hich makes
them unaccountable for their deeds.

"For you see, pastor, within every one of us a spark of paganism
is glowing. It has outlasted the thousand years since the old
Teutonic times. Once a year it flames up high, and we call it St.
John's Fire. Once a year comes Free-night. Yes, truly,
Free-night. Then the witches, laughing scornfully, ride to
Blocksberg, upon the mountain-top, on their broomsticks, the same
broomsticks with which at other times their witchcraft is whipped
out of them,--then the whole wild company skims along the forest
way,--and then the wild desires awaken in our hearts which life
has not fulfilled."

SUDERMANN: _St. John's Fire._ (Porter _trans._)

CHAPTER XIV

MORE HALLOWTIDE BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS

Only the Celts and the Teutons celebrate an occasion actually like
our Hallowe'en. The countries of southern Europe make of it a
religious vigil, like that already described in France.

In Italy on the night of All Souls', the spirits of the dead are
thought to be abroad, as in Brittany. They may mingle with living
people, and not be remarked. The _Miserere_ is heard in all the
cities. As the people pass dressed in black, bells are rung on
street corners to remind them to pray for the souls of the dead. In
Naples the skeletons in the funeral vaults are dressed up, and the
place visited on All Souls' Day. In Salerno before the people go to
the all-night service at church they set out a banquet for the
dead. If any food is left in the morning, evil is in store for the
house.

"Hark! Hark to the wind! 'T is the night, they say,
When all souls come back from the far away--
The dead, forgotten this many a day!

"And the dead remembered--ay! long and well--
And the little children whose spirits dwell
In God's green garden of asphodel.

"Have you reached the country of all content,
O souls we know, since the day you went
From this time-worn world, where your years were spent?

"Would you come back to the sun and the rain,
The sweetness, the strife, the thing we call pain,
And then unravel life's tangle again?

"I lean to the dark--Hush!--was it a sigh?
Or the painted vine-leaves that rustled by?
Or only a night-bird's echoing cry?"

SHEARD: _Hallowe'en._

In Malta bells are rung, prayers said, and mourning worn on All
Souls' Day. G