Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/66

 54 More Folklore from the Hebrides.

Another Hallowe'en divination is known as the Pollag na Samkna = the little hole of Hallowe'en. The person seeking a revelation of the future digs a little hole in the ground about the size of a saucer, and then loosely replaces the earth, which he removes again next morning. If he find a live w^orm in it, it is a sign he will be alive next Hallowe'en, if a dead one, that his career is ended. A girl called Kate, who had found a dead worm in her hole, had recently died of measles within the year. In some places the Pollag is turned to another account. Three are dug, representing three eligible young men, or maids, as the case may be. The one in which a live worm is found indicates the name of the sweetheart assigned by fate.

Another method is to take a glass half full of water and and an egg perforated at the bottom, through which the white is allowed to drop into the water. If it falls to the bottom and remains there, ill-luck will follow ; if it rises, it rises slowly, and the method is to hold the glass between the eye and the light and divine the future according to the shapes it may assume. If little round globules come up they should be counted, for they indicate the number of the future family. A variant was, to break an egg into the water, and then, closing the tumbler with the palm of the hand, to turn it quickly upside down and back again, and then watch the forms assumed while the egg is in movement.

Another custom was for young women to go to a stream that was a boundary, and to wash or dip their shifts into the stream and afterwards place them at the fire to dry. All must be done in strict silence, and the man of whom they dreamt, or whose image they saw as from time to time they turned the garment at the fire, was the man they would marry.

Another custom was to 2.0 alone to the kiln where erain is dried (nothing gets much chance to dry naturally in such a climate as Uist), taking a coil of heather rope, of which one end was inserted down the fiue. The girl then asked, "Who