Chapter XIX Miscellaneous
Actions
1271. If a child in eating an apple merely girdles it and leaves the apple good at stem and below, it indicates that he will be a poor man; the saying is, “a poor man’s core.”
1272. It is unlucky to turn back after starting to go anywhere. To avert misfortune after turning back, make the sign of the cross in the dust with the heel, and spit in the cross.
Arkansas (negro), and Kentucky.
1273. It is unlucky to turn back after having once started out.
Quebec.
1274. To get out of bed on the wrong side puts one out all day. “He got out of bed with the wrong foot foremost” is said of a person who has a fit of crossness.
Northern Ohio.
1275. To drop your books on the way to school signifies that you will make mistakes in your lessons.
Chestertown, Md.
1276. Drop a book and you will miss your lesson, unless it is immediately picked up and kissed.
Alabama.
1277. Whoever eats the last piece of bread will be an old maid.
Pennsylvania.
1278. If you break something, you will break two other things.
Maine, Massachusetts, and Northern Ohio.
1279. To twirl a chair on one leg means that you are going to fight with somebody.
Peabody, Mass.
1280. Whirling an empty chair indicates that a whipping is in store for the transgressor.
1281. If you twirl a chair around on one leg, it is a sign that you are about to break dishes.
Chestertown, Md.
1282. You mustn’t pay the doctor entirely, or there will be sickness in the family.
Lonsdale, R. I.
1283. You must leave by the door through which you enter, or there will be trouble with the family, or ill luck to yourself.
Pennsylvania.
1284. If you leave by any other door than the one through which you have entered, it is said that you will not come again.
Cumberland, Me.
1285. In bathing, the eyes should always be rubbed towards the nose, as that makes them large, and rubbing out the opposite way makes them small.
Cambridge, Mass.
1286. In climbing a fence,—
Get over, meet with clover,
Get through, meet with a shoe;
Get under, meet with a blunder.
Sunderland, Mass.
1287. If you step on a grave, you will never grow any more.
Chestertown, Md. (negro).
1288. Step over a living thing, and that thing, whether a human being or not, will not grow any more.
Province of Quebec, Can.
1289. To step over one leg of a child will cause it to grow longer than the other.
Baltimore, Md.
1290. To comb the hair after dark is a sign of sickness.
Comb your hair after dark,
Comb sorrow to your heart.
Connecticut.
1291. If you comb your hair after dark, it will make you forgetful.
Northern Ohio.
1292. If the right hand itches, you are going to get money; if the left, you will shake hands with a friend. If the nose itches, a friend is coming.
Talladega, Ala.
1293. Two persons wiping hands on the same towel and twisting it occasions a quarrel.
Pennsylvania.
1294. Wash and wipe together,
Live in peace together.
Northern Ohio.
1295. If two persons wash their hands at the same time, it is a sign that they will be friends forever.
Alabama.
1296. If two persons wipe their hands at the same time, they will be foes forever.
Alabama.
1297. When two persons put one hand of each flat together, palm to palm, they will quarrel.
Province of Quebec, Can.
1298. If two persons clasp hands so as to lock the fingers, bringing the palm of one person against the palm of the other person’s hand, it will break friendship.
Newton, Mass.
1299. If you hug your knee (hold your knee in clasped hands), you will hug up trouble.
Salem and Medford, Mass.
1300. When your joints crack, it is a sign that you have not outlived your best days.
New York, N. Y.
1301. If you kiss through a veil, there’ll be a coolness.
Portland, Me.
1302. Crossed knives are a sign of a quarrel.
Cumberland, Mass.
1303. Stir with a knife,
Stir up strife.
1304. Never look after a friend who is leaving you till he is quite out of sight, or you will never see him or her again; but turn your eyes away while he is still visible, that he or she may return.
General in the United States.
1305. Never say “good-by” more than once.
Alabama.
1306. One who habitually bites the nails is ill-natured.
Ohio.
1307. If you bite your finger-nails you will always be poor.
Massachusetts.
1308. If you sleep with your head towards the north, it will prevent sickness.
General in the United States.
1309. If you can cut a pie fair and true, you’ll have a likely husband. If you make the slices uneven, he’ll be crooked.
1310. If you make a bed handsomely, you’ll have a handsome husband.
1311. If you cut pie straight, you will go to housekeeping.
If you cut pie crooked, you will have no house to keep.
New Hampshire.
1312. If you make a rhyme involuntarily, you will have a present.
New Brunswick.
1313. The free use of salt is a sign of having a temper.
Lynn, Mass.
1314. To say anything backward is a sign you will get a present.
Peabody, Mass.
1315. If you sing before you eat,
You’ll cry before you sleep.
Ohio and Iowa.
1316. If you sing before breakfast, you will cry before supper.
Cambridge, Mass.
1317. If you laugh before breakfast, you will cry before supper.
Prince Edward Island and Somerville, Mass.
1318. Little birds that sing in the morning
The old cat will catch before night.
Accustomed to be said to children when they were especially hilarious in the early morning.
Northern Ohio.
1319. If a child sing before breakfast, it will get a whipping before night.
New Hampshire.
1320. To sing after you go to bed is a sign that tears will come before breakfast.
Maine.
1321. If the sole of either foot itches, you will walk on strange ground.
Boston, Mass.
1322. When about to begin a new enterprise, one must not step over straws in starting out.
1323. If you stumble with the right foot, it means a glad surprise.
Pennsylvania (negro).
1324. In going anywhere, if you strike the right foot you will be welcome wherever you may be going, and if the same happens to the left foot, you will be on strange ground.
Bellville, O.
1325. To sit on a table is a sign of coming disappointment.
Maine and Massachusetts.
1326. In drinking tea, if you take a stem in the mouth it means an enemy; you must bite it and throw it over the right shoulder.
Central Maine.
1327. If you stub your toe going into a house, you are not wanted there.
Guilford, Conn.
1328. If, in going visiting, you stub the right toe, you are welcome; if the left, you are unwelcome.
Massachusetts and Ohio.
1329. If you stub your toe going anywhere, it means a disappointment.
Bathurst, N. B.
1330. Stub your toe,
Lose your beau.
Salem, Mass.
1331. To bite the tongue while talking means that you have told a lie.
1332. If you bite your tongue suddenly while eating, it is a sign some one is coming hungry.
Cambridge, Mass.
1333. In going along the street or path, where there is a tree, go inside rather than outside the tree, for you will be disappointed if you take the latter course.
Eastern Massachusetts.
1334. In drinking water, if you glance over the glass, you are a flirt.
Pennsylvania.
1335. Whistling girls and crowing hens
Always come to some bad ends.
General in the United States.
1336. Whistling girls and sheep
Are the very worst cattle a farmer can keep.
1337. A whistling girl and a laughing sheep,
Are the very best property a man can keep.
Northern Ohio.
1338. Girls that whistle and hens that crow
Make their way wherever they go.
1339. Whistle before you eat,
Cry before you sleep.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
BODILY AFFECTIONS.
1340. If the right cheek burns, some one is speaking well of you; if the left, they are speaking ill of you; if both, they speak well and ill at once. Moisten the finger in the mouth and touch it to the cheek, naming those whom you suspect; the one at whose name it grows cool was speaking of you.
New Brunswick.
1341. If your right ear burns, some one is talking well of you; if your left, he is talking ill.
General in the United States.
1342. If you bite the corner of your apron, you will make back-biters bite their tongues.
Pennsylvania.
1343. Pinch your ear, and the person talking of you will bite his own tongue.
1344. If the right ear burns, it is a sign that some one is thinking well of you; if the left ear burns, it is a sign that some one is thinking unkindly of you; but if both ears burn, friend and foe are fighting about you.
Pennsylvania.
1345. If your ears burn, people are talking well of you; if your ears are cold, the contrary.
New Hampshire.
1346. If your right ear burns, a lady is speaking of you; if the left, a man.
Maine and Pennsylvania.
1347. If your left ear itches, some one is saying unpleasant things about you; but if your right ear, pleasant things. Some say,—
Both left and right
Are good at night.
Cambridge, Mass.
1348. If the right eye itches, it is a sign you will cry; if the left, you will laugh, because R stands for “roar” and L for “laugh.”
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1349. If the right eye itches, you’ll laugh; if the left eye, you’ll cry.
Boston, Mass.
1350. If your eye itches, some one wants to see you and can’t.
Peabody, Mass.
1351. If you look at one who has inflamed eyes, you’ll catch the disease.
Maine and Ohio.
1352. If your elbow itches, you will sleep with a stranger.
Boston, Mass.
1353. If the right foot itches, it is a sign you will go where you will be welcome; if the left foot itches, it is a sign you will go where you are unwelcome.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1354. If while going to see any one your left foot itches, you are not welcome.
Alabama.
1355. The nose itching is a sign you are going to “get mad.”
Peabody, Mass.
1356. If your nose itches, it is a sign of a present.
1357. If your nose itches, some one will be provoked with you.
1358. If your nose itches, it is a sign that
You’ll be mad,
See a stranger,
Kiss a fool,
Or be in danger.
Prince Edward Island.
1359. If your nose itches, you will
See a stranger,
Kiss a fool,
Or be in danger.
Peabody, Mass.
1360. If your nose itches, it is a sign you will be kissed, cussed, or vexed.
Somerville, Mass.
1361. If the nose itches, some say you will receive a letter; others declare it is a sign your lover is thinking of you.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1362. If the palm of the hand itches, it is a good sign that you will kill something.
Labrador.
1363. Itching in the palm is a sign of a fight, or of seeing a stranger.
1364. An unexpected scratch denotes surprise.
1365. A long scratch across the palm denotes a sleigh-ride.
Pennsylvania (negro).
1366. A scratch on the hand denotes a ride; the length of the scratch indicates the length of the ride.
New England.
1367. A scratch on the right hand is a sign of a ride to come; on the left, a disappointment.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1368. If your knee itches, you are jealous.
Boston, Mass.
1369. Being lousy is an indication that the lousy person is in good health.
Newfoundland.
1370. Some hold that the white spots that one has on the finger-nails represent the lies you have told.
Maine and Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1371. If you shudder without apparent cause, some one has stepped over or upon your grave.
Gilsum, N. H.
1372. If you shudder, it is a sign that a rabbit is running across, or a goose is eating grass from your grave.
Chestertown, Md.
1373. There is an old superstition that every sigh causes a drop of blood to flaw from the heart.
Exeter, N. H.
1374. “Smooches” made on the face by soiled fingers (called beauty spots in Ohio) mean a present.
New Brunswick.
1375. A lump on the tongue means that you have told a lie.
Prince Edward Island, New York, and Northern Ohio.
APPAREL.
1376. If you mend your apron or dress while on you, some one will lie about you.
Maine and Alabama.
1377. As many stitches as you take (in mending a garment while wearing it), so many lies will be told about you.
New Hampshire.
1378. If a garment is mended while being worn, it is a sign the wearer will do something he is ashamed of before the week is out.
Newton, Mass.
1379. If one mends his clothes upon his back,
It is a sign his trouble will never come back.
Connecticut.
1380. Basting threads left in a garment signify that it is not yet paid for.
Massachusetts and Ohio.
1381. Put your clothes on the wrong side out and you’ll have a present before the week is out.
Peabody, Mass.
1382. If, when dressing, one puts on any of his clothing wrong side out, it is a sign that he will soon receive a present.
Alabama.
1383. If you happen to put your skirt on wrong side out, you are likely to get a new one.
Alabama.
1384. You mustn’t talk when some article of dress you are wearing is being mended, or some one will talk or tell lies about you.
1385. In dressing for a journey, if you wish to have good luck, dress the right foot first.
Belleville, Ohio.
1386. If the hem of a lady’s dress turns up, she is sure to have a new one.
Alabama.
1387. While sewing on a garment, should you sew it to your dress by mistake, as many stitches as you take, so many lies will be told about you.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1388. If you break your needle in making a dress, you will live to wear it out. If you tear a hole in a new dress, the first time wearing it, you will have a new one before that is worn out.
Deer Isle, Me.
1389. If you break a needle in sewing a new gown, it is a sure sign you will live to wear out the garment.
Holyoke, Mass.
1390. If you break your needle in making a garment, or have to rip out some of it, you will live to wear it out.
Boston, Mass.
1391. If a white petticoat falls below your dress, it is a sign that your father loves you better than your mother.
New England.
1392. Crooked pins are a sign that the owner is an old maid.
Province of Quebec, Can.
1393. Should a friend withdraw a ring from the finger of another, it is a sign it will break friendship. The owner should take off the ring and hand it to the friend.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1394. A hole in the toe of your shoe or stocking, so as to show the toe, means a letter.
Cape Breton.
1395. Old shoes, particularly the soles, were often buried by negro servants on Monday morning to keep the devil down through the week.
Chestertown, Md.
1396. Save the old shoes to throw after the carriage, when any of the family start on a journey; it will insure a safe return.
Massachusetts.
1397. Wear the boot (or shoe) on the side, a rich man’s bride;
On the toe, spend as you go;
On the heel, love to do weel;
On the ball, live to spend all.
Boston.
1398. Hole in the toe, spend as you go:
Hole at the side, be a rich bride;
Hole at the heel, spend as you feel;
Hole on the ball, live to spend all.
New York.
1399. Wear at the toe, live to see woe;
Wear at the side, live to be a bride;
Wear at the ball, live to spend all;
Wear at the heel, live to save a deal.
New York.
1400. Wear on the toe,
Spend as you go;
Wear on the ball,
Love to spend all.
Wear on the side,
You’ll be a rich bride.
1401. Of stockings:—
Wear at the toe,
Spend as you go:
Wear at the heel,
Spend a good deal;
Wear at the ball,
You’ll live to spend all.
South Carolina.
CUSTOMS.
1402. Halloween cabbages are pulled and thrown against the owner’s door as a reminder of his laziness.
Southern Pennsylvania and Ohio.
1403. Shelled corn is thrown at every one—the significance not known.
Southern Pennsylvania.
1404. If a man is insulted and means to be revenged, he will bare his arm and cut a cross in it with his knife, called a “vengeance mark.”
Mountains of North Carolina.
1405. If you wash your face in dew before sunrise on May Day, you will become very beautiful.
Alabama.
1406. Dry spots, where there is no dew, are called “fairy rings.”
Salem, Mass.
1407. Run round a fairy ring twice on Easter Sunday morning, and fairies will arise and follow you.
Salem, Mass.
1408. The looking-glass is often turned with the face to the wall, or taken out of the room during a thunder-storm, because “quick-silver is so bad to draw the lightning.”
Bathurst, N. B.
1409. You are said to “take the manners” if you take the last of any kind of food from a plate.
New England.
1410. “Manners dish” is the dish put on for show, and not expected to be eaten.
Northern Ohio.
1411. Homœopathic pills must be taken in odd numbers.
New England.
1412. When a meteor is seen, Catholics often say, “A soul is ascending into heaven.”
1413. A present of a knife or any pointed instrument cuts friendship; always sell it for a penny.
1414. A present of pins breaks friendship.
General in the United States.
1415. There was a superstition among old people who had never been much abroad, in the town where I was born (Stratham, N. H.), that if they were photographed they were likely to die soon after, and many rather objected on that account.
Stratham, N. H.
1416. After sneezing, it is customary to say, “God bless you.”
General in the United States.
1417. A bit of steel, such as a needle, protects one from witches.
Brookline, Mass.
1418. A thief may be detected by a key turning in the Bible to Psalm i. 18-21, when the name of the guilty person is mentioned.
Labrador.
DAYS.
1419. What you do on your birthday, you will do all the year.
Salem, Mass.
1420. On cutting the finger-nails:—
Cut them on Monday, cut them for news,
Cut them on Tuesday, a pair of new shoes,
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for health,
Cut them on Thursday, cut them for wealth,
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow,
Cut them on Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow,
Cut them on Sunday, cut them for evil,
All the whole week you’ll be ruled by the devil.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
1421. If you wear a garment for the first time on Saturday, you will have another one before it is worn out.
Bedford, Mass.
1422. Study on Sunday, forget it through the week.
Nashua, N. H.
1423. If, of your own accord, you leave home for Sunday visiting, you will be forced to leave for two Sundays following.
Labrador.
1424. Get a letter on Monday, and you’ll get six during that week.
New York, N. Y.
1425. If you break anything on Monday, you will break something every day in the week.
Somerville, Mass.
1426. If you break anything Sunday, you will continue to do so every day of the week, or as you commence Sunday, so you will go through the week.
Eastern Massachusetts.
1427. If you begin anything Saturday, it must be finished that day or it will not get finished.
Boston, Mass.
1428. Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for a letter,
Sneeze on Tuesday, sneeze for something better,
Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for news,
Sneeze on Thursday, sneeze for a new pair of shoes,
Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow,
Sneeze on Saturday, see him to-morrow.
Niagara Falls, Ont.
1429. Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger,
Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Sneeze on Wednesday, receive a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday, something better,
Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow,
Sneeze on Saturday, see your true love to-morrow.
Sneeze on Sunday, your safety seek,
Or the devil will have you the rest of the week.
Crown Point, N. Y.
1430. Sneeze before twelve and one, and you will hear news.
Brighton, Mass.
1431. Sneeze at the table, there will be one more or one less at the next meal.
Alabama.
1432. Sneeze before your breakfast,
See your beau before the day is past.
Brighton, Mass.
1433. If you sneeze once, a girl is thinking of you; twice, she is wishing for you; thrice, it is a sign of a cold.
Alabama.
1434. Sneeze before seven,
Sneeze before eleven.
Boston, Mass.
1435. What you sew on Sunday, you’ll take out on Monday.
What you sew on Sunday, you’ll rip out in heaven.
Massachusetts.
1436. Never cut your toe-nails Sunday, or you will do something to be ashamed of before the week is out.
Granville, Mass.
1437. Cut your nails Monday morning, without speaking (?), and you will get a present before the week is out; some have it, “without thinking of a red fox’s tail,” instead of “without speaking.”
Westport, Mass.
DOMESTIC LIFE.
1438. It is supposed that a broom placed behind the door will keep off witches.
Bruynswick, N. Y.
1439. To burn the stub of a broom or break a sugar-bowl, means a quarrel.
Westport, Mass.
1440. A spark seen on a candle or lamp when the light is extinguished means the receipt of a letter.
St. John, N. B., and Salem, Mass.
1441. Wet the finger and touch the “letter” on the candle. If it come off on the finger, it means a letter for you.
Maine.
1442. The letter in the candle will face the one for whom the letter is to be. If the little snuff bud is bright, it means a letter.
Northern Ohio.
1443. If the candle is sooty, or shows a spark in the wick on blowing out, it is a sign that a letter is on its way.
1444. If chairs become entangled (legs interlaced, etc.), it means a quarrel.
Bathurst, N. B.
1445. If you choke (food gets in the windpipe), it means some one has told lies about you.
Cape Breton.
1446. It is a sign of good old-fashioned economy to use up a dish-cloth until it can be put into your mouth.
Massachusetts.
1447. If a door opens of itself, it is supposed to indicate the presence of a spirit, usually one of the family.
Massachusetts.
1448. It is unlucky to name a child after a dead child of the family.
Newfoundland.
1449. If you begin keeping house with many in the family, it is a sign that you will always have a large family or houseful.
Ohio.
1450. If a wood fire snaps and sparkles, each time it does indicates the receipt of a letter.
Peabody, Mass.
1451. One of the negro superstitions was that when the fire burned with a blue flame, it was the devil seeking to speak to them. A handful of salt would make him go away.
Alabama.
1452. Sweep the floor after dark, you’ll see sickness before morning.
1453. If while eating you drop food on the floor, it is a sign that some one is telling lies about you.
Cape Breton.
1454. Food dropped on the floor by one signifies that some one grudges you it.
Common in the United States.
1455. Do not change your place at table; it is very unlucky.
New York, N. Y.
1456. If you keep changing your furniture to different places, you’ll be poor.
Massachusetts.
1457. Not drinking the whole contents of a glass or cup means disappointment.
Westport, Mass.
1458. If sooty bubbles form and blacken on the wick in a lamp burning whale oil, each bubble indicates the receipt of a letter.
Peabody, Mass.
1459. When sparks are seen on the bottom of the tea-kettle, it is a sign that folks are going home from meeting.
New Hampshire and Boxford, Mass.
1460. Sparks flying from a fire mean letters; the number of the sparks is the number of the letters.
Boston, Mass.
1461. If a spark or sparks jump out of the fire and hit you or come towards you, it is a sign some one has a spite or grudge against you.
Bathurst, N. B.
1462. Two spoons given to one person denotes that that person will have two homes before the year is out.
Chestertown, Md.
1463. The tea-kettle suddenly singing means news.
Patten, Me.
VARIOUS.
1464. A stratum of warm air indicates the presence of the devil.
Boston, Mass. (Irish).
1465. If, when a newly-married couple go to housekeeping, she slyly takes her mother’s dish-cloth or dish-wiper, she will never be homesick. Old Mrs. —— told me that she believed that was the reason she was not homesick when they moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
Ohio.
1466. To have a sharp knife is a sign of a lazy man.
Central Maine.
1467. Passing anything through a ladder is a sign of a long passage.
Conception Bay, N. F.
1468. If a ship has a starboard list, it is a sign of a quick passage; if a port list, it is a sign of a long passage.
Conception Bay and New Harbor, N. F.
1469. Write the date of the first snowstorm, and you’ll gain a bet before the winter is through.
Massachusetts.
1470. To ascertain a girl’s age, pull a hair from her head, hang a finger-ring from this inside a tumbler or goblet, and it will strike the number of years.
Boston, Mass.
1471. Throw a strand of your hair in the fire; if it blazes you will live long and happily; if not, you will die soon.
Alabama.
1472. If a tree falls to the right while you are looking at it, you are going on a long trip before the end of the year, and will have some unexpected piece of good luck.
Alabama.
1473. A person born on Halloween is said to be possessed of evil spirits.
Alabama.
1474. Place a broom across the door, and if any of your departed friends wish to speak to you they are free to come and go at will while the broom remains there.
Alabama.
1475. If a person who raises fowls is bothered with hawks, he may prevent the trouble by throwing a handful of “rocks” into the fire while it is burning brightly.
Alabama.
Notes
Introduction, page 8.—S. G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft in New England, Boston, 1869, p. 189, remarks that the principal accusers and witnesses in the witchcraft prosecutions of 1692, in Salem, Mass., were eight girls from eleven to twenty years of age, and adds with reference to their conduct previous to the accusations: “These Females instituted frequent Meetings, or got up, as it would now be styled, a Club, which was called a Circle. How frequent they had these Meetings is not stated, but it was soon ascertained that they met to ‘try projects,’ or to do or produce superhuman Acts. They doubtless had among them some book or books on Magic, and Stories of Witchcraft, which one or more of their Circle professed to understand, and pretended to teach the Rest.” An examination of the evidence in the trials, however, shows not only no authority for these assertions, but that no such meetings took place previous to the trials, nor did any such “circle” exist. Drake derived his information from a paper by S. P. Fowler, who, in an address before the Essex Institute, in the year 1856, had remarked: “These girls, together with Abigail Williams, a niece of Mr. Parris, aged eleven years, were in the habit of meeting in a circle in the village, to practise palmistry, fortune-telling, &c.” For such representation Mr. Fowler had no warrant; it would seem that he had obtained the notion by transferring to the time of the trials his experience in connection with spiritualistic “circles” of his own day. It is curious to observe how readily this suggestion was adopted, and with what uniformity recent popular narratives of the delusion reiterate, with increasing positiveness of phrase, the unfounded assumption. The expression, to “try projects,” is therefore taken by Mr. Drake from modern folk-lore. Fowler’s address, entitled “An Account of the Life and Character of the Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem Village, and of his Connection with the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692,” was printed in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass, 1862, vol. ii. pp. 49-68 and also separately (Salem, 1857). For assistance in determining the origin of Drake’s statement I am indebted to Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., of Salem, Mass.—W. W.N.
Nos. 15-16.—The reader who is interested to know how much importance has been attributed to the caul will do well to consult Levinus Lemnius, De Miraculis Occultis Naturæ. Chapter viii. of Book II. is headed: De infantium recens natorum galeis, seu tenui mollique membrana, qua facies tanquam larva, aut personata tegmine obducta, ad primum lucis intuitum se spectandam exhibet.
The belief in the efficacy of the caul goes back at least to the time of St. Chrysostom, who, in the latter part of the fourth century, preached against this with kindred superstitions. Advertisements of cauls for sale, at prices ranging from twenty guineas down, have from time to time appeared in the London papers as recently as the middle of the present century, if not even later.
No. 60.—See “Current Superstitions,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. ii. No. V.
Nos. 116-118.—The custom of consulting in augury the occasional white spots on the finger-nails still survives, despite the protestation of old Sir Thomas Browne. He says:—
“That temperamental dignotions, and conjecture of prevalent humours, may be collected from spots in our Nails, we are not averse to concede. But yet not ready to admit sundry divinations vulgarly raised upon them. Nor do we observe it verified in others, what Cardan discovered as a property in himself: to have found therein signs of most events that ever happened unto him. Or that there is much considerable in that doctrine of Cheiromancy, that spots in the top of the Nails do signifie things past; in the middle, things present; and at the bottom, events to come. That White specks presage our felicity; Blue ones our misfortunes. That those in the Nail of the Thumb have significations of honour, those in the fore-Finger, of riches, and so respectively in other Fingers (according to Planetical relations, from whence they receive their names), as Tricassus hath taken up, and Picciolus well rejecteth.”
No. 148.—A very complete account of the signification of moles is quoted from “The Greenwich Fortune Teller,” in Brand’s Popular Antiquities (Bonn’s ed.), iii. 254.
Chapters IV. and V.—Two of the most interesting and most accessible lists of projects and Halloween observances are Gay’s well-known Shepherds Week and Burns’s Halloween.
No. 170.—It is an interesting psychological fact that projects are in the great majority of cases tried by girls and young women rather than by boys and young men.
No. 174.—Here, as in many other cases, it is assumed that young men and women are accustomed to indulge in promiscuous kissing. The use of the word gentleman sufficiently indicates the level of society from which this project was obtained. Gentleman in this sense signifies any male human being over sixteen. It is often used more specifically to mean sweetheart, as “Mary and her gentleman were at the policemen’s ball.”
No. 184.—On Biblical divination see Brand’s Popular Antiquities (Bonn’s ed.), iii. 337, 338.
No. 186.—This custom of divining the color of the hair of one’s future wife or husband, which is probably very old, yet survives in many places, but with interesting modifications as to the bird which gives the signal to try the divination. In Westphalia it is at sight of the first swallow that the peasant looks to see if there be a hair under his foot. According to Gay, in England it is the cuckoo.
“When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,
And call with welcome note the budding spring,
I straightway set a running with such haste
Deborah that won the smock scarce ran so fast;
Till spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,
Upon a rising bank I sat adown,
There doffed my shoe; and by my troth I swear,
Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,
As like to Lubberkin’s in curl and hue
As if upon his comely pate it grew.”
Nos. 187-193.—These practices, and others like No. 453 and the asseverations, Nos. 60-67, shade off insensibly into children’s games, customs, and sayings. Games pure and simple have been omitted from the present monograph, since they are evidently out of place among superstitions. They have been admirably treated in Mr. Newell’s Games and Songs of American Children. The customs and sayings for the most part belong in collections like Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes rather than in the present collection.
No. 211.—Projects in which flowers and leaves are employed certainly much antedate the Christian era. Theocritus (Idyll III.) describes one in which a poppy petal is used, and he also refers to another form of love-divination by aid of the leaf of the plant Telephilon.
No. 245.—It is probable that the direction in which one is to walk during the performance of this and similar acts of divination is not a matter of indifference, even when no direction is prescribed. One would expect to find it done sunwise. See note on Chapter xvi.
Nos. 254-256.—The Sedum has long enjoyed a reputation for aphrodisiac qualities, as is set forth in Gerarde’s Herbal and other authorities. Perhaps the choice of the plant for use in this form of project is due to some lingering tradition of its potency, or it may be simply because of its great vitality and power of growing under adverse conditions.
No. 334.—I happen to know that in 1895 one bride, in a Boston suburb, wore seven yellow garters, at the request of seven girl friends. Probably the fashion of wearing yellow garters owes its present currency to the repute in which they are held as love-amulets.
Chapter VIII.—Some notion of the prevalence of a popular belief in the omens to be derived from dreams may be obtained from the fact that dream books are still enough in demand to warrant their publication. I have seen but one such volume. That was more than thirty years ago. A dream book is now published by a New York firm, and I find, from inquiries in Boston, that it sells at a moderate rate.
No. 626.—See Shoe Omens in Brand’s Popular Antiquities (Bohn’s ed.), iii. 166.
Nos. 785-789.—The curious reader will find an excellent summary of the beliefs in regard to sneezing in Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.
Nos. 796-800.—In New Hampshire it was formerly usual for young people to purchase gold beads, one at a time, with their earnings. When a sufficient number of beads was obtained the necklace was made, and after it had once been put on was never taken off by night or day. It is difficult to induce the elderly people who still retain these necklaces to part with them, there being a superstitious feeling in regard to the consequences.
Nos. 831, 832.—These cures and a few other superstitions have been taken from a very interesting paper, “Notes on the Folk-Lore of Newfoundland,” in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. viii. No. XXXI. Almost all of the other folk-lore from Newfoundland and Labrador has been given me by Rev. A. C. Waghorne. It is interesting to notice how among these seafaring people weather-lore predominates over all other kinds.
Nos. 845-848.—These devices for suppressing hiccoughs are scarcely superstitions in reality, as they doubtless often do relieve the nervous, spasmodic action of the respiratory muscles, by fixing the attention upon the cure. But in the popular mind some charm, I take it, is attributed to the counting, repeating, or what not.
Chapter XIII.—Several remedies for warts are here introduced which belong with the collection of animal and plant lore for which the writer has much material accumulated. In general such topics, including a very large number of saliva charms and cures, have been omitted from the present list.
Nos. 872, 880-882.—It is interesting to notice this illustration of the doctrine of signatures. Excrescences of such varied character, whether animal or vegetable, are supposed by contact to cause warts, doubtless simply because of the accidental resemblance.
Nos. 889-896.—It seems that any juices of peculiar or marked color are popularly credited with curative power. The plants whose juices are thought to cure warts are, it will be noticed, of wide botanical range. In all probability there is no similarity in the effects to be obtained from the application of their sap.
No. 979.—The somewhat unusual phenomenon of rain falling while the sun is shining seems to have so attracted the attention of the human mind as to have given rise to various sayings.
A native of Western Africa told me that among his tribe, the Vey people, it was always said when the sun shone as rain fell that it was a sign that a leopardess had just given birth to young.
In Japan the occurrence is said to indicate that a wedding procession of foxes is passing near by, and the children have a pretty habit of running to the supporting pillars of the house, to place the ear against the timbers and listen for the footfalls of the foxes. The little people also interlace their fingers in a certain way, then peeping through the chinks between the fingers they declare they can see the wedding-train.
Nos. 1020-1028.—The mackerel sky is a name given to an assemblage of cirrus clouds which are thought to imitate the barred markings on the side of a mackerel. Mares’ tails are wisp-like, curved cirri.
Chapter XV.—To illustrate the remarkable prevalence of a regard for the phases of the moon in the management of every-day affairs among the Pennsylvania Germans, the following list of their beliefs is appended. All are from Buffalo Valley, Central Pennsylvania.157-1
THE MOON.
All cereals, when planted in the waxing of the moon, will germinate more rapidly than if planted in the waning of the moon.
The same is true of the ripening of grain.
Beans planted when the horns of the moon are up will readily pole, but if planted when the horns are down will not.
Plant early potatoes when the horns of the moon are up, else they will go too deep into the ground.
Plant late potatoes in the dark of the moon.
For abundance in anything, you must plant it when the moon is in the sign of the Twins.
Plant onions when the horns of the moon are down.
Pick apples in the dark of the moon, to keep them from rotting.
Make wine in the dark of the moon.
Make vinegar in the light of the moon.
Marry in the light of the moon.
Move in the light of the moon.
Butcher in the increase of the moon.
Boil soap in the increase of the moon.
Cut corn in the decrease of the moon, else it will spoil.
Spread manure when the horns of the moon are down.
Lay the first or lower rail of a fence when the horns of the moon are up. Put in the stakes and finish the fence when the horns are down.
Roof buildings when the horns of the moon are down, else the shingles will curl up at the edges and the nails will draw out.
Lay a board on the grass; if the horns of the moon are up, the grass will not be killed; if they are down, it will.
Cut your hair on the first Friday after the new moon.
Never cut your hair in the decrease of the moon.
Cut your corns in the decrease of the moon.
Nos. 1114-1123.—These superstitions regarding planting crops according to the moon are by no means idle sayings that have no influence over farmers. I know positively that in many parts of the United States and in Prince Edward Island gardens and fields are often planted after direct reference to the almanac in regard to the moon’s changes. Metropolitan dwellers have small knowledge of what an important book the almanac is to many country people. In many a quiet farm home the appearance of the new almanac is looked forward to with great interest. Its arrival is welcomed, and it is hung up near the kitchen clock for constant reference. It is studied with care, especially on Sundays. The farmer or farm-wife, who would scorn to do an hour’s work in the hay-field to save a crop from a Sunday shower, earnestly peruses the almanac to get rules to guide the week-day sowing and planting. There are old auguries, too, of whose import I am not definitely informed, to be derived from consulting the signs of the zodiac; auguries, I think, concerning human destiny as well as the planting of crops. Speaking of the place held by the almanac recalls one of those neighborhood anecdotes that by oft telling become classic. A young woman long ill, with consumption I believe, died very suddenly. Her brother, in speaking of the event, said: “Why, no, we never thought of Mary dying so soon. Why, she sat up in the big rocking-chair most all Sunday afternoon, reading the almanac, and then she died on Monday.” Poor Mary, the thin volume was her sole library!
Chapter XVI.—It would involve a much more extended discussion than the space-limits of these notes will allow, to undertake to show the origin and meaning of the superstitions in regard to the sun and sunwise movement. While the origin and meaning of sun-worship has been very fully treated by Sir G. W. Cox, Professor Max Müller, Professor De Gubernatis, and others, the existence in modern times and among civilized communities of usages which seem to be derived from sun-worship has apparently almost escaped notice. I quote in this connection a few paragraphs from my brief article on this subject in the Popular Science Monthly for June, 1895:—
“In dealing with the origination of actions or customs in which is involved what Dr. Fewkes calls the ceremonial circuit,158-1 it is difficult to determine the value of the factor, whether it be large or small, that is due to the greater convenience of moving in a right-handed direction. Occasionally the dextral circuit is followed in cases in which it is evidently less convenient than the sinistral would be, as in dealing cards in all ordinary games. Also, who can tell just how large or small an element may depend upon the tradition that the left hand in itself is uncanny without reference to the sun’s apparent motion? There certainly is a general feeling of wide distribution that to be left-handed is unfortunate. Dr. Fewkes’s careful and valuable researches among the Moki Indians of Arizona, however, show without doubt that they in their religious rites make the circuits sinistrally, i. e., contrary to the apparent course of the sun, or, as physicists say, contra-clockwise. The Mokis also are careful to stir medicines according to the sinistral circuit. But doubtless instances go to show that among Asiatic and European peoples the general belief or feeling is that the dextral circuit—i. e., clockwise, or with the apparent motion of the sun—is the correct and auspicious direction.”
“As contra-sunwise notions were thought to be of ill omen or to be able to work in supernatural ways, so it came to be believed that to reverse other acts—as, for instance, reading the Bible or repeating the Lord’s Prayer backward—might produce powerful counter-charms. The negroes in the Southern States often resort to both of these latter practices to lay disturbing ghosts. In the ring games of our school children they always move sunwise, though whether because of convenience or from some forgotten reason who can say?”
“In New Harbor, Newfoundland, it is customary, in getting off small boats, especially when gunning or sealing, to take pains to start from east to west, and, when the wind will permit, the same custom is observed in getting large schooners under way. So, too, in the Western Isles, off the coast of Scotland, boats at starting are, or at any rate used to be, rowed in a sunwise course to insure a lucky voyage.”
“It will be noticed that in several of these cures, as well as in some of the charms already cited, no rule is given as to the direction to be followed in movement; but it is quite possible that the original description was more explicit, and it is almost certain that in every instance a sunwise course would now be followed.”
No. 1166.—This appearance is due to the presence of a minute unicellular plant of a red color, which grows and multiplies with great rapidity on the surface of bread, starch-paste, and similar substances. So general was once the belief in its portentous nature that Ehrenberg described it under the name Monas Prodigiosa.
No. 1176.—The non-appearance of rigor mortis as omen of another death is alluded to in a skeptical way by Sir Thomas Browne in his Vulgar Errors, Book V. chapter xxiii.
No. 1280.—Doubtless this apparently most trivial and meaningless sign is but one of hundreds of examples of pure symbolism. The custom of draping the bell or front door-knob with crape when death has come to a house is suggested by seeing anything hung on the door-knob. It might be convenient to hang the dish-cloth to dry on the kitchen door-knob, as the door stands open. The idea of death is suggested, then comes the thought, “this is like death, hence it may bode death,” and so the omen arises.
No. 1204.—See article on “Current Superstitions,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. ii No. IV.
No. 1207.—Not infrequently people of education and culture feel that mourning is significant of further deaths. In popular arguments about the advisability of wearing mourning it is said that if one begins to wear it, he will have occasion to continue to do so. It is also claimed that mourning is directly unhealthful on account of injurious components of the black dyes used. This delusion no doubt proceeds from observed cases of ill-health due to the depressing effects of mourning upon the spirits (and therefore the physical condition) of the wearer.
No. 1237.—See “Current Superstitions,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. ii. No. IV.
I chanced to know a few years ago of a family party of educated, unusually intelligent people, when it happened that the number to dine was thirteen. One laughingly proposed to sit at a side table and did so. The dinner table would otherwise have been a bit crowded, the hostess said as excuse for heeding the evil omen of thirteen at table. I doubt if one of those present had any real faith in the superstition, and yet I fancy there was a certain feeling of relief in avoiding the augury predicted by the old saying.
No. 1241.—See article, “Survivals of Sun Worship,” by the author, in Popular Science Monthly, June 9, 1895.
No. 1247.—To what extent an old custom of touching the dead survives I cannot say, but I well remember a painful experience of my own early childhood. I had been taken to the funeral of a little child, and at the proper time passed with the little procession to take leave of the dead baby. A lady who had charge of me turned down the wrist of my glove and bade me touch the corpse, which I did. At the time I felt it was to show me how cold were the dead, but I now think it must have been in conformity with some tradition, for the person who directed me was one who had great regard for what were deemed the proprieties in funeral rites.
Nos. 1335-1338.—It is quite a general custom among country people on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to decapitate a crowing hen. The same custom is reported from New Hampshire and from Prince Edward Island. Does not this proverb then refer to the common superstition that it presages death or disaster for a hen to crow, in consequence of which such hens are summarily killed?
No. 1415.—There is a somewhat widespread prejudice in the minds of old people against having their pictures taken, particularly if they have never done so. I do not think the objection is a natural conservatism, or dislike of doing something to which one is unaccustomed. The ill omen does not appear to have been feared for the young as well as for the old, even in provincial localities, when for the first time portraiture by daguerreotypy or more recently by photography was introduced. It has long been known that among primitive peoples there is a decided prejudice against portraiture. The notion seems to be that the individual may lose his vigor, if not his life, by allowing a copy of himself to be made in any way. Catlin in his intercourse with the North American Indians found great difficulty in gaining the consent of individuals to his painting them. He says in his work on The Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, “The Squaws generally agreed that they had discovered life enough in them [Catlin’s portraits] to render my medicine too great for the Mandans; saying that such an operation could not be performed without taking away from the original something of his existence which I put in the picture, and they could see it move, could see it stir.” Herbert Spencer, in his Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 242, refers to a similar belief among the Chinooks and the Mapuchés. It would seem as if there is in the popular mind an instinctive recognition that the tenure of life is less strong in the aged than in the young. So while the general notion that it is dangerous to have one’s person represented has disappeared from the mind of civilized man, a similar psychological condition survives here and there among people leading peculiarly simple lives.
Another evidence of a popular belief in some vital relationship between a portrait and its original is suggested by the quite general superstition that photographs (or other pictures) fade after and in consequence of the decease of the original. I have found this to be a common belief in Ireland, Prince Edward Island, and in various parts of the United States. I remember as a child to have heard persons remark while turning over a family album of photographs, “That looks as if the person were dead.” In fact, I think that I thus received the impression that the picture of one dead underwent some change that many persons could perceive and thus become aware of the death of the original. This notion is akin to a superstition of the Irish peasantry that the clothes left by the dead decay with unusual rapidity.
In parts of New Hampshire it is counted unlucky to have a photograph copied while the original lives. Is this because death is thereby suggested, since it is so customary to have enlarged copies of a photograph made after the decease of the original?
157-1 Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. iv. No. XIII., “Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley,” J. H. Owens.
158-1 Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. v. No. XVI. p. 33.
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Notes
11 “over the the right shoulder” the word “the” is repeated
15 “are his own, property,” extra, after “own”
70 463 Missing. at end of sentence
80 510, instead of. at end of sentence
84 683 “Masssachusetts” for “Massachusetts”
93 794 “crock” for “crack”
103 898 Missing. after the number
105 924 Missing close quotes
118 1084 “new moon. come”. instead of,
119 1199 Number should read 1099
128 1205 “bad luck or seven” “or” should read “for”
159 Note 1280 should read 1180
The following words had inconsistent hyphenation:
close-fistedness / closefistedness
sun-wise / sunwise