old.
There, ye night-hags and witches that torment
The neighborhood, ye shall not enter here."

LONGFELLOW: _Giles Corey of the Salem Farms._

The holiday-time of elves, witches, and ghosts is Hallowe'en. It is
not believed in here except by some children, who people the dark
with bogies who will carry them away if they are naughty.

"Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers--
An' when he went to bed at night, away upstairs,
His mammy heerd him holler, an' his daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!

An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an'
press,
An' seeked him up the chimbley-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout!
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you, ef you don't watch out!"

RILEY: _Little Orphant Annie._

Negroes are very superstitious, putting faith in all sorts of
supernatural beings.

"Blame my trap! how de wind do blow;
And dis is das de night for de witches, sho!
Dey's trouble going to waste when de ole slut whine,
An' you hear de cat a-spittin' when de moon don't shine."

RILEY: _When de Folks is Gone._

While the original customs of Hallowe'en are being forgotten more
and more across the ocean, Americans have fostered them, and are
making this an occasion something like what it must have been in
its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States
are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries.
All superstitions, everyday ones, and those pertaining to Christmas
and New Year's, have special value on Hallowe'en.

It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry. Mischievous spirits
choose it for carrying off gates and other objects, and hiding them
or putting them out of reach.

"Dear me, Polly, I wonder what them boys will be up to to-night.
I do hope they'll not put the gate up on the shed as they did
last year."

WRIGHT: _Tom's Hallowe'en Joke._

Bags filled with flour sprinkle the passers-by. Door-bells are rung
and mysterious raps sounded on doors, things thrown into halls, and
knobs stolen. Such sports mean no more at Hallowe'en than the
tricks played the night before the Fourth of July have to do with
the Declaration of Independence. We see manifested o