Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/57

 Items of German-Canadian Folk-Lore. 49

cats. What may be regarded as a survival of this superstition is the belief that the hair of cats, if swallowed, will cause consumption.

If the mother (mutter) in a vinegar barrel is not strong enough, it should be replaced by a piece of paper with the names of three cross women or termagants, that live in the neighborhood, written on it.

The large excrescences sometimes found on the white elm, if touched, were supposed to cause cancer.

If a person has had a cancer, and another individual, in showing where it was located, puts his finger on the spot on his own person, he also will get the cancer there.

" Was sick zweitte das dritte sick!' Literally meaning, whatever happens twice will happen thrice.

Contrary to the hitherto accepted belief that thirteen is an unlucky number, the Germans set a hen with thirteen eggs to insure good luck.

It is unlucky to name an infant after .its dead brother or sister ; the child will die young.

An old German woman gave me the following recipe : Take the blood of a bat and bathe your eyes with it, and you will be able to see in the dark as well as you can in the daytime. She attributes her present keen sight to trying this formula.

To render yourself invisible at pleasure : steal a black cat, fill a kettle with cold water, and set it on the stove ; put the cat into it, and put a lid on top of it, and then, despite the cries and struggles of the animal, you are to hold the lid firmly down on top of it until it is dead and boiled to a pulp. During the time, you are not to turn your head, whatever is happening behind you. When the body is thor- oughly boiled, remove the lid and pick out the bones, and, placing them one by one between your teeth, look into a mirror, and when you get the right one, you will not be able to see yourself. Keep this bone, and whenever you do not desire to be seen, put it between your teeth and you will become invisible. The boiling of the cat and picking out of the bones must be done at midnight.

HALLOWEEN OBSERVANCE.

To see their future husband, the young women used to take one teaspoonful of flour, one of salt, and one of water,, and mix them together, forming dough. This they made into a little cake, which they baked in the ashes of the stove grate. While eating this, they walked backwards toward their beds, laid themselves down across them, and went to sleep lying in this position. If they dreamed of their future husband as bringing a glass cup containing water, he was wealthy ; if a tin cup, he was in good circumstances ; and if he had ragged clothes and a rusty tin cup, he was very poor.

vol. xii. — no. 44. 4

�� �