Page:Book Of Halloween(1919).djvu/94

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74
THE BOOK OF HALLOWE'EN
 

into the clean water, he would marry a maiden; if into the dirty, a widow ; if into the empty dish, not at all. He tried until he got the same result twice. The dishes were changed about each time. This spell still remains, as does that of hemp-seed sowing. One goes out alone with a handful of hemp-seed, sows it across ridges of ploughed land, and harrows it with anything convenient, perhaps with a broom. Having said :

" Hemp-seed, I saw thee,
An' her that is to be my lass

Come after me an' draw thee "
Burns : Hallowe'en.

he looks behind him to see his sweetheart gathering hemp. This should be tried just at midnight with the moon behind.

"At even o' Hallowmas no sleep I sought,
But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought.
I scattered round the seed on every side,
And three times three in trembling accents cried,