The best-laid schemes o' mice and men, And lea'e us nought but grief and pain, Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! The present an!- go oft wrong A noted cavern near Colean House, called the Cove of Colean; which, as well as Casilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favourite haunt of fairies.-B. S The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick.-B. Then, first and foremost, through the kail, And wandered through the bow-kail. Sae bow't that night. Then, straught or crooked, yird or nane, They roar and cry a' throu'ther; The very wee things, todlin', rin Wi' stocks out-owre their shouther: Wi' joctelegs they taste them; Syne coziely aboon the door, Wi' cannie care they've placed them The auld guidwife's weel-hoordet nitst And mony lads' and lasses' fates Some start awa wi' saucy pride, Jean slips in twa wi' tentie ee; But this is Jock, and this is me, make, go sometimes cabbage [choose close, eyes, grope, big, straight ones fool cabbage pulled stem BO crooked earth tottering over, shoulder if, pith knives then comfortably above gentle well-hoarded kindly together away over, chimney two, watchful The first ceremony of Hallowe'en is pulling each a stock or plant of cabbage. They must go out, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with; its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells-the husband or wife. If any yird, or earth, stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune; and the taste of the custoc, that is, the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or, to give them their ordinary appellation, the runts, are placed somewhere above the head of the door, and the Christian names of people whom chance brings into the house are, according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in ques tion.-B. +Burning the nuts is a famous charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut as they lay them in the fire, and accordingly as they burn quietly to gether, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will ber-B. |