“Steady, good fairy, I am wary,
Pray let my hand make no mistake;
I would only the right nut take.”
Then she puts her hand down, lifts up a nut, removes the elastic, and taking out the paper, reads her future aloud. Example, “You will travel around the world. At the age of twenty-three you will sing before two thousand people.” And thus the future is predicted in similar style for other players.
Naming the Roses.
All the young people should personate favorite roses. Therefore, there should be many varieties. The parlors should have arches or wide doorways, through which a procession may readily move.
The musicians are advised to play something between a march and a reel, and immediately each boy signals out the girl that matches his rose. If more than one match, he asks the girl he prefers. Then, all keeping time to the music, they walk through the first arch or doorway, and so on to the second, thus in rotation going through all. The couples should keep about two feet back of each other.
When all have passed through the last arch, they join hands, thus forming a circle, and commencing with the first couple, enter the ring two by two. Two only being in at a time, when they come out, the two that followed them in the march enter, and so on. When in the circle the boy should ask the girl, “Which rose are you?” She answers, “Tell me, and I’ll tell you.” Very often his answer will be, “I don’t know,” though once in a while he will make a perfect guess. When his answer is right, he asks the girl the language of her rose; but if he has made a mistake, he is obliged to leave the girl in the ring, and stand under one of the arches. If the girl cannot answer his question, she must stand under an arch. If the boy leaves the ring before inquiring the rose’s language, those forming the ring put the same question, and if the girl does not properly reply, she has to pay the same penalty as when not replying to the boy.
When both questions are answered correctly, the boy and girl again join the hands of the others forming the circle. When each couple has been in and left the ring the game is concluded.
Among the rosebuds and their meaning are: White rose-bud, girlhood; red rose-bud, loveliness; white and red together, unity.