Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-26

bolical powers were stimulated to renew
their activities and make trouble. evil
fulness Of the devout. On the eve. OF
October 81. therefore, Saman. the lord
of death. was believed to summon all
of the wicked souls that in the proceed
ing year had been condemned to inhabit
the bodies Of animals. These agents of
, mischief evidently became the witches
and hobgoblins and demons Of later ira
6itions.
In parts Of Ireland the eve of October
81 was and IS said still to be called
Oidhche Stamina, meaning the vigil
of Saman." The word 'shaman." as ap-
piled to wizards in Finland and else
where. Is probably derived from the same
original word or root as ''Saman."
was believed in Scotland that all the
denizens of the spirit world imps and
elves, fairies and hobgoblins, witches
and demons. assembled and anointed
themselves with the fat OF q murdered
babe. who. however, must not have been
baptized. This was quite important, for
necromancers generally find that the rite
OF baptism or even the clothes Of q bap-
t1zed person interfere with demoniac &C
tivity The fat was evidently q mere ele-
ment necessary to assist in making
themselves visible to the eyes Of any
mortal whom they chose.
After assembling and feast1ng the DOW
ers OF evil would then fly through space
work mischief after until the cock crow
ed at dawn. when they would again as
semble and after dancing with their
backs to one another. would scatter to
their haunts.
The Christian recipe for avoiding the
evil spirits who were free to wander
around and work mischief on Hallows'
eve was to keep busy saying kind
things to all and to keep equally busy
doing kind deeds to those less fortu-
nate than themselves. These charitable
words and deeds were supposed to
furnish ammunition to the souls about
Saints day, and with these spiritual
missiles the souls were said to be able
to stone the witches until they sue
ceeded In drawing a drop of red blood
and one Of black poison from the left
shoulder of the tormenting witches and
thus prevented them from working
further mischief
In the history of the world not over
eleven persons are reported to have
visited the Internal regions and ta
have been able to return from it. OF
these, Christ only was able to con-
quer all the forces of death and hell.
AS the gates of hell are said to be
opened at Halloween. it is well to con-
slider what the early Christian church
believed was the appearance of the
creatures guarding the gates of hell.
From the Pistis Sophia. which embodied
the doctrines of the christian Gnostics
of the third century. the following de-
tails are taken from a complete ac-
count said to have been given by
Christ to His mother after His descent
into hell and His triumphant return
from it and resurrection from the
grave.
The outer darkness of hell was said
to be surrounded by q huge dragon
with it's tail in it's mouth. He'll it
self had many regions of punishment.
of which there were twelve chief
dungeons of horrible torment each
with a separate ruler, with the face
of a different animal.
Each of these rulers of the twelve
dungeons within the dragon of outer
darkness had a name for every hour
and each changed it's face every hour.
Each dungeon had a door which opened
to the height. and an angel of the
height watched at each Of the doors Of
the dungeons to keep the dragon and
the different rulers from turning the
dungeons upside down. Over each
door was said to be one of the twelve
authentic names of the dragon, but
they were all so contained in one an
other that "he who uttereth one name
uttegeth all"
Even from these brief outlines. 1t is
easy to see that an assemblage Of even
small detachment of these hideous
creatures, either under the leadership of
Beelzebub, who is here called the prince
of hell, or of Satan. who is called the
prince and captain of death, would be a
gruesome sight. 1t is not surprising,
therefore that in former times for one
reason or another the faithful STAYED