a little white loaves of a special kind are baked; they
are generally oval in form, and are usually called by some name into
which the word "soul" enters. In Tyrol they are given to children by
their godparents; those for the boys have the shape of horses or hares,
those for the girls, of hens. In Tyrol the cakes left over at supper
remain on the table and are said to "belong to the poor souls."{21}

In Friuli in the north-east of Italy there is a custom closely
corresponding to our "soul-cakes." On All Souls' Day every family gives
away a quantity of bread. This is not regarded as a charity; all the
people of the village come to receive it and before eating it pray for
the departed of the donor's family. The most prosperous people are not
ashamed to knock at the door and ask for this _pane dei morti_.{22}

In Tyrol All Souls' is a day of licensed begging, which has become a
serious abuse. A noisy rabble of ragged and disorderly folk, with bags
and baskets to receive gifts, wanders from village to village, claiming
as a right the presents of provisions that were originally a freewill
offering for the benefit of the departed, and angrily abusing those who
refuse to give.{23}

The New Year is the time for a festival of the dead in many parts of the
world.{24} I may quote Dr. Frazer's account of what |195| goes on in
Tonquin; it shows a remarkable likeness to some European customs[88]:--

"In Tonquin, as in Sumba, the dead revisit their kinsfolk and their
old homes at the New Year. From the hour of midnight, when the New
Year begins, no one dares to shut the door of his house for fear of
excluding the ghosts, who begin to arrive at that time. Preparations
have been made to welcome and refresh them after their long journey.
Beds and mats are ready for their weary bodies to repose upon, water
to wash their dusty feet, slippers to comfort them, and canes to
support their feeble steps."{25}

In Lithuania, the last country in Europe to be converted to Christianity,
heathen traditions lingered long, and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
travellers give accounts of a pagan New Year's feast which has great
interest. In October, according to one account, on November 2, according
to another, the whole family met together, strewed the tables with straw
and put sacks on the straw. Bread and two jugs of beer were then placed
on the table, and one of every kind of domestic animal was roasted before
t