Omens and Superstitions [pp. 138-140]

1869.] LITERATURE, S6/IE1WUJji AND ART 139
niture of a former occupant, a Welsh gentleman told the purchaser
he must buy the salt-box. He bid fbr the valuable article, and none
bid against him. Afterward he was told ill-luck would follow, if he
had not bought the salt-box.
How many fear immediate death in the family, if a looking-glass
is broken in the house, or if the clock strikes many times out of its
usual hours! I once shocked a good lady by laughing when her clock
had struck over one hundred times. "You'll find it no laughing-mat ter; there will surely be a death, and it may be in your family." I
was sobered at once; but no death followed this freak of the clock.
Another very common superstition is: "Return to your home after
any thing you may have forgotten, when having started on a journey,
and it will surely bring bad luck." Then, "you must not look your
friends out of sight;" if you do, you will never see them again.
This belief in omens has existed in all ages and countries, and
traces of it still linger in this nineteenth century. The dread of mak ing the thirteenth person at a table is universal, and causes much un easiness if it accidentally happens. From a curious paper, published
in Philadelphia, in 1778, I find the following, showing how, at periods
of public excitement, undue importance is often attached to trivial
circumstances:
"We give the recital of ominous events which were thought to
have some reference to the Revolution, and shows how much more
important the figures thirteen were esteemed above other Arabic
numerals:
"1. After the surrender of Burgoyne, and while the treaty of alli ance with France was on the carpet, the American heavens were illuminated at intervals for whole months together. The aurora borealis,
or northern lights, were the greatest ever seen in America.
"2. When the fleet of his most Christian majesty-twelve shipsof-the-line, and, by the capture of a British ship of force, thirteen, and
commanded by the admiral, the illustrious D'Estaing-hove in sight
off our capes, the artillery of the skies was discharged, and thirteen
thunders were distinctly heard on the coast of the Delaware.
"3. On the morning after the arrival of his plenipotentiary, illustrious Gerard, being the thirteenth of the month, an aloe-tree, the only
one in this State, immediately shot forth its spire, which it never does
but once in its existence, and in some other climates only once in one
hundred years. It had been planted forty years, in the neighborhood
of this city, and previously only produced four leaves a year, until
this year, when it produced thirteen. The spire is remarkable, being
thirteen inches round, and having grown thirteen feet in the first thirteen
days."
Sneezing was not always a lucky omen. If you sneeze between
midnight and the following noontide, very fortunate; but, if from
noontide till midnight, unfortunate. Some old writer says: "When
the ancients were getting up in the morning, if they chanced to sneeze
while putting on their shoes, they immediately went back to bed again,
in order that they might get up more auspiciously and escape the misfortunes which were likely to recur on that day. If, in undertaking
any business, two or four sneezes happened, it was a lucky omen, and
gave encouragement to proceed; if more than four, the omen was
neither good nor bad; if one or three, it was unlucky, and dehorted
them from proceeding in what they had designed. If two men were
deliberating about any business, and both of them chanced to sneeze
together, it was a propitious omen." If any one tells you any thing,
and you shortly after sneeze, you may be sure what was told you was
true. If you sneeze in Germany, those present will say, "Your good
health;" in Vienna, "God be with you;" in Ireland, "God bless
your honor." The Russians say, "To your good health," or "How do
you do?" The Greeks exclaimed, "Zeus protect thee!" Ammianus
has an epigram upon one whose nose was so long he never heard it
sneeze, therefore never said, "God bless you." The custom of saying
"God bless you" to a person when sneezing, owed its origin to the
notion that sneezing was supposed to be an incipient symptom of the
plague, or other fatal disorder.
In looking over Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," I remember
seeing an amusing account of the ceremonies attending the sneezing
of a king of Monomotapa, showing what a national concern may be
the sneeze of despotism. Those near his person, when this happens,
salute in so loud a tone, that persons in the antechamber join in the
acclamation, and the noise reaches the street, so that each sneeze of
his majesty produces a horrid cry from the salutations of many thousands of his vassals.
"If you sneeze on a Monday, it indicates danger;
Sneeze on Tuesday,. you will meet a stranger;
Sneeze on Wednesday, you will receive a letter;
Sneeze on Thursday, you will get something better;
Sneeze on Friday, indicates sorrow:
Sneeze on Saturday, you will have a beau to-morrow;
Sneeze before you eat, you will have company before you sleep."
The notion soldiers have, that drinking out of a skull, renders
them invulnerable in battle, is a rather common superstition. Some
respectable writers maintain that such a practice is a proved prevent ive against scrofula.
"Friday, long regarded as a day of ill-omen, has been an eventful
one in American history.
"Friday, Christopher Columbus sailed on his voyage of discovery.
"Friday, ten weeks after, he discovered America.
"Friday, Henry III. of England gave John Cabot his commission,
which led to the discovery of North America.
"Friday, St. Augustine, the oldest town in the United States, was
founded.
"Friday, the Mayflower, with the Pilgrims, arrived at Princetown,
and, on
"Friday, they signed that august compact, the forerunner of the
present Constitution.
"Friday, George Washington was born.
"Friday, Bunker Hill was seized and fortified.
"Friday, the surrender of Saratoga was made.
"Friday, the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, occurred;
and, on
"Friday, the motion was made in Congress, that the United Colonies were, and of right ought to be, free and independent.
"Americans, surely, ought not to be afraid of Friday."
"Drawing a wedding-ring nine times across a sty in the eye, is
supposed to prevent all further irritation of the organ in question, and,
wonderful to relate, has generally proved efficacious."
"About a mile from Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, on a spot
where two roads cross each other, are a few oak-trees called cross-oaks.
Here, aguish patients used to resort, and peg a lock of their hair
into one of these oaks; then, by a sudden wrench, transfer the lock
from their heads to the tree, and return with the full conviction that
the ague had departed with the severed lock."
In fixing the wedding-day, May, among months, and Friday, among
days, are shunned by many, both in educated and uneducated circles.
"If you marry in Lent,
You will live to repent."
It is unpropitious if the wedding-day be rainy.
" Divination by the Bible and Key.-This superstition is very prevalent among the peasantry of some counties in England. When any
article is suspected to have been stolen, a Bible is procured, and
opened at the first chapter of Ruth; the stock of the street-door key
is then laid on the sixteenth verse of the above chapter, the handle
protruding from the edge of the Bible, and the key secured in this position by a string bound tightly round the book. The person who
works the charm then places his two middle fingers under the handle
of the key, and this keeps the Bible suspended. He then repeats in
succession the names of the parties suspected of the theft, repeating
at each name a portion of the verse on which the key is placed, commencing,' Whither thou goest I will go,' etc. When the name of the
guilty is pronounced, the key turns off the fingers, the Bible falls to
the ground, and the guilt of the party is determined."
In the north of England, when several children are brought to be
baptized at the same time, great anxiety is shown by the people lest
the girls should take the precedence of the boys; in which case, it is
believed, the latter, when arrived at man's estate, would be beardless.
"In Lithuania, when the master or mistress of the house dies, it
is considered necessary to give notice of the fact to the bees, horses,
and cows, by rattling a bunch of keys; and it is believed that, if this
were omitted, the bees and cattle would die."
Bees desert their hives on the death of one of their owner's family. "Calling on some poor people who lived at Hyde Green, we inquired after the bees. The old woman of the house replied,' They
have all gone away since the death of poor Dick; for we forgot to
knock at the hives and tell them he was gone dead!'"
Such a high sense of the efficiency of the form of the cross is held,
that, in case of spasms, or that painful state of the feet when said to
be "asleep," the sufferer, when he takes off his shoes and stockings,
LITER:A T'URE, SCI.E-YC-Ef, AiV-D AR1T.
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1869.]