Needless to say that the sacred fire has vanished with the Druids, but the Halloween customs which still survive may be traced back to a hoar antiquity. For instance, various kinds of divination are practised, and chiefly with apples and nuts. Apples are a relic of the old Celtic fairy lore. They are thrown into a tub of water, and you endeavour to catch one in your mouth as they bob round and round in provoking fashion. When you have caught one, you peel it carefully, and pass the long strip of peel thrice, _sunwise_, round your head; after which you throw it over your shoulder, and it falls to the ground in the shape of the initial letter of your true love’s name. As for the nuts, they would naturally suggest themselves to the dwellers in mighty woods, such as covered the land of old. Brand says it is a custom in Iceland, when the maiden would know if her lover be faithful, to put three nuts upon the bar of the grate, naming them after her lover and herself. If a nut crack or jump, the lover will prove faithless; if it begin to blaze or burn, it’s a sign of the fervour of his affection. If the nuts named after the girl and her swain burn together, they will be married. This lover’s divination is practised in Scotland, as everybody knows who has read Burns’s poem of “Halloween:”-- “The auld guidwife’s weel hoordet nits Are round and round divided, An’ monie lads and lasses’ fates Are there that night decided: Some kindle, couthie, side by side, An’ burn thegither trimly; Some start awa wi’ saucy pride, And jump out-owre the chimlie Fu’ high that night. “Jean slips in twa wi’ tentie e’e; Wha ’twas, she wadna tell; But this is _Jock_, an’ this is _me_, She says in to hersel’: He bleez’d owre her an’ she owre him, As they wad never mair part; Till, fuff! he started up the lum, An’ Jean had e’en a sair heart To see’t that night.” In some places, on this mystic night, a stick is suspended horizontally from the ceiling, with a candle at one end, and an apple at the other. While it is made to revolve rapidly, the revellers successively leap up and endeavour to grasp the apple with their teeth--the hands must not be used--if they fail, the candle generally swings round in time to salute them disagreeably. The reader will note the resemblance between this pastime and the game of quintain, to which our forefathers were partial. Another amusement is to dive for apples in a tub of water. In Strathspey, a lass will steal away from the kitchen fire, make her way to the kiln where the corn is dried, throw a ball of thread into it, and wind it up slowly, while uttering certain words. The form of her future lover will take hold of the end of the thread, and reveal itself to her. The most arduous part of this charm is, that no speaking is allowed either on the outward journey or the return.