The custom is described by John Firth in Reminiscences of an Orkney Parish and by F. Marian MacNeil in The Silver Bough. Hallowe'en, Samhuinn, marked the entry of winter and the Celtic New Year, and MacNeil wrote that all the denizens of the other world were released for the night.
In castan the clew the girl stood at the kiln door, threw the ball of worsted down the kiln and kept the end while she wound in, saying the rhyme. MacNeil noted that some suitors made a point of hiding in the kiln to give the awaited reply.
The author of the 2019 article that gathers these items says her grandmother Jean Kirkness performed the ritual but did not admit to hearing a response.
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