deeper religious meaning, which even in his day had ceased to be rightly understood. Be this as it may, it is certain that it had a religious import of some kind; and it is no less plain that the Roman Catholics had a similar idea of the nut; hence, as popery faded from the land, the custom which could not be wholly rooted out, changed in part its character and became a mere rustic superstition.

.*

In some instances we find observances peculiar to certain districts, or even limited to a particular county. Thus at Rippon in Yorkshire, the good women make a cake for every one in the family, whence this eve is by them often called Cake-Night ;* and a similar custom prevails in Warwickshire; † but it does not seem to have existed in many parts of England, though we find it in St. Kilda, where the inhabitants used to make "a large cake in form of a triangle furrowed round, and it must be all eaten that night." From the same authority we learn that the inhabitants of Lewis, one of the western islands of Scotland, "had an antient custom to sacrifice to a sea-god, called Shony, at Hallow-tide, in the manner following the inhabitants round the island came to the church of St. Mulvay, having each man his provision along with him; every family furnished a peck of malt, and this was brewed into ale; one of their number was

hath endued them with, namely a double robe wherewith they are clad; the first is a tender and soft husk; the next, a hard and wooddy shell, which is the cause that at mariages they serve for religious ceremonies, resembling the manifold tunicles and membranes wherein the infant is lapped and enfolded within the womb." PLINIE'S NATURAL HISTORY, by Philemon Holland, vol. i. chap. 22, p. 445.

See GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for August 1790, vol. lx. p. 719. † BRAND, vol i. p. 217.

MARTIN'S WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND, p. 287, 8vo. London,

VOL. II,

L

picked out to wade into the sea up to the middle, and carrying a cup of ale in his hand, standing still in that posture, cried out with a loud voice, saying, Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you'll be so kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware, for inriching our ground the ensuing year; and so threw the cup of ale into the sea. This was per

formed in the night-time. At his return to land, they all went to church, where there was a candle burning upon the altar; and then standing silent for a little time, one of them gave a signal, at which the candle was put out, and immediately all of them went to the fields, where they fell a drinking their ale, and spent the remainder of the night in dancing and singing."*

In olden times, however, seed-cakes were in general use, but with a different object, the purpose seeming to be a sacrifice to the rural deities. Thus Tusser says,

"Wife, sometime this weeke, if the wether hold cleere,

An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare;
Remember you therefore, though I do it not,

The Seed-Cake, the pasties, and furmetie-pot."+

And again Bishop Kennet tells us, "it was an old English custom to provide seed-cakes to entertain the ploughmen after the season of sowing wheat, which was commonly on All Saints' Night,"‡-a curious passage as showing that the wheat at one time was sown at a much earlier part of the year than it is now a-days.

In Ireland the Druids, who held this season as one of their great festivals, used to light up sacrificial fires, though in more modern times the Irish have dropt the fires and substituted candles. Upon the subject of this eve Vallancy has given us much curious information.

* MARTIN'S WESTERN ISLANDS, p. 28.

Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie, fol. 75, b. quarto, London, 1580.

MS.-Lansdowne Cat., Brit. Mus., p. 12, 1039. Plut. 79, f.

Amongst other things, he says, "On the Oidhche Shamhna" (by the aspiration of the consonants pronounced Ee Owna)" or Vigil of Saman, the peasants in Ireland assemble with sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration) going from house to house, collecting money, bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, &c. for the feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, demanding preparations for the festival in the name of St. Colomb Kill, desiring them to lay aside the fatted calf and to bring forth the black sheep. The good women are employed in making the griddle-caket and candles; these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the (Saman)

This was preparatory to the sacrifice of the black-sheep on the day following to Saman, Samhan, or Baal-Samhan, who was now supposed to call the souls to judgment; and, according to their previous conduct while connected with the body, assigned to them a future life either in the brute or human species. Hence he was also called BALSAB, bal signifying "lord," and sab" death." In all this we have another striking proof of the eastern origin of druidism, for both the Druids and Pythagoras, strictly agreeing in this article of faith, they were much more likely to have borrowed from one common source in the east than from each other. As to the sacrifice of black sheep, that ceremony is also mentioned by Virgil:

"Post ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus
Inferias Orphæi lethæa papavera mittes,
Placatam Eurydicen vitulâ venerabere cæsa,
Et nigram mactatis ovem lucumque revises."

Georg. L. iv. 546.

It is hardly necessary to add that if due presents were made to the priest of Balsab he allowed himself to be propitiated, and forgave the soul its sins in consideration of the bounty shown towards his servants. Most assuredly there is nothing new under the sun.

+ Griddle is a provincial word, particularly used in Devonshire, signifying, a gridiron. A griddle.cake is a cake baked, or perhaps we should rather say, toasted, on irons over the fire. It is still to be seen in the cottages of the peasants in the Western parts of England, while in Surrey it is superseded by the pot-cake, that is to say, a cake baked in a large iron sauce-pan.

next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed soul of the donor. Every house abounds in the best viands they can afford; apples and nuts are devoured in abundance; the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are foretold; cabbages are torn up by the root; hemp-seed is sown by the maidens, and they believe that if they look back they will see the apparition of the man intended for their future spouse; they hang a smock before the fire on the close of the feast, and sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will come down the chimney, and turn the smock; they throw a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it on the reel within, convinced that if they repeat the Pater-Noster backwards, and look at the ball of yarn without, they will then also see his sith* or apparition; they dip for apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring one up in the mouth; they suspend a cord with a cross stick, with apples at one point and candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to catch the apple, while it is in circular motion, in the mouth. These and many other superstitions, the remains of druidism, are observed on this holiday, which will never be eradicated while the name of Saman is permitted to remain."†

Sith is from the Hebrew Sheth, a demon. Bythner in his Clavis Lingua Sancta, tells us that the German and Polish Jews, relying upon the ignorance of the Christians, used sarcastically to salute them with Sheth wilkome, that is "hail, devil, or "-what I must not translate; for the benefit however of the curious I give the original as quoted by Vallancy, (vol. iii. p. 460.)-" Hæc vox Judæis frequens est in ore, nam sub specie amicæ salutationis obvios Christianos in Polonia et Germania sarcasticè et impiè compellant, Sheth wilkome, i.e. poder, vel damon, salve; SHETH enim est DÆMON."

Vallancy, COLLECTANEA DE REBUS HIBERNICIS, vol. iii. p. 459, 8vo. Dublin, 1786.

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 twelvemonths 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 near 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 Saint's 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:

621.

Fire and red low
Light on my teen low."

SINCLAIR'S STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF SCOTLAND, vol. xi. p.

See PENNANT'S MS., as quoted by Brand.

SIR W. DUGDALE'S LIFE AND DIARY. Edited by W. Hamper, p. 104. 4to. Lond. 1827. This passage occurs in the Diary, but