The Book of Hallowe'en Part 6

A witches' party was conducted in this way. The wretched women who had sold their souls to the Devil, left a stick in bed which by evil means was made to have their likeness, and, anointed with the fat of murdered babies flew off up the chimney on a broomstick with cats attendant. Burns tells the story of a company of witches pulling ragwort by the roadside, getting each astride her ragwort with the summons "Up horsie!" and flying away.

"The hag is astride This night for a ride, The devils and she together: Through thick and through thin, Now out and now in, Though ne'er so foul be the weather.

"A thorn or a burr She takes for a spur, With a lash of the bramble she rides now.

Through brake and through briers, O'er ditches and mires, She follows the spirit that guides now."

HERRICK: _The Hag._

The meeting-place was arranged by the Devil, who sometimes rode there on a goat. At their supper no bread or salt was eaten; they drank out of horses' skulls, and danced, sometimes back to back, sometimes from west to east, for the dances at the ancient Baal festivals were from east to west, and it was evil and ill-omened to move the other way. For this dance the Devil played a bag-pipe made of a hen's skull and cats' tails.

"There sat Auld Nick, in shape o' beast; A tousie tyke, black, grim, and large, To gie them music was his charge: He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl, Till roof and rafters a' did dirl."[1]

BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._

[1] Ring.

The light for the revelry came from a torch flaring between the horns of the Devil's steed the goat, and at the close the ashes were divided for the witches to use in incantations. People imagined that cats who had been up all night on Hallowe'en were tired out the next morning.

Tam o' Shanter who was watching such a dance

"By Alloway's auld haunted kirk"

in Ayrs.h.i.+re, could not resist calling out at the antics of a neighbor whom he recognized, and was pursued by the witches. He urged his horse to top-speed,

"Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg, And win the key-stane of the brig; There at them thou thy tail may toss, A running stream they dare na cross!"

BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._

but poor Meg had no tail thereafter to toss at them, for though she saved her rider, she was only her tail's length beyond the middle of the bridge when the foremost witch grasped it and seared it to a stub.

Such witches might be questioned about the past or future.

"He that dare sit on St. Swithin's Chair, When the Night-Hag wings the troubled air, Questions three, when he speaks the spell, He may ask, and she must tell."

SCOTT: _St. Swithin's Chair._

Children make of themselves bogies on this evening, carrying the largest turnips they can save from harvest, hollowed out and carved into the likeness of a fearsome face, with teeth and forehead blacked, and lighted by a candle fastened inside.

If the spirit of a person simply appears without being summoned, and the person is still alive, it means that he is in danger. If he comes toward the one to whom he appears the danger is over. If he seems to go away, he is dying.

An apparition from the future especially is sought on Hallowe'en.

It is a famous time for divination in love affairs. A typical eighteenth century party in western Scotland is described by Robert Burns.

Cabbages are important in Scotch superst.i.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-fas.h.i.+oned way He questioned me,...

Who made the stars? and if within his hand He caught and held one, would his fingers burn?

If I, the gray-haired dominie, was dug From out a cabbage-garden such as he Was found in----"

BUCHANAN: _Willie Baird._

Kale-pulling came first on the program in Burns's _Hallowe'en_.

Just the single and unengaged went out hand in hand blindfolded to the cabbage-garden. They pulled the first stalk they came upon, brought it back to the house, and were unbandaged. The size and shape of the stalk indicated the appearance of the future husband or wife.

"Maybe you would rather not pull a stalk that was tall and straight and strong--that would mean Alastair? Maybe you would rather find you had got hold of a withered old stump with a lot of earth at the root--a decrepit old man with plenty of money in the bank? Or maybe you are wis.h.i.+ng for one that is slim and supple and not so tall--for one that might mean Johnnie Semple."

BLACK: _Hallowe'en Wraith._

A close white head meant an old husband, an open green head a young one. His disposition would be like the taste of the stem. To determine his name, the stalks were hung over the door, and the number of one's stalk in the row noted. If Jessie put hers up third from the beginning, and the third man who pa.s.sed through the doorway under it was named Alan, her husband's first name would be Alan. This is practised only a little now among farmers. It has special virtue if the cabbage has been stolen from the garden of an unmarried person.

Sometimes the pith of a cabbage-stalk was pushed out, the hole filled with tow, which was set afire and blown through keyholes on Hallowe'en.

"Their runts clean through and through were bored, And stuffed with raivelins fou, And like a chimley when on fire Each could the reek outspue.

"Jock through the key-hole sent a cloud That reached across the house, While in below the door reek rushed Like water through a sluice."

d.i.c.k: _Splores of a Hallowe'en._

Cabbage-broth was a regular dish at the Hallowe'en feast. Mashed potatoes, as in Ireland, or a dish of meal and milk holds symbolic objects--a ring, a thimble, and a coin. In the cake are baked a ring and a key. The ring signifies to the possessor marriage, and the key a journey.

Apple-ducking is still a universal custom in Scotland. A sixpence is sometimes dropped into the tub or stuck into an apple to make the reward greater. The contestants must keep their hands behind their backs.

Nuts are put before the fire in pairs, instead of by threes as in Ireland, and named for a lover and his la.s.s. If they burn to ashes together, long happy married life is destined for the lovers. If they crackle or start away from each other, dissension and separation are ahead.

"Jean slips in twa, wi' tentie[1] e'e; Wha 't was, she wadna tell; But this is _Jock_, an' this is _me_, She says in to hersel; He bleez'd owre her, an' she owre him, As they wad never mair part; Till fuff! he started up the lum,[2]

And Jean had e'en a sair heart To see't that night."

BURNS: _Hallowe'en._

[1] Careful.

[2] Chimney.

Three "luggies," bowls with handles like the Druid lamps, were filled, one with clean, one with dirty water, and one left empty.

The person wis.h.i.+ng to know his fate in marriage was blindfolded, turned about thrice, and put down his left hand. If he dipped it into the clean water, he would marry a maiden; if into the dirty, a widow; if into the empty dish, not at all. He tried until he got the same result twice. The dishes were changed about each time.

This spell still remains, as does that of hemp-seed sowing. One goes out alone with a handful of hemp-seed, sows it across ridges of ploughed land, and harrows it with anything convenient, perhaps with a broom. Having said:

"Hemp-seed, I saw thee, An' her that is to be my la.s.s Come after me an' draw thee----"

BURNS: _Hallowe'en._

he looks behind him to see his sweetheart gathering hemp. This should be tried just at midnight with the moon behind.

"At even o' Hallowmas no sleep I sought, But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought.

I scattered round the seed on every side, And three times three in trembling accents cried, 'This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, Who shall my true-love be, the crop shall mow.'"