52 
MODERN APPLE LORE. 
St. Simon and St. Jude’s Day (October 28) is generally supposed to be wet like St. Swithin’s ; 
and possibly this may explain the playfulness within doors: “A la Saint Simon et Saint Jude on 
envoi au temple, les gens un peu simple, demander des nefles (medlars) afin de les attraper et 
faire noircir par des valets.” (Scmval Antiq. de Paris II., 617). 
Apples are by this time in full abundance, and on this day they are playfully used in love 
divinations. Take an apple, pare it whole, and take the paring in your right hand, stand in the 
middle of the room and say the following verse :— 
“St. Simon and St. Jude on you I intrude 
By this paring I hold to discover, 
Without any delay, to tell me this day, 
The first letter of my own true lover.” 
Turn three times round, and cast the paring over your left shoulder, and it will form the first 
letter of your future husband’s surname. If the paring breaks into many pieces, so that no letter is 
discernible, alas ! alas! you will never marry. 
So in Gay’s Hobnelia :— 
“ 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 “ SB ” is read : 
Yet on my heart a fairer “ SB ” is seen, 
Than what the paring makes upon the green. ” 
(Shepherd’s Week — Thursday — 91.) 
It is satisfactory to remember in this case that the omen was not falsified by the event. 
Very soon afterwards the fair one exclaims :— 
“ But hold ! our Lightfoot barks and cocks his ears, 
O’er yonder stile, see Lubberkin appears ! ” 
Another method of using apples to indicate the secret destinies of love, is by means of the 
pips. The love-sick Hobnelia tries this method also :— 
“ This pippin shall another trial make : 
See, from the core two kernels brown I take, 
This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, 
And Booby-clod on t’other side is borne : 
But Booby-clod soon drops upon the ground, 
A certain token that his love’s unsound; 
While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last.” 
(Shepherds Week — Thursday — 99.) 
Another method is to give to one or more apple pips the names of one or more claimants 
for the maiden’s regard, and then to put them in the fire and watch how they burn. The charm is 
concise and runs as follows :— 
“ If you love me bounce and fly, 
If you hate me lie and die.” 
(Edwin Lees, “ Pictures of Naturep. joo.) 
Woe betide the youth whose representative smoulders away in inglorious dulness ! It is 
