Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/110

94 If your nostrils burn you, so that you sneeze, some one is backbiting you.

When going on a business, if you butt your right foot, it means good luck, the left means bad luck.

If a baker after setting up his leaven, go to a place where a dead person is, the leaven will not rise.

To hinder people from chanting [? sic] your money, put a gravel or a grain of corn in it, or squeeze some lime juice upon them.

When plenty of roaches [cockroaches?] are flying in a house, it is a sign of rain. There are some flies also, that indicate rain by their flying.

When you want to beat a duppy, first give it a stroke with the left hand, then afterwards you can use the right. If you use the right first, the duppy will paralize [sic] it.

If a hog plays with thrash in the mouth, it is a sign of rain.

If a cock after a shower of rain flies up on any raised place and crows, it is a sign that the weather will slack.

If you hear thunder rolls in dry weather rain will soon be coming.

To shoot the duppy, load the gun with salt, blue-stone and sulphur, in addition to the powder and shot. When the duppy is shot down, you will find it in the form of an animal, generally a clucking lizard.

If you sew dirty clothes, it dim your eyes.

If you plant the seed of a plant called "mamy" you will die.

If you plant a pumpkin vine your relatives will die.

If you are eating, and a piece of the food just drop suddenly from your hand, it is some of your dead relatives who knocked it out for themselves.

There are many more superstitions, &c., but many are not believed in, except by a few dark people. The prevalent belief in these days is about the obeah-men and the duppy.

A.