Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/494

 462 Collectanea.

chin, that you will have a disappointment ; or your breast, that you will be rejoicing ; or your shin-bone, that you will go to a funeral. If the inside of your elbow itches it is a sure sign that someone will be coming to the house ; or the outside of your elbow, that someone will soon be leaving. If your left ear is hot and burning it is a sign that somebody is speaking good of you ; but if you have a burning in the right ear then someone is saying bad of you." (This corresponds with the German " Rechts, was schlechts ; links, das klitigts")

If a hen comes into the house with a straw sticking to her tail, and if she drops it in the house, it is a sign that a stranger will be coming to stay ; but if the hen goes out again with the straw, or bit of hay, still in her tail, it only means a call from a stranger.

If you see a pin on the floor with the point towards you, do not lift it or you will have great " sharpness " and disappointment ; but if the pin's head is towards you, lift it, and you will have good luck and never want for a pin.

If when you are leaving your bedroom in the morning you remember that you have forgotten something, do not go back to fetch it once your foot is outside the door. If you do, you will have nothing but disappointments all day.

If the iron of a kettle, fender, or any other iron crackles, " tick, tick," either on or in front of the fire, it is a sure sign of a death. My informant says she heard it twice, and within six weeks there were two deaths in the house. She also told me that she was standing with the housemaid in front of a bedroom fire in a house where she was in service, and that she heard the fender crack. The housemaid did not hear it, but a few days later got a letter telling her of the death of her father.

A. H. Singleton.

Rathmoyle House, Abbeyleix, Ireland.