Scottish Wedding Customs
Coortin
There are an abundance of old Scottish songs, rymes and sayings that warn or advise on the best ways of securing a mate, or of the consequences of premarital sex. Magic and divination were used to foretell the future. Young women tried everything to avoid bad luck in finding a mate and the risk of becoming an old maid. Some proverbial sayings are:'Marry for love and work for siller
'They say in Fife
That next tae nae wife
The best thing is a guild wife'
'When ye tak a man, ye tak a maister'
Incantations and love potions
Incantations were performed frequently to foretell who was to be the future husband or wife:The first time a girl slept in a strange bed a ring was put on her finger, one of her shoes was placed below the bed, the bed was then entered backwards. The future husband would then be seen in a dream.'
'The maid who was desirous of seeing who was to be her future husband had to read the third verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Job after supper; wash the supper dishes and go to bed without the utterance of a single word, placing below her pillow the Bible, with a pin stuck through the verse she had read. The future husband would appear in a dream.'
More sinister perhaps are the love potions:
'The root of the orchid was dug up. The old root is exhausted and when cast in water floats - this is hatred. The new root is heavy and sinks in the water - this is love because nothing sinks deeper than love. The 'Love Root' was dried ground and secretly administered as a potion; strong love was the result.'
'Two lozenges were taken, covered with perspiration (or other bodily juices) and stuck together and given in this form to the one whose love was sought. The eating of them excited strong affection.'
In the age of reason these beliefs seem superstitious and foolish. But these were the firm beliefs of the time. The rituals and beliefs almost all contain some elements of the occult. Survivals of these customs exist today, such as the Halloween parties and particularly in the wedding ritual.
Pre-marital sex was thought badly upon. Young lads would shout at courting couples the following lines:
"Lad and lass
Wi the fite cockade
Mairrit in the coal hole
An kirkit in the barn"
or
"Cockie doss, Lad and Lass
Mairrit in a coal hole."
Some old songs also give an insight into the ways of courting, for example 'There Cam A Young Man' tells of a wooer getting rejected and bettered.