“I am winding,
Who is holding?”
Then the spirit of the future husband of the girl who was performing the ceremony was supposed to mount this little ladder and appear to her. But if the spirit did not appear, the charm was repeated over again, and even a third time. If no spirit was to be seen after performing such ceremony three times, the young lady had no hope of a husband. In some places, young girls do not take the trouble to make this ladder, but, simply throw out through the open window, a ball of yarn, and saying the words:
“I am winding, who is holding.”
Another custom among the young ladies of Cardiganshire in order to see their future husbands is to walk nine times round the house with a glove in the hand, saying the while—“Dyma’r faneg, lle mae’r llaw.”—“Here’s the glove, where is the hand?” Others again would walk round the dungheap, holding a shoe in the left hand, and saying “Here’s the shoe, where is the foot?” Happy is the young woman who sees the young man she loves, for he is to be her future husband.
In Carmarthenshire young girls desirous of seeing their future partners in life, walk round a leek bed, carrying seed in their hand, and saying as follows:—
“Hadau, hadau, hau,
Sawl sy’n cam, doed i grynhoi.”
“Seed, seed, sowing.