Divination

There was little divination at Beltane, although it plays an important part in the Hallowe’en ritual.  Among the few surviving rites are divination from a snail’s trail.  A young girl put a snail under a bowl on a table on the eve of Beltane, and next morning she tried to decipher her future husband’s name from the markings made on the table by the trail of the snail.  This was practiced in Galloway, Argyll, and elsewhere.  In many parts of the Highlands a hole was dug in the garden or somewhere near the house.  Next morning it was examined.  The presence of a living creature foretold marriage; a dead creature, widowhood; and an empty hole, non-marriage.

In Aberdeen shire, young girls went out to the fields on the first of May, always in silence, and gathered yarrow, or “hunirtleaft girss�?(hundred-leafed grass).  They shut their eyes and pulled what came first to hand, repeating the words:--

O it’s a bonnie May mornin�?
I cam t’pu the yarrow;
I hope before I go,
To see my marrow,

or sometimes:--

Good morrow, good morrow
To thee, braw yarrow,
And thrice good morrow to thee;
I pray thee tell me today or tomorrow
Wha is my true lover to be.

They then opened their eyes and looked about in all directions as far as the eye could see.  If a man was visible, the girl who spied him was to get a marrow that year.

In some districts they went out on the first night of May (again in silence), carried the yarrow home, and went to bed without speaking a word.  During the night the future husband would appear in a dream.