CHAPTER III. SPELLS AND DIVINATIONS. With the Primrose Flower-Three Pails of Water-Holly Leaves-The Sark-The Willow Branch-A New-laid Egg-Wishing Chairs-Ring and Water. Let THE Borderland is peculiarly rich in ways and means for getting a peep into futurity, especially as regards the all-important point of the future partner in wedded life. Some of these may be practised at any time, but most are restricted to All-Hallowe'en, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Beltane or Midsummer Eve. The following rite seems of the former class. a youth or maiden pull from its stalk the flower of the 'horse-knot' or 'primula,' cut the tops of the stamens with a pair of scissors, and lay the flower by in a secret place, where no human eye can see it. Let him think through the day, and dream through the night, of his sweetheart, and then, on looking at it the next day, if he find the stamens shot out to their former height, success will attend him in love; if not, he can only expect disappointment.' The next rite, however, is restricted to the abovenamed eves. Let a Border maiden take three pails full of In Berwickshire a similar divination is practised by means of 'kemps,' i.e. spikes of the ribwort plantain. Two spikes must be taken in full bloom, and being bereft of every appearance of blow, they are wrapped in a dock-leaf and laid beneath a stone. One represents the lad, the other the lass. If next morning the spikes appear in blossom, water, and place them on her bedroom floor; then pin to her night-dress, opposite to her heart, three leaves of green holly, and so retire to rest. She will be roused from her first sleep by three yells, as if from the throats of three bears: as these sounds die away, they will be succeeded by as many hoarse laughs, after which the form. of her future husband will appear. If he is deeply attached to her, he will change the position of the waterpails; if not, he will pass out of the room without touching them. Tradition tells how, on one occasion, the lover who had been thus invoked, while moving the pails of water, let fall a rope with a noose at the end, which the young woman took up the next morning and laid in her press. She was married soon afterwards to the man whose form she had beheld, but within a fortnight of the marriage, he hung himself with that very rope in a fit of intoxication. The use of holly in this form of divination recalls a somewhat different use made of it in Northumberland. We hear there of he-holly and she-holly, according as it is with or without prickles, and the leaves of the sheholly are alone deemed proper for divination. These then there will be 'aye love between them twae.' The same rite has been practised in Northamptonshire. Witness the following lines from Clare's Shepherd's Calendar':— Or, trying simple charms and spells, smooth and unarmed' leaves, as Southey calls them, must be plucked, late on a Friday, by persons careful to preserve an unbroken silence from the time they go out to the next morning's dawn. The leaves must be collected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and on being brought home, nine of them must be selected, tied with nine knots into the handkerchief, and placed beneath the pillow. Dreams worthy of all credit will attend this rite, though, if the old rhyme be trustworthy, so would be any dream dreamt on that night and repeated the next day; for,— A Friday night's dream on a Saturday told, Is sure to come true, if it's ever so old.1 On Hallowe'en or New Year's Eve a Border maiden may wash her sark, and hang it over a chair to dry, taking care to tell no one what she is about. If she lie awake long enough, she will see the form of her future spouse enter the room and turn the sark. We are told of one young girl, who, after fulfilling this rite, looked out of bed and saw a coffin behind the sark; it remained visible for some time, and then disappeared. The girl rose up in agony, and told her family what had occurred, and the next morning she heard of her lover's death. In another instance the young woman is said to have seen her lover at first, but his image quickly vanished, and was replaced by a coffin; she was shortly afterwards married to the man, but he soon died and left her a widow. Another mode of divination is by the willow wand. Let a maiden take a willow-branch in her left hand, and, without being observed, slip out of the house and run three times round it, whispering all the time, 'He that's to be my gude man come and grip the end o't.' 1 Local Historian's Table Book, vol. iii. p. 254. During the third run, the likeness of her future. husband will appear and grasp the other end of the wand. A sword is sometimes used instead of a wand, but, in this case, it must be held in the right hand. This spell somewhat resembles one by which German girls ascertain the colour of their future husband's hair. They call it hair-snatching, and practise it thus. Between the hours of eleven and twelve at night, on St. Andrew's Eve, a maiden must stand at the house door, take hold of the latch, and say three times, Gentle love, if thou lovest me, show thyself.' She must then quickly open the door wide enough to put out her hand, and make a rapid grasp out in the dark, and she will find in her hand a lock of her future husband's hair.1 Belgian girls, who desire to see their husbands in a dream, lay their garters crosswise at the foot of the bed, and a looking-glass under their pillow; in this glass the image of their future husband will appear.2 A story is told of a young woman, who, on waking one New Year's morning, found a sword lying at her bedside. Imagining that it had been used in the divinations of the previous evening, and carried away from its owner by some spirit who had been too rashly invoked, she took it up, and locked it in her chest. Those who find these swords or divining-rods always do this, lest the spirits make them a means of temptation; at the same time, those who lose them are always restless till they can recover them. The young woman was afterwards married to a gentleman's servant, and in course of time became a mother. One day, soon after her infant's birth, she gave her husband the key of her chest, and begged him to give her some articles of 1 Thorpe's Mythology, vol. iii. p. 145. 2 Ibid. p. 273. clothing from it: he opened the chest, beheld the sword, recognised it as his own, seized it, and exclaiming, This is my sword which has troubled me so long!' transfixed himself with it on the spot, to the consternation and horror of his poor wife. A new-laid egg offers another means of diving into futurity. On New Year's Eve, perforate with a pin the small end of the egg, and let three drops of the white fall into a basin of water. They will diffuse themselves on the surface into fantastic shapes of trees, &c. From these the initiated will augur the fortunes of the egg-dropper, the character of his wife, number of his children, and so forth. This is still practised in Denmark, where also, as a variety, the girls will melt lead on New Year's Eve, and, pouring it into water, observe the next morning what form it has assumed. If it resembles a pair of scissors, she will inevitably marry a tailor; if a hammer, her husband will be a smith, and so on. If The maidens in Durham have their own way of testing their lovers' fidelity. They will take an applepip, and, naming the lover, put the pip in the fire. it makes a noise as it bursts with the heat, she is assured of his affection; if it burns away silently, she will be convinced that he has no true regard for her. As to wishing, we have wishing-chairs here and there through the country. There is one at Finchale Priory, near Durham; and he who seats himself in it, breathes a wish, and tells no one what it is, will receive it. But there is an easier mode of gaining what one desires. If you see a horseshoe, or piece of old iron, on your path, take it up, spit on it, and throw it over your shoulder, framing your wish at the same time; keep the wish secret, and you will have it in time. G |