Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/145

 Some Mountain Superstitions of the South. 133

If the crickets do not chirp in your hearth, go to a neighbor's house and borrow some. If these do not remain and chirp for you, wisdom dictates that you move out of the house at once, as you will never know happiness there.

Do not trim your finger-nails during Friday unless you are trou- bled with toothache. In that event trim them every Friday night during nine consecutive weeks. This will effect a cure.

If you trim your finger and toe nails Fridays, you will not have toothache. Neither will you if you trim them any other day and bury the trimmings in a hole which you have bored in a tree for the purpose.

Never begin anything either Friday or Saturday. Friday is essentially an unlucky day ; and if you begin something Saturday and do not finish it that day, you will not live to finish it.

Wash your warp and dye it while the moon is growing, and it will stretch. But if you wash and dye it while the moon is waning, it will shrink.

Never have a garment cut or made while you are sick. If you do, you will not live to wear it.

Never tie one shoe before you put on the other, else you will be "mad" all day. This is all the more certain to be the case if it be the left shoe that you tie first.

If you put on a garment wrong side out, it bodes good luck if you will but wear it that way all day. However, if you can turn it right side out over the top of your head, without seeing it, you may do so without danger of breaking the charm.

It is indicative of good luck to wear the left stocking wrong side out.

Should you chance to be led around by a jack-o-lantern, take off your stocking and turn it wrong side out ; or if that is not conven- ient, or you have no stockings with you, turn your pocket wrong side out, and the jack-o-lantern will go its way and molest you no more during that journey.

If a woman starts anywhere upon an errand or for any kind of business and the first person she meets is a woman, she should at once turn back ; for she will not have good luck regarding her mission. But if she meets a man first, she may confidently expect good luck.

If a man starts upon a mission and first meets a man, he should turn back. Ill luck awaits him. If he first meets a woman, it is a good omen.

If a person starts anywhere and has to turn back for any reason, he should be sure to make a cross mark in the road at the spot where he turns back, spit in the centre of it, and then when he

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