And hear the sad narration: He swore 'twas hilchin Jean M'Craw, halting crook-backed Till, stop- she trotted through them a' Meg fain wad to the barn hae gaen, She pat but little faith in: And twa red-cheekit apples, 1 To watch, while for the barn she sets, In hopes to see Tam Kipples That very night. She turns the key wi' canny thraw, And owre the threshold ventures; But first on Sawny gies a ca', the pig corn-baskets alone few gentle twist 1 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, we call 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.-B. A ratton rattled up the wa', And she cried, "L-, preserve her!" They hoy't out Will, wi' sair advice; urged They hecht him some fine braw ane; promised It chanced, the stack he faddom't thrice,2 Was timmer-propt for thrawin'; timber-twisting He taks a swirly auld moss oak knotty For some black, grousome carlin ; loathsome And loot a winze, and drew a stroke, oath Till skin in blypes cam haurlin' shreds - peeling Aff's nieves that night. hands A wanton widow Leezie was, As canty as a kittlin; merry kitten But, och that night, amang the shaws, woods She got a fearfu' settlin'! She through the whins, and by the cairn, gorse And owre the hill gaed scrieven, scrambling Where three lairds' lands meet at a burn,3 To dip her left sark-sleeve in, Was bent that night. 1 A gutter at the bottom of a dung-hill. 2 Take an opportunity of going, unnoticed, to a bean-stack, 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. — B. 3 You go out, one or more, for this is a social spell, to a Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, Wi' bickering, dancing dazzle; fall wheeled cliff eddy racing suddenly Whyles cookit underneath the braes, vanished Below the spreading hazel, Amang the brackens, on the brae, The deil, or else an outler quey, Gat up and gae a croon: fern unhoused cow Poor Leezie's heart maist lap the hool; Near lav'rock-height she jumpit, But mist a fit, and in the pool Out-owre the lugs she plumpit, Wi' a plunge that night. In order, on the clean hearth-stane, moan case lark foot ears dishes 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 sometime 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.-B. 1 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 fu And every time great care is ta'en To see them duly changed: Auld Uncle John, wha wedlock's joys. Because he gat the toom dish thrice He heaved them on the fire In wrath that night. Wi' merry sangs, and friendly cracks, And unco tales, and funny jokes, Their sports were cheap and cheery; Till buttered so'ns, wi' fragrant lunt, Set a' their gabs a-steerin'; Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt, They parted aff careerin' Fu' blithe that night. 8 empty smoke mouths spirits ture 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. - B. 1 The year 1715, when the Earl of Mar raised an insurrection in Scotland. 2 Sowens, [a dish made of the seeds of oat-meal soured] with butter instead of milk to them, is always the Halloween supper. B. 3 The most of the ceremonies appropriate to Halloween, including all those of an adventurous character, are now disused. Meetings of young people still take place on that evening, both in country and town, but their frolics are usually limited to ducking for apples in tubs of water—a ceremony overlooked by Burns. the lottery of the dishes, and NOTE TO HALLOWEEN. Mr. John Mayne, a comparatively obscure follower of the Scottish Muses, had attempted a poem on the subject of Halloween, forming twelve stanzas. It appeared in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, November 1780, and therefore may have been seen by Burns. That the Ayrshire poet actually saw and improved upon this composition can scarcely be doubted, [?] after reading the following specimens: "Ranged round a bleezing ingle-side, "Placed at their head the guidwife sits, Bogles hae gart folk tyne their wits made-lose "A' things prepared in order due, Some i' the kiln-pat thraw a clue, At whilk, bedeen, Their sweethearts at the far-end pu', At Halloween. forthwith pulling cabbage-stalks. The other ceremonies are discountenanced as more superstitious than is desirable, and somewhat dangerous. |