CHARMS TO KNOW WHO YOUR HUSBAND SHALL BE.
On St. Agnes’ Day.—This falls on the 21st of January. You must prepare yourself by a twenty-four hours fast, touching nothing but pure spring water, beginning at midnight on the 20th, to the same again on the 21st; then go to bed, and mind you sleep by yourself, and do not mention what you are trying to any one, or it will break the spell. Go to rest on your left side, and repeat these lines three times:
St. Agnes, be a friend to me;
In the gift I ask of thee;
Let me this night my husband see,
and you will dream of your future spouse. If you see more men than one in your dream, you will wed two or three times; but if you sleep and dream not, you will never marry.
By Bride Cake.—A slice of the bride cake thrice drawn through the wedding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried woman, will cause her to dream of her future husband.
By the Garter and Stocking.—The party inquiring must live in a different county from that in which she commonly resides, and, on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the right legged stocking, letting the other garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following verse, at every comma knit a knot:
This knot I knit, to know the thing I know not yet,