GARMENTS

Entries

• #230

  Scatter your clothes in the four corners of the room, naming them. The man you are to marry will bring you your clothes in a dream.

  Maine.
• #231

  The first time you sleep in a room, name the corners each a different (man’s) name. The first corner you face on waking indicates whom you will marry.

  The same thing is done with bed-posts in Ohio.

• #232

  On your birthday, as you retire at night, take off your slipper or boot. Stand with your back to the door and throw it over your head. If the toe points to the door, you go out of the chamber a bride before the year is out. You must not look at the boot until the morning.

  Bedford, Mass.
• #233

  At night before going to bed take one of your garters and tie it in a knot and hang it on the bed-post above your head. While tying repeat,—

  This knot I tie, this knot I knit,
  To see the young man I haven’t seen yet.

  Chestertown, Md.
• #234

  Young girls on going to bed at night place their shoes at right angles to one another, in the form of the letter T, repeating this rhyme:—

  Hoping this night my true love to see,
  I place my shoes in the form of a T.

  Northern Ohio.
• #235

  The first time you sleep in a house, upon retiring place the shoes in the form of a T, and say over,—

  My true love by-and-by for to see,
  Be as she (or he) be,
  Bear as she (or he) may,
  The clothes she (or he) wears every day.

  Boston, Mass.
• #236

  Catch the four corners of a handkerchief up in the hand, then let some one wishing to try her fortune draw two. If she gets two corners on the same side, she will not be married. If she gets opposite ones, she will be married.

  Prince Edward Island and Chestertown, Md.
• #237

  A rhyme on stockings and shoes:—

  Point your shoes towards the street,
  Leave your garters on your feet,
  Put your stockings on your head,
  You’ll dream of the man you are going to wed.

  Eastern Massachusetts.
• #238

  Put the chemise, inside out, on the foot of the bed and under it a board with ashes upon it; then go to bed backwards, saying,—

  Whoever my true love may be,
  Come write his name in these ashes for me.

  Winn, Me.
• #239

  Place the heel of one shoe against the instep of the other for three nights in a row. You will dream of your future husband.

  Franklin, Mass.
• #240

  On Friday night after getting all ready for bed, roll your petticoat up, and before lying down put it under your pillow, repeating this verse:—

  This Friday night while going to bed,
  I put my petticoat under my head,
  To dream of the living and not of the dead,
  To dream of the man I am to wed,
  The color of his eyes, the color of his hair,
  The color of the clothes he is to wear,
  And the night the wedding is to be.

  Rock Hall, Md.