"Wife, some time this weeke, if the wether hold cleere, An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare. Remember you, therefore, though I do it not, The seed-cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot." TUSSER: _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, 1580. Cakes appear also at the vigil of All Souls', the next day. At a gathering they lie in a heap for the guests to take. In return they are supposed to say prayers for the dead. "A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake; have mercy on all Christen souls for a Soule-cake." _Old Saying._ The poor in Staffordshire and Shropshire went about singing for soul-cakes or money, promising to pray and to spend the alms in masses for the dead. The cakes were called Soul-mass or "somas" cakes. "Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake; Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake. One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for them who made us all." _Notes and Queries._ In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth issued commands against this practice. In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches. If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence could remain near. In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory. Like the Bretons, the English have the superstition that the dead return on Hallowe'en. "'Why do you wait at your door, woman, Alone in the night?' 'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger, To show him a light. He will see me afar on the road, 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