Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/95

 Collt'ctanca. 79

I will begin with a charm called " Trying the Dumb Cake,"' by which a girl could see her future husband. It must be done on Christmas Eve, and should be carried out in complete silence. First, a dough cake must be made and placed on the hearthstone, and the maker must prick her initials on it, the door being care- fully left open, as something terrible would happen if the spirit came and found it shut. She must then wait in perfect silence till the clock strikes twelve, when her future husband will walk in and prick his initials beside hers on the cake, and then walk out again. An old lady once told me that a girl in this way brought her future husband, who was a soldier, into the room, and in passing through the doorway he broke his sword in two. The girl picked up the broken piece and kept it. After she had been married to him some years, in turning out her trunk she came across it, and showed it to her husband, and he was so angry he could hardly forgive her. He told her he suffered dreadful agonies during the time she forced him to appear, although he did not then know the reason. A woman once told me that in her youth she and a friend tried the 'Dumb Cake,' but, just before the clock struck twelve, the dog jumped up and began to growl* and they were frightened and spoke, and so the charm was broken.

Another way to make your future husband appear, was to take hemp seed to the churchyard at twelve o'clock at night on Christ- mas Eve, and sow it going along, saying while doing so, —

" Here I sow hemp seed that hemp seed may grow, Hoping my true love will come after me and mow."

The hemp seed immediately grew up, and your future husband came behind you and began to mow it. You must move very quickly or he might cut your legs oft" with his scythe. I have heard girls recommended to try this rather ghastly proceeding, but I never heard of one who did so !

If you wished to dream of your lover, you must pin your garters to the wall and put your shoes in the shape of a T, and before getting into bed say the following lines, —

" 1 pin my garters to the wall, And put my shoes in the shape of a T, In hopes my true love for to see, Not in his apparel nor in his array, But in the clothes that he wears ever\dav.