The Book of Hallowe'en Part 14

Shut tight the shelter where we lie; With hideous din the monster rout, Dragon and vampire, fill the sky."

HUGO: _The Djinns._

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORTUNE-TELLING.]

CHAPTER XV

HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA

In Colonial days Hallowe'en was not celebrated much in America.

Some English still kept the customs of the old world, such as apple-ducking and snapping, and girls tried the apple-paring charm to reveal their lovers' initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to see their faces. Ballads were sung and ghost-stories told, for the dead were thought to return on Hallowe'en.

"There was a young officer in Phips's company at the time of the finding of the Spanish treasure-ship, who had gone mad at the sight of the bursting sacks that the divers had brought up from the sea, as the gold coins covered the deck. This man had once lived in the old stone house on the 'faire greene lane,' and a report had gone out that his spirit still visited it, and caused discordant noises. Once ... on a gusty November evening, when the clouds were scudding over the moon, a hall-door had blown open with a shrieking draft and a force that caused the floor to tremble."

b.u.t.tERWORTH: _Hallowe'en Reformation._

Elves, goblins, and fairies are native on American soil. The Indians believed in evil _manitous_, some of whom were water-G.o.ds who exacted tribute from all who pa.s.sed over their lakes. Henry Hudson and his fellow-explorers haunted as mountain-trolls the Catskill range. Like Ossian and so many other visitors to the Otherworld, Rip Van Winkle is lured into the strange gathering, thinks that he pa.s.ses the night there, wakes, and goes home to find that twenty years have whitened his hair, rusted his gun, and s.n.a.t.c.hed from life many of his boon-companions.

"My gun must have cotched the rheumatix too. Now that's too bad.

Them fellows have gone and stolen my good gun, and leave me this rusty old barrel.

"Why, is that the village of Falling Waters that I see? Why, the place is more than twice the size it was last night--I----

"I don't know whether I am dreaming, or sleeping, or waking."

JEFFERSON: _Rip Van Winkle._

The persecution of witches, prevalent in Europe, reached this side of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century.

"This sudden burst of wickedness and crime Was but the common madness of the time, When in all lands, that lie within the sound Of Sabbath bells, a witch was burned or drowned."

LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._

Men and women who had enemies to accuse them of evil knowledge and the power to cause illness in others, were hanged or pressed to death by heavy weights. Such sicknesses they could cause by keeping a waxen image, and sticking pins or nails into it, or melting it before the fire. The person whom they hated would be in torture, or would waste away like the waxen doll. Witches' power to injure and to prophesy came from the Devil, who marked them with a needle-p.r.i.c.k. Such marks were sought as evidence at trials.

"Witches' eyes are coals of fire from the pit." They were attended by black cats, owls, bats, and toads.

Iron, as being a product of fire, was a protection against them, as against evil spirits everywhere. It had especial power when in the shape of a horseshoe.

"This horseshoe will I nail upon the threshold.

There, ye night-hags and witches that torment The neighborhood, ye shall not enter here."

LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._

The holiday-time of elves, witches, and ghosts is Hallowe'en. It is not believed in here except by some children, who people the dark with bogies who will carry them away if they are naughty.

"Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers-- An' when he went to bed at night, away upstairs, His mammy heerd him holler, an' his daddy heerd him bawl, An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!

An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an'

press, An' seeked him up the chimbley-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess; But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout!

An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you, ef you don't watch out!"

RILEY: _Little Orphant Annie._

Negroes are very superst.i.tious, 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 s.l.u.t whine, An' you hear de cat a-spittin' when de moon don't shine."

RILEY: _When de Folks is Gone._

While the original customs of Hallowe'en are being forgotten more and more across the ocean, Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries.

All superst.i.tions, everyday ones, and those pertaining to Christmas and New Year's, have special value on Hallowe'en.

It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry. Mischievous spirits choose it for carrying off gates and other objects, and hiding them or putting them out of reach.

"Dear me, Polly, I wonder what them boys will be up to to-night.

I do hope they'll not put the gate up on the shed as they did last year."

WRIGHT: _Tom's Hallowe'en Joke._

Bags filled with flour sprinkle the pa.s.sers-by. Door-bells are rung and mysterious raps sounded on doors, things thrown into halls, and k.n.o.bs stolen. Such sports mean no more at Hallowe'en than the tricks played the night before the Fourth of July have to do with the Declaration of Independence. We see manifested on all such occasions the spirit of "Free-night" of which George von Hartwig speaks so enthusiastically in _St. John's Fire_ (page 141).

Hallowe'en parties are the real survival of the ancient merrymakings.

They are prepared for in secret. Guests are not to divulge the fact that they are invited. Often they come masked, as ghosts or witches.

The decorations make plain the two elements of the festival.

For the centerpiece of the table there may be a hollowed pumpkin, filled with apples and nuts and other fruits of harvest, or a pumpkin-chariot drawn by field-mice. So it is clear that this is a harvest-party, like Pomona's feast. In the coach rides a witch, representing the other element, of magic and prophecy.

Jack-o'-lanterns, with which the room is lighted, are hollowed pumpkins with candles inside. The candle-light shines through holes cut like features. So the lantern becomes a bogy, and is held up at a window to frighten those inside. Corn-stalks from the garden stand in clumps about the room. A frieze of witches on broomsticks, with cats, bats, and owls surmounts the fireplace, perhaps. A full moon shines over all, and a caldron on a tripod holds fortunes tied in nut-sh.e.l.ls. 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 b.u.t.ton baked in it foretell respectively speedy marriage, a journey, spinsterhood, wealth, and bachelorhood.

"Polly was going to be married, Jennie was going on a long journey, and you--down went the knife against something hard. The girls crowded round. You had a hurt in your throat, and there, there, in your slice, was the horrid, hateful, big bra.s.s thimble.

It was more than you could bear--soaking, dripping wet, and an old maid!"

BRADLEY: _Different Party._

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WITCH TABLE.

AN OWL TABLE.

HALLOWE'EN TABLES, I.]

The kitchen is the best place for the rough games and after-supper charms.