The morning call., 1891-10-31
A NIGHT OF MYSTERY.
Some Curious Facts Concerning
All Hall0w Even.
The Night When Maidens Try to Find Out
Who Will Wed Them-A Curious Cir
cumstance Played.
Written for THE MORNING CALL

]
J terry specially devoted to mischief. fun, in
carnations, divination charms and spells.
but very few of them or their elders under
! stand its real significance or can tell whence
| it derives its name.
1t is many centuries since the Roman
Church. finding it impossible, from the
| great and constantly increasing multitude of
the saints. TO set apart a separate day for
| each one. decreed that November 1st should
| thenceforward be kept as day in honor of
all the saints, and that 1t should be known
| as All Hallow Mas, or All Saints day, and
| that the night of October 3lst, Immediately
preceding it, should thereafter be kept as
| vigil and known as All Hallow eve, these
occasions being still observed in the Cath
olic, Episcopal and Lutheran churches.
From its first orginaton Hallow eve has
been invested with peculiarly mystic
| character. 1t is an almost universal SUPER
| stition 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 element in all livinglhumanity can
| be detached from corDoreal 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-
| justify these singular ideas and customs as
| sociated with Hallow eve, and as none of
| them are of religious character, we may
| justly regard them as relics of pagan times.
| In all ages and countries Hallow eve has
been deemed as 1t still Is, the occasion par
excellence for devining the answer to that
| momentOus question which absor6s so large
| share of the thoughts OF romantic young
men and maidens, who is to marry whom ?"
| The means employed TO gain this much de-
| sired information are as quaint and curious
| as they are numerous and varied. For this
purpose
EVERY TINE AND EVERY COUNTRY
Almost every district OF every counJry-has
| had its own charms and spells peculiar to it.
self, and they have furnished an almost in
exhaustible theme to folk poets and COM
pliers Of folk lore. Those of Scotland have
been most graphically described by that
greatest of all poets of the peOple, Robert
Burns In his poem of "Haloween" he
has given us a most vivid account of more
than half o score of HaloW eve charms
and spells peculiar to the Scottish peasantrv.
In very old book of folk ore called "Ye
True Arte To Reade Ye Future" | find the
following: IF q maid would know ye
name OF We man she is to marry, let her on
| All Hallow even steal out to a lime-kiln and
| throw therein a clue of blue yarn. still hold
ing to ye other end. Presently ye end 10 We
kiln will be sharply pulled. Then ye maid
must say who hods% WhereupOn ye voice
of her future husband will pronounce his
name-bOth We 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 e-kilns
will be in great demand among our young
women when the important statement made
in the above paragraph becomes generally
known, and as demand for any article in
this country Is speedily met by an abundant
supply, the number of lime-kllns will doubt
| less soon be largely augmented, to the great
| delight of anxious matchmaking mammas
| and their dutiful offspring.
Water, nuts and apples bear prominent
part in the spells and charms of Halow
eve. A quaint old book of charms, pub
| lshed in Edinburgh in 1870 entitled; "Old
Father Times Bundle of Faggots Newly
| Bound Up," declares that an infallible
means of getting view of your future hus-
| band or wife is to 60 TO bed on HalIow eve
with glass of water, in which small
silver of wood has been placed, standing on
a table bv your bedside. IL the night
YOU WILL DREAM OF FALLING
From bridge into a river and of being
rescued by your future wife or husband,
whom you will see as distinctly as though
viewed with waking eyes. This charm is
thus alluded to by the English poet Gay:
| Last Hallow eve longed my love to see
And tried spell to call her up 10 me.
with wood and water standing by my side
dreamed a dream aud saw my own sweet bride.
Iu.connecton with this spell | am remind
| under my immediate observation. w hile
| visiting my younger brother in Newton,
Mass, some year ago. my Slster-ln-law COM
| planned at the breakfast table on the morn
| Ing after HallOw eve that she had spent a
| most wretched night. On my inquiring the
| cause she stated that she had had a strange
| ly vivid and most singular dream, from
| which she had awakened with feeling of
| the most distressing exhaustion. She
| dreamt that she was walking along the
opl- nf rir hnn - flan IN Fhf.Sn
| face she saw as plainly and distinctly as
| she had ever seen anything and whose
| features were ndelibly imprinted upon her
| memory, fell from a bridge erected across
the stream. Without moments hesita-
| tion she plunged into the water and after
| desperate struggle succeeded in bringing
| him ashore, whereupon she awOke feeling
| as much exhausted as If she had actually
| passed through such a thrilling experience.
In less than three months from that time
my brother sckened and died. His young
| widow continued TO reside in the same place
with her two children. -Four years later l
| again paid. her visit, and while guest at
| her house learned that bachelor friend
| of mine would be IN the nelghb0rlng city
| of Boston on a certain date, and | tele-
! graphed him to visit me at Newton. | met
| him at the railway station and drove him TO
my sister-in-law'S residence.
| 1t was beautiful summer evening, and
| looking from the carriage as we approached
|
flowers On the lawn. AT sight of her my
| friend seemed so much agitated that |
| anxiously inquired the reason of his dis
| compnsure and asked If he had ever seen
the lady before. He had barely time to
| answer, Yes, once, and L will tell you all
| about 1t when l have an opportunity" be-
| fore we had alighted and were in her pres
| ence. 10 my amazement she seemed quite
| as much diScomposed as my friend had been.
| He subsequently told me that on the very
| Hall0W
dreamed the dream above mentioned he had
| tried the spell of the glass of water and the
! silver of wood recommended by my "Old
| Father Times Bundle of Faggots," which |
| had loaned him, and that he had dreamed
| of falling off bridge into a river, and of
| being rescued by the lady in whose house
we then were, and whom he saw in his
| vision as distinctly as when he bebeld her
that night on the lawn. l also learned from
my sister-n-law that my friend was the
| very man she had dreamed of rescuing on
| that same Hallow eve.
The story of this most curious coinci-
dence, which is literally true exactly as
| stated, is made complete by the fact that
THIS PAIR OF DREAMERs
| Were made man and wife before another
Hallow eve.
In folklore book called "Ye Mysteries
of Ye Wy;checraft," which is the Oldest in
my collection, there is given charm "by
which maid may know if ye man she
| ao'Ss, ~ ~ pSi ioA tiio ehO haiu
Is directed to pluck, at midnight on All
Hall0w eve, two monthly roses with long
stems, naming one for herself and the other
for her lover. She must then 60 directly to
| her sleeping-room without speaking to any
one and kneeling beside her bed must twine
| the stems OF the two roses together and
then repeat the following lines, meanwhile
gazing intenty upon the rose named for
| her lover:
Twine twine and intertwine,
| Let my love be wholly mine
If his heart be kind aud true
| Deeper grow his roses hue.
| If her swain be faithful the color of the
rose representing him will grow darker and
| more intense.
or all the many Halow eve spells and
charms associated with nuts, one of the old
est is that which prevails in some of Eug-
lands northern counties, and which is to
the effect that II young man or woman
will 90 at midnight on Hallow eve to a