Saman, great lord of death, summoned all the wicked souls who had been cohn demned during the year and ordered them to inhabit the bodies of animals.
To ward off the wicked spirits which they felt were prowling the fields and woods on that night, the Druids built huge bonfires and kept a sharp lookout. In course of time came the Roman conquest, and to Saman's night the Romans added their own harvest celebrations in honour of Pomona, goddess of fruit trees, with the nuts and "Nut-Crack Night"
In northern England Hallowe'en used to be known as "Nut-crack Night," because people gathered not only to crack and eat the new season's nuts, but also to use them as a means of prophesying the course of love affairs. Nut kernels, named for people were placed in the fire. If the kernel jumped from the fire, the lover it was named for was unfaithful; if it shouldered, the lover had only a mild regard for the person making the test; if it blazed brightly this was a symbol of true love and devotion. A gloomier test, which would appeal only to the morose, was to place as many small stones as there were persons around in the embers of the Hallowe'en fires. Next morning a search was made and if any of the stones were displaced it was regarded as certain that the persons for whom they were named would die within the coming twelve months.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.