Throughout Brittany on the eve of the day sacred to the memory of the dead “La Toussaint,” the family all sit down to a festive repast, and there is invariably a place laid at table, the plate filled with the choicest viands, and the glass filled with the finest wine or cider, for the one or more members of the family who have died during the previous twelve months.  The peasantry are convinced that the spirits of their dear ones take part in this repast at one time or another during the course of the night.  It is for this reason that they consider it their duty to sit up till daybreak, the women chiefly praying, the men talking in undertones about the qualities and the characteristics of the mourned ones.  Wearied with watching, imbued with the most fervent and devout faith, blended with a belief in old-time legends, what wonder is it that towards dawn both the men and the women, especially the latter, should imagine that they see the spirits of their dead glide into the room, take their place at the family board, and then, after a brief sojourn in their midst, vanish with the light of the breaking day.  It is a pretty and a touching idea, which is not combated by the clergy, and of which, indeed, no one possessed of any heart would seek to disabuse the minds of the poor, simple-minded peasant folks.

Of course Emperor Francis-Joseph and Emperor William are imbued with all the old superstitions peculiar to Nimrods.  As an instance, they will give up an entire day’s shooting, no matter how elaborate the arrangements made for it, if a hare is seen to cross their path, for this is always looked upon as being a very bad omen.

Both emperors also attach much importance to dreams, and claim to have been furnished by them with premonitions of each misfortune that has overtaken them, and regard Friday as the most unlucky day of the week.

There is no colder, more unemotional and level-headed woman in the-world than the young Empress of Russia, who is a German princess by birth, and a first cousin of Emperor William, yet she too believes in dreams, since the following incident, which enjoys the fullest degree of credence on the part of the emperors of Germany and Austria.  It seems that during the coronation festivities she was resting one afternoon, and had dropped off into a doze, when she suddenly found herself awakened by one of her ladies who had been frightened by the manner in which she moaned and even wailed in her sleep.  The empress then related that her slumbers had been disturbed by a bad dream.  An old gray-haired Moujik, or peasant, all covered with blood, had appeared to her, and had exclaimed: 

“I have come all the way from Siberia, czaritza, to see your day of honor, and now your Cossacks have killed me.”