TO TRY ONE'S LUCK
In a dish of mashed potatoes place a ring, a dime, and a thimble. Each guest is provided with a spoon with which to eat the potatoes; whoever gets the ring is to be married within a year; the thimble signifies single blessedness, while the dime prophesies riches or a legacy.
Some canny lassies have been known to get the ring into one of their very first spoonfuls, and have kept it for fun in their mouths, tucked snugly beneath the tongue, until the dish was emptied. Such a lass was believed to possess the rare accomplishment of being able to hold her tongue, but nevertheless tricky.
THE LOAF CAKE
A loaf cake is often made, and in it are placed a ring and a key. The former signifies marriage, and the latter a journey, and the person who cuts the slice containing either must accept the inevitable.
CYNIVER
Each girl and boy seeks an even-leaved sprig of ash; first of either sex that finds one calls out cyniver, and is answered by first of opposite sex that succeeds; and these two, if omen fails not, will be joined in wedlock.
