THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN

 
 if 
 ^ 

 
 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 
 
 CO*.' 
 
 NORWOOD, MASS. 
 U.S. A.
 
 STACK ANNEX 
 
 T 
 
 To my Mother and the memory of my Father 
 
 who inspired and encouraged me 
 
 in the writing of this 
 
 book
 
 
 
 ill
 
 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 an- 
 cient 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. Button & 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 Wil- 
 liam Morris ; and to the Editors of The Inde- 
 pendent for the use of five poems. 
 
 . KUTH EDNA KELLEY. 
 LYNN, 1919. 
 
 vn
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAT. PAGE 
 
 I. SUN-WORSHIP. THE SOURCES OF HAL- 
 LOWE'EN i 
 
 II. THE CELTS : THEIR RELIGION AND FES- 
 TIVALS 5 
 
 HI. 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 
 
 XL 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 CUS- 
 
 TOMS 142 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP TAGS 
 
 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 .
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Hallowe'en Festivities Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 In Hallowe'en Time 34 
 
 The Witch of the Walnut-Tree . . . . 100 
 The Witches' Dance (Valpurgisnackt) . . .138 
 
 Fortune-Telling 148 
 
 Hallowe'en Tables, I 156 
 
 Hallowe'en Tables, II 15 8 
 
 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 
 
 1
 
 2 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 in- 
 terest 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 idle- 
 ness, 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
 
 SUN-WORSHIP 3 
 
 a fire kindled, dancing, and prayers ; and 
 round the earth in North America the Chero- 
 kees 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 Christ- 
 mas, 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 ap- 
 pears to move. The pagan Hallowe'en at the 
 end of summer was a time of grieTfor tne de- 
 cline 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 Thanksgiv-
 
 4 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 ing 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 con- 
 tributed the idea of the return of the dead ; 
 and the Teutonic May Eve assemblage of 
 witches brought its hags and their attend- 
 ant beasts to help celebrate the night of 
 October 31st.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CELTS : THEIE RELIGION AND 
 FESTIVALS 
 
 THE first reference to Great Britain in Eu- 
 ropean annals of which we know was the 
 statement in the fifth century B. c. of the 
 Greek historian Herodotus, that Phoenician 
 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 cen- 
 turies before Christ came. There is a tradi- 
 tion in Ireland that they first arrived there 
 in 270 B. c., seven hundred years before St. 
 Patrick. The account of them written by 
 Julius Csesar half a century before Christ 
 speaks mainly of the Celts of Gaul, dividing 
 them into two ruling classes who kept the
 
 6 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 lan- 
 guage, and might even have one king, so that 
 what Csesar 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' servi- 
 tude unless they are bribed to show favor. 
 
 The name " Druid " is derived from the 
 Celtic word " druidh," meaning " sage," con- 
 nected with the Greek word for oak, " drus,"
 
 THE CELTS 7 
 
 " 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 grow- 
 ing upon it. Their ceremonies were held in 
 oak-groves. 
 
 Later from their name a word meaning 
 11 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'CUBEY : Ancient Irish. 
 
 They dealt in symbols, common objects to 
 which was given by the interposition of
 
 '8 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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. 
 
 Csesar provides them with a galaxy of Ro- 
 man 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 shinhig 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. Thes^ bonfires lighted on 
 the hills were meant to urge the god to pro- 
 tect and blfss the crops and herds. From
 
 THE CELTS 9 
 
 the appearance of the victims sacrificed in 
 them, omens were taken that foretold the fu- 
 ture. 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 UUa. 
 
 M Thy feet shall trample the mighty 
 Yet stumble on heads thou lovest." 
 
 TODHUNTEB : Dwiid song of Cathvah. 
 
 They kept their lore for the most part a 
 secret, forbidding it to be written, passing it
 
 io THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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.
 
 THE CELTS n 
 
 " 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 them- 
 selves. 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 be- 
 ings 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 excep- 
 tion on November 1st. 
 
 May Day and November Day were the 
 more important, the beginning and end of 
 summer, yet neither equinoxes nor solstices.
 
 12 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Beltame (" 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 flatties, 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 kne\v not why." 
 
 KICKHAM : St. John' s Eve.
 
 THE CELTS 13 
 
 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 pro- 
 moter 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.
 
 14 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 Bett. 
 
 (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
 
 f'i 
 
 * : -"~ ~ >& 
 
 ,&-~ *- , a ^ ^^^- .4*^ 
 
 , m^ Jf^ ** ' ^tK C^ 
 
 -.; 3K 
 
 ^-,v*:,Af> ^-<S2rtm 
 
 4^ 
 
 w '- i*m^- M-I .^^ 
 
 hi^M 
 
 A "\VITCHES '-CALDRON TABLE. 
 
 A BLACK-CAT TABLE. 
 HALLOWE'EN TABLES, II.
 
 THE CELTS 15 
 
 he possessed some good and some evil tend- 
 encies. 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 danc- 
 ing and horse-racing the first week of August.
 
 SAMHAIN 
 
 ON November first was Samhain ("sum- 
 mer's end "). 
 
 " Take my tidings : 
 Stags contend ; 
 Snows descend 
 Summer's end ! 
 
 a A chill wind raging, 
 
 The sun low keeping, 
 Swift to set 
 O'er seas high sweeping. 
 
 M 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. 
 16
 
 SAMHAIN 17 
 
 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
 
 1 8 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Egyp- 
 tian mytholog^ 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 Egyp- 
 
 / / 
 
 tian would begin any new business f0r fear of 
 bad luck, since the spirit of evil was then in 
 powefr. 
 
 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 mead- 
 ows 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.
 
 SAMHAIN 19 
 
 " 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 au- 
 tumn 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,
 
 20 THE BOOK OF 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,
 
 SAMHAIN 21 
 
 the king idol, and lay prostrate before the 
 image, he and three-fourths of his men mys- 
 teriously 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. 
 
 Sam bain was then a day sacred to the 
 death of the sun, on which had been paid a 
 sacrifice of death to evil powers. Though
 
 22 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 atn 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." 
 
 Pomona. 
 
 Many Roman poets told stories about her, the 
 
 23
 
 24 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 best known being by Ovid, who says that she 
 was wooed by many orchard-gods, but pre- 
 ferred 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 char- 
 acter 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 Anax- 
 arete who was so cold to her lover I phis that
 
 POMONA 25 
 
 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 de- 
 duced. Then the deities of fire and water 
 were propitiated that their disfavor might 
 not ruin the crops. On Pomona's day doubt- 
 less thanks was rendered them for their aid 
 to the harvest. An offering of first-fruits was
 
 26 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 exer- 
 cised 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 law- 
 suit. Forbidden to practise their rites in 
 Britain, the Druids fled to the isle of Mona, 
 near the coast of Wales. The Romans pur- 
 sued them, and in 61 A. D. they were slaugh- 
 tered 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. 
 
 27
 
 28 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 some- 
 thing 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 ; Mid- 
 summer 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 reconse-
 
 COMING OF CHRISTIANITY 29 
 
 crated. 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 sac- 
 rifices 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 com-
 
 3 o THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 pulsory 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 bowlings 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 VOEAGINE : Golden Legend. 
 
 This day became All Souls', and was set for 
 November 2d. 
 
 It is very appropriate that the Celtic festi- 
 val when the spirits of the dead and the su- 
 pernatural powers held a carnival of triumph 
 over the god of light, should be followed by 
 All Saints' and All Souls'. The church holy-
 
 COMING OF CHRISTIANITY 31 
 
 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 de- 
 liverance from torture. They have in com- 
 mon 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 ?
 
 32 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 Soul* Eve.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 OBIGIN AND CHAEACTEE 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 be- 
 lieved 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 
 
 33
 
 34 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 mystic to evoke apparitions from the past or 
 future. Others are tried with harvest grains 
 and fruits. Because skill and undivided at- 
 tention is needed to carry them through suc- 
 cessfully, 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 ?
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 
 IN IEELAND 
 
 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 wicked- 
 ness while still in the cradle, possessing 
 superhuman cunning and skill in music. 
 
 One way of getting rid of these demon chil- 
 
 35
 
 36 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 dreii 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 cen- 
 turies 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 ^ngus 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 Hearts 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 Gartnan.
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 37 
 
 they offered a reward to the man who should 
 tie a bundle of twigs about the feet of a crim- 
 inal 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 Ouachan, 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 in- 
 tended 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 dis- 
 covered the crown, emblem of power, took it 
 away, and plundered the treasury. Nera 
 never returned again to the homes of men.
 
 38 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared. 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 con- 
 sent 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, Caer ! ' 
 " ' Who is calling me ? ' said Caer.
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 39 
 
 " ' Angus calls you,' he said, 4 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 like- 
 wise, 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 Eoch- 
 aidh. When they have been married a year,
 
 40 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Sour. 
 
 She and Midir fly away in the form of two 
 swans, linked by a chain of gold. 
 
 Cuchulain, hopelessly sick of a strange ill- 
 ness brought on by Fand and Liban, fairy 
 sisters, was visited the day before Samhain by 
 a messenger, who promised to cure him if he
 
 42 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 de- 
 serted 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 43 
 
 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
 
 44 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 danc- 
 ing. 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 gob- 
 lins trooped out for revels about the country. 
 The old Druid idea of obsession, the be- 
 sieging 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 : Ting 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 45 
 
 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." 
 
 WAEEEN : 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.
 
 46 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 com- 
 plied ; he danced as spryly as he could fof 
 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 47 
 
 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 per- 
 petual 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 horse-
 
 48 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 back. 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 Sam- 
 hain, 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 Bui- 
 bin. They had rather round heads and dark 
 thick-set bodies, and in stature were about two 
 and one-half feet. The Leprechauns are differ- 
 ent, being full of mischief, though they, too, are 
 small. I followed a Leprechaun from the town
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 49 
 
 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-look- 
 ing ; 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
 
 50 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 lona 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 51 
 
 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 gather- 
 ing 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 " 
 
 TEANT : Hallowe'en in Ireland. 
 
 A coin betokened to the finder wealth ; the 
 thimble, that he would never marry.
 
 52 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Roscom- 
 mon, 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 sweet- 
 hearts. 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 53 
 
 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. Some- 
 times 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
 
 54 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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." 
 
 Ked 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 church-
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 55 
 
 yard, 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
 
 56 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 spoonful takes in cooling indicates the occu- 
 pation of the future husband of the girl who 
 poured it. 
 
 " Now something like a horse would cause the 
 jubilant maiden to call out, 4 A dragoon ! ' Now 
 some dim resemblance to a helmet would sug- 
 gest 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-run- 
 ning 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 morn-
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN IRELAND 57 
 
 ing 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 be- 
 fore 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 re- 
 ceive 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 un- 
 known, retained nowhere else as much as in
 
 58 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Mam 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 HEBEIDES 
 
 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 j 
 fires of thanksgiving for harvest was kept 
 to as late as 1866. All through the eight- 
 eenth century in the Highlands and in 
 Perthshire torches of heath, broom, flax, or 
 ferns were carried about the fields and vil- 
 lages by each family, with the intent to cause 
 
 59
 
 60 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 steal- 
 ing 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 SCOTLAND 61 
 
 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 hur- 
 ried 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 ap- 
 peared, 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 :
 
 62 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 Scot- 
 land 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
 
 IN SCOTLAND 63 
 
 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 pro- 
 tection 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 responsi-
 
 64 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 bility. 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." 
 
 BARBIE : 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." 
 
 HOPPEE : Fairy Fiddler. 
 
 On Hallowe'en all traditional spirits are 
 abroad. The Scotch invented the idea of a 
 " Samhanach," a goblin who comes out jut
 
 IN SCOTLAND 65 
 
 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 lam 
 
 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
 
 66 THE BOOK OF HALLOWEEN 
 
 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 like- 
 ness, and, anointed with the fat of murdered 
 babies flew off up the chimney on a broom- 
 stick with cats attendant. Burns tells the 
 story of a company of witches pulling ragwort 
 by the roadside, getting each astride her rag- 
 wort with the summons " Up horsie 1 " 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.
 
 IN SCOTLAND 67 
 
 " 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 b,y 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, some- 
 times back to back, sometimes from west to 
 east, for the dances at the ancient Baal festi- 
 vals 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. 
 
 u 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." ' 
 
 BURNS : Tarn, o' Shanter.
 
 68 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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. 
 
 Tarn 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 : Tarn o j Sfianter. 
 
 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
 
 IN SCOTLAND 69 
 
 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. Swithiri'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
 
 70 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 for divination in love affairs. A typical 
 eighteenth century party in western Scotland 
 is described by Robert Bums. 
 
 Cabbages are important in Scotch supersti- 
 tion. 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 un- 
 engaged 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.
 
 IN SCOTLAND 71 
 
 " 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 Sernple." 
 
 BLACK : Hallowe'en Wraith. 
 
 A close white head meant an old husband, an 
 open green head a young one. His disposi- 
 tion 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
 
 72 THE BOOK OF HALLOWEEN 
 
 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 Ire- 
 land, or a dish of meal and milk holds sym- 
 bolic 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.
 
 IN SCOTLAND 73 
 
 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, 
 a 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 * 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. 
 
 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 mar- 
 riage was blindfolded, turned about thrice, 
 and put down his left hand. If he dipped it 
 
 1 Careful. * Chimney.
 
 74 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 : Halloween. 
 
 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,
 
 IN SCOTLAND 75 
 
 * This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, 
 "Who shall my true-love be, the crop shaii 
 
 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 Ire- 
 land. As it is wound backward, something 
 holds it. The winder must ask, " Wha 
 bauds? " to hear the name of her future sweet- 
 heart. 
 
 " 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' ' 
 Or whether it was Andrew Bell, 
 She did na wait on talkin 
 To speir 2 that night." 
 
 BUBNS : HaUowJen. 
 
 Another spell not commonly tried now is 
 winnowing three measures of imaginary corn, 
 as one stands in the barn alone with both 
 
 1 Grogs-beam. 2 Ask. 
 
 I
 
 76 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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
 
 IN SCOTLAND 77 
 
 was measured round with the arms against 
 the 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. Blind- 
 folded 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
 
 78 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 into a glass of water. The number of divi- 
 sions 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 fu- 
 ture 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 al- 
 ready been described in Ireland.
 
 IN SCOTLAND 79 
 
 " The last Hallowe'en I was waukin ' 
 
 My droukit 2 sark-sleeve, as ye kin 
 His likeness came up the house staukin, 
 And the very grey breeks o' Tain Glen ! " 
 BUKNS : Tarn Glen. 
 
 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 west- 
 ern 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. 
 
 Tn the Hebrides is the Irish custom of eat- 
 ing on Hallowe'en a cake of raeal 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. 
 
 1 Watching. a Drenched.
 
 80 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 pic- 
 turesque. 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 re- 
 turned 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 with-
 
 IN SCOTLAND 81 
 
 drew to the farther end of the room, still in 
 silence. At midnight each lover was ex- 
 pected 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, 
 Kunning 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 ! " 
 
 Hummers' 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 sweet- 
 
 82
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 83 
 
 heart'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 per- 
 son 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.
 
 84 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 King Arthur, who was believed to have 
 reigned in the fifth century, may be a per- 
 sonification of the sun-god. He comes from 
 the Otherworld, his magic sword Excalibur is 
 brought thence to him, he fights twelve bat- 
 tles, in number like the mouths, 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.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 85 
 
 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: Lycidaa. 
 
 As fruit to Pomona, so berries were devoted 
 to fairies. They would not let any one cut a 
 blackthorn shoot on Hallowe'en. In Corn- 
 wall sloes and blackberries were considered 
 unfit to eat after the fairies had passed by, be- 
 cause 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 knowl- 
 edge, were also sacred. 
 
 Besides leaving berries for the "^Little 
 People," food was set out for them on Hal- 
 lowe'en, and on other occasions. They re-
 
 86 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 warded this hospitality by doing an extra- 
 ordinary 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 : U 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.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 87 
 
 Soulless and without gratitude or memory 
 spirits of the air may be, like Ariel in The 
 Tempest He, like the fairy harpers of Ire- 
 land, 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
 
 88 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 mor- 
 row after the Feast of the Purification, com- 
 monlie called Candelmas day : In all of 
 which space there were fine and subtle die- 
 guisinges, Maskes, and Mummeries." This 
 was written of King Henry IV's court at 
 Eltham, in 1401, and is true of centuries be- 
 fore 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. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " 'T is the night the night 
 Of the graves' delight, 
 And the warlock * are at their play ! 
 
 1 Devils.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 89 
 
 Ye think that without 
 The wild winds shout, 
 But no, it is they it is they ! " 
 
 OOXE : Hallow&en. 
 
 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 blind worm's sting, 
 Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, 
 
 For a charm of powerful trouble " 
 
 SHAKSPEBE : Macbeth. 
 
 They connect themselves thereby with those 
 evil creatures who pursued Tarn o' Shanter, 
 and were servants of the Devil. In 1892 in 
 Lincolnshire, people believed that if they 
 looked in through the church door on Hal- 
 lowe'en they would see the Devil preaching
 
 9 o THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Todmor- 
 den as Gabriel Ratchets, was the spirit of an 
 ungodly hunter who for his crimes was con- 
 demned 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 sweet- 
 hearts." 
 
 A variation of the nut test is, naming
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 91 
 
 two for two lovers before they are put be- 
 fore 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 ;
 
 92 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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." 
 
 GEAYDON : On Nitts Burning, Allhattows Eve. 
 
 Sometimes peas on a hot shovel are used in- 
 stead. 
 
 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 : Pastoral*. 
 
 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.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 93 
 
 " 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 ma 
 
 "One moment it is dreaming 
 
 Beneath the candle's glare, 
 Then over wave and eddy 
 It glances here and there. 
 
 u And when at last I capture 
 The prize with joy aglow, 
 I sigh, may I this sunshine 
 Of golden rapture know
 
 94 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 open- 
 ing 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.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 95 
 
 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: Pastorate. 
 
 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 pre- 
 ceded 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
 
 96 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 mar- 
 riage, 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.
 
 IN ENGLAND AND MAN 97 
 
 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 Hallow tide 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 per- 
 son gets a triangular seed-cake, and the even- 
 ing is called " cake night."
 
 98 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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." 
 
 TUSSEB : 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 ENGLAND AND MAN 99 
 
 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 cen- 
 tury people used to go about begging for can- 
 dles 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 Pur- 
 gatory. 
 
 Like the Bretons, the English have the su- 
 perstition 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 ?
 
 ioo THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 : HaUow&en.
 
 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 promi- 
 nent place near the house, was called Coel 
 
 Coeth. Into the dying fire each member of 
 
 101
 
 102 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 ' black sow 
 On every stile, 
 Spinning and carding 
 Every Allhallows' Eve." 
 
 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 
 
 1 Short-tailed.
 
 IN WALES 103 
 
 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." 
 PAEEY : 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 be- 
 fore 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
 
 104 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 are three holes that seem merely ornamental. 
 They are connected with the bottom of the 
 jug by pipes through the handle, and the un- 
 witting 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
 
 IN WALES 105 
 
 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.
 
 io6 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 BBITTANY AND FEANCB 
 
 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 re- 
 member 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 
 
 107
 
 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 pedes- 
 tal. 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 Armo- 
 rica, 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
 
 IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 109 
 
 beliefs were retained more untouched than in 
 Britain, not clear of paganism till the seven- 
 teenth century. Here especially did Chris- 
 tianity 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 sur- 
 vived 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 1'Ankou, a skeleton armed with a 
 spear, can be seen in most villages of Brittany.
 
 no THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 fu-
 
 IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE in 
 
 ture. 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 Other- 
 world. 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 de- 
 liver them into the hands of the keeper of 
 soul?. Farther inland a black bog seemed to 
 be the entrance to an otherworld under- 
 ground. 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 enchant- 
 ments.
 
 112 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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." 
 
 BOTBEL : Songs of Brittany. 
 
 The harvest-time reminded the Bretons of the 
 garnering by that reaper, Death. On Novem- 
 ber 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 de- 
 parted 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 safe- 
 guard the people from the fear of night-wan- 
 dering spirits and the dead, so they were 
 called " lanternes des morts."
 
 IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 113 
 
 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 re- 
 ligious service, " black vespers." The blessed- 
 ness of death is praised, the sorrows and 
 shortness of life dwelt upon. After a com- 
 mon 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.
 
 ii4 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 In these toinbs are Latin inscriptions mean- 
 ing : " Remember them must die," " To-day to 
 me, and to-morrow to thee," and others re- 
 minding 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 an- 
 cestors 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 de- 
 parted. The men sit about the fireplace smok- 
 ing or weaving baskets ; the women apart, 
 knitting or spinning by the light of the fire 
 and one candle. The children play with
 
 IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 115 
 
 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 expres- 
 sion 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 Otherwoiid, 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
 
 n6 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 BEAZ : 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
 
 IN BRITTANY AND FRANCE 117 
 
 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 BEAZ : Night of the Dead. 
 
 The tears of their deserted friends disturb the 
 comfort of the dead, and sometimes they ap- 
 pear 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 Finistre is recorded. 
 Twenty-five new needles are laid in a dish,
 
 n8 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 EELIGION. WITCHES 
 
 THE Teutons, that race of northern peoples 
 called by the Romans, " barbarians," com- 
 prised 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 neigh- 
 boring 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, inde- 
 pendent, and quick of action, while the Celts 
 were by nature more slothful and fond of 
 peaceful social gatherings, though of quicker 
 
 intellect and wit. 
 
 119
 
 120 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Vul- 
 can, 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
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 121 
 
 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 Bal- 
 dur 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 Val- 
 halla, the abode of the heroes whom death
 
 122 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 had found on the battlefield, and Niflheim, 
 " the misty realm," secure from the cold out- 
 side, 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." 
 
 Voluspa saga. (Black well trans.') 
 
 guarded by three fates, Was, Will, and Shall 
 Be. The name of Was means the past, of
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 123 
 
 Will, the power, howbeit small, which men 
 have over present circumstances, and Shall 
 Be, the future over which man has no con- 
 trol. Vurdh, the name of the latter, gives us 
 the word " weird," which means fate or fate- 
 ful. 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 haw- 
 thorn, and the juniper, were sacred to super- 
 natural powers. 
 
 The priests of the Teutons sacrificed pris- 
 oners 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
 
 124 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 a certain number of days no burns appeared 
 the person was declared innocent. If a sus- 
 pected 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 commem- 
 orated 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
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 125 
 
 reigns undisturbed. Grimms' story of Ra- 
 punzel, 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 ap- 
 proach, 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 cele- 
 brated 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 bon- 
 fires, 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.
 
 126 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 coun- 
 tries, 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 sup- 
 planted Druidism in the British Isles. It was 
 the ninth before Christianity made much prog- 
 ress 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
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 127 
 
 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 be- 
 fore 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 farm- 
 yard, through which there was a kind of 
 thoroughfare, very seldom used, it is true, and
 
 128 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 oc- 
 casionally 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 hap- 
 pened ; 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
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 129 
 
 or not, I can't say. I shall never forget that 
 night. About two hours later, ray 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 Chris- 
 tianity turned all the old gods into spirits of 
 evil, these two were accused especially of pos- 
 sessing unlawful learning, as having knowl- 
 edge 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 look- 
 ing-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
 
 1 3 o THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 and concocted drinks of healing and refresh- 
 ment. 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' Sab- 
 bath, 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 sacri- 
 fice, of judgment, or of wells and springs con- 
 sidered 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 au- 
 tumn weather 
 
 " The wonted roar was up among the woods." 
 
 MILTON : Cormis. 
 
 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 Tannhauser held 
 her revels in an underground palace in the 
 Horeelberg 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
 
 1 32 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 those she has lured into the mountain by in- 
 toxicating music and promises. " The en- 
 chanting sounds enticed only those in whose 
 hearts wild sensuous longings had already 
 taken root." Of these Tannhauser 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 : Tannhauser. 
 
 At the holy name Venus and her revellers 
 vanish, and Tannhauser 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. 
 # * * # *
 
 THE TEUTONIC RELIGION 133 
 
 Play, play, my pipe, your lightest lay, 
 For spring has come, and merry May ! " 
 
 Tannhduser. (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 fol- 
 lowers 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
 
 i 3 4 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 what- 
 ever 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 ship- 
 wrecks, plagues, and blights. No salt was 
 eaten, for that was a wholesome substance. 
 
 The witches of Germany did not have pro- 
 phetic 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 cen-
 
 THE TEUTOMC RELIGION 135 
 
 tury 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 supersti- 
 tion. " 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, Wal- 
 purga too joined the pagan train that swept 
 the sky on the eve of May first, and met 
 
 136
 
 WALPURGIS NIGHT 137 
 
 afterwards on mountain-tops to sacrifice and 
 to adore Holda, as the priests had sacrificed 
 for a prosperous season and a bountiful har- 
 vest. 
 
 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 man- 
 ifestations of evil. Witches complete the list 
 of supernatural beings which are out on Hal- 
 lowe'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 back- 
 ward 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, juni- 
 per, and elder, once sacred to the pagan gods, 
 are now used as a protection against them.
 
 138 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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. 
 
 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 morn- 
 ing in the toe a hair the color of your sweet- 
 heart's. Girls try to find out the tempera- 
 ment 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 :
 
 THE WITCHES' DANCE (VALPURGISNACHT.) 
 From Painting by Von Kreling,
 
 WALPURGIS NIGHT 139 
 
 " 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."
 
 i 4 o THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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
 
 WALPURGIS NIGHT 141 
 
 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 out- 
 lasted 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.'' 
 
 SUDEBMANN : St. John 1 s Fire. (Porter trans.)
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MOEE 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 liv- 
 ing 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 
 
 142
 
 BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 143 
 
 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 lif e'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 : Halloween,
 
 I 4 4 THE BOOK OF 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
 
 BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 145 
 
 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 an- 
 cestors, 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
 
 146 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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." 
 
 EINDEE : Great Fir Tree of Takasago. 
 
 There is a Chinese saying that a mirror is
 
 BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS 147 
 
 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 long- 
 ingly 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 ear- 
 nestly 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.
 
 148 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " Ha ! They are on us, close without I 
 
 Shut tight the shelter where we lie ; 
 With hideous din the monster rout, 
 Dragon and vampire, fill the sky." 
 
 HUGO : The Djinns.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 HALLOWE'EN DJ AMERICA 
 
 
 IN Colonial days Hallowe'en was not cele- 
 
 brated 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? -:V : 
 initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to see 
 their faces. . Ballads were sung and ghost- 
 stories told, for the dead were thought to re- 
 turn on Hallowe'en. 
 
 ,,** There was a? young officer in Phipe' 
 pany at the time of the finding of the Spanish 
 treasure-slap, who had gone mad at 
 the bursting sacks. that th* divers had 
 mi from the ae% aa the gold coins covered the 
 deck. Tills man had once lived in the old atone 
 house on Uje * faire greeoae lane,' and & report 
 had gone out; thatrhis spirit still visited it, and 
 caused discordant noises. Once . . . on a 
 gusty NoT<amb6r evening, when, the clouds were 
 scudding over the moon, a hall-door had blown
 
 ico THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN^ 
 
 t 
 
 (.:-- 
 
 open with a shrieking draft and a force that! 
 caused the floor to tremble." 
 
 BTTTTEBWOBrnr: HaHoutfcn 
 
 Elvee, : goblins,' and fairies are native o 
 
 American soiL The Indians believed in e 
 
 . 
 
 mantivus, some of whom were water-gods w 
 < exacted tribute from all who passed over the 
 
 * . **:J 
 
 Iskes. Henry? Hudson^ and his fellovr- 
 plorers haunted as mountain-trolls the Cats- 
 kill range. Like Oasian 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 r - f and 
 snatched from life many of his boon-corn^ 
 p&uians. 
 
 ** if j gnu mast hare ootched the rhenmatixo 
 too. 2fow that j too bad Them fellows have*?! 
 gene and stolen my good gnu, and leave me this 
 
 rasty old barret 
 
 ;1 Why, H that the village of Falling- Waters 
 that I see ? Why, the place is more than 
 
 * the size it was last night I -
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 151 
 
 " 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.
 
 152 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 " 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 pro- 
 tection 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 up- 
 stairs, 
 
 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 !
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 153 
 
 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 '11 git you, ef you don't 
 
 watch out ! " 
 
 KILEY : 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." 
 
 EILET : 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
 
 I 5 4 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 of other countries. All superstitions, every- 
 day ones, and those pertaining to Christmas 
 and New Year's, have special value on Hal- 
 lowe'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'* 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 Hart- 
 wig speaks so enthusiastically in St. John's 
 Fire (page 141).'
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 155 
 
 Hallowe'en parties are the real survival of 
 the ancient merrymakings. They are pre- 
 pared 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 ele- 
 ments 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 broom- 
 sticks, with cats, bats, and owls surmounts the 
 fireplace, perhaps. A full moon shines over 
 all, and a caldron on a tripod holds fortunes
 
 156 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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,
 
 A WITCH TABLE. 
 
 AN OWL TABLE. 
 HALLOWE'EN TABLES, I.
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 157 
 
 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 ! " 
 
 BEADLEY: Different Party. 
 
 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
 
 158 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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. 
 
 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. Aa 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 159 
 
 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 gen-
 
 160 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 erally 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 picka- 
 ninny 
 
 Would huddle in de chimbley cohnah's glow, 
 Toe listen toe dem chilly win's ob ole Novem- 
 
 bah's 
 
 Go a-screechin' lack a spook around de huts, 
 'Twell de pickaninnies' fingahs gits to shakin' 
 
 o'er de em bans, 
 
 An' dey laik ter roas' dey knuckles 'stead o' 
 nuts." 
 
 IN WERNER'S Beadings, Number 81. 
 
 Letters of the alphabet are carved on a 
 pumpkin. Fate guides the hand of the blind- 
 folded 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.
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 161 
 
 Girla 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 ! " 
 
 OPPEE : The Charms.
 
 1 62 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 1 " 
 
 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 com- 
 ing in. 
 
 " Doctor Ingleside was one, coming to get his
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 163 
 
 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 an- 
 other, and brings a gift to each.
 
 164 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 Hal- 
 lowe'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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 165 
 
 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, re- 
 spectively. 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, know- 
 ing that the ones they are to marry will come 
 to sit in front of them. 
 
 The South has always been famous for its
 
 1 66 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 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 New- 
 foundland. 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 :
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 167 
 
 " 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 morn- 
 ing. 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.
 
 1 68 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to 
 study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, 
 using Burns's poem Hallmve'en as a guide ; or 
 to go a-souling as the English used. In short, 
 no custom that was once honored at Hallow- 
 e'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 profes- 
 sion. 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 adapta- 
 tion 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, mar- 
 riage, the rag, no marriage at all.
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 169 
 
 After the charms have been tried, fagots are 
 passed about, and by the eerie light of burn- 
 ing 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 quan- 
 tities from a pinch to an egg full, is eaten be- 
 fore 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 ap- 
 parition of your future spouse comes in the night 
 to offer you a drink of water.' " 
 
 ADAMS : Chi-issie'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 nut- 
 meg grated together and mixed with butter 
 and sugar cause dreams : if of gold, the hus-
 
 170 THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 band 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
 
 HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA 171 
 
 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 nut8 
 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. 
 
 172
 
 HALLOWE'EN 173 
 
 The ghosts of all things, past parade, 
 Emerging from the mist and shade 
 
 That hid them from our gaze, 
 And fall 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' I 
 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 ! 
 
 174
 
 HALLOWE'EN FAILURE 175 
 
 Lordy I hope dey ain't no ghos' 
 
 Come to tell me howdy. 
 I ain't got no use for those 
 
 Faritoms damp an' cloudy. 
 
 Whass dat standin' by de fence 
 
 Wid its eyes a-yearnin', 
 Drivin' out raah 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 1 Lordy I Lordy dear, 
 
 Grant dis sinner pardon 1 
 I won't nebber I declar' 
 
 Ef it ain't my Sammy ! 
 Sambo, what yo' doin' dar? 
 
 Yo' can't skeer yo' mammy I 
 
 OAELYLE 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. 
 176
 
 HALLOWE'EN 177 
 
 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.
 
 HALLOWE'EN 
 
 A gypsy flame is on the hearth, 
 Sign of this carnival of mirth. 
 
 Through the dun fields and from the 
 
 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. 
 178
 
 No HALLOWE'EN WITHOUT A JACK-O'-LANTERN.
 
 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. Sup- 
 per. Dance. W. H. C., 41 : 30. 
 " Candle-light cafe." W. H. C., 42. Oct, 1916. 
 
 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. 
 179
 
 i8o THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN 
 
 DECORATIONS AND FAVOHS : 
 
 Au t uum-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. H., 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.
 
 MAGAZINE REFERENCES 181 
 
 L. H. J., 14 : 25. 
 -Barn party. W. H. C., 34 : 30. 
 Novel party with musical accompaniment Mu- 
 sician, 18 : 665. 
 
 Cotter's Saturday night. W. H. C., 38 : 40. 
 4 ' Ghosts I have met " party. Pantomime. W. H. C., 
 
 ~ 37 : 27. 
 
 Two jolly affairs. W. H. C., 39 : 32. 
 JTryst of witches. Good H. , 53 : 463. 
 Tarn 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 PAETIES : 
 
 ' ' 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. 0. , 
 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, Reci- 
 tations, and Plays 
 
 TITLE 
 All Hallowe'en (story) 
 
 All Souls 1 Eve (story) 
 All Souls' Eve (story) 
 Black cat (story) 
 Boogah Man 
 
 Brier-Rose (story) 
 Broomstick brigade 
 Bud's fairy tale (poem) 
 Children's Play with mu- 
 sical accompaniment 
 Corn-song (poem) 
 Elder-tree mother (story) 
 Fairies (poem) 
 Fairy and witch (play) 
 
 Feast of the little lanterns 
 
 (operetta) 
 Fisherman and the genie 
 
 (story) 
 Ghost (story) 
 Ohosts 1 have met 
 Ghost's touch (story) 
 Golden arm (story) 
 Goblin stone (play) 
 Guess who (song and drill) 
 
 AUTHOB 
 
 Hopper 
 Lyall 
 Poe 
 Dnnbar 
 
 Grimm 
 
 J. T. Wagner 
 
 Riley 
 
 Whittier 
 Andersen 
 Allingham 
 Nelson 
 
 Bliss 
 
 O'Connor 
 
 Bangs 
 
 Collins 
 
 Clemens 
 
 Wiokea 
 
 Murray 
 
 McDonald 
 182 
 
 SOURCE 
 All the Year Bound, 
 
 60 : 347 
 
 Eng. Illns. Mag., 18:225 
 Temple Bar., 124 : 379 
 
 Eld ridge Entertainment 
 
 House 
 Fairy tales 
 
 6 Barclay St., N. Y. City 
 Child-world 
 
 Musician, 16 : 693 
 Fairy tales 
 
 Eldridge Entertainment 
 House. 
 
 Arabian Night* 
 
 How to tell a story 
 Child's Book, p. 127 
 Eldridge Entertainment 
 House 
 
 Canad. Mag., 12:61
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LIST 183 
 
 TITLE 
 Hallowe'en adventure 
 
 (Play) 
 
 Hattowe 1 en frolic (poem) 
 Haunted gate (play) 
 
 AUTHOR 
 
 Koogle 
 
 Cone 
 
 Wormwood 
 
 House in the wood (story) Grimm 
 Littte Butt&rkin (story) Asbjornsen 
 
 Little Donna Juana (story) 
 Mother Goose recital 
 Nix of the mitt-pond (story) 
 Peter Pan in Kensington 
 
 Gardens (story) 
 Eapunzel (story) 
 Bed shoes (story) 
 Scarecrows a-roaming 
 
 (play) 
 
 Seein' things (poem) 
 Snow-white (story) 
 Straw phantom (panto- 
 mime) 
 Testing of Sir Gawayne 
 
 (play) 
 
 Voyage of Bran 
 Walpurgisnight (story) 
 Wind in the rose-bush 
 
 (story) 
 
 Field 
 Grimm 
 
 Blackall 
 
 Merington 
 
 Meyer 
 
 Zschokke 
 
 Freeman 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 Eldridge Entertainment 
 House 
 
 St. N. 20 pt. 1 : 15 
 
 Eldridge Entertainment 
 
 House 
 Fairy tales 
 
 Fairy tales from the far 
 north 
 
 Brooks 
 
 
 
 Musician, 21 : 633 
 
 Grimm 
 
 Fairy tales 
 
 Barrie 
 
 
 Grimm 
 
 Fairy tales 
 
 Andersen 
 
 Fairy tales 
 
 Eldridge Entertainment 
 
 House 
 
 Love songs of childhood 
 Fairy tales 
 
 St. N., 44:1133 
 Festival plays, p. 311
 
 INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 
 
 \ TITLE AUTHOR PAGE 
 
 All-hallows honeymoon 
 
 (story) Marks 
 
 All Souls 1 Eve (poem) Marks, J. P. 
 
 Ancient Irish O'Curry 
 
 Ballad of Tarn Lin 
 
 Battle of the trees Taliesin 
 
 Caractacus (poem) Mason 
 
 Celtic twilight (poem in 
 
 introduction to) Yeats 
 
 Charms (poem) Opper 
 
 Comus (play) Milton 
 
 Ctichulain of Muirthemne Gregory 
 
 Cuchulains sickbed 
 
 Death of the flowers (poem) Bryant 
 
 Different party (story) Bradley 
 
 Dinnsfnchus of Mag Slecht 
 
 Djinns (poem) Hugo 
 
 Druid song of Cathvah 
 
 (poem) Todhunter 
 
 Expedition of Nera 
 
 "Fair maid who" 
 
 Fairy-faith in Celtic coun- 
 tries Wentz 
 
 Fairy fiddler (poem) Hopper 
 
 Fasti Ovid 
 
 Famt (play) Goethe 
 
 SODBCK 
 
 New Eug. Magazine, 
 104 37:308 
 31-32 
 7 
 
 65 Child's Ballads 
 7 Neo-druidical heresy 
 11 
 
 58 
 
 161 MuDsey, 30:286 
 131 
 
 37-38-39 
 42 
 
 18-19 
 
 156-157 Harper's Bazar, 41 : 131 
 21 Neo-druidical heresy 
 148 
 
 9 
 44 
 139 Encye. of Superstitions 
 
 48-49 
 64 
 114 
 130 
 
 184
 
 INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 185 
 
 TITLE 
 
 First winter song (poem) 
 " Five hundred points " 
 Giles Corey of the Salem 
 
 Farms (play) 
 Golden Legend 
 Great fir-tree of Takasago 
 (story) 
 
 " Green fairy island " 
 Hag (poem) 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 
 Hallowe'en (poem) 
 
 Hallowe'en (poem)' Murray 
 
 Hallowe'en Failure (poem) Smith 
 
 Hallowe'en or Christie's 
 
 fate (story) Adams 
 
 Hallowe'en in Ireland Trant 
 Hallowe'en fantasy (play), Pyle 
 
 (Priest and the Piper) 
 Hallowe'en reformation 
 
 (story) Butterworth 
 Hallowe'en wish (poem) Mnnkittriok 
 
 Hallowe'en wraith (story) Black 
 
 Hiaicatha (poem) Longfellow 
 
 Immortal hour (play) Sharp 
 Jorinda and Joringel 
 
 (story) Grimm 
 
 V Allegro (poem) Milton 
 
 AUTHOR PAGE SOUBCX 
 
 Graves 16 
 
 Tosser 98 
 
 Longfellow 161-152 
 De Voragine 30 
 
 Binder 146 Old-world Japan 
 
 Parry 103 Welsh Melodies 
 
 Herrick 66-67 
 
 Burns 73-74-75 
 
 Coxe 18-19-88- 
 
 89-96 
 
 Letts 99-100 
 
 Sheard 143 Canadian Mag., 36:33 
 
 Bangs 172-173 Harper's Weekly, Nov. 
 
 5, 1910 
 Benton 176-177 Harper's Weekly, Oct. 
 
 31, 1896 
 178 Harper's Weekly, Oct. 
 
 30, 1909 
 175 Harper's Weekly, Oct. 
 
 29, 1910 
 
 169 Scribner's, 3 : 26 
 51 Dewdrops and Diamonds 
 49 Harper's Bazar, 31, pt. 
 2:947 
 
 149-150 Century, 27 : 48 
 93-94 Harper's Weekly, Got. 
 
 27, 1900 
 
 71 Harper's, 81 : 830 
 145 
 39-40-41 Fortn. Rev. 74:867 
 
 135 Grimm's Fairy Tale* 
 86
 
 1 86 INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 
 
 TITLE AUTHOR 
 
 PAOB SOCBCX 
 
 Land of Heart's Desire 
 
 36-43-45- 
 
 (play) Yeats 
 
 47 
 
 Lavengro (story) Borrow 
 
 129 
 
 Little Orphant Annie Kiley 
 
 152-153 
 
 Loch Gannon 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 ( poem) Tennyson 
 
 84 
 
 Pastorals (poem) Gay 
 
 74-75-92- 
 
 / 
 
 93-94-95 
 
 
 97 
 
 Peer Gynt (play) Ibsen 
 
 131 
 
 Peter and Wendy (story) Barrie 
 
 64 
 
 Polyolbion (poem) Dray ton 
 
 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. Svnthin's Chair (poem) Scott 
 
 69 
 
 "Soul, soul" 
 
 98 Notes and Queries 
 
 Spell (poem) Gay 
 
 91 
 
 Splores of a Halloice'en 
 
 
 (poem) Dick 
 
 72 
 
 Sunken bell (play ) Hauptmann 
 
 14 
 
 Tale of Hallowe'en (story) 
 
 76 Leisure Hour, 23:765 
 
 Tarn Glen (poem; Burns 
 
 79 
 
 Tarn o' Shanter (poem) Burns 
 
 67-68 
 
 Tannhauter (play) Wagner 
 
 132-133 
 
 Tempest (play) Shakspere 
 
 67
 
 INDEX TO QUOTATIONS 187 
 
 TITLE 
 
 Three-fold chronicle (story) 
 Tom's Hallowe'en joke 
 
 (story) 
 
 Twig of thorn (play) 
 Vertumnus and Pomona 
 
 (poem) 
 
 Voluspa (poem) 
 We girls (story) 
 "When comes the har- 
 vest" 
 When de folks is gone 
 
 (poem) 
 "When ebery one" 
 
 Wild huntsman (poem) 
 Willie Baird (poem) 
 
 AUTHOR 
 Sharp 
 
 PAGE 
 54-56 
 
 SOURCE 
 Harper's, 73:842 
 
 Wright 
 Warren 
 
 154 
 44-45 
 
 Dewdroja and Diamonds 
 
 Ovid 
 
 Whitney 
 
 24 
 122 
 162-163 
 
 
 Botrel 
 
 112 
 
 Songs of Brittany 
 
 Riley 
 
 Scott 
 Buchanan 
 
 153 
 160 
 
 90 
 70 
 
 Werner's Readings, No. 
 31
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABBRDBBNSHIRB, 60 
 
 Adder-stone; (serpent's-egg 
 badge), II, 27 
 
 Ailill, 36-38, 39 
 
 Ale, 80, 103 
 
 All Hallows Eve, 29, 88, 102, 
 106. See also Hallowe'en 
 
 All Saints', 4, 29-30, no, 118, 
 126 
 
 All Souls', 4, 30-31, 98-99, 106, 
 uo, 113, 118, 142, 144 
 
 Alphabet, 96, 160, 166-167 
 
 America, 149, 153 
 
 Anaxarete, 24 
 
 Angus, 36, 38-39 
 
 Ankou, 109, 115 
 
 Apollo, i, 129, 134 
 
 Apparitions. See Ghosts 
 
 Apples, 23, 26, 50-53, 72, 77-78, 
 9 2 95. 103-1 4, 106-107, 115, 
 120, 149, 155, 157-158, 161, 
 162, 164, 1 66 
 
 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 ; ber- 
 ries 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, i? 
 
 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, in, 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, I 
 
 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, III 
 
 Bretons, 99, 110-111 
 
 Briar, 57 
 
 Briar-Rose, 125 
 
 Bride, 36 
 
 Britain, 5-6, 27, 87, 109, III 
 
 British Isles, 5, 107, 109, 126 
 
 188
 
 INDEX 
 
 189 
 
 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 
 
 Callcannon, 51 
 
 Canada, 167 
 
 Candlemas Day, 88 
 
 Candles, 50, 53, 55, 59, 69, 80, 
 
 95-96, 99. "2, 1 18, 145.155. 
 
 158, 163 
 
 Cardiganshire, 102 
 Carnutes, 109 
 Cat, II, 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 Scan- 
 
 dinavia, 126 
 
 Christmas, 3,97, no, 154 
 Church, 3-4, 30-31, 80, 89, 113, 
 
 1 1 8, 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, in 
 Dance, 3, 44, 56, 61, 67, 80, 8l- 
 
 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. i7. "4-ii7 145, 46p 
 149; disturbed by weeping, 
 
 "7. *45 
 
 Death, 10, 112, 156; Lord of. 
 See vSaraan. Samhain asso- 
 ciated with, 20-21, 30-31; 
 prophesied, 52, 57, 60, 65, 83, 
 102, 106 
 
 Decoration of graves, 1 1 8, 144 
 
 Delphi, 129, 134 
 
 Derbyshire, 99 
 
 Deux-Sevres, 109 
 
 Devil, 43, 50, 55, 57, 66-68, 89, 
 102, 133-135. MO 
 
 Dew, 136, 139 
 
 Dietrich von Bern, 131 
 
 Dishes, 73, 83, 104, 165, 168 
 
 Dispater, 109 
 
 Dissatisfied, 39-40, 57~5 8 '3^ 
 141 
 
 Djinns, 147-148 
 
 Doll, wax, 151 
 
 Dolmens, no
 
 190 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dorsetshire, 99 
 
 Dovrefeld, 130 
 
 Dragon, 145 
 
 Dreams, 140; prophetic, 14, 57, 
 79, 165, 169 
 
 Drink, 57, 79 
 
 Druid, meaning, 6-7 ; draught, 
 42; festivals, n, 26, 101; 
 lamps, 73 ; stone, 1 1 ; stones, 
 no; 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, 1 68 
 
 Dwarfs, no 
 
 EARTH, 54, 83, 165 
 
 Edane, 47. See also Etain 
 
 Edda, 124 
 
 E gg l6 5 l6 7; white 0^77-78, 
 
 1 68; -shells, 36 
 Egyptian beliefs, I, 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, 8 1 
 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, no, 
 
 149 
 
 Fand, 41-42 
 Fates, 89, 123, 134 
 
 Feast, of dead, 116, 143; of poor, 
 
 144 
 
 Feng-Shin, 145 
 Feralia, 114 
 Fern, 14, 59 
 Fmistere, no, 117 
 Fir Bolgs, 20 
 Fire, 21, 23, 45, 123-125; -god, 
 
 I2O; spirits of, 147 
 Fires, n, 17, 28-29, 50, 52, 101, 
 
 109, 112. See also Bonfires 
 f lamina, 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, no, 112, 118, 131, 
 
 142 
 
 Franks, III 
 "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, 1 66 
 Gnomes, 48 
 Goat, 67-68, 134 
 Goblin, 35-36, 6l, 64, 149, 153 
 Gods of Ireland. See TuathaDe 
 
 Danann 
 
 " Good Neighbors," 63 
 " Good People," 45, 49 
 Goths, 119 
 Grallon, III 
 
 Great Britain. See Britain 
 Greek, I, 5, 6, 30, 85, 1 20 
 Gregory, 29-30
 
 INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 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. 8 9, 90. 95-96, 99 103, 105, 
 
 IO6, 112, 129, 138, I4O, 142, 
 144, 149, 152, 154, 164, 165, 
 
 170; pagan, 3, 21 ; charms at, 
 
 26 33. 53. S 6 J born on . 54, 62 
 Hallowe'en, poem, 70, 168 
 Hansel and GretM, 134 
 Hares, 135 
 Hartz Mts., 130 
 Harvest, 3-4, 15, 17, 25, 30-31, 
 
 34, 59, 69, 97, 106, 112, 137, 
 
 1 55 
 
 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, 6 1 
 Hollow Land, 41 
 Holly, 63 
 Hoop, 157 
 Horselberg, 131 
 Horseshoes, 138, 153 
 Horus, I 
 Husking-bees, 3 
 
 ICELAND, 125 
 
 Idun, 120 
 
 Immortality, 10, 85, 107, I 
 
 Indians, 3, 145, 150 
 
 Invocation, 21, 92 
 
 lona, 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, 
 
 Japan, 2, 146 
 Jokes, 154 
 Jonah, 13 
 Juniper, 123, 137 
 Jupiter, 8 
 
 KALE. See Cabbage 
 Kensington Gardens, 64 
 Ker-Is, in 
 Kettle, 89, 134, 155 
 Ke y 55 7 2 144, 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 
 
 Lore-knots, 156
 
 192 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lucifer, 120 
 
 " Luck of Edenhall, '' 96 
 Luggies. See Dishes 
 Lugh, 14-15 
 Lugnasad, 15, 28, 33 
 
 Macbeth, 123 
 
 Magic, 7, 15, 155; black, a8, 156 
 
 Maine, 165 
 
 Malt, 80 
 
 Malta, 144 
 
 Man, Isle of, 20, 82 
 
 Manitous, 150 
 
 Mars, 8 
 
 Martinmas, 62 
 
 Mary, Virgin, 29, 126, 132, 138, 
 
 *45 
 
 Mary Avenel, 62 
 Maryland, 165 
 Massachusetts, 164 
 Master of the Revels, 97 
 May- bride, 126 
 May Eve and Day, 4, 11-13, 2 9 
 
 33 45. 47. 7, 125, 135, 136 
 
 etseq.; -fires, 13, 61 ; -pole, 
 
 126; -ridings, 125; -sheeting, 
 
 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, n, 20, 28, 33, 
 
 53, 125, 146 
 Milk, 45, 51, 112 
 Minerva, 8 
 Mirror, 85, 129, 146-147* 49 
 
 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, so, 22, 35 
 
 Music, 36, 39-40, 43-47t 5 6 6 4. 
 
 67, 87, in 
 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, I, 126, 130 
 " Nos Galan Gaeof," 102 
 November, Eve, 33, 35, 37, 44, 
 
 50, 59, 79, 101-102, 107, 112, 
 
 137; first, 4, n, 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 3ist, 4, 10, 17, 50, 82, 
 85, 118 
 
 Odin, 120, 124, 129, 131 
 
 " Oidhche Shamhna," 50 
 
 Olaf, 126 
 
 Omens, 14, 22, 26, 50-52, 104, 
 II 7> I 37! fr m sacrifices, 9, 
 *7. 33, I2 3, 66 5 evil, 28 
 
 Oonah, 45 
 
 Ops, 23 
 
 Ordeal, 9, 123-124 
 
 Osiris, i, 1 8 
 
 Ossian, 47-48, 150
 
 INDEX 
 
 193 
 
 OitU, 25 
 
 Otherworld, 19, 39, 42, 47, 84, 
 103, 107, in, 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, I 
 
 Peter Pan, 63-64 
 
 Phoenicians, 5 
 
 Picts, 108 
 
 Piper, fairy, 43-44. 4f 87 
 
 Pixies, 103, no 
 
 Pomona, 4, 23-26, 50, 85, 155 
 
 Pontypridd, 101 
 
 Preparedness for Peace, 170 
 
 Procopius, in 
 
 Prophets, Druids as, 9, 43; 
 
 witches as, 89, 134, 151 
 Pumpkins, 155, 160 
 Purgatoiy, 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 A*h-tree 
 
 SACRIFICES, 20, 109, 137 ; to Baal, 
 8-9, 11-13, 1 7> lol > 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, no, 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, IO, 31, 50, 80 
 
 Samhain (Save en), 16, 1 8, 20-22, 
 
 26, 3', 35-36, 38, 4-4ii 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, i 
 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
 
 i 9 4 
 
 L INDEX 
 
 Sigurd, 124 
 
 Sitou, 1 8 
 
 Sleep, 39, 47, 87, 124-125 
 
 Sloe, 52, 85 
 
 Snakes. See Adder-stone 
 
 Snap-apple. See Apple 
 
 Sol, I 
 
 Soul-cakes. See Cake 
 
 South, 165 
 
 South Uist, 8l 
 
 Sowens, 79 
 
 Spain, 131, 144 
 
 Spectre Huntsman, 90 
 
 Spirits, 6, 20, 103; abroad, 14, 
 
 22, 3 1 * 35 44, 48 ; evil, 4, 18, 
 
 20, 56,63,87,99, 129 
 Staffordshire, 98 
 Stones, 60, 101-102, 106, 109 
 Stoiies, 8 1, 96, 149, 169 
 Straw, 77, 99 
 Strunt, 79 
 ' Summer's end," 3-4, 11-12, 1 6, 
 
 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, 
 
 o 'SS- 1 *,, 4 
 Swans, 38-39, 41 
 
 Swastika, 8 
 Sweden, 126, 133 
 Symbols, 7-8, 28 
 
 TAM o' SHANTER, 68-69, 89 
 
 Tannhauser, 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, 60-6 1, 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, 1 60; 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, 1 20 
 Vurdh, 123 
 
 WALES, 27, 101, 105, 106, 108, 
 144, 1 68; 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
 
 INDEX 
 
 '95 
 
 Winter, first day of, 18, 44, 87, 
 
 102, 112 
 Witches, 4, 60-6 1, 65-69, 89, 99, 
 
 101, 129-131, 133-135, 146, 
 
 '55 
 
 Witchcraft, 4, 8l, 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 
 
 ZSCHOKKB, 140
 
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