Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/274

 246 Collectanea.

you will be vexed with your neighbours before the day is past. The itching of the foot betokens that you are soon to go on a strange ground. The tingling of the ears is also a sign of good or evil, — the right ear for love, and the left for spite. If the right hand itches, it denotes that you will receive money ; if the left, that you will have to pay. If the right eye aches, it foretells laughter and merriment ; if the left, sorrow and weeping. There are many other portents of good and evil ; for instance, it is most unlucky to break a looking-glass, the result being seven years of unhappiness. Again, it bodes ill to dream of eggs, more especially if they are broken. It is also unlucky to leave two knives crossed upon a plate ; and, when a slice is cut off a loaf, it is considered an evil sign to put the loaf down upon the side from which the slice has been cut. To put on stockings or other articles of dress the wrong way, or turned inside out, invariably brings luck, but great care must be taken not to alter their position on discovering the mistake j an intentional mistake is of no avail. To spill salt is unlucky, but to avert the ill-luck a little of the salt must be thrown over the left shoulder. The presence of two magpies is a portent of death. As in most parts of England, magpies are the subject of the refrain commencing " One for sorrow, two for death, three for a wedding, four for a birth." The crowing of a hen is regarded with great dread, because it portends death, but the catastrophe may be averted by the immediate slaughter of the hen.

If two ravens are seen contending as they fly and one of them turns on its back and cries "Carp, carp," the beholder knows that some one he knows will die soon. For a spinster to meet a married man, or for a bachelor to meet a spinster, on a Monday morning, bodes ill. A black cat passing by the window foretells the advent of a stranger, as does the piece of flaming wick which often darts upwards from the candle. Sneezing is a sign of rain, and so is the ring or halo which is sometimes seen round the sun or moon.

Lucky deeds. — To throw an old shoe after a person who is leaving home and intends to be some time absent, will be the means of bringing him or her good luck. The person who told her neighbour of this said that, when she left home for the first