All the spells worked on November Eve are performed in the name of the
devil, who is then forced to reveal the future fate of the questioner.
The most usual spell is to wash a garment in a running brook, then
hang it on a thorn bush, and wait to see the apparition of the lover,
who will come to turn it. But the tricks played on this night by young
persons on each other have often most disastrous consequences. One
young girl fell dead with fright when an apparition really came and
turned the garment she had hung on the bush. And a lady narrates that
on the 1st of November her servant rushed into the room and fainted on
the floor. On recovering, she said that she had played a trick that
night in the name of the devil before the looking-glass; but what she
had seen she dared not speak of, though the remembrance of it would
never leave her brain, and she knew the shock would kill her. They
tried to laugh her out of her fears, but the next night she was found
quite dead, with her features horribly contorted, lying on the floor
before the looking-glass, which was shivered to pieces.
Another spell is the building of the house. Twelve couples are taken,
each being made of two holly twigs tied together with a hempen thread;
these are all named and stuck round in a circle in the clay. A live
coal is then placed in the centre, and whichever couple catches fire
first will assuredly be married. Then the future husband is invoked in
the name of the Evil One to appear and quench the flame.
On one occasion a dead man in his shroud answered the call, and
silently drew away the girl from the rest of the party. The fright
turned her brain, and she never recovered her reason afterwards. The
horror of that apparition haunted her for ever, especially as on
November Eve it is believed firmly that the dead really leave their
graves and have power to appear amongst the living.
* * * * *
A young girl in a farmer’s service was in the loft one night looking
for eggs when two men came into the stable underneath, and through a
chink in the boards she could see them quite well and hear all they
said. To her horror she found that they were planning the murder of a
man in the neighbourhood who was suspected of being an informer, and
they settled how they would get rid of the body by throwing it into
the Shannon. She crept home half dead with fright, but did not venture
to tell any one what she had heard. Next day, however, the news spread
that the man was missing, and it was feared he was murdered. Still
the girl was afraid to reveal what she knew, though the ghost of the
murdered man seemed for ever before her. Finally she could bear the
place no longer, and, giving up her situation, she went to another
village some miles off and took service. But on November Eve, as she
was washing clothes in the Shannon, the dead body of the murdered man
arose from the water and floated towards her, until it lay quite close
to her feet. Then she knew the hand of God was in it, and that the
spirit of the dead would not rest till he was avenged. So she went and
gave information, and on her evidence the two murderers were convicted
and executed.
* * * * *
If the cattle fall sick at this season, it is supposed that some old
fairy man or woman is lying hid about the place to spy out the doings
of the family and work some evil spells.
A farmer had a splendid cow, the pride of his farm, but suddenly it
seemed ailing and gave no milk, though every morning it went and
stood quite patiently under an old hawthorn-tree as if some one were
milking her. So the man watched the time, and presently the cow came
of herself and stood under the hawthorn, when a little old wizened
woman came forth from the trunk of the tree, milked the cow, and then
retreated into the tree again. On this the farmer sent at once for a
fairy doctor, who exorcised the cow and gave it a strong potion, after
which the spell was broken and the cow was restored to its usual good
condition and gave the milk as heretofore.
* * * * *
The fairies also exercise a malign influence by making a path through
a house, when all the children begin to pine and a blight falls on the
family.
A farmer who had lost one son by heart disease (always a mysterious
malady to the peasants) and another by gradual decay, consulted a wise
fairy woman as to what should be done, for his wife also had become
delicate and weak. The woman told him that on November Eve the fairies
had made a road through the house, and were going back and forward ever
since, and whatever they looked upon was doomed. The only remedy was to
build up the old door and open another entrance. This the man did, and
when the witch-women came as usual in the morning to beg for water or
milk or meal they found no door, and were obliged to turn back. After
this the spell was taken off the household, and they all prospered
without fear of the fairies.