These, and many other
superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are observed on this
holiday, which will never be eradicated, while the name of _Saman_ is
permitted to remain."[620]
[Divination at Hallow-e'en in Queen's County; divination at Hallow-e'en
in County Leitrim; divination at Hallowe'en in County Roscommon.]
In Queen's County, Ireland, down to the latter part of the nineteenth
century children practised various of these rites of divination on
Hallowe'en. Girls went out into the garden blindfold and pulled up
cabbages: if the cabbage was well grown, the girl would have a handsome
husband, but if it had a crooked stalk, the future spouse would be a
stingy old man. Nuts, again, were placed in pairs on the bar of the
fire, and from their behaviour omens were drawn of the fate in love and
marriage of the couple whom they represented. Lead, also, was melted and
allowed to drop into a tub of cold water, and from the shapes which it
assumed in the water predictions were made to the children of their
future destiny. Again, apples were bobbed for in a tub of water and
brought up with the teeth; or a stick was hung from a hook with an apple
at one end and a candle at the other, and the stick being made to
revolve you made a bite at the apple and sometimes got a mouthful of
candle instead.[621] In County Leitrim, also, down to near the end of
the nineteenth century various forms of divination were practised at
Hallowe'en.
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