Page:Book Of Halloween(1919).djvu/88

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THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN
 

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 Alio way'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,

"Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane of the brig ;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,

A running stream they dare na cross!"
Burns: Tam o' Shanter.

but poor Meg had no tail thereafter to toss at them, for though she saved her rider, she was only her tail's length beyond the middle of