HALLOWEEN *

Yes! let the Rich deride, the Proud disdain,
The simple pleasures of the lowly train

To me more dear, congenial to my beart,

One native charm, than all the gloss of art.

UPON that night, when Fairies light,

On Cassilis Downans + dance,

Or owre the lays, in fplendid blaze,

On fprightly courfers prance;.

Is thought to be a night when Witches, Devils and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baneful, midnight errands; particularly, those aerial people, the Fairies, are said, on that night, to hold a grand Anniversary.

+Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neighbourhood of the ancient seat of the Earls of Cassilis.

Or for Colean the rout is taen,

Beneath the moon's pale beams;

There, up the Cove*, to ftray an' rove,
Amang the rocks an' ftreams

To fport that night.

II.

AMANG the bonie, winding banks,

Where Doon rins, wimplin, clear,

Where BRUCE + ance rul'd the martial ranks,

An' fhook his Carrick pear,

Some merry, friendly, countra folks,

Together did convene,

To

A noted cavern near the Colean-house, called the Cove of Colean; which, as well as Cassilis Downans, is famed, in counfry story, for being a favourite haunt of Fairies.

The famous family of that name, the ancestors of ROBERT the great Deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick.

To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks,

An' haud their Halloween

THE laffes feat, an' cleanly neat,

Mair braw than when they're fine;

Their faces blythe, fu' fweetly kythe,
Hearts leal, an' warm, an' kin':

The lads fae trig, wi' wooer-babs,
Weel knotted on their garten,

Some unco blate, an' fome wi' gabs,
Gar laffes hearts gang ftartin

Whyles faft at night.

IV.

THEN, firft an' foremost, thro' the kail,

Their stocks* maun a' be fought ance;

They

* The first ceremony of Halloween is, pulling each a Stock,

They fteek their een, an'

grape an' waek

For muckle anes,. an' ftraught anes.

Poor hav'tel Will fell aff the drift,

And wander'd thro' the Bow-kail

An' pow't, for want o' better fhift,

THEN, ftraught or crooked, yird or nane,

They roar an' cry a' throu'ther;

The

or plant of kail. They must go out, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with; its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their Spells----the husband or wife. If any yerd, or earth, stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune; and the taste of the custoc, that is, the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or, to give them their ordinary appellation, the runts, are placed some-where above the head of the door; and the Christian names of the people whom chance brings into the house, are, according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in question.

The vera wee-things, toddlin, rin, l

Wi' flocks out-owre their thouther:

An' gif the custock's sweet or four,

Wi' joctelegs they taste them;

Syne coziely aboon the door,

Wi' cannie care, they've plac'd them

THE laffes ftaw frae 'mang them a",

corned

To pou their statks of corn

But Rab flips out, an' jinks about, af

Behint the muckle thorn:

He grippet Nelly hard an' faft;

They go to the barn-yard, and pull each, at three several times, a stalk of Oats. If the third stalk wants the top-pickle, that is, the grain at the top of the stalk, the party in question will come to the marriage-bed any thing but a Maid.