ormented were distinctly audible. The
pilgrim, on his return, told the Abbot of Clugny of this, and the Abbot
appointed the second day of November to be set apart for the benefit of
souls in purgatory, which was to be kept by prayers and almsgiving." It
is easy to perceive that, while in the festival of Hallowe'en we have
the survival of the old Druidical festival of thank-offering to the
sun-god for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, we have also in
these two festivals of _All Saints_ and _All Souls_ the survival of the
ancient _Ferralia_, or festival to the dead, when offerings were made to
both good and bad spirits, to prevent them haunting the living; and thus
we can account for the prevalence of the numerous superstitions
concerning ghosts and evil spirits connected with the festival of
Hallowe'en. That these Church feasts were regarded as the substitute for
the _Ferralia_ of Pagan Rome is verified by Father Meagan in his work on
_The Mass_. We quote from Jamieson:--"Such was the devotion of the
heathen on this day by offering sacrifices for the souls in purgatory,
by praying at the graves, and performing processions round the
churchyards with lighted tapers, that they called the month the month of
pardons, indulgences, and absolutions for souls in purgatory; or, as
Plutarch calls it, the purifying month, or season of purification,
because the living and dead were supposed to be purged and purified on
these occasions from their sins by sacrifices, flagellations, and other
works of mortification." Plutarch, I think, must have referred to the
month of February as the purifying month. Father Meagan has not referred
to the change of date made by the Church. Doubtless the Christian
Church, in instituting these festivals, intended, by divesting them of
their heathen basis, to christianise the people; but, like Naaman of
old, the worshippers, while they worshipped in the buildings in
conformity with the regulations of their new teachers, yet retained many
of their old Pagan beliefs and ceremonies, and even their teachers were
not thoroughly de-Paganised,--and so the old and new commingled and
crystallized together.

In all the four festivals we have been considering, there survive relics
of fire-worship, and through all there runs a similarity of observance
and belief; but the special practices are not everywhere joined to the
same festival in all localities. In this part of the country, the
special observances c