The Book of Hallowe'en Part 9

"Last Hallow Eve I sought a walnut-tree, In hope my true Love's face that I might see; Three times I called, three times I walked apace; Then in the tree I saw my true Love's face."

GAY: _Pastorals._

The seeds of apples were used in many trials. Two stuck on cheeks or eyelids indicated by the time they clung the faithfulness of the friends named for them.

"See from the core two kernels brown I take: This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, And b.o.o.by Clod on t'other side is borne; But b.o.o.by Clod soon drops upon the ground, A certain token that his love's unsound; While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last.

Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast."

GAY: _Pastorals._

In a tub float stemless apples, to be seized by the teeth of him desirous of having his love returned. If he is successful in bringing up the apple, his love-affair will end happily.

"The rosy apple's bobbing Upon the mimic sea-- 'T is tricksy and elusive, And glides away from me.

"One moment it is dreaming Beneath the candle's glare, Then over wave and eddy It glances here and there.

"And when at last I capture The prize with joy aglow, I sigh, may I this sunshine Of golden rapture know

"When I essay to gather In all her witchery Love's sweetest rosy apple On Love's uncertain sea."

MUNKITTRICK: _Hallowe'en Wish._

An apple is peeled all in one piece, and the paring swung three times round the head and dropped behind the left shoulder. If it does not break, and is looked at over the shoulder it forms the initial of the true sweetheart's name.

"I pare this pippin round and round again, My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain: I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head.

A perfect 'L' upon the ground is read."

GAY: _Pastorals._

In the north of England was a unique custom, "the scadding of peas." A pea-pod was slit, a bean pushed inside, and the opening closed again. The full pods were boiled, and apportioned to be sh.e.l.led and the peas eaten with b.u.t.ter and salt. The one finding the bean on his plate would be married first. Gay records another test with peas which is like the final trial made with kale-stalks.

"As peascods once I plucked I chanced to see One that was closely filled with three times three; Which when I crop'd, I safely home convey'd, And o'er the door the spell in secret laid;-- The latch moved up, when who should first come in, But in his proper person--Lubberkin."

GAY: _Pastorals._

Candles, relics of the sacred fire, play an important part everywhere on Hallowe'en. In England too the lighted candle and the apple were fastened to the stick, and as it whirled, each person in turn sprang up and tried to bite the apple.

"Or catch th' elusive apple with a bound, As with the taper it flew whizzing round."

This was a rough game, more suited to boys' frolic than the ghostly divinations that preceded it. Those with energy to spare found material to exercise it on. In an old book there is a picture of a youth sitting on a stick placed across two stools. On one end of the stick is a lighted candle from which he is trying to light another in his hand. Beneath is a tub of water to receive him if he over-balances sideways. These games grew later into practical jokes.

The use of a goblet may perhaps come from the story of "The Luck of Edenhall," a gla.s.s stolen from the fairies, and holding ruin for the House by whom it was stolen, if it should ever be broken. With ring and goblet this charm was tried: the ring, symbol of marriage, was suspended by a hair within a gla.s.s, and a name spelled out by beginning the alphabet over each time the ring struck the gla.s.s.

When tired of activity and noise, the party gathered about a story-teller, or pa.s.sed a bundle of f.a.gots 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."

c.o.xE: _Hallowe'en._

To induce prophetic dreams the wood-and-water test was tried in England also.

"Last Hallow Eve I looked my love to see, And tried a spell to call her up to me.

With wood and water standing by my side I dreamed a dream, and saw my own sweet bride."

GAY: _Pastorals._

Though Hallowe'en is decidedly a country festival, in the seventeenth century young gentlemen in London chose a Master of the Revels, and held masques and dances with their friends on this night.

In central and southern England the ecclesiastical side of Hallowtide is stressed.

Bread or cake has till recently (1898) been as much a part of Hallowe'en preparations as plum pudding at Christmas. Probably this originated from an autumn baking of bread from the new grain. In Yorkshire each person gets a triangular seed-cake, and the evening is called "cake night."

"Wife, some time this weeke, if the wether hold cleere, An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare.

Remember you, therefore, though I do it not, The seed-cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot."

TUSSER: _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, 1580.

Cakes appear also at the vigil of All Souls', the next day. At a gathering they lie in a heap for the guests to take. In return they are supposed to say prayers for the dead.

"A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake; have mercy on all Christen souls for a Soule-cake."

_Old Saying._

The poor in Staffordshire and Shropshire went about singing for soul-cakes or money, promising to pray and to spend the alms in ma.s.ses for the dead. The cakes were called Soul-ma.s.s or "somas"

cakes.

"Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake; Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake.

One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for them who made us all."

_Notes and Queries._

In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth issued commands against this practice.

In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches.

If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence could remain near.

In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory.

Like the Bretons, the English have the superst.i.tion that the dead return on Hallowe'en.

"'Why do you wait at your door, woman, Alone in the night?'

'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger, To show him a light.

He will see me afar on the road, And be glad at the sight.'

"'Have you no fear in your heart, woman, To stand there alone?

There is comfort for you and kindly content Beside the hearthstone.'

But she answered, 'No rest can I have Till I welcome my own.'