oors instead of the
likeness of a gudeman! and as sure's death she was in her coffin
before the same time next year."

ANON: _Tale of Hallowe'en._

Formerly a stack of beans, oats, or barley was measured round with
the arms against sun. At the end of the third time the arms would
enclose the vision of the future husband or wife.

Kale-pulling, apple-snapping, and lead-melting (see Ireland) are
social rites, but many were to be tried alone and in secret. A
Highland divination was tried with a shoe, held by the tip, and
thrown over the house. The person will journey in the direction the
toe points out. If it falls sole up, it means bad luck.

Girls would pull a straw each out of a thatch in Broadsea, and
would take it to an old woman in Fraserburgh. The seeress would
break the straw and find within it a hair the color of the
lover's-to-be. Blindfolded they plucked heads of oats, and counted
the number of grains to find out how many children they would have.
If the tip was perfect, not broken or gone, they would be married
honorably.

Another way of determining the number of children was to drop the
white of an egg into a glass of water. The number of divisions was
the number sought. White of egg is held with water in the mouth,
like the grains of oats in Ireland, while one takes a walk to hear
mentioned the name of his future wife. Names are written on papers,
and laid upon the chimney-piece. Fate guides the hand of a
blindfolded man to the slip which bears his sweetheart's name.

A Hallowe'en mirror is made by the rays of the moon shining into a
looking-glass. If a girl goes secretly into a room at midnight
between October and November, sits down at the mirror, and cuts an
apple into nine slices, holding each on the point of a knife before
she eats it, she may see in the moonlit glass the image of her
lover looking over her left shoulder, and asking for the last piece
of apple.

The wetting of the sark-sleeve in a south-running burn where "three
lairds' lands meet," and carrying it home to dry before the fire,
was really a Scotch custom, but has already been described in
Ireland.

"The last Hallowe'en I was waukin[1]
My droukit[2] sark-sleeve, as ye kin--
His likeness came up the house staukin,
And the very grey breeks o' Tam Glen!"

BURNS: _Tam Glen._

[1] Watching.

[2] Drenched.

Just before breaking up, the