And be glad at the sight.'

"'Have you no fear in your heart, woman,
To stand there alone?
There is comfort for you and kindly content
Beside the hearthstone.'
But she answered, 'No rest can I have
Till I welcome my own.'

"'Is it far he must travel to-night,
This man of your heart?'
'Strange lands that I know not, and pitiless seas
Have kept us apart,
And he travels this night to his home
Without guide, without chart.'

"'And has he companions to cheer him?'
'Aye, many,' she said.
'The candles are lighted, the hearthstones are swept,
The fires glow red.
We shall welcome them out of the night--
Our home-coming dead.'"

LETTS: _Hallowe'en._

[Illustration: THE WITCH OF THE WALNUT-TREE.]

CHAPTER X

IN WALES

In Wales the custom of fires persisted from the time of the Druid
festival-days longer than in any other place. First sacrifices were
burned in them; then instead of being burned to death, the
creatures merely passed through the fire; and with the rise of
Christianity fire was thought to be a protection against the evil
power of the same gods.

Pontypridd, in South Wales, was the Druid religious center of
Wales. It is still marked by a stone circle and an altar on a hill.
In after years it was believed that the stones were people changed
to that form by the power of a witch.

In North Wales the November Eve fire, which each family built in
the most prominent place near the house, was called Coel Coeth.
Into the dying fire each member of the family threw a white stone
marked so that he could recognize it again. Circling about the fire
hand-in-hand they said their prayers and went to bed. In the
morning each searched for his stone, and if he could not find it,
he believed that he would die within the next twelve months. This
is still credited. There is now the custom also of watching the
fires till the last spark dies, and instantly rushing down hill,
"the devil (or the cutty black sow) take the hindmost." A
Cardiganshire proverb says:

"A cutty[1] black sow
On every stile,
Spinning and carding
Every Allhallows' Eve."

[1] Short-tailed.

November Eve was called "Nos-Galan-Gaeof," the night of the winter
Calends, that is, the night before the first day of winter. To the
Welsh it was New Year's Eve.

Welsh