_On St. Agnes’ Day._--This falls on the 21st of January. You must prepare
yourself by a twenty-four hours fast, touching nothing but pure spring
water, beginning at midnight on the 20th, to the same again on the 21st;
then go to bed, and mind you sleep by yourself, and do not mention what
you are trying to any one, or it will break the spell. Go to rest on your
left side, and repeat these lines three times:
St. Agnes, be a friend to me;
In the gift I ask of thee;
Let me this night my husband see,
and you will dream of your future spouse. If you see more men than one in
your dream, you will wed two or three times; but if you sleep and dream
not, you will never marry.
_By Bride Cake._--A slice of the bride cake thrice drawn through the
wedding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried woman, will cause
her to dream of her future husband.
_By the Garter and Stocking._--The party inquiring must live in a
different county from that in which she commonly resides, and, on going to
bed, must knit the left garter about the right legged stocking, letting
the other garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following
verse, at every comma knit a knot:
This knot I knit, to know the thing I know not yet,
That I may see, the man that shall my husband be,
How he goes and what he wears,
And what he does all days and years.
Accordingly, in a dream he will appear, with the insignia of his trade or
profession.