It is stated that "When the bonfire
was consumed, the ashes of the fire were carefully collected in the form
of a circle, and a stone put in near the circumference for every person
in the several families concerned in getting up the fire; and whatever
stone is moved out its place or injured before next morning, the person
represented by the stone is devoted or fey, and is supposed not to live
twelve months from that day." In all probability this devoted person was
in olden times offered as a sacrifice to the fire god on the great day
of sacrifice, which was the festival day. The belief that the spirits of
the dead were free to roam about on that night is still held by many in
this country. Indeed, where the forms of the feast have all but
disappeared, the superstitious auguries connected with it survive. Burns
particularises very fully the formulae of Hallowe'en, as practised in
Ayrshire in his day, and as this poem is well known, it would be
superfluous to follow it in detail here; but I cannot refrain from
drawing attention to the suggestions which one of the practices which he
mentions affords in favour of the supposition that it is a relic of an
ancient form of appeal to the fire god--I refer to the practice of
burning nuts.
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