Superst. I

289. A baby does not thrive if you call it würmchen (mite) or jäckel.
290. If the cat looks at you while she trims herself, you'll get a dressing or a wigging.
291. A cook that lets the dinner burn on to the pot, is betrothed or promised.
292. A maiden who is fond of cats, will have a sweet-tempered husband.
293. If a woman with child walk over a grave, her child will die.
294. He that has a lawsuit, and sees his opponent in court before the opponent sees him, will win his cause.
295. When you are in court, pocket your knife bare, and you'll win your cause.
296. When any one, old or young, can get no sleep, put a ruhe-wisch (wisp of rest) under his pillow, i.e. straw that breeding women lay under their backs; only you must get it away from them without saying a word.
297. If you pity cattle that are being killed, they can't die.
298. Never lay bread so that the cut side looks away from the table.
299. If you hear a ghost, don't look round, or you'll have your neck wrung.
300. Sow no wheat on Maurice's day, or it will be blighted.
301. It is not good to look over your head.
302. If you lop a tree on John's Beheading day, it is sure to wither.
303. If a maid who is kneading dough clutch at a lad's face, he'll never get a beard.
304. If your first godchild be a bastard, you'll be lucky in marriage.
305. When you drink to any one, don't hand him the jug open.
306. Whoever can blow-in a blown-out candle, is a chaste bachelor or maiden.
307. He that makes a wheel over his gateway, has luck in his house.
308. If a woman in the six weeks fetches spring-water, the spring dries up.
309. If you turn a plate over a meal, the witches can share in it.
310. When a witch is being led to the stake, don't let her touch the bare ground.
311. He that gets a blister on his tongue, is slandered that moment; let him spit three times, and wish the slanderer all that's bad.
312. A patient that weeps and sheds tears, will not die that time.
313. When the heimen or crickets sing in a house, things go luckily.
314. He that sleeps long grows white, and the longer the whiter.
315. If on their wedding day a bride or bridegroom have a hurt on them, they'll carry it to the grave with them, it will never heal.
316. If the moon looks in at the chamber window, the maid breaks many pots.
317. If anything gets in your eye, spit thrice over your left arm, and it will come out.
318. When fog falls in March, a great flood follows 100 days after.
319. He that walks over nail parings, will dislike the person they belonged to.
320. If a woman that suckles a boy, once puts another's child, which is a girl, to her breast, the two children when grown up will come to shame together.
321. He that walks with only one shoe or stocking on, will have a cold in his head.
322. When the fire in the oven pops, there will be quarrelling in the house.
323. Just as long as the meat on the table keeps on fizzing or simmering, will the cook be beaten by her husband.
324. He whose women run away, and whose horses stay, will be rich.
325. When the candle goes out of itself, some one in the house will die.
326. He that smells at the flowers or wreaths at a funeral, will lose his smell.
327. If you cut off a stalk of rosemary, and put it in a dead man's grave, the whole plant withers as soon as the branch in the grave rots.
328. When you eat eggs, crush the shells (witches nestle in them), or some one may get the fever.
329. He that has on him a moleskin purse with a hoopoo's head and penny piece inside, is never without money (see 251).
330. When the wind blows on a New-year's night, it is a sign of pestilence.
331. If a man eating soup lays his spoon on the table, and it falls with its inner side up, he has not had enough; he must go on eating, till the spoon turns its outer side up.
332. If you cut bread at table, and happen to cut one more slice than there are people, there's a hungry guest on the road.
333. If you wear something sewed with thread spun on Christmas eve, no vermin will stick to you.
334. Never point with your fingers at the moon or stars in the sky, it hurts the eyes of the angels (see 937).
335. Keep a cross-bill in the house, and the lightning will not strike.
336. In brewing, lay a bunch of great stinging-nettles on the vat, and the thunder will not spoil the beer. (2)
337. If a woman with child has gone beyond her time, and lets a horse eat out of her apron, she has an easy labour.
338. When a wedding pair join hands before the altar, the one whose hand is coldest will die first.
339. He that steals anything at Christmas, New year, and Twelfthday eve, without being caught, can steal safely for a year.
340. To cut the finger and toe nails on Friday is good for the toothache.
341. At Martinmas you can tell if the winter will be cold or not, by the goose's breastbone looking white or brown (see H, ch. 121).
342. Let farmers baptize their maids or souse them with water, when they bring in the first grass in the year, and they will not sleep at grass-cutting.
343. As a rule, when a tempest blows, some one has hung himself.
344. Hens hatched out of eggs that were laid on Maundy Thursday change their colour every year.
345. When a child is taken out of doors, don't keep the upper half of the door closed, or it will stop growing.
346. If feathers picked up on a bourn (between two fields) are put in a bed, a child can't sleep in it; if it is a marriage-bed, the man and wife will part.
347. If you sing while you brew, the beer turns out well.
348. Salute the returning stork, and you won't have the toothache.
349. When you go out in the morning, tread the threshold with your right foot, and you'll have luck that day.
350. When a foot-bath has been used, don't empty it till next day, or you spill your luck away with it.
351. If you happen to find the felloe of an old wheel, and throw it into the barn in the name of the H. Trinity, mice will not hurt your corn.
352. A silver ring made of begged penny pieces, and worn on the finger, is sovereign against all diseases.
353. Don't keep putting the bathing towel on and off the child, or it will have no abiding place when old.
354. Before a wedding, the bridegroom shall broach the beer-cask, and put the tap in his pocket, lest bad people should do him a mischief.
355. Hang your clothes in the sun on Good Friday, and neither moth nor woodlouse can get in.
356. Suffer thirst on Good Friday, and no drink will hurt you for a year (see 913).
357. In walking to your wedding, it is not good to look round.
358. On coming home from your wedding, make a black hen run in at the door (or window) first, and any mischief to be feared will fall on the hen.
359. In moving to another town or dwelling, if you lose bread on the way, you forfeit your food ever after.
360. In walking into a room, it is not good to turn round in the doorway.
361. A woman that has a cold in her head, shall smell in her husband's shoes.
362. After pulling a splinter out, chew it to pieces, lest it do more harm.
363. If another looks on while you strike a light, the tinder won't catch.
364. If a woman with child jump over a pipe through which a bell is being cast, it will lighten her labour.
365. A man can pray his enemy dead by repeating Psalm 109 every night and morning for a year; but if he miss a day he must die himself.
366. If you steal hay the night before Christmas, and give the cattle some, they thrive, and you are not caught in any future thefts.
367. Some houses or stables will not endure white cattle: they die off, or get crushed.
368. If a corpse looks red in the face, one of the friends will soon follow.
369. If after a Christmas dinner you shake out the tablecloth over the bare ground under the open sky, brosam-kraut (crumb-wort) will grow on the spot.
370. If you drink in the mines you must not say 'glück zu,' but 'glück auf,' lest the building tumble down.
371. In a dangerous place, if you have a donkey with you, the devil can do you no harm.
372. Put feathers in a bed when the moon's on the wane, they'll very soon creep out again.
373. If you twist a willow to tie up wood in a stable where hens, geese or ducks are sitting, the chickens they hatch will have crooked necks.
374. If you have no money the first time you hear the cuckoo call, you'll be short of it all that year.
375. A baby left unchristened long, gets fine large eyes.
376. If a maiden would have long hair, let her lay some of her hair in the ground along with hop-shoots.
377. It is not good to beat a beast with the rod with which a child has been chastised.
378. Every swallow you have slain makes a month of steady rain.
379. A child's first fall does not hurt it.
380. He that walks between two old women in the morning, has no luck that day (see 58).
381. When swallows build new nests on a house, there will be a death in it that year.
382. When the cats eat their food up clean, corn will be dear; if they leave scraps lying, the price will fall, or remain as it is.
383. To get rid of the rose (St. Anthony's fire), have sparks dropt on it from flint and steel by one of the same christian-name.
384. In cutting grafts, let them not fall on the ground, or the fruits will fall before their time.
385. A spur made out of a gibbet-chain without using fire, will tame a hard-mouthed horse or one that has the staggers.
386. Hang in the dove-cot a rope that has strangled a man, and the doves will stay.
387. He that has all-men's-armour (wild garlic) on him can't be wounded.
388. It is not good to burn brooms up.
389. In a lying-in room lay a straw out of the woman's bed at every door, and neither ghost nor Jüdel can get in.
390. A bride that means to have the mastery, shall dawdle, and let the bridegroom get to church before her.
391. Or: after the wedding she shall hide her girdle in the threshold of the house, so that he shall step over it.
392. She must eat of the caudle, or when she comes to suckle, her breast will have no milk.
393. On no account shall married people eat of the house-cock.
394. He that sells beer, shall lay his first earnings under the tap, till the cask is emptied.
395. If you burn wheat-straw, the wheat in the field will turn sooty that year.
396. Of a firstborn calf let no part be roasted, else the cow dries up.
397. Let no tears drop on the dead, else he cannot rest.
398. When one is attired by another, she must not thank her, else the finery will not fit her.
399. The fruit-trees must not see a distaff in the Twelves, or they'll bear no fruit.

Notes:
2. The thunder-nettle resists thunder, and is therefore put to young beer, to keep it from turning. On Grün-donnerstag (Maundy Thursday) young nettles are boiled and eaten with meat. Dav. Frank's Mecklenbg 1, 59. [Back]