, for the feast; repeating verses
in honour of the solemnity, and calling for the black sheep. Candles are
sent from house to house and lighted up on the Samon. (The next day.)
Every house abounds in the best viands the master can afford; apples and
nuts are eaten in great plenty; the nutshells are burnt, and from the
ashes many things are foretold. Hempseed is sown by the maidens, who
believe that, if they look back, they shall see the apparition of their
intended husbands. The girls make various efforts to read their destiny;
they hang a smock before the fire at the close of the feast, and sit up
all night concealed in one corner of the room, expecting the apparition
of the lover to come down the chimney and turn the _shimee_: they throw
a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it on the reel within,
convinced that if they repeat the Paternoster backwards, and look at the
ball of yarn without, they shall then also see his apparition. Those who
celebrate this feast have numerous other rites derived from the Pagans.
They dip for apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring up one
with their mouths; they catch at an apple when stuck on at one of the
end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed
a lighted candle, and that with their mouths only, whilst it is in a
circular motion, having their hands tied behind their backs.
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