This change was doubtless made in order
to supply a Christian substitute for some heathen festival--in all
probability the festival of _Sham-in_, which, as we have seen, was an
old Druidical feast. Some time after this alteration in the time of
holding the feast in honour of the martyrs, in 993, another festival was
instituted for the purpose of offering prayers for the souls of those in
purgatory, and this feast was kept on the second of November, and was
called _All Souls_. The following legend was either invented as a
plausible reason for instituting this additional feast, or the legend,
being previously well known and accepted as truth, was really the _bona
fide_ reason for the institution:--"A pilgrim, returning from the Holy
Land, was compelled by storm to land upon a rocky island, where he found
a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs of the island was an
opening into the infernal regions, through which huge flames ascended,
and where the groans of the tormented were distinctly audible. The
pilgrim, on his return, told the Abbot of Clugny of this, and the Abbot
appointed the second day of November to be set apart for the benefit of
souls in purgatory, which was to be kept by prayers and almsgiving.
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