one
of the sun-gods, Osiris, was slain at a banquet by his brother
Sitou, the god of darkness. On the anniversary of the murder, the
first day of winter, no Egyptian would begin any new business for
fear of bad luck, since the spirit of evil was then in power.

From the idea that the sun suffered from his enemies on this day
grew the association of Samhain with death.

"The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the wither'd leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.
The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrub the jay
And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day.

"The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,
And the wild rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow:
But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,
Till fell the frost from the cold clear heaven, as falls the
plague on men,
And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade,
and glen."

BRYANT: _Death of the Flowers._

In the same state as those who are dead, are those who have never
lived, dwelling right in the world, but invisible to most mortals
at most times. Seers could see them at any time, and if very many
were abroad at once others might get a chance to watch them too.

"There is a world in which we dwell,
And yet a world invisible.
And do not think that naught can be
Save only what with eyes ye see:
I tell ye that, this very hour,
Had but your sight a spirit's power,
Ye would be looking, eye to eye,
At a terrific company."

COXE: _Hallowe'en._

These supernatural spirits ruled the dead. There were two classes:
the Tuatha De Danann, "the people of the goddess Danu," gods of
light and life; and spirits of darkness and evil. The Tuatha had
their chief seat on the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish
Sea, and brought under their power the islands about them. On a
Midsummer Day they vanquished the Fir Bolgs and gained most of
Ireland, by the battle of Moytura.

A long time afterwards--perhaps 1000 B. C.--the Fomor, sea-demons,
after destroying nearly all their enemies by plagues, exacte