28 OUR COMMON FRT7ITS. 



fancy detecting in the form it then assumed a likeness to 

 some initial : 



" I pare this pippin round and round again, 

 My shepherd's name to flourish on the plain; 

 I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head, 

 Upon the grass a perfect L is read." 



In the other magical test an apple-pip was stuck upon 

 each cheek, and the pair appropriated respectively to rival 

 suitors, when the one which first fell off indicated that 

 he whose name it bore would prove a faithless swain. 

 Thus Gray continues : 



"This pippin shall another trial make; 

 See from the core two kernels brown I take: 

 This on my cheek for Lubbeikin is worn, 

 And Booby Clod on t' other side is bo/ne. 

 But Booby Clod soon drops upon the ground, 

 A certain token that his love's unsound, 

 While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last; 

 Oh, were his lips to mine but joined as fast ! " 



In the "West of England, too, maidens would sometimes 

 gather Crab Apples in the autumn, and arrange them in 

 the loft into the initials of their suitors' names, coming 

 again to examine the letters on Old Michaelmas Day, 

 when those which were found most perfect or least affected 

 by decay were thought to indicate who would prove the 

 most fitting mates. 



On Twelfth Night the Devonshire people were formerly 

 wont to perform a ceremony, supposed to be a relic of 

 heathenism, first instituted as a sacrifice to Pomona. Car- 

 rying a pan of cyder, with roasted apples in it, to the or- 

 chard after supper, the farmer's family and his men each 

 in turn took one of the apples and a cup of the liquor, of 

 which he drank a part, then threw the rest at one of the 

 trees, chanting 



" Health to thee, good apple-tree, 

 Well to bear, pockets full, hats full, 

 Pecks full, bushel-bags full." 



Eut it was only the good bearers that were thus honoured, 

 the less fruitful trees being passed by. In some counties 

 a similar custom was observed at New Tear or Christ- 

 mas ; and in the apple districts of England it is still a 

 common thing for boys on New Tear's Eve to go " apple 



