and blow it out.
Ghosts are identified with witches. They come back especially on
moonlit nights.

"On moonlight nights, when the coast-wind whispers in the
branches of the tree, O-Matsue and Teoyo may sometimes be seen,
with bamboo rakes in their hands, gathering together the needles
of the fir."

RINDER: _Great Fir-Tree of Takasago._

There is a Chinese saying that a mirror is the soul of a woman. A
pretty story is told of a girl whose mother before she died gave
her a mirror, saying:

"Now after I am dead, if you think longingly of me, take out the
thing that you will find inside this box, and look at it. When you
do so my spirit will meet yours, and you will be comforted." When
she was lonely or her stepmother was harsh with her, the girl went
to her room and looked earnestly into the mirror. She saw there
only her own face, but it was so much like her mother's that she
believed it was hers indeed, and was consoled. When the stepmother
learned what it was her daughter cherished so closely, her heart
softened toward the lonely girl, and her life was made easier.

By the Arabs spirits were called Djinns (or genii). They came from
fire, and looked like men or beasts. They might be good or evil,
beautiful or horrible, and could disappear from mortal sight at
will. Nights when they were abroad, it behooved men to stay under
cover.

"Ha! They are on us, close without!
Shut tight the shelter where we lie;
With hideous din the monster rout,
Dragon and vampire, fill the sky."

HUGO: _The Djinns._

[Illustration: FORTUNE-TELLING.]

CHAPTER XV

HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA

In Colonial days Hallowe'en was not celebrated much in America.
Some English still kept the customs of the old world, such as
apple-ducking and snapping, and girls tried the apple-paring charm
to reveal their lovers' initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to
see their faces. Ballads were sung and ghost-stories told, for the
dead were thought to return on Hallowe'en.

"There was a young officer in Phips's company at the time of the
finding of the Spanish treasure-ship, who had gone mad at the
sight of the bursting sacks that the divers had brought up from
the sea, as the gold coins covered the deck. This man had once
lived in the old stone house on the 'faire greene lane,' and a
report had gone out that his spirit still visited it, and caused