He that would a life partner be,
Let him also rake with me.
There was a certain young Welshwoman who, about eighty years ago, performed this rhamanta, when who should come into the garden but her master! The lass ran to the house in great fright, and asked her mistress, ‘Why have you sent master out into the garden to me?’ ‘Wel, wel,’ replied the good dame, in much heaviness of heart, ‘make much of my little children!’ The mistress died shortly after, and the husband eventually married the servant.
The sterner sex have a form of rhamanta in which the knife plays a part. This is to enter the churchyard at midnight, carrying a twca, which is a sort of knife made out of an old razor, with a handle of sheep or goat-horn, and encircle the church edifice seven times, holding the twca at arm’s length, and saying, ‘Dyma’r twca, p’le mae’r wain?’ (Here’s the twca—where’s the sheath?)
FOOTNOTE:
[136] Cynddelw, ‘Manion Hynafiaethol,’ 53.
CHAPTER VI.
Wedding Customs—The Bidding—Forms of Cymmhorth—The Gwahoddwr—Horse-Weddings—Stealing a Bride—Obstructions to the Bridal Party—The Gwyntyn—Chaining—Evergreen Arches—Strewing Flowers—Throwing Rice and Shoes—Rosemary in the Garden—Names after Marriage—The Coolstrin—The Ceffyl Pren.