Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 34

LOVE DIVINATIONS.

_b.u.t.ter-dock._-The seeds of b.u.t.terdock 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 gra.s.s, 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 Dorsets.h.i.+re, 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 quant.i.ty 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?

ST. AGNES' NIGHT.

"The women have several magical secrets handed down to them by tradition, as on St. Agnes' night, 21st January. Take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry.

You must lie in another county, and knit the left garter about the right-legg'd stockin (let the other garter and stockin alone), and as you rehea.r.s.e these following verses, at every comma knit a knot:

This knot I knit To know the thing I know not yet: That I may see The man that shall my husband be, How he goes and what he wears, And what he does all the days.

Accordingly in your dream you will see him, if a musician with a lute or other instrument, if a scholar, with a book, &c. A gentlewoman that I knew confessed in my hearing, that she used this method, and dreamt of her husband whom she had never seen. About two or three years after, as she was on Sunday at church, up pops a young Oxonian in the pulpit. She cries out presently to her sister, 'This is the very face of the man that I saw in my dream.'"-Aubrey's Miscellanies, ed. 1696, p. 105.

On St. Agnes' day, take a sprig of rosemary, and another of thyme, and sprinkle them thrice with water. In the evening put one in each shoe, placing a shoe on each side of the bed, and when you retire to rest, say the following lines, and your future husband will appear "visible to sight:"

St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind, Come ease the trouble of my mind.

KALE.

The young women of some districts in the North of England have a method of divination by _kale_ or broth, which is used for the purpose of learning who are to be their future husbands. The plan followed is this.

The maiden at bedtime stands _on something on which she never stood before_, holding a pot of cold kale in her hand, and repeating the following lines. She then drinks nine times, goes to bed backwards, and of course dreams of her partner:

Hot kale or cold kale, I drink thee; If ever I marry a man, or a man marry me, I wish this night I may him see, To-morrow may him ken In church, fair, or market, Above all other men.

On Valentine's day take two bay leaves, sprinkle them with rose-water, and lay them across your pillow in the evening. When you go to bed, put on a clean nightgown turned wrong side outwards, and, lying down, say these words softly to yourself:

Good Valentine, be kind to me, In dreams let me my true love see.

After this go to sleep as soon as you can, and you will see in a dream your future husband.

Schoolboys have several kinds of divination-verses on going to bed, now repeated "more in mock than mark," but no doubt originating in serious belief-

Go to bed first, A golden purse; Go to bed second, A golden pheasant; Go to bed third, A golden bird.

The positions they occupy in the bed are suggestive of the following fortunes:

He that lies at the stock, Shall have the gold rock; He that lies at the wall, Shall have the gold ball; He that lies in the middle, Shall have the gold fiddle.

BALL-DIVINATION.

Cook a ball, cherry-tree; Good ball, tell me How many years I shall be Before my true love I do see?

One and two, and that makes three; Thank'ee, good ball for telling of me.

_Cook_ is to toss, or throw, a provincialism common in the Midland counties. The ball is thrown against a wall, and the divination is taken from the number of rebounds it makes. Another version is-

Cuckoo, cherry-tree,[47]

Good ball, tell me How many years I shall be Before I get married?

[Footnote 47: The following lines reached me without an explanation. They seem to be a.n.a.logous to the above: