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The inhabitants of most of our rural districts still retain the old dislike to a new moon on Friday. Some persons, however, contend that Saturday is the unlucky day for the new, and Sunday equally so for a full moon :

TH

"Saturday's new, and Sunday's full,

Was never fine, nor never wool."

HE following instances of good and ill luck relate to Weardale, co. Durham: If the good wife's keys persist in getting rusty, some friend is laying up money for her. A fortune is also foreboded by a hot cinder, called a purse, jumping out of the fire; but if the cinder does not rattle, it indicates ill-luck. If meat shrink in the pot when boiling, it is unlucky; if it swells, it is a sign of prosperity. Should the good wife cut the first cake from the oven, all the rest will be heavy; the first cake must be broken. Do not sweep the dust out of the front door, or you sweep away your fortune; and be sure and spit on the first coin you get in the morning, or the first you take in any business. If a leaf of soot hang on the fire-grate, or the cock crow on the threshold, you may expect a stranger; and if you forget to put down the lid of the teapot, a friend will drop in to tea.

HE Venetian luck-lore has many definitions, some of them

THE Venetian has many some of

"If you wash your face and hands in the water another has washed in, you will come to blows. To sweep dust over the feet or legs of a girl will prevent her getting a husband. It is unlucky to wear trousers made on a Friday, as they soon wear out. Babies' nails should not be cut before they are a year old, or they will turn out thieves. It is unlucky to measure a baby, as it will not grow. Crying children are lucky, they will have fine eyes and broad shoulders. To hear the ticking like a watch in the house is a sign of a great misfortune. If a feathered animal comes into the house it brings bad luck. When a dog scratches a hole in the ground there will be a funeral in the

family. If a cat gets under a sick man's bed, and will not come out, he will die. To give needles is unlucky, and brings a loss of friendship, unless each pricks the other. It is unlucky to make a number of crumbs at meals, whoever does so will never have money to spare." (This last saying may be safely recommended to the world at large.) "Sweeping at night drives good luck away. To drop anything shows that visitors are coming; if it should be a comb, a woman will come; if a toothcomb, it will be a man."

IN

N the Times (May 28, 1851) it is stated, that a woman, called as a witness on a trial, refused to be sworn, with the remark it must be evident to the magistrate that she could not take an oath. The usher of the court said the woman was in the family way, and that low women who were in that condition entertained an absurd belief that it was unlucky to take an oath.

It is unlucky for children to walk backwards while going on an errand; it is a sign they will be unfortunate in their object.

In some parts of Scotland it is a popular notion among the lower classes, that when a child is for the first time taken into the open air, the bearer of it should give something edible (such as bread and cheese) to the first person met; otherwise, the child's fate will be unlucky. The gift is called "the bairn's piece."

In the West of Scotland (says Mr. James Napier) it was considered unlucky to name a child by any name before the rite of baptism was performed. When a child was taken from its mother, and carried outside the bedroom for the first time after its birth, it was lucky to take it upstairs, and unlucky to take it downstairs. If there were no stairs in the house, the person who carried it generally ascended three steps of a ladder, or temporary erection; and this, it was supposed, would bring prosperity to the child. When the baby was being carried to church to be baptized, it was important that the woman appointed to this post should be known to be lucky. It was

not considered safe or proper to carry a baby into any neighbour's house until the mother took it herself; and this it was unlucky even for her to do, until she had been to church.

I

NDICATIONS of good or ill luck by dreams are innumerable, and have found believers in past ages; and we may add, in a milder form of credulity, even at the present time. It would fill a voluminous work to enumerate the extraordinary presages engendered during the hours of slumber; and the reader, if his curiosity on this subject should be excited, will find some long extracts from "The Royal Dream Book" (a north-country chap-book) in Brand's "Antiquities," edited by Sir Henry Ellis (vol. iii. p. 134).

Melton, in his "Astrologaster," says: "That if a man be drowsie, it is a signe of ill-lucke; if a man dreame of eggs or fire, he shall heare of anger; that to dreame of the devil is good lucke; that to dreame of golde is good lucke, but of silver, ill."

INDEX.

“ABRACADABRA,” a mystical word,

237.

"Abracalan," a mystical word, 237.
Adam, why so called, 259.

66

Agla," a mystical word, 238.
Agnes, Saint, legend of, 340.
Agobard, on sea-legends, 2.
Agues, cured by egg charms, 463.
Aht fishermen, legend of the, 376.
Albatross, a bird of omen, 12.
Alectromancy, or cock divination,
243.

Amulets in Bosnia, 176.

in China, 180.

in the East, 175.

against the "evil-eye," 167.
in Guiana, 182.

to secure invulnerability, 161.
in Japan, 181.

Lilly's experience of, 164.
against murrain, 329.
in New Zealand, 182.
against small-pox, 171.

in Russia, 178.

in Siam, 181.
of spiders, 173-
and talismans, 152.
Anagrams, divination by, 251.
Anhalt, ring tradition of, 211.
Animals, blessing of, 335.

charms against noxious, 306.
list of, tried by law, 303.
luck connected with, 519.
trials of, 290, 460.

Anthony, Saint, patron of fishermen,
43.

Anthony, Saint, patron of pigs and
horses, 335.

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Bucca," a sea-spirit, 5.

Buddhist theory of number three,
262.

Burglar, talisman of a, 193.

Burmese superstitions, 48.
Butans, whirligig of the, 241.
Butter, fairy, 136.

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Byron, Lord, on Friday," 515.

Candlemas and Childermas Day,
513.

Cats at sea, superstition, 115.
Cattle charms in Scotland, 328.

magical stones in, 329.
Caul, child's, superstitions, III.
"Cent," or cock-egg, 462.
Ceylon, superstitions at, 121.
Characts, amulets or charms, 182.
Charlemagne, talisman of, 191.
Charles I. and the "Sortes Virgi-
lianæ," 221.

Charms against noxious animals,
311.

Charms for healing cattle, 331.

to protect children, 170.
in China, 180.

for invulnerability, 254.
against the plague, 165.
Chasseneuz, on cursing animals, 292.
Chinese superstitions, 44, 46, 373,
490.

Chiromancy connected with luck,
527.

Christening ships, 65.
Christopher, Saint, 54.

Clerc, Pierre le, a diviner of letters,
244.

Climacterics, notions on, 272.
Cock festival in Advent, 407.

divination, 409.

eggs, 460.
sacrifices, 408.

stone, virtues of the, 389.
superstitions, 367, 402.
trial of a, by law, 460.

Cockles, omens respecting, 15.
Coleridge's "Spectre Ship," 85.
Colliers, superstitions of, 127, 132,
134.

Columbus, superstition of, 139.
Comet-egg, the, 459.

Corday, Charlotte, and letter-divi-
nation, 245.

Corentin, Saint, miracle of, 51.
Cornwall, phantom-lights in, 74.

spectre-ship in, 84.

Coronation ring, the, 206.
Corpse-candle, 132.
Cortez, superstition of, 13.
Cow-death, the Russian, 325.
Cramp-rings, 200.

Crane, a bird of ill-omen, 365.
Cromwell's "Lucky" day, 506.
Crossbill, a bird of ill-omen, 371.
Crows, 10, 365.

Crow-stone, virtues of the, 388.
Cuckoo, 379, 427.

Curative effects of letters, 244.
Curiosities of fish legends, 48.
Cuttle-fish, omens from, 16.

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'Cutty Soams," a mine goblin,
128.

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