lor 



heads, and shouting in a sort of rude chorus. Can there be a doubt 

 as to the source of this custom ? 



The festival of AU-hallow Eve, is observed by the Scotch and Irish, 

 while it is but Httle known in England. This day was one of the 

 four great festivals which were observed in Ireland. It was an- 

 ciently dedicated to Sahm or Saliman, one of the sacred names 

 OS the sun,* when offerings were made of fruit, corn, and cakes of 

 fine flour, spotted with poppy and carraway seeds, and stained with 

 saffi'on.-f- Hence the origin of the cake still peculiar to Ireland, 

 vulgarly called the Barn-break, rightly the Bairin-Breac,% the 

 spotted cake or bread, which it is even now in many country parts 

 customary for bakers to send at Hollandtide as presents to their 

 customers. 



To this ancient worship of Baal the sun, and of fire, the emblem 

 of the sun, may be traced the names of the most ancient erections, 

 which in almost every case where the old name has been preserved, 

 allude to the sun either directly, or by the name of Baal or Bel ; — 



• In the Indian account of the Bahman Avatar, it is recorded that Bali instituted the feasts 

 of the Solstitial fires ; and it appears that these feasts, particularly that of the first of November, 

 are even at this day celebrated throughout the peninsula with great splendor. They light vast 

 fires, and illuminate their houses with innumerable lamps in honour of Baal-Samin, the Lord of 

 Heaven. (Sonnerat i. p. HO — and Maurice Auct. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 87 and 89.) 



f Sonnerat mentions that at the great feast of Fire, held annually in India, all the votaries 

 stain their bodies with saffron, [Vol. i.p. ISi] 



The poppif is cultivated in Mysore and Malabar, not for opium, but for seed, which they put 

 into cakes. [Buchanan's Journey, I. 295. III. 444.] 



In Letters from the Caucasus, (p. 125—6) we are told, that in Persia, poppy seed is con- 

 stantly put into cakes and bread, and that finer saffron is grown in Iran than can be elsewhere 

 obtained. Saffron is classed with wine and song, as equally belonging to the banquet, in the 

 ancient Irish poems of Megnus the Great. — Brooke's Irish Reliques, p. 62.) 



X Ledwich and Vallancey, Collect Reb. Hib. VII. 291, and IIL 435. 



The Irish words are Bairin, a cake — Breac, speckled. — O'Reilly D.] Breac, in Gaelic — 

 party coloured. [Macpherson's Essays, 115.] 



p 2 



