Year: 1875

oomh VhD mAhhlAHE SUPEkSTlTIUNS


On st. Marks Eve the custom still
fingers among the maidens OF North.
hamptonshire to make the dumb cake
The number of the party never exceeds
three. They meet in silence to make
the cake, and as soon as the clock
strikes IL they each break off piece
to eat; and when done, they walk ur
to bed backward, without speaking q
word--for if one speaks, the spell is
broken. Those that are to be married
see the likeness of their sweethearts
hurrying after them. Those that are tc
die unmarried neither hear nor see any.
thing; but they have terrible dreams,
which are sure to be of new made graves,
winding sheets and church yards, and
of rings that will fit no finger, or which,
if they do, crumble into dust as soon as
put on.


There isanother dumb ceremony also
prevalent in Northamptonshire of eat
ing the yolk of an egg in silence, and
then filling the shell with salt, when
the sweetheart is sure to make his ap-
pearance in some way or other before
morning.


The young women of Scotland, in
former times, determined the figure and
size of their husbands by drawing cab
bages blindfold on All Hallow Even
Tor Halloween, the 31st of October),
and, like the English, finging nuts in
the fire. 1t is mentioned by Burns that
" the first ceremony of Halloween is
pulling each stock or plant of kals.
They must go out hand in hand, with
eyes shut, and pull the first they meet
with. It being big or little, straight or
crooked, is prophetic of the size and
shape of the grand object of their spells
the husband or wife. If any yird,
or earth, stick to the root, that is tocher,
or fortune; and the taste of the costoc--
that is, the heart of the stem--is indie
ative of the natural temper and dispo-
sition. Lastly, the stems--or to give
them their ordinary appellation-the
runts, are placed somewhere above the
head of the door, and the Christian
names of the people whom chance
brings into the house are, according to
the priority of placing the runts, the
names in question"


The Welsh have q play in which the
youth of both sexes seek for an even
leaved sprig of the ash; and the first
of either sex who finds and calls out
Cynicer is answered by the first of the
other who succeeds, and these two, if
the omen fails not, are to be joined in
wedlock.


Burning the nuts was once favorite
charm in Scotland. They name the
lad and the lass to each particular nut,
as they lay them in the fire, and ac-
cording as they burn quietly together,
or start from beside one another, the
course and issue of the courship
will be.


In Ireland, when the young women
wished to know if their lovers are faith
full, they put three nuts upon the bars
Of the CRATE, naming the nuts after the
lovers. If tho nut cracked or juraped,
the lover would prove unfaithful. If
it begun to blaze or burn, he had a re-
gard for the person making the trial.
If the nuts named after the girl and
her lover burned together, they would
be married.


Eating an apple at glass was an
other charm once in vogue: "Take a
candle and go alone to looking glass.
Eat an apple before it, and TRADITIONS
say you should comb your hair all the
time) the face of your conjugal COM
panion to be, will be seen in the glass,
as if peeping over your shoulder"


Throwing stocking" is singular
sort Of love divination on the first eve
of wedding. After the bride has re-
tired, and while she is undressing, she
delivers one of her stockings to female
attendant, who throws it at random
among the company assembled on this
occasion. The person upon whom il
happens to light, will, it is supposed.
be the next to enter the blessed state oil
matrimony.


The following superstitious customs
still linger in the south of Scotland
The bride, when she enters the house
of her husband, is lifted over the
threshold. To step on it, or over it.
involuntarilly, is reckoned bad omen
On the same occasion a sweet cake
baked for the purpose, is broken ovel
the head of the bride, which is also 6
rite of classic tradition.


.y Moody and Sankey, the Londor
revivalists, often ask visitors to theil
meetings, as they go out, how they rel
ished the performances. A party O
fashionable young ladies thus addressed
were very polite in their reply; only