There at them thou thy tail may toss, Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read, ther than the middle of the next running stream.-It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveller, that when he falls in with bogles, whatever danger may be in his going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back. [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 passions 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 honor the Author with a perusal, to see the remains of it among the more unenlightened in our own.] HALLOWEEN*. Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, I. Upon that night, when fairies light, To sport that night. Is thought to be a 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. Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neighborhood of the ancient seat of the earls of Cassilis. A noted cavern near Colean-house, called the Cove of Celean; which, as well as Cassilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favorite haunt of fairies. II. Among the bonie winding banks, To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks, III. Fu' blythe that night. The lasses feat, an' cleanly neat, IV. Whyles fast that night. Then first and foremost, thro' the kail, *The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were earls of Carrick. 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 Poor hav'rel Will fell aff the drift, V. Sae bow't that night. Then, straught or crooked, yird or nane, Wi' cannie care, they've plac'd them VI. To lie that night. The lasses staw frae 'mang them a' spells-the husband or wife. If any yird, or earth, stick to the root, that is toucher, or fortune; and the taste of the custock, that is, the heart of stem, is indi cative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or, to give them their ordinary appellation the runts, are placed somewhere above the hand of the door and the Christian names of the people whom chance brings into the house, are, according to the pri ority of placing the runts, the names in question. †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, 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. |