Till future life, future no more, HALLOWEEN*. [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 Beneath the moon's pale beams; 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 neighbourhood of the ancient seat of the Earls of Cassilis. There, up the cove*, to stray an' rove To sport that night. Amang the bonnie winding banks Where Bruce † ance ruled the martial ranks, To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks, An' haud their Halloween Fu' blythe that night. The lasses feat, an' cleanly neat, Mair braw than when they're fine; Whiles fast at night. Then first and foremost, through 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. + 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 They steek their een, an' graip an' wale, An' wander'd through the bow-kail, Sae bow't that night. Then, straught or crooked, yird or nane, Wi' stocks out-owre their shouther; Syne coziely, aboon the door, Wi' cannie care, they place them The lasses staw frae 'mang them a’ To pou their stalks o' corn* ; 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. * They go to the barn-yard, and pull each, at three several times, a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants But Rab slips out, an' jinks about, When kiuttlin in the fause-house * The auld guidwife's weel-hoordet nits † Jean slips in twa, wi' tentie ee; 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. 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. + 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. But this is Jock, and this is me, He bleezed owre her, an' she owre him, Till fuff! he started up the lum, Poor Willie, wi' his bow-kail runt, Nell had the fause-house in her min', Unseen that night. But Merran sat behint their backs, Her thoughts on Andrew Bell; She lea'es them gashin at their cracks, And slips out by hersel: She through the yard the nearest taks, An' to the kiln she goes then, |