XX. He roar'd a horrid murder-shout, He swoor'twas hilchin Jean M'Craw, Asteer that night! XXI. Meg fain wad to the barn hae gaen She gies the herd a pickle nits, To watch, while for the barn she sets, That vera night. *This charm must likewise be performed, unperceived, and alone. You go to the barn, and open both doors, taking them off the hinges, if possible; for there is danger that the being, about to appear, may shut the doors, and do you some mischief. Then take that instrument used in winnowing the corn, which, in our country dialect, we call a wecht; and go through all the attitudes of letting down corn against the wind. Repeat it three times; and the third time an apparition will pass through the barn, in at the windy door, and out at the other, having both the figure in question, and the appearance or retinue, marking the employment or station in life. XXII. She turns the key wi' cannie thraw, Syne bauldy in she enters; An' she cry'd L-d preserve her! Fu' fast that night. XXIII. They hoy't out Will, wi' sair advice: Aff's nieves that night. XXIV. A wanton widow Leezie was, Bnt Och! that night, amang the shaws, * Take an opportunity of going, unnoticed, to a bear-stack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of the last time, you will catch in your arms the appearance of your future conjugal yokefellow. She thro' the whins, an' by the cairn, Was bent that night. XXV. Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, Unseen that night. XXVI. Amang the brachens, on the brae Between her an' the moon, Foor Leezie's heart maist lap the hool; Out-owre the lugs she plumpit, Wi' a plunge that night. *You go out, one or more, for this is a social spell, to a south-running spring or rivulet, where "three lairds' lands meet," and dip your left shirt sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake: and some time near midnight, an apparition, having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to the other side of it. XXVII. In order, on the clean hearth-stane, Auld uncle John, wha wedlock's joys Because he gat the toom dish thrice, He heav'd them on the fire In wrath that night. XXVIII. Wi' merry sangs, an' friendly cracks, Their sports were cheap an' cheery. Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt, Fu' blythe that night. Take three dishes: put clean water in one, foul water in another, leave the third empty blindfold a person, and lead him to the heart!. where the dishes are ranged; he (or she) dips the left hand: if by chance in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid: if in the foul, a witow if in the empty dish, it foretells, with equal certainty, no marriage at all. It is repeated three times, and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered. † Sowens. with butter instead of milk to them, is always the Halloween supper. THE JOLLY BEGGARS. A CANTATA. RECITATIVO. WHEN lyart leaves bestow the yird, First, niest the fire, in auld red rags, An' ay he gives the tozie drab *The old Sootch name for the Bat. |