Tests are very often tried blindfold, so that the seeker may be guided by fate. Many are mystic--to evoke apparitions from the past or future. Others are tried with harvest grains and fruits.
Because skill and undivided attention is needed to carry them through successfully, many have degenerated into mere contests of skill, have lost their meaning, and become rough games.
Answers are sought to questions about one"s future career; chiefly to: when and whom shall I marry? what will be my profession and degree of wealth, and when shall I die?
[Ill.u.s.tration: IN HALLOWE"EN TIME.]
CHAPTER VII
HALLOWE"EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND
Ireland has a literature of Hallowe"en, or "Samhain," as it used to be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, but the events were thought to have happened while paganism still ruled in Ireland.
The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was called the "h.e.l.l-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music. One way of getting rid of these demon children was to ill-treat them so that their people would come for them, bringing the right ones back; or one might boil egg-sh.e.l.ls in the sight of the changeling, who would declare his demon nature by saying that in his centuries of life he had never seen such a thing before.
Brides too were stolen.
"You shall go with me, newly married bride, And gaze upon a merrier mult.i.tude; White-armed Nuala and aengus of the birds, And Feacra of the hurtling foam, and him Who is the ruler of the western host, Finvarra, and the Land of Heart"s Desire, Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, But joy is wisdom, time an endless song."
YEATS: _Land of Heart"s Desire._
In the first century B. C. lived Ailill and his queen Medb. As they were celebrating their Samhain feast in the palace,
"Three days before Samhain at all times, And three days after, by ancient custom Did the hosts of high aspiration Continue to feast for the whole week."
O"CIARAIN: _Loch Garman._
they offered a reward to the man who should tie a bundle of twigs about the feet of a criminal who had been hanged by the gate. It was dangerous to go near dead bodies on November Eve, but a bold young man named Nera dared it, and tied the twigs successfully. As he turned to go he saw
"the whole of the palace as if on fire before him, and the heads of the people of it lying on the ground, and then he thought he saw an army going into the hill of Cruachan, and he followed after the army."
GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._
The door was shut. Nera was married to a fairy woman, who betrayed her kindred by sending Nera to warn King Ailill of the intended attack upon his palace the next November Eve. Nera bore summer fruits with him to prove that he had been in the fairy _sid_. The next November Eve, when the doors were opened Ailill entered and discovered the crown, emblem of power, took it away, and plundered the treasury. Nera never returned again to the homes of men.
Another story of about the same time was that of Angus, the son of a Tuatha G.o.d, to whom in a dream a beautiful maiden appeared. He wasted away with love for her, and searched the country for a girl who should look like her. At last he saw in a meadow among a hundred and fifty maidens, each with a chain of silver about her neck, one who was like the beauty of his dream. She wore a golden chain about her throat, and was the daughter of King Ethal Anbual.
King Ethal"s palace was stormed by Ailill, and he was forced to give up his daughter. He gave as a reason for withholding his consent so long, that on Samhain Princess Caer changed from a maiden to a swan, and back again the next year.
"And when the time came Angus went to the loch, and he saw the three times fifty white birds there with their silver chains about their necks, and Angus stood in a man"s shape at the edge of the loch, and he called to the girl: "Come and speak with me, O Caer!"
""Who is calling me?" said Caer.
""Angus calls you," he said, "and if you do come, I swear by my word I will not hinder you from going into the loch again.""
GREGORY: _Cuchulain of Muirthemne._
She came, and he changed to a swan likewise, and they flew away to King Dagda"s palace, where every one who heard their sweet singing was charmed into a sleep of three days and three nights.
Princess Etain, of the race of the Tuatha, and wife of Midir, was born again as the daughter of Queen Medb, the wife of Ailill. She remembers a little of the land from which she came, is never quite happy,
"But sometimes--sometimes--tell me: have you heard, By dusk or moonset have you never heard Sweet voices, delicate music? Never seen The pa.s.sage of the lordly beautiful ones Men call the Shee?"
SHARP: _Immortal Hour._
even when she wins the love of King Eochaidh. When they have been married a year, there comes Midir from the Land of Youth. By winning a game of chess from the King, he gets anything he may ask, and prays to see the Queen. When he sees her he sings a song of longing to her, and Eochaidh is troubled because it is Samhain, and he knows the great power the hosts of the air "have then over those who wish for happiness."
"Etain, speak!
What is the song the harper sings, what tongue Is this he speaks? for in no Gaelic lands Is speech like this upon the lips of men.
No word of all these honey-dripping words Is known to me. Beware, beware the words Brewed in the moonshine under ancient oaks White with pale banners of the mistletoe Twined round them in their slow and stately death.
It is the feast of Saveen" (Samhain).
SHARP: _Immortal Hour._
In vain Eochaidh pleads with her to stay with him. She has already forgotten all but Midir and the life so long ago in the Land of Youth.
"In the Land of Youth There are pleasant places; Green meadows, woods, Swift grey-blue waters.
"There is no age there, Nor any sorrow.
As the stars in heaven Are the cattle in the valleys.
"Great rivers wander Through flowery plains.
Streams of milk, of mead, Streams of strong ale.
"There is no hunger And no thirst In the Hollow Land, In the Land of Youth."
SHARP: _Immortal Hour._
She and Midir fly away in the form of two swans, linked by a chain of gold.
Cuchulain, hopelessly sick of a strange illness brought on by Fand and Liban, fairy sisters, was visited the day before Samhain by a messenger, who promised to cure him if he would go to the Otherworld. Cuchulain could not make up his mind to go, but sent Laeg, his charioteer. Such glorious reports did Laeg bring back from the Otherworld,
"If all Erin were mine, And the kingship of yellow Bregia, I would give it, no trifling deed, To dwell for aye in the place I reached."
_Cuchulain"s Sick-bed._ (Meyer _trans._)
that Cuchulain went thither, and championed the people there against their enemies. He stayed a month with the fairy Fand. Emer, his wife at home, was beset with jealousy, and plotted against Fand, who had followed her hero home. Fand in fear returned to her deserted husband, Emer was given a Druidic drink to drown her jealousy, and Cuchulain another to forget his infatuation, and they lived happily afterward.
Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one Hallowe"en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious beings were a.s.signed to them or to the devil as followers.
"_Maire Bruin:_ Are not they, likewise, the children of G.o.d?
_Father Hart:_ Colleen, they are the children of the fiend, And they have power until the end of Time, When G.o.d shall fight with them a great pitched battle And hack them into pieces."
YEATS: _Land of Heart"s Desire._