A few generations ago the people of Newfoundland believed in the supernatural in a way most people don’t today — they sort of relied on it. They used magic and charms to cure the sick, support the fishery and bolster the crops. It was a part of day-to-day living in an environment where they had little control of the forces that governed their lives.

Magic worked its way into their romantic lives too — a common object in the right hands, they believed, could reveal the identify of a future spouse, keep a sweetheart nearby and even make someone fall in love.

Heart’s Desire

A dream is a wish your heart makes. Cinderella believed it, and so did 19th century Newfoundlanders. Dreams, in encouraged, could be a window into future and had the power to could reveal the face of an unknown love.

Run of the mill dreams weren’t useful, ff someone wanted to get romantic information there were conditions to be fulfilled. Fate doesn’t tip her hand easily.

Here are two Newfoundland two dream rituals from the 1800s:

Pebbles

Planks

In both cases the hopeful dreamer has to physically venture into the unknown, literally a place they’d never been before. On top of that, they had to perform a specific act (gathering stones or counting planks).

The future, it seems, is revealed only to those bold enough to seek.

I’m not sure my ancestors really believed in this sort of divination, but I wonder what it might have been like for someone who really, really did. Would it change their actions? Give them confidence? Or what if, God forbid, they dreamt of someone they would never, ever want to marry? How did they feel then?

Come By Chance

Dreams are fine for trying to catch a glimpse of future but, if it was time to get down to brass tacks, an eye on the ground was more helpful.

Newfoundland folklore had it that if someone found a four-leafed clover they would meet their sweetheart within the next four days.

I’m imagining leaves wilting and falling day-by-day as the love-lorn waits…

It was a fragile kind of magic though, the power of the clover would only hold if it was kept it a secret. That is, you couldn’t tell people you were on the verge of falling in love. It was something they had to keep themselves.

In terms of magic, loose lips sink relationships, I guess.

It doesn’t seem to me to be a perfect magic. I mean, what if they met several potential sweethearts? How could they know which person was destined to become their true love?

Fortunately, there was another plant for that.

Cupid’s Yarrow

The yarrow plant, according to old wisdom, could be used to determine if a match was, indeed, true love.

Now, before I continue, let me be honest here: I think this one is disgusting.

To discover whether a suitor was really true, they stuck a stem of yarrow up their nose, then pictured their potential match and recited the following verse:

If they had a nosebleed, Cupid’s arrow had struck its mark, and true love had been found. If there was no nosebleed, there was no romance.

I think I prefer the ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ daisy game. Much less blood-loss.

A Little Heart’s Ease

Continuing on with the disturbing…

When it came soothing the sting of unrequited love, those without bloody noses had a plan B; they made charms to bring about love.

One such love charm starts with an apple.

Like the yarrow, this is another one of those beliefs that crosses the boundary from interesting into somewhat disturbing.

To make someone fall in love with them they had to:

What in the sinister-sweaty-pits-of-eden is that all about? I mean, I guess the would-be-lover victim unknowingly eats the tainted, sweaty apple? That’s not a nice thing to do to someone you like.

And do you want someone you don’t like to fall obsessively in love with you?

Heart’s Content

Speaking of things that are not nice, those who found love had ways of keeping it close by.

Coastal Newfoundland was (and still is) filled with coming and going. People had to leave to make a living. It separated loved ones for long periods of time.

To protect against unwanted separation, all that was needed was a black cat and a sturdy pot.

An old superstition had it that, if you wanted to keep your sweetheart from leaving the harbour, all you needed to do was trap a black cat. The trap of choice was usually a pot. As long as the cat was secured under the pot, the loved ones could stay together to their heart’s content. When the cat was released, the magic was broken and all were free to go their own way.

According to P.K. Devine, many a delayed schooner was blamed on a fisherman who’s sweetheart had a black cat under the pot.

Heart’s Delight

I don’t know how strongly most people believed these things. I think Newfoundlanders of the past were a lot like people today — a diverse bunch. Some people probably believed whole-heartedly and others were pretty skeptical. Some probably had fun with superstitions, like we do today. We do ‘loves-me, loves-me-not’ with daisy petals, look for four-leafed clovers, and remark on Friday the 13th but I don’t suppose many of us believe there’s any truth to them. It’s just fun.

That said, I’ve never been so hard up for fun I had to resort to sticking yarrow up my nose.

I still don’t know what that’s about.

Further Reading

Many of these superstitions were taken from P.K. Devine’s Folk Lore of Newfoundland in old words phrases and expressions, F.D. Bergan’s Current Superstitions: Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk and Animal and Plant Lore: Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk, Volume 7 (1899)