Current Superstitions
Edited By Fanny D. Bergen
Chapter IX.
Luck
CARDS.
608. At cards, if your luck is poor, walk round your chair three times, lift it, sit down, and your luck is assured.
General in the United States.
609. At cards, it is bad luck to play against the grain of the table.
General in the United States.
610. At cards, it is unlucky to turn up your hand before the dealer is through.
Alabama.
611. At cards, it is common to blow on the deal, without looking at it, for good luck.
Providence, R. I., and Salem, Mass.
DAYS.
612. It is unlucky to travel on Friday.
New York and Pennsylvania.
613. Never begin a piece of work on Friday; it is bad luck.
General in the United States.
614. Seafaring men will not sail on Friday.
Somewhat general in the United States.
615. If you begin a piece of work on Friday, it will be a very short or a very long job.
St. John, N. B.
616. It is bad luck to cut your finger-nails on Friday.
Pigeon Cove, Mass.
617. As with the superstitious generally, Friday is a very unlucky day. Housekeepers will prefer paying a quarter’s rent extra to going into a house on that day. It is, of course, most unlucky to be married on it. Wednesday is the day considered most favorable for the purpose.
Newfoundland.
618. If you cut your nails on Sunday, you’ll do something you’re ashamed of before the week is out.
Maine.[80]
619. If business is transacted on Sunday, you will lose by it on the coming week.
New York.
620. Pancake Day is Shrove Tuesday. If you do not eat pancakes on that day, you will have no luck throughout the year. The hens won’t lay, etc.
Chestertown, Md.
621. When the two figures that tell one’s age are alike, as 22, 33, etc., some great change in life is to be expected.
Nashua, N. H.
DRESSING.
622. If you put on any garment wrong side out, as, for example, a pair of stockings, never change it, as to do so brings ill luck. This direction is intuitively followed by many people who are entirely free from conscious superstition.
General in the United States.
623. If you put a garment on wrong side out, you mustn’t speak of it, or you will have bad luck.
Maine.
624. If you put a garment on wrong side out, or a hat on wrong end before, spit on it before turning, to prevent bad luck.
Maine and Ohio.
625. If a garment is put on wrong side out, it is lucky, but unlucky to turn it.
Prince Edward Island and Massachusetts.
626. To clothe the left foot before the right one is a sign of misfortune.
Ohio.
627. If you button up your dress wrong, i. e., do not begin with the button and button-hole opposite each other, it means bad luck, or good luck if worn uneven until after sunset.
Cape Breton.
628. The putting of the left shoe on the right foot, lacing it wrong, or losing a button, are all bad signs.
Alabama.
629. Walking across the room with one shoe off is a sign of ill luck.
Alabama.
630. When putting on your shoes and stockings, if you complete dressing one foot before beginning to dress the other, it is a sign you will be disappointed.
Northern Ohio.[81]
HORSESHOES.
631. It is good luck to find a horseshoe.
General in the United States and Canada.
632. The luck is especially good if the loop end is towards you, that is, if you meet it.
Miramichi, N. B.
633. If you find horseshoes and pick them up, you will have a horse.
634. The more nails in the horseshoe, the more luck.
Western Pennsylvania.
635. To find a horseshoe nail is good luck, especially if the head is towards you.
Miramichi, N. B.
636. If horseshoes are put up over a house for luck, the points should not be placed downwards, or the luck will slip through.
PINS.
637. See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you’ll have good luck;
See a pin and pass it by (or “let it lie”),
All the day your luck will fly.
Eastern Massachusetts.
638. See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you’ll have good luck;
See a pin and let it lie,
Come to sorrow by and by.
New York.
639. See a pin and pick it up for luck. If the head is towards you, the luck is slow in coming; if the point is towards you, the luck is quick and sharp.
Boston, Mass.
640. If you see a pin crosswise, that is, across your path, it means a ride if you pick it up.
Boston, Mass.
641. “I have known a young lady form a habit of stooping in consequence of keeping the eyes fixed on the ground, in the streets of New York city, in order not to miss the good fortune that might come of picking up a pin. The pin must be thrust into a tree or post, in order to keep the luck as long as it remains fast.”
New York, N. Y.[82]
642. Find a pin and let it lie,Alabama.
You’ll want a pin before you die.
643. See a pin and let it lie,
You’ll want that pin before you die.
Peabody, Mass.
SALT.
644. It is unlucky to pass salt across the table.
645. Spilling salt is unlucky; throw some over your left shoulder, or burn a pinch to avert ill luck.
Northern Ohio.
646. It is bad luck to spill salt unless it is burned.
Virginia.
647. If you spill salt, throw some over your left shoulder, and then crawl under one side of the table and come out on the other, to prevent bad luck.
Bucks Co., Pa.
648. Spilling salt at table is ill luck to the one towards whom it is spilled.
Iowa.
649. If you spill salt, you will have a whipping.
New England and Canada.
SWEEPING.
650. If the broom is moved with the rest of the household furniture, you will not be successful. The broom should be burned while standing in the corner, being watched meanwhile, to prevent the house from taking fire.
651. Never sweep the floor after sunset; it is bad luck.
Alabama.
652. Carrying ashes out of the house after sunset is bad luck.
Virginia.
653. It is ill luck to sweep dirt out of doors after sunset.
Virginia.
654. Dirt must not be swept out of doors after dark, or it will bring disaster to the master of the house. This belief is common among negroes and superstitious whites.
Chestertown, Md.
655. Sailors are unwilling that their friends should sweep after dark, because in that case their wages will be swept away by sickness or otherwise.
Westport, Mass.[83]
TURNING BACK.
656. It is unlucky to turn back for anything after you have set out to go anywhere.
Prince Edward Island.
657. Returning to the house for something and starting again without sitting down is bad luck.
Virginia.
658. It will prove unlucky if you return for a forgotten article after you have left the house; but if you seat yourself before leaving the house again, the misfortune will be averted.
New York.
659. To avert ill luck or disappointment that will come if a person comes back to a house for something forgotten, he must sit down a minute.
General in New England.
660. To go back into the house for something after starting on a journey is unpropitious. To have it brought out is all right.
Iowa.
661. If you have to go back to the house after something forgotten, you must not sit down, but stand a moment or two, or else it is bad luck.
Cape Breton.
662. If you start anywhere and go back, it is bad luck unless you make a cross-mark and spit in it.
Alabama and Kentucky.
MISCELLANEOUS.
663. If two persons shake hands across the gate, they are bringing on themselves ill luck.
Alabama.
664. It is unlucky to pass under a ladder.
Canada.
665. Go under a ladder and you will be hanged.
666. Walking under a ladder is considered very unlucky. In the outposts girls will climb the rockiest cliffs to avoid such a contingency. On one occasion in St. John’s, where a ladder extended across the sidewalk, of one hundred and twenty-seven girls who came along, only six ventured under it, the rest going along the gutter in mud ankle deep.
Newfoundland.
667. If, in passing, one parts two people, it is a sign of disappointment to the parter.[84]
668. When two or three people go between different posts, in the entrance of gardens, cemeteries, etc., it is a sign they will be separated or disappointed.
General in the United States.
669. Sing on the street,
Disappointment you’ll meet.
670. To count the steps of stairs, as you lie on your back, indicates the number of your troubles.
671. To fall upstairs means good luck; downstairs, ill luck.
Massachusetts.
672. To stumble downstairs, or on going out in the morning, means bad luck.
Peabody, Mass.
673. Opals are unlucky.
General in the United States.
674. The opal is unlucky, unless set with diamonds.
New York.
675. Don’t let the tea-kettle boil so as to make a bubbling or thumping noise, as some say it is unlucky.
Eastern Massachusetts.
676. A tea-kettle boiling so as to make a bubbling sound is said to boil away luck, and should be removed from the flame.
Eastern Massachusetts.
677. Never let your dish-water come to a boil, as every bubble means bad luck to the family.
Eastern Massachusetts.
678. Sewing in the twilight is an ill omen.
Chatham, N. H.
679. To look over another person’s shoulder into a looking-glass means disappointment.
Deer Isle, Me.
680. When going fishing, fishermen wear white mittens for luck.
Portsmouth, N. H.
681. It is unlucky to lose a glove.
Bathurst, N. B.
682. It is bad luck to have any one step across the fishing-pole; you will catch no fish.
Talladega, Ala.
683. Crawl under a fence, and you will have bad luck.
Western Masssachusetts.
684. To step over the feet of any one who is sitting is ill luck.[85]
685. Getting out of bed with the left foot first, or taking anything with the left hand when the right is disengaged, is a sign of bad luck.
Alabama.
686. In getting out of bed in the morning, the right foot is always to be placed first.
Ohio.
687. To get out of bed left foot first makes one cross. “He got out of bed left foot first,” is a universal saying.
688. In going in at the house door, always put the right foot foremost. This practice is observed by many intelligent people.
689. To sing at the table is a sign you will be disappointed.
690. It is an ill omen to leave the table while eating, to light the lamp.
Western Massachusetts.
691. To lay the knife and fork crosswise is ill luck.
Peabody, Mass.
692. When you drop a knife or fork, and it sticks up in the floor, you will have good luck.
693. It is lucky to find a rusty knife or other steel instrument.
Maine.
694. If a knife be spun round, care should be taken to spin it back again, otherwise it insures bad luck.
695. Often verses of Proverbs xxxi. are assigned to girls and boys respectively according to the day of the month of the birth.
Labrador and Brookline, Mass.
696. It brings bad luck to the bearer of a ring to have it taken from her finger by another person.
Massachusetts.
697. Measuring one’s waist, as for a dress, will bring ill luck.
698. To turn a loaf of bread upside down is ill luck.
Northern Ohio.
699. To find a four-leaved clover is lucky; but five-leaved, unlucky.
General in the United States.
700. When a vessel is launched, break a bottle of wine over her for luck. The bottle is to be broken by a lady.
General in the United States.[86]
701. Never carry clean wet clothes from one house to another, as it will bring ill luck.
Chestertown, Md.
702. Do not go into your new house by the back door; if you do you take disaster with you.
703. Never build on a spot where a house has been burned. The second house is likely to go in the same manner.
Maine and Massachusetts.
704. Light coming in at the window is a bad sign.
Peabody, Mass.
705. The opening of an umbrella in the house is a sign of bad luck.
General in the United States.
706. If you drop your umbrella, you will have ill luck if you pick it up yourself; but the ill luck may be averted by having some one else pick it up.
Prince Edward Island.
707. To carry a hoe through the house is ill luck.
Alabama.
708. To light three lights with one match is good luck for a week.
Peabody, Mass.
709. The falling of a chandelier foretells a disaster in the family.
New York.
710. Breaking a looking-glass shows that you’ll have seven years of ill luck.
General in the United States.
711. If a chair be turned about on one of its forelegs, there will be bad luck in the house all that year.
Talladega, Ala.
712. A mare-browed man, that is, one whose eyebrows meet, is unlucky and can cast spells.
Newfoundland.
713. It is unlucky, when going deer-hunting, to meet a red-haired man.
Newfoundland.