own country, occurs in the poem of "The Cottage Girl:"

"The moss-rose that, at fall of dew,
Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,
Was freshly gathered from its stem,
She values as the ruby gem;
And, guarded from the piercing air,
With all an anxious lover's care,
She bids it, for her shepherd's sake,
Awake the New Year's frolic wake:
When faded in its altered hue,
She reads--the rustic is untrue!
But if its leaves the crimson paint,
Her sick'ning hopes no longer faint;
The rose upon her bosom worn,
She meets him at the peep of morn."

On the Continent the rose is still thought to possess mystic virtues in
love matters, as in Thuringia, where girls foretell their future by
means of rose-leaves.

A ceremony belonging to Hallowe'en is observed in Scotland with some
trepidation, and consists in eating an apple before a looking-glass,
when the face of the desired one will be seen. It is thus described
by Burns:

"Wee Jenny to her granny says,
'Will ye gae wi' me, granny?
I'll eat the apple at the glass
I gat frae uncle Johnny.'