SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT MARRIAGES.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT MARRIAGES.

Marriage is attended all the world over with some very quaint superstitions. A girl who steps on the tail of a cat (say the good folk of the Yosges) Bhould give up all hope of marrying within the year. Among the same people, also, the one who arises first of the bride and bridegroom after the nuptial benediction has been pronounced, will assume command of the household. In Russia young girls anxious for their future form a circle, and scatter grains of oats at their feet. That done, one of them takes her Btand in the centre with a live cook wrapped up in a cloth, and held under her arm. Then, shutting her eyes, she turns slightly round several times before letting it loose. The girl whose grain the bird first attacks may count upon a speedy marriage ; the greater the eagerness with which the oats are eaten indicating the nearer approach of the happy day. They are just as curious at Borne, but the mode of procedure Taries. At Epiphany a shoe is thrown upon the staircase. If it alights with toe in air, the fair thrower must expect to wait another year for her husband ; on the other hand, should it remain with the heel pointing upward, her happiness is assured.