Again, eating almonds signifies a journey, its success or otherwise
being denoted by their tasting sweet or the contrary. Dreaming of grass
is an auspicious omen, provided it be green and fresh; but if it be
withered and decayed, it is a sign of the approach of misfortune and
sickness, followed perhaps by death. Woe betide, too, the person who
dreams that he is cutting grass.

Certain plants produce dreams on particular occasions. The mugwort and
plantain have long been associated with Midsummer; and, according to
Thomas Hill in his "Natural and Artificial Conclusions," a rare coal is
to be found under these plants but one hour in the day, and one day in
the year. When Aubrey happened to be walking behind Montague House at
twelve o'clock on Midsummer day, he relates how he saw about twenty-two
young women, most of them well dressed, and apparently all very busy
weeding. On making inquiries, he was informed that they were looking for
a coal under the root of a plantain, to put beneath their heads that
night, when they would not fail to dream of their future husbands. But,
unfortunately for this credulity, as an old author long ago pointed out,
the coal is nothing but an old dead root, and that it may be found
almost any day and hour when sought for. By lovers the holly has long
been supposed to have mystic virtues as a dream-plant when used on the
eve of any of the following festivals:

Christmas,
New Year's Day,
Midsummer, and
All Hallowe'en.

According to the mode of procedure practised in the northern counties,
the anxious maiden, before retiring to rest, places three pails full of