COURTSHIP IN MAN 45 



fiery love for each other after drinking of the love- 

 potion given to them by Brangaene. 



Love-oracles also were much in vogue in olden 

 times, and have not yet died out even among civilized 

 people. A familiar playful device for ascertaining 

 successful love, reminiscent of the old love-oracles, is 

 that of pulling out the petals of a daisy to the refrain 

 " He loves me, he loves me not." The coincidence of 

 the last petal with one of the formulas indicates the 

 result of the love. Goethe in his " Faust " lets 

 Margaret, who is in love with Faust, make use of 

 this method. There are, further, the All Hallowe'en 

 customs of finding out one's future partner by quaint 

 devices, such as looking in the mirror at midnight 

 for the reflection of the lover; and various others, too 

 numerous to be detailed. Perhaps the best-known 

 example is the still prevalent superstition that the 

 man of whom a girl dreams when she has a piece of 

 bride-cake under her pillow will eventually become her 

 husband. To the same category belongs the practice 

 of throwing apple-peel over the shoulder, in order to 

 see which letter of the alphabet it resembles when it 

 has dropped. This letter is the initial of the sweet- 

 heart to come. The device is rather interesting from 

 the fact that children have a similar game in skipping. 

 Starting with the saying: " Raspberry, gooseberry, 

 apple jam tart," they go through the alphabet whilst 

 skipping; the letter at which the child breaks down 

 in jumping over the rope is here also the first Jetter 

 of the sweetheart's name. 



An appeal to fate as an oracle can be seen in the 

 old custom of choosing a mate on St. Valentine's day, 

 of which we still have a relic in the sending of Valen- 



