Games for Hallow-een | Page 4

persons take each an end of string in mouth; whoever, by chewing string, reaches raisin first has raisin and will be first wedded.
"WHAT'S MY THOUGHT LIKE?"
The players sit in a circle and one of them asks the others: "What's my thought like?" One player may say: "A monkey"; the second: "A candle"; the third: "A pin"; and so on. When all the company have compared the thought to some object, the first player tells them the thought--perhaps it is "the cat"--and then asks each, in turn, why it is like the object he compared it to.
"Why is my cat like a monkey?" is asked. The other player might answer: "Because it is full of tricks." "Why is my cat like a candle?" "Because its eyes glow like a candle in the dark." "Why is my cat like a pin?" "Because its claws scratch like a pin."
Any one who is unable to explain why the thought resembles the object he mentioned must pay a forfeit.
TRUE-LOVER TEST
Two hazel-nuts are thrown into hot coals by maiden, who secretly gives a lover's name to each. If one nut bursts, then that lover is unfaithful; but if it burns with steady glow until it becomes ashes, she knows that her lover is true. Sometimes it happens, but not often, that both nuts burn steadily, and then the maiden's heart is sore perplexed.
KISMET
Take half as many apples as guests, tie two long strings, one red and one yellow, to each apple.
Place them in one large or several small baskets or receptacles on a table. The girls choose the red and the boys the yellow strings and at a signal they carefully pull the strings and follow them up until each finds his or her mate holding the string of the opposite color, attached to the same apple. The apples are then to be divided between each couple and the seeds in each half, counted as follows:
One--I love thee. Two--he (she) loves me. Three--Wedded we will be. Four--he (she) loves me dearly. Five--he (she) loves me nearly. Six--a friend forever. Seven--we must sever. Eight--we met too late. Nine--why hesitate. Ten--he (she) is my chosen mate.
THREADING A NEEDLE
Sit on round bottle laid lengthwise on floor, and try to thread a needle. First to succeed will be first married.
SNAPDRAGON
1. The dragon consists of half a pint of ignited brandy or alcohol in a dish. As soon as brandy is aflame, all lights are extinguished, and salt is freely sprinkled in dish, imparting a corpse-like pallor to every face. Candied fruits, figs, raisins, sugared almonds, etc., are thrown in, and guests snap for them with their fingers; person securing most prizes from flames will meet his true love within the year.
2. Or, slips of paper on which verses are written are wrapped tightly in tin-foil and placed in dish. Brandy is poured on and ignited. The verse each person gets is supposed to tell his fortune.
Place burning dish in middle of bare table, for drops of burning spirits are often splashed about.
PUMPKIN ALPHABET
Carve all the letters of the alphabet on a medium sized pumpkin. Put it on a dish and set on a stand or table. Each guest in turn is blindfolded and given a hat-pin, then led to pumpkin, where he (she) is expected to stick pin into one of the letters on the pumpkin, thus indicating the initial of future life-partner.
DOUGH TEST
Take water and meal and make dough. Write on slips of paper names of several of opposite sex friends; roll papers into balls of dough and drop them into water. First name to appear will be future husband or wife.
WATER EXPERIMENT
A laughable experiment consists in filling mouth with water and walking around house or block without swallowing or spilling a drop. First person of opposite sex you meet is your fate. A clever hostess will send two unsuspecting lovers by different doors; they are sure to meet, and not unfrequently settle matters then and there.
THE DREAMER
If a maid wishes to know whom she is to marry, if a man of wealth, tradesman, or traveler, let her, on All-Hallow-e'en, take a walnut, hazelnut, and nutmeg; grate and mix them with butter and sugar into pills, and take when she goes to bed; and then, if her fortune be to marry a rich man, her sleep will be filled with gold dreams; if a tradesman, she will dream of odd noises and tumults; if a traveler, there will be thunder and lightning to disturb her.
CELLAR STAIRS
Cellar-stairs' test is where girl boldly goes downstairs backward, holding a mirror, and trying to catch in it the features of him who is to be her mate.
AROUND THE WALNUT TREE
Of all Hallow-e'en spells and charms associated with nuts, the following is one of the oldest: If a young man or woman goes at