Halloween Customs

From: John Brand's Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating The Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, [Arranged, revised and greatly enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis], George Bell and Sons, London: 1908, vol. 1, pp. 377-396 (Original ed. 1813).

IN the ancient Calendar of the Church of Rome, so often cited, I find the following observation on the 1st of November : " The feast of Old Fools is removed to this day." Hallow Even is the vigil of All Saints' Day, which is on the 1st of November.

It is customary on this night with young people in the north of England to dive for apples, or catch at them, when stuck upon one end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed a lighted candle, and that with their mouths only, their hands being tied behind their backs. [1]

Dr. Goldsmith, in his Vicar of Wakefield, describing the manner of some rustics, tells us, among other customs which they preserved, that they "religiously cracked nuts on All-hallow Eve." In the Life and Character of Harvey, the famous Conjuror of Dublin, 1728, in a letter, dated Dublin, 31st of October, the author says, p. 10, "This is the last day of October, and the birth of this packet is partly owing to the affair of this night. I am alone ; but the servants having demanded apples, ale, and nuts, I took the opportunity of running back my own annals of Allhallows Eve; for you are to know, my lord, that I have been a meer adept, a most famous artist both in the college and country, on occasion of this anile, chimerical solemnity. When my Life, which I have almost fitted for the press, appears in public, this Eve will produce some things curious, admirable, and diverting."

Nuts have not been excluded from the Catalogue of Superstitions under Papal Rome. Thus, on the 10th of August, in the Romish ancient Calendar I find it observed that some religious use was made of them, and that they were in great estimation : "Nuces in pretio et religiosae.

The 1st of November," says Hutchinson, in his Northumberland, vol. ii. ad finem, p. 18, " seems to retain the celebration of a festival to Pomona, when it is supposed the summer stores are opened on the approach of winter. Divinations and consulting of omens attended all these ceremonies in the practice of the heathen. Hence, in the rural sacrifice of nuts, propitious omens are sought touching matrimony : if the nuts lie still and burn together, it prognosticates a happy marriage or a hopeful love ; if, on the contrary, they bounce and fly asunder, the sign is unpropitious. I do not doubt but the Scotch fires kindled on this day anciently burnt for this rural sacrifice."

Nuts and apples chiefly compose the entertainment, and from the custom of flinging the former into the fire, or cracking them with their teeth, it has doubtless had its vulgar name of Nutcrack-night, and under that name is thus alluded to in Poor Robin for 1735: "This quarter begins the 12th of September, and holds till the 11th of December, in which time the landlord has a quarter-day, as he has in every one of the other quarters. This quarter also affords a Term begins for the lawyers, a Crispin for the shoemakers, a Lord Mayor's day for the citizens, a Nutcrack-night for young people and sweet-hearts; it brings on a winter, and a long dark nights for tallow-chandlers and linkboys, and concludes with a shortest day for everybody on this side the equinoctial." See in Stafford's Niobe, or his Age of Teares, 1611, p. 107, where this is called a Christmas Gambol. Polwhele describes it in his Old English Gentleman, p. 120 :

Mr. Pennant tell us, in his Tour in Scotland, that the young women there determine the figure and size of their husbands by drawing cabbages blindfold on Allhallow Even, and, like the English, fling nuts into the fire. This last custom is beautifully described by Gay in his Spell :

Nor can I omit the following lines, by Charles Graydon, " On Nuts burning, Allhallows Eve," in a Collection of Poems, Dublin, 1801, p. 137 :

Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, voce Cyniver, mentions " A play in which the youth of both sexes seek for an even-leaved sprig of the ash ; and the first of either sex that finds one calls out Cyniver, and is answered by the first of the other that succeeds ; and these two, if the omen fails not, are to be joined in wedlock."

It is a custom in Ireland, when the young women would know if their lovers are faithful, to put three nuts upon the bars of the grates, naming the nuts after the lovers. If a nut cracks or jumps, the lover will prove unfaithful; if it begins to blaze or burn, he has a regard for the person making the trial. If the nuts named after the girl and her lover burn together, they will be married.

[Our account of the ceremonies and divinations practised on this night will be best illustrated by the following extracts from Burns's poem, the notes to which will furnish the reader with much curious information :--

Gay mentions another species of love divination by the insect called the lady-fly :--:

Girls made trial also of the fidelity of their swains by sticking an apple-kernel on each cheek. (The Connoisseur, No. 56, represents them as being stuck upon the forehead.) That which fell first indicated that the love of him whose name it bore was unsound. Thus Gay :

Something of this kind occurs in Beroaldus's Commentary on the Life of Claudius Caesar, cap. 8 : " Hac tempestate pueri ossiculis cerasorum, quae digitis exprimunt, incessere homilies ludibrij causa consueverunt. Scribit Porphyrio Horatianus interpres solere amantes duobus primis digitis compressare pomorum semina, eaque mittere in cameram, veluti augurium, ut si cameram contigerint sperare possint ad effectum perduci quod anima conceperunt." (Ad. C. Sueton. Tranq. xii. Caesares Comment. fol. Par. 1610, col. 560, a.)[16]

[I extract the following from an old chap-book, called the True Fortune-Teller, in a chapter headed To know whether a woman will have the man she wishes.—" Get two lemon-peels, wear them all day, one in each pocket ; at night rub the four posts of the bedstead with them ; if she is to succeed, the person will appear in her sleep, and present her with a couple of lemons ; if not, there is no hope !"]

The subsequent passage from Gay's Pastorals greatly resembles the Scottish rite, though at a different time of the year

[The following curious love divinations are extracted from the old chap-book, entitled Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open : " First, if any one here desires to know the name of the man whom she shall marry, let her who desires this seek a green peascod, in which there are full nine peas ; which done, either write or cause to be written, on a small slip of paper, these words ' Come in, my dear, and do not fear;' which writing you must inclose within the aforesaid peascod, and lay it under the door, then mind the next per-son who comes in, for you'll certainly marry one of the same name. Secondly, she who desires to he satisfied whether she shall enjoy the many desired or no, let her take two lemon-peels, in the morning, and wear them all day under her arm-pits ; then at night let her rub the four posts of the bed with them; which done, in your sleep he will seem to come and present you with a couple of lemons, but if not, there is no hope.

Thirdly, she who desires to know to what manner of fortune she shall be married, if a gentleman, a tradesman, or a traveller, the experiment is this : a walnut, a hazle-nut, and a nutmeg, grate them, and mix them ; and mix them up with butter and sugar into pills, which must be taken at lying down, and then, if her fortune to marry a gentleman, her sleep will be filled with golden dreams ;' if a tradesman, odd noises and tumults, if a traveller, then will thunder and lightning disturb her. Fourthly, St. Agnes's Day I have not yet wholly blotted out of my book, but I have found a more exact way of trial than before. You need not abstain from kisses, nor be forced to keep fast for a glance of a lover in the night. If you can but rise, to be at the church door between the hours of twelve and one in the morning, and put the fore-finger of your right hand into the keyhole and then repeat the following words thrice:

Then will he presently approach with a smiling countenance. Fifthly, my daughters, know ye the 14th of February is Valero, tine's day, at which time the fowls of the air begin to couple; and the young men and maids are for choosing their mates. Now, that you may speed, take this approved direction : Take five bay-leaves, lay one under every corner of your pillow, and the fifth in the middle ; then lying down to rest, repeat these lines seven times :

Then to your content you'll either have the Valentine you desire, or one more excellent.

THE DUMB-CAKE.—In order to make the dumb-cake to perfection, it is necessary to observe strictly the following instructions : Let any number of young women take a handful of wheat flour, and place it on a sheet of white paper. Then sprinkle it over with as much salt as can be held between the finger and thumb ; then one of the damsels must make it

into a dough without the aid of spring-water ; which, being done, each of the company must roll it up, and spread it thin and broad, and each person must, at some distance from each other, make the initials of her name with a large new pin towards the end of the cake. The cake must then be set before the fire, and each person must sit down in a chair as far distant from the fire as the room will admit, not speaking a single word all the time.. This must be done soon after eleven at night ; and between that and twelve o'clock each per-son must turn the cake once, and in a few minutes after the clock strikes twelve, the husband of her who is first to be married will appear, and lay his hand on that part of the cake which is marked with her name. Silence must be strictly preserved throughout this operation. Some say that the cake must be made of an eggshell-full of salt, an eggshell-full of wheat meal, and an eggshell-full of barley-meal.]

Snails, too, were used in love divinations ; they were sent to crawl on the hearth, and were thought to mark in the ashes the initials of the lover's name. See some lines on this subject at p. 218. Shaw, in his History of the Province of Moray, p. 241, seems to consider the festivity of this night as a kind of harvest-home rejoicing : " A solemnity was kept," says he," on the eve of the 1st of November, as a thanksgiving for the safe in-gathering of the produce of the fields. This I am told, but have not seen it, is observed in Buchan and other. countries, by having Hallow Eve fire kindled on some rising ground."[17]

In Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, 1793, v. 84, the minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, describing the superstitious opinions and practices in the parish, says : " On the evening of the 31st of October, O. S., among many others, one remarkable ceremony is observed. Heath, broom, and dressings of flax are tied upon a pole. This faggot is then kindled. One takes it upon his shoulders, and, running, hears it round the village. A crowd attend. When the first faggot

is burnt out, a second is bound to the pole and kindled in the same manner as before. Numbers of these blazing faggots are often carried about together, and when the night happens to be dark they form a splendid illumination. This is Hallow-e'en, and is a night of great festivity." The minister of Callander, in Perthshire, ibid., xi. 621, mentioning peculiar customs, says, " On All Saints' Even they set up bonfires in every village. When the bonfire is consumed, the ashes are carefully collected into the form of a circle. There is a stone put in near the circumference, for every person of the several families interested in the bonfire ; and whatever stone is removed out of its place or injured before the next morning, the person represented by that stone is devoted, or fey, and is supposed not to live twelve months from that day ; the people received the consecrated fire from the Druid priests next morning, the virtues of which were supposed to continue for a year." In the same work, 1795, xv. 517, the minister of Kirkmichael, in Perthshire, speaking of antiquities and curiosities, says, "the practice of lighting bonfires on the first night of winter, accompanied with various ceremonies, still prevails in this and the neighbouring Highland parishes. The custom, too, of making a fire in the fields, baking a consecrated cake, &c., on the 1st of May is not quite worn out." Ibid. xxi. 145, parish of Monguhitter, county of Aberdeen, we are told that formerly " the Midsummer Even fire, a relic of Druidism, was kindled in some parts of this county ; the Hallow Even fire, another relic of Druidism, was kindled in Buchan. Various magic ceremonies were then celebrated to counteract the influence of witches and demons, and to prognosticate to the young their success or disappointment in the matrimonial lottery. These being devoutly finished, the hallow fire was kindled, and guarded by the male part of the family. Societies were formed, either by pique or humour, to scatter certain fires, and the attack and defence were often conducted with art and fury. But now, the hallow fire, when kindled, is attended by children only ; and the country girl, renouncing the rites of magic, endeavours to enchant her swain by the charms of dress and of industry."

In North Wales (Mr. Pennant's MS. informs me) there is a custom upon All Saints' Eve of making a great fire called Coel Coeth, when every family about an hour in the night makes a

great bonfire in the most conspicuous place near the house, and when the fire is almost extinguished every one throws a white stone into the ashes, having first marked it; then having said their prayers turning round the fire, they go to bed. In the morning, as soon as they are up, they come to search out the stones, and if any one of them is found wanting they have a notion that the person who threw it in will die before he sees another All Saints' Eve. They have a custom also of distributing soul-cakes on All Souls' Day, at the receiving of which the poor people pray to God to bless the next crop of wheat. There is a general observation added :—" N. B. 1735. Most of the harmless old customs in this MS. are now disused." In Owen's account of the Bards, however, preserved in Sir R. Hoare's Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, ii. 315, we read: "The autumnal fire is still kindled in North Wales, being on the eve of the 1st day of November, and is attended by many ceremonies ; such as running through the fire and smoke, each casting a stone into the fire, and all running off at the conclusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow ; then supping upon parsnips, nuts, and apples ; catching at an apple suspended by a string, with the mouth alone, and the same by an apple in a tub of water ; each throwing a nut into the fire ; and those that burn bright betoken prosperity to the owners through the following year, but those that burn black and crackle denote misfortune. On the following morning the stones are searched for in the fire, and if any be missing, they betide ill to those who threw them in." Owen has prefaced these curious particulars by the following observations : "Amongst the first aberrations may be traced that of the knowledge of the great Huon, or the Supreme Being, which was obscured by the hieroglyphics or emblems of his different attributes, so that the grovelling minds of the multitude often sought not beyond those representations for the objects of worship and adoration. This opened an inlet for numerous errors more minute; and many superstitions became attached to their periodical solemnities, and more particularly to their rejoicing fires, on the appearance of vegetation in spring, and on the completion of harvest in autumn."

A writer in the Gent.'s Mag. for 1783, p. 578, thinks "the custom prevailing among the Roman Catholics of lighting fires

upon the hills on All Saints' night, the Eve of All Sousa, scarcely needs explaining : fire being, even among the Pagans, an emblem of immortality, and well calculated to typify the ascent of the soul to heaven." In the same work, for November 1784, p. 836, it is stated, that " at the village of Findern, in Derbyshire, the boys and girls go every year in the evening of the 2d of November (All Souls' Day), to the adjoining common, and light up a number of small fires amongst the furze growing there, and call them by the name of Tindles. Upon inquiring into the origin of this custom amongst the inhabitants of the place, they supposed it to be a relic of Popery, and that the professed design of it, when first instituted, was to light souls out of purgatory. But as the commons have been inclosed there very lately, that has most probably put an end to the custom, for want of the wonted materials."

A third writer in the Gent.'s Mag. for 1788, p. 602, speaks of a custom observed in some parts of the kingdom among the Papists, of illuminating some of their grounds upon the Eve of All Souls by bearing round them straw, or other fit materials, kindled into a blaze. The ceremony is called a Tinley, and the vulgar opinion is, that it represents an emblematical lighting of souls out of purgatory. Accounts of the origin of the feast of All Souls may be seen in the Golden Legend and other Legends, and in Dupre's Conformity of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies, p. 92. In Sir William Dugdale's Diary, at the end of his Life, 1827, p. 104, we read, " On All-Hallow Even the master of the family anciently used to carry a bunch of straw, fired, about his corne, saying--

Different places adopt different ceremonies. Martin tells us that the inhabitants of St. Kilda, on the festival of All Saints, baked "a large cake in the form of a triangle, furrowed round, and which was to be all eaten that night." The same, or a custom nearly similar, seems to have prevailed in different parts of England. The same writer, speaking of the Isle of Lewis, p. 28, says, "The inhabitants of this island had an ancient custom to sacrifice to a sea god, call'd Shony, on

Hallow-tide, in the manner following : the inhabitants round the island came to the church of St. Mulvay, having each man his provision along with him ; every family furnish'd a peck of malt, and this was brewed into ale : one of their number was picked out to wade into the sea, up to the middle, and carrying a cup of ale in his hand, standing still in that posture, cried out with a loud voice, saying, ` 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;' and so threw the cup of ale into the sea. This was performed in the night time. At his return to land they all went to church, where there was a candle burning upon the altar : and then standing silent for a little time, one of them gave a signal, at which the candle was put out, and immediately all of them went to the fields, where they fell a drinking their ale, and spent the remainder of the night in dancing and singing, &c." He adds, " the ministers in Lewis told me they spent several years before they could persuade the vulgar natives to abandon this ridiculous piece of superstition."

In the Festyvall, 1511, f. 149, is the following passage : "We rede in olde tyme good people wolde on All hallowen daye bake brade and dele it for all crysten soules." I find the following, which is much to my purpose, in Festa Anglo-Romana, p. 109: "All Souls' Day, Nov. 2d : the custom of Soul Mass cakes, which are a kind of oat cakes, that some of the richer sorts of persons in Lancashire and Herefordshire (among the Papists there) use still to give the poor on this day ; and they, in retribution of their charity, hold themselves obliged to say this old couplet :

At Ripon, in Yorkshire, on the eve of All Saints, the good women make a cake for every one in the family : so this is generally called Cake Night. See Gent. Ma for Aug. 1790, p. 719. " My servant, B. Jelkes," says Brand, " who is from Warwickshire, informs me that there is a custom in that county to have seed cake at All-hallows, at the end of wheat seed-time.[18]

As also that at the end of barley and bean seed-time there is a custom there to give the ploughmen froise, a species of thick pancake."

Bishop Kennett mentions the seed cake as an old English custom. It is also noticed by Tusser in his Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1580, f. 75 :

" It is worth remarking," says Tollett, in a note on the Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 2, "that on All Saints' Day, the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a souling, as they call it, i. e. begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Dictionary explains puling) for soul cakes, or any good thing to make them merry. This custom is mentioned by Peck, and seems a remnant of Popish superstition to pray for departed souls, particularly those of friends. The Souler's Song in Staffordshire is different from that which Mr. Peck mentions, and is by no means worthy of publication."

[The custom of going a Souling still continues in some parts of the county, peasant girls going to farmhouses, singing,

And other verses sung on the same occasion, but which I suspect are not the ancient ones, will be found under the article Catherning, Nov. 25th. It was formerly usual to keep a soulmass-cake for good luck. Mr. Young, in his History of Whitby, says, " a lady in Whitby has a soul-mass loaf near a hundred years old."]

Aubrey, in the Remains of Gentilisme, \ S. Lansd. 227, says that, in his time, in Shropshire, &c., there was set upon the board a high heap of soul-cakes, lying one upon another, like the picture of the shew-bread in the old Bibles. They

were about the bigness of twopenny cakes, and every visitant that day took one. He adds, " there is an old rhyme or saying, ' A Soule-cake, a soule-cake, have mercy on all Christen soules for a Soule-cake.' "[19]

Brand, in his Description of Orkney, p. 62, speaking of the superstitions of the inhabitants, says, "when the beasts, as oxen, sheep, horses, &c., are sick, they sprinkle them with a water made up by them, which they call fore-spoken water; wherewith likewise they sprinkle their boats when they succeed and prosper not in their fishing. And especially on Hallow Even they use to sein or sign their boats, and put a cross of tar upon them, which my informer bath often seen. Their houses also some use then to sein." In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 459, the minister of Kirkmichael, in Banffshire, tells us, " the appearance of the three first days of winter is observed in verses thus translated from the Gaelic : 'Dark, lurid, and stormy, the first three days of winter ; whoever would despair of the cattle, I would not till summer.' "

It is stated in Kethe's Sermon preached at Blandford Forum, 1570, p. 19, that " there was a custom, in the Papal times, to ring bells at Allhallow-tide for all Christian souls. In the draught of a letter which Henry VIII. was to send to Cranmer "against superstitious practices," (Burnet's Hist. Ref. 1683, p. ii., Records and Instr. i. 237,) "the vigil and ringing of bells all the night long upon Allhallow Day at night" are directed to be abolished ; and the said vigil to have no watching or ringing. In the Appendix also to Strype's Annals of the Reformation, vol. i., the following injunction, made early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, occurs : "That the superfluous ringing of bels, and the superstitious ringing of bells at Allhallowntide, and at Al Souls Day, with the two nights next before and after, be prohibited."

In Nichols's Churchwarden's Accounts, p. 154, parish of Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex, 1517, are the following items "Inprimis, payed for frankyncense agense Hollowmasse, 01. 0s. ld. Item, payed to Andrew Elyott, of Maldon, for newe mendinge of the third bell knappell agenste Halloowmasse, 01. 1s. 8d. Item, payed to John Gidney, of Maldon, for a new bell-rope agenste Hailowmasse, 01. 0s. 8d." In articles to be inquired of within the archdeaconry of York by the Church-wardens and sworn men, 163.. any year till 1640), I find the following : " Whether there be any within your parish or chappelry that use to ring bells superstitiously upon any abrogated holiday, or the eves thereof."

In a poem entitled Honoria, or the Day of All Souls, 1782, the scene of which is supposed to be in the great church of St. Ambrose at Milan, the 2d of November, on which day the most solemn office is performed for the repose of the dead, are these lines :

The description of "All Soulne Day," in Barnabe Googe's Translation of Naogeorgus's Popish Kingdome, is grossly exaggerated.

There is a great display of learning in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. iii., on Allhallow Eve. "On the Oidhche Shamhna (Ee Owna) or Vigil of Saman," he says, " the peasants in Ireland assemble with sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration), going from-house to house, collecting money, bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, &c. &c., for the feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, demanding preparations for the festival in the name of St. Columb Kill, desiring them to lay aside the fatted calf, and to bring forth the black sheep. The good women are employed in making the griddle cake and candles ; these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the (Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed soul of the donor. Every house abounds in the best viands they can afford ; apples and nuts are devoured in abundance ; the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are foretold; cabbages are torn up by the root; hemp-seed is sown by the maidens and they believe that

if they look back they will see the apparition of the man intended for their future spouse; they hang a smock before the fire on the close of the feast, and sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will come down the chimney and turn the smock; they throw a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it on the reel within, convinced that if they repeat the Pater Noster backwards, and look at the ball of yarn without, they will then also see his sith or apparition ; they dig for apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring one up in the month ; they suspend a cord with a cross stick, with apples at one point, and candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to catch the apple, while it is in a circular motion, in the mouth. These, and many other superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are observed on this holiday, which will never be eradicated while the name of Saman is permitted to remain."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for May, 1784, p. 343, says, he has often met with lambs' wool in Ireland, where it is a constant ingredient at a merry-making on Holy Eve, or the evening before All Saints' Day ; and it is made there by bruising roasted apples and mixing them with ale, or sometimes with milk. Formerly, when the superior ranks were not too refined for these periodical meetings of jollity, white wine was frequently substituted for ale. To lambs' wool, apples and nuts are added as a necessary part of the entertainment, and the young folks amuse themselves with burning nuts in pairs on the bar of the grate, or among the warm embers, to which they give their name and that of their lovers, or those of their friends who are supposed to have such attachments, and from the manner of their burning and duration of the flame, &c., draw such inferences respecting the constancy or strength of their passions as usually promote mirth and good humour."

The feast of Allhallows is said to drive the Finns almost out of their wits. See an account of some singular ceremonies practised by them at this time in Tooke's Russia, i. 48.

[1] Something like this appears in an ancient illuminated missal in Douce's Collection, in which a person is represented balancing himself upon a pole laid across two stools. At the end of the pole is a lighted candle, from which he is endeavouring to light another in his hand, at the risk of tumbling into a tub of water placed under him, See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 294, plate xxxvi.

[2] It is thought to be a night, when devils, witches, and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands ; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said, on that night, to hold a grand anniversary.

[3] The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick.

[4] The first ceremony of Hallowe'en is pulling each a stock or plant of kail. They must go out, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they met with ; its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells—the husband or wife. If any yird or earth stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune ; and the taste f the custoc, that is, the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or, to give them their ordinary appellation, the runts, are placed somewhere above the head of the door , and the Christian names of the people whom chance brings into the house, are, 'according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in Question.

[5] They go to the barn-yard, and pull each, at three several times, a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants the top-pickle, that is, the grain at the top of the stalk, the party in question will come to the marriage-bed any-thing but a maid.

[6] When the corn is in a doubtful state, by being too green or wet, the stack-builder, by means of old timber, &c., makes a large apartment in his stack, with an opening in the side which is fairest exposed to the wind ; this he calls a fause-house.

[7] Burning the nuts is a famous charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut, as they lay them in the fire ; and accordingly as they burn quietly together, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be.

[8] Whoever would, with success, try this spell, must strictly observe these directions : Steal out, all alone, to the kiln, and, darkling, throw into the pot a clue of blue yarn. Wind it in a new clue off the old one ; and, towards the latter end, something will hold the thread. Demand, " W ha hands ?" that is, " Who holds?" An answer will be returned from the kiln-pot, by naming the Christian and surname of your future spouse.

[9] Take a candle, and go alone to a looking-glass ; eat an apple before it, and, some traditions say, you should comb your hair all the time ; the face of your conjugal companion to be, will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder.

[10] Steal out unperceived, and sow a handful of hempseed, harrowing it with anything you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then " Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee ; and him (or her) that is to be my true-love, come after me and pou thee." Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, " Come after me, and show thee ;" that is, " show thyself," in which case it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say, " Come after me, and harrow thee."

[11] This charm must likewise be performed unperceived and alone. You go to -the barn, and open both doors, taking them off the hinges, if possible ; for there is danger that the being about to appear may shut the doors, and do you some mischief. Then take that instrument used in winnowing the corn, which, in our country dialect, we call a wecht, and go through all the attitudes of letting down corn against the wind. Repeat it three times, and the third time an apparition will pass through the barn, in at the windy door, and out at the other, having both the figure in question, and the appearance or retinue marking the employment or station in life.

[12] Take an opportunity of going, unnoticed, to a bean-stack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of the last time you will catch is your arms the appearance of your future conjugal yokefellow.

[13] You go out, one or more (for this is a social spell), to a south running spring or rivulet, where " three lairds' lands meet," and dip your left shirt-sleeve. Go to bed, in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry ; lie awake, and some time near midnight an apparition; having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to dry the other side of it.

[14] Take three dishes; put clean water in one, foul water in another, leave the third empty. Blindfold a person, and lead him to the hearth, where-the dishes are ranged ; he (or she) dips the left hand—if, by chance. in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid ; if in the foul, a widow ; if in the empty dish, it fore-tells, with equal certainty, no marriage at al:. It is repeated three times; and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered.

[15] Sowens, with butter instead of milk to them, is always the Halloween supper.

[16] On the subject of love divinations there is a most curious passage in Theocritus, Idyllium 3d, where the shepherd says--

" [Greek text omitted for now. -- DT]"

" Intellexi nuper, cum quaererem, an me amares,

Telephilum allisum non edidit sonum :

Sed frustra in tenero cubito exaruit."

—" Nam (ut Scholiastes ibi annotavit) amatores papaveris folium, brachio, humero, manusve carpo impositum, percutiebant, et si sonum ederet redamari se credebant et de futuris nuptiis bene ominabantur; sin minus odio se haberi inde colligebant. Interdum coloris, ex percussione cutem tingentis, experimentum capiebant. Etenim si rubicundum duntaxat inde colorem cutis traheret, quem roseum appellabant, ah amatis redamari eos indicium faciebat ; si vero cutem inflammari atque exulcerari contingeret, contemn se odioque esse existimabant." (Lydii Ritus Sponsaliorum, p. 20, in Faces Augusta sive Poemata, &c., a Caspare Barlaeo, &c. 4to. Dordrici, 1643.)

[17] The fires which were lighted up in Ireland on the four great festivals of the Druids have been already noticed under the Gene of August. The Irish, General Vallancey tells us, have dropped the Fire of November, and substituted candles. The Welsh, he adds, still retain the Fire of November, but can give no reason for the illumination. Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, iii. 464. note.

[18] Weever, Fun. Mon. p. 724, speaking of the monks of St. Edmunds. bury, says, " They had certain wax candles, which ever and onely they used to light in wheat seeding; these they likewise carried about their wheat grounds, believing verily that hereby neither darnell, tares, nor any other noisome weedes would grow that yeare amongst the new corn."

[19] [" Somas-cake, that is, soul-mas-cake, a sweet cake made on the 2d of November, All Souls' Day, and always in a triangular form. The custom f making a peculiar kind of cake on this day is recognised in a deposition f the year 1574, given in Watson's History of the House of Warrren, i. 217, wherein the party deposes that his mother knew a certain castle of the Earl of Warren's, having, when a child, according to the custom of that country, gathered soul-cakes there on All Souls' Day. The making of these cakes is now almost the sole relic of ancient customs which had their origin in the superstitious usages of the Catholic times."—Hunter's Hallamshire Glossary.]

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