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 classed them. That is, when a charm was said to belong to Halloween, it was so classed. 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, Mass.

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 Massachusetts.

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:—

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.

Massachusetts.

310. On Halloween walk backwards from the front door, pick up dust or grass, bring it in, wrap it in paper, put it under your pillow, and dream.

Pennsylvania.

311. On Halloween put an egg to roast before the fire and leave the doors and windows open. When it begins to sweat a cat will come in and turn it. After the cat will come the man you are to marry, and he will turn it. If you are to die unmarried, the shadow of a coffin will appear.

Chestertown, Md.

312. On Halloween go upstairs backwards, eating a hard boiled egg without salt, and looking in the glass. You will see your future husband in the glass, looking over your shoulder.

St. John, N.B.

313. On Halloween go down the cellar stairs backward, carrying a mirror into which you look. A face will be seen over your shoulder which will be that of your future husband.

General in the United States.

314. On the last night of October place a mirror and a clock in a room that has not been used for some time, and at a quarter to twelve take a lighted candle and an apple, and finish eating the apple just as the clock strikes twelve, and then look in the mirror and you will see your future husband.

Alabama.

315. On Halloween put a ring in a dish of mashed potatoes, and the one who gets the ring will be married first.

Boston, Mass.

316. On Halloween mash potatoes and conceal in the mass a ring, a coin, and a button. Divide it into as many portions as there are persons present. The ring denotes marriage, the coin riches, and the button misfortune.

Massachusetts.

317. “Silent Supper.” On Halloween set a table as if for supper, with as many seats at the table as there are girls, each girl standing behind a chair at the table. The one you are to marry will come in and take the chair in front of you.

Chestertown, Md.

318. On Halloween write names of three men on three pieces of paper, roll them into balls, put these into balls made of Indian meal (wet so as to roll up), put the balls of meal into a basin of water: whichever one rises to the top bears the name of the one you’ll marry.

Salem, Mass.

319. On Halloween, girls place three saucers beside each other, two filled with earth and water, in the other a ring. They are respectively death, cloister or unmarried life, and marriage.

Convent School, Manchester, N.H.

320. On Easter Monday, put on one black garter and one yellow one, and wear them constantly, and you’ll have a proposal before the year is out.

Chestertown, Md.

321. Knit a garter and color it yellow. Don it on Easter Day. Wear it for a year. The wearer will be engaged before the year is out.

Salem, Mass.

322. On May first look in an unused well, and you’ll see the face of your future husband or wife.

New Hampshire.

323. If you look into a well at exactly twelve o’clock, on the first day of May, through a smoked glass, you will see your future husband.

Alabama.

324. Hold a mirror over a well on May first, and you will see the image of your future husband or wife.

Talladega, Ala.

325. On Midsummer’s Day wet a new garment in running water and hang across a chair, wrong side out, to dry. At twelve noon or midnight the one who is to marry you will be seen turning the garment.

Labrador.

326. Place an egg in a tumbler on St. John’s Day. The tumbler being half filled with water, an egg is broken into it at early dawn, and it is placed in the window, where it remains untouched till sundown. At that time the broken egg is supposed to have assumed a special shape, in which the ingenious maiden sees dimly outlined the form of her future lord, or some emblem of his calling.

Newfoundland.