Many other modes of divination were practised too tedious to mention, by slices from the plough, different metals, eating a stolen raw salt herring, sprinkling corn in front of the bed, etc., etc. These observances can hardly be characterised as superstitions; they proceeded from a spirit of fun more than from any belief in their efficacy. There are in every community many weak and simple people who are easily imposed on, and made to believe almost anything; but the divinations of Hallowe’en left an abiding impression on few minds. _Feill Fionnain._ St. Finan’s Eve is the longest night in the year, and hence it is said of a very stupid person, “he is as dark as the night of St. Finan, and that night is pretty dark” (_Tha e co dorcha ri oidhche Feill Fionnain, ’s tha ’n oidhche sin glè dhorcha_). The shortest day is called, in the Mackay country, the extreme north of Sutherlandshire, “The Day of the Three Suppers” (_Latha nan trì suipeirean_). On this night it was said “the rain is wine and the stones are cheese” (_Tha ’n t-uisge na fhìon ’s na clachan nan càise_), and it was considered a joke to persuade boys to go out and see. “I remember,” says one who is a shrewd intelligent man, “about fifty years ago, when I was a little boy, sitting quite contentedly on the Eve of St. Finan’s Day sipping with a spoon from a big tub of water, in the full hope that the next spoonful would prove to be wine.” The name is derived from St. Finan, confessor, Bp. of Clonard, in Ireland, in the sixth century. This day is now fixed as the 12th December, but in the Highlands it is the shortest in the year, whatever day of the calendar that may fall upon. In olden times it was much esteemed, as the rhyme shows: “St. Finnan’s night of festivities, And Christmas night of great cheer.”[74] Besides giving a name to the days of the calendar the saints were employed to designate local markets, St. Kessock’s Day (_Fèill mo Cheasaig_) at Callander has been already mentioned. St. Connan’s Day (_Feill Connain_) is the autumn market in Glenorchy; _Feill Fhaolain_ is held at Killin; _Feill Ceit_ at Kenmore; and in other places we have _Feill Peadair_, _F. Aindreis_, etc. Old men spoke of _Feill an Diomhanais_, the festival of St. Idleness, a holiday frequently observed by a great many people. _Latha na Sluasaid_, Shovel Day, means the day of one’s burial. _Bliadhna na Braoisge_, Grinning Year, and _La Luain_, Moon-day (_i.e._ Monday come-never), mean the same thing, the Greek Kalends. _Bliadhna nam Brisgeinean_, the Year of Silverweed roots, was shortly after Culloden, and is remembered in Tiree as a year of great scarcity. The land had been neglected in previous years from the disturbed state of the country, and in spring the furrows were white with roots (_brisgeinean_), and people made meal of them. DAYS OF THE WEEK.