Current Superstitions
Edited By Fanny D. Bergen
Chapter VII
Wishes
431. If you take a baby in your arms for the first time, and at the same time wish, you will get your wish before the year is out.
Quebec.
432. Take your Bible and wish. If it opens at “and it came to pass,” you will get your wish.
433. Wish upon a candle on blowing it out. If it glows long, you will get your wish. If it smokes, it signifies a death.
Ohio.
434. If a speck of carbon comes on the wick when burning, and you wish for something, wet your finger and touch the speck. If it sticks to your finger, you will get the wish, and vice versa.
Plymouth, O.
435. Swallow a chicken’s heart whole and make a wish. It will come true.
Pennsylvania and Ohio.
436. Throw an egg out of the second story window and wish. If it does not break, you will get your wish.
Deer Isle, Me.
437. Throw an eyelash over your shoulder. If it falls from your finger in doing this, your wish will come true. If it remains on the finger, your wish will not come to pass.
New York.
438. Find a stray eyelash; place it on the back of the hand with a wish; blow it off. If it blows off at the first trial, the wish will come true.
St. John, N. B., and Pennsylvania.
439. Put a loose eyelash on the back of your hand. It signifies a letter. Wish from whom the letter may come, carry it three times around your head, then throw it over your shoulder, and you will get your wish.
New England.
440. Put an eyewinker down inside your clothes, wish, and you’ll get your wish.
Maine.[68]
441. Put an eyewinker on the back of the hand, knock that hand with the other so as to throw the eyewinker over the shoulder, and at the same time wish. If the eyewinker is not seen again, the wish will come true.
Stoneham, Mass.
442. If you wish on the first thing you eat in the season, the wish will come true.
443. Wish with two paper slips or grass blades, the ends only being shown. The longer wins.
444. Wish on a load of hay, and you’ll be sure to get it.
Winn, Me.
445. Wish when you see a hay-cart, don’t look at it again, and you’ll get the wish.
New Jersey.
446. See a white horse; don’t look at his tail, but wish.
447. Wish on a “calico” horse.
448. You may wish on a row of empty barrels, or on a piebald horse, but you must not look on the object a second time.
449. Wish on a load of empty barrels, and you will get your wish.
Peabody, Mass.
450. Write the names of one hundred people who (by request) have bowed to you, bury the paper in a secret spot, and at the same time wish. If no one sees you, you will get your wish.
451. Wish while holding a lighted match until it is extinct, and you’ll get the wish.
452. If by chance two use the same words, lock the little fingers, and wish before speaking, saying “Shakespeare” at the end.
Eastern Massachusetts.
453. Let two persons break the wishing-bone of a fowl; the one who gets the longest piece will get his wish.
New Jersey and Ohio.
454. If you say two sentences that rhyme, make a wish, then if you make a rhyme unintentionally and wish before you speak again, your wish will come to pass.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
455. When you first see a sleigh in the fall of the year, make a wish, and you will get it.
Winn, Me.[69]
456. Wish at the first snowflake of the season, and you will get your wish.
Westport, Mass.
457. Put a ring on the finger of another person, saying, “I wish it on until such a time,” and if it is not removed before the expiration of the period named, the wish will come to pass.
Connecticut and Ohio.
458. When you see a falling star, wish.
New Jersey.
459. To wish on a star, when you see the first star come out, say:
Star light, star bright,
First star I see to-night,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish to-night.
Wish what you please and it will come true, but the wish must not be mentioned to any one.
Eastern Massachusetts.
460. Count nine evening stars in succession, and you will have your wish.
Massachusetts.
461. Capture a floating thistledown, breathe on it, make a wish to see or hear from an absent friend, blow in his or her supposed direction, and it will carry your message.
Ohio.
462. Make a wish while throwing a leaf into running water. If it lands right side up, you will have your wish or good luck.
Lebanon, N. H.[70]