and the third was empty.  The enquirer was blindfolded, knelt in front of the hearth, and groped about till he put his finger in one of them.  If he lighted on the plate with the clean water, he would wed a maid; if on the plate with the dirty water, he would marry a widow; and if on the empty plate, he would remain a bachelor.  For a girl the answer of the oracle was analogous; she would marry a bachelor, a widower, or nobody according to the plate into which she chanced to dip her finger.  But to make sure, the operation had to be repeated thrice, the position of the plates being changed each time.  If the enquirer put his or her finger into the same plate thrice or even twice, it was quite conclusive.[610]

[The sliced apple; the white of egg in water; the salt cake or salt herring.]

These forms of divination in the house were practised by the company in a body; but the following had to be performed by the person alone.  You took an apple and stood with it in your hand in front of a looking-glass.  Then you sliced the apple, stuck each slice on the point of the knife, and held it over your left shoulder, while you looked into the glass and combed your hair.  The spectre of your future husband would then appear in the mirror stretching forth his hand to take the slices of the apple over your shoulder.  Some say that the number of slices should be nine, that you should eat the first eight yourself, and only throw the ninth over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at each slice you should say, “In the name of the Father and the Son."[611] Again, take an egg, prick it with a pin, and let the white drop into a wine-glass nearly full of water.  Take some of this in your mouth and go out for a walk.  The first name you hear called out aloud will be that of your future husband or wife.  An old woman told a lady that she had tried this mode of divination in her youth, that the name of Archibald “came up as it were from the very ground,” and that Archibald sure enough was the name of her husband.[612] In South Uist and Eriskay, two of the outer Hebrides, a salt cake called Bonnach Salainn is eaten at Hallowe’en to induce dreams that will reveal the future.  It is baked of common meal with a great deal of salt.  After eating it you may not drink water nor utter a word, not even to say your prayers.  A salt herring, eaten bones and all in three bites, is equally efficacious, always provided that you drink no water and hold your tongue.[613]

[Hallowe’en fires in Wales; omens drawn from stones thrown into the fire; divination by stones in the ashes.]