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
or apparition: they dip for apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to
bring one up in the mouth: they suspend a cord with a cross-stick, with
apples at one point, and candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to
catch the apple, while it is in a circular motion, in the mouth. These,
and many other superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are
observed on this holiday, which will never be eradicated, while the name
of _Saman_ is permitted to remain.”(620)
(M203) In Queen’s County, Ireland, down to the latter part of the
nineteenth century children practised various of these rites of divination
on Hallowe’en. Girls went out into the garden blindfold and pulled up
cabbages: if the cabbage was well grown, the girl would have a handsome
husband, but if it had a crooked stalk, the future spouse would be a
stingy old man. Nuts, again, were placed in pairs on the bar of the fire,
and from their behaviour omens were drawn of the fate in love and marriage
of the couple whom they represented. Lead, also, was melted and allowed to
drop into a tub of cold water, and from the shapes which it assumed in the
water predictions were made to the children of their future destiny.
Again, apples were bobbed for in a tub of water and brought up with the
teeth; or a stick was hung from a hook with an apple at one end and a
candle at the other, and the stick being made to revolve you made a bite
at the apple and sometimes got a mouthful of candle instead.(621) In
County Leitrim, also, down to near the end of the nineteenth century
various forms of divination were practised at Hallowe’en. Girls
ascertained the character of their future husbands by the help of cabbages
just as in Queen’s County. Again, if a girl found a branch of a
briar-thorn which had bent over and grown into the ground so as to form a
loop, she would creep through the loop thrice late in the evening in the
devil’s name, then cut the briar and put it under her pillow, all without
speaking a word. Then she would lay her head on the pillow and dream of
the man she was to marry. Boys, also, would dream in like manner of love
and marriage at Hallowe’en, if only they would gather ten leaves of ivy
without speaking, throw away one, and put the other nine under their
pillow. Again, divination was practised by means of a cake called
_barm-breac_, in which a nut and a ring were baked. Whoever got the ring
would be married first; whoever got the nut would marry a widow or a
widower; but if the nut were an empty shell, he or she would remain unwed.
Again, a girl would take a clue of worsted, go to a lime kiln in the
gloaming, and throw the clew into the kiln in the devil’s name, while she
held fast the other end of the thread. Then she would rewind the thread
and ask, “Who holds my clue?” and the name of her future husband would
come up from the depth of the kiln. Another way was to take a rake, go to
a rick and walk round it nine times, saying, “I rake this rick in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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