Current superstitions
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Title: Current superstitions
collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk
Editor: Fanny D. Bergen
Commentator: William Wells Newell
Release date: August 5, 2006 [eBook #18992]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18992
Credits: Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Julia Miller, and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT SUPERSTITIONS ***
Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Julia Miller, and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of
public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital
Libraries.)
Transcriber's Note: A number of typographical errors and inconsistencies
found in the original book have been maintained in this version. A
complete list is found at the end of the text.
CURRENT SUPERSTITIONS
COLLECTED FROM THE ORAL
TRADITION OF ENGLISH
SPEAKING FOLK
EDITED BY
FANNY D. BERGEN
_WITH NOTES, AND AN INTRODUCTION BY_
WILLIAM WELLS NEWELL
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Published for The American Folk Lore Society by
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
LONDON: DAVID NUTT, 270, 271 STRAND
LEIPZIG: OTTO HARRASSOWITZ, QUERSTRASSE, 14
1896
Four hundred and fifty copies printed,
of which this is No. ----
Copyright, 1896,
BY THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
_All rights reserved._
_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
Electrotyped and Printed by H.O. Houghton and Company.
PREFACE.
In the "Popular Science Monthly" for July, 1886, there was printed a
somewhat miscellaneous assortment of customs and superstitions under the
title: _Animal and Plant Lore of Children_. This article was in the main
composed of reminiscences of my own childhood spent in Northern Ohio,
though two or three friends of New England rearing contributed personal
recollections. Seldom is a line cast which brings ashore such an abundant
catch as did my initial folk-lore paper. A footnote had, by the advice of
a friend, been appended asking readers to send similar lore to the
writer. About seventy answers were received, from all sorts of
localities, ranging from Halifax to New Orleans. These numerous letters
convinced me that there was even then, before the foundation of the
national Society, a somewhat general interest in folk-lore,--not a
scientific interest, but a fondness for the subject-matter itself. Many
who do not care for folk-lore as a subject of research are pleased to
have recalled to them the fancies, beliefs, and customs of childhood and
early youth. A single proverb, superstition, riddle, or tradition may, by
association of ideas, act like a magic mirror in bringing back hundreds
of long-forgotten people, pastimes, and occupations. And whatever makes
one young, if only for an hour, will ever fascinate. The greater number
of those who kindly responded to the request for additional notes to my
animal and plant lore were naturally those of somewhat literary or
scientific tastes and pursuits. Many letters were from teachers, many
others from physicians, a few from professional scientists, the rest from
men and women of various callings, who had been pleased by suggestions
that aroused memories of the credulous and unreflecting period in their
own lives. The abundant material thus brought in, which consisted of
folk-lore items of the most varied kind, was read gratefully and with
pleasant surprise.
The items were assorted and catalogued after some provisional fashion of
my own. Succeeding papers issued in the "Popular Science Monthly" brought
in further accessions. I gradually formed the habit of asking, as
opportunity offered, any one and every one for folk-lore. Nurses abound
in such knowledge. Domestic help, whether housekeepers, seamstresses, or
servants, whether American or foreign, all by patient questioning were
induced to give of their full store.
The folk-lorist who chances to have a pet superstition or two of his own
that he never fails to observe, has an open-sesame to beliefs of this
sort held by any one with whom he comes in contact. The fact that I have
(I blush to confess it) a preference for putting on my right shoe before
the left has, I dare say, been the providential means of bringing to me
hundreds of bits of folk-lore. Many times has the exposure of this
weakness instantly opened up an opportunity for asking questions about
kindred customs and superstitions. I once asked an Irish peasant girl
from County Roscommon if she could tell me any stories about fairies. "Do
ye give in to fairies then, ma'am?" she joyously asked, adding, "A good
many folks don't give in to them" (believe in them, _i.e._, the fairies).
Apparently she was heartily glad to meet some one who spoke her own
language. From that hour she was ever ready to tell me tales or recall
old sayings and beliefs about the doings and powers of the "good people"
of old Ireland.
A stewardess, properly approached, can communicate a deal of lore in her
leisure hours during a three or four days' ocean trip. Oftentimes a
caller has by chance let drop a morsel that was quickly picked up and
preserved.
The large amount of botanical and zoölogical mythology that has gradually
accumulated in my hands is reserved for separate treatment. Now and then
some individual item of the sort appears in the following pages, but only
for some special reason. A considerable proportion of my general
folk-lore was orally collected from persons of foreign birth. There were
among these more Irish than of any other one nationality, but Scotch and
English were somewhat fully represented, and Scandinavians (including one
Icelander), Italians, a Syrian, a Parsee, and several Japanese
contributed to the collection.
It has been a puzzling question to decide just where to draw the line in
separating foreign from what we may call current American folk-lore. The
traditions and superstitions that a mother as a child or girl heard in a
foreign land, she tells her children born here, and the lore becomes, as
it were, naturalized, though sometimes but little modified from the form
in which it was current where the mother originally heard it. Whether to
include any folk-lore collected from oral narrators or from
correspondents, even if it had been very recently brought hither, was the
question. At length it has been decided to print only items taken down
from the narration of persons born in America, though frequent parallels
and numberless variants have been obtained from persons now resident
here, though reared in other countries.
It would be a most interesting task to collate the material embraced in
the present collection with the few published lists of American
superstitions, customs, and beliefs, and with the many dialect and other
stories, the books of travel, local histories, and similar sources of
information in regard to our own folk-lore. Equally valuable would be the
endeavor to trace the genesis of the most important of the superstitions
here set down. But the limits of the present publication make any such
attempt wholly out of the question, and the brief notes which are
appended refer to but a few of the matters which invite comment and
discussion.
Some few repetitions have been almost unavoidable, since not infrequently
a superstition might consistently be classified under more than one head;
besides, it is not unusual to find that varied significations are
attributed to the same act, accident, or coincidence. When localities are
wanting it is sometimes because the narrator could not tell where he had
become familiar with the items communicated; again, a chance
correspondent failed to note the locality. In putting on paper these
popular beliefs and notions, the abbreviated, often rather elliptical,
vernacular in which they are passed about from mouth to mouth has to a
great extent been followed.
It is impossible here to name the legion of individuals from whom the
subject-matter of the various chapters of this volume has been gathered.
But thanks are especially due to the following persons, who have
contributed largely to the contents of the book:--
Charles Aldrich, Webster City, Iowa.
Miss Ellen Beauchamp, Baldwinsville, N.Y.
John G. Bourke, Capt. 3d Cavalry U.S.A., Ft. Ethan Allen, Vt.
Miss M.A. Caller, A.C.F. College, Tuskeegee, Ala.
John S. Caulkins, M.D., Thornville, Mich.
Miss Ellen Chase, Brookline, Mass.
Miss Ruth R. Cronyn, Bernardston, Mass.
Uriah A. Greene, Flint, Mich.
Professor George M. Harmon, Tufts College, Mass.
W.J. McGee, U.S. Geol. Survey, Washington, D.C.
Hector McInnes, Halifax, N.S.
John B. Nichols, Washington, D.C.
John G. Owens,[viii-1] Lewisburg, Pa.
Prof. Frederick Reed, Talladega, Ala.
Mrs. Amanda M. Thrush, Plymouth, O.
Miss Helen S. Thurston, Providence, R.I.
Rev. A.C. Waghorne, New Harbor, N.F.
Miss Susan Hayes Ward, "The Independent," New York, N.Y.
Miss Ellen L. Wickes, Chestertown, Md.
Above all am I indebted to Mr. Newell, whose generous coöperation and
advice have been invaluable to one working under peculiar hindrances.
FANNY D. BERGEN.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 1. 15. 1896.
[viii-1] Deceased.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
I. BABYHOOD 21
Baptism.--Physiognomy.--Introduction to the World.--First
Actions.--Various.
II. CHILDHOOD 26
Asseveration.--Challenge.--Fortune.--Friendship.--
Mythology.--Punishment.--Sport.--Various.
III. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 32
Beauty.--Dimple.--Ears.--Eyes and Eyebrows.--
Finger-nails.--Foot.--Forehead.--Hair.--Hand.--Moles.--
Nose.--Teeth.
IV. PROJECTS 38
Apples.--Apple-seeds.--Babies.--Bed.--Bible.--Birds.--
Buttons.--Four-leaved Clover.--Counting.--Daisy Petals.--
Doorway.--Eggs.--Fingers.--Garments.--Letters of the
Alphabet.--Midnight.--Plants.--Ring.--Stars.--Tea-leaves.--
Walking Abroad.--Water.--Various.
V. HALLOWEEN AND OTHER FESTIVALS 55
VI. LOVE AND MARRIAGE 59
Engagement.--Attire of the Bride.--Lucky Days.--The
Marriage Ceremony.--Courting and Wedding Signs.
VII. WISHES 67
VIII. DREAMS 70
Animals.--Colors.--Dead Persons.--Earth.--Eggs.--Fire
and Smoke.--Human Beings.--Meteorological Phenomena.--Money
and Metals.--Teeth.--Water.--Weddings and Funerals.--
Miscellaneous
IX. LUCK 79
Cards.--Days.--Dressing.--Horseshoes.--Pins.--Salt.--
Sweeping.--Turning Back.--Miscellaneous.
X. MONEY 87
XI. VISITORS 89
XII. CURES 94
Amulets.--Charm.--Water.--Miscellaneous.
XIII. WARTS 101
Causes.--Cures.
XIV. WEATHER 106
Cold.--Days and Times.--Fair or Foul.--Moon.--Rain.--Wind
and Storm.
XV. MOON 117
Divination.--Fortune.--Moonlight.--Wax and Wane.
XVI. SUN 123
Domestic and Mechanical Operations.--Cures.
XVII. DEATH OMENS 125
XVIII. MORTUARY CUSTOMS 131
XIX. MISCELLANEOUS 134
Actions.--Bodily Affections.--Apparel.--Customs.--Days.--
Domestic Life.--Various.
NOTES 151
CURRENT SUPERSTITIONS.
INTRODUCTION.
The record contained in the present volume forms the first considerable
printed collection made in America of superstitions belonging to
English-speaking folk. Numerous as are the items here presented, only a
part of the matter is included, the collector having preferred to reserve
for separate presentation superstitions connected with animal and plant
lore, material which would require a space about equal to that here
occupied. Again, the present gathering by no means pretends to
completeness; while certain departments may be adequately represented,
other sections exhibit scarce more than a gleaning. The collection,
therefore, will be looked on as a first essay, subject to revision and
enlargement.
The designations of locality will suffice to show the width of the area
from which information has been obtained, as well as the degree of
similarity which appears in the folk-lore of different regions belonging
to this wide territory. Here and there may be observed items showing a
measure of originality; a new superstition may have arisen, or an ancient
one been modified, according to the fancy of an individual, in
consequence of defective memory, or in virtue of misapprehension. But on
the whole such peculiarities make no figure, nor does recent immigration
play any important part. Almost the entire body of this tradition belongs
to the English stock; it is the English population which, together with
the language, has imposed on other elements of American life its polity,
society, ethics, and tradition.
This relation is not an isolated phenomenon; on the contrary, it is
entirely in the line of experience. Language is the most important factor
which determines usage and influences character; this result is effected
through the literature, oral or written, with which, in virtue of the
possession of a particular speech, any given people is brought into
contact. In this process race goes for little. Borrowing the tongue of a
superior race, a subject population receives also the songs, tales,
habits, inclinations which go with the speech; human nature, in all times
essentially imitative, copies qualities which are united with presumed
superiority; to this process not even racial hostility is a bar;
assimilation and transmission go on in spite of hatred directed against
the persons who are the object of the imitation; such a process may be
observed in the recent history of Ireland.
Reception of new ideas, however, though promoted by the possession of a
common language constituting a means of exchange, is not limited by its
absence; on the contrary, in all historical time among contiguous races
takes place a transference of ideas which dislike and even warfare do not
prevent. Here the law seems to be that the lower culture has relatively
little effect on the higher with which it is in contact, while the
superior civilization speedily influences an inferior one. Nor is the
effect confined to the higher classes of any given society; beginning
with these, the new knowledge descends through all ranks, and everywhere
carries its transforming influence. What is true of written literature in
a less degree is true of oral; songs and tales, rites and customs,
beliefs and superstitions, diffuse themselves from the civilization which
happens to be in fashion, with a rapidity greater or less according to
the interworking of a multitude of modifying forces. In the other
direction, from the lower culture to the higher, exchange is slow, albeit
likely to be promoted, in certain cases, by peculiar conditions, such as
the deliberate literary choice which seeks opportunity for archaistic
representation, or the respect which an advanced race may have for the
magical ability of a simple tribe, believed to be nearer to nature, and
therefore more likely to remain in communion with natural forces.
But these exceptional effects are of small relative moment; the general
principle, continually at work, in the main controls the result. In
regard to the themes of stories especially, the many tongues and dialects
of Western Europe offer scarcely more variation than will be often found
to exist among the versions of the same tale which may be discovered in a
single canton. The spirit of the language, already mentioned as
constituting the element of nationality, taking possession of this common
stock of knowledge, moulds its precise form and sentiment in accordance
with its own character; it is in details, rather than in outlines, that
racial differences are found to exist; this principle applies in a
considerable degree in the field of folk-tales, even between cultures so
opposite as those of Western Europe and Western Africa.
In the case of superstitions, the diffusive process, though less rapid or
effectual than in tales, is nevertheless continually active; in Europe,
at least, a similar identity will probably be discovered. But in this
category the problem of separating what is general, because human, from
that which is common, because diffused, always a complicated task, will
be found more difficult than in literary matter, and without the aid of
extensive collection insoluble. It is possible to fall back on the
consideration that, after all, such resolution matters not very much,
since in any case the survival of the belief indicates its humanity, and
for the purpose of the study of human nature borrowed superstitions may
be cited as confidently as if original in the soil to which they have
emigrated, and where they have indissolubly intertwined themselves with
thought and habit.
Again, it is to be considered that while differences of speech impede,
but do not prevent integration, changes of condition may have an
immediate effect in producing differentiation. Protestantism, by
banishing complicated usages connected with sacred days, has caused
English folk-lore to vary from Continental; so far this contrast seems a
result of the alterations of the last three hundred years, rather than of
more remote inconsistency.
If these remarks are in any degree valid, it follows that from the
presence or absence of any particular item of belief in this or that
English-speaking district no conclusion is to be drawn; the deficiency
must be supposed to proceed from absence of record, and seldom to depend
on the structure of the population. To this general doctrine, as usual
with such propositions, may be observed minor exceptions. Whatever doubts
may be cast on the operation of the principle as applicable to England,
there can be no doubt that it is valid in the United States and Canada.
It is not, however, intended to assert that the contributions of the
entire region covered in this collection are identical in character. On
the contrary, it will be seen that the record made in certain districts,
as for example in Newfoundland and among the Mountain Whites of the
Alleghanies, presents superstition as more primitive and active than in
the eastern United States. But this vitality is only to be regarded as
the persistence of a stock once proper to English-speaking folk, and by
no means as indicating a diversity of origins.
The chief value of a collection such as the present consists in the light
it may be made to cast on the history of mental processes; in other
words, on its psychologic import.
To appreciate this value, it is needful to understand the quality in
which superstition really consists. This distinguishing characteristic is
obscured by the definitions of English dictionaries, which describe
superstition as a disease, depending on an excess of religious sentiment,
which disposes the person so affected to unreasonable credulity. In the
same spirit, it has been the wont of divines to characterize superstition
and unbelief as opposite poles, between which lies the golden mean of
discreet faith. But this view is inadequate and erroneous.
The manner of conception mentioned has been borrowed from Latin and Greek
writers of the Roman republic and of the Imperial period. In primitive
Roman usage, _superstitio_ and _religio_ were synonyms; both, perhaps,
etymologically considered, expressed no more than that habit of careful
consideration with which a prudent man will measure the events which
encounter him, and determine his conduct with a view to consequences.
_Superstitio_ may have indicated only the _overstanding_ of the
phenomenon, the pause necessary for its deliberate inspection. By Cicero
a distinction was made; the word was now employed to designate a state of
mind under the influence of supernatural terrors. In the Greek tongue a
similar conception was expressed by the word _deisidaimonia_, or fear of
dæmons, a term in bad odor as associated with practices of Oriental
temple worship representing primitive conceptions, and therefore odious
to later and more enlightened Hellenic thought. Established as a synonym
of the Greek noun, _superstitio_ received all the meaning which Plutarch
elaborated as to the former; the idea of that excellent heathen, that
true piety is the mean between atheism and credulity, has given a sense
to the word superstition, and become a commonplace of Christian hortatory
literature.
It is, however, sufficiently obvious that the signification mentioned
does not have application to the omens recorded in the present volume,
the majority of which have no direct connection with spiritual beings,
while it will also be allowed that these do not lie without the field
ordinarily covered by the word superstition. For our purposes, therefore,
it is necessary to enlarge this definition. This may be done by
emphasizing the first component part of the word, and introducing into it
the notion of what has been left over, or of survival, made familiar by
the genius of Edward B. Tylor. In these lingering notions we have
opinions respecting relations of cause and effect which have resulted as
a necessary consequence from past intellectual conditions. A
superstition, accordingly, I should define as a belief respecting causal
sequence, depending on reasoning proper to an outgrown culture. According
to this view, with adequate information it would be possible to trace the
mental process in virtue of which arise such expectations of futurity,
and to discover the methods of their gradual modification and eventual
supersession by generalizations founded on experience more accurate and
extensive. Yet it is not to be assumed that in each and every case such
elucidation will be possible. In all human conduct there is an element
which cannot be designated otherwise than as accidental; this uncertainty
appears to be greater, the reaction against the natural conditions less
definite, the more primitive is the life. It is impossible to forecast in
what manner a savage may be impressed by an event of which he can note
only external conditions, or how his action may respond to the
impression. One may guess what opinion an augur would form concerning the
appearance of a single eagle or raven; but it would be labor lost to
attempt to conjecture the manner in which the imagination of the observer
would explain a flight of these birds, or what complicated rules augural
art might evolve to guide the interpretation.
This accidental quality, and the arbitrariness with which phenomena are
judged to be ominous, will be visible in the numerous "signs" here
recorded. At first sight, it may be thought that extreme folly is their
salient quality. Yet if we take a wide view the case is reversed; we are
surprised, not at the unintelligibility of popular belief, but at its
simplicity, and at the frequency with which we can discern the natural
process of unsystematic conjecture. Such judgments are not to be treated
with derision, as subjects of ridicule, but to be seriously examined, as
revealing the natural procedure of intelligence limited to a superficial
view of phenomena.
This consideration leads to an important remark. The term survival
expresses a truth, but only a part of the truth. Usages, habits,
opinions, which are classed as superstition, exhibit something more than
the unintelligent and unconscious persistence of habit. Folk-lore
survives, and popular practices continue, only so long as endures a
method of thinking corresponding to that in which these had their origin.
Individual customs may be preserved simply as a matter of thoughtless
habit; yet in general it is essential that these usages should be related
to conscious intellectual life; so soon as they cease to be so
explicable, they begin to pass into oblivion.
The chapters of this collection, therefore, will emphasize the doctrine
that the essential elements of human nature continue to exist, however
opposite may be the actions in which its operations are manifested. In
examining many of the maxims of conduct here set forth, we are able to
understand the motives in which they had their being; we perceive that
the inclination has not disappeared, however checked by mediation through
complex experience, and however counteracted by the weight of later
maxims. The examiner finds that he himself shares the mental state of the
superstitious person; if not, he can easily make an effort of imagination
which will enable him to comprehend its evident reasonableness. Thus,
while superstitions are properly designated as survivals, it will in many
cases be found that they represent a survival of ratiocination as well as
of action.
In some striking examples, also, it happens that the modern notion
indicates the continuance of conceptions more ancient than a mass of
connected ideas which have wholly perished. The former endure, because,
being simple in their nature, they represent a human impulse, an impulse
which animated the prehistoric ancestor as well as the modern descendant.
When this tendency ceases to operate, the plant suddenly withers. So it
is that an elimination of these beliefs, which formed the science of
remote antiquity, has taken place in our own century, which has worked a
change greater than fifty preceding generations, because it has been able
to introduce generalizations with which ancient notions and habits are
perceived no longer to coincide.
As illustrations of the psychologic value of the material, it may be
permitted to offer brief comments on the several sections.
In the usages of mothers and nurses, it is interesting to observe with
what persistence survives the conception that the initial action of the
series determines the character of events sequent in order. It is still a
universal practice to consecrate every baby by a rite not ecclesiastical.
The infant, on his first journey, must be taken to a height symbolic of
his future fortune, an elevation believed to secure the prosperity of his
whole subsequent career. It would be of interest to learn what analogies
the practice has among races in a primitive condition of culture. The
babe of the Pueblo of Sia, when on the fourth day (four being a sacred
number) for the first time he is taken from the dark chamber, is ritually
presented to his father the Sun; similarly, in a superstition of the
present series (I know not how generally observed) Sunday is said to be
the day on which the infant is first to be carried into the sunshine. It
is likely that such continuing customs represent feeble echoes of
pre-Christian dedicatory ceremonies, which in the first instance were
themselves founded on a corresponding habit of thought; according to an
opposite, yet connected system of notions, we find Protestant
Christianity still preserving a memento of the world-old and universal
belief in a crowd of malicious spirits, prepared at every moment to take
up their residence in the convenient shelter of the human frame, as a
hermit crab watches for a suitable shell in which to make his home. It
must be owned that the volume of observances connected with infancy, here
presented, is very inadequate; it is certain that a nurse of a century
ago would have been familiar with a vastly more extensive array of duties
and cautions. As we go back in time and culture, action becomes more
restricted. Where the effects of any line of conduct are unknown,
adherence to precedent is all-important; every part of the life must be
administered according to a complicated system of rules, while common
prudence is considered as inseparable from religious obligation.
The following section presents us with interesting material, in the
exhibition of ideas and customs which are maintained by children
themselves, and which they learn from one another rather than from their
elders. It is true that these are of necessity the reflection of the
conceptions and practice of older persons; but, according to the law of
their nature, it is found that children often exhibit a peculiar
conservatism, in virtue of which habits of thought still exercise
control, which among men and women have been outgrown. This is
illustrated in popular games and songs which children have orally
preserved; and the same is true of their superstitions. Women,
especially, who may peruse this collection will be surprised to find how
many of the items here recorded will seem familiar, and at the same time
to have received credence; in the case of a particularly clear-minded
person, free from any disposition toward credulity, nearly a hundred of
these superstitions were remembered. The ideas in question, perhaps at no
time more than half believed, have frequently altogether faded into
oblivion.
Attention should be paid, also, to the imaginative power of the youthful
mind, and the manner in which beliefs are visualized, and appear as
realities of perception. To illustrate this principle have been included
a few examples belonging rather to individual than to general opinion.
The little girl who without any direct instruction imagines that the
light of the heaven gleams through the orifices we call stars, who sees
celestial beings in meteor form winging their way across the skies, or
who is surrounded by the benevolent spirits which her discriminating
education, banishing the terrors of the supernatural world, has permitted
to exist for her comprehension, illustrates that readiness of fancy and
control of vision by expectation which belongs to humanity in the reverse
degree of the reflective habit. Herein childish conceptions and vivacity
of feeling represent the human faculty which education may control but
cannot obliterate.
Beliefs relating to the influence of physiognomy present us with a very
limited anthology of popular ideas, which in elaborate developments have
been expanded into pseudo-sciences, and fill whole libraries of learned
misinformation. These notions may be divided into two classes. On the one
hand appear indications founded on natural analogies, as when we still
speak of close-fistedness. On the other side, many of these associations
are arbitrary, as when the study of spots on the nails is supposed to
give means for determining future fortune. Such conclusions depend partly
on the correct opinion that in the cradle lies the future man, with all
elements of his complex nature, and partly on external marks, the
interpretation of which is purely arbitrary.
The chapter on "Projects" presents the reader with a class of usages,
sufficiently foolish when considered in themselves, but none the less
demanding attention, as exhibiting, in full energy, the survival, at the
end of the nineteenth century, of the practice of divination. It is true
that these attempts to forecast the future are commonly made in a
sportive manner and only with partial belief, being now for the most part
reduced to social sports. They belong also almost exclusively to the
female sex, who by way of amusement still keep up rites which are to
determine the future partner in life. Yet that these observances were
formerly performed with sober forethought may be seen by the
superstitious character with which in retired districts they are still
invested; it is likely that in this limited field we have the final
echoes of ceremonies employed to determine action and to supply means for
the estimation of every species of good or evil fortune. Among these
customs a considerable part may be of relatively recent origin, but a
number are undoubtedly ancient.
Particularly remarkable is the word by which in the English folk-lore of
America, at least, these practices seem to have been popularly entitled.
Dictionaries give no aid in explaining the signification of the word
"project," here used in the sense of a ceremony of divination. I cannot
offer any explanation as to the probable antiquity of the term; neither
middle-Latin nor Romance languages seem to offer parallels. One might
guess that if all were known, the use might be found to proceed from the
special language of mediæval magic or astrology (perhaps
mirror-divination).
With practices of this sort has been connected an incident of colonial
history. During the accusations brought against alleged witches of Salem,
Massachusetts, in 1692, the chief agents were a group of "children"
belonging to a particular neighborhood of that town. It has been asserted
that these young persons, previous to the outbreak of the excitement,
formed a "circle" of girls in the habit of meeting for the purpose of
performing "magical tricks" (to use a phrase employed by Cotton Mather),
and that it was experience so acquired that fitted them for the part
afterwards played in the trials. This statement has been repeated by so
many recent writers as to become a commonplace of accepted history; it
would seem, however, that the representation depends on the invention of
a modern essayist, who transferred to the colonial period ideas derived
from his acquaintance with the phenomena of contemporary spiritualistic
_séances_, and that the habit of "trying projects," no doubt universal in
colonial times, had nothing to do with the delusion in question. (See
note, p. 153.)
Ancient popular divination would, as a matter of course, have taken a
ritual character, and been associated especially with particular seasons.
It is therefore more than an accident, that many of these harmless
observations seem especially connected with Halloween. The Day of All
Saints, of which name our English title is a translation, precedes that
of All Souls; for the institution and significance of both the church has
its explanation. Yet this account is not the correct one: these feasts
descend, not from any Christian ecclesiastical ordination, but from an
ancient festival of the dead; they represent the survival of a
celebration which probably consisted in the bestowing on the departed,
after the ingathering of the harvest, his share of the fruits of the
ground, conveyed by direct material administration. That at such a period
spirits of the dead should be supposed to walk the earth, would be a
matter of course; in early time these would be conceived as returning in
order to behold and join the sacred dances of the tribe. Accordingly,
there seem to be indications showing an original association of some of
these usages with the lower world; such may be the significance of the
backward movement, or the inversion of garments, occasionally
recommended. In order to put one's self in connection with the world of
darkness, it is essential to reverse the procedure which is proper for
the realm of light. This principle, appearing in mediæval magic, could
also be illustrated from savage custom. It can hardly be doubted that the
limitation of such forecasts to the field of choosing partners for life
is but a survival of an older practice, in which divinations of fortune
in other directions also were sought; on the day sacred to the dead, it
may be that the latter, as having power and knowledge, were invoked to
act as illuminators. The stress laid on dreams appears to imply a
practice of evoking spirits, whether of the deceased or of the living.
In the division entitled "Love and Marriage" we are dealing not with
ceremonies, but "signs;" in the former case a voluntary action is implied
in the consulter of fate; in the latter, the subject is passive. The word
"signs" is a popular term for omens of any kind; in this case we cannot
be in error in seeking a Latin derivation, _signum_ being classically
used in this sense. Here, again, the prognostics in question are
respected only by women, and at the present time, with but a light
admixture of genuine credulity, unless among people of secluded
districts, retaining old-world notions. Foolish as are these ideas of
sequence, they indicate a habit of association anciently prevalent, which
in early times had the most serious consequences.
The gathering of expectations relating to "Wishes" shows that the name
and idea of folk-lore must not be limited to primitive beliefs, or to the
ideas of uneducated persons. The assumption that an occurrence, neither
unusual nor characterized by any correspondent quality, may promote the
fulfilment of a contemporaneous desire, illustrates the arbitrary nature
of a considerable part of this lore. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted
that many of these beliefs, if they could be followed back to their
origins, would be found to exhibit some process of consistent though
erroneous reasoning, as exhibited in the case of wishes made with
reference to the state of the moon, hereafter to be mentioned. It is also
to be observed that prayer to the evening star forms a feature of the
usages in question.
Of dreams we are presented with a series in some degree representing
their function in surviving belief. The comparison of these with dream
books, still sold and used, and with a more extensive collection of
superstitions, retained in this and other continents, would no doubt
offer curious results. At present attention may be called only to one
remarkable trait, namely: the interpretation of dreams by contraries.
This practice I conceive to be altogether modern, and to have resulted
from the extension of scientific culture, which has lead to the discredit
of more direct explanations. So far as I am aware, dreams in literature,
ancient or mediæval, are always presumed symbolically to represent the
future, and to be capable of straightforward interpretation.
The usages of folk-medicine form a wide subject, which would occupy many
volumes such as the present; a mere bibliography of the literature could
not be included in the number of pages here allowed. The gleaning, also,
is in this case very imperfect; the greater number of such "Cures" would
fall in that part of the subject here omitted, relating to the function
of animals and plants. In this field, conceptions formerly operative have
not yet disappeared; "the doctrine of signatures," that is to say, the
rule that the healing object is indicated by its resemblance to the organ
affected, has scarcely passed into oblivion, while popular systems of
treatment are still based on rules not essentially different. In addition
to this guiding idea, an exorcistic method has survived; in our folk-lore
is retained the removal of the trouble in virtue of its transfer to
another place or person. Especially in the significant case of warts,
such rule of early medicine operates with full force. Here, as in other
instances, the obscure influence of suggestion plays a complicated part;
belief in the efficacy of any system of treatment appears sufficient to
promote its effect. These charms are perhaps sometimes effective, even
although no conscious attention is paid to the process; but to enter on
this field would be foreign to the present discussion. It is sufficient
to point out that in popular belief the preservation of the theory goes
hand in hand with the survival of the practice.
Weather proverbs form an extensive body of popular observations, here
only partially recorded. From the psychologic point of view, the
principal interest attaches to the mental causes of these prognostics.
Collectors have generally assumed that in this field experience is at the
basis of a great part of the alleged knowledge. It may be so with a few
of the simpler signs; yet, even in respect to these, great diversity is
visible. In general, I should myself attach small importance to this
consideration. Remarkable in man regarded as an intellectual being is the
variation to be observed in the effect of experience. In certain
relations of daily life the savage is as quick to learn, and as accurate
in his judgment, as civilized man; mention need only be made of his skill
in the hunt, and his intimacy with the forest. But under complicated
conditions, whenever this action falls outside of daily habit, he appears
incapable of profiting by observation; on the contrary, it is usually
imagination which dictates presumed experience. The latter rarely
corrects a superstition; as already remarked, discovery of error in the
application of inherited theory is applied only to increase the
complexity of the formula. Not until the existence of a means of record,
and the formation of a body of observations capable of methodical
arrangement, is an erroneous belief superseded, when the true causes of
the events become manifest; of this principle ideas respecting the
weather constitute good illustrations.
Students of this collection will be surprised by the number and vitality
of formulas and beliefs relative to the moon. It is probable that the
majority of the readers of the male sex will have no other associations
with the newly born moon than that poetic sentiment which delights in the
vision of the faint sickle silver through the twilight; if they possess
any further association with the planet, it is likely to be no more than
a vague dread of the effect of its radiance falling on a sleeper. Women,
on the contrary, will remember that the moon should be first seen not
"full face," but "over the the[TN-1] right shoulder;" they will be aware
that with such vision may be united a wish, to which jesting fancy
assigns a probability of accomplishment. But these, also, will be
surprised by the discovery that lunar divination is maintained with
profound seriousness, and that the honor paid to the orb is nothing else
than a continued worship, still connected with material blessings
expected from its bounty.
This record reveals the central principle and natural cause of moon
worship, by making clear the effect still ascribed to the variation of
the luminary. It is the night which is especially the season of primitive
worship; from times long antecedent to written history, as well among the
lowest savages as among tribes possessing the beginnings of civilization,
changes of the starry heavens have been the object of devout
contemplation and of reverent study. To the watcher it is the rapid
growth of the lunar crescent that is the most distinctive feature of
differences between the nights, an alteration which could not but be
supposed to exercise control over human and animal life. According to
natural processes of thought, it was inevitable that during the time when
it so rapidly increases, and becomes dominant in the sky, the principle
of growth should appear to prevail; and on the other hand, that the time
of lunar diminution should be the season of decay. Hence the conclusion,
probably prevalent in all times and countries, that designs and
undertakings which expect increase should belong to the new moon, and
that only operations which aim at the annihilation of existence should be
carried on during the waning quarter. In Hellenic antiquity, the dark of
the moon is mentioned as the suitable time for magical operations; for
such, no doubt, as were concerned with a forwarding of life. Our
collection exhibits the full survival of the usage and theory. It is the
new moon to which is dedicated the money that under its expanding
influence will be sure to multiply; it is at such time that the seed is
to be put into the ground. On the contrary, the abolishment of pests and
diminution of objects in which shrinkage is desired may be obtained by
connecting these with the waning sphere.
Lunar change has had an important connection with ancient myth as well as
with primitive ritual. For the reason indicated, the crescent was
assigned as an emblem to goddesses of growth. This ornament passed from
Cybele and Diana to Mary; as on the vault of St. Mark's the Virgin wears
the starry robe of the earlier goddess, so on garden walls of Venice she
stands crowned with the crescent, in the same manner as the divinities
whom she has superseded. In this connection is especially to be
considered the habit of personification implied in our English rhymes. Of
late, the doctrine which perceives in myth a symbolic expression of the
forces of nature has fallen into comparative discredit, a contempt
explicable in view of the unscientific manner in which "sun-myths" have
been exploited; our English sayings, therefore, are to be received as a
welcome demonstration that one must not proceed too far in his attitude
of doubt. If the popular mind, to-day, and in a country particularly
accessible to the influences of modern culture, worships the personified
moon, it may be considered as certain that antiquity did the like.
Mythology is woven out of so many strands that goddesses like Artemis and
Diana may have been much more than lunar personifications; but I think it
can scarce be doubted that in a measure such they were.
There is to be noted a most important characteristic of modern
superstition, namely, that the original usage, and also the primitive
theory, has sometimes continued the longest, because founded on the
broadest and most human foundation. The modern survival exhibits those
fundamental conceptions out of which grew the complicated rites and
elaborate mythologies of ancient religions. In this manner, as from a
height of observation, we are able to look back beyond recorded history,
and to trace the principles of historic development. So may be elucidated
problems which neither metaphysical speculation nor historical research
has proved adequate to expound. Comparative study of folk-lore has placed
in our hands a key which ingenious theorists, proceeding with that
imperfect knowledge of antiquity which can be gathered from books, have
lacked, and for the want of which they have wandered in hopeless error.
In modern folk-belief the influence of the sun is less directly apparent.
The custom of saluting the rising orb, with which the day was once begun,
or of ascending high places where the benediction of the luminary could
be obtained, and the direct reverence to solar rays belonging to all
primitive life, survives only in the vague symbolism which, until very
lately, has caused churches to be built on hills. But a single essential
feature of sun-worship still survives, not only among ignorant and
isolated peasants, but in the households and among the matrons of
educated English-speaking folk. To this significant relic, so far as I
know, Mrs. Bergen has been the first to direct attention. That the sun
moves in a particular course must have been one of the first observations
which primitive man made in regard to the movements of celestial bodies.
His cardinal rule being to perform everything decently and in order, it
followed that the precedent set in heaven was to be imitated on earth. In
any operation for which success must be sought, progress must be
sun-wise; the reverse order could be suitable only for operations of
destructive magic, tending to undo natural sequences. Nevertheless, even
primitive man has a passion for originality, a desire to obtain
peculiarly intimate relations with nature, which may be to the advantage
of his own people; probably from this consideration certain American
tribes have reversed the ceremonial order, so far at least as to make
their processional movements in the opposite direction; but our modern
customs or household life show, among the ancestors of English folk, that
the sun-wise circuit entered not only into the religious life, but also
mingled with and directed the most ordinary actions. Little does the
modern housewife, who in beating the egg instinctively stirs her spoon in
one direction,--a form of movement usually recommended by no conscious
association of ideas,--imagine that in the method of her action she is
bearing testimony to the deepest ethical and ceremonial conceptions of
remote ancestors; yet there can be no doubt that such is the case. Here
also prevails the remarkable principle to which attention has already
been directed. The mythology of the ancient worship has perished, but the
notion which inspired the ritual practice has survived; sun-worship is
thus shown to have been characteristic of our forefathers, as indeed, in
all probability, it was an original feature of primitive human life. In
this case, also, could we go back a little way in time, we should
probably find a conception of the sun as a personal being united with
usages arising from contemplation of this path.
It is always found that especial conservatism attaches to customs and
ideas associated with death; the disinclination to exercise independent
thought on a subject so serious leaves the field open for the continuance
of ancestral notions and practices. It is therefore natural that the
volume of superstition associated with the end of life should only be
paralleled by that connected with the marriage relation. A vast number of
actions and experiences still pass as the "signs" of approaching
departure. As in omens generally, the prevailing principle is usually the
effect of association of ideas; the shock to the nerves consequent on the
imagination of the occurrence is, in the popular fancy, inseparable from
belief in its reality. Hence the general tendency to insist on
euphemistic speech, the required abstinence from unpleasant suggestions,
the _favete linguis_ of the Roman. In this body of deeds to be avoided,
ancient and modern notions are interwoven. One must not pass under a
ladder, for a ladder is used in modern executions; one must not carry a
spade through the house, for with a spade is dug a grave. More in
accordance with fundamentally human ideas, the delicate rose of fall
presages the untimely waning of a youthful life. As with all
superstition, the sign is not merely the prediction of an event; it is
felt that as the avoidance of the omen would be to escape its
consequence, so the careless action, in becoming the presage of calamity,
is likewise its cause. Here appear natural antinomies of human thought:
on the one hand, the sense of the inevitableness of the designated fate;
on the other hand, the consciousness of ability by altering conditions to
change conclusions. Thus the thoughts and actions of primitive man are
inspired by the same contending intellectual forces which in later time
appear under the guise of warring philosophies.
Still more remarkable are the remains of world-old usage, wherein may be
remarked tendencies which have formerly been expressed in elaborate
rituals. In customs relating to death, a controlling feature is that
sense of individual possession which has been prevalent from a time
antecedent to the rudimentary beginnings of civilization. To early man,
doubt is but a change of state; the head of the household, in his place,
be it the tumulus erected for his shelter, be it the distant land to
which his spirit has been transported, holds the same rights and is
entitled to the same privileges which on earth he enjoyed. His wives, his
slaves, his steeds, his arms, are his own,[TN-2] property, which none dare
meddle with, inasmuch as the departed, now more than heretofore, has the
power to enforce his title. In a measure, therefore, these possessions
must accompany him on his voyage, and remain with him in his new abode.
But this deprivation is too great: in the natural course of things, the
living cannot waive so much and continue to live. A part is given for the
whole; substitution takes the place of direct offering. The dead is no
more to be received among the living, bringing with him, as he does, a
claim on other lives; by many methods, by concealment, placation,
substitution, ritual exile, he must be banned to the place where only on
occasions he may be sought and consulted. One of these methods of
avoidance is the habit of making the return of the funeral procession so
intricate that the spirit may be deceived in its attempt to retrace the
route; it is perhaps a consequence of this manner of thought that even
now, in retired districts, it is held unwise for the mourners to return
on the same path by which they proceeded.
These usages change their character, inasmuch as the original intent of
ceremonial actions being forgotten, acts intended to secure more
practical ends are performed in order to correspond to supposed
obligations of decency. Such is the case with the arrangement of the
chamber of death, with the stoppage of the clock, of which traces are
found in customary usage; so it is with the inversion of garments, of
which also in our lore traces seem to linger. Different, perhaps, is the
idea underlying the covering of the mirror; indications show that the
practice was once extended to all objects in the room, which formerly
seems to have been draped with white cloth. The object appears to have
been to protect domestic objects from the contamination caused by contact
with the dead, which would protect them from subsequent employment by the
living, who otherwise could not with safety associate themselves with the
other world, just as even at the present time it is not held lucky to
wear the garments of the departed. In the same manner the Mosaic law
commanded the Israelite to cover, at the time of death, the vessels used
in his tent. It has been remarked that white, and not black, is the
proper color for such drapery. The association of white with the dead, as
the hue of mourning, is ancient; it appears to me that the idea of ritual
purity, expressed by the color, is at the bottom of the custom. In
Hellenic times white continued to be the hue most closely associated
with the dead, albeit black, as the sign of melancholy, was also
introduced. The character of funeral rites, from Western Europe to Japan,
exhibits a similarity which, in my judgment, is to be explained only on
the supposition of very early and long continued historical contact,--a
contact otherwise demonstrable.
On the other hand, a world-old custom, which may be set down as human and
universal, dictated, and among all nomadic peoples continues to dictate,
the abandonment of any habitation in which a death has occurred. The
obvious motive is expressed in a surviving superstition that a second
decease is likely to follow a first. Death, naturally impersonated and
identified with the spirit of the departed, will return to the place
where he has once made himself at home, and in which he has proprietary
rights. This idea constitutes a superstition which stands directly in the
way of progress; thus the Navajo refuses to build a house, which at the
first mortality among his family it would be necessary to desert. The
cause of the general custom is to be sought, not in any sanitary
principle, but in the associations explained, acting with superstitious
force. In the course of time and with the advance of culture such
desertion is no longer possible, and some means must be found by which
the requirement shall be evaded; the desired escape is effected by such
alterations as shall vary the character of the mansion and indicate it as
a new place of abode, not subject to the perils of the home invaded by
death.
The remarks which have been offered are presented only by way of
suggestions which could be indefinitely extended. To construct a
commentary on the body of beliefs presented in this volume would be an
enticing but a laborious task; such notes, also, would far exceed in
volume the compass of this work. Besides, as originally remarked, the
present collection contains but a part of the volume of surviving
superstitions. For these reasons, it will be possible to proceed no
farther.
In commending this collection to the attention of psychologists, and to
the continuing industry of students of folk-lore, I need only express my
hope that it may be sufficient to make clear how far-reaching are the
studies for which folk-lore supplies material. The history of religion,
the theory of mythologies, cannot afford to overlook modern popular
beliefs, in which ancient conceptions appear as still effective. In the
same way, archæology, regarded only as the investigation of monuments and
literatures, and dissociated from the observation of continuing human
life, is devoid of inspiration and vitality. These studies, when
accompanied with disregard of the existing world, and indifference to the
fortunes and relations of humanity as a whole, remain not only
incomplete, but positively misleading, and devoid of their best claim on
respect and attention. It is to be hoped that this interesting
collection, made under so many difficulties, will have a useful effect in
helping to emphasize this truth, and to render obvious the possible uses
of traditional information.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Dec. 24, 1895.
CURRENT SUPERSTITIONS.
CHAPTER I.
BABYHOOD.
1. The bairn that is born on fair Sunday
Is bonny and loving, and blithe and gay.
Monday's bairn is fair in the face,
Tuesday's bairn is full of grace,
Wednesday's bairn is loving and giving,
Thursday's bairn works hard for a living,
Friday's bairn is a child of woe,
Saturday's bairn has far to go.
_Massachusetts._
2. Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is sour and sad,
Thursday's child is merry and glad,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonny, good and gay.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
(Some put it, Sunday's child shall never know want.)
3. He who is born on New Year's morn
Will have his own way as sure as you're born.
4. He who is born on an Easter morn
Shall never know want, or care, or harm.
5. A child born on a saint's day must bear the saint's name. It is
unlucky to take away the day from it.
_Catholic superstition._
6. Thursday has one lucky hour, just before sunrise, for birth.
BAPTISM.
7. If a child cries during baptism, it is the devil going out of it.
_Niagara Falls, Ont._
8. It is lucky for the child to cry at baptism, but unlucky for the
godmother to wear mourning.
9. If twins are brought to baptism at the same time, christen the boy
first, or else he will have no beard, and the girl will be beggared.
PHYSIOGNOMY.
10. An open hand in a baby is a sign of a generous disposition, but a
habit of closing the fingers indicates avarice, or, as we say,
closefistedness.
_Cambridge, Mass._
11. If a child "favors its father," it is good luck for it. It will get
on well in the world.
_Salem, Mass._
12. A baby that has two crowns will live in two continents or kingdoms.
_Massachusetts._
13. A double crown on the head means that the owner will "break bread in
two kingdoms."
_Northern Ohio._
14. "Two crowns will never be satisfied." This is a sign of a very
changeable disposition.
_Chestertown, Md._
15. A baby born with a veil over its face has good luck.
_General._
16. A child born with a veil over its face will never be drowned. Many
sailors are known to wear the caul, with which they were born, about the
person as a charm against death by drowning.
_Sailor's superstition._
INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD.
17. Take the baby first into the sunlight on Sunday. Put it into short
clothes and make all changes on that day.
18. To make a child rise in the world, carry it upstairs (or to the
attic) first.
_Mifflintown, Pa._
19. The baby must go upstairs before it goes downstairs, or it will never
rise in the world.
_Massachusetts._
20. To be a bright baby, it must go up before it is carried down, and it
must be bumped to the attic roof for luck.
_New England._
21. A young baby was taken up a short step-ladder by its nurse before
being for the first time carried downstairs lest it should die before it
was a year old.
_Holyoke, Mass._
22. A child will have a nature and disposition similar to that of the
person who first takes him out of doors.
_Georgia._
23. The first time a baby is taken out of its room, it must be taken up,
or it will not go to heaven. If the door of the room steps down, then the
person carrying the baby must step up on a chair or book with the baby in
her arms.
_North Carolina._
24. Let the baby have or touch the thing he starts after on taking the
first step, and he will always get what he wishes. If it be the moon,
then let him touch something light, on which its light shines.
25. When taking the child into your arms for the first time, make a good
wish for him; if you give him his full name and he opens his eyes and
looks at you (answers to his name), it is good luck.
26. To be a bright baby, it must fall out of the crib before it is eleven
months old.
_Brookline, Mass._
27. If a baby does not fall out of bed, it will be a fool.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
28. A child's tumbling out of bed is a sign he will never be a fool.
_Maine._
29. To drink water out of a bucket which is being carried on a child's
head stops its growth.
_Virginia._
30. To step over a young child stops its growing.
_Virginia._
31. About 1860 the Alabama negresses believed that if any one stepped on
their pickaninnies it would dwarf them.
32. Pass a baby through a window and it will never grow.
_South Carolina._
33. Do not go for the first time into the room where the infant is
without removing the veil and gloves.
34. If the "cradle cap" of a baby be combed with a (fine?) tooth comb,
the child will be blind.
_Labrador._
35. A baby should not look into a glass before it is a year old; if it
does it will die.
_Deer Isle, Me._
36. Hold a baby to a looking-glass, he will die before he completes his
first year.
_Massachusetts._
37. If you let a child look into a looking-glass before it is a year old,
it will cut its teeth hard.
_Baltimore, Md. (negro), and Virginia._
38. It is bad luck not to weigh the baby before it is dressed. When it is
first dressed put the clothes on over the feet instead of the head for
good luck.
39. The common nurse has an objection to weighing a new-born baby.
40. Always give a baby salt before it tastes aught else. The child will
not choke, and in general it is a good thing to do.
_Mansfield, O._
FIRST ACTIONS.
41. If a child cries at birth and lifts up one hand, he is born to
command.
42. If the baby smiles in its sleep, it is talking with angels.
43. If a baby yawns, the sign of the cross should be made over it that
the evil spirit may not enter.
_Niagara Falls, Ont._
44. While tying on a baby's cap repeat,--
Look up there and see a fly,
Look down there and see it die.
Its chin will follow the direction indicated, and the tying is hastened.
_Brookline, Mass._
VARIOUS.
45. First a daughter, then a son,
The world is well begun.
First a son, then a daughter,
Trouble follows after.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
46. First a son, then a daughter,
You've begun just as you oughter.
_Brookline, Mass._
47. Rock a cradle empty,
Babies will be plenty.
_Peabody, Mass._
48. Rock the cradle empty,
Have children a plenty,
Rock the chair empty,
Have sickness a plenty.
_Nashua, N.H._
49. To rock the cradle when the baby is not in it will kill it.
_New York._
50. If the empty cradle be rocked, the baby will have the colic.
_New York and Ohio._
51. The first time a baby is taken visiting, if it is laid on a married
couple's bed there will be a baby for that couple.
_Salem, Mass._
52. The mother who gives away all the clothes of her dead baby will
eventually be comforted by the coming of another child.
53. However many children a woman may have, the last will be of the same
gender as the first, and they will look alike.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
54. One article of an unborn infant's wardrobe must be left unmade or
unbought or the child is liable not to live.
_Salem, Mass._
55. A baby's nails must not be cut with scissors before it is a year old;
it will make it steal.
_North Carolina._
56. To cut a baby's finger-nails deforms it; if the baby is a month old,
to do this will cause the child to have fits.
_Georgia._
57. To allow a child to look into a mirror before it is a month old will
cause it trouble in teething.
_Georgia._
58. Tickling a baby causes stuttering.
_Georgia._
59. If an infant be measured, it will die before its growing time is over.
_Georgia._
CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD.
ASSEVERATION.
60. A child to whom is told any story which he considers remarkable will
usually reply by an expression of skepticism, such as: "Really and
truly?" "Honestly?" "Earnest, now?" or, "You are fooling." The first
speaker answers by some formula or asseveration, as, "Honor bright" (_New
England_); "Deed, deed, and double deed" (_Pennsylvania_); "True as I
live," or, "Hope I'll die if it isn't so," or simply, "Hope I'll die."
_General in the United States._
61. A formula of asseveration in Maryland and Pennsylvania is, "I cross
my heart," accompanied by the sign of the cross.
62. A sign resembling that of the cross is made on the chin or throat.
"You won't tell?" "No." "Well, cross your throat."
_Cambridge, Mass._
63. When a child wishes to make an asseveration, he wets his finger on
his mouth and signs a cross on his throat.
_Salem, Mass._
64. In asseveration, the proper method is to use the words, "Hope to die
if I don't," the speaker drawing the forefinger across the throat from
ear to ear.
_Biddeford, Me._
65. Asseveration in Maine and Massachusetts is often made by the
following formula. First boy: "Honor bright?" Second boy: "Hope to die."
First boy: "Cut your throat?" Second boy draws finger across throat. This
is the strongest possible form of oath that can be taken by a boy.
66. Little girls, without any idea of the meaning, employ the following
formula of asseveration:--
Certain, true,
Black and blue.
A variant of the first line: "Certain and true."
_Massachusetts._
67. A form fuller than the preceding:--
Certain, true,
Black and blue,
Lay me down and cut me in two.
68. A boy who desires to tell an extravagant story without being guilty
of a lie would point with his thumb over his left shoulder. If he should
succeed in accomplishing this without the observation of the boy to whom
he is talking, so much the better.
_Biddeford, Me._
69. "In my school-days, if a boy crossed his fingers, elbows, and legs,
though the act might not be noticed by the companion accosted, no blame
was attached to the falsehood."
_New York city._
70. The addition of the words "in a horn" justify a falsehood. In the
childhood of the informant, it was not considered honorable to express
the words in such manner that they could not be heard by the child with
whom conversation was carried on.
_Cambridge, Mass._
71. In making a false statement, it was proper to say "over the left."
This was often uttered in such manner that the person addressed should
not perceive the qualification. Or, the statement would be made, and
after it had been taken in and believed, the words "over the left" would
be added.
_Ohio and Cambridge, Mass._
72. A formula for making a false statement: "As true as I lie here,"
said, as one fools, gives free scope to white lies.
_Roxbury, Mass._
73. An imprecation of children against disloyalty:--
Tell tale tit,
Your tongue shall be slit,
And every dog in our town
It shall have a bit.
_Ohio._
CHALLENGE.
To "stump" another boy to do a thing is considered as putting a certain
obligation on him to perform the action indicated. The phrase is
sometimes used, although the person giving the "stump" may not himself be
able to accomplish the feat.
74. We used to "dare" or "stump" one another to eat green "chuckcherries."
_Brookline, Mass._
75. Daring or "stumping" is or has been common among children generally.
Sometimes it is to jump a certain distance; sometimes to skate out on
thin ice; again, to touch something very hot. Once in Ohio several lads
were collected together about a spring. One of them drew a pail of fresh
water and by chance brought up a small live fish. One of the boys
"stumped" his companions to eat the fish alive, without dressing or
cooking. The boys took the "stump," one quickly cut up the unfortunate
little animal and each boy swallowed a bit. Often the dare is to eat some
very untoothsome morsel.
FORTUNE.
76. Put a mark upon a paper for every bow you get, and when you have one
hundred bury the paper and wish. When the paper is decayed you will find
your wish in its place.
_Cambridge and Bedford, Mass._
77. Children collect two or three hundred names of persons, asking each to
give a bow with the name. This bow is expressed after the name on a sheet
of paper on which the latter is written by this sign [Symbol: H with
slanted cross-bar]. After all are collected the paper is secretly buried
face downward, and then dug up after two or three months, when money is
sometimes found under it.
_North Cambridge, Mass._
78. At Christmas or New Year's children, on first meeting, call out "My
Christmas-gift," or "New Year's-gift," and the one who calls first is to
receive a gift from the other.
_Mansfield, O._
FRIENDSHIP.
79. If two persons, while walking, divide so as to pass an obstruction
one on one side and one on the other, they will quarrel. Children avert
this catastrophe by exclaiming, "bread and butter," which is a counter
charm. On the other hand, if they say "pepper and salt," the quarrel is
made doubly certain. So universal is the practice that many grown people
of the best social class (women) still involuntarily avoid such
separation, and even use the childish words. In country towns, when girls
are walking with young men, if the latter pass on the other side of the
tree it is considered as rude, and as a token of indifference; in such a
case one girl will cast a meaning look on her companion as much as to
say, "he does not care for you." To use the local phrase, it would be
said, So-and-so is "mad" with ---- (naming the girl).
_Massachusetts._
80. In passing a tree in the middle of the sidewalk, children used to
pass it on one side going one way and on the other side going the other
way for luck.
_Billerica, Mass._
MYTHOLOGY.
81. The stars are angels' eyes.
_Westminster, Mass._
82. The stars are holes made in the sky, so that the light of heaven
shines through. "I remember, as a child, that this idea was suggested to
me on seeing the effect of holes in the lamp shade. I think, however,
that I rather liked to suppose it true and firmly believed in the
explanation."
_Cambridge, Mass._
83. "As a child, I constantly looked into lilies and tulips in the
expectation of finding fairies lying within them."
_Mansfield, O._
84. "I remember that as a child, while walking with a companion, she
cried: 'Why, a fairy lighted on my hand!' The child believed that this
had been the case."
_Cambridge, Mass._
85. The children used to fearfully look in the well, and on seeing the
reflected face in the bottom, would cry out, "Face in the well, pull me
down in the well," and would then run away quickly.
_Bruynswick, N.Y._
86. At the age of six or seven years, a child, while going to a spring to
draw water, saw a little creature with wings fly from one star to
another, leaving behind an arc of light. She cried to her aunt: "Oh,
aunt, I saw a little gold-boy!" Her aunt, somewhat shocked, rebuked the
child, who insisted on the literal truth of her vision.
_Mansfield, O._
87. Stick your thumb through a knothole and say:--
Old Gran'f'ther Graybeard, without tooths or tongue,
If you'll give me a little finger I'll give you a thumb.
Thumb'll go away and little finger'll come.
88. Go to the woodpile and say, "Johnnie with your fingers, and Willie
with your toes," and something (suthin) will come out of the woodpile and
tear off all your clothes (close).
_Gilsum, N.H._
PUNISHMENT.
89. An "eyewinker" placed in the palm of the hand will cause the ferule
to break when the teacher strikes the palm with it.
_Portsmouth, N.H._
90. Pine tar or pitch in the hand will prevent the blows of the ferule
from causing pain. (_Portsmouth, N.H._, sixty years ago.)
Believed by most schoolboys there at that time.
SPORT.
91. At croquet, if your ball was about to be sent flying, the safeguard
was to draw an imaginary X with your mallet, saying, "Criss cross." It
made your enemy's foot slip, and many a girl would get "mad" and not
play, if you did it often.
_Brookline, Mass._
92. Children believe it is unlucky to step on the cracks in the
flagstones, which are believed to contain poison. It is a game to walk a
long distance on such stones without setting foot on the interstices.
_Cambridge, Mass._
93. When children are tired of swinging, or think it is time for the
swinger to give way to another, the phrase is "let the old cat die."
After this has been said, it is unlucky to quicken the motion of the
swing again.
_General._
VARIOUS.
94. When a child loses a tooth, if the tongue is not put into the cavity
a gold tooth will come in place of it.
_New York and Northern Ohio._
95. The ideas of children about the significance of color are mixed. Thus
in croquet no child (in a town near Boston) would take the red ball,
because it was supposed to mean hate. Blue is the favorite color.
96. Red and yellow, catch a fellow. _Brookline, Mass._
Pink and blue, he'll catch you. _Deerfield, Mass._
Pink and blue, he'll be true. _Deerfield, Mass._
Black and white, hold him tight. _Pennsylvania._
97. An old superstition which still survives among children is, that if
they crawl over an older person and do not crawl back they will never
grow again.
_Haverhill, Mass._
98. "We used always as children to get X's scored with a pin on our new
'village gaiters.' We were told it was to make them safe and take the
slipperiness off."
_Brookline, Mass._
99. Children say that the one who takes the first bite of an apple that
is to be passed about for eating will fail in his or her lesson.
_Chelsea, Mass._
100. Boys believe that they can prevent the stitch in the side which is
liable to be induced by running, by means of holding a pebble under the
tongue. "I believe I could run all day, and not get tired, if I could
hold a pebble under my tongue," said one.
_Cambridge, Mass._
CHAPTER III.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
BEAUTY.
101. If a person is very handsome, it is a sign that he will have one of
the infectious diseases of childhood (measles, whooping cough, etc.) more
than once.
_Massachusetts._
DIMPLE.
102. Dimple in chin.
Devil within.
_Chestertown, Md._
103. A dimple in the chin is lucky. Some say "it shows you're no fool."
104. A dimple is the mark left by the angel's finger in turning up the
face to kiss it when asleep.
_Pennsylvania._
EARS.
105. Small ears indicate that a person is stingy. Large ones show that he
is generous.
_General._
106. Large ears are a mark of a liar. Small ears show that one is truthful.
_Boston, Mass._
107. Long, slim ears are a sign that you will steal.
_Chestertown, Md._
108. If the protuberance behind the ear is large, it indicates generosity.
_Massachusetts._
EYES AND EYEBROWS.
109. Hazel eyes betoken a good disposition.
_Boston, Mass._
110. If your eyebrows meet, you will be rich.
_Somerville and Bedford, Mass._
111. A well-known children's rhyme runs:--
Blue-eye beauty, do your mammy's duty!
Black eye, pick a pie,
Run around and tell a lie!
Gray-eye greedy gut
Eat all the world up!
_General in the United States._
112. If the eyebrows meet, one is ill-tempered.
_General in the United States._
113. If the eyebrows are far apart, you will live away from home; if near
together, you will live near home, or at home.
_Massachusetts._
114. Heavy eyebrows are a sign of long life.
_Lawrence, Mass._
FINGER-NAILS.
115. Always keep your nails clean and you will be rich.
_Peabody, Mass._
116. A white spot in the nail, when it comes, means a present. You get the
present when it grows to the end and is cut.
_Boston, Mass._
117. White spots on the nails of the left hand denote the number of lies
one has told.
_Maine and Central Illinois._
118. Count on finger-nail spots:--
Friends,
Foes,
Money,
Beaux.
Begin with the first nail spotted, and the noun falling to the last nail
thus marked gives the sign.
_Deerfield, Mass._
119. Another formula:--
(First finger) a friend,
(Second finger) a foe,
(Third finger) a gift,
(Fourth finger) a beau,
(Fifth finger) a journey to go.
_Mansfield, O._
An almost identical variant is found in Prince Edward Island.
FOOT.
120. If your instep is high enough to have water flow under it, you are
of good descent.
_Brookline, Mass._
121. A mole on the sole of the left foot means trouble and hardships
during life.
_Boston, Mass._
FOREHEAD.
122. If there is a blue vein in the child's forehead extending down upon
the nose, it is one of the surest signs of early death.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
123. Vertical wrinkles in the brow show the number of husbands one will
have. Horizontal ones show the number of children.
_Northern Ohio._
HAIR.
124. Coarse hair indicates good nature; fine hair quick temper.
_Northern Ohio._
125. Red hair indicates a "spit-fire."
_Massachusetts and Chestertown, Md._
126. Beware of that man,
Be he friend or brother,
Whose hair is one color
And moustache another.
_Portland, Me._
127. The color of the hair growing on the neck indicates the color of the
hair of one's future husband.
128. A single white hair means genius; it must not be pulled out.
129. If you pull out a white hair, two will come in its place.
_Somewhat general in the United States._
130. Hair growing upon the upper lip of a woman means riches.
_Boston, Mass._
131. The point formed by the hair growing on the forehead is called "A
widow's peak."
_Eastern Massachusetts._
132. When a woman's hair parts where it should not, it is a sure sign she
will be a widow.
_Springfield, Mass._
133. Draw a single hair from the head strongly between the thumb and
finger-nail. If it curls up, you are proud.
_St. John, N.B., and Prince Edward Island._
The same result indicates that you are cross.
_Cape Breton._
134. Hairy arms mean wealth.
_Northern Ohio._
135. Hairy arms mean strength.
_General in the United States._
136. Scrape the finger-nail and the thumb-nail along a hair, and if, by
the third time, it curls up, the owner is high-tempered.
_Boston, Mass._
137. Put some of your hair in the fire. If it burns slowly you will have
a long life. If quickly, a short one.
_Chestertown, Md._
HAND.
138. A straight line in the palm of the hand is an omen of early death.
_Massachusetts._
139. The letter formed by the veins on the inside of the wrist is the
initial of the name of the future husband or wife.
_St. John, N.B._
140. A person with an initial in his hand will be very fortunate in
selecting a companion for life.
_Alabama._
141. In clasping your own hand, you put uppermost either your right or
your left thumb. If the former, you are to rule; _vice versa_, you yield.
_Brookline, Mass._
142. If the thumb sticks up in the closed fist, you are either capable or
honest, probably the latter, as thieves are said to double theirs in.
_New England._
143. If you cannot make your thumb and one finger meet around your wrist,
you are a glutton.
_Province of Quebec._
144. If you cannot touch the tips of your little finger and first finger
together behind the two middle fingers, on both hands, then you will not
marry the man you want to marry.
_Province of Quebec._
145. Clasp your fingers, and if the right thumb lap over the left you
were born in the daytime. If the left overlap, you were born at night.
146. The number of folds on your wrist as you bend your hand shows the
number of thirties you are to live.
_Massachusetts._
147. If the ends of the fingers are capable of being bent far back, it
indicates a thief.
MOLES.
148. A mole on the eyebrow denotes that one will be hanged. On the ear it
denotes that he will be drowned.
_Chestertown, Md._
149. Mole above breath
Means wealth.
150. Moles on the neck,
Money by the peck.
_Prince Edward Island and Northern Ohio._
151. A mole on the neck indicates that its owner will be hanged.
_Boston, Mass._
152. A mole on the side of the neck means a death by hanging.
_Central Maine._
153. A mole on the arm indicates riches.
_Boston, Mass._
154. Mole on your arm,
Live on a farm.
_Alabama._
155. A mole on the arm means that you will fight many battles, and will
be very successful in them.
_Prince Edward Island._
NOSE.
156. A vein across the nose is an omen of short life.
_General in the United States._
TEETH.
157. A broad space between the teeth indicates a liar.
_Biddeford, Me._
158. Broad front teeth mean that one is generous.
_Biddeford, Me._
159. A space between the two front upper incisors signifies wealth.
_Mansfield, O._
160. If the front teeth are wide apart, it means one can't keep a secret.
If overlapping, one is close-mouthed.
_Boston, Mass._
161. Do not trust people with pointed teeth.
_Chestertown, Md._
162. If you have a space between your teeth, it is a sign that you will
die of consumption.
_Baltimore, Md._
163. A lump (enlarged papilla) on the tongue is a sign one has told a lie.
_Mansfield, O._
CHAPTER IV.
PROJECTS.
Love divinations or love charms, I have found, are popularly known as
"projects" in parts of New England and on Mt. Desert. On Prince Edward
Island and in various parts of the Canadian provinces the practice of
such divinations is usually spoken of as "trying tricks." If a number of
young people are together, one will say, "Let's try tricks." In the
Middle and Western United States the usual colloquial expression for
these love divinations is "trying fortunes." One girl will say to another
at some appropriate time, "Let's try our fortunes."
APPLES.
164. Eat an apple at midnight before the glass, saying,--
Whoever my true love may be,
Come and eat this apple with me,
holding the lamp in the hand. The true love will appear.
_Winn, Me._
165. Throw a whole apple-paring on the floor, after swinging it three
times around your head. It will form your true love's initial letter.
_General in the United States._
APPLE-SEEDS.
166. When eating an apple, snap it with the fingers and name it for a
person of the opposite sex. Count the fully developed seeds (all of the
others are kisses), and the last one must correspond to the following
formula:--
One's my love,
Two's my love,
Three's my heart's desire.
Four I'll take and never forsake,
Five I'll cast in the fire.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love,
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he goes,
Twelve he marries.
Thirteen honor,
Fourteen riches,
All the rest are little witches.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
Some change the latter lines of this formula into
Thirteen they quarrel,
Fourteen they part,
Fifteen they die with a broken heart.
167. Similar rhymes commonly repeated in northern Ohio, after naming an
apple and counting the seeds, are,--
One I love,
Two I love,
Three I love, I say.
Four I love with all my heart,
And five I cast away.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love.
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he courts,
And twelve he marries.
_Prince Edward Island and Mansfield, O._
168. Lay in the hand four apple-seeds and have some one name them, then
pick them up, saying,--
This one I love all others above,
And this one I greatly admire,
And this one I'll take and never forsake.
And this one I'll cast in the fire.
_St. John, N.B._
169. A love divination by way of apple-seeds, much practiced when a
number of young people were spending the evening together, or perhaps by
grown-up boys and girls in district schools as they ate their noon-day
lunch about the stove, was as follows:--
Two seeds were named, one for a girl and one for a young man, and placed
on a hot stove or in front of an open fire. The augury, concerning the
future relations of the young people was derived from the behavior of the
two seeds. If as they heated they jumped away from one another, the two
persons would become estranged or their friendship die; if the seeds
moved nearer together, marriage was implied; if the one named for the
girl moved towards the other, it signified that the young woman was
fonder of the young man than he was of her, and so on.
_Northern Ohio._
170. "A common project in my girlhood was to place an apple-seed on each
of the four fingers of the right hand, that is, on the knuckles, first
moistening them with spittle. A companion then 'named' them, and the
fingers were worked so as to move slightly. The seed that stayed on the
longest indicated the name of your future husband."
_Stratham, N.H._
171. Name apple-seeds and place on the lids of the closed eyes. Wink and
the first to fall off shows the name of your future husband.
_Winn, Me., New York, and Pennsylvania._
172. To name apple-seeds, put one on each temple, get some one to name
them, and the one that sticks the longest will be the true one.
173. Name apple pips, put them on the grate, saying,--
If you love me, live and fly;
If you do not, lie and die.
BABIES.
174. Kiss the baby when nine days old, and the first gentleman you kiss
afterward will be your future husband.
_New England._
BED.
175. Go upstairs backward, into a chamber backward, and into bed
backward. Drink some salt and water, and if you dream of some one
bringing you drink it will be your future husband.
_Maine and Salem, Mass._
176. The first time two girls sleep together let them tie two of their
big toes together with woollen yarn, and the one with the shortest piece
of broken string left attached in the morning will be married first.
_Northern Ohio._
177. If two girls on sleeping together for the first time tie their
waists together with string or thread, and the thread gets broken in the
night, the first man who puts his arm round the waist of either will
have the first name of the man whom that girl will marry, whether that
man is the one or not.
_Province of Quebec._
178. After getting ready for bed in silence, take a ball of string and
wind about the wrist, repeating,--
I wind, I wind,
This night to find,
Who my true love's to be;
The color of his eyes,
The color of his hair,
And the night he'll be married to me.
_Chestertown, Md._
179. Name the bed-posts for four different men. The one you dream about
you will marry.
_General._
180. The first time you sleep in a room name the corners each with a
different (man's) name. The first corner you face on waking indicates
whom you will marry. (_New England._) The same thing is done with the
bed-posts in Ohio.
181. Put four names of boys on four slips of paper and take one blank
slip. Intermingle them, and then without looking at them put one under
each leg of the bed and one under the pillow. The name of the last will
be that of your future husband.
_Franklin, Mass._
182. Rub the four bed-posts with a lemon and carry the lemon in the
pocket the next day, and the first man you speak to you will marry.
_New Hampshire._
BIBLE.
183. Read the third verse of the third chapter of Hosea, Joel, and Amos
for three Sundays in succession, and the first gentleman you walk with
you will marry.
_Nashua, N.H._
184. Put the end of a key in the Bible, on the verse of Solomon's Song
reading, "I am my beloved's and he is mine;" close the book and bind it
round with string or garter, each girl supporting the key with the first
finger of the right hand. One of them repeats a verse to each letter as
the other girl names it, beginning the alphabet, till it turns at the
initial of the future husband or lover.
_General in the United States._
BIRDS.
185. When you see a turkey-buzzard flying alone, repeat,--
Hail! Hail! Lonely, lonesome turkey-buzzard:
Hail to the East, hail to the West,
Hail to the one that I love best.
Let me know by the flap of your wing
Whether he (or she) loves me or not.
Note the manner of the bird's flight: if he flaps his wings your lover is
true; if not, the lover is false.
_Tennessee._
186. When the call of the first turtle-dove is heard, sit down and remove
the shoe and stocking from the left foot, turn the stocking inside out,
in the heel of which if a hair is found, it will be of the color of the
hair of the future husband or wife.
_Tennessee._
In Mt. Desert, Maine, and Prince Edward Island the same project is tried
on hearing the first robin.
BUTTONS.
187. The coming husband is determined by repeating the following words,
touching each button of the coat, vest, or dress in order:--
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.
Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.
Or,
Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief.
Or,
Doctor, lawyer, merchant, cheat.
_Ohio._
188. With reference to the habitation to be occupied:--
Big house, little house, pig-sty, barn.
_New Hampshire._
189. As to the wedding dress:--
Silk, satin, velvet, cotton, woolen.
_Massachusetts._
190. In regard to the vehicle:--
Carriage, wagon, wheelbarrow, chaise.
_Massachusetts._
191. The first of these button formulæ is used by boys to foretell their
profession in life. A friend remembers how in childhood his buttons were
completely worn out by the continual practice of the inquiry.
192. With reference to the acquisition of a coat:--
Bought, given, stolen.
_Massachusetts._
193. "Rich man, poor man, beggar, thief, doctor, lawyer, merchant,
chief." Said over by little girls on their back hair combs to find the
occupation of their future husbands.
_New York._
FOUR-LEAVED CLOVER.
194. If a girl puts a two-leaved clover in her shoe, the first man who
comes on the side where the clover is will be her future husband.
_Michigan._
195. Put a four-leaved clover in your shoe, and you will marry a man
having the first name of the man whom you meet first after doing it.
_Province of Quebec._
196. With a four-leaved clover in your shoe, you will meet your lover.
_Michigan._
197. If the finder of a four-leaved clover put it in her own shoe, she
will marry the first person with whom she crosses a bridge.
_Michigan._
198. Put a four-leaved clover over the door. The first person to pass
beneath will be your future mate.
_Newport, R.I., and Michigan._
COUNTING.
199. Count sixty white horses and one white mule, then you will marry the
first man with whom you shake hands.
_Chestertown, Md._
200. Count a hundred white horses and two white mules, and the first
person you shake hands with you'll marry.
_Pennsylvania._
201. Count a hundred white horses during leap year. The first man that
shakes hands with you after you have your hundred will be your future
husband.
_Bedford, Mass._
202. Count one hundred gray horses (one mule stands for ten horses), and
the first gentleman with whom you shake hands is your intended.
_Alabama._
203. After meeting ninety-nine white horses and a brown one for the
hundredth, the first person with whom you shake hands will be your future
mate.
_Newport, R.I._
204. Count five hundred colored people, and the next gentleman you meet
you will marry.
_Cambridge, Mass._
205. Count ninety-nine negroes and one white horse, and the first boy you
answer "yes" or "no" to you will marry.
_South Boston, Mass._
206. Count forty white horses, the first man you meet afterwards you'll
marry.
_Champaign, Ill._
207. In crossing a bridge, if one sees two white horses on it (in
different teams) and wishes at once for a man to marry her, she'll get
him.
_Peabody, Mass._
208. Count a hundred "tips" (a bow with the lifting of the hat). The
hundredth will be your future husband.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
209. Count the buttons of an old boot. The number of buttons indicates
the number of years before marriage.
_Massachusetts._
210. If you count the boards of the ceiling (loft) in a strange room
before going to sleep, you will dream of your lover.
_Newfoundland._
DAISY PETALS.
211. Pull off the "petals" of a daisy one by one, naming a boy (or a girl
as the case may be) at each one, thus, "Jenny, Fanny, Jenny, Fanny," etc.
The one named with the last petal is your sweetheart. The seeds which
remain on the back of your hand after taking them up show the number of
your children.
212. Common at the present time is the formula:--
He loves me, he loves me not.
213. To tell the fortune, take an "ox-eye daisy," and pluck the "petals"
one by one, using the same words as have been given above for buttons.
_General in the United States._
In Ohio and other Western States where the ox-eye daisy is not common,
children use instead the bloom of the despised dog-fennel.
214. Fortunes are told by pulling off leaflets of a compound leaf, such
as the locust, repeating, "Rich man, poor man," etc.
_Central Illinois._
215. Name a daisy, and then pull off the petals (ray-flowers) one by one,
saying "yes, no," and if "yes" falls on the last, the person loves you,
and _vice versa_.
_Alabama._
216. A formula for daisy petals:--
He loves me,
He don't;
He'll have me,
He won't;
He would if he could,
But he can't.
_New Brunswick._
217. If you find a five-leaf daisy (that is, one with five ray-flowers)
and swallow it without chewing, you will in the course of the day shake
hands with your intended.
_Alabama._
218. Another:--
Hate her,
Have her,
This year,
Next year,
Sometime,
Never.
_New Brunswick._
219. Another:--
He loves,
She loves,
Hate her,
Have her,
This year,
Next year,
Now or never.
_Cape Breton._
Girls repeat the last three lines only of the above rhyme.
_Prince Edward Island._
DOORWAY.
220. Put the breast-bone of a fowl over the front door, and the first one
of the opposite sex that enters is to be your future companion.
_Alabama._
221. Hang over the door a corn-cob from which you have shelled all but
twenty grains. The first man that enters you'll marry.
_Arlington, Mass._
222. Nail a horseshoe over the door, and the first one who enters is your
true love.
_Massachusetts._
223. Hang a wishbone over the door. The first one who enters will be your
lover.
_Somewhat general._
224. Two girls break a wishbone together. The one who gets the longest
bit will remain longest unmarried, or, as the familiar rhyme runs,--
Shortest to marry,
Longest to tarry.
If the "knot" (that is, the flattened portion at the junction of the two
prongs of the bone) flies away and does not stick to either prong, the
two girls are to remain unmarried. Each girl puts her bit of the wishbone
over a different door. The first man who enters either door is to marry
the girl who has placed her bit of wishbone over the door.
_Prince Edward Island._
EGGS.
225. Take an egg to your window; break it over a knife; remember the day
and date. Wish that your true love would come to you. If you go too high,
he will be killed.
_Nashua, N.H._
226. Put two eggs in front of the open fire on a very windy day, and soon
two men will come in with a coffin. The man at the foot will be your
future husband.
_Chestertown, Md. (negro)._
227. One or more girls put eggs to roast before an open fire, seating
themselves in chairs before it. Each puts one egg to roast, and when her
egg begins to sweat (it will sweat blood), she is to rise and turn it. At
this time the one whom that projector is to marry will come in through a
door or window (all of which must be left open throughout) and take her
vacant chair. If she is to die before she marries, two black dogs will
enter, bearing a coffin, which they will deposit on her chair.
_Quaker Neck, Kent Co., Md._
228. Boil an egg hard, take out the yolk, and fill its place with salt.
Eat it before going to bed. The one you dream of as bringing you water is
your future husband.
_Mansfield, O._
To be done by two girls in silence, going backward as they retire.
FINGERS.
229. Name each of the four fingers of one hand for some person of the
opposite sex, then press them tightly together with the other hand; the
one that hurts the worst indicates whom you will marry.
_Prince Edward Island._
GARMENTS.
230. Scatter your clothes in the four corners of the room, naming them.
The man you are to marry will bring you your clothes in a dream.
_Maine._
231. The first time you sleep in a room, name the corners each a
different (man's) name. The first corner you face on waking indicates
whom you will marry.
The same thing is done with bed-posts in Ohio.
232. On your birthday, as you retire at night, take off your slipper or
boot. Stand with your back to the door and throw it over your head. If
the toe points to the door, you go out of the chamber a bride before the
year is out. You must not look at the boot until the morning.
_Bedford, Mass._
233. At night before going to bed take one of your garters and tie it in
a knot and hang it on the bed-post above your head. While tying repeat,--
This knot I tie, this knot I knit,
To see the young man I haven't seen yet.
_Chestertown, Md._
234. Young girls on going to bed at night place their shoes at right
angles to one another, in the form of the letter T, repeating this
rhyme:--
Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T.
_Northern Ohio._
235. The first time you sleep in a house, upon retiring place the shoes
in the form of a T, and say over,--
My true love by-and-by for to see,
Be as she (or he) be,
Bear as she (or he) may,
The clothes she (or he) wears every day.
_Boston, Mass._
236. Catch the four corners of a handkerchief up in the hand, then let
some one wishing to try her fortune draw two. If she gets two corners on
the same side, she will not be married. If she gets opposite ones, she
will be married.
_Prince Edward Island and Chestertown, Md._
237. A rhyme on stockings and shoes:--
Point your shoes towards the street,
Leave your garters on your feet,
Put your stockings on your head,
You'll dream of the man you are going to wed.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
238. Put the chemise, inside out, on the foot of the bed and under it a
board with ashes upon it; then go to bed backwards, saying,--
Whoever my true love may be,
Come write his name in these ashes for me.
_Winn, Me._
239. Place the heel of one shoe against the instep of the other for three
nights in a row. You will dream of your future husband.
_Franklin, Mass._
240. On Friday night after getting all ready for bed, roll your petticoat
up, and before lying down put it under your pillow, repeating this
verse:--
This Friday night while going to bed,
I put my petticoat under my head,
To dream of the living and not of the dead,
To dream of the man I am to wed,
The color of his eyes, the color of his hair,
The color of the clothes he is to wear,
And the night the wedding is to be.
_Rock Hall, Md._
LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET.
241. Write names on three pieces of paper, throw them up in the air (in
the dark); feel for one, put it under the pillow, and in the morning look
at it to see the name of the man you are to marry.
_Salem, Mass._
242. Put pieces of paper, each bearing one letter of the alphabet, in
water face down, and then place them under the bed. Those turned up in
the morning are the initials of your future husband.
_Prince Edward Island and Northern Ohio._
243. Write the names of several men friends, each on a slip of paper. On
three successive mornings choice is made from these. If the name drawn is
always the same, it is the name of your future husband. If the lot falls
differently every morning, you will never be married.
244. Write two names (of possible lovers), cross out the common letters.
Touch the uncrossed letters, repeating in turn, "Love, friendship, hate,"
and the last uncrossed letter will indicate the state of the heart.
_Prince Edward Island, St. John, N.B., and Northern Ohio._
MIDNIGHT.
245. Go out at midnight and walk around a peach-tree, repeating,--
Low for a foreigner,
Bark for a near one,
Crow for a farmer,
Screek, tree, screek, if I'm to die first.
_Quaker Neck, Md._
246. Eat an apple at midnight before the glass, saying, "Whoever my true
love may be, come and eat this apple with me," while holding a lamp in
the hand. Your true love will appear.
_Winn, Me._
247. Set the table in silence for two at eleven o'clock P.M., with bread
and butter and silver knives and forks. Two girls sit down at twelve, and
say, "Whoever my true love may be, come and eat this supper with me."
_Winn, Me._
PLANTS.
248. Take beans in the hand, go out of doors and throw them against the
window. The first man's name that you hear spoken is the name of the man
you will marry.
_Connecticut._
249. Put three raw beans in your mouth, go out of doors, stand in front
of some one's window and listen. The first man's name you hear spoken
will be either that of your future husband or of the one having the same
name.
_Salem, Mass._
250. If a piece of brush or brier sticks to the dress, name it. If it
drops, the lover is false; if it sticks, he is true.
_Northern Ohio._
251. Blow seeds from the dandelion until none remain, counting each puff
as a letter of the alphabet; the letter which ends the blowing is the
initial of the name of the person the blower marries.
252. Rub your hands in sweet fern. The first one you shake hands with
afterward is your true love.
_Prince Edward Island._
253. Wear a piece of fern in the toe of your shoe, and the first person
you meet you will marry.
_New Hampshire._
254. Take a live-forever leaf, squeeze it to loosen the inner and outer
skin. If it makes a balloon as you blow into it, you will be married and
live a long time. If it does not, you will be an old maid.
_St. John, N.B._
255. Stick a piece of live-forever up on the wall, and in whatever
direction it leans, the lover will come from that quarter.
_Miramichi, N.B._
256. Take two shoots of live-forever and pin them together on the wall.
If they grow towards each other, the couple will marry; if away, they
will become estranged.
_Nantucket, Mass., and Western Massachusetts._
257. Break off a piece of dodder or "lovevine," twirl it round the head
three times and drop it on a bush behind you. If it grows, the lover is
true; if not, he is false.
_Tennessee._
258. Twist a mullein-stalk nearly off after naming it. If it lives, he or
she loves you; if not, not.
_Newton, Mass., and Tennessee._
259. After proceeding as above, count the number of new shoots that
spring up (if any). The number shows how many children will result from
the marriage.
_Greene Co., Mo._
260. Put a pea-pod with nine peas over the door. The first one who comes
under it you will marry.
_New England._
261. Pluck three thistles in bloom, cut off the purple part and put the
remainder of the flower in water over night, after naming. The one that
blooms out over night you will marry.
_St. John, N.B., and Northern Ohio._
262. Saturday night walk round a tall white yarrow three times, saying,--
Good evening, good evening, Mr. Yarrow.
I hope I see you well to-night,
And trust I'll see you at meetin' to-morrow.
Then pluck the head, put it inside the dress, and sleep with it. The
first person you meet with, to speak to, at church will be your husband.
_Deerfield, Mass._
RING.
263. Suspend a ring by a hair from the finger. Let it swing over a
tumbler. The number of strokes against the side of the tumbler indicates
the number of years of age of the future husband.
_Prince Edward Island._
264. Hang a gold ring over a glass of water, from a hair, saying the name
of some man. If the ring strikes the side of the glass three times you
will marry him.
_Willimantic, Conn._
265. Put three saucers on the table, and walk round it blindfolded three
times, then put a finger in a saucer. One saucer contains a gold ring,
one soapsuds, one is empty. Repeat twice (making nine in all). If one
touches the ring, she will marry an unmarried man; if the suds, she will
marry a widower; if the empty one, she will be an old maid. The one
touched two out of three times is the fate.
_Central Maine._
266. If a piece of wedding-cake is passed through a ring and put in the
left stocking, then placed under the pillow and slept on three nights
running, you will dream of your lover, or he or she will come to you.
_New England._
STARS.
267. If you look at a bright star intently before retiring, you will
dream of your sweetheart.
_Alabama._
268. Count nine stars for nine successive nights. (If a rainy or cloudy
night intervene, the charm is broken, and the project must be begun
again.) The person you dream of on the ninth night will be your future
partner in life.
_Prince Edward Island._
269. Count nine stars for nine consecutive nights, and the person you
dream of the last night is your intended.
_Prince Edward Island and Alabama._
270. Count nine stars for nine nights in succession, and the first young
gentleman with whom you shake hands is to be your future husband.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
271. For three successive nights look out of the window and name three
stars. Walk to bed backward and without speaking. The one you dream of
two nights out of three will be your husband.
_Central Maine._
272. Have some one call a star which you have picked out, by the name of
a young man. The next time you meet this man, if his face is toward you,
he loves you; if his side, he likes you; if his back, he hates you.
_Province of Quebec and Bedford, Mass._
TEA-LEAVES.
273. After drinking tea, turn the cup upside down, whirl it round three
times, set it down in the saucer, whirl again, take it up, turn right
side up, and look at the grounds. If all are settled in the bottom of the
cup, you will be married right off. If they stay on the side, the number
of grounds will be the number of years before marriage. The fine dust in
the bottom means trouble, a wish, a letter, or a journey.
_Somewhat general in the United States._
274. Take a "beau" (a little stem) from the tea and put it in your shoe.
The first man you meet you will marry.
_St. John, N.B._
275. Sticks of tea in the teacup denote beaux. Name them, and bite them,
and the hardest loves you best.
_Massachusetts._
WALKING ABROAD.
276. Go to walk and turn back. The first man you meet you'll marry.
_Massachusetts._
277. If you walk the length of seven rails of a railroad track, the first
man that speaks to you after you get off will be your future husband.
_Bedford, Mass._
278. Take a looking-glass and walk backwards to the wall, and you will
see your future husband's picture.
_Nashua, N.H._
279. If you walk with a gentleman (for the first time), and have on new
shoes and go over a bridge, you will marry him.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
280. If a young woman walking into a strange place picks up three pebbles
and puts them under her pillow, she will marry the young man she dreams of.
_Carbonear, N.F._
281. Run three times around the house, and on the third round a vision of
your husband will rise before you.
_Alabama._
WATER.
282. Float two cambric needles on water and name them. If they float
together, they'll marry. If they float apart, they won't marry.
_Petit Codiac, N.B._
283. Girls prepare basins of dirty and of clean water. If a blindfolded
girl puts a stick, with which she reaches about, into the dirty water,
she will marry a widower. If into clean water, she will marry a young man.
_Labrador._
284. Place three basins on the floor, one containing dirty water, another
clear water, and the third empty. Let the (blindfolded?) person crawl up
to them on her hands and knees. The one she touches will foretell her
fate. The clear water means she is to marry a rich man, the dirty water,
a poor man, and the empty basin no man at all.
285. Make ready a mirror, a lamp, a basin of water, a towel and soap. Go
to bed backward, not speaking afterwards, and lie awake till midnight. If
your sweetheart comes and washes, combs his hair, and looks at you,
you'll be married. If you don't see him, you'll see your coffin. (Both
sexes.)
_Labrador._
286. When a pot is boiling over, put a small stick in one of the ears and
name it for the one you like best. If he loves you in return, the water
will cease to boil over; if not, it will continue.
_Double Creek, Md._
287. Let two girls wash and wipe the dishes together, then put a dish of
water behind the door with a broom-handle in it. Two men will come in who
will be the husbands of the two projectors.
_Deer Isle, Me._
288. Run molten lead into hot water; the shape of the pellets formed
shows the occupation of your future sweetheart.
_Labrador._
289. Pour molten lead on a hearth; the shape the metal assumes in cooling
foretells the occupation of one's future husband.
_General in the United States._
VARIOUS.
290. On accidentally making two lines rhyme, kiss your hand, and you will
be so fortunate as to see your lover before nine that night.
_Alabama._
291. Put a looking-glass under the pillow, and you will dream of your
lover.
_Green Harbor, N.F._
292. Tie a true lover's knot (of shavings) and place it under the pillow.
You will dream of your lover, even if at that time he is unknown to you.
_Newfoundland._
293. Steal a salt herring from a grocery store, eat it, don't speak after
eating, and the first man you dream of will marry you.
294. Make a little ladder of sticks, place it under the head at night,
and you'll dream of your future husband.
_Patten, Me._
295. Swallow a chicken's heart whole, and the first man you kiss
afterwards will be your future husband.
_Winn, Me._
296. Take three grains of coffee, put one notch on one, two on another,
put them in a glass of water under your bed, and name them. The one that
sprouts is the one you are going to marry.
_Alabama._
297. Light a match, and the way the flame goes shows where your future
husband lives.
_Bedford, Mass._
298. Stand two matches on a hot stove, sulphur end down, and name them
for yourself and a marriageable acquaintance of the opposite sex. If both
stand or fall together, it is a sign that you will live and die together.
If one fall, it is a sign that one will leave the other.
_Cape Breton._
299. Go out in spring and turn up a brick on the ground, and look under
it at the clay. The color of the clay denotes the color of the hair of
your future husband.
_Chestertown, Md._
300. Cut your finger-nails nine Sundays in succession, and your
sweetheart will dine with you.
_Alabama._
301. Throw a ball of yarn into an unoccupied house, and holding the end
of the yarn, wind, saying, "I wind and who holds?" The one who is to be
your future wife or husband will be seen in the house.
_Ohio._
302. Take a hair from your head. Have some one else take one from his,
cross them, and rub them over each other, and the last thing you say
before one breaks will be the first thing said after you are married.
_Cambridge, Mass._
CHAPTER V.
HALLOWEEN AND OTHER FESTIVALS.
Any of the projects quoted in the last chapter are perhaps more likely to
be practised on Halloween than at other times. However, as girls do amuse
themselves by such fortune-seeking at other times, particularly the first
time they sleep in a room, the various projects have been divided into
two chapters, according to the way in which the various narrators classed
them. That is, when a charm was said to belong to Halloween, it was so
classed. When no definite time was set for trying the charm, it was
simply put under "projects."
303. A Halloween custom is to fill a tub with water and drop into it as
many apples as there are young folks to try the trick. Then each one must
kneel before the tub and try to bite the apples without touching them
with the hands. The one who bites one first will marry first.
_Alabama._
304. On Halloween hang an apple by the door just the height of the chin.
Rub the chin with saliva, stand about six inches from the apple, and hit
the chin against the apple. If it sticks to the chin, you will be
married, and your true love will stick to you.
_St. John, N.B._
305. A girl goes to a field on Halloween at midnight to steal cabbages.
The first one whom she meets on her return will be her husband.
_Boston, Mass._
306. On Halloween at midnight a young lady in her night-dress walks
backward into the garden and pulls up a cabbage. She will see her future
husband over her shoulder.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
307. I wind, I wind, my true love to find,
The color of his hair, the clothes he'll wear,
The day he is married to me.
Throw a ball of yarn into a barn, old house, or cellar, and wind,
repeating the above lines, and the true love will appear and wind with
you. To be tried at twelve o'clock at night, on Halloween.
_Maine._
308. Shortly before midnight a pure white bowl is procured, that has
never been touched by any lips save those of a new-born infant. If it is
a woman whose fortune is to be tried (and it generally is) the child must
be a male. The bowl is filled with water from a spring-well, after which
twenty-six pieces of white paper about an inch square, on each of which
must be written one letter of the alphabet, are placed in the bowl with
the letters turned downward. These must be dropped in as the clock
strikes midnight, or all will fail. All being ready, the maiden
interested repeats the lines:--
Kind fortune, tell me where is he
Who my future lord shall be;
From this bowl all that I claim
Is to know my lover's name.
The bowl is then securely locked away, and must not be disturbed till
sunrise the following morning, when she is placed before it blindfolded.
She then picks out the same number of letters as there are in her own
name. After these are all out the bandage is removed from her eyes, and
the paper letters spread out before her. She manages them so as to spell
a man's name as best she can with the letters at her disposal. The name
thus found will be that of her future husband.
_Trinity and Catalina Bays, N.F._
309. On Halloween a girl is to go through a graveyard, steal a cabbage
and place it above the house-door. The one on whom the cabbage falls as
the door is opened is to be the girl's husband.
_Massachusetts._
310. On Halloween walk backwards from the front door, pick up dust or
grass, bring it in, wrap it in paper, put it under your pillow, and dream.
_Pennsylvania._
311. On Halloween put an egg to roast before the fire and leave the doors
and windows open. When it begins to sweat a cat will come in and turn it.
After the cat will come the man you are to marry, and he will turn it. If
you are to die unmarried, the shadow of a coffin will appear.
_Chestertown, Md._
312. On Halloween go upstairs backwards, eating a hard boiled egg without
salt, and looking in the glass. You will see your future husband in the
glass, looking over your shoulder.
_St. John, N.B._
313. On Halloween go down the cellar stairs backward, carrying a mirror
into which you look. A face will be seen over your shoulder which will be
that of your future husband.
_General in the United States._
314. On the last night of October place a mirror and a clock in a room
that has not been used for some time, and at a quarter to twelve take a
lighted candle and an apple, and finish eating the apple just as the
clock strikes twelve, and then look in the mirror and you will see your
future husband.
_Alabama._
315. On Halloween put a ring in a dish of mashed potatoes, and the one
who gets the ring will be married first.
_Boston, Mass._
316. On Halloween mash potatoes and conceal in the mass a ring, a coin,
and a button. Divide it into as many portions as there are persons
present. The ring denotes marriage, the coin riches, and the button
misfortune.
_Massachusetts._
317. "Silent Supper." On Halloween set a table as if for supper, with as
many seats at the table as there are girls, each girl standing behind a
chair at the table. The one you are to marry will come in and take the
chair in front of you.
_Chestertown, Md._
318. On Halloween write names of three men on three pieces of paper, roll
them into balls, put these into balls made of Indian meal (wet so as to
roll up), put the balls of meal into a basin of water: whichever one
rises to the top bears the name of the one you'll marry.
_Salem, Mass._
319. On Halloween, girls place three saucers beside each other, two
filled with earth and water, in the other a ring. They are respectively
death, cloister or unmarried life, and marriage.
_Convent School, Manchester, N.H._
320. On Easter Monday, put on one black garter and one yellow one, and
wear them constantly, and you'll have a proposal before the year is out.
_Chestertown, Md._
321. Knit a garter and color it yellow. Don it on Easter Day. Wear it for
a year. The wearer will be engaged before the year is out.
_Salem, Mass._
322. On May first look in an unused well, and you'll see the face of your
future husband or wife.
_New Hampshire._
323. If you look into a well at exactly twelve o'clock, on the first day
of May, through a smoked glass, you will see your future husband.
_Alabama._
324. Hold a mirror over a well on May first, and you will see the image
of your future husband or wife.
_Talladega, Ala._
325. On Midsummer's Day wet a new garment in running water and hang
across a chair, wrong side out, to dry. At twelve noon or midnight the
one who is to marry you will be seen turning the garment.
_Labrador._
326. Place an egg in a tumbler on St. John's Day. The tumbler being half
filled with water, an egg is broken into it at early dawn, and it is
placed in the window, where it remains untouched till sundown. At that
time the broken egg is supposed to have assumed a special shape, in which
the ingenious maiden sees dimly outlined the form of her future lord, or
some emblem of his calling.
_Newfoundland._
CHAPTER VI.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE.
ENGAGEMENT.
327. If you are a bridesmaid three times you will never stand in the
middle.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
328. Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride.
_New England._
329. Don't let another person put on your engagement ring, taken from
your finger, or the engagement will be broken.
_Bathurst, N.B._
330. The mother-in-law's test of the incoming daughter-in-law is to place
a broom on the floor. If the daughter removes it and places it on one
side, she will be a good housewife; if she steps over it, she will be a
bad housewife.
_Labrador._
331. A girl will have as many children after marriage as she has
"holders" given her before marriage.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
ATTIRE OF THE BRIDE.
332. If you try on your wedding dress before the ceremony, you will not
be happy.
_Cambridge, Mass._
333. The bride should wear a borrowed garter, and also a yellow garter.
_Boston, Mass._
334. If a bride wear a yellow garter tied on by a girl friend, the latter
will be married inside the year.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
335. The bride should wear
Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
And something blue.
_Very common._
336. Wear no black at a wedding; it foretells ill luck.
_Massachusetts._
337. To be married in a brown dress is good luck; black is bad.
_Bathurst, N.B._
338. To be married in anything but white garments indicates bad luck for
the bride, white being emblematical of innocence.
They say that white is a heavenly hue.
Another has added,
It may be so, but the sky is blue.
_Massachusetts._
339. White is emblematical of holiness and truth. Blue is emblematical of
peace and security; bright green of true learning, as being the uniform
clothing of nature.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
340. A bride must not look in the glass after her toilet is complete,
_i.e._, she must add a glove or some article after leaving the mirror.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
341. It is bad luck for a bride to keep any of the pins that she used
when she was married.
_Alabama._
342. You will be unhappy if you lose your wedding ring.
_General in the United States._
343. If the bride just before leaving the house throws her bouquet over
the banisters, the one who catches it is next to be wedded.
_Philadelphia, Pa._
344. If a drop of blood gets on a garment in making, it will be one of
your wedding garments.
LUCKY DAYS.
345. Marry in Lent,
Live to repent.
_New York._
346. The day after a wedding is called the bride's day, the next day the
groom's day; the condition of the weather on these days will indicate
whether their lives are to be happy or otherwise.
_Salem, Mass., and Queen Anne Co., Md._
347. The wedding day is the bride's day, and the weather foretells her
married life. The following is the bridegroom's, and his married life is
shown in the same manner. The third day shows how they will live together.
_New York._
348. The two days before the wedding are the bride's days. If they are
pleasant, she will have good luck, etc.
_Waltham, Mass._
349. Marriage days.
Monday--a bad day.
Tuesday--you will have a good husband and will live long.
Wednesday--a grand day; you will have a good husband, and will
live happily, but will have some trouble.
Thursday--a bad day.
Friday--a bad day.
Saturday--no luck at all.
Sunday--no luck at all.
_Baltimore, Md. (negro)._
350. Wednesday is the luckiest day on which to be married. Saturday is
the unluckiest. Friday is also unlucky.
_Bathurst, N.B._
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY.
351. Happy is the bride that the sun shines on.
_Northern Ohio._
352. If it rains on the wedding, the bride will cry all her married life.
_Talladega, Ala._
353. To marry in a storm betokens an unhappy life.
_Peabody, Mass._
354. It is unlucky to drop the ring at the marriage ceremony.
_New York._
355. A bride must step over the church sill with her right foot.
_Orange Co., N.Y._
356. A double wedding is unlucky; one of the marriages will be unhappy.
_Massachusetts._
357. The pair to be married should stand in line with the cracks in the
floor, and not at right angles to them.
_Omaha, Neb._
358. When a couple are married and are driving off, if old shoes are
thrown after them for good luck, and one of the shoes lodges on the coach
or carriage, it is a sign that one of the party will die before the year
is out.
_Waltham, Mass._
359. After the marriage ceremony is performed, the one that walks first
from the altar is the one who will die first, either bride or groom.
_Alabama._
360. Old slippers or rice must be thrown after a bride for good luck.
_General in the United States._
361. If the younger sister is married before the elder, the latter will
have to dance in a pig's trough.
_Western Massachusetts._
362. Runaway matches will prove unlucky.
_New York._
363. It is a sign of ill luck to take off the wedding ring.
_General in the United States._
COURTING AND WEDDING SIGNS.
364. If your apron string becomes loosened, your true love is thinking of
you.
_New York._
365. If your apron drops off, you'll lose your beau. The same is true if
you lose your garter.
_Stevens Point, Wis._
366. If you sink a bottle in water, it will weaken your love.
_Massachusetts._
367. Step over the broom, and you will be an old maid.
368. If a girl wet her apron in washing, it is a sign that she will have
a drunken husband.
_Labrador, Scilly Cove, N.F., and New England._
369. To hang clothes wrong side out is an antidote for a drunken husband.
_Maine._
370. If a girl finds a cobweb in the door, it is a sign that her beau
calls elsewhere.
_Northern Ohio._
371. To find many cobwebs in the kitchen means that there is no courting
there.
_Boston, Mass._
372. When the collar slips around and the opening comes to the ear, your
lover is thinking of you.
_Salem, Mass._
373. If you button your dress up unevenly, it is a sign that your lover
is thinking of you.
_Miramichi, N.B._
374. If you begin to button your dress unevenly, you will be a widow.
_Central Maine._
375. If you are cross when you are young, you will be an old maid.
_Alabama._
376. If you fall up stairs, you will have a new beau.
_Winn, Me._
377. Tumble up stairs and you'll not get married within the year. (Hence
old maids were formerly said to be careful how they went up stairs.)
_New England._
378. Stumbling either up or down stairs means you'll be married inside a
year.
_Cape Breton._
379. If you sit on a table, you will not be married that year.
_New England, New York, and Alabama._
380. Dropping hairpins from your hair means that your beau is thinking of
you.
_General in the United States._
381. If a lady dons a gentleman's hat, it is a sign that she wants a
kiss.
382. If your lips itch, it is a sign some one will kiss you.
_Boston, Mass._
383. If the outside of your nose itches, some one out of town loves you,
and if the inside of your nose, then you are loved by some one in town.
_Western Massachusetts._
384. If a gentleman and lady are riding and are tipped out, they will be
married.
_Nashua, N.H._
385. Make a rhyme when talking, and you'll see your true love before
Saturday night.
_Massachusetts._
386. Should your shoestring come unloosened,
'T is a sure sign and a true,
At that very moment
Your true love thinks of you.
_New York._
387. If your shoe comes untied, your sweetheart is talking about you.
_Alabama._
388. If you want to sneeze and can't, it is a sign some one loves you,
and doesn't dare to tell it.
_Boston, Mass._
389. If you can't drink a cup of tea, you must be love-sick.
_Labrador._
390. Stub your toe
See your beau.
_Massachusetts and Maine._
391. If four persons cross hands in shaking hands on taking leave, one
will marry before the year is out.
_Prince Edward Island, Eastern Massachusetts, and New York._
392. If hands are crossed at the table while passing a dish, a wedding
will follow. The top hand belongs to the person who will be married.
_Pennsylvania._
393. To have two teaspoons in a saucer signifies marriage in a year.
394. If a gentleman stayed to dinner and by accident got two knives, two
forks, or two spoons, at his plate, he would be married within a year,
and there was no help for it.
_Connecticut._
395. Knock over your chair on rising from the table, and you won't get
married that year.
_Peabody, Mass., New York, and Talladega, Ala._
396. If a girl sew a button on the clothing of a marriageable man, she
will marry him within the year.
_New England._
397. If you have a dress with rings for a figure in it, it is a sign you
will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
398. If you have hearts in a figure in a dress or in a shawl, you will be
married before it is worn out.
_New York._
399. If you have a new dress and there are roses in it, the person who
owns the dress will be married before the dress is worn out.
_Salem, Mass._
400. Pins in the front of a dress waist are a sign that the wearer will
be an old maid.
_New Hampshire._
401. If, in making a dress, the thread kinks badly, the person for whom
it is made will either die or get married before the dress is worn out.
_Alabama._
402. If you have a dress tried on, and any pin catches in the
underclothing, every pin means that it is a year before you will be
married; hence dressmakers are especially careful to pin the dress in
such a way that it will slip off easily.
_Boston, Mass._
403. If you have good success in building a fire, you will have a smart
husband; if bad success, a lazy husband.
_St. John, N.B., and Ohio._
404. If a lock of hair over the forehead ("widow's lock") be cut before
marriage, the girl will be a widow.
_Labrador._
405. Get a lady friend to knit you a yellow garter. She must ask a
gentleman unknown to you to knit ten rows. You will meet and marry the
gentleman within a year.
406. The exchange of one yellow garter means a proposal in six months.
_Washington, D.C._
407. If a girl wears a yellow garter (which has been given to her) every
day for a year, or every day and night for six months, at the end of that
time she will be married.
_Montreal, P.Q._
408. If you burn a lover's letter, he will never marry you.
_Central Maine._
409. If, at a dinner, a single person is inadvertently placed between two
married people (husband or wife), it means marriage for him or her within
a year.
410. If you pass between two men on the street, you'll marry both of them
sometime.
_Champaign, Ill._
411. If you drop a knitting-needle, you won't be married during the
present year.
412. If you break many needles in a garment, it will be worn at a
wedding.
413. If you draw blood from a prick of the needle while making a garment,
it is a sign you will be kissed the first time you wear it.
_Boston, Mass._
414. Should needles break while sewing on a new garment, it is a sign
that the owner will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
415. When a young man goes to see a girl for the first time, and the
signs of the zodiac are in the heart, they will one day marry.
_Harmony, Me._
416. If you step on a cigar stub, you will marry the first man you meet.
_Salem, Mass._
417. Two spoons in a cup is the sign of a wedding.
_Bathurst, N.B., and Wisconsin._
418. If you get two spoons in your cup or saucer, you'll marry a second
husband or wife.
419. If a couple out walking together stumble, it is a sign that they
will be married.
_Labrador._
420. Sit on the table,
Married before you're able.
_Mattawamkeag, Me._
421. If a girl gets the last piece of bread on a plate at the table, she
will have a handsome husband.
_Massachusetts._
422. If all of three dishes at the table are eaten, all of the unmarried
people at the table will be married within the year.
_Northern Massachusetts._
423. "If the tea-kettle boils, you will boil your beaux away," is an old
saying.
_Salem, Mass._
424. If you have a cup of tea handed to you, and there are little bits
floating on top, they represent the number of husbands you will
have--one, two, or three.
425. A girl that takes her thimble to the table will be an old maid.
_Northern Ohio._
426. Three in a row,
Meet your beau.
The one in the middle will have him.
_Massachusetts._
427. Three lamps in a row, the one who sets down the third will be soon
married.
_Massachusetts._
428. Three lamps in a row foretell a wedding in the family.
_New York._
429. To look into a tumbler when you are drinking is a sign that you will
be an old maid. If you look over the side, you are a flirt.
_Massachusetts._
430. To wash the hands under a pump denotes that you will be a widow.
_Chestertown, Md._
CHAPTER VII.
WISHES.
431. If you take a baby in your arms for the first time, and at the same
time wish, you will get your wish before the year is out.
_Quebec._
432. Take your Bible and wish. If it opens at "and it came to pass," you
will get your wish.
433. Wish upon a candle on blowing it out. If it glows long, you will get
your wish. If it smokes, it signifies a death.
_Ohio._
434. If a speck of carbon comes on the wick when burning, and you wish
for something, wet your finger and touch the speck. If it sticks to your
finger, you will get the wish, and _vice versa_.
_Plymouth, O._
435. Swallow a chicken's heart whole and make a wish. It will come true.
_Pennsylvania and Ohio._
436. Throw an egg out of the second story window and wish. If it does not
break, you will get your wish.
_Deer Isle, Me._
437. Throw an eyelash over your shoulder. If it falls from your finger in
doing this, your wish will come true. If it remains on the finger, your
wish will not come to pass.
_New York._
438. Find a stray eyelash; place it on the back of the hand with a wish;
blow it off. If it blows off at the first trial, the wish will come true.
_St. John, N.B., and Pennsylvania._
439. Put a loose eyelash on the back of your hand. It signifies a letter.
Wish from whom the letter may come, carry it three times around your
head, then throw it over your shoulder, and you will get your wish.
_New England._
440. Put an eyewinker down inside your clothes, wish, and you'll get your
wish.
_Maine._
441. Put an eyewinker on the back of the hand, knock that hand with the
other so as to throw the eyewinker over the shoulder, and at the same
time wish. If the eyewinker is not seen again, the wish will come true.
_Stoneham, Mass._
442. If you wish on the first thing you eat in the season, the wish will
come true.
443. Wish with two paper slips or grass blades, the ends only being
shown. The longer wins.
444. Wish on a load of hay, and you'll be sure to get it.
_Winn, Me._
445. Wish when you see a hay-cart, don't look at it again, and you'll get
the wish.
_New Jersey._
446. See a white horse; don't look at his tail, but wish.
447. Wish on a "calico" horse.
448. You may wish on a row of empty barrels, or on a piebald horse, but
you must not look on the object a second time.
449. Wish on a load of empty barrels, and you will get your wish.
_Peabody, Mass._
450. Write the names of one hundred people who (by request) have bowed to
you, bury the paper in a secret spot, and at the same time wish. If no
one sees you, you will get your wish.
451. Wish while holding a lighted match until it is extinct, and you'll
get the wish.
452. If by chance two use the same words, lock the little fingers, and
wish before speaking, saying "Shakespeare" at the end.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
453. Let two persons break the wishing-bone of a fowl; the one who gets
the longest piece will get his wish.
_New Jersey and Ohio._
454. If you say two sentences that rhyme, make a wish, then if you make a
rhyme unintentionally and wish before you speak again, your wish will
come to pass.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
455. When you first see a sleigh in the fall of the year, make a wish,
and you will get it.
_Winn, Me._
456. Wish at the first snowflake of the season, and you will get your
wish.
_Westport, Mass._
457. Put a ring on the finger of another person, saying, "I wish it on
until such a time," and if it is not removed before the expiration of the
period named, the wish will come to pass.
_Connecticut and Ohio._
458. When you see a falling star, wish.
_New Jersey._
459. To wish on a star, when you see the first star come out, say:
Star light, star bright,
First star I see to-night,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish to-night.
Wish what you please and it will come true, but the wish must not be
mentioned to any one.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
460. Count nine evening stars in succession, and you will have your wish.
_Massachusetts._
461. Capture a floating thistledown, breathe on it, make a wish to see or
hear from an absent friend, blow in his or her supposed direction, and it
will carry your message.
_Ohio._
462. Make a wish while throwing a leaf into running water. If it lands
right side up, you will have your wish or good luck.
_Lebanon, N.H._
CHAPTER VIII.
DREAMS.
ANIMALS.
463. To dream of cod or caplin is a sign of rain[TN-3]
_Newfoundland._
464. To dream of a good catch of fish is a sign of rain.
_Heart's Content, N.F._
465. To dream of catching fish is good luck.
_Prince Edward Island._
466. If you dream you catch fish, it is a sign you will make a good
bargain, according to the size of the fish.
467. To dream of catching a fish means money.
_Cape Breton._
468. To dream of flies means sickness.
_Massachusetts._
469. To dream of flies is good luck.
_Peabody, Mass._
470. To dream of lice is a sign of death.
_New Harbor, N.F._
471. To dream of lice is a sign of enemies.
_Topsail, N.F._
472. To dream of lice is a sign of "coming wealth."
_Alabama._
473. To dream of lice means sickness in the family.
_Ohio._
474. To dream of snakes means enemies.
_Cape Breton. General in the United States._
In some localities it is said if you kill the snake in your dream you
will conquer your enemies.
475. To dream of porpoises is bad luck.
_Labrador._
476. It is lucky to dream of pigs.
_Bruynswick, N.Y._
477. Dreaming of (or seeing) rats (numerous) is a sign of death.
_Heart's Content, N.F._
478. To dream of a rat is the sign of an enemy.
_Boston, Mass._
479. To dream of rats is a sign of thieves.
_Central Maine and Chestertown, Md._
480. It is a sign of bad news to dream about a white horse.
_Quebec._
481. To dream of a white horse three nights in succession is a sign of
the death of an elderly person.
_Central New York._
482. To dream of a white horse is a sign some one of the family will die
within a year.
_Maine._
483. To dream of three white colts is a sign of a young person dying.
_Central New York._
484. If you dream of a black horse, it is a sure sign of death.
_Peabody, Mass._
485. To dream of a black horse is a sign of a wedding; of a white horse
is a sign of a letter.
_Cape Breton._
486. To dream of a horse is a sign of a letter.
_Miramichi, N.B._
487. To dream of horses is a sign of wind.
_Topsail, N.F._
488. Dreaming of cows is a sign of a hostile, angry woman.
_Bay Roberts, N.F._
489. To dream of dogs and horses is a sign of good luck.
_St. John, N.B._
490. To dream of catching a bird is a sign of a letter.
_Cape Breton._
491. If you dream of a bird in a cage you will have trouble with your
beau.
_New England._
492. To dream of cats means enemies.
_Cape Breton._
493. To dream of a cat means an enemy. If in the dream you conquer the
cat, you will conquer the enemy.
_Miramichi, N.B._
COLORS.
494. To dream of white things is lucky (or sign of death?).
_Newfoundland._
495. Dreaming of white things is a sign of snow in summer.
_Labrador and Newfoundland._
496. Dreaming of working on white cloth is a sign of death.
_Newfoundland._
497. To dream of white or red is unlucky. To dream of black is lucky.
DEAD PERSONS.
498. To dream of a dead father is lucky.
_Labrador._
499. To dream of a dead mother is unlucky; it brings sorrow.
_Labrador._
500. To dream of the dead is a sign of hearing from the living.
_Topsail and New Harbor, N.F._
501. To dream of the dead is a sign of rain.
_New Harbor, N.F._
502. To dream of seeing a deceased friend means rain within a few days.
_Talladega, Ala._
503. To dream of a dead person means a letter next day.
_Northern Maine._
504. If you dream of the dead, you'll hear from the living.
_Prince Edward Island; General in the United States._
EARTH.
505. To dream of walking in a garden is a sign of a graveyard.
506. To dream of ploughed ground indicates that a grave will be dug for
some member of the family before the year ends.
_Western New York._
507. To dream of seeing fresh earth bodes misfortune.
_Northern Ohio._
508. To dream of digging ground, or white potatoes, is a sign of death.
_Harbor Grace, N.F._
509. To dream of seeing the ground unseasonably ploughed means death.
_Nova Scotia._
EGGS.
510. To dream of eggs means you will get a beating,[TN-4]
_Prince Edward Island._
511. Dreaming of eggs is a sign of anger; if broken, all over.
_New Harbor, N.F._
512. To dream of whole eggs is a sign of a "fuss;" of broken eggs is not.
_Chestertown, Md._
513. To dream of a nest full of eggs and a bird sitting on them means you
will receive something new.
_Cape Breton._
FIRE AND SMOKE.
514. It is bad luck to dream of fire.
_St. John, N.B._
515. To dream of fire portends sickness.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
516. If you dream of fire, it is a sign of trouble in the family.
_Alabama._
517. If you dream of fire, you'll have a row.
_Massachusetts._
518. To dream of fire is a sign of anger.
_Newfoundland and Labrador._
519. To dream of fire means hasty news. To dream of smoke means trouble.
_Miramichi, N.B._
520. Dream of flame out of season,
You will be angry without a reason.
521. If you dream about a large blaze of fire, you will get some money
unexpectedly.
_Alabama._
522. Dreaming of smoke indicates trouble.
_Alabama._
523. To dream of smoke means death.
_Wisconsin._
HUMAN BEINGS.
524. To dream of a baby is a sign of death.
525. To dream of babies is unlucky or is a sign of trouble.
_General in the United States._
526. To dream of carrying a child is unlucky.
527. It is bad luck or death to dream of naked clinging (climbing?)
children.
_Labrador and Newfoundland._
528. It is ill luck to dream of a priest.
_Central Maine._
529. If you dream of a negro, you will surely quarrel.
530. If you dream of being kissed by or being very intimate with a woman
friend, it means a disagreement.
531. If you dream of a person of the opposite sex three nights in
succession, you are sure to marry him.
_Alabama._
532. If you dream of a gentleman, you will never marry him.
_Bedford, Mass._
533. If you dream of a person as going two ways at once, it is a sign the
person dreamed of will die before the year is out.
_Boston, Mass._
534. To dream of a naked man is a sign of the death of a woman, and _vice
versa_.
_Baltimore, Md. (negro)._
535. To dream of a drunken husband or man is unlucky.
_Labrador._
536. To dream of men is lucky.
_Newfoundland._
537. To dream of women is unlucky.
_Bay Roberts, N.F._
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA.
538. To dream of walking through snow means sickness.
_St. John, N.B._
539. To dream of a snowstorm is a sign of the speedy death of a relative.
_South Framingham, Mass._
540. To dream of snow in spring (May) is a sign of a good catch of fish.
_Trinity Bay, N.F._
541. If a fisherman dreams of its raining, it is a sign of a good catch
of fish.
_Green Harbor, N.F._
542. Anything dreamed "on the east wind," _i.e._, when the east wind is
blowing, will come true.
_Chestertown, Md. (negro)._
MONEY AND METALS.
543. To dream of silver money is a sign of sickness.
544. To dream of small change (money) is bad luck.
_Newfoundland._
545. To dream of gold or silver is good luck; of paper is bad.
_Boston, Mass._
546. If you dream of gold, it is a sign of an increase of property.
_Alabama._
TEETH.
547. To dream of teeth is unlucky.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
548. It is death or bad luck to dream of teeth falling out.
_Newfoundland and Northern Ohio._
549. To dream of losing a tooth means a death.
_Nova Scotia and Cape Breton._
550. To dream of pulling out your teeth means sickness.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
551. To dream of losing a tooth means losing a friend.
_Virginia._
552. If you dream of having a front tooth drop out, you will lose a near
relative within a year. If a back tooth, a distant relative.
WATER.
553. To dream of smooth water means good luck; of rough water means ill
luck.
_St. John, N.B._
554. Dreaming of running water means approaching death to the dreamer or
some near relative.
555. To dream of clear, sparkling water means good luck.
_Miramichi, N.B._
556. To dream of milky or roily water means death or disaster.
_Miramichi, N.B._
557. To dream of seeing muddy water signifies that you will have trouble.
_Alabama._
558. To dream of clear water means prosperity; of muddy water means
trouble.
_Boston, Mass._
559. To dream of washing is a sign of a move.
_Cape Breton and Wisconsin._
WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS.
560. To dream of marriage is a sign of a funeral.
_Topsail and Carbonear, Trinity Bay, N.F._
561. If you dream of a marriage, it is the sign of a death; and if you
dream of a death, it is the sign of a marriage.
_Alabama._
562. If you dream of a marriage, you will hear of a death next day.
_Talladega, Ala._
563. If you dream of a wedding, you will hear of the death of a friend in
that month.
_Pennsylvania._
564. To dream of a wedding means death.
_Mifflintown, Pa._
565. Dream on a piece of wedding cake. Write names on slips of paper and
pull them out. The one you pull twice is the one you will marry.
_Massachusetts._
566. Sleep on a piece of wedding cake, and the one you dream about will
be your future partner in life.
_New Brunswick._
567. Sleep on a piece of wedding cake, and if you have the same dream
three nights in succession, your dream will come to pass.
_New York._
568. To dream of a funeral means a wedding.
MISCELLANEOUS.
569. To dream of raw meat is a sign of ill luck.
570. To dream of eating meat is a sign of sickness.
_Boston._
571. To see while asleep fresh meats of any kind is a warning of death.
_Alabama._
572. To dream of blood is a sign of sickness.
_Alabama._
573. To dream of blood is a sign that some one will "scandalize" you.
_Baltimore, Md. (negro)._
574. To dream of onions is good.
575. To dream of flowers is a sign of sickness.
_Alabama._
576. To dream of
Fruit out of season,
Trouble without reason.
_Northern Ohio._
577. To dream of cherries is evil.
578. To dream of an anchor means good luck.
_St. John, N.B._
579. To dream on land of a vessel (with sails set?) is a sign of a
funeral.
_Labrador and Trinity Bay, N.F._
580. To dream of small beads or sewing silk is lucky.
_Labrador._
581. What you dream the first night you are in a strange house will come
true.
_General in the United States._
582. If you dream the first night you are in a strange bed, your dream
will come true. If the dream was of a sweetheart, you will be married.
_Trinity Bay and Bay Roberts, N.F._
583. To dream of losing the sole of your shoe indicates the death of a
near friend.
_Cape Breton._
584. To dream of seeing any one wear worn-out shoes means the death of a
near relative.
_Cape Breton._
585. To dream of a hole worn in a boot is a sign of being sick.
_Newfoundland._
586. To dream of bad boots is unlucky.
_Newfoundland._
587. Saturday night's dream, Sunday morning told,
Will come to pass before it's a week old.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
588. Saturday night dreamt,
Sunday morning told,
Sure to come true
Before a month old.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
589. Relate the dream before breakfast, and it will come true.
_General in the United States._
590. If you dream the same thing three times, it will come true.
591. Dreaming of handling new-made boards is a sign of a coffin. (A
carpenter's notion.)
_Heart's Content, N.F._
592. If you dream of seeing a boat drawn or sailing on land, it is a sign
of death.
_Cape Breton._
593. If you dream that you see an empty coffin, you will see it filled
within a year.
594. To dream of dough in a bread pan is the sign of a coffin.
_New Brunswick._
595. To dream of dough in a black pan is a sign of a corpse.
_Miramichi, N.B._
596. To dream of bread is good luck.
_Boston, Mass._
597. To dream of going in a carriage means you'll travel with a friend.
_Cape Breton._
598. Pick up a stone in a strange place and put it under the pillow for
three nights. If you dream, it will come true.
_Newfoundland._
599. To dream of being in a new house is a sign of death.
_Harbor Grace, N.F._
600. Place the heel of one shoe against the instep of the other three
nights in a row, and you will dream of your future husband.
_Franklin, Mass._
601. To dream that your sweetheart has the ague means that he loves you.
602. To dream you are a fool is good luck and increase of wealth.
603. Dreaming of persons being sick is a sign of being well.
_Newfoundland and New Hampshire._
604. To dream of a death is a sign of life.
605. To dream of the devil is a sign of good luck.
_Trinity Bay, N.F._
606. To dream you cry means you will laugh.
_Boston, Mass._
607. Dreams go by contraries.
_General in the United States._
CHAPTER IX.
LUCK.
CARDS.
608. At cards, if your luck is poor, walk round your chair three times,
lift it, sit down, and your luck is assured.
_General in the United States._
609. At cards, it is bad luck to play against the grain of the table.
_General in the United States._
610. At cards, it is unlucky to turn up your hand before the dealer is
through.
_Alabama._
611. At cards, it is common to blow on the deal, without looking at it,
for good luck.
_Providence, R.I., and Salem, Mass._
DAYS.
612. It is unlucky to travel on Friday.
_New York and Pennsylvania._
613. Never begin a piece of work on Friday; it is bad luck.
_General in the United States._
614. Seafaring men will not sail on Friday.
_Somewhat general in the United States._
615. If you begin a piece of work on Friday, it will be a very short or a
very long job.
_St. John, N.B._
616. It is bad luck to cut your finger-nails on Friday.
_Pigeon Cove, Mass._
617. As with the superstitious generally, Friday is a very unlucky day.
Housekeepers will prefer paying a quarter's rent extra to going into a
house on that day. It is, of course, most unlucky to be married on it.
Wednesday is the day considered most favorable for the purpose.
_Newfoundland._
618. If you cut your nails on Sunday, you'll do something you're ashamed
of before the week is out.
_Maine._
619. If business is transacted on Sunday, you will lose by it on the
coming week.
_New York._
620. Pancake Day is Shrove Tuesday. If you do not eat pancakes on that
day, you will have no luck throughout the year. The hens won't lay, etc.
_Chestertown, Md._
621. When the two figures that tell one's age are alike, as 22, 33, etc.,
some great change in life is to be expected.
_Nashua, N.H._
DRESSING.
622. If you put on any garment wrong side out, as, for example, a pair of
stockings, never change it, as to do so brings ill luck. This direction
is intuitively followed by many people who are entirely free from
conscious superstition.
_General in the United States._
623. If you put a garment on wrong side out, you mustn't speak of it, or
you will have bad luck.
_Maine._
624. If you put a garment on wrong side out, or a hat on wrong end
before, spit on it before turning, to prevent bad luck.
_Maine and Ohio._
625. If a garment is put on wrong side out, it is lucky, but unlucky to
turn it.
_Prince Edward Island and Massachusetts._
626. To clothe the left foot before the right one is a sign of misfortune.
_Ohio._
627. If you button up your dress wrong, _i.e._, do not begin with the
button and button-hole opposite each other, it means bad luck, or good
luck if worn uneven until after sunset.
_Cape Breton._
628. The putting of the left shoe on the right foot, lacing it wrong, or
losing a button, are all bad signs.
_Alabama._
629. Walking across the room with one shoe off is a sign of ill luck.
_Alabama._
630. When putting on your shoes and stockings, if you complete dressing
one foot before beginning to dress the other, it is a sign you will be
disappointed.
_Northern Ohio._
HORSESHOES.
631. It is good luck to find a horseshoe.
_General in the United States and Canada._
632. The luck is especially good if the loop end is towards you, that is,
if you meet it.
_Miramichi, N.B._
633. If you find horseshoes and pick them up, you will have a horse.
634. The more nails in the horseshoe, the more luck.
_Western Pennsylvania._
635. To find a horseshoe nail is good luck, especially if the head is
towards you.
_Miramichi, N.B._
636. If horseshoes are put up over a house for luck, the points should
not be placed downwards, or the luck will slip through.
PINS.
637. See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck;
See a pin and pass it by (or "let it lie"),
All the day your luck will fly.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
638. See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck;
See a pin and let it lie,
Come to sorrow by and by.
_New York._
639. See a pin and pick it up for luck. If the head is towards you, the
luck is slow in coming; if the point is towards you, the luck is quick
and sharp.
_Boston, Mass._
640. If you see a pin crosswise, that is, across your path, it means a
ride if you pick it up.
_Boston, Mass._
641. "I have known a young lady form a habit of stooping in consequence
of keeping the eyes fixed on the ground, in the streets of New York city,
in order not to miss the good fortune that might come of picking up a
pin. The pin must be thrust into a tree or post, in order to keep the
luck as long as it remains fast."
_New York, N.Y._
642. Find a pin and let it lie,
You'll want a pin before you die.
_Alabama._
643. See a pin and let it lie,
You'll want that pin before you die.
_Peabody, Mass._
SALT.
644. It is unlucky to pass salt across the table.
645. Spilling salt is unlucky; throw some over your left shoulder, or
burn a pinch to avert ill luck.
_Northern Ohio._
646. It is bad luck to spill salt unless it is burned.
_Virginia._
647. If you spill salt, throw some over your left shoulder, and then
crawl under one side of the table and come out on the other, to prevent
bad luck.
_Bucks Co., Pa._
648. Spilling salt at table is ill luck to the one towards whom it is
spilled.
_Iowa._
649. If you spill salt, you will have a whipping.
_New England and Canada._
SWEEPING.
650. If the broom is moved with the rest of the household furniture, you
will not be successful. The broom should be burned while standing in the
corner, being watched meanwhile, to prevent the house from taking fire.
651. Never sweep the floor after sunset; it is bad luck.
_Alabama._
652. Carrying ashes out of the house after sunset is bad luck.
_Virginia._
653. It is ill luck to sweep dirt out of doors after sunset.
_Virginia._
654. Dirt must not be swept out of doors after dark, or it will bring
disaster to the master of the house. This belief is common among negroes
and superstitious whites.
_Chestertown, Md._
655. Sailors are unwilling that their friends should sweep after dark,
because in that case their wages will be swept away by sickness or
otherwise.
_Westport, Mass._
TURNING BACK.
656. It is unlucky to turn back for anything after you have set out to go
anywhere.
_Prince Edward Island._
657. Returning to the house for something and starting again without
sitting down is bad luck.
_Virginia._
658. It will prove unlucky if you return for a forgotten article after
you have left the house; but if you seat yourself before leaving the
house again, the misfortune will be averted.
_New York._
659. To avert ill luck or disappointment that will come if a person comes
back to a house for something forgotten, he must sit down a minute.
_General in New England._
660. To go back into the house for something after starting on a journey
is unpropitious. To have it brought out is all right.
_Iowa._
661. If you have to go back to the house after something forgotten, you
must not sit down, but stand a moment or two, or else it is bad luck.
_Cape Breton._
662. If you start anywhere and go back, it is bad luck unless you make a
cross-mark and spit in it.
_Alabama and Kentucky._
MISCELLANEOUS.
663. If two persons shake hands across the gate, they are bringing on
themselves ill luck.
_Alabama._
664. It is unlucky to pass under a ladder.
_Canada._
665. Go under a ladder and you will be hanged.
666. Walking under a ladder is considered very unlucky. In the outposts
girls will climb the rockiest cliffs to avoid such a contingency. On one
occasion in St. John's, where a ladder extended across the sidewalk, of
one hundred and twenty-seven girls who came along, only six ventured
under it, the rest going along the gutter in mud ankle deep.
_Newfoundland._
667. If, in passing, one parts two people, it is a sign of disappointment
to the parter.
668. When two or three people go between different posts, in the entrance
of gardens, cemeteries, etc., it is a sign they will be separated or
disappointed.
_General in the United States._
669. Sing on the street,
Disappointment you'll meet.
670. To count the steps of stairs, as you lie on your back, indicates the
number of your troubles.
671. To fall upstairs means good luck; downstairs, ill luck.
_Massachusetts._
672. To stumble downstairs, or on going out in the morning, means bad
luck.
_Peabody, Mass._
673. Opals are unlucky.
_General in the United States._
674. The opal is unlucky, unless set with diamonds.
_New York._
675. Don't let the tea-kettle boil so as to make a bubbling or thumping
noise, as some say it is unlucky.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
676. A tea-kettle boiling so as to make a bubbling sound is said to boil
away luck, and should be removed from the flame.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
677. Never let your dish-water come to a boil, as every bubble means bad
luck to the family.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
678. Sewing in the twilight is an ill omen.
_Chatham, N.H._
679. To look over another person's shoulder into a looking-glass means
disappointment.
_Deer Isle, Me._
680. When going fishing, fishermen wear white mittens for luck.
_Portsmouth, N.H._
681. It is unlucky to lose a glove.
_Bathurst, N.B._
682. It is bad luck to have any one step across the fishing-pole; you
will catch no fish.
_Talladega, Ala._
683. Crawl under a fence, and you will have bad luck.
_Western Masssachusetts.[TN-5]_
684. To step over the feet of any one who is sitting is ill luck.
685. Getting out of bed with the left foot first, or taking anything with
the left hand when the right is disengaged, is a sign of bad luck.
_Alabama._
686. In getting out of bed in the morning, the right foot is always to be
placed first.
_Ohio._
687. To get out of bed left foot first makes one cross. "He got out of
bed left foot first," is a universal saying.
688. In going in at the house door, always put the right foot foremost.
This practice is observed by many intelligent people.
689. To sing at the table is a sign you will be disappointed.
690. It is an ill omen to leave the table while eating, to light the
lamp.
_Western Massachusetts._
691. To lay the knife and fork crosswise is ill luck.
_Peabody, Mass._
692. When you drop a knife or fork, and it sticks up in the floor, you
will have good luck.
693. It is lucky to find a rusty knife or other steel instrument.
_Maine._
694. If a knife be spun round, care should be taken to spin it back
again, otherwise it insures bad luck.
695. Often verses of Proverbs xxxi. are assigned to girls and boys
respectively according to the day of the month of the birth.
_Labrador and Brookline, Mass._
696. It brings bad luck to the bearer of a ring to have it taken from her
finger by another person.
_Massachusetts._
697. Measuring one's waist, as for a dress, will bring ill luck.
698. To turn a loaf of bread upside down is ill luck.
_Northern Ohio._
699. To find a four-leaved clover is lucky; but five-leaved, unlucky.
_General in the United States._
700. When a vessel is launched, break a bottle of wine over her for luck.
The bottle is to be broken by a lady.
_General in the United States._
701. Never carry clean wet clothes from one house to another, as it will
bring ill luck.
_Chestertown, Md._
702. Do not go into your new house by the back door; if you do you take
disaster with you.
703. Never build on a spot where a house has been burned. The second
house is likely to go in the same manner.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
704. Light coming in at the window is a bad sign.
_Peabody, Mass._
705. The opening of an umbrella in the house is a sign of bad luck.
_General in the United States._
706. If you drop your umbrella, you will have ill luck if you pick it up
yourself; but the ill luck may be averted by having some one else pick it
up.
_Prince Edward Island._
707. To carry a hoe through the house is ill luck.
_Alabama._
708. To light three lights with one match is good luck for a week.
_Peabody, Mass._
709. The falling of a chandelier foretells a disaster in the family.
_New York._
710. Breaking a looking-glass shows that you'll have seven years of ill
luck.
_General in the United States._
711. If a chair be turned about on one of its forelegs, there will be bad
luck in the house all that year.
_Talladega, Ala._
712. A mare-browed man, that is, one whose eyebrows meet, is unlucky and
can cast spells.
_Newfoundland._
713. It is unlucky, when going deer-hunting, to meet a red-haired man.
_Newfoundland._
CHAPTER X.
MONEY.
714. A group of bubbles on a cup of coffee signifies money.
_United States._
715. A mass of bubbles floating on a cup of coffee signifies that money
is coming to one. If he can take up the bubbles on his spoon, it
indicates that he will get the money, but if they escape he will not.
_Prince Edward Island._
716. If a group of bubbles are floating on the tea or coffee cup, take
them up in a spoon, and swallow them unbroken, saying, "Save my money."
_Plymouth and Salem, Mass., and New Brunswick._
717. If when you stir your coffee at breakfast you will try to catch the
bubbles on top, you can have as many dollars as you can catch whole ones.
_Alabama._
718. To find money and keep it insures good luck through the year.
_Talladega, Ala._
719. Put the first piece of money you get in the morning into your
stocking, and you will have more to add to it before night.
_Alabama._
720. If you find a piece of money the first day of the year, you will
have good luck all the rest of the year.
_Alabama._
721. If paper money is folded lengthwise first, it will insure the
possession of money. If folded the short fold first, money will not
remain in the pocket.
_Alabama._
722. To make a sale in the first place where an agent calls is good luck.
For example, a magnifying-glass worth three dollars was sold for
seventy-five cents, in order to stop a run of bad luck by making a sale.
_Massachusetts._
723. If your initials spell a word, it means that you will be rich.
_Massachusetts and Ohio._
724. If the right hand itches, it is a sign you will receive money; if
the left, you will spend money, because _R_ stands for receive, and _L_
for let go.
_New York._
725. If the left hand itches and you rub it on wood, you'll receive money
before the end of the week.
Rub it on wood
To make it good.
_Very common in New Brunswick and New England._
726. Itching in the palm of the hand means that it will soon receive
money. Clap the closed hand into the pocket.
_Mt. Desert, Me._
727. If you place your money according to value, _i.e._, lay it in order,
you will be rich.
_Bedford, Mass._
728. An old superstition pertaining to clothing is, that before putting
on new clothes a sum of money must be placed in the right-hand pocket,
which will insure its always being full. If by mistake, however, it be
put in the left hand pocket, the wearer will never have a penny so long
as the clothes last.
729. There's a "bag of money," or a "pot of gold," at the end of the
rainbow.
_General among children._
730. If you sew in the twilight, you will never be rich.
_Miramichi, N.B._
731. If you mend or sew on a garment while wearing it, you will always be
poor.
_Bathurst, N.B._
732. Always shut the doors, or you will never own a house.
_Salem, Mass._
733. Sparks in the soot on the back wall above a coal fire bring wealth.
_Rhode Island._
734. Say "Money" three times at sight of a meteor, and you'll get it, or
wish and you'll get it.
735. When you see a shooting star, say "money." As many times as you are
able to repeat the word during the fall of the star, so many dollars you
will have in your pocket.
_Connecticut._
CHAPTER XI.
VISITORS.
736. Having a piece of bread and taking another is a sign some one is
coming hungry.
_Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania._
737. If you drop a slice of bread with the buttered side up, it is a sign
of a visitor.
_Bathurst, N.B._
738. If a broom falls across the threshold, it means a visitor is coming.
_Massachusetts._
739. Three chairs in a row is a sign of a caller.
_Bedford, Mass._
740. Two chairs chancing to be placed back to back denote that a visitor
is coming.
_Danvers, Mass._
741. One chair in front of another means a stranger.
_Peabody, Mass._
742. If you go around the chimney without sitting down, you will bring
company to that house.
_Guilford, Conn._
743. Company on Sunday means company all the week.
_New England._
744. If you have company on Monday, you will have company every day in
the week.
_General in the United States._
745. If you drop the dish-cloth, it is a sign you will have company.
_General in the United States._
746. If you almost drop a dish-cloth and catch it before it falls, it is
a sign of a visitor.
_Bathurst, N.B._
747. If you drop a dish-rag, some one is coming hungry.
_Alabama._
748. If the dish-cloth on falling to the floor spreads out, the visitor
will be a lady; if it falls in a heap, it will be a gentleman.
_Cape Breton and Central Maine._
749. If you drop the tea-towel, it is a sign of company.
_Pennsylvania._
750. If you go in at one door and out at another, it is a sign of company.
_New York and Ohio._
751. Going out through one door of the house and in through another means
a visit from agreeable company.
752. If you go in at one door and out of another of the house of a
friend, a stranger will enter the house soon.
_Central New Hampshire._
753. If you go in at the back (or front) door of a house, and out at the
front (or back) without sitting down, you will bring company.
_Guilford, Conn._
754. If you forget anything on your departure from a visit, you will go
there again.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
755. If the fork is dropped at the table, a man will call.
_Pennsylvania._
756. If you drop a fork, and it sticks in the floor and remains in a
standing position, it is a sign that a gentleman will call; but if a
knife, a lady will call.
_General in the United States._
757. Should you drop a knife or scissors so that they stick into the
floor and stand up, it is a sign of company.
_New York._
758. The dropping of any sharp-pointed instrument which sticks up in the
floor, such as a knife, a pair of scissors, etc., foretells company
coming from the direction in which the article leans.
_Massachusetts._
759. If the scissors drops there will be visitors; if the small blade
sticks in the floor it will be children; if the large, adults.
_Nashua, N.H._
760. A needle dropping on the floor and sticking up means visitors.
_St. John, N.B._
761. If a knife be dropped at table, a woman will call.
_Pennsylvania._
762. If you drop a knife at table, a lady will come during the evening;
if a fork, a gentleman is coming.
_Talladega, Ala._
763. If you drop a knife, your visitor will be a woman; if a fork, it
will be a man; if a spoon, it will be a fool.
_Pennsylvania._
764. If you drop a knife, it is a sign a lady is coming to see you. If a
fork, the visitor will be a man; if a spoon, your cousin.
_New York._
765. Two knives beside a plate mean a lady stranger; two forks, a man.
_Peabody, Mass._
766. To put two spoons in your teacup is a sign of a stranger.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
767. Two forks or spoons crossed on a plate signify that a stranger is
coming.
768. If you wash the sugar-bowl, you will have company.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
769. To have too many plates on the table means guests.
770. If an extra plate be accidentally placed upon the table, some
visitor will come hungry.
_Northern Ohio._
771. If you are offered an article of food at the table, which you
already have on your plate, but forgetting that you have it, take some
more, it is a sign that a stranger is coming to your house before you eat
another meal.
_Quebec._
772. If stems of tea-grounds are found in the cup, it denotes that
visitors are coming. If you wish them to come, bite the heads off and
throw them under the table.
_Deerfield, Mass._
773. If the stems of tea-grounds come on top of the cup, visitors are
coming. Bite one, and if it is hard, it will be a man; if soft, a woman.
_New Hampshire._
774. If successful in the attempt to take stems from your tea, a friend
is going to visit you.
_Alabama._
775. If a tea-stem is on top of the cup, put it in your shoe, and you
will have company.
_Massachusetts._
776. If a tea-stem floats in the tea, it is a sign you will have a
visitor. If it is hard, it is a man; if it is soft, it is a woman. If it
is long, the visitor will be tall; if short, the visitor will be short.
_New York._
777. To learn about visitors from tea-grounds: Lift the leaf out and
press it against the left hand, naming the days of the week. Upon
whichever day the leaf chances to cling and rest, company may be
expected. To complete the spell, pat the leaf down your neck and wish.
_Plymouth, Mass._
778. If your eye quivers, a stranger is coming.
_Labrador._
779. If a stray hair blows persistently across the eyes, it's the sign
that a stranger is coming.
_Massachusetts._
780. The shin-bone itching means guests.
781. The nose itching signifies visitors.
_General in the United States._
782. The nose itching foretells company. If on the right side, it means a
man; if on the left, a woman.
_Central New York._
783. If your nose itches, you will see an old friend whom you have not
seen for some time.
_New York and Pennsylvania._
784. If your nose itches, it means you'll
See a stranger,
Kiss a fool,
Or be in danger.
_Peabody, Mass._
785. To sneeze at the table indicates a stranger.
_Peabody, Mass._
786. To sneeze before breakfast is a sign you will have a caller before
night.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
787. Sneeze before you eat,
See a stranger before you sleep.
_Cape Breton._
788. As many times as you sneeze before breakfast, so many calls will you
have before tea (or bed-time).
789. If you sneeze on Saturday, you will have company on Sunday.
_Massachusetts._
790. Water spilled on the doorstep means a stranger.
_Ohio._
791. To slop water near a door is a sign of a stranger.
_Peabody, Mass._
792. A sudden shower of sparks from the fire betokens a visitor.
_Cape Breton._
793. When you see the soot burning in the back of the chimney, it is a
sign of your being visited by a stranger.
_Alabama._
794. If you crock[TN-6] your knuckles, company will come.
_Massachusetts._
CHAPTER XII.
CURES.
AMULETS.
795. Green glass beads worn about the neck will prevent or cure
erysipelas.
_Chestertown, Md._
796. Gold beads were formerly a protection against the "King's Evil"
(scrofula), and nearly every maiden and matron wore ample strings of
beautiful large beads.
_Adams, Mass._
797. Gold beads worn about the neck will cure sore throat.
_Windham, Me._
798. Gold beads worn about the throat were thought to cure or or prevent
goître.
_Northern Ohio._
799. A string of gold beads is still held to be a preventive of quinsy,
sore throats, and so on.
_New Hampshire._
800. A string of gold beads worn on the neck will cure or prevent quinsy.
_Prince Edward Island._
801. Red beads about the neck cure nose-bleed.
_Cazenovia, N.Y._
802. For nose-bleed wear a red bean on a white string round the neck.
_Bedford, Mass._
803. A black silk cord about the neck cures croup.
_Cazenovia, N.Y._
804. A key worn hanging about the neck by a string prevents nose-bleed.
_Central Maine._
805. Wearing brown paper on the chest will cure sea-sickness.
_Newton, Mass., and Chestertown, Md._
806. Tie a piece of black ribbon around a child's neck, and it will
prevent croup.
_Waltham, Mass._
807. Brass earrings or rings are thought by negroes to keep away
rheumatism.
_Alabama._
808. To cure rheumatism, wear a brass ring on the finger.
_Boston, Mass._
809. Wearing brass rings will prevent cramp.
_Alabama._
810. A brass ring worn on the finger will cure rheumatism.
_Chestertown, Md. (negro)._
811. Sailors wear gold earrings for weak eyes or to strengthen the
sight.
_Brookline, Mass._
812. A common custom among negroes is to wear a leather strap about the
wrist as a cure for rheumatism, sprains, etc., and to give strength.
_Chestertown, Md. (negro)._
813. As a cure for nose-bleed, tie a string about the little finger.
_Cape Breton._
814. A leather string commonly worn around the neck is supposed to
prevent whooping-cough.
_Chestertown, Md._
815. A red string tied about the waist cures nausea or sea-sickness.
_Massachusetts._
CHARM.
816. To keep fire always burning on the hearth will prevent cholera among
chickens.
_Alabama._
817. If a fish-hook pierces the hand, stick it three times into wood, in
the name of the Trinity, to prevent festering or other evil consequences.
_Newfoundland._
818. If you scratch yourself with a rusty nail, stick the nail
immediately into hard wood, and it will prevent lockjaw.
_Salem, Mass._
819. A man who "stuck a nail in his foot" was told by a neighbor to pull
it out, grease it, and hang it up in the "chimbly," otherwise he might
have lockjaw.
_New Brunswick._
820. To cure nose-bleeding, write the person's name on the forehead.
_Newfoundland._
821. For rheumatism, carry a horseshoe nail in the pocket.
_Central New York._
822. To get rid of rheumatism: "You go in de lot an' go up to fence. Den
put you breas' on it and say, 'I lef you here, I lef you here,' tree
times, den you go 'way and don't you never come back dere no more."
_French Canadian._
823. To cure fits, the first time the child or person has one, tear off
the shirt of the patient and burn it up, and no more fits will return.
_Chestertown, Md. (negro)._
824. If you don't want the cramp in your foot, turn your shoes bottom up
at night.
_Nashua, N.H._
825. To keep off nightmare, put your shoes at night with the toes
pointing away from the bed.
_Central New York._
826. To ward off nightmare, sleep with shears under the pillow.
_Central New York._
827. Nightmare is caused by the nightmare man, a kind of evil spirit,
struggling with one. It is prevented by placing a sharp knife under the
pillow, and stuffing the keyhole with cotton.
_Windham, Me._
828. Sores can be cured by those who possess magical powers going through
certain incantations, which are to be followed by applications of oatmeal
and vinegar.
_Newfoundland._
829. For a sty on the eye, take a small piece of paper, rub it on the
sty, go across the road three times, and say each time,--
Sty, sty, go off my eye,
Go on the first one that passes by.
This is a sure cure in two or three days.
_Talladega, Ala._
830. To cure a sty repeat at a cross-roads,--
Sty, sty, leave my eye,
And take the next one that passes by.
_Massachusetts, Indiana, and California._
831. Toothache may be cured by conjurers, who apply the finger to the
aching tooth, while muttering a charm, or tie a number of knots in a
fishing line.
_Newfoundland._
832. Toothache may be cured by a written charm, sealed up and worn around
the neck of the afflicted person. The following is a copy of the charm:--
I've seen it written a feller was sitten
On a marvel stone, and our Lord came by,
And He said to him, "What's the matter with thee, my man?"
And he said, "Got the toothache, Marster,"
And he said, "Follow me and thee shall have no more toothache."
_Newfoundland._
833. For toothache take an eyelash, an eyebrow, trimmings of the
finger-nails, and toe-nails of the patient, bore a hole in a beech-tree,
and put them in. The sufferer must not see the tree, and it must not be
cut down or burned.
_Cape Breton._
834. Treat biliousness by boring three holes in a tree and walking three
times around it, saying, "Go away, bilious."
_Eastern Shore of Maryland._
835. The most powerful charm is a piece of printed paper called "the
letter of Jesus Christ." This, in addition to the well-known letter of
Lentulus to the Senate, contains many absurd superstitions, such as the
promise of safe delivery in child-bed, and freedom from bodily hurt to
those who may possess a copy of it.
_Newfoundland._
WATER.
836. Rub the hands with the first snow that falls and you'll not have
sore hands all winter.
_Winn, Me._
837. On Ash Wednesday before sunrise dip a pail of water in a running
brook (up stream), bottle it, and keep as a cure for anything.
_Maine._
838. Catch the last snow of the season (_e.g._, in April), melt and put
into a bottle. It will cure sore eyes.
_Chestertown, Md._
839. Water made from snow that falls in the month of May will cure sore
eyes.
_Prince Edward Island._
840. Rain-water caught the first of June will cure freckles. It will not
putrefy.
_Massachusetts._
841. An Indian doctor used for inflammation of the eyes rain-water caught
on the third, fourth, and fifth of June. It is said that this will not
putrefy.
_New Hampshire._
842. The first water that falls in June is supposed to cure all skin
diseases; and I am informed "it is dretful good for the insides, too."
_Westford, Mass._
843. Water in which a blacksmith has cooled his iron is a cure for
freckles.
_Malden, Mass._
MISCELLANEOUS.
844. It is believed that "piercing the ear" will cure weak eyes or
strengthen the eyes. It is often done to children for this purpose.
_Northern Ohio._
845. To cure hiccoughs repeat in one breath the words,--
There was an old woman who lived all alone,
And she was made of skin and bone.
One day to church she went to pray,
And on the ground a man there lay,
And from his head unto his feet
The worms crawled in, the worms crawled out.
_Boston, Mass._
846. A variant,--
There was an old woman who lived all alone,
And she was made of skin and bone.
One day to church she went to pray,
And on the ground there lay a man.
And from his head unto his feet
The worms crawled in, the worms crawled out.
The woman to the parson said:
"Shall I be so when I am dead?"
The parson he said "yes."
_Portland, Me., Brookline and Deerfield, Mass._
847. For hiccoughs the nurse used to say in a droning, deep, ghostly
tone,--
There was an old man an' an old woman,
And they lived in a bottle and eat BONES.
_Brookline, Mass._
848. Other somewhat general remedies for hiccoughs are to munch a
spoonful of sugar, to scare the one troubled with hiccoughs by some
startling announcement or accusation, as, "See, you've torn your dress!"
or, "How did you break my vase?" etc. Another custom is to steadily point
a finger at the hiccougher, or to make him hold up his arm and shake it.
849. To cure hiccoughs, slowly take nine sips of water.
_Prince Edward Island and Northern Ohio._
850. Another cure for hiccoughs is as follows: Put the thumb up against
the lower lip, with the fingers under the chin, and say, "hiccup, hiccup,
over my thumb," nine times.
_Northern Ohio._
851. A cure for hiccoughs: Try for a long time to make the edges of the
thumb-nails meet at the end.
_Chestertown, Md._
852. Think of the one you love best, to cure hiccoughs.
_Prince Edward Island._
853. For chapped lips kiss the middle rail of a five-railed fence.
_Bernardston, Mass._
854. To relieve coughing or strangling, put a pair of scissors down
inside the back of your dress.
_Prince Edward Island._
855. Chew brown paper as a cure for nose-bleed.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
856. For nose-bleed, put a key down the back.
857. For nose-bleed, hold up the right arm.
858. For nose-bleed, place a wad of paper between the upper lip and the
gum.
859. You can keep from crying as you peel onions if you keep the mouth
closed.
_Northern Ohio._
860. Hold, by the points, two needles between your teeth, as you peel
onions, and you will not cry.
_Prince Edward Island._
861. Hold a needle between your teeth with the point out, while peeling
onions, and you'll not cry, _i.e._, will not feel the smart.
862. You will not cry in peeling onions if you hold a bit of bread in the
mouth.
_Prince Edward Island, Cambridge, Mass. (Irish)._
Or, put the bread on the point of the knife.
_Maine._
863. You will not cry in peeling onions if you let the faucet be open so
the water will run.
_Cambridge, Mass._
864. To bring up the palate when it drops and tickles the root of the
tongue, take a wisp of hair on the crown of the head and tie it up very
tight.
_Chestertown, Md._
865. Rubbing a sty with a gold ring will cure it.
_Prince Edward Island._
866. Cure a sty by rubbing it with a wedding ring.
_General._
867. A sty in the eye is cured by rubbing a gold ring on the eye three
mornings with a sign of the cross.
_Labrador._
868. A pebble in the mouth will ease thirst.
_Brookline, Mass._
869. A sore throat may be cured by binding about the neck on going to bed
one of the stockings which the patient has been wearing (no other one
will do).
_Somewhat general in the United States._
870. To cure the sore throat, take three handfuls of ashes with your left
hand, put into your left stocking, and bind it around your throat.
_Mattawamkeag, Me._
871. To burn the "little nerve" in the ear will cure the toothache forever.
_Northern Ohio._
CHAPTER XIII.
WARTS.
CAUSES.
872. Blood from the warts on a cow's bag coming in contact with a
person's hands will cause warts to appear on them.
_New Hampshire._
873. Blood from a wart, especially if applied to the tongue, will cause
warts to appear.
_New Jersey._
874. To count another person's warts will cause them to appear on you.
_General in the United States._
875. If one counts stars while lying on his back, he will have as many
warts as he has counted stars.
_New York and Trenton, N.J._
876. To drink the water in which eggs have been boiled will cause
internal warts.
_Miramichi, N.B._
877. Washing the hands in water in which eggs have been boiled causes
warts to grow.
_Cape Breton and Eastern Massachusetts._
878. Warts are caused by touching the white of an egg.
_Salem, Mass._
879. To touch the jelly-fish will cause warts.
_Halifax, N.S., and parts of Eastern New England._
880. Touching the excrescences that sometimes appear on trees will cause
warts on the hand of the person who touches them.
_New England._
881. The handling of large species of toadstool, sometimes popularly
called "wart-toadstool," will cause warts to grow on the part of the hand
coming in contact with it.
_New Hampshire._
882. The handling of a toad will cause warts to appear.
_General in the United States._
CURES.
883. To cure a wart, grease it with stolen bacon, and hide the latter.
884. Split a bean and put one half on the wart, one half in the ground,
and at the end of the week dig up the latter; place on the wart with the
other half; bury again, and this will cure the wart.
_Greenfield, Mass._
885. Beans rubbed on a wart and thrown in the well will cure a wart.
_Maine._
886. Rub a white bean on the warts, wrap it in paper, and throw it on the
road; whoever picks it up will get the warts.
_Connecticut._
887. If you find an old bone in the field, rub the wart with it, then lay
it down exactly as you found it. The wart will be cured.
_Maine._
888. If a person has warts, he should rub them with a bone, and after
replacing the bone they are said to leave.
_Alabama._
889. Rub a wart with the yellow milky juice of celandine (_Chelidonium
majus_).
_Massachusetts._
890. The juice of "wild celandine" (_Impatiens fulva_) is used as a wart
cure.
_Franconia, N.H._
891. Dandelion juice will cure warts.
_Revere Beach, Mass._
892. The milky juice of the _Euphorbia hypericifolia_ (and other small
prostrate Euphorbias) is thought to be a sure cure for warts.
_Northern Ohio._
893. The milky juice of the common cypress spurge (_Euphorbia
Cyparissias_) will cure warts.
894. The juice of the common large milk-weeds (Asclepias) will cure warts.
_Massachusetts._
895. The juice of the "milk-thistles" (Sonchus) will cure warts.
_Prince Edward Island._
896. The milky juice of the Osage orange is used as a wart-cure.
_Southern Ohio._
897. The first time a person has seen your wart, if it is rubbed with
fresh cream by that person, the wart will surely go away.
_Bruynswick, N.Y._
898[TN-7] Rub a wart with a stolen dish-cloth, and then hide or bury the
latter. As it decays, the wart will disappear.
_General in the United States._
899. Rub the wart with a stolen dish-cloth, and secrete the dish-cloth
until it becomes mouldy and decays, then the wart is cured.
_Bucks Co., Pa._
900. To cure a wart: Draw a blade across it, and then draw the knife
across a sweet apple-tree.
_Lawrence, Mass._
901. Warts are cured by stealing pork from the family barrel of salted
pork, rubbing the warts with it, and throwing it into the road. The
person who picks it up gets the warts.
_Bruynswick, N.Y._
902. Sell your warts for money, throw the money away anywhere, but on
your own land. Whoever picks up the money gets also the warts.
_Springfield, Mass._
903. To cure warts: Cut your finger-nails and put them in the knothole of
a tree; then stop up the hole, wishing the warts on to some one else.
_Connecticut._
904. Make a wart bleed, and put the blood on a penny, throw the latter
away, and the finder will get the wart.
905. Cut up an onion, rub the wart with each slice, and bury all the
slices.
_Bucks Co., Pa._
906. Split a pea and rub the wart with both pieces, make a wish that some
person shall get the wart, throw one piece over one shoulder and the
other over the other (into the river), and the wart will go to the person
wished.
_Miramichi, N.B._
907. If you rub your warts with a pebble, wrap the pebble in paper, and
throw it away; the person who picks it up will have them come to him. Or,
should you label the paper with some one's name and throw it away, the
warts will go to the person whose name you have written.
_New England._
908. Take a green, mossy pebble, wrap it up, tie it, and throw it away.
The finder will catch the wart which you had.
_Rhode Island._
909. Take as many pebbles as there are warts. Rub them on the warts. Roll
them in paper and throw them away. The finder takes the warts.
_Boxford, Mass._
910. Go out of doors, count three, stop and pick up the stone nearest to
your toe. Wrap it up in a paper, and throw it away. The one that picks it
up will get the warts.
_Providence, R.I._
911. Count out secretly as many stones as you have warts, tie in a rag,
and throw them where they can't be seen.
_Massachusetts._
912. If you have warts, walk nine steps backward with your eyes shut,
having just picked up a pebble with which rub the wart, and throw it
away.
_Fort Worth, Tex._
913. To cure warts, wash the hands in warm pig's blood.
_Nova Scotia._
914. Steal as many pins as you have warts, wrap them in paper, and throw
them in the road: the warts will attack whoever picks up the paper, and
leave you.
_Bruynswick, N.Y._
915. Run a pin through the wart, and put the pin in the road; the finder
gets the wart.
_Missouri._
916. Rub warts with the head of a pin; hide the latter and do not look
for it, or tie a knot in a string, lay it away, and do not look for it,
and the warts will disappear.
_Western New York._
917. Take a potato and rub it over the wart, then wrap the potato in a
piece of paper and throw it away. The one who finds it will have the wart.
_Maine._
918. Rub the wart with a cotton rag, spit on the rag and hide it under a
water-board (a wooden gutter used as a duct for rain-water off the roof
of a house), where the water will drip on it. The whole operation must be
kept secret.
_Kansas._
919. Rub the wart with rock-salt till it bleeds, and throw a lump of salt
in the fire; if it crackles and snaps out of the fire, the wart will get
well; if not, not.
_Central Maine._
920. Binding a slug (_Limax_) on a wart will cure it.
_Cazenovia, N.Y._
921. Rub the warts with the sole of your shoe; as the leather wears away,
the warts depart.
_Springfield, Mass._
922. When a person wishes to remove warts from his hand, cut as many
notches on a stick as you have warts, and standing on a bridge, throw
the stick over your left shoulder, and turn your head; they will go off
before you leave the bridge.
_Alabama._
923. Cut notches in a stick to the number of warts you have, and then
bury the stick.
_Massachusetts._
924. Some pretend to remove warts by "touching with the sharp point of a
stick and rubbing them in the notch of another stick; then if the patient
tells of it, they will come back.[TN-8]
_Alabama._
925. Take as many joints of oat or wheat straw as a person has warts, and
burn them under a stone. As the joints rot, the warts disappear. This is
to be done by another for you.
_Cape Breton._
926. Rub saliva on the wart, tie a string around the hand so that the
knot comes on the wart. Take off the string and hide in a hollow stump.
_Southern Indiana._
927. Kill a toad, and put its blood on the wart. The warts will go away
in three weeks.
_Marquette, Mich._
928. Warts are cured by tying a knot in a string for every wart, and
putting under the eaves of the house. The warts go as the string rots.
_Ohio._
929. Warts may be cured by applying to them water standing in the hollow
of an oaken stump.
_Boxford, Mass., and Ohio._
CHAPTER XIV.
WEATHER
COLD.
930. As the days begin to lengthen,
So the cold begins to strengthen.
_Northeastern United States and Canada._
931. Fire spitting sparks means cold weather.
_Patten, Me._
932. If the fire burns well, it is coming cold weather.
_General in the United States._
933. Fog in winter is always succeeded by cold and wind.
934. Plenty of hawberries foretell a "hard winter," _i.e._, they are to
serve as a store of food for birds.
_Canada._
935. Cold weather comes after the wind has blown over the oat stubble.
_Pennsylvania._
DAYS AND TIMES.
936. The first Tuesday after the new moon settles the weather for that
quarter.
_Newfoundland._
937. If it is a fair sunset Friday night, it will rain before Monday.
_Massachusetts._
938. If it storms on a Friday, it will storm again before the next Monday.
_Massachusetts and New York._
939. If the sun sets clear Friday ni
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