The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-12-13
MYTHS OF HALLOWEEN.
ORIGIN OF SOME OF THE LEGENDS
THAT ATTACH TO OCT. 81.

Period Dear to Romantic Young Men
and Maidens-Old Formulas Used to De-
eide the All Important Question as to
| Who Would Be the Bride or the Groom,
From its first organization Halloween
has been invested with a peculiarly mys-
tic character. 1t is an almost universal
superstition that supernatural influences
then have unusual power; that devils,
witches and fairies are abroad; that all
spirits are free to roam through space,
and that the spiritual elements in all
living humanity can be detached from
corporeal restraint and made to read its
own future or to reveal to others what
fate may have in store for them. AS
there is nothing in the church celebra-
ton of the ensuing day of All Saints to
justify these singular ideas and customs
associated with Halloween, and as none
of them are of religious character we
may justly regard them as relics of pagan
| times.
READING THE FUTURE.
In all ages and countries Halloween
has been deemed, as it still is, the occa-
sion par excellence for divining the an
swer to that momentous question which
| absorbs so large share of the thoughts
OF romantic young men and maidens,
"Who is to marry whom?" The means
employed to gain this much desired in
formation are as quaint and curious as
they are numerous and varied. For this
purpose every time and every country
almost every district of every country
has had its own charms and spells pecu-
liar to itself, and they have furnished an
almost inexhaustible theme to folk poets
and compilers of folklore.
Those Of Scotland have been most
graphically described by that greatest of
all poets of the people, Robert Burns.
In his poem of Halloween" he has
given us most vivid account of more
than half score of Halloween charms
and spells peculiar to the Scottish peas
antry.
In very old book of folk lore called
eye True Arte to Reade Ye Future is
found the following:
If a maid would know ye name of We man she is
to marry let her on All-Halloween steal out to
lime kiln and throw therein clue of blue yarn,
still holding to ye other end Presently ye end in
ye kiln will be sharply pulled. Then ye maid
must say "Who holds?" Whereupon We voice of
her future husband will pronounce his name
both ye Christian and ye surname
The only obstacle to the successful per-
formance of this spell is the difficulty of
finding an old lime kiln, but as lime
kilns will be in great demand among our
women when the IMPORTANT statement
made in the above paragraph becomes
generally known, and as a demand for
any article in this country is speedily
met by an abundant supply the number
of lime kilns will doubtless soon be
largely augmented, to the great delight
of anxious, matchmaking mammas and
their dutiful offspring.
YE MYSTERIES.
Water, nuts and apples bear promi-
nent part in the spells and charms of
Halloween. A quaint old book of charms
published in Edinburgh in 1870, entitled
'Old Father Times Bundle of Faggots
Newly Bound Up" declares that an in
fallible means of getting a view of your
future husband or wife is to go to bed
Halloween with a glAss of water, in
which small silver of wood has been
placed, standing on table by your bed
side. In the night you will dream of
falling from bridge into the river, and
of being rescued by your future wife or
husband, whom you will see as distinct
ly as though viewed with waking eyes.
This charm is thus alluded to by the
English poet Gay:
Last Halloween longed my love to see,
And tried spell to call her up to me-
With wood and water standing by my side
l dreamed dream and saw my own sweet
bride.
In folklore book, called eye Mys-
teries of the Wytchcraft," there is given
a charm "by which a maid may know if
ye man she loves be true" To perform
this, the maid is directed to pluck at
midnight on All Halloween two month
" roses with long stems, naming one for
herself and the other for her lover. She
must then go directly to her sleeping
room without speaking to any one, and
Eneeling beside her bed must twine the
stems of the two roses together and
then repeat the following lines, mean
while gazing intently upon the rose
named for her lover:
Twine twne, and intertwine;
Let my love be wholly mine
II his heart be kind and true
Deeper grow his roses hue.
If her swain be faithful, the color of
the rose representing him will grow
darker and more intense. Of all the
many Halloween spells and charms asso-
ciated with nuts, one of the oldest is that
which prevails in some of England's
northern counties, and which is to the
effect that if a young man or woman
will go at midnight Halloween to a wal
nut tree and walk around it three times,
crying out each time: "Let him (or herr
that is to be my true love bring me some
walnuts," the future wife or husband
will be seen in the tree gathering its
fruit. The poet Gay thus refers in his
"Pastorals" to this custom:
Last Halloween sought walnut tree
In hopes my true loves face that might see;
Three times | called three times walked apace,
Then in the tree saw my true loves face.
Chicago Times.
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