In Wales, as in Scotland, Hallowe’en was also the great season for forecasting the future in respect of love and marriage, and some of the forms of divination employed for this purpose resembled those which were in use among the Scotch peasantry.  Two girls, for example, would make a little ladder of yarn, without breaking it from the ball, and having done so they would throw it out of the window.  Then one of the girls, holding the ball in her hand, would wind the yarn back, repeating a rhyme in Welsh.  This she did thrice, and as she wound the yarn she would see her future husband climbing up the little ladder.  Again, three bowls or basins were placed on a table.  One of them contained clean water, one dirty water, and one was empty.  The girls of the household, and sometimes the boys too, then eagerly tried their fortunes.  They were blindfolded, led up to the table, and dipped their hands into a bowl.  If they happened to dip into the clean water, they would marry maidens or bachelors; if into the dirty water, they would be widowers or widows; if into the empty bowl, they would live unmarried.  Again, if a girl, walking backwards, would place a knife among the leeks on Hallowe’en, she would see her future husband come and pick up the knife and throw it into the middle of the garden.[619]

[Divination at Hallowe’en in Ireland.]

In Ireland the Hallowe’en bonfires would seem to have died out, but the Hallowe’en divination has survived.  Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, General Vallancey tells us that on Hallowe’en or the vigil of Saman, as he calls it, “the peasants in Ireland assemble with sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration) going from house to house, collecting money, bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., etc., for the feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, demanding preparations for the festival, in the name of St. Columb Kill, desiring them to lay aside the fatted calf, and to bring forth the black sheep.  The good women are employed in making the griddle cake and candles; these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the (Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed souls of the donor.  Every house abounds in the best viands they can afford:  apples and nuts are devoured in abundance:  the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are foretold:  cabbages are torn up by the root:  hemp seed is sown by the maidens, and they believe, that if they look back, they will see the apparition of the man intended for their future spouse:  they hang a smock before the fire, on the close of the feast, and sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will come down the chimney and turn the smock:  they throw a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it on the reel within, convinced, that if they repeat the Pater Noster backwards, and look at the ball of yarn without, they will then