On this festival, too, the orpine or livelong has long been in request, popularly known as "Midsummer men," whereas in Italy the house-leek is in demand.

The moss-rose, again, in years gone by, was plucked, with sundry formalities, on Midsummer Eve for love-divination, an allusion to which mode of forecasting the future, as practised in our own country, occurs in the poem of "The Cottage Girl:" "The moss-rose that, at fall of dew, Ere eve its duskier curtain drew, Was freshly gathered from its stem, She values as the ruby gem; And, guarded from the piercing air, With all an anxious lover's care, She bids it, for her shepherd's sake, Awake the New Year's frolic wake: When faded in its altered hue, She reads--the rustic is untrue! But if its leaves the crimson paint, Her sick'ning hopes no longer faint; The rose upon her bosom worn, She meets him at the peep of morn." On the Continent the rose is still thought to possess mystic virtues in love matters, as in Thuringia, where girls foretell their future by means of rose-leaves.
A ceremony belonging to Hallowe'en is observed in Scotland with some trepidation, and consists in eating an apple before a looking-glass, when the face of the desired one will be seen.

It is thus described by Burns: "Wee Jenny to her granny says, 'Will ye gae wi' me, granny?
I'll eat the apple at the glass I gat frae uncle Johnny.' She fuff't her pipe wi' sic a lunt, In wrath she was sae vap'rin, She notic't na an aizle brunt Her braw new worset apron Out thro' that night.
'Ye little skelpie limmer's face! I daur you try sic sportin' As seek the foul thief ony place, For him to spae your fortune; Nae doubt but ye may get a sight! Great cause ye hae to fear it, For mony a ane has gotten a fright, And lived and died deleeret On sic a night.'" Hallowe'en also is still a favourite anniversary for all kinds of nut-charms, and St.Thomas was long invoked when the prophetic onion named after him was placed under the pillow.

Rosemary and thyme were used on St.Agnes' Eve with this formula: "St.Agnes, that's to lovers kind, Come, ease the troubles of my mind." In Austria, on Christmas Eve, apples are used for divination.

According to Mr.Conway, the apple must be cut in two in the dark, without being touched, the left half being placed in the bosom, and the right laid behind the door.