ason. It is believed that on the night between All Saints' and All
Souls' the church is lighted up and the departed attend a nocturnal Mass
celebrated by a phantom priest. All through the week, in one district,
people are afraid to go out after nightfall lest they should see some
dead person.{10} In Tyrol it is believed that the "poor souls" are
present in the howling winds that often blow at this time.{11}

In the Abruzzi on All Souls' Eve "before people go to sleep they place on
the table a lighted lamp or candle and a frugal meal of bread and water.
The dead issue from their graves and stalk in procession through every
street of the village.... First pass the souls of the good, and then the
souls of the murdered and the damned."{12}

In Sicily a strange belief is connected with All Souls' Day (_jornu di li
morti_): the family dead are supposed, like Santa Klaus in the North, to
bring presents to children; the dead relations have become the good
fairies of the little ones. On the night between November 1 and 2 little
Sicilians believe that the departed leave their dread abode and come to
town to steal from rich shopkeepers sweets and toys and new clothes.
These they give to their child relations who have been "good" and have
prayed on their behalf. Often they are clothed in white and wear silken
shoes, to elude the vigilance of the shopkeepers. They do not always
enter the houses; sometimes the presents are left in the children's shoes
put outside doors and windows. In the morning the pretty gifts are
attributed by the children to the _morti_ in whose coming their parents
have taught them to believe.{13}

A very widespread custom at this season is to burn candles, perhaps in
order to lighten the darkness for the poor souls. In Catholic Ireland
candles shine in the windows on the Vigil of All Souls',{14} in Belgium
a holy candle is burnt all night, or people walk in procession with
lighted tapers, while in many Roman Catholic countries, and even in the
Protestant villages of Baden, the graves are decked with lights as well
as flowers.{15}

Another practice on All Saints' and All Souls' Days, curiously |193|
common formerly in Protestant England, is that of making and giving
"soul-cakes." These and the quest of them by children were customary in
various English counties and in Scotland.{16} The youngsters would beg
not only for the cakes but also sometimes for such things as "apples and
strong beer," presumably to ma