APPLE PIPS, squeezing: divination
1844
BARNES
Poems in Dorset Dialect
319–20 [fruit-pip kernel]
Sometimes shot from between the thumb and fore-finger by young folks after saying ‘Kernel come kernel, hop over my thumb, And tell me which way my truelove will come, East, west, north, or south, Kernel jump into my true love's mouth.’
1870
N & Q
4th ser. VI 340 [Lancs.]
The anxious inquirer moves round in a circle, squeezing an apple pippin between the finger and thumb, which, on pressure being employed, flies from the rind in the supposed and desired direction of the lover's residence. The following doggerel is ...