nearly eighty tells me that the same meadow plant is called "Adam and Eve" as well as "cock's heads," and is used to divine the name of the future partner as follows: There are two varieties, a light and a dark. A woman divines with the dark, and a man with the light variety. The plant is pulled up by the root, laid under a sclate (slate or flat stone), and left all night. Next morning, if the root be examined, the initial letter will be found of the name of the future husband or wife.
Glasgow University. H. M. B. Reid.
Lanarkshire.
The following appeared under the heading "An Ancient Custom at Lanark" in the Scotsman for March 2nd, 1909:
"The ancient honoured custom known as 'Whuppity Scoorie' was celebrated by the youth of Lanark last night, and was witnessed by a crowd of several hundred people. The origin of the custom is unknown, but is generally supposed to herald the entrance of spring. From the months of October to February the town bell in the steeple is not tolled at six o'clock in the evening, but during the other months it rings at that hour daily. On the first day of March, when the bell is rung for the first time after its five months' silence, the boys of the town congregate at the Cross with a bonnet to which a piece of string is attached, and so soon as the first peal of the bell rings out the parish church is walked round three times, and thereafter a dash is made to meet the boys of New Lanark. On their meeting there is a stand-up fight, the weapons used being the stringed bonnets. This procedure was followed last night, and about seven o'clock the boys returned and paraded the principal streets singing their victorious refrain."
