Part 12

48. To cross a funeral procession is an ill omen.

49. To find a pearl in an oyster betokens good fortune.

50. To break a looking-glass foretells death. Grose tells us that “breaking a looking-glass betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master.” Bonaparte’s (Napoleon I.) superstition upon this point is often recorded. “During one of his campaigns in Italy,” says M. de Constant, “he broke the glass over Josephine’s portrait. He never rested till the return of the courier he forthwith dispatched to assure himself of her safety, so strong was the impression of her death upon his mind.”

51. To find a trefoil, or four-leaved clover, implies good luck; a five-leaved clover, bad luck. Melton, in his “Astrologaster,” says that “if a man walking in the fields, finde any foure-leaved grasse, he shall, in a small while after, finde some good thing.”

52. If four persons cross hands while in the act of shaking hands, it indicates that two of the party will soon be married.

53. If three unmarried persons having the same Christian name meet at table, it is a sign that one of the three will be married within a year.

54. To be startled by a snake is a sign of sickness.

55. When thirteen persons sit down together at table, it is a sign that one of the party will die within a year. Fosbroke, in his Encyclopædia of Antiquities, states that “thirteen in company was considered an unlucky number by the ancient Romans;” but he does not give any classical authority for this statement.

There is at Dantzic a clock, which at 12 admits, through a door, Christ and the eleven, shutting out Judas, who is admitted at 1. But is not the belief older than the clock? The iniquity of Judas may have led him to be considered the thirteenth at the Lord’s Supper; and his self-destruction may have given to the number thirteen its fatal association.

It has, however, been explained away by M. Quetelet, in his work on Probabilities as follows: “If the probability be required, that out of thirteen persons, of different ages, one of them, at least, shall die within a year, it will be found that the chances are about one to one that one death, at least, will occur. This calculation, by means of a false interpretation, has given rise to the prejudice, no less ridiculous, that the danger will be avoided by inviting a greater number of guests, which can only have the effect of augmenting the probability of the event so much apprehended.”

This belief obtains in Italy and Russia, as well as in England. Moore, in his Diary, vol. ii., p. 206, mentions there being thirteen at dinner, one day, at Madame Catalani’s, when a French countess, who lived with her up-stairs, was sent for to remedy the grievance.

“Lord L(ansdowne) said he had dined once abroad with Count Orloff, and perceived he did not sit down at dinner, but kept walking from chair to chair; he found afterward it was because the Narishken were at table, who, he knew, would rise instantly if they perceived the number thirteen, which Orloff would have made by sitting down himself.” (See 63.)

56. If a dog bays under your window at night, it portends sickness or death.

Shakspeare ranks this among omens. In the play of Henry VI., he says:

“The owl shrieked at thy birth; an evil sign! The night-crow cry’d, aboding luckless time; Dogs howl’d, and hideous tempests shook down trees.”

57. The howling of dogs, says Grose, is a certain sign that some one of the family will very shortly die.

The following passage is in the “Merry Devil” of Edmonton, 1631:

“I hear the watchful dogs With hollow howling tell of thy approach.”

58. If you break your shoe-string, look out for your sweetheart, for she will bestow her love upon a stranger.

59. A flake of soot hanging at the bars of the grate, denotes the visit of a stranger, like the fungus of a candle, from the part of the country nearest the object.

Dr. Goldsmith, in his “Vicar of Wakefield,” among the omens of his hero’s daughters, tells us “purses bounded from the fire.” In some parts of England, the cinders that bound from the fire are carefully examined by old women and children, and according to their respective forms are called either coffins or purses; and consequently thought to be presages of death or wealth.

A coal, says Grose, in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire towards any particular person, betokens their death not far off.

Cowper alludes to this superstition in the following lines in his “Winter Evening:”

“Me oft has fancy, ludicrous and wild, Sooth’d with a waking dream of houses, towers, Trees, churches, and strange visages express’d In the red cinders, while with poring eye I gazed, myself creating what I saw. Nor less amused have I quiescent watch’d The sooty films that play upon the bars, Pendulous, and foreboding in the view Of superstition, prophesying still, Though still deceived, some stranger’s near approach.”

60. To drop a slice of bread, with the buttered side down, is a sign that a visitor will come hungry.

61. To eat up all the food which is on the table at tea-time, is a sign that the morrow will be a fair day.

62. In olden times it was not considered a good omen to find money. Melton says that “it is a sign of ill-luck to find money.” We have seen superstitious people, at the present day, keep for luck any piece of money they found, but Greene, in his “Art of Cony-Catching,” a very old work, tells us: “’Tis ill luck to keep found money.” Therefore it must be spent. Mason, in his “Anatomie of Sorcerie,” 1612, enumerating our superstitions, mentions as one omen of good luck, “if drink be spilled upon a man: or if he find old iron.” Hence it is accounted a lucky omen to find a horseshoe. (See 8.)

63. The ancients thought there was luck in odd numbers. In setting a hen, says Grose, the good women hold it as an indispensible rule to put an odd number of eggs. All sorts of remedies are ordered to be taken, three, seven, or nine times. Salutes of cannon consist of an odd number. Notwithstanding these opinions in favor of odd numbers, the number thirteen is considered very ominous. (See 55.)