e in the coming year; for when could these
devices for prying into the future be more reasonably put in practice
than at the beginning of the year? As a season of omens and auguries
Hallowe'en seems to have far surpassed Beltane in the imagination of the
Celts; from which we may with some probability infer that they reckoned
their year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane. Another circumstance of
great moment which points to the same conclusion is the association of
the dead with Hallowe'en. Not only among the Celts but throughout
Europe, Hallowe'en, the night which marks the transition from autumn to
winter, seems to have been of old the time of year when the souls of the
departed were supposed to revisit their old homes in order to warm
themselves by the fire and to comfort themselves with the good cheer
provided for them in the kitchen or the parlour by their affectionate
kinsfolk.[573] It was, perhaps, a natural thought that the approach of
winter should drive the poor shivering hungry ghosts from the bare
fields and the leafless woodlands to the shelter of the cottage with its
familiar fireside.[574] Did not the lowing kine then troop back from the
summer pastures in the forests and on the hills to be fed and cared for
in the stalls, while the bleak winds whistled among the swaying boughs
and the snow drifts deepened in the hollows? and could the good-man and
the good-wife deny to the spirits of their dead the welcome which they
gave to the cows?

[Fairies and Hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en.]

But it is not only the souls of the departed who are supposed to be
hovering unseen on the day "when autumn to winter resigns the pale
year." Witches then speed on their errands of mischief, some sweeping
through the air on besoms, others galloping along the roads on
tabby-cats, which for that evening are turned into coal-black
steeds.[575] The fairies, too, are all let loose, and hobgoblins of
every sort roam freely about In South Uist and Eriskay there is a
saying:--

"_Hallowe'en will come, will come,
Witchcraft [or divination] will be set agoing,
Fairies will be at full speed,
Running in every pass.
Avoid the road, children, children_."[576]

[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]

In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every stile.[577] On
that night in Ireland all the fairy hills are thrown wide open and the
fairies swarm forth; any man who is bold enough may then peep into the
open green hills a