Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/364

 308 Sunday, in order to have her eyes cured of their chronic weakness.

The remaining great day in the Celtic year is called Sauin or Laa Houney; in Irish, Samhain, genitive Sanihna; the Manx call it in English Hollantide, a word derived from the English genitive plural, Allhallown, for All Hallowen Tide or Day. This day is also reckoned in Man according to the Old Style, so that it is our 12th of November. That is the day when the tenure of land terminates, and when servant-men go to their places. In other words, it is the beginning of a new year; and Kelly, in his Manx-English Dictionary, has, under the word blein, "year", the following note: "Valancey says the Celts began their year with January; yet in the Isle of Man the first of November is called New Year's Day by the Mummers, who, on the eve, begin their petition in these words: 'To-night is New Year's night, Hog-un-naa, etc' " It is a pity that Kelly, whilst he was on this subject, did not give the rhyme in Manx, and all the more so, as the mummers of the present day have changed their words into Noght oie Houney, that is to say, To-night is Sauin Night (or Halloween). So I had despaired of finding anybody who could corroborate Kelly in his statement, when I happened last summer to find a man at Kirk Michael who was quite familiar with this way of treating the year. I asked him if he could explain Kelly's absurd statement—I put my question designedly in that form. He said he could, but that there was nothing absurd in it. He then told me how he had heard some old people talk of it; he is himself now about sixty-seven. He had been a farm-servant from the age of sixteen till he was twenty-six to the same man, near Regaby in the parish of Andreas, and he