Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty
John Stuart Mill · en
There belonged to the north of Scotland two Halloween rites of augury
which have not been described by Burns: and one of these, an elegant
and beautiful charm, is not yet entirely out of repute. An ale-glass
is filled with pure water, and into the water is dropped the white of
an egg. The female whose future fortunes are to be disclosed (for
the charm seems appropriated exclusively by the better sex) lays her
hand on the glass’s mouth, and holds it there for about the space of
a minute. In that time the heavier parts of the white settle to the
bottom, while the lighter shoot up into the water, from which they are
distinguished by their opacity, into a variety of fantastic shapes,
resembling towers and domes, towns, fleets, and forests; or, to speak
more correctly, into forms not very unlike those icicles which one sees
during a severe frost at the edge of a waterfall. A resemblance is next
traced, which is termed reading the glass, between the images displayed
in it and some objects of either art or nature; and these are regarded
as constituting a hieroglyphic of the person’s future fortunes. Thus,
the ramparts of a fortress surmounted by streamers, a plain covered
with armies, or the tents of an encampment, show that the female whose
hand covered the glass is to be united to a soldier, and that her life
is to be spent in camps and garrisons. A fleet of ships, a church or
pulpit, a half-finished building, a field stripped into furrows, a
garden, a forest--all these, and fifty other scenes, afford symbols
equally unequivocal. And there are melancholy hieroglyphics, too,
that speak of death when interrogated regarding marriage;--there are
the solitary tomb, the fringed shroud, the coffin, and the skull and
cross-bones. “Ah!” said a young girl, whom I overheard a few years ago
regretting the loss of a deceased companion, “Ah! I knew when she first
took ill that there was little to hope. Last Halloween we went together
to Mrs. ---- to break our eggs. Betsie’s was first cast, and there rose
under her hand an ugly skull. Mrs. ---- said nothing, but reversed the
glass, while poor Betsie laid her hand on it a second time, and then
there rose a coffin. Mrs. ---- called it a boat, and I said I saw the
oars; but Mrs. ---- well knew what it meant, and so did I.”
[Sidenote: THE TWELFTH RIG.]