Читать книгу The Book of Forbidden Knowledge - Johnson Smith - Страница 3

Table of Contents

Any person fasting on midsummer eve, and sitting on the church porch, will, at midnight, see the spirits of the persons of that parish, who will die that year, come and knock at the church door, in the order and succession in which they will die. One of those watchers, there being several in company, fell into a profound sleep, so that he could not be waked; whilst in this state his ghost was seen by the rest of his companions knocking at the church door. Any unmarried woman fasting on midsummer eve, and at midnight laying a clean cloth, with bread, cheese and ale, and sitting down as if going to eat, the street door being left open, the person whom she is afterward to marry will come into the room, and drink to her by bowing, and afterward filling the glass, will leave it on the table, and making another bow, retire.

On St. Agnes' night, the 21st of January, take a row of pins, and pull out everyone, one after another, saying a paternoster, on sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him you shall marry. Another method to see a future spouse in a dream; the party inquiring must lie in a different country from that in which he commonly resides, and, on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the right legged stocking, letting the other garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following verses, at every comma knit a knot:

This knot I knit,

To know a thing I know not yet,

That I may see

The man that shall my husband be,

How he goes and what he wears,

And what he does all days and years.

Accordingly, in a dream he will appear with the insignia of his trade or profession. Another performed by charming the moon, thus: At the first appearance of the new moon, immediately after the New Year’s Day, go out in the evening and stand over the spears of a gate or stile, and, looking on the moon, repeat the following lines:

All hail to thee, all hail to thee,

I prithee, good moon, reveal to me

This night who my husband must be.

The party will then dream of their future husband. A slice of the bridal cake, thrice thrown through the wedding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried woman will make them dream of their future husband. The same is practiced in the north with a piece of the groaning cheese.