se. They are representative winter fruits, the
commonest. They can be gathered late and kept all winter.

A popular drink at the Hallowe'en gathering in the eighteenth
century was milk in which crushed roasted apples had been mixed. It
was called lambs'-wool (perhaps from "La Mas Ubhal," "the day of
the apple fruit"). At the Hallowe'en supper "callcannon," mashed
potatoes, parsnips, and chopped onions, is indispensable. A ring is
buried in it, and the one who finds it in his portion will be
married in a year, or if he is already married, will be lucky.

"They had colcannon, and the funniest things were found in
it--tiny dolls, mice, a pig made of china, silver sixpences, a
thimble, a ring, and lots of other things. After supper was over
all went into the big play-room, and dived for apples in a tub of
water, fished for prizes in a basin of flour; then there were
games----"

TRANT: _Hallowe'en in Ireland._

A coin betokened to the finder wealth; the thimble, that he would
never marry.

A ring and a nut are baked in a cake. The ring of course means
early marriage, the nut signifies that its finder will marry a
widow or a widower. If the kernel is withered, no marriage at all
is prophesied. In Roscommon, in central Ireland, a coin, a sloe,
and a bit of wood were baked in a cake. The one getting the sloe
would live longest, the one getting the wood was destined to die
within the year.

A mould of flour turned out on the table held similar tokens. Each
person cut off a slice with a knife, and drew out his prize with
his teeth.

After supper the tests were tried. In the last century nut-shells
were burned. The best-known nut test is made as follows: three nuts
are named for a girl and two sweethearts. If one burns steadily
with the girl's nut, that lover is faithful to her, but if either
hers or one of the other nuts starts away, there will be no happy
friendship between them.

Apples are snapped from the end of a stick hung parallel to the
floor by a twisted cord which whirls the stick rapidly when it is
let go. Care has to be taken not to bite the candle burning on the
other end. Sometimes this test is made easier by dropping the
apples into a tub of water and diving for them, or piercing them
with a fork dropped straight down.

Green herbs called "livelong" were plucked by the children and hung
up on Midsummer Eve. If a plant was found to be still green on
Hallow