School: Druim Bréan Lios (roll number 15029)

Location:
Drumbreanlis, Co. Leitrim
Teacher:
Eibhlín Nic Ghuidhir
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0228, Page 116

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0228, Page 116

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  1. XML School: Druim Bréan Lios
  2. XML Page 116
  3. XML “Tricks that Used to Be Played on Halloween”

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  1. They got lead and melted it through the key of a door into a bowl of water and whatever shape of utensils it took denoted the trade or profession of the future husband of the person who melted the lead.
    They also raked a hay ruck in the name of the devil and the future husband or wife appeared.
    They also combed their hair in the name of the devil and the future husband appeared.
    They ate a herring in the name of the devil and the future husband or wife appeared with a drink.
    They threw two nuts in the fire, put the name of a girl in the neighbourhood on the nut and the name of a boy upon another. If they burned together without sputtering out, the boy and girl would get married and live happily together. If they jumped out they would quarrel.
    The story on the next page tells how the people believedd these tricks could tell them the future. It is also told that a girl who ate a herring in three mouthfuls and expected her future husband to appear with a drink, dreamt of nothing all night but a "herring". She got married afterwards to a very thin man and believed dreaming of a herring foreshadowed him correctly.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
        1. entertainments and recreational activities (~5,933)
    2. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Halloween (~934)
    Language
    English
    Informant
    Mrs Duffy
    Gender
    Female