lass
I gat frae uncle Johnny.'
She fuff't her pipe wi' sic a lunt,
In wrath she was sae vap'rin,
She notic't na an aizle brunt
Her braw new worset apron
Out thro' that night.

'Ye little skelpie limmer's face!
I daur you try sic sportin'
As seek the foul thief ony place,
For him to spae your fortune;
Nae doubt but ye may get a sight!
Great cause ye hae to fear it,
For mony a ane has gotten a fright,
And lived and died deleeret
On sic a night.'"

Hallowe'en also is still a favourite anniversary for all kinds of
nut-charms, and St. Thomas was long invoked when the prophetic onion
named after him was placed under the pillow. Rosemary and thyme were
used on St. Agnes' Eve with this formula:

"St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind,
Come, ease the troubles of my mind."

In Austria, on Christmas Eve, apples are used for divination. According
to Mr. Conway, the apple must be cut in two in the dark, without being
touched, the left half being placed in the bosom, and the right laid
behind the door. If this latter ceremony be carefully carried out, the
desired one may be looked for at midnight near the right half. He
further tells us that in the Erzgebirge, the maiden, having slept on St.
Andrew's, or Christmas, night with an apple under her pillow, "takes her
stand with it in her hand on the next festival of the Church thereafter;
and the first man whom she sees, other than a relative, will become
her husband."

Again, in Bohemia, on Christmas Eve, there is a pretty practice for
young people to fix coloured wax-lights in the shells of the first nuts
they have opened that day, and to float them in water, after silently
assigning to each the name of some fancied wooer. He whose little barque
is the first to approach the girl will be her future husband; but, on
the other hand, should an unwelcome suitor seem likely to be the first,
she blows against it, and so, by impeding its progress, allows the
favoured barque to win.

In very early times flowers were mcuh in request as love-philtres,
various allusions to which occur in the literature of most ages. Thus,
in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Oberon tells Puck to place a pansy on
the eyes of Titania, in order that, on awaking, she may fall in love
with the first object she encounters. Gerarde speaks of the carrot as
"serving for love matters," and adds that the root of the wild species
is more effectual than that of the g