Current superstitions : $b collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk
General
Current superstitions : $b collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk
Folklore -- England; Folklore -- United States
Love divinations or love charms, I have found, are popularly known as
"projects" in parts of New England and on Mt. Desert. On Prince Edward
Island and in various parts of the Canadian provinces the practice of
such divinations is usually spoken of as "trying tricks." If a number of
young people are together, one will say, "Let's try tricks." In the
Middle and Western United States the usual colloquial expression for
these love divinations is "trying fortunes." One girl will say to another
at some appropriate time, "Let's try our fortunes."
APPLES.
164. Eat an apple at midnight before the glass, saying,--
Whoever my true love may be,
Come and eat this apple with me,
holding the lamp in the hand. The true love will appear.
_Winn, Me._
165. Throw a whole apple-paring on the floor, after swinging it three
times around your head. It will form your true love's initial letter.
_General in the United States._
APPLE-SEEDS.
166. When eating an apple, snap it with the fingers and name it for a
person of the opposite sex. Count the fully developed seeds (all of the
others are kisses), and the last one must correspond to the following
formula:--
One's my love,
Two's my love,
Three's my heart's desire.
Four I'll take and never forsake,
Five I'll cast in the fire.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love,
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he goes,
Twelve he marries.
Thirteen honor,
Fourteen riches,
All the rest are little witches.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
Some change the latter lines of this formula into
Thirteen they quarrel,
Fourteen they part,
Fifteen they die with a broken heart.
167. Similar rhymes commonly repeated in northern Ohio, after naming an
apple and counting the seeds, are,--
One I love,
Two I love,
Three I love, I say.
Four I love with all my heart,
And five I cast away.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love.
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he courts,
And twelve he marries.
_Prince Edward Island and Mansfield, O._
168. Lay in the hand four apple-seeds and have some one name them, then
pick them up, saying,--
This one I love all others above,
And this one I greatly admire,
And this one I'll take and never forsake.
And this one I'll cast in the fire.
_St. John, N.B._
169. A love divination by way of apple-seeds, much practiced when a
number of young people were spending the evening together, or perhaps by
grown-up boys and girls in district schools as they ate their noon-day
lunch about the stove, was as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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