Love Divinations
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SUPERSITITIONS
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Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales
Butter-dock.--The seeds of butterdock must be sowed by a young
unmarried woman half an hour before sunrise on a Friday morning, in a
lonesome place. She must strew the seeds gradually on the grass, saying
these words--
I sow, I sow!
Then, my own dear,
Come here, come here,
And mow and mow!
The seed being scattered, she will see her future
husband mowing with a
scythe at a short distance from her. She must not be frightened, for, if
she says "Have mercy on me," he will immediately vanish. This method is
said to be infallible, but it is looked upon as a bold, desperate, and
presumptuous undertaking.
True-love.--Two young unmarried girls must sit together in a room by
themselves, from twelve o'clock at night till one o'clock the next
morning, without speaking a word. During this time each of them must
take as many hairs from her head as she is years old, and, having put
them into a linen cloth with some of the herb true-love, as soon as the
clock strikes one, she must burn every hair separately, saying--
I offer this my sacrifice
To him most precious in my eyes;
I charge thee now come forth to me,
That I this minute may thee see.
Upon which her first husband will appear, and walk round the room, and
then vanish. The same event happens to both the girls, but neither see
the other's lover.
Gerard says of the herb true-love or moonwort, p. 328, that "witches do
wonders withall, who say that it will loose locks, and make them to fall
from the feete of horses that grase where it doth growe."
A charm-divination on the 6th of October, St. Faith's day, is still in
use in the North of England. A cake of flour, spring water, salt and
sugar, is made by three girls, each having an equal hand in the
composition. It is then baked in a Dutch oven, silence being strictly
preserved, and turned thrice by each person. When it is well baked, it
must be divided into three equal parts, and each girl must cut her share
into nine pieces, drawing every piece through a wedding-ring which had
been borrowed from a woman who has been married seven years. Each girl
must eat her pieces of cake while she is undressing, and repeat the
following verses:
O good St. Faith, be kind to-night,
And bring to me my heart's delight;
Let me my future husband view,
And be my visions chaste and true.
All three must then get into one bed, with the ring suspended by a
string to the head of the couch. They will then dream of their future
husbands, or if perchance one of them is destined to lead apes, she will
dream of wandering by herself over crags and mountains.
On the 28th of the same month, another divination is practised by the
paring of an apple, which is taken by a girl in the right hand, who
recites the following lines, standing in the middle of a room--
St. Simon and Jude, on you I intrude,
By this paring I hold to discover,
Without any delay, to tell me this day
The first letter of my own true lover.
She must then turn round three times, casting the paring over her left
shoulder, and it will form the first letter of her husband's name; but
if the paring breaks into many pieces so that no letter is discernible,
she will never marry. The pips of the apple must then be placed in cold
spring water, and eaten by the girl; but for what further object my
deponent sayeth not.
A very singular divination practised at the period of the harvest-moon
is thus described in an old chap-book. When you go to bed, place under
your pillow a prayer-book open at the part of the matrimonial service,
"With this ring I thee wed;" place on it a key, a ring, a flower, and a
sprig of willow, a small heart-cake, a crust of bread, and the following
cards:--the ten of clubs, nine of hearts, ace of spades, and the ace of
diamonds. Wrap all these in a thin handkerchief of gauze or muslin, and
on getting into bed, cross your hands, and say--
Luna, every woman's friend,
To me thy goodness condescend;
Let me this night in visions see
Emblems of my destiny.
If you dream of storms, trouble will betide you; if the storm ends in a
fine calm, so will your fate; if of a ring or the ace of diamonds,
marriage; bread, an industrious life; cake, a prosperous life; flowers,
joy; willow, treachery in love; spades, death; diamonds, money; clubs, a
foreign land; hearts, illegitimate children; keys, that you will rise to
great trust and power, and never know want; birds, that you will have
many children; and geese, that you will marry more than once.
In Dorsetshire, the girls have a method of divination with their shoes
for obtaining dreams of their future husbands. At night, on going to
bed, a girl places her shoes at right angles to one another, in the form
of a T, saying--
Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T.
On St. Luke's day, says Mother Bunch, take marigold flowers, a sprig of
marjoram, thyme, and a little wormwood; dry them before a fire, rub them
to powder; then sift it through a fine piece of lawn, and simmer it over
a slow fire, adding a small quantity of virgin honey, and vinegar.
Anoint yourself with this when you go to bed, saying the following lines
three times, and you will dream of your partner "that is to be:"
St. Luke, St. Luke, be kind to me,
In dreams let me my true love see.
If a girl desires to obtain this information, let her seek for a green
peascod in which there are full nine peas, and write on a piece of
paper--
Come in, my dear,
And do not fear;
which paper she must inclose in the peascod, and lay it under the door.
The first person who comes into the room will be her husband. Does
Shakespeare allude to some notion of this kind by the wooing of a
peascod in As You Like It, ii. 4?