d the
young person whose lot it was to secure the piece of cake or bannock
with the concealed article was looked upon as being as lucky as the
individual who picked the ring twice out of the brose. While all this
was going on, unbounded mirth prevailed, and before the company broke
up, dreaming cakes or bannocks were prepared, that every one might
take one and place it under his or her pillow. To make the cakes of
any avail, the baker had to remain mute when preparing them, and the
receivers had, immediately after obtaining them, to slip off quietly
to bed, when, if all the preliminaries had been duly observed, the
sleeper's future companion in life appeared in a vision or dream of
the night.

The practice of choosing a valentine on the 14th of February is well
known. The first person of the opposite sex who was seen by an
unmarried person on the morning of that day, was regarded as the
valentine for the year. Another way of finding out a valentine was to
cast into a receptacle small billets, with (if the consulters were
young women) bachelors' names on them, and then to draw them out
lottery-wise. The bachelor whose name appeared on a billet thus
extracted at random, became the valentine of the spinster to whose lot
it fell. In this way a bevy of young ladies ascertained, in a few
minutes, secrets they were most anxious should be disclosed. When the
gentlemen were anxious to discover their valentines, they proceeded in
the same way, taking care, however, that the ladies for whom they had
the greatest affection should be named on the billets. A lady's
valentine was her knight for the year, and not unfrequently he became
her husband. The amusements of Valentine's Day were very popular among
all classes in the fifteenth century. It was customary at one time for
both sexes to give each other presents, but the ladies, through
modesty, or some other cause best known to themselves, have ceased to
bestow gifts in their valentines. Many attempts have been made to
abolish the heathen custom of young men drawing the names of young
women, and _vice versa_, on this day, but without success.

March was called after Mars, the god of war; but the Anglo-Saxons knew
it as _Hraed-monat_, signifying rugged month, and _Hlyd-monat_,
meaning stormy month. Those who indulged in prognostications,
carefully observed the state of the weather in this month. Dry weather
at this time portended a plentiful season, while a rainy month
indicated sc