Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/132

 124 CORNISH FEASTS

This game in East Cornwall was known as *' Jack's alive."

If he die in my hand a pawn I'll give."
 * ' Jack's alive and likely to live,

In this county forfeits are always called " pawns " ; they are cried by the holder of them, saying, —

" Here's a pawn and a very pretty pawn ! And what shall the owner of this pawn do ? "

After the midnight supper, at which in one village in the extreme west a pie of four-and-twenty blackbirds always appeared, many spells to forecast the future were practised. The following account of them was given to me by a friend. He says — " I engaged in them once at Sennen (the village at the Land's End) with a lot of girls, but as my object was only to spoil sport and make the girls laugh or speak, it was not quite satisfactory. I suppose the time to which I refer is over forty years ago. After making up a large turf fire, for hot ' umers ' (embers) and pure water are absolutely necessary in these divinations, the young people silently left the house in single file, to pull the rushes and gather the ivy -leaves by means of which they were to learn whether they were to be married, and to whom; and if any, or how many, of their friends were to die before the end of the year. On leaving and on returning each of these Twelfth-night diviners touched the ' cravel' with the forehead and 'wished.' The cravel is the tree that preceded lintels in chimney -comers, and its name from this custom may have been derived from the verb ' to crave.' Had either of the party inadvertently broken the silence before the rushes and ivy-leaves had been procured they would all have been obliged to retrace their steps to the house and again touch the cravel ; but this time all went well. When we came back those who wished to know their fate named the rushes in pairs and placed them in the hot embers : one or two of the engaged couples being too shy to do this for themselves, their friends, amidst much laughing, did it for them. The manner in which the rushes burned showed if the young people were to be married to the, person chosen or not : some, of course, burnt well, others parted, and one or two went out altogether. The couples that burnt smoothly were to be wedded, and the one named