CHAPTER III 
HALLOWE’EN TO CANDLEMAS 
October 31. — All Hallows Eve. I don’t think Hallowe’en 
seems to be much kept hereabouts in these modern days 
of progress ; one does not hear of people gathering together 
to crack nuts on Nutcrack Eve and make merry like the 
Vicar of Wakefield. Romance seems to be dying on the 
Border, choked by civilization and Board Schools. Ail 
Hallow Fair, however, still survives; an old custom, but not 
very romantic, as it is nothing but a large cattle-fair held 
near Edinburgh. Bonfires used to be lit in villages, called 
“Hallowe’en bleezes,” and the young folks used to dance and 
sport round them. There was an old belief that Witches 
and warlocks held a sort of assembly at this time, called a 
Hallowmass Rade, as they were said to ride thither on 
the traditional broomstick transformed into a steed. 
There is a quaint old saying, “ Eat an apple before the 
looking-glass on Hallowe’en and you will see the face of your 
True Love.” Burns alludes to this in one of his poems. 
November 2. — Jour des Morts (All Souls Day). Beans 
were blessed to-day in England in old times. I remember 
on the Jour des Morts that, as a child, I used to watch 
our old Provengale cook Genevieve laying out roasted 
chestnuts before the fire and explaining, as she did so, that 
they were for “ Les Morts,” who would eat them in the 
night. Certainly they were always gone in the morning, 
when I went to investigate. This is also, I believe, a 
Piedmontese custom. 
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