Poor Willie, wi' his bow-kail runt, Mall's nit lap out wi' pridefu' fling, An' her ain fit it brunt it; While Willie lap, and swoor by jing, 'Twas just the way he wanted To be that night. Nell had the fause-house in her min', Unseen that night. But Merran sat behint their backs, She thro' the yard the nearest taks, An' darklins grapit for the bauks, And in the blue-clue 9 throws then, Right fear't that night. 9 Whoever would, with success, try this spell, must strictly observe these directions: Steal out, all alone, to the kiln, and, darkling, throw into the pot a clue of blue yarn; wind it in a new clue off the old one; and, towards the latter end, something will hold the thread; demand, wha hauds? An' ay she win't, an' ay she swat, To spier that night. Wee Jenny to her Graunie says, Out thro' that night. "Ye little skelpie-limmer's face! On sic a night. i. e. who holds; and answer will be returned from the kilapot, by naming the christian and surname of your future spouse. 10 Take a candle, and go alone to a looking glass: eat an apple before it, and some traditions say, you should comb 'Ae hairst afore the Sherra-moor, I mind't as weel's yestreen, I was a gilpey then, I'm sure I was na past fyfteen : The simmer had been cauld an' wat, It fell that night. 'Our stibble-rig was Rab M'Graen, A clever, sturdy fallow; His sin gat Eppie Sim wi' wean, He gat hemp-seed ", I mind it weel, But monie a day was by himsel, He was sae sairly frighted That vera night.' Then up gat fetchtin Jamie Fleck, An' he swoor by his conscience, That he could saw hemp-seed a peck; For it was a' but nonsense; your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion to be, will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder. 11 Steal out, unperceived, and sow a handful of hempseed; harrowing it with any thing you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then, Hemp-seed I saw thee, hemp-seed I saw thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true-love, come after me and pou thee.' Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, 'come after me, and shaw the,' that is, show thyself; in which case it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say, come after, me, and harrow thee.' The auld guidman raught down the pock, Syne bad him slip frae 'mang the folk, An' try't that night. He marches thro' amang the stacks, An' her that is to be my lass, As fast this night.' He whistled up Lord Lenox' march, Out-owre that night. He roar'd a horrid murder-shout, In dreadfu' desperation! An' young an' auld came rinnin out, He swoor 'twas hilchin Jean M'Craw, Asteer that night! Meg fain wad to the barn gaen, To win three wechts o' naething 12; An' twa red cheekit apples, To watch, while for the barn she sets, That vera night. She turns the key wi' cannie thraw, Fu' fast that night. They hoy't out Will, wi' sair advice; 12 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 wetch; 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. 13 Take an opportunity of going, unnoticed, to a bearstack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of |