17
CHARMS AND CEREMONIES.
To see a future Husband.
On Midsummer eve, just after sun-set, three, five, or seven young women are to go into a garden, in which there is no other person and each to gather a sprig of red sage, and then, going into a room by themselves, set a stool in the middle of the room, and on it a clean bason full of rose-water, in which the sprigs of sage are to be put, and tying a line across the room, on one side of the stool, each woman is to hang on it a clean shift, turned the wrong side outwards; then all are to sit down in a row, on the opposite side of the stool, as far distant as the room will admit, not speaking a single word the whole time, whatever they see, and in a few minutes after twelve, each one’s future husband will take her sprig out of the rose-water, and sprinkle her shift with it.
On St. Agnes’ night, the 21st January, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a pater-noster on stick-
