And ev’ry time great care is ta’en
To see them duly changed.”
The three bowls, or dishes, one containing clear water, one milky, and the other nothing at all, are placed in a row on the hearth-stone or table, and the girl wishing to try her fortune is blindfolded and led up to where the dishes stand. She is then told to put her left hand into one of the bowls. If she dips her fingers in the clear water, she will marry a bachelor; if in the milky water, a widower; and if into the empty bowl, it is a sure sign that she will live in single blessedness all her days.
This ceremony must be gone through with three times, and the hand be dipped twice in the same bowl, in order to make the prediction of any value.
Roasting Nuts
is the charm by which the friendship of anyone may be tested. The applicant for knowledge on this point names two nuts, one for her friend and the other for herself, and then places them side by side upon the grate, or a shovel held over the fire. If they burn quietly, it is prophetic of a long and happy friendship kept up by both parties; but if in roasting they burst with a loud report and fly apart, they are decidedly uncongenial, and should not seek much intercourse. The movements of the nuts while heating are closely watched, for the tempers of the persons for whom they are named is said to be thus revealed.
Kaling
is a mode of telling one’s fortune not as well known, perhaps, as the foregoing methods. The ceremony is carried out in the following manner: Two girls are blindfolded and started off on the path to the kitchen-garden and cabbage-patch, where each pulls up the first stalk she finds. They then return at once to the house, where the bandages are removed and the mysterious stalks examined.
According to the state of the stalk, so will be the gatherer’s fate. If it is straight or crooked, large or small, so will the future husband be; if it has a pleasant taste, or the reverse, the character of the person will correspond, and the quantity of earth clinging to the roots denotes whether their riches will be little or great.
When there are no cabbages at hand, almost any other garden vegetable will answer; and if there be objections to going out-of-doors, vegetables of various kinds, such as turnips, beets, and parsnips, may be placed on a table, and the persons blindfolded can choose from them. No doubt the charm will work as well with the plants upon a table as when they are pulled from a kitchen-garden.