230. Scatter your clothes in the four corners of the room, naming them. The man you are to marry will bring you your clothes in a dream.
Maine.
231. The first time you sleep in a room, name the corners each a different (man’s) name. The first corner you face on waking indicates whom you will marry.
The same thing is done with bed-posts in Ohio.
232. On your birthday, as you retire at night, take off your slipper or boot. Stand with your back to the door and throw it over your head. If the toe points to the door, you go out of the chamber a bride before the year is out. You must not look at the boot until the morning.
Bedford, Mass.
233. At night before going to bed take one of your garters and tie it in a knot and hang it on the bed-post above your head. While tying repeat,—
This knot I tie, this knot I knit,
To see the young man I haven’t seen yet.
Chestertown, Md.
234. Young girls on going to bed at night place their shoes at right angles to one another, in the form of the letter T, repeating this rhyme:—
Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T.
Northern Ohio.