, 1889-12-01
MYTHS OF HALLOWEEN.
ORIGIN OF SOME OF THE LEGENDS
THAT ATTACH TO OCT. 81.

A Period Dear to Romantic Young Men
and Maidens-old Formulas Used to De-
eide the All Important Question AS to
Who Would he 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,
that the spiritual elements in all
living humanity can be detached from
corporal 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 a religious character we
may justly regard them as relics of pagan
times.
READING THE U
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 momeptous question which
absorbs so large a 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 compiiers 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 a most vivid account of more
than half a score of Halloween charms
and spells peculiar to the Scottish peas
antry.
In a very old book of folk lore called
aye True Arte to Reade Ye Future" is
found the following:
II n maid would know We name of We man she is
to marry let her on All-Halloween steal out to a
lime kiln and throw therein u clue OF blue yarn,
still holding to ye other end. Presently We end in
must say who holdsr'' whereupon ye voice of
her future husband will pronounce his name
both ye Christian and ye surname
The only obstacle to the successful per-
Torrance 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
Water, nuts and apples bear a promi-
nent part in the spells and charms Of
Halloween. A quaint old book of charms
published in Edinburgh in 1870, entitled
sold Father Times Bundle of Faggots
Newly Bound Up" declares that an in
falible means of getting a view of your
future husband or wife is to so to bed
Halloween with a glass of water, in
which u small silver of wood has been
placed, standing on a table by your bed
side. In the night you will dream of
falling from a bridge into the river, and
of being rescued by your future wife or
husband, whom you viii see as distinct
ly as though viewed with waking eyes.
Ahio Is lllua alluleu 10 ny lnt
English poet Gay;
Last Halloween / longed my love to see.
And tried a spell to cell her up to me.
with wood and water standing by my side
l dreamed a dream and saw my own sweet
bride.
In a FOLKLORE book. called I'VE 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 ut
midnight on All Ha!ioween two month
ly roses with long stems, naming one for
herself and the other for her lover. She
must then go directly to her sleeping
without speaking to any one, md
kneeling beside her bed must Irvine the
stems Of the two roses together and
t.ien repeat the following lines, mean
while gazing i~nten.iy upon the rose
named for her lover:
Irvine, twisS, and iutertwinc;
Let my love be wholly mine.
II his heart b. k,nd and true
Deeper grow his roses hue.
If her swain he 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 seine of E,ngland's
northern counties. and which is to the
effect that if a young man or woman
will sc at midnight halloween to n wal
nut tree and walk around it three times,
crying out eacli time: Let him COR herr
that is to be my true ave hri me some
walnuts," the future wife or husband
will he seen in the tree gathering its
fruit. The poet Gay thus refers in his
"Pastorals to this custom:
Last Halloween | soI:kt a walnut trsc
In hopes my true lJ.yS f-ce Liat | might see;
Three times I called. Three Times ! walked npAce,
Then in the trge | saw Jay t=l' loves flca,
Chicago Times.