and in the Highlands whoever took a three-legged stool to where three crossroads met, and sat upon it at midnight, would hear the names of those who were to die in a year. He might bring with him articles of dress, and as each name was pronounced throw one garment to the fairies. They would be so pleased by this gift that they would repeal the sentence of death. Even people who seemed to be like their neighbors every day could for this night fly away and join the other beings in their revels. "This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en When a' the witchie may be seen; Some o' them black, some o' them green, Some o' them like a turkey bean." A witches' party was conducted in this way. The wretched women who had sold their souls to the Devil, left a stick in bed which by evil means was made to have their likeness, and, anointed with the fat of murdered babies flew off up the chimney on a broomstick with cats attendant. Burns tells the story of a company of witches pulling ragwort by the roadside, getting each astride her ragwort with the summons "Up horsie!" and flying away. "The hag is astride This night for a ride, The devils and she together: Through thick and through thin, Now out and now in, Though ne'er so foul be the weather. * * * * * "A thorn or a burr She takes for a spur, With a lash of the bramble she rides now. Through brake and through briers, O'er ditches and mires, She follows the spirit that guides now." HERRICK: _The Hag._ The meeting-place was arranged by the Devil, who sometimes rode there on a goat. At their supper no bread or salt was eaten; they drank out of horses' skulls, and danced, sometimes back to back, sometimes from west to east, for the dances at the ancient Baal festivals were from east to west, and it was evil and ill-omened to move the other way. For this dance the Devil played a bag-pipe made of a hen's skull and cats' tails. "There sat Auld Nick, in shape o' beast; A tousie tyke, black, grim, and large, To gie them music was his charge: He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl, Till roof and rafters a' did dirl."[1] BURNS: _Tam o' Shanter._ [1] Ring. The light for the revelry came from a torch flaring between the horns of the Devil's steed the goat, and at the close the ashes were divided for the witches to use in incantations. People imagined that cats who had been up all night on Hallowe'en were tired out the next morning. Tam o' Shanter who was watching such a dance "By Alloway's auld haunted kirk" in Ayrshire, could not resist calling out at the antics of a neighbor whom he recognized, and was pursued by the witches. He urged his horse to top-speed,