Hemp Seed Sowing.
A young married woman, a native of Denbighshire, told me that if a young woman sowed hemp seed, the figure of her lover would appear and follow her. This was to be done by night on Hallow Eve. I find from English Folk-Lore, p. 15, that this divination is practised in Devonshire on St. Valentine’s Eve, and that the young woman runs round the church repeating, without stopping, the following lines:—
“I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow,
He that loves me best
Come, and after me now.”Sage Gathering.
A young person who went of a night to the garden, and stripped the leaves of the sage tree, would, as the clock struck twelve, be joined by her lover. This was to be done on All Hallow Eve.