Gaelic and Celtic Customs
from the Hebrides and Beyond
Fada's Farsaing (Far and Wide) is a series of articles by Liam O Caiside in English but with Gaelic words and phrases interwoven in the text. The articles describe a wide range of Gaelic and Celtic customs. These pages were originally published in the "Scottish Radiance" e-magazine and have been reproduced here with the kind permission of the Scottish Radiance editor, Sharma Krauskopf.
Old Scottish Methods to Find Your Future Mate
If you are looking for your perfect mate here are some old Scottish customs that can assist you
The first time you sleep in a strange bed put a ring on your finger, place one shoe under the bed and enter the bed backwards. You will see your future mate in a dream.
If you are a lady desiring to see your future mate read the third verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Job after you eat your evening meal, wash the dishes, and go to bed without the utterance of a single word, placing below your pillow the Bible, with a pin stuck through the verse you have read. Your future mate will be seen in a dream.
The first time you hear the note of a cuckoo turn around three times on the left heel against the sun, search in the hollow made by your heel and in it a hair the colour of the hair of future mate will be seen.
To see if your current lover would make a perfect mate take three stalks of blooming carl-doddie or Ribwort and strip their blossoms. Then lay them in the left shoe, which you place under the pillow. If the lover is to become your mate the three stalks will be once again in full bloom in the morning. If the lover was to prove untrue then the stalks remain without blossoms.Hope these are helpful!
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