April and May |
On the last day of April, wash a handkerchief and hang it that night on a stalk of corn, or spread it over growing wheat in the field, or over a rosebush in the garden. The morning sun of May will dry it, and the. initial or initials of the man you are to marry will appear in the wrinkles of the handkerchief. On the last night of April, dust a pie plate with a thin layer of corn meal and place it in the garden. During the night a snail will come and with its tracks leave the initial of your lover. Snails may also be placed upon a slate or piece of brown paper, and the silvery trails that mark their passage will spell out the initial. Or a snail may be put in a fruit jar overnight, and by May morning the initial of your true love will be outlined in the jar. Also, on May morning itself, two or three snails may be placed upon a board and the board then placed in the sun. The tracks the snails make will spell out the initials of your sweetheart."An old Irishwoman said that when she was a girl she would hunt up all the snails she could find and put them in the milk house with a big pan of corn meal, to see the snails make the letters of her future husband's name in the corn meal."
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