Two at the feet and two at the head.
If any ill thing me betide,
Beneath your wings my body hide.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.”
Bacon was considered to prove the finest and best if the hogs were slaughtered before the moon began to wane, and in some month whose name contained the letter R:—
“Unless your bacon you would mar
Kill not your pig without the R.”
The dumb-cake was made by unmarried women who wished to divine the selection of fate as to their future husbands. The cake was baked in strict silence by two maidens on Midsummer’s eve, and afterwards broken into three pieces by another, who placed one under each of their pillows; during sleep the expectant fair ones were rewarded with a vision of their lovers, but the charm was ruined if only a single word were spoken. Hemp-seed, also, was sown by young maidens, who whilst scattering it recited the words “Hemp-seed I sow, hemp-seed I hoe, and he that is my true-love come after me and mow.” After repeating the rhyme three times it was only necessary to look over the shoulder, and the apparition of the destined swain would never fail to appear:—