the windy door and passing out at the
other.[602] Or this. Go to a southward running stream, where the lands
of three lairds meet, or to a ford where the dead and living have
crossed. Dip the left sleeve of your shirt in the water. Then go home,
take off the shirt, hang it up before a fire to dry, and go to bed,
taking care that the bed stands so that you can see your shirt hanging
before the fire. Keep awake, and at midnight you will see the form of
your future spouse come into the room and turn the other side of the
sleeve to the fire to dry it.[603] A Highland form of divination at
Hallowe'en is to take a shoe by the tip and throw it over the house,
then observe the direction in which the toe points as it lies on the
ground on the other side; for in that direction you are destined to go
before long. If the shoe should fall sole uppermost, it is very unlucky
for you.[604]

[The white of eggs in water; the names on the chimney piece; the nuts in
the fire; the milk and meal; the apples in the water; the three plates.]

These ways of prying into the future are practised outside of the house;
others are observed in the kitchen or the parlour before the cheerful
blaze of the fire. Thus the white of eggs, dropped in a glass of pure
water, indicates by certain marks how many children a person will have.
The impatience and clamour of the children, eager to ascertain the exact
number of their future progeny, often induced the housewife to perform
this ceremony for them by daylight; and the kindly mother, standing with
her face to the window, dropping the white of an egg into a crystal
glass of clean water, and surrounded by a group of children intently
watching her proceedings, made up a pretty picture.[605] When the fun of
the evening had fairly commenced, the names of eligible or likely
matches were written on the chimney-piece, and the young man who wished
to try his fortune was led up blindfolded to the list. Whatever name he
put his finger on would prove that of his future wife.[606] Again, two
nuts, representing a lad and a lass whose names were announced to the
company, were put side by side in the fire. If they burned quietly
together, the pair would be man and wife, and from the length of time
they burned and the brightness of the flame the length and happiness of
the married life of the two were augured. But if instead of burning
together one of the nuts leaped away from the other, then there would be
no marriage,