310. On Halloween walk backwards from the front door, pick up dust or gra.s.s, 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 gla.s.s. You will see your future husband in the gla.s.s, 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, Ma.s.s._
316. On Halloween mash potatoes and conceal in the ma.s.s a ring, a coin, and a b.u.t.ton. Divide it into as many portions as there are persons present. The ring denotes marriage, the coin riches, and the b.u.t.ton misfortune.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
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 b.a.l.l.s, put these into b.a.l.l.s made of Indian meal (wet so as to roll up), put the b.a.l.l.s of meal into a basin of water: whichever one rises to the top bears the name of the one you"ll marry.
_Salem, Ma.s.s._
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, Ma.s.s._
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 gla.s.s, 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 a.s.sumed a special shape, in which the ingenious maiden sees dimly outlined the form of her future lord, or some emblem of his calling.
_Newfoundland._
CHAPTER VI.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE.
ENGAGEMENT.
327. If you are a bridesmaid three times you will never stand in the middle.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
328. Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride.
_New England._
329. Don"t let another person put on your engagement ring, taken from your finger, or the engagement will be broken.
_Bathurst, N.B._
330. The mother-in-law"s test of the incoming daughter-in-law is to place a broom on the floor. If the daughter removes it and places it on one side, she will be a good housewife; if she steps over it, she will be a bad housewife.
_Labrador._
331. A girl will have as many children after marriage as she has "holders" given her before marriage.
_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._
ATTIRE OF THE BRIDE.
332. If you try on your wedding dress before the ceremony, you will not be happy.
_Cambridge, Ma.s.s._
333. The bride should wear a borrowed garter, and also a yellow garter.
_Boston, Ma.s.s._
334. If a bride wear a yellow garter tied on by a girl friend, the latter will be married inside the year.
_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._
335. The bride should wear
Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, And something blue.
_Very common._
336. Wear no black at a wedding; it foretells ill luck.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
337. To be married in a brown dress is good luck; black is bad.
_Bathurst, N.B._