ANTIQUARIAN NOTICES. 483 circumstance the night has obtained one of its names, namely Nutcrack Night. Nuts also were employed as one, and perhaps the oldest of the many modes of divination practised at this season, for Hutchinson is quite correct when he says of this eve, that "it seems to retain the celebration of a festival to Pomona, when it is supposed the summer stores are opened on the approach of winter. Divinations and consulting of omens attended all these ceremonies in the practice of the heathen. Hence in the rural sacrifice of nuts, if the nuts lie still and burn together, it prognosticates a happy marriage or a hopeful love; if, on the contrary, they bounce and fly asunder, the sign is unpropitious." Here, again, as in so many instances, the custom may be traced back from an unmeaning frolic to a popish superstition, and from that to a classic rite. "Nuts have a religious import," says the Romish calendar; and going yet farther back, we find that this is but an echo from the times of paganism. Amongst the Romans it was a custom for the bridegroom to throw nuts about the room that the boys might scramble for them, thereby as some will have it, intimating that the new husband meant henceforth to lay aside the sports of boyhood. In Scotland they" set up bon-fires in every village. When the bon-fire is consumed, the ashes are carefully collected into the form of a circle. There is a stone put in near the circumference for every person of the several families interested in the bon-fire; and whatever stone is moved out of its place, or injured before the next morning, the person represented by the stone is devoted, or fey, and is supposed not to live twelve months from that day. The people received the consecrated fire from the Druid priests, which was supposed to continue for a year." We have similar traces of this fire-worship in North Wales, where it is the custom on Allhallow Even to kindle a large fire, under the name of Coel Coeth, in the most conspicuous place each house, and keep it up in the night for about an hour. When the fire is almost extinguished every one flings into the ashes a white stone, which he has previously marked, and, having said their prayers as they pace around the embers, they all go to bed. The first thing in the morning they search for the stones, it being their fixed belief that if any one be missing the person to whom it belongs will die before All Saints' Eve can come round again. In England also we find some faint traces of the same custom. Thus Sir W. Dugdale tells us, "On All-Hallow Even the master of the family anciently used to carry a bunch of straw, fired, about his corne, saying: Fire and red low Light on my teen low." It would seem moreover that the ringing of bells was a usual custom on Hallowe'en in the time of popery, greatly to the annoyance of archbishop Cranmer, and others desirous of a church-reformation. Earnest were the endeavours of this prelate with his stiff-necked master, Henry, to abolish such vanities, as he called them; and at length "he prevailed with the king to resolve to have the roods in every church pulled down and the accustomed ringing on All-hallow night suppressed." Burns in his notes upon Halloween has given a minute account of the superstitions practised by the Scottish peasantry: I. The first ceremony of Halloween is pulling each a stock, or plant of kail. They must go out hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with; its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells-the husband or wife. If any yird, or earth stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune; and the taste of the custoc, that is the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or to give them their ordinary appellation-the runts, are placed somewhere above the head of the door; and the christian names of the people, whom chance brings into the house are according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in question. II. They go to the barn-yard, and pull each, at three several times, a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants the top-pickle, the party in question will come to the marriage-bed anything but a maid. ANTIQUARIAN NOTICES. 485 III. Burning the nuts is a famous charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut as they lay them in the fire, and accordingly as they burn quietly together, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be. IV. Steal out all alone to the kiln, and darkling throw into the pot a clue of blue yarn; wind it in a new clue off the old one; and towards the latter end, something will hold the thread; demand, "who hauds?" i.e. who holds ?-an answer will be returned from the kiln-pot, by naming the christian and surname of your future spouse. V. Take a candle, and go alone to a looking-glass; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion to be will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder. 66 66 VI. Steal out unperceived and sow a handful of hempseed, harrowing it with anything you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then, "hemp-seed I sow thee; hemp-seed, I sow thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true love, come after me, and pou thee." Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, come after me, and shaw thee," that is show thyself, in which case it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say, come after me and harrow thee." VII. To win three wechts o'naething. This charm must likewise be performed unperceived and alone. You go to the barn, and open both doors, taking them off the hinges if possible; for there is danger that the being about to appear may shut the doors and do you some mischief. Then take that instrument used in winnowing the corn, which in our country dialect is called a wecht; and go through all the attitudes of letting down corn against the wind. Repeat it three times; and the third time an apparition will pass through the barn, in at the windy door, and out at the other, having both the figure in question, and the appearance or retinue marking the employment or station in life. VIII. Take an opportunity of going unnoticed to a bearstack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of the last time, you will catch in your arms the appearance of your future conjugal yoke-fellow. IX. You go out, one or more,-for this is a social spellto a south running spring or rivulet, where three lairds' lands meet, and dip your left shirt sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake; and some time near midnight an apparition, having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to dry the other side of it. X. Take three dishes; put clean water in one, foul water in another, leave the third empty; blindfold a person, and lead him to the hearth where the dishes are ranged; he (or she) dips the left hand; if by chance in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid; if in the foul, a widow: if in the empty dish, it foretells with equal certainty no marriage at all. It is repeated three times, and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered. A HALLOW-EVE CHANT. I. The Autumn's fairy gold turns pale, Fresh-dawning Hallow-eve! Sweet, new-old Hallow-eve! For what thou wert, for what thou art, II. It freezes; but no frost on earth A HALLOW-EVE CHANT. Though days grow short, the fire's a sun Far sweeter flowers than April's dowers III. 'Tis fruit-time, too; who can may snatch And sure this is a fairy hour That lets the ghostly world retrieve A little while its ancient power, Mysterious Hallow-eve! Weird-mantled Hallow-eve! Much joy and pain have cause more vain IV. Heaven's stars were used as lamps, of old, Love-sybil Hallow-eve! A nut can hold the story told 487 In the game of "Snap-apple," a sort of chandelier is hung from the ceiling, with an apple on one branch, and a lighted candle on the next, and so on. It is set revolving at a moderate speed, and you must only use your mouth in catching the apples-as also in diving, when the apples float in a pail of water. + Divination from the burning of nuts is well known, I believe, over the three kingdoms. |