Page:Hallowe'en festivities (1903).djvu/55

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HALLOWE'EN FESTIVITIES.
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behave it augurs strife. If one or both pop away, it means separation; but if both burn to ashes tranquilly side by side, a long life of undisturbed happiness will be lot of owners. These portentous omens are fitly defined in the following lines:

"These glowing nuts are emblems true
Of what in human life we view;
The ill-matched couple fret and fume,
And thus in strife themselves consume;
Or from each other wildly start,
And with a noise forever part.
But see the happy, happy pair,
Of genuine love and truth sincere;
With mutual fondness while they burn,
Still to each other kindly turn;
And as the vital sparks decay,
Together gently sink away;
Till life's fierce trials being past,
Their mingled ashes rest at last."

8. AROUND THE WALNUT TREE.

Of all Hallowe'en spells and charms associated with nuts, the following is one of the oldest: If a young man or woman goes at midnight on Hallowe'en to a walnut tree and walks around three times, crying out each time, "Let him (her) that is to be my true love bring me some walnuts," future wife or husband will be seen in tree gathering fruit.

9. WHERE DWELLS MY LOVER?

Steal out unobserved at midnight; plucking a small lock of hair from your head, cast it to breeze. Whatever direc-