The old mountain practice of trying fortunes seems to be a lost art. About all that remains is a memory of the strange but popular practice.
Every mountain community had at least one granny who knew no end of ways to try fortunes. Back then as soon as girl or boy either turned their thoughts to love they took occasion to drop in on the granny woman and beg an answer to their burning questions.
“What will be the color of my true love’s eyes?” the lovelorn ones would beg. “How will I know when I meet up with my true love? Will I have a mate at all or die unwed?”
It was a time when a girl put a heap of store in love charms. And the granny woman with second sight was always there to provide ways for the young ones to try their fortunes.
One had to do with a well and a mirror. The mirror was used to cast a shadow into the well. The face that appeared reflected there would be that your true love, that one you would wed.
Another one insisted that if you dropped a pebble into a spring whose branch flowed east the face of your mate would emerge when the ripples settled.
Another one called for going to the wheat field while the dew was still on the wheat and laying a piece of paper on the wheat. Pretty soon, the old ones insisted, your future mate’s name would appear on the paper.
Others said if you will put a handkerchief on the growing wheat at night and get up next morning before the sun rises you’ll found the initials of the one you’ll marry on the handkerchief.
It is supposed to be extremely lucky for a girl to be with her lover when a mockingbird sings at night. And if she puts the boy’s hat on during the song she will marry within twelve months and be happy in her choice.
Also the first dove you hear cooing to its mate will give a hint to the future if you sit right down and slip off your shoe. For there in the heel will be a hair. It will be the color of your husband’s locks.
The old ones warned never to step in front of a broom when someone is sweeping. To do so means forfeiting all chance of a marriage during the year.
From time out of memory, the number nine seems to have been lucky in working love charms.
“Eat nine redbuds in nine days,” the old ones suggested, “and the ninth boy or girl you meet will be your mate.”
Likewise, if you count nine stars every night for nine nights then put a mirror under your pillow; you will see in a dream the face of the one you are to marry.
Then, there are these ways:
Eat a crabapple without making a face and you can surely get anybody you want.
A girl who can kill a red-winged blackbird can marry at once the man she wants.
If a boy would have the love of the girl he desires, he must put the web of a goose’s foot into whatever drink she is sipping.
Finally, three saucers were placed on a table. One was empty, one filled with clear water, the third with soapy water. The one trying her fortune was blindfolded, the told to stick a finger in one of the saucers. The saucer with the clear water, if selected meant a young mate as a reward. A widow or widower was promised if the finger dipped into the soapy water. And a single blessedness was assured if the finger selected the empty saucer.
But such goings-on are only a memory now.