THE EPITAPM. TAM SAMPSON's weel-worn clay here lies, PER CONTRA. Go, fame, an' canter like a filly Thro' a' the streets an' neuks o' Killie ', Tell ev'ry social, honest billie To cease his grievin, For yet, unskaith'd by death's gleg gullie, Tam Sampson's livin. Killie is a phrase the country-folks sometimes use for Kilmarnock. HALLOWEEN1. Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain [The following Poem will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, notes are added, to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the west of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state, in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such should honour the author with a perusal, to see the remains of it, among the more unenlightened in our own.] UPON that night, when fairies light, 1 Is thought to be night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baneful, midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the Fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand anniversary. 2 Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neigh hourhood of the ancient seat of the Earls of Cassilis. Or for Colean the rout is ta'en, To sport that night. Amang the bonnie, winding banks Some merry, friendly, countra folks, To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks, And haud their Halloween Fu' blythe that night. The lasses feat, an' cleanly neat, Whiles fast at night. Then first and foremost, thro' the kail, A noted cavern near Colean House, called The Cove of Colean; which, as Cassilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favourite haunt of fairies. 4 The famous family of that name, the ancestors of ROBERT, the great deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick. 5 The first ceremony of Halloween is, pulling each a Poor hav'rel Will fell aff the drift, Sae bow't that night. Then, straught or crooked, yird or nane, The vera wee things, todlin, rin Wi' stocks out-owre their shouther; Wi' canni care, they've plac'd them The lasses staw frae 'mang them a' stock, or plant of kail. They must go out, band 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 state 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. 6 They go to the barn-yard and pull each, at three several times, a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants the toppickle, that is, the grain at the top of the stalk, the party in question will come to the marriage-bed any thing but a maid. He grippet Nelly hard an' fast; Wi' him that night. The auld guidwife's weel hoordet nits Are there that night decided: Fu' high that night. Jean slips in twa wi' tentie e'e; He bleez'd ower her, an' she owre him, Till fuff! he started up the lum, To see't that night. 7 When the corn is in a doubtful state, by being too green, or wet, the stack-builder, by means of old timber, &c. makes a large apartment in his stack, with an opening in the side which is fairest exposed to the wind: this he calls a fause-house. 8 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. |