MARRIAGE FORECASTS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1410, 26 June 1923, Page 2

MARRIAGE FORECASTS.

SOME QUAINT PRACTICES. Queer and picturesque old superstitions regarding the identity of a girl’s future husband still survive in Eastern Europe. On certain evenings the girls of Poland, Galacia and the Balkans drop rings, of melted lead and wax, into a bowl of water and, while fishing them out, sing old songs, verses of which foretell, as each object is caught, the peculiarities of one's future husband. A Polish country girl whose thoughts dwell on the future goes out in the evening, and shakes the usually rickety garden fence. If a dog barks in the west, her husband, she believes will come from the west. If it barks in the east he will come from the east. If no dog barks, she expects to be single. In Prussia a girl drops flowers in a glass and tries to see among them the image of her husband to be. Or she tosses a circlet of wild flowers which she has woven back over her head against a tree. If the wreath catches on a bough the first time, she will be a bride within a year. If at the second time, within two years; and so on, according to the number of times she has to make the attempt before proving successful. To dream of her future husband she places flowers under her pillow. A group of Polish country girls will put money and bits of bread into some handfuls of hay under the tablecloth. Then each girl is allowed to make a snatch. The girl who pulls out only a piece of bread will wed a poor man, and she who grasps a coin will make a wealthy marriage. Or, alone and unobserved, the maiden will go to the woodshed in the yard for an apronful of chips. Back in the kitchen she counts them. If they are an even number she will soon wed. If odd, she will long be single.. j Still another Polish marriage fore- ; cast is to be blindfolded and pick ,out j a stalk from a handful of hay. If it ' is green, she will soon marry; If brown, not until late in life if at all. • And a girl will throw a wreath or posy of wild flowers into a river. If it floats out of sight, she will marry, j If it breaks or sinks she will not. !