Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-14

look lot as soon as the sun rises In some
clear spring or water, and is nothing but
the pretty reflection it makes from the
water, which they may find at any time
If the sun rises clear and they themselves
early, and unprejudiced with fancy" In
July, l10S, the British Apollo had this
stanza:
''Then swiftly by wedding,
Fulfill your design;
And though PAa6uS meier dances,
He'll all that day shi3se."
Again, it is in the same publication, if
we mistake not, that the following may
be found, under different date:
IHterrog-"Old wives. Phnbus, say
That on Easter day,
To the music of the spheres you do caper;
II the fact, cir, be true,
Pray let the cause know
when you've any room in your paper"
REPLY ''The old wives get merry,
With spiced ale or sherry,
On Easter, which makes them romance;
And while in a rout,
Their brains whirl about,
They fancy we caper and dance"
Brand mentions this notion in his Popu-
tar antiquities of Great Britain, He tells
us that "Easter eve ls. in some places,
known rs Holy Saturday. It is a great
day among the Irish Catholics, who hold
high festival at midnight for few hours,
and then retire till sunrise, when they get
up to see that luminary dance in honor Of
the Resurrection. Nor is this usage con-
fined to the lower classes" William
Hone also, in his EUeTy Dan Book, 1888
says: 1.-The day before Easter day is in
some parts called HOly SQturdGU. On the
evening of this day, in the middle districts
Of Ireland, great preparations are made
Tor the finishing OF Lent. Many fat hen
and dainty piece of bacon is
put in the pot by the cotter's
wife about or 8 O'clock, and woe be
to the person who should taste 1t before
the cock crows. At II is heard the clap
ping of hands, and the joyous laugh,
mixed with 'Shidth or Dlogb or cOrTies3
1. e. out loith the Lent: all is merriment
for few hours, when they retire, and rise
about O'Clock TO see the sun dance in
honor of the resurrection. This ignorant
custom is not confined to the humble
labOrer and his family, but is scrupulously
observed by many highly respectable and
wealthy families, different members of
whom have heard assert positively that
they had seen the sun dance on Easter
morning."
Sir Thomas Browne writes: "We shall
not, hope, disparage the resurrection OF
our Redeemer, if we say the sun doth not
dance on Easter day" The idea is pre-
valent in England as we'll as in Ireland
among Professionals as well as among
Catholics. Superstition is fungus which
grows on every creed. About 20 years ago
a Devonsnire clergyman wrote: 81 called
last week upon an old parishiOner who
had been absent from church on Easter
day. Sickness in her family had kept her
at home, but, she said she had looked out
at her window and seen the sun dancing
beautifully. | looked inquiringly, and
she added: Dancing for Joy, to be sure,
at our Saviour's resurrection on Easter
morning. Three or four years ago,
Thomas Corney and Mary Wilkey and
party or us went to the end of Kennicot
Lane to see 1t, but Mary couldn't see any
thing. There was the sun whirling round
and round, and every now and then jump
ing up, (and she indicated with her hand
an upright leap OF nearly yard;) and
Thomas would say: There, Mary, didn't
We see thatY No, fai she saw nothing.
At last Thomas said: L think. Mary, the
old devil must have shut your eyes il you
! can't see that And so we came home
again. Our little Johnny gets up every
| year to see it," 1t is curious instance
] OF the power OF imagination; for the
| old woman could hardly have had any
| object in telling me falsehOOd. knowing
! ly. We find the above in Notes and Que
| FieS for May, 1864; in MAY, 1884, another
| correspondent writes: perhaps it NAV
! interest some OF your readers to know
| that the beautiful old superstition
of the sun dancing on Easter
| day is still unforgotten. On Easter Sun
! day, a morning in London OF bright sun
shine about O'Clock, some one on her
| way to an early service was accosted by
| a respectfully dressed person, whose &C
| cent showed her to be an Irishwoman.
| She said: "Haye you noticed the sun this
/ mOrningY My eyes are weak and dim
now, and | can't see it dance"
| But not at Easter only does the sun
! improve his time to dance, a writer of the
| English puritan period, named Arise
! Evans, says IN "An Eccho TO the Voice
! from Heaven" 1852, "Hearing some say
! that whatsoever one did ask OF God upon
| WhdWRddy morning at the instant when
| the sun arose and played, God would
| grant il him. ] arose betimes a Whitsun-
day morning and went up a hill TO see the
| sun arise. And seeing the sun at his
| rising, skip. play, dance, and turn about
| like "a wheel, fell down upon my knees
| lifting up mine eyes, hands, and heart
unto God" lie adds: About this
time was about IA years Of
age" This addition is very suggestive
While we are "about II years Of age"
| we all receive many things as facts which
we afterward discover to be tictions. As
/ we grow in years we gain in scientific
| accuracy; we find that color is refraoted
! lght, and music mere vibration on the
! air; that the finest feeling Is the excite
/ ment OF nerve substance, and the deepest
! thought a function Of the brain. But, pos
sibly, in some measure, while we have
| been approaching matter we may have
| been rcceding from mind-from that soul
/ OF eternity in things transitory, without
/ which the universe is the Infinite ana
logue OF the fool who said in his heart
! There is no God