The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M199) These forms of divination in the house were practised by the
company in a body; but the following had to be performed by the person
alone. You took an apple and stood with it in your hand in front of a
looking-glass. Then you sliced the apple, stuck each slice on the point of
the knife, and held it over your left shoulder, while you looked into the
glass and combed your hair. The spectre of your future husband would then
appear in the mirror stretching forth his hand to take the slices of the
apple over your shoulder. Some say that the number of slices should be
nine, that you should eat the first eight yourself, and only throw the
ninth over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at each slice
you should say, “In the name of the Father and the Son.”(611) Again, take
an egg, prick it with a pin, and let the white drop into a wine-glass
nearly full of water. Take some of this in your mouth and go out for a
walk. The first name you hear called out aloud will be that of your future
husband or wife. An old woman told a lady that she had tried this mode of
divination in her youth, that the name of Archibald “came up as it were
from the very ground,” and that Archibald sure enough was the name of her
husband.(612) In South Uist and Eriskay, two of the outer Hebrides, a salt
cake called _Bonnach Salainn_ is eaten at Hallowe’en to induce dreams that
will reveal the future. It is baked of common meal with a great deal of
salt. After eating it you may not drink water nor utter a word, not even
to say your prayers. A salt herring, eaten bones and all in three bites,
is equally efficacious, always provided that you drink no water and hold
your tongue.(613)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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