreams a girl should search for a briar grown +into a hoop, creep through thrice in the name of the devil, cut it +in silence, and go to bed with it under her pillow. A boy should +cut ten ivy leaves, throw away one and put the rest under his head +before he slept. + +If a girl leave beside her bed a glass of water with a sliver of +wood in it, and say before she falls asleep: + + "Husband mine that is to be, + Come this night and rescue me," + +she will dream of falling off a bridge into the water, and of being +saved at the last minute by the spirit of her future husband. To +receive a drink from his hand she must eat a cake of flour, soot, +and salt before she goes to bed. + +The Celtic spirit of yearning for the unknown, retained nowhere +else as much as in Ireland, is expressed very beautifully by the +poet Yeats in the introduction to his _Celtic Twilight_. + + "The host is riding from Knocknarea + And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare; + Caolte tossing his burning hair, + And Niam calling: 'Away, come away; + + "'And brood no more where the fire is bright, + Filling thy heart with a mortal dream; + For breasts are heaving and eyes a-gleam: + Away, come away to the dim twilight + + "'Arms are heaving and lips apart; + And if any gaze on our rushing band, + We come between him and the deed of his hand, + We come between him and the hope of his heart.' + + "The host is rushing twixt night and day, + And where is there hope or deed as fair? + Caolte tossing his burning hair, + And Niam calling: 'Away, come away.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN SCOTLAND AND THE HEBRIDES + + +As in Ireland the Scotch Baal festival of November was called +Samhain. Western Scotland, lying nearest Tara, center alike of +pagan and Christian religion in Ireland, was colonized by both the +people and the customs of eastern Ireland. + +The November Eve fires which in Ireland either died out or were +replaced by candles were continued in Scotland. In Buchan, where +was the altar-source of the Samhain fire, bonfires were lighted on +hilltops in the eighteenth century; and in Moray the idea of fires +of thanksgiving for harvest was kept to as late as 1866. All +through the eighteenth century in the Highlands and in Perthshire +torches of heath, broom, flax, or ferns were carried about the +fields and villages by each family, with the intent to cause good +crops in succeeding years. The course about the fields was sunwise, +to have a good influence. Brought home at dark, the torches were +thrown down in a heap, and made a fire. This blaze was called +"Samhnagan," "of rest and pleasure." There was much competition to +have the largest fire. Each person put in one stone to make a +circle about it. The young people ran about with burning brands. +Supper was eaten out-of-doors, and games played. After the fire had +burned out, ashes were raked over the stones. In the morning each +sought his pebble, and if he found it misplaced, harmed, or a +footprint marked near it in the ashes, he believed he should die in +a year. + +In Aberdeenshire boys went about the villages saying: "Ge's a peat +t' burn the witches." They were thought to be out stealing milk and +harming cattle. Torches used to counteract them were carried from +west to east, against the sun. This ceremony grew into a game, when +a fire was built by one party, attacked by another, and defended. +As in the May fires of purification the lads lay down in the smoke +close by, or ran about and jumped over the flames. As the fun grew +wilder they flung burning peats at each other, scattered the ashes +with their feet, and hurried from one fire to another to have a +part in scattering as many as possible before they died out. + +In 1874, at Balmoral, a royal celebration of Hallowe'en was +recorded. Royalty, tenants, and servants bore torches through the +grounds and round the estates. In front of the castle was a heap of +stuff saved for the occasion. The torches were thrown on. When the +fire was burning its liveliest, a hobgoblin appeared, drawing in a +car the figure of a witch, surrounded by fairies carrying lances. +The people formed a circle about the fire, and the witch was tossed +in. Then there were dances to the music of bag-pipes. + +It was the time of year when servants changed masters or signed up +anew under the old ones. They might enjoy a holiday before resuming +work. So they sang: + + "This is Hallaeven, + The morn is Halladay; + Nine free nichts till Martinmas, + As soon they'll wear away." + +Children born on Hallowe'en could see and converse with +supernatural powers more easily than others. In Ireland, evil +relations caused Red Mike's downfall (q. v.). For Scotland Mary +Avenel, in Scott's _Monastery_, is the classic example. + + "And touching the bairn, it's weel kenn'd she was born on + Hallowe'en, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair + than ither folk." + +There is no hint of dark relations, but rather of a +clear-sightedness which lays bare truths, even those concealed in +men's breasts. Mary Avenel sees the spirit of her father after he +has been dead for years. The White Lady of Avenel is her peculiar +guardian. + +The Scottish Border, where Mary lived, is the seat of many +superstitions and other worldly beliefs. The fairies of Scotland +are more terrible than those of Ireland, as the dells and streams +and woods are of greater grandeur, and the character of the people +more serious. It is unlucky to name the fairies, here as elsewhere, +except by such placating titles as "Good Neighbors" or "Men of +Peace." Rowan, elm, and holly are a protection against them. + + "I have tied red thread round the bairns' throats, and given ilk + ane of them a riding-wand of rowan-tree, forbye sewing up a slip + of witch-elm into their doublets; and I wish to know of your + reverence if there be onything mair that a lone woman can do in + the matter of ghosts and fairies?--be here! that I should have + named their unlucky names twice ower!" + + SCOTT: _Monastery._ + +"The sign of the cross disarmeth all evil spirits." + +These spirits of the air have not human feelings or motives. They +are conscienceless. In this respect Peter Pan is an immortal fairy +as well as an immortal child. While like a child he resents +injustice in horrified silence, like a fairy he acts with no sense +of responsibility. When he saves Wendy's brother from falling as +they fly, + + "You felt it was his cleverness that interested him, and not the + saving of human life." + + BARRIE: _Peter and Wendy._ + +The world in which Peter lived was so near the Kensington Gardens +that he could see them through the bridge as he sat on the shore of +the Neverland. Yet for a long time he could not get to them. + +Peter is a fairy piper who steals away the souls of children. + + "No man alive has seen me, + But women hear me play, + Sometimes at door or window, + Fiddling the souls away-- + The child's soul and the colleen's + Out of the covering clay." + + HOPPER: _Fairy Fiddler._ + +On Hallowe'en all traditional spirits are abroad. The Scotch +invented the idea of a "Samhanach," a goblin who comes out just at +"Samhain." It is he who in Ireland steals children. The fairies +pass at crossroads, + + "But the night is Hallowe'en, lady, + The morn is Hallowday; + Then win me, win me, and ye will, + For weel I wot ye may. + + "Just at the mirk and midnight hour + The fairy folk will ride. + And they that wad their true-love win, + At Miles Cross they maun bide." + + _Ballad of Tam Lin._ + +and in the Highlands whoever took a three-legged stool to where +three crossroads met, and sat upon it at midnight, would hear the +names of those who were to die in a year. He might bring with him +articles of dress, and as each name was pronounced throw one +garment to the fairies. They would be so pleased by this gift that +they would repeal the sentence of death. + +Even people who seemed to be like their neighbors every day could +for this night fly away and join the other beings in their revels. + + "This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en + When a' the witchie may be seen; + Some o' them black, some o' them green, + Some o' them like a turkey bean." + +A witches' party was conducted in this way. The wretched women who +had sold their souls to the Devil, left a stick in bed which by +evil means was made to have their likeness, and, anointed with the +fat of murdered babies flew off up the chimney on a broomstick with +cats attendant. Burns tells the story of a company of witches +pulling ragwort by the roadside, getting each astride her ragwort +with the summons "Up horsie!" and flying away. + + "The hag is astride + This night for a ride, + The devils and she together: + Through thick and through thin, + Now out and now in, + Though ne'er so foul be the weather. + + * * * * * + + "A thorn or a burr + She takes for a spur, + With a lash of the bramble she rides now. + Through brake and through briers, + O'er ditches and mires, + She follows the spirit that guides now." + + HERRICK: _The Hag._ + +The meeting-place was arranged by the Devil, who sometimes rode +there on a goat. At their supper no bread or salt was eaten; they +drank out of horses' skulls, and danced, sometimes back to back, +sometimes from west to east, for the dances at the ancient Baal +festivals were from east to west, and it was evil and ill-omened to +move the other way. For this dance the Devil played a bag-pipe made +of a hen's skull and cats' tails. + + "There sat Auld Nick, in shape o' beast; + A tousie tyke, black, grim, and large, + To gie them music was his charge: + He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl, + Till roof and rafters a' did dirl."[1] + + BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._ + +[1] Ring. + +The light for the revelry came from a torch flaring between the +horns of the Devil's steed the goat, and at the close the ashes +were divided for the witches to use in incantations. People +imagined that cats who had been up all night on Hallowe'en were +tired out the next morning. + +Tam o' Shanter who was watching such a dance + + "By Alloway's auld haunted kirk" + +in Ayrshire, could not resist calling out at the antics of a +neighbor whom he recognized, and was pursued by the witches. He +urged his horse to top-speed, + + "Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg, + And win the key-stane of the brig; + There at them thou thy tail may toss, + A running stream they dare na cross!" + + BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._ + +but poor Meg had no tail thereafter to toss at them, for though she +saved her rider, she was only her tail's length beyond the middle +of the bridge when the foremost witch grasped it and seared it to +a stub. + +Such witches might be questioned about the past or future. + + "He that dare sit on St. Swithin's Chair, + When the Night-Hag wings the troubled air, + Questions three, when he speaks the spell, + He may ask, and she must tell." + + SCOTT: _St. Swithin's Chair._ + +Children make of themselves bogies on this evening, carrying the +largest turnips they can save from harvest, hollowed out and carved +into the likeness of a fearsome face, with teeth and forehead +blacked, and lighted by a candle fastened inside. + +If the spirit of a person simply appears without being summoned, +and the person is still alive, it means that he is in danger. If he +comes toward the one to whom he appears the danger is over. If he +seems to go away, he is dying. + +An apparition from the future especially is sought on Hallowe'en. +It is a famous time for divination in love affairs. A typical +eighteenth century party in western Scotland is described by Robert +Burns. + +Cabbages are important in Scotch superstition. Children believe +that if they pile cabbage-stalks round the doors and windows of the +house, the fairies will bring them a new brother or sister. + + "And often when in his old-fashioned way + He questioned me,... + Who made the stars? and if within his hand + He caught and held one, would his fingers burn? + If I, the gray-haired dominie, was dug + From out a cabbage-garden such as he + Was found in----" + + BUCHANAN: _Willie Baird._ + +Kale-pulling came first on the program in Burns's _Hallowe'en_. +Just the single and unengaged went out hand in hand blindfolded to +the cabbage-garden. They pulled the first stalk they came upon, +brought it back to the house, and were unbandaged. The size and +shape of the stalk indicated the appearance of the future husband +or wife. + + "Maybe you would rather not pull a stalk that was tall and + straight and strong--that would mean Alastair? Maybe you would + rather find you had got hold of a withered old stump with a lot + of earth at the root--a decrepit old man with plenty of money in + the bank? Or maybe you are wishing for one that is slim and + supple and not so tall--for one that might mean Johnnie Semple." + + BLACK: _Hallowe'en Wraith._ + +A close white head meant an old husband, an open green head a young +one. His disposition would be like the taste of the stem. To +determine his name, the stalks were hung over the door, and the +number of one's stalk in the row noted. If Jessie put hers up third +from the beginning, and the third man who passed through the +doorway under it was named Alan, her husband's first name would be +Alan. This is practised only a little now among farmers. It has +special virtue if the cabbage has been stolen from the garden of an +unmarried person. + +Sometimes the pith of a cabbage-stalk was pushed out, the hole +filled with tow, which was set afire and blown through keyholes on +Hallowe'en. + + "Their runts clean through and through were bored, + And stuffed with raivelins fou, + And like a chimley when on fire + Each could the reek outspue. + + "Jock through the key-hole sent a cloud + That reached across the house, + While in below the door reek rushed + Like water through a sluice." + + DICK: _Splores of a Hallowe'en._ + +Cabbage-broth was a regular dish at the Hallowe'en feast. Mashed +potatoes, as in Ireland, or a dish of meal and milk holds symbolic +objects--a ring, a thimble, and a coin. In the cake are baked a +ring and a key. The ring signifies to the possessor marriage, and +the key a journey. + +Apple-ducking is still a universal custom in Scotland. A sixpence +is sometimes dropped into the tub or stuck into an apple to make +the reward greater. The contestants must keep their hands behind +their backs. + +Nuts are put before the fire in pairs, instead of by threes as in +Ireland, and named for a lover and his lass. If they burn to ashes +together, long happy married life is destined for the lovers. If +they crackle or start away from each other, dissension and +separation are ahead. + + "Jean slips in twa, wi' tentie[1] e'e; + Wha 't was, she wadna tell; + But this is _Jock_, an' this is _me_, + She says in to hersel; + He bleez'd owre her, an' she owre him, + As they wad never mair part; + Till fuff! he started up the lum,[2] + And Jean had e'en a sair heart + To see't that night." + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Careful. + +[2] Chimney. + +Three "luggies," bowls with handles like the Druid lamps, were +filled, one with clean, one with dirty water, and one left empty. +The person wishing to know his fate in marriage was blindfolded, +turned about thrice, and put down his left hand. If he dipped it +into the clean water, he would marry a maiden; if into the dirty, a +widow; if into the empty dish, not at all. He tried until he got +the same result twice. The dishes were changed about each time. + +This spell still remains, as does that of hemp-seed sowing. One +goes out alone with a handful of hemp-seed, sows it across ridges +of ploughed land, and harrows it with anything convenient, perhaps +with a broom. Having said: + + "Hemp-seed, I saw thee, + An' her that is to be my lass + Come after me an' draw thee----" + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +he looks behind him to see his sweetheart gathering hemp. This +should be tried just at midnight with the moon behind. + + "At even o' Hallowmas no sleep I sought, + But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought. + I scattered round the seed on every side, + And three times three in trembling accents cried, + 'This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, + Who shall my true-love be, the crop shall mow.'" + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +A spell that has been discontinued is throwing the clue of blue +yarn into the kiln-pot, instead of out of the window, as in +Ireland. As it is wound backward, something holds it. The winder +must ask, "Wha hauds?" to hear the name of her future sweetheart. + + "An' ay she win't, an' ay she swat-- + I wat she made nae jaukin; + Till something held within the pat, + Guid Lord! but she was quakin! + But whether 't was the Deil himsel, + Or whether 't was a bauk-en'[1] + Or whether it was Andrew Bell, + She did na wait on talkin + To speir[2] that night." + + BURNS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Cross-beam. + +[2] Ask. + +Another spell not commonly tried now is winnowing three measures of +imaginary corn, as one stands in the barn alone with both doors +open to let the spirits that come in go out again freely. As one +finishes the motions, the apparition of the future husband will +come in at one door and pass out at the other. + + "'I had not winnowed the last weight clean out, and the moon was + shining bright upon the floor, when in stalked the presence of my + dear Simon Glendinning, that is now happy. I never saw him + plainer in my life than I did that moment; he held up an arrow as + he passed me, and I swarf'd awa' wi' fright.... But mark the end + o' 't, Tibb: we were married, and the grey-goose wing was the + death o' him after a'.'" + + SCOTT: _The Monastery._ + +At times other prophetic appearances were seen. + + "Just as she was at the wark, what does she see in the moonlicht + but her ain coffin moving between the doors instead of the + likeness of a gudeman! and as sure's death she was in her coffin + before the same time next year." + + ANON: _Tale of Hallowe'en._ + +Formerly a stack of beans, oats, or barley was measured round with +the arms against sun. At the end of the third time the arms would +enclose the vision of the future husband or wife. + +Kale-pulling, apple-snapping, and lead-melting (see Ireland) are +social rites, but many were to be tried alone and in secret. A +Highland divination was tried with a shoe, held by the tip, and +thrown over the house. The person will journey in the direction the +toe points out. If it falls sole up, it means bad luck. + +Girls would pull a straw each out of a thatch in Broadsea, and +would take it to an old woman in Fraserburgh. The seeress would +break the straw and find within it a hair the color of the +lover's-to-be. Blindfolded they plucked heads of oats, and counted +the number of grains to find out how many children they would have. +If the tip was perfect, not broken or gone, they would be married +honorably. + +Another way of determining the number of children was to drop the +white of an egg into a glass of water. The number of divisions was +the number sought. White of egg is held with water in the mouth, +like the grains of oats in Ireland, while one takes a walk to hear +mentioned the name of his future wife. Names are written on papers, +and laid upon the chimney-piece. Fate guides the hand of a +blindfolded man to the slip which bears his sweetheart's name. + +A Hallowe'en mirror is made by the rays of the moon shining into a +looking-glass. If a girl goes secretly into a room at midnight +between October and November, sits down at the mirror, and cuts an +apple into nine slices, holding each on the point of a knife before +she eats it, she may see in the moonlit glass the image of her +lover looking over her left shoulder, and asking for the last piece +of apple. + +The wetting of the sark-sleeve in a south-running burn where "three +lairds' lands meet," and carrying it home to dry before the fire, +was really a Scotch custom, but has already been described in +Ireland. + + "The last Hallowe'en I was waukin[1] + My droukit[2] sark-sleeve, as ye kin-- + His likeness came up the house staukin, + And the very grey breeks o' Tam Glen!" + + BURNS: _Tam Glen._ + +[1] Watching. + +[2] Drenched. + +Just before breaking up, the crowd of young people partook of +sowens, oatmeal porridge cakes with butter, and strunt, a liquor, +as they hoped for good luck throughout the year. + +The Hebrides, Scottish islands off the western coast, have +Hallowe'en traditions of their own, as well as many borrowed from +Ireland and Scotland. Barra, isolated near the end of the island +chain, still celebrates the Celtic days, Beltaine and November Eve. + +In the Hebrides is the Irish custom of eating on Hallowe'en a cake +of meal and salt, or a salt herring, bones and all, to dream of +some one bringing a drink of water. Not a word must be spoken, nor +a drop of water drunk till the dream comes. + +In St. Kilda a large triangular cake is baked which must be all +eaten up before morning. + +A curious custom that prevailed in the island of Lewis in the +eighteenth century was the worship of Shony, a sea-god with a Norse +name. His ceremonies were similar to those paid to Saman in +Ireland, but more picturesque. Ale was brewed at church from malt +brought collectively by the people. One took a cupful in his hand, +and waded out into the sea up to his waist, saying as he poured it +out: "Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you'll be so +kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware, for enriching our ground the +ensuing year." The party returned to the church, waited for a given +signal when a candle burning on the altar was blown out. Then they +went out into the fields, and drank ale with dance and song. + +The "dumb cake" originated in Lewis. Girls were each apportioned a +small piece of dough, mixed with any but spring water. They kneaded +it with their left thumbs, in silence. Before midnight they pricked +initials on them with a new pin, and put them by the fire to bake. +The girls withdrew to the farther end of the room, still in silence. +At midnight each lover was expected to enter and lay his hand on +the cake marked with his initials. + +In South Uist and Eriskay on Hallowe'en fairies are out, a source +of terror to those they meet. + + "Hallowe'en will come, will come, + Witchcraft will be set a-going, + Fairies will be at full speed, + Running in every pass. + Avoid the road, children, children." + +But for the most part this belief has died out on Scottish land, +except near the Border, and Hallowe'en is celebrated only by +stories and jokes and games, songs and dances. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN ENGLAND AND MAN + + +Man especially has a treasury of fairy tradition, Celtic and Norse +combined. Manx fairies too dwell in the middle world, since they +are fit for neither heaven nor hell. Even now Manx people think +they see circles of light in the late October midnight, and little +folk dancing within. + +Longest of all in Man was Sauin (Samhain) considered New Year's +Day. According to the old style of reckoning time it came on +November 12. + + "To-night is New Year's night. + Hogunnaa!" + _Mummers' Song._ + +As in Scotland the servants' year ends with October. + +New Year tests for finding out the future were tried on Sauin. To +hear her sweetheart's name a girl took a mouthful of water and two +handfuls of salt, and sat down at a door. The first name she heard +mentioned was the wished-for one. The three dishes proclaimed the +fate of the blindfolded seeker as in Scotland. Each was blindfolded +and touched one of several significant objects--meal for +prosperity, earth for death, a net for tangled fortunes. + +Before retiring each filled a thimble with salt, and emptied it out +in a little mound on a plate, remembering his own. If any heap were +found fallen over by morning, the person it represented was +destined to die in a year. The Manx looked for prints in the +smooth-strewn ashes on the hearth, as the Scotch did, and gave the +same interpretation. + +There had been Christian churches in Britain as early as 300 A. D., +and Christian missionaries, St. Ninian, Pelagius, and St. Patrick, +were active in the next century, and in the course of time St. +Augustine. Still the old superstitions persisted, as they always do +when they have grown up with the people. + +King Arthur, who was believed to have reigned in the fifth century, +may be a personification of the sun-god. He comes from the +Otherworld, his magic sword Excalibur is brought thence to him, he +fights twelve battles, in number like the months, and is wounded to +death by evil Modred, once his own knight. He passes in a boat, +attended by his fairy sister and two other queens, + + "'To the island-valley of Avilion; + Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, + Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies + Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard-lawns + And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea----'" + + TENNYSON: _Passing of Arthur._ + +The hope of being healed there is like that given to Cuchulain (q. +v.), to persuade him to visit the fairy kingdom. Arthur was +expected to come again sometime, as the sun renews his course. As +he disappeared from the sight of Bedivere, the last of his knights, + + "The new sun rose bringing the new year." + + _Ibid._ + +Avilion means "apple-island." It was like the Hesperides of Greek +mythology, the western islands where grew the golden apples of +immortality. + +In Cornwall after the sixth century, the sun-god became St. +Michael, and the eastern point where he appeared St. Michael's +seat. + + "Where the great vision of the guarded mount + Looks toward Namancos, and Bayona's hold." + + MILTON: _Lycidas._ + +As fruit to Pomona, so berries were devoted to fairies. They would +not let any one cut a blackthorn shoot on Hallowe'en. In Cornwall +sloes and blackberries were considered unfit to eat after the +fairies had passed by, because all the goodness was extracted. So +they were eaten to heart's content on October 31st, and avoided +thereafter. Hazels, because they were thought to contain wisdom and +knowledge, were also sacred. + +Besides leaving berries for the "Little People," food was set out +for them on Hallowe'en, and on other occasions. They rewarded this +hospitality by doing an extraordinary amount of work. + + "--how the drudging goblin sweat + To earn his cream-bowl duly set, + When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, + His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn + That ten day-laborers could not end. + Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, + And stretcht out all the chimney's length + Basks at the fire his hairy strength." + + MILTON: _L'Allegro._ + +Such sprites did not scruple to pull away the chair as one was +about to sit down, to pinch, or even to steal children and leave +changelings in their places. The first hint of dawn drove them back +to their haunts. + + "When larks 'gin sing, + Away we fling; + And babes new borne steal as we go, + And elfe in bed + We leave instead, + And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!" + + JONSON: _Robin Goodfellow._ + +Soulless and without gratitude or memory spirits of the air may be, +like Ariel in _The Tempest_. He, like the fairy harpers of Ireland, +puts men to sleep with his music. + + "_Sebastian._ What, art thou waking? + + _Antonio._ Do you not hear me speak? + + _Sebastian._ I do; and, surely, + It is a sleepy language; and thou speak'st + Out of thy sleep: What is it thou didst say? + This is a strange repose, to be asleep + With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, + And yet so fast asleep." + + SHAKSPERE: _The Tempest._ + +The people of England, in common with those who lived in the other +countries of Great Britain and in Europe, dreaded the coming of +winter not only on account of the cold and loneliness, but because +they believed that at this time the powers of evil were abroad and +ascendant. This belief harked back to the old idea that the sun had +been vanquished by his enemies in the late autumn. It was to forget +the fearful influences about them that the English kept festival +so much in the winter-time. The Lords of Misrule, leaders of the +revelry, "beginning their rule on All Hallow Eve, continued the +same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification, commonlie +called Candelmas day: In all of which space there were fine and +subtle disguisinges, Maskes, and Mummeries." This was written of +King Henry IV's court at Eltham, in 1401, and is true of centuries +before and after. They gathered about the fire and made merry while +the October tempests whirled the leaves outside, and shrieked round +the house like ghosts and demons on a mad carousal. + + "The autumn wind--oh hear it howl: + Without--October's tempests scowl, + As he troops away on the raving wind! + And leaveth dry leaves in his path behind. + + * * * * * + + "'Tis the night--the night + Of the graves' delight, + And the warlock[1] are at their play! + + Ye think that without + The wild winds shout, + But no, it is they--it is they!" + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +[1] Devils. + +Witchcraft--the origin of which will be traced farther on--had a +strong following in England. The three witches in _Macbeth_ are +really fates who foretell the future, but they have a kettle in +which they boil + + "Fillet of a fenny snake, + + * * * * * + + Eye of newt, and toe of frog, + Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, + Adder's fork, and blindworm's sting, + Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, + For a charm of powerful trouble----" + + SHAKSPERE: _Macbeth._ + +They connect themselves thereby with those evil creatures who +pursued Tam o' Shanter, and were servants of the Devil. In 1892 in +Lincolnshire, people believed that if they looked in through the +church door on Hallowe'en they would see the Devil preaching his +doctrines from the pulpit, and inscribing the names of new witches +in his book. + +The Spectre Huntsman, known in Windsor Forest as Herne the Hunter, +and in Todmorden as Gabriel Ratchets, was the spirit of an ungodly +hunter who for his crimes was condemned to lead the chase till the +Judgment Day. In a storm on Hallowe'en is heard the belling of his +hounds. + + "Still, still shall last the dreadful chase + Till time itself shall have an end; + By day they scour earth's cavern'd space, + At midnight's witching hour, ascend. + + "This is the horn, the hound, and horse, + That oft the lated peasant hears: + Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross, + When the wild din invades his ears." + + SCOTT: _Wild Huntsman._ + +In the north of England Hallowe'en was called "nut-crack" and +"snap-apple night." It was celebrated by "young people and +sweethearts." + +A variation of the nut test is, naming two for two lovers before +they are put before the fire to roast. The unfaithful lover's nut +cracks and jumps away, the loyal burns with a steady ardent flame +to ashes. + + "Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame, + And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name. + This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd, + That in a flame of brightest color blaz'd; + As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow, + For 't was thy nut that did so brightly glow." + + GAY: _The Spell._ + +If they jump toward each other, they will be rivals. If one of the +nuts has been named for the girl and burns quietly with a lover's +nut, they will live happily together. If they are restless, there +is trouble ahead. + + "These glowing nuts are emblems true + Of what in human life we view; + The ill-matched couple fret and fume, + And thus in strife themselves consume, + Or from each other wildly start + And with a noise forever part. + But see the happy, happy pair + Of genuine love and truth sincere; + + With mutual fondness, while they burn + Still to each other kindly turn: + And as the vital sparks decay, + Together gently sink away. + Till, life's fierce ordeal being past, + Their mingled ashes rest at last." + + GRAYDON: _On Nuts Burning, Allhallows Eve._ + +Sometimes peas on a hot shovel are used instead. + +Down the centuries from the Druid tree-worship comes the spell of +the walnut-tree. It is circled thrice, with the invocation: "Let +her that is to be my true-love bring me some walnuts;" and directly +a spirit will be seen in the tree gathering nuts. + + "Last Hallow Eve I sought a walnut-tree, + In hope my true Love's face that I might see; + Three times I called, three times I walked apace; + Then in the tree I saw my true Love's face." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +The seeds of apples were used in many trials. Two stuck on cheeks +or eyelids indicated by the time they clung the faithfulness of the +friends named for them. + + "See from the core two kernels brown I take: + This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, + And Booby Clod on t'other side is borne; + But Booby Clod soon drops upon the ground, + A certain token that his love's unsound; + While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last. + Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +In a tub float stemless apples, to be seized by the teeth of him +desirous of having his love returned. If he is successful in +bringing up the apple, his love-affair will end happily. + + "The rosy apple's bobbing + Upon the mimic sea-- + 'T is tricksy and elusive, + And glides away from me. + + "One moment it is dreaming + Beneath the candle's glare, + Then over wave and eddy + It glances here and there. + + "And when at last I capture + The prize with joy aglow, + I sigh, may I this sunshine + Of golden rapture know + + "When I essay to gather + In all her witchery + Love's sweetest rosy apple + On Love's uncertain sea." + + MUNKITTRICK: _Hallowe'en Wish._ + +An apple is peeled all in one piece, and the paring swung three +times round the head and dropped behind the left shoulder. If it +does not break, and is looked at over the shoulder it forms the +initial of the true sweetheart's name. + + "I pare this pippin round and round again, + My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain: + I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head. + A perfect 'L' upon the ground is read." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +In the north of England was a unique custom, "the scadding of +peas." A pea-pod was slit, a bean pushed inside, and the opening +closed again. The full pods were boiled, and apportioned to be +shelled and the peas eaten with butter and salt. The one finding +the bean on his plate would be married first. Gay records another +test with peas which is like the final trial made with kale-stalks. + + "As peascods once I plucked I chanced to see + One that was closely filled with three times three; + Which when I crop'd, I safely home convey'd, + And o'er the door the spell in secret laid;-- + The latch moved up, when who should first come in, + But in his proper person--Lubberkin." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +Candles, relics of the sacred fire, play an important part +everywhere on Hallowe'en. In England too the lighted candle and the +apple were fastened to the stick, and as it whirled, each person in +turn sprang up and tried to bite the apple. + + "Or catch th' elusive apple with a bound, + As with the taper it flew whizzing round." + +This was a rough game, more suited to boys' frolic than the ghostly +divinations that preceded it. Those with energy to spare found +material to exercise it on. In an old book there is a picture of a +youth sitting on a stick placed across two stools. On one end of +the stick is a lighted candle from which he is trying to light +another in his hand. Beneath is a tub of water to receive him if he +over-balances sideways. These games grew later into practical +jokes. + +The use of a goblet may perhaps come from the story of "The Luck of +Edenhall," a glass stolen from the fairies, and holding ruin for +the House by whom it was stolen, if it should ever be broken. With +ring and goblet this charm was tried: the ring, symbol of marriage, +was suspended by a hair within a glass, and a name spelled out by +beginning the alphabet over each time the ring struck the glass. + +When tired of activity and noise, the party gathered about a +story-teller, or passed a bundle of fagots from hand to hand, each +selecting one and reciting an installment of the tale till his +stick burned to ashes. + + "I tell ye the story this chill Hallowe'en, + For it suiteth the spirit-eve." + + COXE: _Hallowe'en._ + +To induce prophetic dreams the wood-and-water test was tried in +England also. + + "Last Hallow Eve I looked my love to see, + And tried a spell to call her up to me. + With wood and water standing by my side + I dreamed a dream, and saw my own sweet bride." + + GAY: _Pastorals._ + +Though Hallowe'en is decidedly a country festival, in the +seventeenth century young gentlemen in London chose a Master of the +Revels, and held masques and dances with their friends on this +night. + +In central and southern England the ecclesiastical side of +Hallowtide is stressed. + +Bread or cake has till recently (1898) been as much a part of +Hallowe'en preparations as plum pudding at Christmas. Probably this +originated from an autumn baking of bread from the new grain. In +Yorkshire each person gets a triangular seed-cake, and the evening +is called "cake night." + + "Wife, some time this weeke, if the wether hold cleere, + An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare. + Remember you, therefore, though I do it not, + The seed-cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot." + + TUSSER: _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, 1580. + +Cakes appear also at the vigil of All Souls', the next day. At a +gathering they lie in a heap for the guests to take. In return they +are supposed to say prayers for the dead. + + "A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake; have mercy on + all Christen souls for a Soule-cake." + + _Old Saying._ + +The poor in Staffordshire and Shropshire went about singing for +soul-cakes or money, promising to pray and to spend the alms in +masses for the dead. The cakes were called Soul-mass or "somas" +cakes. + + "Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake; + Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake. + One for Peter, two for Paul, + Three for them who made us all." + + _Notes and Queries._ + +In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in +memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth +issued commands against this practice. + +In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go +about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches. +If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence +could remain near. + +In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about +the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in +Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory. + +Like the Bretons, the English have the superstition that the dead +return on Hallowe'en. + + "'Why do you wait at your door, woman, + Alone in the night?' + 'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger, + To show him a light. + He will see me afar on the road, + And be glad at the sight.' + + "'Have you no fear in your heart, woman, + To stand there alone? + There is comfort for you and kindly content + Beside the hearthstone.' + But she answered, 'No rest can I have + Till I welcome my own.' + + "'Is it far he must travel to-night, + This man of your heart?' + 'Strange lands that I know not, and pitiless seas + Have kept us apart, + And he travels this night to his home + Without guide, without chart.' + + "'And has he companions to cheer him?' + 'Aye, many,' she said. + 'The candles are lighted, the hearthstones are swept, + The fires glow red. + We shall welcome them out of the night-- + Our home-coming dead.'" + + LETTS: _Hallowe'en._ + +[Illustration: THE WITCH OF THE WALNUT-TREE.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WALES + + +In Wales the custom of fires persisted from the time of the Druid +festival-days longer than in any other place. First sacrifices were +burned in them; then instead of being burned to death, the +creatures merely passed through the fire; and with the rise of +Christianity fire was thought to be a protection against the evil +power of the same gods. + +Pontypridd, in South Wales, was the Druid religious center of +Wales. It is still marked by a stone circle and an altar on a hill. +In after years it was believed that the stones were people changed +to that form by the power of a witch. + +In North Wales the November Eve fire, which each family built in +the most prominent place near the house, was called Coel Coeth. +Into the dying fire each member of the family threw a white stone +marked so that he could recognize it again. Circling about the fire +hand-in-hand they said their prayers and went to bed. In the +morning each searched for his stone, and if he could not find it, +he believed that he would die within the next twelve months. This +is still credited. There is now the custom also of watching the +fires till the last spark dies, and instantly rushing down hill, +"the devil (or the cutty black sow) take the hindmost." A +Cardiganshire proverb says: + + "A cutty[1] black sow + On every stile, + Spinning and carding + Every Allhallows' Eve." + +[1] Short-tailed. + +November Eve was called "Nos-Galan-Gaeof," the night of the winter +Calends, that is, the night before the first day of winter. To the +Welsh it was New Year's Eve. + +Welsh fairy tradition resembles that in the near-by countries. +There is an old story of a man who lay down to sleep inside a +fairy ring, a circle of greener grass where the fairies danced by +night. The fairies carried him away and kept him seven years, and +after he had been rescued from them he would neither eat nor speak. + +In the sea was the Otherworld, a + + "Green fairy island reposing + In sunlight and beauty on ocean's calm breast." + + PARRY: _Welsh Melodies._ + +This was the abode of the Druids, and hence of all supernatural +beings, who were + + "Something betwixt heaven and hell, + Something that neither stood nor fell." + + SCOTT: _The Monastery._ + +As in other countries the fairies or pixies are to be met at +crossroads, where happenings, such as funerals, may be witnessed +weeks before they really occur. + +At the Hallow Eve supper parsnips and cakes are eaten, and nuts and +apples roasted. A "puzzling jug" holds the ale. In the rim are +three holes that seem merely ornamental. They are connected with +the bottom of the jug by pipes through the handle, and the +unwitting toper is well drenched unless he is clever enough to see +that he must stop up two of the holes, and drink through the third. + +Spells are tried in Wales too with apples and nuts. There is +ducking and snapping for apples. Nuts are thrown into the fire, +denoting prosperity if they blaze brightly, misfortune if they pop, +or smoulder and turn black. + + "Old Pally threw on a nut. It flickered and then blazed up. + Maggee tossed one into the fire. It smouldered and gave no + light." + + MARKS: _All-Hallows Honeymoon._ + +Fate is revealed by the three luggies and the ball of yarn thrown +out of the window: Scotch and Irish charms. The leek takes the +place of the cabbage in Scotland. Since King Cadwallo decorated his +soldiers with leeks for their valor in a battle by a leek-garden, +they have been held in high esteem in Wales. A girl sticks a knife +among leeks at Hallowe'en, and walks backward out of the garden. +She returns later to find that her future husband has picked up the +knife and thrown it into the center of the leek-bed. + +Taking two long-stemmed roses, a girl goes to her room in silence. +She twines the stems together, naming one for her sweetheart and +the other for herself, and thinking this rhyme: + + "Twine, twine, and intertwine. + Let his love be wholly mine. + If his heart be kind and true, + Deeper grow his rose's hue." + +She can see, by watching closely, her lover's rose grow darker. + +The sacred ash figures in one charm. The party of young people seek +an even-leaved sprig of ash. The first who finds one calls out +"cyniver." If a boy calls out first, the first girl who finds +another perfect shoot bears the name of the boy's future wife. + +Dancing and singing to the music of the harp close the evening. + +Instead of leaving stones in the fire to determine who are to die, +people now go to church to see by the light of a candle held in the +hand the spirits of those marked for death, or to hear the names +called. The wind "blowing over the feet of the corpses" howls about +the doors of those who will not be alive next Hallowe'en. + +On the Eve of All Souls' Day, twenty-four hours after Hallowe'en, +children in eastern Wales go from house to house singing for + + "An apple or a pear, a plum or a cherry, + Or any good thing to make us merry." + +It is a time when charity is given freely to the poor. On this +night and the next day, fires are burned, as in England, to light +souls through Purgatory, and prayers are made for a good wheat +harvest next year by the Welsh, who keep the forms of religion very +devoutly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE + + +The Celts had been taught by their priests that the soul is +immortal. When the body died the spirit passed instantly into +another existence in a country close at hand. We remember that the +Otherworld of the British Isles, peopled by the banished Tuatha and +all superhuman beings, was either in caves in the earth, as in +Ireland, or in an island like the English Avalon. By giving a +mortal one of their magic apples to eat, fairies could entice him +whither they would, and at last away into their country. + +In the Irish story of Nera (q. v.), the corpse of the criminal is +the cause of Nera's being lured into the cave. So the dead have the +same power as fairies, and live in the same place. On May Eve and +November Eve the dead and the fairies hold their revels together +and make excursions together. If a young person died, he was said +to be called away by the fairies. The Tuatha may not have been a +race of gods, but merely the early Celts, who grew to godlike +proportions as the years raised a mound of lore and legends for +their pedestal. So they might really be only the dead, and not of +superhuman nature. + +In the fourth century A. D., the men of England were hard pressed +by the Picts and Scots from the northern border, and were helped in +their need by the Teutons. When this tribe saw the fair country of +the Britons they decided to hold it for themselves. After they had +driven out the northern tribes, in the fifth century, when King +Arthur was reigning in Cornwall, they drove out those whose cause +they had fought. So the Britons were scattered to the mountains of +Wales, to Cornwall, and across the Channel to Armorica, a part of +France, which they named Brittany after their home-land. In lower +Brittany, out of the zone of French influence, a language something +like Welsh or old British is still spoken, and many of the Celtic +beliefs were retained more untouched than in Britain, not clear of +paganism till the seventeenth century. Here especially did +Christianity have to adapt the old belief to her own ends. + +Gaul, as we have seen from Caesar's account, had been one of the +chief seats of Druidical belief. The religious center was Carnutes, +now Chartrain. The rites of sacrifice survived in the same forms as +in the British Isles. In the fields of Deux-Sevres fires were built +of stubble, ferns, leaves, and thorns, and the people danced about +them and burned nuts in them. On St. John's Day animals were burned +in the fires to secure the cattle from disease. This was continued +down into the seventeenth century. + +The pagan belief that lasted the longest in Brittany, and is by no +means dead yet, was the cult of the dead. Caesar said that the Celts +of Gaul traced their ancestry from the god of death, whom he called +Dispater. Now figures of l'Ankou, a skeleton armed with a spear, +can be seen in most villages of Brittany. This mindfulness of +death was strengthened by the sight of the prehistoric cairns of +stones on hilltops, the ancient altars of the Druids, and dolmens, +formed of one flat rock resting like a roof on two others set up on +end with a space between them, ancient tombs; and by the Bretons +being cut off from the rest of France by the nature of the country, +and shut in among the uplands, black and misty in November, and +blown over by chill Atlantic winds. Under a seeming dull +indifference and melancholy the Bretons conceal a lively +imagination, and no place has a greater wealth of legendary +literature. + +What fairies, dwarfs, pixies, and the like are to the Celts of +other places, the spirits of the dead are to the Celts of Brittany. +They possess the earth on Christmas, St. John's Day, and All +Saints'. In Finistere, that western point of France, there is a +saying that on the Eve of All Souls' "there are more dead in every +house than sands on the shore." The dead have the power to charm +mortals and take them away, and to foretell the future. They must +not be spoken of directly, any more than the fairies of the +Scottish border, or met with, for fear of evil results. + +By the Bretons of the sixth century the near-by island of Britain, +which they could just see on clear days, was called the Otherworld. +An historian, Procopius, tells how the people nearest Britain were +exempted from paying tribute to the Franks, because they were +subject to nightly summons to ferry the souls of the dead across in +their boats, and deliver them into the hands of the keeper of +souls. Farther inland a black bog seemed to be the entrance to an +otherworld underground. One location which combined the ideas of an +island and a cave was a city buried in the sea. The people imagined +they could hear the bells of Ker-Is ringing, and joyous music +sounding, for though this was a city of the dead, it resembled the +fairy palaces of Ireland, and was ruled by King Grallon and his +fair daughter Dahut, who could lure mortals away by her beauty and +enchantments. + +The approach of winter is believed to drive like the flocks, the +souls of the dead from their cold cheerless graves to the food and +warmth of home. This is why November Eve, the night before the +first day of winter, was made sacred to them. + + "When comes the harvest of the year + Before the scythe the wheat will fall." + + BOTREL: _Songs of Brittany._ + +The harvest-time reminded the Bretons of the garnering by that +reaper, Death. On November Eve milk is poured on graves, feasts and +candles set out on the tables, and fires lighted on the hearths to +welcome the spirits of departed kinsfolk and friends. + +In France from the twelfth to the fourteenth century stone +buildings like lighthouses were erected in cemeteries. They were +twenty or thirty feet high, with lanterns on top. On Hallowe'en +they were kept burning to safeguard the people from the fear of +night-wandering spirits and the dead, so they were called +"lanternes des morts." + +The cemetery is the social center of the Breton village. It is at +once meeting-place, playground, park, and church. The tombs that +outline the hills make the place seem one vast cemetery. On All +Souls' Eve in the mid-nineteenth century the "procession of tombs" +was held. All formed a line and walked about the cemetery, calling +the names of those who were dead, as they approached their +resting-places. The record was carefully remembered, so that not +one should seem to be forgotten. + +"We live with our dead," say the Bretons. First on the Eve of All +Souls' comes the religious service, "black vespers." The +blessedness of death is praised, the sorrows and shortness of life +dwelt upon. After a common prayer all go out to the cemetery to +pray separately, each by the graves of his kin, or to the "place of +bones," where the remains of those long dead are thrown all +together in one tomb. They can be seen behind gratings, by the +people as they pass, and rows of skulls at the sides of the +entrance can be touched. In these tombs are Latin inscriptions +meaning: "Remember thou must die," "To-day to me, and to-morrow to +thee," and others reminding the reader of his coming death. + +From the cemetery the people go to a house or an inn which is the +gathering-place for the night, singing or talking loudly on the +road to warn the dead who are hastening home, lest they may meet. +Reunions of families take place on this night, in the spirit of the +Roman feast of the dead, the Feralia, of which Ovid wrote: + + "After the visit to the tombs and to the ancestors who are no + longer with us, it is pleasant to turn towards the living; after + the loss of so many, it is pleasant to behold those who remain of + our blood, and to reckon up the generations of our descendants." + + _Fasti._ + +A toast is drunk to the memory of the departed. The men sit about +the fireplace smoking or weaving baskets; the women apart, knitting +or spinning by the light of the fire and one candle. The children +play with their gifts of apples and nuts. As the hour grows later, +and mysterious noises begin to be heard about the house, and a +curtain sways in a draught, the thoughts of the company already +centred upon the dead find expression in words, and each has a tale +to tell of an adventure with some friend or enemy who has died. + +The dead are thought to take up existence where they left it off, +working at the same trades, remembering their old debts, likes and +dislikes, even wearing the same clothes they wore in life. Most of +them stay not in some distant, definite Otherworld, but frequent +the scenes of their former life. They never trespass upon daylight, +and it is dangerous to meet them at night, because they are very +ready to punish any slight to their memory, such as selling their +possessions or forgetting the hospitality due them. L'Ankou will +come to get a supply of shavings if the coffins are not lined with +them to make a softer resting-place for the dead bodies. + +The lively Celtic imagination turns the merest coincidence into an +encounter with a spirit, and the poetic temperament of the +narrators clothes the stories with vividness and mystery. They tell +how the presence of a ghost made the midsummer air so cold that +even wood did not burn, and of groans and footsteps underground as +long as the ghost is displeased with what his relatives are doing. + +Just before midnight a bell-man goes about the streets to give +warning of the hour when the spirits will arrive. + + "They will sit where we sat, and will talk of us as we talked of + them: in the gray of the morning only will they go away." + + LE BRAZ: _Night of the Dead._ + +The supper for the souls is then set out. The poor who live in the +mountains have only black corn, milk, and smoked bacon to offer, +but it is given freely. Those who can afford it spread on a white +cloth dishes of clotted milk, hot pancakes, and mugs of cider. + +After all have retired to lie with both eyes shut tight lest they +see one of the guests, death-singers make their rounds, chanting +under the windows: + + "You are comfortably lying in your bed, + But with the poor dead it is otherwise; + You are stretched softly in your bed + While the poor souls are wandering abroad. + + "A white sheet and five planks, + A bundle of straw beneath the head, + Five feet of earth above + Are all the worldly goods we own." + + LE BRAZ: _Night of the Dead._ + +The tears of their deserted friends disturb the comfort of the +dead, and sometimes they appear to tell those in sorrow that their +shrouds are always wet from the tears shed on their graves. + +Wakened by the dirge of the death-singers the people rise and pray +for the souls of the departed. + +Divination has little part in the annals of the evening, but one in +Finistere is recorded. Twenty-five new needles are laid in a dish, +and named, and water is poured upon them. Those who cross are +enemies. + +In France is held a typical Continental celebration of All Saints' +and All Souls'. On October 31st the children go asking for flowers +to decorate the graves, and to adorn the church. At night bells +ring to usher in All Saints'. On the day itself the churches are +decorated gaily with flowers, candles, and banners, and a special +service is held. On the second day of November the light and color +give way to black drapings, funeral songs, and prayers. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TEUTONIC RELIGION. WITCHES + + +The Teutons, that race of northern peoples called by the Romans, +"barbarians," comprised the Goths and Vandals who lived in +Scandinavia, and the Germans who dwelt north of Italy and east of +Gaul. + +The nature of the northern country was such that the people could +not get a living by peaceful agriculture. So it was natural that in +the intervals of cattle-tending they should explore the seas all +about, and ravage neighboring lands. The Romans and the Gauls +experienced this in the centuries just before and after Christ, and +England from the eighth to the tenth centuries. Such a life made +the Norsemen adventurous, hardy, warlike, independent, and quick of +action, while the Celts were by nature more slothful and fond of +peaceful social gatherings, though of quicker intellect and wit. + +Like the Greeks and Romans, the Teutons had twelve gods and +goddesses, among whom were Odin or Wotan, the king, and his wife +Freya, queen of beauty and love. Idun guarded the apples of +immortality, which the gods ate to keep them eternally young. The +chief difference in Teutonic mythology was the presence of an evil +god, Loki. Like Vulcan, Loki was a god of fire, like him, Loki was +lame because he had been cast out of heaven. Loki was always +plotting against the other gods, as Lucifer, after being banished +from Heaven by God, plotted against him and his people, and became +Satan, "the enemy." + + "Him the Almighty Power + Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky + With hideous ruin and combustion down + To bottomless perdition, there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal fire, + Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms." + + MILTON: _Paradise Lost._ + +It was this god of evil in Teutonic myth who was responsible for +the death of the bright beautiful sun-god, Baldur. Mistletoe was +the only thing in the world which had not sworn not to harm Baldur. +Loki knew this, and gave a twig of mistletoe to Baldur's blind +brother, Hodur, and Hodur cast it at Baldur and "unwitting slew" +him. Vali, a younger brother of Baldur, avenged him by killing +Hodur. Hodur is darkness and Baldur light; they are brothers; the +light falls a victim to blind darkness, who reigns until a younger +brother, the sun of the next day, rises to slay him in turn. + +Below these gods, all nature was peopled with divinities. There +were elves of two kinds: black elves, called trolls, who were +frost-spirits, and guarded treasure (seeds) in the ground; and +white elves, who lived in mid-heaven, and danced on the earth in +fairy rings, where a mortal entering died. Will-o'-the-wisps +hovered over swamps to mislead travellers, and jack-o'-lanterns, +the spirits of murderers, walked the earth near the places of their +crimes. + +The Otherworlds of the Teutons were Valhalla, the abode of the +heroes whom death had found on the battlefield, and Niflheim, "the +misty realm," secure from the cold outside, ruled over by Queen +Hel. Valkyries, warlike women who rode through the air on swift +horses, seized the heroes from the field of slaughter, and took +them to the halls of Valhalla, where they enjoyed daily combats, +long feasts, and drinking-bouts, music and story-telling. + +The sacred tree of the Druids was the oak; that of the Teutonic +priests the ash. The flat disk of the earth was believed to be +supported by a great ash-tree, Yggdrasil, + + "An ash know I standing, + Named Yggdrasil, + A stately tree sprinkled + With water the purest; + Thence come the dewdrops + That fall in the dales; + Ever-blooming, it stands + O'er the Urdar-fountain." + + _Voeluspa saga._ (Blackwell _trans._) + +guarded by three fates, Was, Will, and Shall Be. The name of Was +means the past, of Will, the power, howbeit small, which men have +over present circumstances, and Shall Be, the future over which man +has no control. Vurdh, the name of the latter, gives us the word +"weird," which means fate or fateful. The three Weird Sisters in +_Macbeth_ are seeresses. + +Besides the ash, other trees and shrubs were believed to have +peculiar powers, which they have kept, with some changes of +meaning, to this day. The elder (elves' grave), the hawthorn, and +the juniper, were sacred to supernatural powers. + +The priests of the Teutons sacrificed prisoners of war in +consecrated groves, to Tyr, god of the sword. The victims were not +burned alive, as by the Druids, but cut and torn terribly, and +their dead bodies burned. From these sacrifices auspices were +taken. A man's innocence or guilt was manifested by gods to men +through ordeals by fire; walking upon red-hot ploughshares, holding +a heated bar of iron, or thrusting the hands into red-hot +gauntlets, or into boiling water. If after a certain number of +days no burns appeared the person was declared innocent. If a +suspected man, thrown into the water, floated he was guilty; if he +sank, he was acquitted. + +The rites of the Celts were done in secret, and it was forbidden +that they be written down. Those of the Teutons were commemorated +in Edda and Saga (poetry and prose). + +In the far north the shortness of summer and the length of winter +so impressed the people that when they made a story about it they +told of a maiden, the Spring, put to sleep, and guarded, along with +a hoard of treasure, by a ring of fire. One knight only could break +through the flames, awaken her and seize the treasure. He is the +returning sun, and the treasure he gets possession of is the wealth +of summer vegetation. So there is the story of Brynhild, pricked by +the "sleep-thorn" of her father, Wotan, and sleeping until Sigurd +wakens her. They marry, but soon Sigurd has to give her up to +Gunnar, the relentless winter, and Gunnar cannot rest until he has +killed Sigurd, and reigns undisturbed. Grimms' story of Rapunzel, +the princess who was shut up by a winter witch, and of Briar-Rose, +pricked by a witch's spindle, and sleeping inside a hedge which +blooms with spring at the knight's approach, mean likewise the +struggle between summer and winter. + +The chief festivals of the Teutonic year were held at Midsummer and +Midwinter. May-Day, the very beginning of spring, was celebrated by +May-ridings, when winter and spring, personified by two warriors, +engaged in a combat in which Winter, the fur-clad king of ice and +snow, was defeated. It was then that the sacred fire had been +kindled, and the sacrificial feast held. Judgments were rendered +then. + +The summer solstice was marked by bonfires, like those of the Celts +on May Eve and Midsummer. They were kindled in an open place or on +a hill, and the ceremonies held about them were similar to the +Celtic. As late as the eighteenth century these same customs were +observed in Iceland. + +A May-pole wreathed with magical herbs is erected as the center of +the dance in Sweden, and in Norway a child chosen May-bride is +followed by a procession as at a real wedding. This is a symbol of +the wedding of sun and earth deities in the spring. The May-pole, +probably imported from Celtic countries, is used at Midsummer +because the spring does not begin in the north before June. + +Yule-tide in December celebrated the sun's turning back, and was +marked by banquets and gayety. A chief feature of all these feasts +was the drinking of toasts to the gods, with vows and prayers. + +By the sixth century Christianity had supplanted Druidism in the +British Isles. It was the ninth before Christianity made much +progress in Scandinavia. After King Olaf had converted his nation, +the toasts which had been drunk to the pagan gods were kept in +honor of Christian saints; for instance, those to Freya were now +drunk to the Virgin Mary or to St. Gertrude. + +The "wetting of the sark-sleeve," that custom of Scotland and +Ireland, was in its earliest form a rite to Freya as the northern +goddess of love. To secure her aid in a love-affair, a maid would +wash in a running stream a piece of fine linen--for Freya was fond +of personal adornment--and would hang it before the fire to dry an +hour before midnight. At half-past eleven she must turn it, and at +twelve her lover's apparition would appear to her, coming in at the +half-open door. + + "The wind howled through the leafless boughs, and there was every + appearance of an early and severe winter, as indeed befell. Long + before eleven o'clock all was hushed and quiet within the house, + and indeed without (nothing was heard), except the cold wind + which howled mournfully in gusts. The house was an old farmhouse, + and we sat in the large kitchen with its stone floor, awaiting + the first stroke of the eleventh hour. It struck at last, and + then all pale and trembling we hung the garment before the fire + which we had piled up with wood, and set the door ajar, for that + was an essential point. The door was lofty and opened upon the + farmyard, through which there was a kind of thoroughfare, very + seldom used, it is true, and at each end of it there was a gate + by which wayfarers occasionally passed to shorten the way. There + we sat without speaking a word, shivering with cold and fear, + listening to the clock which went slowly, tick, tick, and + occasionally starting as the door creaked on its hinges, or a + half-burnt billet fell upon the hearth. My sister was ghastly + white, as white as the garment which was drying before the fire. + And now half an hour had elapsed and it was time to turn.... This + we did, I and my sister, without saying a word, and then we again + sank on our chairs on either side of the fire. I was tired, and + as the clock went tick-a-tick, I began to feel myself dozing. I + did doze, I believe. All of a sudden I sprang up. The clock was + striking one, two, but ere it could give the third chime, mercy + upon us! we heard the gate slam to with a tremendous noise...." + + "Well, and what happened then?" + + "Happened! before I could recover myself, my sister had sprung to + the door, and both locked and bolted it. The next moment she was + in convulsions. I scarcely knew what happened; and yet it + appeared to me for a moment that something pressed against the + door with a low moaning sound. Whether it was the wind or not, I + can't say. I shall never forget that night. About two hours + later, my father came home. He had been set upon by a highwayman + whom he beat off." + + BORROW: _Lavengro._ + +Freya and Odin especially had had power over the souls of the dead. +When Christianity turned all the old gods into spirits of evil, +these two were accused especially of possessing unlawful learning, +as having knowledge of the hidden matters of death. This unlawful +wisdom is the first accusation that has always been brought against +witches. A mirror is often used to contain it. Such are the +crystals of the astrologers, and the looking-glasses which on +Hallowe'en materialize wishes. + +From that time in the Middle Ages when witches were first heard of, +it has nearly always been women who were accused. Women for the +most part were the priests in the old days: it was a woman to whom +Apollo at Delphi breathed his oracles. In all times it has been +women who plucked herbs and concocted drinks of healing and +refreshment. So it was very easy to imagine that they experimented +with poisons and herbs of magic power under the guidance of the now +evil gods. If they were so directed, they must go on occasions to +consult with their masters. The idea arose of a witches' Sabbath, +when women were enabled by evil means to fly away, and adore in +secret the gods from whom the rest of the world had turned. There +were such meeting-places all over Europe. They had been places of +sacrifice, of judgment, or of wells and springs considered holy +under the old religion, and whither the gods had now been banished. +The most famous was the Blocksberg in the Hartz mountains in +Germany. + + "Dame Baubo first, to lead the crew! + A tough old sow and the mother thereon, + Then follow the witches, every one." + + GOETHE: _Faust._ (Taylor _trans._) + +In Norway the mountains above Bergen were a resort, and the +Dovrefeld, once the home of the trolls. + + "It's easy to slip in here, + But outward the Dovre-King's gate opens not." + + IBSEN: _Peer Gynt._ (Archer _trans._) + +In Italy the witches met under a walnut tree near Benevento; in +France, in Puy de Dome; in Spain, near Seville. + +In these night-ridings Odin was the leader of a wild hunt. In +stormy, blustering autumn weather + + "The wonted roar was up among the woods." + + MILTON: _Comus._ + +Odin rode in pursuit of shadowy deer with the Furious Host behind +him. A ghostly huntsman of a later age was Dietrich von Bern, +doomed to hunt till the Judgment Day. + +Frau Venus in Wagner's _Tannhaeuser_ held her revels in an +underground palace in the Horselberg in Thuringia, Germany. This +was one of the seats of Holda, the goddess of spring. Venus herself +is like the Christian conception of Freya and Hel. She gathers +about her a throng of nymphs, sylphs, and those she has lured into +the mountain by intoxicating music and promises. "The enchanting +sounds enticed only those in whose hearts wild sensuous longings +had already taken root." Of these Tannhaeuser is one. He has stayed +a year, but it seems to him only one day. Already he is tired of +the rosy light and eternal music and languor, and longs for the +fresh green world of action he once knew. He fears that he has +forfeited his soul's salvation by being there at all, but cries, + + "Salvation rests for me in Mary!" + + WAGNER: _Tannhaeuser._ + +At the holy name Venus and her revellers vanish, and Tannhaeuser +finds himself in a meadow, hears the tinkling herd-bells, and a +shepherd's voice singing, + + "Frau Holda, goddess of the spring, + Steps forth from the mountains old; + She comes, and all the brooklets sing, + And fled is winter's cold. + + * * * * * + + Play, play, my pipe, your lightest lay, + For spring has come, and merry May!" + + _Tannhaeuser._ (Huckel _trans._) + +praising the goddess in her blameless state. + +By the fifteenth century Satan, taking the place of the gods, +assumed control of the evil creatures. Now that witches were the +followers of the Devil, they wrote their names in his book, and +were carried away by him for the revels by night. A new witch was +pricked with a needle to initiate her into his company. At the +party the Devil was adored with worship due to God alone. Dancing, +a device of the pagans, and hence considered wholly wicked, was +indulged in to unseemly lengths. In 1883 in Sweden it was believed +that dances were held about the sanctuaries of the ancient gods, +and that whoever stopped to watch were caught by the dancers and +whirled away. If they profaned holy days by this dancing, they were +doomed to keep it up for a year. + +At the witches' Sabbath the Devil himself sometimes appeared as a +goat, and the witches were attended by cats, owls, bats, and +cuckoos, because these creatures had once been sacred to Freya. At +the feast horse-flesh, once the food of the gods at banquets, was +eaten. The broth for the feast was brewed in a kettle held over the +fire by a tripod, like that which supported the seat of Apollo's +priestess at Delphi. The kettle may be a reminder of the one Thor +got, which gave to each guest whatever food he asked of it, or it +may be merely that used in brewing the herb-remedies which women +made before they were thought to practise witchcraft. In the kettle +were cooked mixtures which caused storms and shipwrecks, plagues, +and blights. No salt was eaten, for that was a wholesome substance. + +The witches of Germany did not have prophetic power; those of +Scandinavia, like the Norse Fates, did have it. The troll-wives of +Scandinavia were like the witches of Germany--they were cannibals, +especially relishing children, like the witch in _Hansel and +Grethel_. + +From the fourteenth to the eighteenth century all through Europe +and the new world people thought to be witches, and hence in the +devil's service, were persecuted. It was believed that they were +able to take the form of beasts. A wolf or other animal is caught +in a trap or shot, and disappears. Later an old woman who lives +alone in the woods is found suffering from a similar wound. She is +then declared to be a witch. + + "There was once an old castle in the middle of a vast thick wood; + in it lived an old woman quite alone, and she was a witch. By day + she made herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but regularly at + night she became a human being again." + + GRIMM: _Jorinda and Joringel._ + +"Hares found on May morning are witches and should be stoned," +reads an old superstition. "If you tease a cat on May Eve, it will +turn into a witch and hurt you." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WALPURGIS NIGHT + + +Walpurga was a British nun who went to Germany in the eighth +century to found holy houses. After a pious life she was buried at +Eichstatt, where it is said a healing oil trickled from her +rock-tomb. This miracle reminded men of the fruitful dew which fell +from the manes of the Valkyries' horses, and when one of the days +sacred to her came on May first, the wedding-day of Frau Holda and +the sun-god, the people thought of her as a Valkyrie, and +identified her with Holda. As, like a Valkyrie, she rode armed on +her steed, she scattered, like Holda, spring flowers and fruitful +dew upon the fields and vales. When these deities fell into +disrepute, Walpurga too joined the pagan train that swept the sky +on the eve of May first, and afterwards on mountain-tops to +sacrifice and to adore Holda, as the priests had sacrificed for a +prosperous season and a bountiful harvest. + +So this night was called Walpurgis Night, when evil beings were +abroad, and with them human worshippers who still guarded the old +faith in secret. + +This is very like the occasion of November Eve, which shared with +May first Celtic manifestations of evil. Witches complete the list +of supernatural beings which are out on Hallowe'en. All are to be +met at crossroads, with harm to the beholders. A superstition goes, +that if one wishes to see witches, he must put on his clothes wrong +side out, and creep backward to a crossroads, or wear wild radish, +on May Eve. + +On Walpurgis Night precaution must be taken against witches who may +harm cattle. The stable doors are locked and sealed with three +crosses. Sprigs of ash, hawthorn, juniper, and elder, once sacred +to the pagan gods, are now used as a protection against them. +Horseshoes are nailed prongs up on the threshold or over the door. +Holy bells are hung on the cows to scare away the witches, and they +are guided to pasture by a goad which has been blessed. Shots are +fired over the cornfield. If one wishes, he may hide in the corn +and hear what will happen for a year. + +Signs and omens on Walpurgis Night have more weight than at other +times except on St. John's Day. + + "On Walpurgis Night rain + Makes good crops of autumn grain," + +but rain on May Day is harmful to them. + +[Illustration: THE WITCHES' DANCE (VALPURGISNACHT.) + +_From Painting by Von Kreling._] + +Lovers try omens on this eve, as they do in Scotland on Hallowe'en. +If you sleep with one stocking on, you will find on May morning in +the toe a hair the color of your sweetheart's. Girls try to find +out the temperament of their husbands-to-be by keeping a linen +thread for three days near an image of the Madonna, and at midnight +on May Eve pulling it apart, saying: + + "Thread, I pull thee; + Walpurga, I pray thee, + That thou show to me + What my husband's like to be." + +They judge of his disposition by the thread's being strong or +easily broken, soft or tightly woven. + +Dew on the morning of May first makes girls who wash in it +beautiful. + + "The fair maid who on the first of May + Goes to the fields at break of day + And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree + Will ever after handsome be." + + _Encyclopedia of Superstitions._ + +A heavy dew on this morning presages a good "butter-year." You will +find fateful initials printed in dew on a handkerchief that has +been left out all the night of April thirtieth. On May Day girls +invoke the cuckoo: + + "Cuckoo! cuckoo! on the bough, + Tell me truly, tell me how + Many years there will be + Till a husband comes to me." + +Then they count the calls of the cuckoo until he pauses again. + +If a man wears clothes made of yarn spun on Walpurgis Night to the +May-shooting, he will always hit the bull's-eye, for the Devil +gives away to those he favors, "freikugeln," bullets which always +hit the mark. + +On Walpurgis Night as on Hallowe'en strange things may happen to +one. Zschokke tells a story of a Walpurgis Night dream that is more +a vision than a dream. Led to be unfaithful to his wife, a man +murders the husband of a former sweetheart; to escape capture he +fires a haystack, from which a whole village is kindled. In his +flight he enters an empty carriage, and drives away madly, crushing +the owner under the wheels. He finds that the dead man is his own +brother. Faced by the person whom he believes to be the Devil, +responsible for his misfortunes, the wretched man is ready to +worship him if he will protect him. He finds that the seeming Devil +is in reality his guardian-angel who sent him this dream that he +might learn the depths of wickedness lying unfathomed in his +heart, waiting an opportunity to burst out. + +Both May Eve and St. John's Eve are times of freedom and +unrestraint. People are filled with a sort of madness which makes +them unaccountable for their deeds. + + "For you see, pastor, within every one of us a spark of paganism + is glowing. It has outlasted the thousand years since the old + Teutonic times. Once a year it flames up high, and we call it St. + John's Fire. Once a year comes Free-night. Yes, truly, + Free-night. Then the witches, laughing scornfully, ride to + Blocksberg, upon the mountain-top, on their broomsticks, the same + broomsticks with which at other times their witchcraft is whipped + out of them,--then the whole wild company skims along the forest + way,--and then the wild desires awaken in our hearts which life + has not fulfilled." + + SUDERMANN: _St. John's Fire._ (Porter _trans._) + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MORE HALLOWTIDE BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS + + +Only the Celts and the Teutons celebrate an occasion actually like +our Hallowe'en. The countries of southern Europe make of it a +religious vigil, like that already described in France. + +In Italy on the night of All Souls', the spirits of the dead are +thought to be abroad, as in Brittany. They may mingle with living +people, and not be remarked. The _Miserere_ is heard in all the +cities. As the people pass dressed in black, bells are rung on +street corners to remind them to pray for the souls of the dead. In +Naples the skeletons in the funeral vaults are dressed up, and the +place visited on All Souls' Day. In Salerno before the people go to +the all-night service at church they set out a banquet for the +dead. If any food is left in the morning, evil is in store for the +house. + + "Hark! Hark to the wind! 'T is the night, they say, + When all souls come back from the far away-- + The dead, forgotten this many a day! + + "And the dead remembered--ay! long and well-- + And the little children whose spirits dwell + In God's green garden of asphodel. + + "Have you reached the country of all content, + O souls we know, since the day you went + From this time-worn world, where your years were spent? + + "Would you come back to the sun and the rain, + The sweetness, the strife, the thing we call pain, + And then unravel life's tangle again? + + "I lean to the dark--Hush!--was it a sigh? + Or the painted vine-leaves that rustled by? + Or only a night-bird's echoing cry?" + + SHEARD: _Hallowe'en._ + +In Malta bells are rung, prayers said, and mourning worn on All +Souls' Day. Graves are decorated, and the inscriptions on tombs +read and reread. For the poor is prepared an All Souls' dinner, as +cakes are given to the poor in England and Wales. The custom of +decorating graves with flowers and offering flowers to the dead +comes from the crowning of the dead by the ancients with +short-lived blooms, to signify the brevity of life. + +In Spain at dark on Hallowe'en cakes and nuts are laid on graves to +bribe the spirits not to disturb the vigils of the saints. + +In Germany the graves of the dead are decorated with flowers and +lights, on the first and second of November. To drive away ghosts +from a church a key or a wand must be struck three times against a +bier. An All Souls' divination in Germany is a girl's going out and +asking the first young man she meets his name. Her husband's will +be like it. If she walks thrice about a church and makes a wish, +she will see it fulfilled. + +Belgian children build shrines in front of their homes with +figures of the Madonna and candles, and beg for money to buy cakes. +As many cakes as one eats, so many souls he frees from Purgatory. + +The races of northern Europe believed that the dead returned, and +were grieved at the lamentations of their living relatives. The +same belief was found in Brittany, and among the American Indians. + + "Think of this, O Hiawatha! + Speak of it to all the people, + That henceforward and forever + They no more with lamentations + Sadden souls of the departed + In the Islands of the Blessed." + + LONGFELLOW: _Hiawatha._ + +The Chinese fear the dead and the dragons of the air. They devote +the first three weeks in April to visiting the graves of their +ancestors, and laying baskets of offerings on them. The great +dragon, Feng-Shin, flies scattering blessings upon the houses. His +path is straight, unless he meets with some building. Then he turns +aside, and the owner of the too lofty edifice misses the blessing. + +At Nikko, Japan, where there are many shrines to the spirits of the +dead, masques are held to entertain the ghosts who return on +Midsummer Day. Every street is lined with lighted lanterns, and the +spirits are sent back to the otherworld in straw boats lit with +lanterns, and floated down the river. To see ghosts in Japan one +must put one hundred rush-lights into a large lantern, and repeat +one hundred lines of poetry, taking one light out at the end of +each line; or go out into the dark with one light and blow it out. +Ghosts are identified with witches. They come back especially on +moonlit nights. + + "On moonlight nights, when the coast-wind whispers in the + branches of the tree, O-Matsue and Teoyo may sometimes be seen, + with bamboo rakes in their hands, gathering together the needles + of the fir." + + RINDER: _Great Fir-Tree of Takasago._ + +There is a Chinese saying that a mirror is the soul of a woman. A +pretty story is told of a girl whose mother before she died gave +her a mirror, saying: + +"Now after I am dead, if you think longingly of me, take out the +thing that you will find inside this box, and look at it. When you +do so my spirit will meet yours, and you will be comforted." When +she was lonely or her stepmother was harsh with her, the girl went +to her room and looked earnestly into the mirror. She saw there +only her own face, but it was so much like her mother's that she +believed it was hers indeed, and was consoled. When the stepmother +learned what it was her daughter cherished so closely, her heart +softened toward the lonely girl, and her life was made easier. + +By the Arabs spirits were called Djinns (or genii). They came from +fire, and looked like men or beasts. They might be good or evil, +beautiful or horrible, and could disappear from mortal sight at +will. Nights when they were abroad, it behooved men to stay under +cover. + + "Ha! They are on us, close without! + Shut tight the shelter where we lie; + With hideous din the monster rout, + Dragon and vampire, fill the sky." + + HUGO: _The Djinns._ + +[Illustration: FORTUNE-TELLING.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA + + +In Colonial days Hallowe'en was not celebrated much in America. +Some English still kept the customs of the old world, such as +apple-ducking and snapping, and girls tried the apple-paring charm +to reveal their lovers' initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to +see their faces. Ballads were sung and ghost-stories told, for the +dead were thought to return on Hallowe'en. + + "There was a young officer in Phips's company at the time of the + finding of the Spanish treasure-ship, who had gone mad at the + sight of the bursting sacks that the divers had brought up from + the sea, as the gold coins covered the deck. This man had once + lived in the old stone house on the 'faire greene lane,' and a + report had gone out that his spirit still visited it, and caused + discordant noises. Once ... on a gusty November evening, when the + clouds were scudding over the moon, a hall-door had blown open + with a shrieking draft and a force that caused the floor to + tremble." + + BUTTERWORTH: _Hallowe'en Reformation._ + +Elves, goblins, and fairies are native on American soil. The +Indians believed in evil _manitous_, some of whom were water-gods +who exacted tribute from all who passed over their lakes. Henry +Hudson and his fellow-explorers haunted as mountain-trolls the +Catskill range. Like Ossian and so many other visitors to the +Otherworld, Rip Van Winkle is lured into the strange gathering, +thinks that he passes the night there, wakes, and goes home to find +that twenty years have whitened his hair, rusted his gun, and +snatched from life many of his boon-companions. + + "My gun must have cotched the rheumatix too. Now that's too bad. + Them fellows have gone and stolen my good gun, and leave me this + rusty old barrel. + + "Why, is that the village of Falling Waters that I see? Why, the + place is more than twice the size it was last night--I---- + + "I don't know whether I am dreaming, or sleeping, or waking." + + JEFFERSON: _Rip Van Winkle._ + +The persecution of witches, prevalent in Europe, reached this side +of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. + + "This sudden burst of wickedness and crime + Was but the common madness of the time, + When in all lands, that lie within the sound + Of Sabbath bells, a witch was burned or drowned." + + LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._ + +Men and women who had enemies to accuse them of evil knowledge and +the power to cause illness in others, were hanged or pressed to +death by heavy weights. Such sicknesses they could cause by keeping +a waxen image, and sticking pins or nails into it, or melting it +before the fire. The person whom they hated would be in torture, or +would waste away like the waxen doll. Witches' power to injure and +to prophesy came from the Devil, who marked them with a +needle-prick. Such marks were sought as evidence at trials. + +"Witches' eyes are coals of fire from the pit." They were attended +by black cats, owls, bats, and toads. + +Iron, as being a product of fire, was a protection against them, as +against evil spirits everywhere. It had especial power when in the +shape of a horseshoe. + + "This horseshoe will I nail upon the threshold. + There, ye night-hags and witches that torment + The neighborhood, ye shall not enter here." + + LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._ + +The holiday-time of elves, witches, and ghosts is Hallowe'en. It is +not believed in here except by some children, who people the dark +with bogies who will carry them away if they are naughty. + + "Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers-- + An' when he went to bed at night, away upstairs, + His mammy heerd him holler, an' his daddy heerd him bawl, + An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all! + + An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' + press, + An' seeked him up the chimbley-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess; + But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout! + An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you, ef you don't watch out!" + + RILEY: _Little Orphant Annie._ + +Negroes are very superstitious, putting faith in all sorts of +supernatural beings. + + "Blame my trap! how de wind do blow; + And dis is das de night for de witches, sho! + Dey's trouble going to waste when de ole slut whine, + An' you hear de cat a-spittin' when de moon don't shine." + + RILEY: _When de Folks is Gone._ + +While the original customs of Hallowe'en are being forgotten more +and more across the ocean, Americans have fostered them, and are +making this an occasion something like what it must have been in +its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States +are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries. +All superstitions, everyday ones, and those pertaining to Christmas +and New Year's, have special value on Hallowe'en. + +It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry. Mischievous spirits +choose it for carrying off gates and other objects, and hiding them +or putting them out of reach. + + "Dear me, Polly, I wonder what them boys will be up to to-night. + I do hope they'll not put the gate up on the shed as they did + last year." + + WRIGHT: _Tom's Hallowe'en Joke._ + +Bags filled with flour sprinkle the passers-by. Door-bells are rung +and mysterious raps sounded on doors, things thrown into halls, and +knobs stolen. Such sports mean no more at Hallowe'en than the +tricks played the night before the Fourth of July have to do with +the Declaration of Independence. We see manifested on all such +occasions the spirit of "Free-night" of which George von Hartwig +speaks so enthusiastically in _St. John's Fire_ (page 141). + +Hallowe'en parties are the real survival of the ancient merrymakings. +They are prepared for in secret. Guests are not to divulge the fact +that they are invited. Often they come masked, as ghosts or witches. + +The decorations make plain the two elements of the festival. +For the centerpiece of the table there may be a hollowed pumpkin, +filled with apples and nuts and other fruits of harvest, or +a pumpkin-chariot drawn by field-mice. So it is clear that this +is a harvest-party, like Pomona's feast. In the coach rides a +witch, representing the other element, of magic and prophecy. +Jack-o'-lanterns, with which the room is lighted, are hollowed +pumpkins with candles inside. The candle-light shines through holes +cut like features. So the lantern becomes a bogy, and is held up at +a window to frighten those inside. Corn-stalks from the garden +stand in clumps about the room. A frieze of witches on broomsticks, +with cats, bats, and owls surmounts the fireplace, perhaps. A full +moon shines over all, and a caldron on a tripod holds fortunes +tied in nut-shells. The prevailing colors are yellow and black: a +deep yellow is the color of most ripe grain and fruit; black stands +for black magic and demoniac influence. Ghosts and skulls and +cross-bones, symbols of death, startle the beholder. Since +Hallowe'en is a time for lovers to learn their fate, hearts and +other sentimental tokens are used to good effect, as the Scotch +lads of Burns's time wore love-knots. + +Having marched to the dining-room to the time of a dirge, the +guests find before them plain, hearty fare; doughnuts, gingerbread, +cider, popcorn, apples, and nuts honored by time. The Hallowe'en +cake has held the place of honor since the beginning here in +America. A ring, key, thimble, penny, and button baked in it +foretell respectively speedy marriage, a journey, spinsterhood, +wealth, and bachelorhood. + + "Polly was going to be married, Jennie was going on a long + journey, and you--down went the knife against something hard. The + girls crowded round. You had a hurt in your throat, and there, + there, in your slice, was the horrid, hateful, big brass thimble. + It was more than you could bear--soaking, dripping wet, and an + old maid!" + + BRADLEY: _Different Party._ + +[Illustration: A WITCH TABLE. + +AN OWL TABLE. + +HALLOWE'EN TABLES, I.] + +The kitchen is the best place for the rough games and after-supper +charms. + +On the stems of the apples which are to be dipped for may be tied +names; for the boys in one tub, for the girls in another. Each +searcher of the future must draw out with his teeth an apple with a +name which will be like that of his future mate. + +A variation of the Irish snap-apple is a hoop hung by strings from +the ceiling, round which at intervals are placed bread, apples, +cakes, peppers, candies, and candles. The strings are twisted, then +let go, and as the hoop revolves, each may step up and get a bite +from whatever comes to him. By the taste he determines what the +character of his married life will be,--whether wholesome, acid, +soft, fiery, or sweet. Whoever bites the candle is twice +unfortunate, for he must pay a forfeit too. An apple and a bag of +flour are placed on the ends of a stick, and whoever dares to seize +a mouthful of apple must risk being blinded by flour. Apples are +suspended one to a string in a doorway. As they swing, each guest +tries to secure his apple. To blow out a candle as it revolves on a +stick requires attention and accuracy of aim. + +[Illustration: A WITCHES'-CALDRON TABLE. + +A BLACK-CAT TABLE. + +HALLOWE'EN TABLES, II.] + +The one who first succeeds in threading a needle as he sits on a +round bottle on the floor, will be first married. Twelve candles +are lighted, and placed at convenient distances on the floor in a +row. As the guest leaps over them, the first he blows out will +indicate his wedding-month. One candle only placed on the floor and +blown out in the same way means a year of wretchedness ahead. If it +still burns, it presages a year of joy. + +Among the quieter tests some of the most common are tried with +apple-seeds. As in England a pair of seeds named for two lovers are +stuck on brow or eyelids. The one who sticks longer is the true, +the one who soon falls, the disloyal sweetheart. Seeds are used in +this way to tell also whether one is to be a traveler or a +stay-at-home. Apple-seeds are twice ominous, partaking of both +apple and nut nature. Even the number of seeds found in a core has +meaning. If you put them upon the palm of your hand, and strike it +with the other, the number remaining will tell you how many letters +you will receive in a fortnight. With twelve seeds and the names of +twelve friends, the old rhyme may be repeated: + + "One I love, + Two I love, + Three I love, I say; + Four I love with all my heart: + Five I cast away. + Six he loves, + Seven she loves, + Eight they both love; + Nine he comes, + Ten he tarries, + Eleven he courts, and + Twelve he marries." + +Nuts are burned in the open fire. It is generally agreed that the +one for whom the first that pops is named, loves. + + "If he loves me, pop and fly; + If he hates me, live and die." + +Often the superstition connected therewith is forgotten in the +excitement of the moment. + + "When ebery one among us toe de smallest pickaninny + Would huddle in de chimbley cohnah's glow, + Toe listen toe dem chilly win's ob ole Novembah's + Go a-screechin' lack a spook around de huts, + 'Twell de pickaninnies' fingahs gits to shakin' o'er de embahs, + An' dey laik ter roas' dey knuckles 'stead o' nuts." + + IN WERNER'S _Readings, Number 31_. + +Letters of the alphabet are carved on a pumpkin. Fate guides the +hand of the blindfolded seeker to the fateful initial which he +stabs with a pin. Letters cut out of paper are sprinkled on water +in a tub. They form groups from which any one with imagination may +spell out names. + +Girls walk down cellar backward with a candle in one hand and a +looking-glass in the other, expecting to see a face in the glass. + + "Last night 't was witching Hallowe'en, + Dearest; an apple russet-brown + I pared, and thrice above my crown + Whirled the long skin; they watched it keen; + I flung it far; they laughed and cried me shame-- + Dearest, there lay the letter of your name. + + "Took I the mirror then, and crept + Down, down the creaking narrow stair; + The milk-pans caught my candle's flare + And mice walked soft and spiders slept. + I spoke the spell, and stood the magic space, + Dearest--and in the glass I saw your face! + + "And then I stole out in the night + Alone; the frogs piped sweet and loud, + The moon looked through a ragged cloud. + Thrice round the house I sped me light, + Dearest; and there, methought--charm of my charms! + You met me, kissed me, took me to your arms!" + + OPPER: _The Charms._ + +There are many mirror-tests. A girl who sits before a mirror at +midnight on Hallowe'en combing her hair and eating an apple will +see the face of her true love reflected in the glass. Standing so +that through a window she may see the moon in a glass she holds, +she counts the number of reflections to find out how many pleasant +things will happen to her in the next twelve months. Alabama has +taken over the Scotch mirror test in its entirety. + +A girl with a looking-glass in her hand steps backward from the +door out into the yard. Saying: + + "Round and round, O stars so fair! + Ye travel, and search out everywhere. + I pray you, sweet stars, now show to me, + This night, who my future husband shall be!" + +she goes to meet her fate. + + "So Leslie backed out at the door, and we shut it upon her. The + instant after, we heard a great laugh. Off the piazza she had + stepped backward directly against two gentlemen coming in. + + "Doctor Ingleside was one, coming to get his supper; the other + was a friend of his.... 'Doctor John Hautayne,' he said, + introducing him by his full name." + + WHITNEY: _We Girls._ + +A custom that is a reminder of the lighted boats sent down-stream +in Japan to bear away the souls of the dead, is that which makes +use of nut-shell boats. These have tiny candles fastened in them, +are lighted, and named, and set adrift on a tub of water. If they +cling to the side, their namesakes will lead a quiet life. Some +will float together. Some will collide and be shipwrecked. Others +will bear steadily toward a goal though the waves are rocked in a +tempest. Their behavior is significant. The candle which burns +longest belongs to the one who will marry first. + +The Midsummer wheel which was rolled down into the Moselle River in +France, and meant, if the flames that wreathed it were not +extinguished, that the grape-harvest would be abundant, has +survived in the fortune wheel which is rolled about from one guest +to another, and brings a gift to each. + +The actions of cats on Hallowe'en betoken good or bad luck. If a +cat sits quietly beside any one, he will enjoy a peaceful, +prosperous life; if one rubs against him, it brings good luck, +doubly good if one jumps into his lap. If a cat yawns near you on +Hallowe'en, be alert and do not let opportunity slip by you. If a +cat runs from you, you have a secret which will be revealed in +seven days. + +Different states have put interpretations of their own on the +commonest charms. In Massachusetts the one who first draws an apple +from the tub with his teeth will be first married. If a girl steals +a cabbage, she will see her future husband as she pulls it up, or +meet him as she goes home. If these fail, she must put the cabbage +over the door and watch to see whom it falls on, for him she is to +marry. A button concealed in mashed potato brings misfortune to the +finder. The names of three men are written on slips of paper, and +enclosed in three balls of meal. The one that rises first when they +are thrown into water will disclose the sought-for name. + +Maine has borrowed the yarn-test from Scotland. A ball is thrown +into a barn or cellar, and wound off on the hand. The lover will +come and help to wind. Girls in New Hampshire place in a row three +dishes with earth, water, and a ring in them, respectively. The one +who blindfolded touches earth will soon die; water, will never +marry; the ring, will soon be wedded. + +To dream of the future on Hallowe'en in Pennsylvania, one must go +out of the front door backward, pick up dust or grass, wrap it in +paper, and put it under his pillow. + +In Maryland girls see their future husbands by a rite similar to +the Scotch "wetting of the sark-sleeve." They put an egg to roast, +and open wide all the doors and windows. The man they seek will +come in and turn the egg. At supper girls stand behind the chairs, +knowing that the ones they are to marry will come to sit in front +of them. + +The South has always been famous for its hospitality and good +times. On Hallowe'en a miniature Druid-fire burns in a bowl on the +table. In the blazing alcohol are put fortunes wrapped in tin-foil, +figs, orange-peel, raisins, almonds, and dates. The one who +snatches the best will meet his sweetheart inside of a year, and +all may try for a fortune from the flames. The origin of this +custom was the taking of omens from the death-struggles of +creatures burning in the fire of sacrifice. + +Another Southern custom is adapted from one of Brittany. Needles +are named and floated in a dish of water. Those which cling side by +side are lovers. + +Good fortune is in store for the one who wins an apple from the +tub, or against whose glass a ring suspended by a hair strikes with +a sharp chime. + +A very elaborate charm is tried in Newfoundland. As the clock +strikes midnight a girl puts the twenty-six letters of the +alphabet, cut from paper, into a pure-white bowl which has been +touched by the lips of a new-born babe only. After saying: + + "Kind fortune, tell me where is he + Who my future lord shall be; + From this bowl all that I claim + Is to know my sweetheart's name." + +she puts the bowl into a safe place until morning. Then she is +blindfolded and picks out the same number of letters as there are +in her own name, and spells another from them. + +In New Brunswick, instead of an apple, a hard-boiled egg without +salt is eaten before a mirror, with the same result. In Canada a +thread is held over a lamp. The number that can be counted slowly +before the thread parts, is the number of years before the one who +counts will marry. + +In the United States a hair is thrown to the winds with the stanza +chanted: + + "I pluck this lock of hair off my head + To tell whence comes the one I shall wed. + Fly, silken hair, fly all the world around, + Until you reach the spot where my true love is found." + +The direction in which the hair floats is prophetic. + +The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, +and hold a Scotch party, using Burns's poem _Hallowe'en_ as a +guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom +that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now. +"Cyniver" has been borrowed from Wales, and the "dumb-cake" from +the Hebrides. In the Scotch custom of cabbage-stalk pulling, if the +stalk comes up easily, the husband or wife will be easy to win. The +melted-lead test to show the occupation of the husband-to-be has +been adopted in the United States. If the metal cools in round +drops, the tester will never marry, or her husband will have no +profession. White of egg is used in the same way. Like the Welsh +test is that of filling the mouth with water, and walking round the +house until one meets one's fate. An adaptation of the Scottish +"three luggies" is the row of four dishes holding dirt, water, a +ring, and a rag. The dirt means divorce, the water, a trip across +the ocean, the ring, marriage, the rag, no marriage at all. + +After the charms have been tried, fagots are passed about, and by +the eerie light of burning salt and alcohol, ghost stories are +told, each concluding his installment as his fagot withers into +ashes. Sometimes the cabbage stalks used in the omens take the +place of fagots. + +To induce prophetic dreams salt, in quantities from a pinch to an +egg full, is eaten before one goes to bed. + + "'Miss Jeanette, that's such a fine trick! You must swallow a + salt herring in three bites, bones and all, and not drink a drop + till the apparition of your future spouse comes in the night to + offer you a drink of water.'" + + ADAMS: _Chrissie's Fate._ + +If, after taking three doses of salt two minutes apart, a girl goes +to bed backward, lies on her right side, and does not move till +morning, she is sure to have eventful dreams. Pills made of a +hazelnut, a walnut, and nutmeg grated together and mixed with +butter and sugar cause dreams: if of gold, the husband will be +rich; if of noise, a tradesman; if of thunder and lightning, a +traveler. As in Ireland bay-leaves on or under a man's pillow cause +him to dream of his sweetheart. Also + + "Turn your boots toward the street, + Leave your garters on your feet, + Put your stockings on your head, + You'll dream of the one you're going to wed." + +Lemon-peel carried all day and rubbed on the bed-posts at night +will cause an apparition to bring the dreaming girl two lemons. For +quiet sleep and the fulfilment of any wish eat before going to bed +on Hallowe'en a piece of dry bread. + +A far more interesting development of the Hallowe'en idea than +these innocent but colorless superstitions, is promised by the +pageant at Fort Worth, Texas, on October thirty-first, 1916. In the +masque and pageant of the afternoon four thousand school children +took part. At night scenes from the pageant were staged on floats +which passed along the streets. The subject was _Preparedness for_ +_Peace_, and comprised scenes from American history in which peace +played an honorable part. Such were: the conference of William Penn +and the Quakers with the Indians, and the opening of the East to +American trade. This is not a subject limited to performances at +Hallowtide. May there not be written and presented in America a +truly Hallowe'en pageant, illustrating and befitting its noble +origin, and making its place secure among the holidays of the +year? + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + Bring forth the raisins and the nuts-- + To-night All-Hallows' Spectre struts + Along the moonlit way. + No time is this for tear or sob, + Or other woes our joys to rob, + But time for Pippin and for Bob, + And Jack-o'-lantern gay. + + Come forth, ye lass and trousered kid, + From prisoned mischief raise the lid, + And lift it good and high. + Leave grave old Wisdom in the lurch, + Set Folly on a lofty perch, + Nor fear the awesome rod of birch + When dawn illumes the sky. + + 'Tis night for revel, set apart + To reillume the darkened heart, + And rout the hosts of Dole. + 'Tis night when Goblin, Elf, and Fay, + Come dancing in their best array + To prank and royster on the way, + And ease the troubled soul. + + The ghosts of all things, past parade, + Emerging from the mist and shade + That hid them from our gaze, + And full of song and ringing mirth, + In one glad moment of rebirth, + Again they walk the ways of earth, + As in the ancient days. + + The beacon light shines on the hill, + The will-o'-wisps the forests fill + With flashes filched from noon; + And witches on their broomsticks spry + Speed here and yonder in the sky, + And lift their strident voices high + Unto the Hunter's moon. + + The air resounds with tuneful notes + From myriads of straining throats, + All hailing Folly Queen; + So join the swelling choral throng, + Forget your sorrow and your wrong, + In one glad hour of joyous song + To honor Hallowe'en. + + J. K. BANGS _in Harper's Weekly, Nov. 5, 1910_. + + + + + HALLOWE'EN FAILURE + + Who's dat peekin' in de do'? + Set mah heart a-beatin'! + Thought I see' a spook for sho + On mah way to meetin'. + Heerd a rustlin' all aroun', + Trees all sort o' jiggled; + An' along de frosty groun' + Funny shadders wriggled. + + Who's dat by de winder-sill? + Gittin' sort o' skeery; + Feets is feelin' kind o' chill, + Eyes is sort o' teary. + 'Most as nervous as a coon + When de dawgs is barkin', + Er a widder when some spoon + Comes along a-sparkin'. + + Whass dat creepin' up de road, + Quiet like a ferret, + Hoppin' sof'ly as a toad? + Maybe hit's a sperrit! + Lordy! hope dey ain't no ghos' + Come to tell me howdy. + I ain't got no use for those + Fantoms damp an' cloudy. + + Whass dat standin' by de fence + Wid its eyes a-yearnin', + Drivin' out mah common-sense + Wid its glances burnin'? + Don't dass skeercely go to bed + Wid dem spookses roun' me. + Ain't no res' fo' dis yere head + When dem folks surroun' me. + + Whass dat groanin' soun' I hear + Off dar by de gyardin? + Lordy! Lordy! Lordy dear, + Grant dis sinner pardon! + I won't nebber--I declar' + Ef it ain't my Sammy! + Sambo, what yo' doin' dar? + Yo' can't skeer yo' mammy! + + CARLYLE SMITH _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 29, 1910_. + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite + All are on their rounds to-night,-- + In the wan moon's silver ray + Thrives their helter-skelter play. + + Fond of cellar, barn, or stack + True unto the almanac, + They present to credulous eyes + Strange hobgoblin mysteries. + + Cabbage-stumps--straws wet with dew-- + Apple-skins, and chestnuts too, + And a mirror for some lass + Show what wonders come to pass. + + Doors they move, and gates they hide + Mischiefs that on moonbeams ride + Are their deeds,--and, by their spells, + Love records its oracles. + + Don't we all, of long ago + By the ruddy fireplace glow, + In the kitchen and the hall, + Those queer, coof-like pranks recall? + + Eery shadows were they then-- + But to-night they come again; + Were we once more but sixteen + Precious would be Hallowe'en. + + JOEL BENTON _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 31, 1896_. + + +[Illustration: NO HALLOWE'EN WITHOUT A JACK-O'-LANTERN.] + + + + + HALLOWE'EN + + A gypsy flame is on the hearth, + Sign of this carnival of mirth. + Through the dun fields and from the glade + Flash merry folk in masquerade-- + It is the witching Hallowe'en. + + Pale tapers glimmer in the sky, + The dead and dying leaves go by; + Dimly across the faded green + Strange shadows, stranger shades, are seen-- + It is the mystic Hallowe'en. + + Soft gusts of love and memory + Beat at the heart reproachfully; + The lights that burn for those who die + Were flickering low, let them flare high-- + It is the haunting Hallowe'en. + + A. F. MURRAY _in Harper's Weekly, Oct. 30, 1909._ + + + + +Magazine References to Hallowe'en Entertainments + + +CHARADES: + + Charades, menu, tests. H. Bazar, 32:894. + +CHILDREN'S PARTIES: + + Fortune games for very little children. St. N., 23:33. + Hallowe'en fortunes for boys and girls. Delin., 66:631. + Masquerade, games, tests. W. H. C., 35:43. + Decorations. W. H. C., 36:34. + Old-fashioned games. St. N., 35:51. + Children's celebration of Hallowe'en. St. N., 32:1124. + +CHURCH PARTIES: + + Mystic party. L. H. J., 22:57. + For Young People's Soc. L. H. J., 26:34. + "Phantom fair." W. H. C., 39:32. + +CLUB PARTIES: + + For Country Club. Invitation. Costumes. Supper. Dance. + W. H. C., 41:30. + "Candle-light cafe." W. H. C., 42. Oct., 1915. + +COSTUMES: + + Delin., 78:258. + +COUNTRY-HOUSE PARTY: + + Country Life, 18:624. + +DANCES: + + Dances, drills, costumes. Delin., 78:258. + Hallowe'en party. W. H. C., 40:39. + Barn party. W. H. C., 34:30. + +DECORATIONS AND FAVORS: + + Autumn-leaf decorations and prizes. Delin., 64:638. + Cobweb party. Delin., 91:44. + Hall: Handicraft for handy girls. + Place-cards, verses. L. H. J., 28:50. + L. H. J., 31:40. + H. Bazar, 39:1046. + L. H. J., 20:48. + L. H. J., 16:38. + Cinderella party. W. H. C., 34:30. + Favors. H. Bazar, 45:516. + Nut favors. W. H. C., 32:53. + Original decorations. W. H. C., 32:32. + Fads and frills. W. H. C., 32:24. + +GAMES AND FORTUNES: + + Witchery games for Hallowe'en. Delin., 64:576. + H. Bazar., 33:1650. + L. H. J., 20:48. + L. H. J., 25:58. + Blain: Games for Hallowe'en. + Quaint customs. H. Bazar, 46:578. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + Witches' think cap. L. H. J., 32:29. + Hallowe'en happenings. St. N., 35:51. + +INVITATIONS: + + H. Bazar, 33:1650. + +PARTIES (miscellaneous): + + H. Bazar, 28 pt. 2:841. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + L. H. J., 29:105. + L. H. J., 30:103. + Nut-crack night party. H. Bazar, 41:1106. + Nut-crack party. H. Bazar, 38:1092. + Novel party. W. H. C., 31:42. + Yarn party. L. H. J., 26:63. + L. H. J., 23:68. + L. H. J., 14:25. + Barn party. W. H. C., 34:30. + Novel party with musical accompaniment. Musician, 18:665. + Cotter's Saturday night. W. H. C., 38:40. + "Ghosts I have met" party. Pantomime. W. H. C., 37:27. + Two jolly affairs. W. H. C., 39:32. + Tryst of witches. Good H., 53:463. + Tam o' Shanter party. Delin., 85:26. + Jolly good time. Delin., 74:367. + Hints for Hallowe'en hilarities. L. H. J., 27:46. + Jolly party. L. H. J., 19:41. + Hallowe'en fun. L. H. J., 33:33. + Pumpkin stunt party. W. H. C., 45. Oct., 1917. + Character party. W. H. C., 45. Oct., 1917. + +SCHOOL PARTIES: + + "Cotter's Saturday night." W. H. C., 38:40. + High school party. W. H. C., 42:34. + How the college girl celebrates Hallowe'en. W. H. C., 31:16. + +SUPPERS, TABLE DECORATIONS, MENUS: + + Hallowe'en suppers. H. Bazar, 35:1670. + H. Bazar, 37:1063. + L. H. J., 24:78. + L. H. J., 16:38. + W. H. C., 40:39. + W. H. C., 43:35. + H. Bazar, 44:641. + H. Bazar, 45:507. + Hallowe'en party table. L. H. J., 29:44. + H. Bazar, 32:894. + Hallowe'en supper. Good H., 53:569. + +The pages refer always to the October number of the year. + + + + +Supplementary List of Readings, Recitations, and Plays + + * * * * * + + TITLE AUTHOR SOURCE + + _All Hallowe'en_ (story) All the Year Round, + 60:347 + _All Souls' Eve_ (story) Hopper Eng. Illus. Mag., 18:225 + _All Souls' Eve_ (story) Lyall Temple Bar., 124:379 + _Black cat_ (story) Poe + _Boogah Man_ Dunbar Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Brier-Rose_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Broomstick brigade_ J. T. Wagner 6 Barclay St., N. Y. City + _Bud's fairy tale_ (poem) Riley Child-world + Children's Play with musical + accompaniment Musician, 16:693 + _Corn-song_ (poem) Whittier + _Elder-tree mother_ (story) Andersen Fairy tales + _Fairies_ (poem) Allingham + _Fairy and witch_ (play) Nelson Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Feast of the little lanterns_ + (operetta) Bliss + _Fisherman and the genie_ _Arabian Nights_ + (story) + _Ghost_ (story) O'Connor + _Ghosts I have met_ Bangs + _Ghost's touch_ (story) Collins + _Golden arm_ (story) Clemens _How to tell a story_ + _Goblin stone_ (play) Wickes Child's Book, p. 127 + _Guess who_ (song and drill) Murray Eldridge Entertainment + House + _Hallowe'en adventure_ McDonald Canad. Mag., 12:61 + (story) + + _Hallowe'en adventure_ Koogle Eldridge Entertainment + (play) House + _Hallowe'en frolic_ Cone St. N. 20 pt. 1:15 + (poem) + _Haunted gale_ (play) Wormwood Eldridge Entertainment + House + _House in the wood_ Grimm Fairy tales + (story) + _Little Butterkin_ Asbjornsen _Fairy tales from the + (story) far north_ + _Little Donna Juana_ Brooks + (story) + _Mother Goose recital_ Musician, 21:633 + _Nix of the mill-pond_ Grimm Fairy tales + (story) + _Peter Pan in Kensington_ Barrie + _Gardens_ (story) + _Rapunzel_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Red shoes_ (story) Andersen Fairy tales + _Scarecrows a-roaming_ Eldridge Entertainment + (play) House + _Seein' things_ (poem) Field Love songs of childhood + _Snow-white_ (story) Grimm Fairy tales + _Straw phantom_ (pantomime) Blackall St. N., 44:1133 + _Testing of Sir Gawayne_ Merington _Festival plays_, + (play) p. 211 + _Voyage of Bran_ Meyer + _Walpurgisnight_ (story) Zschokke + _Wind in the rose-bush_ Freeman + (story) + + + + +INDEX TO QUOTATIONS + + * * * * * + + TITLE |AUTHOR |PAGE |SOURCE + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + _All-hallows honeymoon_ | | |New Eng. Magazine, + (story) |Marks |104 | 37:308 + _All Souls' Eve_ (poem) |Marks, J.P.|31-32 | + _Ancient Irish_ |O'Curry |7 | + _Ballad of Tam Lin_ | |65 |Child's Ballads + _Battle of the trees_ |Taliesin |7 |_Neo-druidical heresy_ + _Caractacus_ (poem) |Mason |11 | + _Celtic twilight_ (poem | | | + in introduction to) |Yeats |58 | + _Charms_ (poem) |Opper |161 |Munsey, 30:285 + _Comus_ (play) |Milton |131 | + _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_|Gregory |37-38- | + | |39 | + _Cuchulain's sick-bed_ | |42 | + _Death of the flowers_ |Bryant |18-19 | + (poem) | | | + _Different party_ |Bradley |156-157|Harper's Bazar, 41:131 + (story) | | | + _Dinnsenchus of Mag | |21 |_Neo-druidical heresy_ + Slecht_ | | | + _Djinns_ (poem) |Hugo |148 | + _Druid song of Cathvah_ | | | + (poem) |Todhunter |9 | + _Expedition of Nera_ | |44 | + "Fair maid who" | |139 |Encyc. of Superstitions + _Fairy-faith in Celtic | | | + countries_ |Wentz |48-49 | + _Fairy fiddler_ (poem) |Hopper |64 | + _Fasti_ |Ovid |114 | + _Faust_ (play) |Goethe |130 | + _First winter song_ | | | + (poem) |Graves |16 | + "Five hundred points" |Tusser |98 | + _Giles Corey of the Salem| | | + Farms_ (play) |Longfellow |151-152| + _Golden Legend_ |De Voragine|30 | + _Great fir-tree of | | | + Takasago_ (story) |Rinder |146 |_Old-world Japan_ + "Green fairy island" |Parry |103 |Welsh Melodies + _Hag_ (poem) |Herrick |66-67 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Burns |73-74- | + | |75 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Coxe |18-19- | + | |88-89- | + | |96 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Letts |99-100 | + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Sheard |143 |Canadian mag., 36:33 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Bangs |172-173|Harper's Weekly, Nov. + | | | 5, 1910 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Benton |176-177|Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 31, 1896 + _Hallowe'en_ (poem) |Murray |178 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 30, 1909 + _Hallowe'en Failure_ |Smith |175 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + (poem) | | | 29, 1910 + _Hallowe'en or Christie's|Adams |169 |Scribner's, 3:26 + fate_ (story) | | | + _Hallowe'en in Ireland_ |Trant |51 |_Dewdrops and Diamonds_ + _Hallowe'en Fantasy_ |Pyle |49 |Harper's Bazar, 31, pt. + (play), | | | 2: 947 + (Priest and the Piper)| | | + _Hallowe'en reformation_ |Butterworth|149-150|Century, 27:48 + (story) | | | + _Hallowe'en wish_ (poem) |Munkittrick|93-94 |Harper's Weekly, Oct. + | | | 27, 1900 + _Hiawatha_ (poem) |Longfellow |145 | + _Immortal Hour_ (play) |Sharp |39-40- |Fortn. Rev. 74:867 + | |41 | + _Jorinda and Joringel_ |Grimm |135 |Grimm's Fairy Tales + (story) | | | + _L'Allegro_ (poem) |Milton |86 | + _Land of Heart's Desire_ | |36-43- | + (play) |Yeats |45-47 | + _Lavengro_ (story) |Borrow |129 | + _Little Orphant Annie_ |Riley |152-153| + _Loch Garman_ |O'Ciarain |36 | + _Lycidas_ (poem) |Milton |85 | + _Macbeth_ (play) |Shakspere |89 | + _Monastery_ (story) |Scott |62-63- | + | |76-103 | + _Night of the dead_ |Le Braz |116-117|_Legend of the dead_ + "On nuts burning" |Graydon |91-92 | + _On the morning of | | | + Christ's nativity_ | | | + (poem) |Milton |28 | + _Paradise Lost_ (poem) |Milton |120 | + _Passing of Arthur_ |Tennyson |84 | + (poem) | | | + _Pastorals_ (poem) |Gay |74-75- | + | |92-93- | + | |94-95- | + | |97 | + _Peer Gynt_ (play) |Ibsen |131 | + _Peter and Wendy_ (story)|Barrie |64 | + _Polyolbion_ (poem) |Drayton |10 | + _Pomona_ (poem) |Morris |23 | + _Rip Van Winkle_ (play) |Jefferson |150-151| + _Robin Goodfellow_ (poem)|Johnson |86 | + _St. John's Eve_ (poem) |Kickham |12 | + _St. John's Fire_ (play) |Sudermann |141 | + _St. Swithin's Chair_ | | | + (poem) |Scott |69 | + "Soul, soul" | |98 |Notes and Queries + _Spell_ (poem) |Gay |91 | + _Splores of a Hallowe'en_| | | + (poem) |Dick |72 | + _Sunken bell_ (play) |Hauptmann |14 | + _Tale of Hallowe'en_ | | | + (story) | |76 |Leisure Hour, 23:765 + _Tam Glen_ (poem) |Burns |79 | + _Tam o' Shanter_ (poem) |Burns |67-68 | + _Tannhaeuser_ (play) |Wagner |132-133| + _Tempest_ (play) |Shakspere |67 | + _Three-fold chronicle_ |Sharp |54-56 |Harper's, 73:842 + (story) | | | + _Tom's Hallowe'en joke_ |Wright |154 |_Dewdrops and Diamonds_ + (story) | | | + _Twig of thorn_ (play) |Warren |44-45 | + _Vertumnus and Pomona_ |Ovid |24 | + (poem) | | | + _Voeluspa_ (poem) | |122 | + _We girls_ (story) |Whitney |162-163| + "When comes the harvest" |Botrel |112 |_Songs of Brittany_ + _When de folks is gone_ |Riley |153 | + (poem) | | | + "When ebery one" | |160 |Werner's Readings, + | | | No. 31 + _Wild huntsman_ (poem) |Scott |90 | + _Willie Baird_ (poem) |Buchanan |70 | + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX + + + Aberdeenshire, 60 + + Adder-stone, (serpent's-egg badge), 11, 27 + + Ailill, 36-38, 39 + + Ale, 80, 103 + + All Hallows Eve, 29, 88, 102, 106. See also Hallowe'en + + All Saints', 4, 29-30, 110, 118, 126 + + All Souls', 4, 30-31, 98-99, 106, 110, 113, 118, 142, 144 + + Alphabet, 96, 160, 166-167 + + America, 149, 153 + + Anaxarete, 24 + + Angus, 36, 38-39 + + Ankou, 109, 115 + + Apollo, 1, 129, 134 + + Apparitions. See Ghosts + + Apples, 23, 26, 50-53, 72, 77-78, 92, 95, 103-104, 106-107, 115, + 120, 149, 155, 157-158, 161, 162, 164, 166 + + Apple-island, 85 + + Apple-seeds, 92-93, 158-159 + + Arabs, 147 + + Ariel, 87 + + Armorica, 108 + + Arthur, King, 84, 108 + + Ash-tree, 63, 105, 122, 137; + berries of, 29 + + Ashes, 56, 60, 68, 83 + + Augury. See Omens + + August, Roman festival in, 25-26 + + August first, Celtic festival of, 15 + + Augustus, 27 + + Avilion (Avalon), 84-85, 107 + + Ayrshire, 68 + + + Baal, 8, 12-13, 17 + + Baal-fire, 12 + + Baldur, 120-121 + + Balmoral, 61 + + Barra, 79 + + Bats, 134, 152, 155 + + Bay-leaves, 170 + + Bean, 94 + + Bedivere, 84 + + Belgian, 144 + + Beltaine, 12, 79 + + Bells, 99, 111, 116, 118, 132, 137, 142, 154 + + Benevento, 131 + + Bergen, 130 + + Black, 156 + + Black sheep, 17, 50 + + Black sow, 102 + + "Black vespers," 113 + + Blindfolded seekers, 33, 70, 73, 77-78, 83, 160 + + Blocksberg, 130, 141 + + Boats, 146, 163 + + Bochica, 1 + + Bonfires, 3, 8-9, 12, 13, 17, 21, 50, 59-61, 101-102, 125; + to light through Purgatory, 31, 106; + to protect from evil, 29, 101 + + Boniface, 29 + + Border, Scottish, 62, 81, 111 + + Bretons, 99, 110-111 + + Briar, 57 + + Briar-Rose, 125 + + Bride, 36 + + Britain, 5-6, 27, 87, 109, 111 + + British Isles, 5, 107, 109, 126 + + Brittany, 108-109, 142, 145, 166 + + Brynhild, 124 + + Buchan, 59 + + Button, 156, 164 + + + Cabbages, 53-54, 70-72, 77, 95, 104, 164, 168-169 + + Cadwallo, King, 104 + + Caer, 38 + + Caesar, 5-8, 109 + + Cake, 13, 33, 79, 97-98, 103, 144, 145, 156 + + Callcannon, 51 + + Canada, 167 + + Candlemas Day, 88 + + Candles, 50, 53, 55, 59, 69, 80, 95-96, 99, 112, 118, 145, 155, + 158, 163 + + Cardiganshire, 102 + + Carnutes, 109 + + Cat, 11, 49, 66, 68, 134, 152, 155, 164 + + Catskill Mts., 150 + + _Celtic twilight_, 58 + + Celts, classes of, 5; + beliefs, 6, 15, 18, 30, 33, 79, 82, 107-110, 124, 125, 142; + characteristics of, 115, 119 + + Cemeteries, 54-55, 113-114, 142 + + Changelings, 35-36, 86 + + Charms. See Omens + + Chartrain, 109 + + Cherokees, 3 + + Chinese, 145 + + Christ, 4-5, 27, 119 + + Christian religion, 3, 27-31, 50, 59, 83, 101, 109, 126, 129; + in Britain, 27, 129; + in Ireland, 42; + in Brittany, 109; + in Scandinavia, 126 + + Christmas, 3, 97, 110, 154 + + Church, 3-4, 30-31, 80, 89, 113, 118, 143, 144; + festivals, 3 + + Circle, 8 + + Claudius, 27 + + Cluny, 30 + + Coel Coeth, 101 + + Coins, 51-52, 72, 156 + + Colonies, 149 + + Columb Kill. See St. Colomba + + Connaught, 35 + + Continent, 3, 118 + + Corn, 138; + -stalks, 155 + + Cornwall, 85, 108 + + Creed, 55 + + Crom Croich (Cruaich), 20-21 + + Cross, sun-symbol, 8; + Christian, 29, 42, 63, 137; + -roads, 65, 103, 137 + + Cruachan, 35, 37 + + Cuchulain, 41-42, 84 + + Cuckoos, 134, 139-140 + + Cyniver, 105, 168 + + + Dagda, 39 + + Dahut, 111 + + Dance, 3, 44, 56, 61, 67, 80, 81-82, 103, 106, 126, 133 + + Danann. See Tuatha De Danann + + Danu, 20 + + Dathi, 43 + + Dead, 19-20, 30, 37, 98-99, 109-117, 129, 142 _et seq._; + return, 4, 99, 107, 114-117, 145, 146, 149; + disturbed by weeping, 117, 145 + + Death, 10, 112, 156; + Lord of. See Saman. + Samhain associated with, 20-21, 30-31; + prophesied, 52, 57, 60, 65, 83, 102, 106 + + Decoration of graves, 118, 144 + + Delphi, 129, 134 + + Derbyshire, 99 + + Deux-Sevres, 109 + + Devil, 43, 50, 55, 57, 66-68, 89, 102, 133-135, 140 + + Dew, 136, 139 + + Dietrich von Bern, 131 + + Dishes, 73, 83, 104, 165, 168 + + Dispater, 109 + + Dissatisfied, 39-40, 57-58, 132, 141 + + Djinns, 147-148 + + Doll, wax, 151 + + Dolmens, 110 + + Dorsetshire, 99 + + Dovrefeld, 130 + + Dragon, 145 + + Dreams, 140; + prophetic, 14, 57, 79, 165, 169 + + Drink, 57, 79 + + Druid, meaning, 6-7; + draught, 42; + festivals, 11, 26, 101; + lamps, 73; + stone, 11; + stones, 110; + wand, 7; + -fire, 50, 166 + + Druids, 9-11, 29, 42-43, 92, 103, 109-110, 122-123, 126; + as priests, 5-6; + powers of, 7, 27 + + "Drus," 6 + + Dumb-cake, 80, 168 + + Dwarfs, 110 + + + Earth, 54, 83, 165 + + Edane, 47. See also Etain + + Edda, 124 + + Egg, 165, 167; + white of, 77-78, 168; + -shells, 36 + + Egyptian beliefs, 1, 18 + + Eichstatt, 136 + + Elder, 123, 137 + + Elizabeth, Queen, 99 + + Elm, 63 + + Elves, 121, 149, 152 + + Emer, 42 + + England, 87, 89, 97, 99, 106, 108, 119, 144 + + English, 149 + + Eochaidh, 39-40 + + Episcopalians, 30 + + Eriskay, 81 + + Etain, 39-40 + + Ethal, 38 + + Europe, 87, 130, 135, 142, 145 + + Excalibur, 84 + + Exorcism, 9, 29, 42 + + + Fagots, 96, 169 + + Fairies, 6, 44, 46, 49, 61-65, 81-82, 84-85, 96, 103, 107, 110, + 149 + + Fand, 41-42 + + Fates, 89, 123, 134 + + Feast, of dead, 116, 143; + of poor, 144 + + Feng-Shin, 145 + + Feralia, 114 + + Fern, 14, 59 + + Finistere, 110, 117 + + Fir Bolgs, 20 + + Fire, 21, 23, 45, 123-125; + -god, 120; + spirits of, 147 + + Fires, 11, 17, 28-29, 50, 52, 101, 109, 112. See also Bonfires + + _Flamina_, 25 + + Flour, 52, 57, 154, 158 + + Flowers, 118, 144 + + Fomor, 20, 35 + + Footprints, 57, 60, 83 + + "Forced-fire," 17 + + Fort Worth, 170 + + Forts, fairy, 37, 44, 46 + + France, 108, 110, 112, 118, 131, 142 + + Franks, 111 + + "Free-night," 141, 154 + + Freya, 120, 127, 129, 131, 134 + + "Furious Host," 131 + + Future, questions about, 34, 69 + + + Gabriel Ratchets, 90 + + Gaul, 5-6, 27, 109, 119 + + Germans, 119 + + Germany, 130, 131, 134, 136, 144 + + Ghosts, 49, 63, 69, 76-77, 88, 116, 127, 144, 146, 152, 155. + See also Dead + + Glass, 10-11, 96, 166 + + Gnomes, 48 + + Goat, 67-68, 134 + + Goblin, 35-36, 61, 64, 149, 153 + + Gods of Ireland. See Tuatha De Danann + + "Good Neighbors," 63 + + "Good People," 45, 49 + + Goths, 119 + + Grallon, 111 + + Great Britain. See Britain + + Greek, 1, 5, 6, 30, 85, 120 + + Gregory, 29-30 + + Guleesh, 46 + + Gunnar, 124 + + + Hair, 77, 96, 138, 166-167 + + Hallowe'en, 3-4, 35, 43, 46, 49-50, 61, 64-66, 68, 72, 79, 81, + 85, 89, 90, 95-96, 99, 103, 105, 106, 112, 129, 138, 140, + 142, 144, 149, 152, 154, 164, 165, 170; + pagan, 3, 21; + charms at, 26, 33, 53, 56; + born on, 54, 62 + + _Hallowe'en_, poem, 70, 168 + + _Hansel and Grethel_, 134 + + Hares, 135 + + Hartz Mts., 130 + + Harvest, 3-4, 15, 17, 25, 30-31, 34, 59, 69, 97, 106, 112, 137, + 155 + + Hawthorn, 123, 137 + + Hazel, 85 + + Hearts, 156 + + Hebrides, 79 + + Hel, 122, 131 + + Hemp, 14, 33, 53, 74 + + Henry VIII, 99 + + Henry Hudson, 150 + + Herbs, 46-47, 53, 66, 126, 129-130 + + Herne the Hunter, 90 + + Herodotus, 5 + + Hesperides, 85 + + Highlands, 59, 65, 77 + + Hodur, 121 + + Holda, 131-132, 136 + + Holiday, 61 + + Hollow Land, 41 + + Holly, 63 + + Hoop, 157 + + Horselberg, 131 + + Horseshoes, 138, 152 + + Horus, 1 + + Husking-bees, 3 + + + Iceland, 125 + + Idun, 120 + + Immortality, 10, 85, 107, 120 + + Indians, 3, 145, 150 + + Invocation, 21, 92 + + Iona, 50 + + Iphis, 24 + + Ireland 3, 5, 13, 15, 17, 20, 35, 48-50, 59, 62, 72-73, 78-80, + 104, 107, 127, 170; + belief in fairies, 6, 35 + + Irish Sea, 20 + + Iron, 152 + + Italy, 119, 131, 142 + + Ivy, 57 + + + Jack-o'-lantern, 49-50, 69, 121, 155 + + Japan, 2, 146 + + Jokes, 154 + + Jonah, 13 + + Juniper, 123, 137 + + Jupiter, 8 + + + Kale. See Cabbages + + Kensington Gardens, 64 + + Ker-Is, 111 + + Kettle, 89, 134, 155 + + Key, 55, 72, 144, 156 + + + Laeg, 42 + + "Lambswool," 51 + + Lammas, 28 + + Lancashire, 99 + + Land of Heart's Desire, 36 + + Land of Youth, 40 + + "Lanterns of the dead," 112 + + Lanterns in Japan, 146 + + Latin. See Rome + + Lead-melting, 55-56, 77, 168 + + Leek, 104-105 + + Legends, origin of, 2 + + Lemons, 170 + + Leprechauns, 48 + + Lewis, 80 + + Liban, 41 + + Lincolnshire, 89 + + "Little People," 48-49, 85 + + "Livelong," 53 + + Loki, 120 + + London, 97 + + Lords of Misrule, 88 + + Love-knots, 156 + + Lucifer, 120 + + "Luck of Edenhall," 96 + + Luggies. See Dishes + + Lugh, 14-15 + + Lugnasad, 15, 28, 33 + + + _Macbeth_, 123 + + Magic, 7, 15, 155; + black, 28, 156 + + Maine, 165 + + Malt, 80 + + Malta, 144 + + Man, Isle of, 20, 82 + + Manitous, 150 + + Mars, 8 + + Martinmas, 62 + + Mary, Virgin, 29, 126, 132, 138, 145 + + Mary Avenel, 62 + + Maryland, 165 + + Massachusetts, 164 + + Master of the Revels, 97 + + May-bride, 126 + + May Eve and Day, 4, 11-13, 29, 33, 45, 47, 107, 125, 135, 136, + _et seq._; + -fires, 13, 61; + -pole, 126; + -ridings, 125; + -shooting, 140 + + Meal, 83, 164 + + Meath, 15, 17 + + Medb, 36, 39 + + Meg, 68 + + "Men of Peace," 63 + + Mercury, 8, 15 + + Midir, 39-41 + + Middle Ages, 129 + + Midsummer, 3, 11, 20, 28, 33, 53, 125, 146 + + Milk, 45, 51, 112 + + Minerva, 8 + + Mirror, 85, 129, 146-147, 149, 161-162 + + _Miserere_, 142 + + Mistletoe, 7, 40, 120 + + Modred, 84 + + Mona, 27 + + _Monastery_, 62 + + Moon, 40, 74, 76, 77, 146, 155, 162 + + Moray, 59 + + Moytura, 20, 22, 35 + + Music, 36, 39-40, 43-47, 56, 64, 67, 87, 111 + + Myths, origin of, 2 + + + Naples, 142 + + Needles, 117, 133, 151, 158, 166 + + Negroes, 153 + + Nera, 37, 107 + + Net, 83 + + Neverland, 64 + + New Brunswick, 167 + + New Hampshire, 165 + + New Year, 82, 102, 154. See also Year's end + + New Year's Day, 17 + + Niflheim, 122 + + Nikko, 146 + + Norse, 80, 82, 119, 134 + + Norway, 1, 126, 130 + + "Nos Galan Gaeof," 102 + + November, Eve, 33, 35, 37, 44, 50, 59, 79, 101-102, 107, 112, + 137; + first, 4, 11, 16, 25-26, 137, 144; + in Rome, 30; + second, 30, 118, 144 + + Nuts, 26, 33, 50-52, 73, 90-92, 103-104, 109, 115, 144, 155, + 159-160, 169 + + + Oak, 6-7, 27, 40, 122 + + Oats, 55, 77 + + Oatmeal cakes, 79 + + Obsession, 44 + + October 31st, 4, 10, 17, 50, 82, 85, 118 + + Odin, 120, 124, 129, 131 + + "Oidhche Shamhna," 50 + + Olaf, 126 + + Omens, 14, 22, 26, 50-52, 104, 117, 137; + from sacrifices, 9, 17, 33, 123, 166; + evil, 28 + + Oonah, 45 + + Ops, 23 + + Ordeal, 9, 123-124 + + Osiris, 1, 18 + + Ossian, 47-48, 150 + + Ostia, 25 + + Otherworld, 19, 39, 42, 47, 84, 103, 107, 111, 115, 121, 146, 150 + + Ovid, 24, 114 + + Owls, 134, 152, 155 + + + Paddy Beg, 46-47 + + Paddy More, 46-47 + + Paganism, 30, 35, 59, 109, 141 + + Pageant, 170 + + Pantheon, 29 + + Paradise, 31 + + Partholon, 13 + + Parties, Hallowe'en, 155 + + Peace, 171 + + Peas, 92, 94 + + Pelagius, 83 + + Pennsylvania, 165 + + Perthshire, 59 + + Peru, 1 + + Peter Pan, 63-64 + + Ph[oe]nicians, 5 + + Picts, 108 + + Piper, fairy, 43-44, 64, 87 + + Pixies, 103, 110 + + Pomona, 4, 23-26, 50, 85, 155 + + Pontypridd, 101 + + _Preparedness for Peace_, 170 + + Procopius, 111 + + Prophets, + Druids as, 9, 43; + witches as, 89, 134, 151 + + Pumpkins, 155, 160 + + Purgatory, 31, 99, 106, 145 + + Puy de Dome, 131 + + "Puzzling-jug," 103-104 + + + Races, 15, 26 + + Rapunzel, 125 + + Red Mike, 54, 62 + + Rick, 55 + + Ring, 51-52, 55, 72, 96, 156, 165, 168 + + Rip Van Winkle, 150 + + Rome, 8, 23-30, 114, 119-120; + relations to Druids, 27; + All Saints' in, 32 + + Roses, 105 + + Rowan. See Ash-tree + + + Sacrifices, 20, 109, 137; + to Baal, 8-9, 11-13, 17, 101; + omens from, 33; + to Tyr, 123 + + St. Augustine, 83 + + St. Bridget, 45 + + St. Colomba, 50 + + St. Gertrude, 126 + + St. John's Day and Eve, 3, 28, 109, 110, 137, 141 + + St. Kilda, 79 + + St. Michael, 85 + + St. Ninian, 83 + + St. Odilo, 30 + + St. Patrick, 5, 43, 83 + + Saga, 124 + + Salerno, 142 + + Salt, 57, 67, 79, 82, 83, 134, 169 + + Saman, 10, 31, 50, 80 + + Samhain (Saveen), 16, 18, 20-22, 26, 31, 35-36, 38, 40-41, 43, + 48, 59, 65, 82 + + Samhnagan, 60 + + Samhanach, 64 + + Sark. See Shirt + + Satan, 120, 133 + + Sauin. See Samhain + + Scandinavia, 119, 126, 134 + + Scotland, 59, 78, 79, 81, 82, 99, 104, 127, 156; + belief in fairies in, 6, 62-64 + + Scots, 108 + + Seasons, 1 + + Seaweed, 80 + + Secrecy, 45, 77-78, 124, 155; + in Druid rites, 9-10, 124 + + Seed-cake, 97 + + Seeds, 14, 92, 121 + + Serpent's-egg. See Adder-stone + + Seville, 131 + + Shee, 39 + + Shirt-sleeve, wetting the, 56, 78-79, 126-129, 165 + + Shoe, 77, 170 + + Shony, 80 + + Shropshire, 98 + + "Sid," 37, 49. See also Forts + + Sigurd, 124 + + Sitou, 18 + + Sleep, 39, 47, 87, 124-125 + + Sloe, 52, 85 + + Snakes. See Adder-stone + + Snap-apple. See Apples + + Sol, 1 + + Soul-cakes. See Cake + + South, 165 + + South Uist, 81 + + Sowens, 79 + + Spain, 131, 144 + + Spectre Huntsman, 90 + + Spirits, 6, 20, 103; + abroad, 14, 22, 31, 35, 44, 48; + evil, 4, 18, 20, 56, 63, 87, 99, 129 + + Staffordshire, 98 + + Stones, 60, 101-102, 106, 109 + + Stories, 81, 96, 149, 169 + + Straw, 77, 99 + + Strunt, 79 + + "Summer's end," 3-4, 11-12, 16, 25, 44 + + Sun-god, 1-3, 8, 15, 44, 84-85, 87, 120-121, 124, 126, 136; + -worship, 21; + -wise, 3, 17, 60, 67 + + Superstitions, 33, 62, 83, 135, 153-154 + + Swans, 38-39, 41 + + Swastika, 8 + + Sweden, 126, 133 + + Symbols, 7-8, 28 + + + Tam o' Shanter, 68-69, 89 + + Tannhaeuser, 131-133 + + Tara, 17, 21, 43, 48, 59 + + _Tempest_, 87 + + Teuton, 108, 124, 142 + + Teutonic, 4, 125 + + Thanksgiving, 3-4; + for harvest, 59 + + Thimble, 51, 72, 83, 156 + + Thor, 134 + + Thorn, 45 + + Thread, 138, 167 + + Thuringia, 131 + + Tiberius, 27 + + Tigernmas, 20-21 + + "Tin Islands," 5 + + Tlactga, 17 + + Toads, 152 + + Toasts, 126 + + Todmorden, 90 + + Torches, 14, 60-61, 68, 99 + + Tree-worship, 7-8, 92, 123 + + Trefoil, 8, 29 + + Trinity, 29 + + Tripod, 65, 134, 155 + + Trolls, 121, 130, 150 + + Tuatha De Danann, 20, 29, 38-39, 43, 48-50, 107-108 + + Tub, 53, 93, 96, 160; + apples in. See Apples + + Tyr, 123 + + + United States, 153 + + + Valhalla, 121-122 + + Vali, 121 + + Valkyries, 122, 136 + + Vandals, 119 + + Venus, 131-132 + + Vertumnus, 24-25 + + Vortumnalia, 25 + + Vulcan, 120 + + Vurdh, 123 + + + Wales, 27, 101, 105, 106, 108, 144, 168; + belief in fairies in, 6 + + Walnut-tree, 92 + + Walpurga, 136 + + Ward, Hill of. See Tara + + Water, 57, 68, 97, 165 + + Wedding of sun and earth, 126, 136 + + "Weird Sisters," 123 + + Wendy, 64 + + Wheel, + sun-symbol, 8, 13, 17; + of fortune, 163 + + White Lady, 62 + + Wild Huntsman, 90, 131 + + Will-o'-the-wisps, 121 + + Windsor Forest, 90 + + Winnowing, 75-76 + + Winter, first day of, 18, 44, 87, 102, 112 + + Witches, 4, 60-61, 65-69, 89, 99, 101, 129-131, 133-135, 146, 155 + + Witchcraft, 4, 81, 89, 134 + + Wood, 52, 57, 97 + + Wotan. See Odin + + + Yarn, 55, 75, 104, 140, 165 + + Year's end, 10, 17-18, 84 + + Yellow, 156 + + Yggdrasil, 122 + + Yorkshire, 97 + + Yule, 3, 126 + + + Zschokke, 140 + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + Represented the "oe" ligature as [oe]. + + Adjusted placement of footnotes. + + Page 88: Retained alternate spelling of "Candelmas" in quoted + material versus standard spelling in index. + + Page 182: Standardized punctuation. + + Pages 191 & 194: Standardized index cross-reference words. + + Page 204: Standardized spelling of "sick-bed." + + Page 207: Standardized spelling of _Voeluspa_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Hallowe'en, by Ruth Edna Kelley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN *** + +***** This file should be named 20644.txt or 20644.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20644/ + +Produced by Suzan Flanagan, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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