Current Superstitions Part 13

284. Place three basins on the floor, one containing dirty water, another clear water, and the third empty. Let the (blindfolded?) person crawl up to them on her hands and knees. The one she touches will foretell her fate. The clear water means she is to marry a rich man, the dirty water, a poor man, and the empty basin no man at all.

285. Make ready a mirror, a lamp, a basin of water, a towel and soap. Go to bed backward, not speaking afterwards, and lie awake till midnight. If your sweetheart comes and washes, combs his hair, and looks at you, you'll be married. If you don't see him, you'll see your coffin. (Both s.e.xes.) _Labrador._

286. When a pot is boiling over, put a small stick in one of the ears and name it for the one you like best. If he loves you in return, the water will cease to boil over; if not, it will continue.

_Double Creek, Md._

287. Let two girls wash and wipe the dishes together, then put a dish of water behind the door with a broom-handle in it. Two men will come in who will be the husbands of the two projectors.

_Deer Isle, Me._

288. Run molten lead into hot water; the shape of the pellets formed shows the occupation of your future sweetheart.

_Labrador._

289. Pour molten lead on a hearth; the shape the metal a.s.sumes in cooling foretells the occupation of one's future husband.

_General in the United States._

VARIOUS.

290. On accidentally making two lines rhyme, kiss your hand, and you will be so fortunate as to see your lover before nine that night.

_Alabama._

291. Put a looking-gla.s.s under the pillow, and you will dream of your lover.

_Green Harbor, N.F._

292. Tie a true lover's knot (of shavings) and place it under the pillow.

You will dream of your lover, even if at that time he is unknown to you.

_Newfoundland._

293. Steal a salt herring from a grocery store, eat it, don't speak after eating, and the first man you dream of will marry you.

294. Make a little ladder of sticks, place it under the head at night, and you'll dream of your future husband.

_Patten, Me._

295. Swallow a chicken's heart whole, and the first man you kiss afterwards will be your future husband.

_Winn, Me._

296. Take three grains of coffee, put one notch on one, two on another, put them in a gla.s.s of water under your bed, and name them. The one that sprouts is the one you are going to marry.

_Alabama._

297. Light a match, and the way the flame goes shows where your future husband lives.

_Bedford, Ma.s.s._

298. Stand two matches on a hot stove, sulphur end down, and name them for yourself and a marriageable acquaintance of the opposite s.e.x. If both stand or fall together, it is a sign that you will live and die together.

If one fall, it is a sign that one will leave the other.

_Cape Breton._

299. Go out in spring and turn up a brick on the ground, and look under it at the clay. The color of the clay denotes the color of the hair of your future husband.

_Chestertown, Md._

300. Cut your finger-nails nine Sundays in succession, and your sweetheart will dine with you.

_Alabama._

301. Throw a ball of yarn into an unoccupied house, and holding the end of the yarn, wind, saying, "I wind and who holds?" The one who is to be your future wife or husband will be seen in the house.

_Ohio._

302. Take a hair from your head. Have some one else take one from his, cross them, and rub them over each other, and the last thing you say before one breaks will be the first thing said after you are married.

_Cambridge, Ma.s.s._

CHAPTER V.

HALLOWEEN AND OTHER FESTIVALS.

Any of the projects quoted in the last chapter are perhaps more likely to be practised on Halloween than at other times. However, as girls do amuse themselves by such fortune-seeking at other times, particularly the first time they sleep in a room, the various projects have been divided into two chapters, according to the way in which the various narrators cla.s.sed them. That is, when a charm was said to belong to Halloween, it was so cla.s.sed. When no definite time was set for trying the charm, it was simply put under "projects."

303. A Halloween custom is to fill a tub with water and drop into it as many apples as there are young folks to try the trick. Then each one must kneel before the tub and try to bite the apples without touching them with the hands. The one who bites one first will marry first.

_Alabama._

304. On Halloween hang an apple by the door just the height of the chin.

Rub the chin with saliva, stand about six inches from the apple, and hit the chin against the apple. If it sticks to the chin, you will be married, and your true love will stick to you.

_St. John, N.B._

305. A girl goes to a field on Halloween at midnight to steal cabbages.

The first one whom she meets on her return will be her husband.

_Boston, Ma.s.s._

306. On Halloween at midnight a young lady in her night-dress walks backward into the garden and pulls up a cabbage. She will see her future husband over her shoulder.

_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._

307. I wind, I wind, my true love to find, The color of his hair, the clothes he'll wear, The day he is married to me.

Throw a ball of yarn into a barn, old house, or cellar, and wind, repeating the above lines, and the true love will appear and wind with you. To be tried at twelve o'clock at night, on Halloween.

_Maine._

308. Shortly before midnight a pure white bowl is procured, that has never been touched by any lips save those of a new-born infant. If it is a woman whose fortune is to be tried (and it generally is) the child must be a male. The bowl is filled with water from a spring-well, after which twenty-six pieces of white paper about an inch square, on each of which must be written one letter of the alphabet, are placed in the bowl with the letters turned downward. These must be dropped in as the clock strikes midnight, or all will fail. All being ready, the maiden interested repeats the lines:--

Kind fortune, tell me where is he Who my future lord shall be; From this bowl all that I claim Is to know my lover's name.

The bowl is then securely locked away, and must not be disturbed till sunrise the following morning, when she is placed before it blindfolded.

She then picks out the same number of letters as there are in her own name. After these are all out the bandage is removed from her eyes, and the paper letters spread out before her. She manages them so as to spell a man's name as best she can with the letters at her disposal. The name thus found will be that of her future husband.

_Trinity and Catalina Bays, N.F._

309. On Halloween a girl is to go through a graveyard, steal a cabbage and place it above the house-door. The one on whom the cabbage falls as the door is opened is to be the girl's husband.

_Ma.s.sachusetts._