Superst. I

516. When cattle are first driven out in spring, axes, saws and other iron tools are laid outside the stable-door, to keep them from being bewitched.
517. On the great festivals, women do not work after church, or they would be lamed and struck by lightning (the clouds would come after them).
518. In setting cabbages, women say: 'Stalks (? dursche) like my leg, heads like my head, leaves like my apron, such be my cabbages!'
519. Flax is thus adjured: 'Flax, don't flower till you're up to my knee, etc.' On St John's night the girls dance round the flax, they strip themselves naked, and wallow in it.
520. When the dragon is taking eggs, butter, cheese and lard to his worshippers, call out the Saviour's name several times, and he'll drop them all.
521. If the bride is coming to her husband's homestead, and the shepherd drives his sheep in her way, let her give him a fee, and she'll have luck.
522. If a whirlwind falls on the aftermath, 'tis the Evil One wishing to convey it to those who serve him. Cry out, and call him foul names.
523. The hare with his front teeth often cuts a path across whole cornfields. They call it pilsen-schneiden, and think the devil cuts the corn and carriest it to his good friends.
524. Old women often cut out a turf a foot long, on which their enemy has trodden just before, and hang it up in the chimney: the enemy then wastes away (see 556).
525. On the last day of the year, many eat dumplings (strötzel) and herrings, else Perchte would cut their belly open, take out what they have eaten, and sew up the gash with a ploughshare for needle, and a röhm-chain for thread.
526. The fire is kept in all night before Christmas day.
527. He that goes to the beer on Newyear's day, grows yound and ruddy.
528. A dream in Newyear's night comes true.
529. If the butter won't come, put a fire-steel or knife under the churn.
530. When your hands are soiled with setting cabbages, wash them in a large tub, and the cabbage will have large heads.
531. In setting cabbages a girl can find out if she'll ever get the man she loves. She nips a piece off the root of one seedling, splits the remaining part, and puts the root of another through it; the two plants are then set close to a stone, and squeezed together tight. If they stick, the marriage will come about.
532. If you force a man to sell you something cheap, it won't last you long.
533. In sowing flax, throw the cloth that held the seed high up in the air: the flax will grow the higher.

d. From Worms and its neighbourhood.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1790. pp. 142-3-4.)

534. A crackling fire betokens strife.
535. So does spilt salt.
536. So do yellow spots on your finger: if they are too large to be covered with a finger, the strife will be serious.
537. If the left ear sings, evil is spoken of you, if the right ear, good.
538. Let no fire, salt or bread be given out of a house where a woman lies in.
539. He that has on him a harrow-nail (-tooth?) found on the highway, can recognize all witches (see 636).
540. Red milk of a bewitched cow shall be whipt with switches while boiling: the pain makes the witch reveal herself and heal the cow.
541. He that goes out unwashed is easily bewitched.
542. Ringing consecrated bells on Walburgis night hinders the witches that dance with the devil on cross-roads from hurting any one.
543. If a coffin rings hollow in nailing down, one more in the house will die.
544. He that is in great trouble shall touch the great toe of a dead man.
545. The dead shall be laid with their face to the east, lesst they be scared by the winseln (?) that swarm from the west.
546. Combs, knives, cloths, used about a dead man, shall be laid in the coffin, and be buried with him.
547. If a pregnant woman lift a child from the front, either that child or her own will die.
548. If a loaf be laid on its brown side, witches can walk in.
549. If a yellow-footed hen flies over a jaundiced man, he can't be cured.
550. To sow a strife 'twixt man and wife, press a padlock home, while parson makes them one.
551. If a garment or linen come before a dead man's mouth, one of the family will die.
552. When there's death in a house, knock at the wine-casks, or the wine spoils.
553. If thirteen eat at a table, one is sure to die.
554. Into a whirlwind fling a knife with crosses on it, and you know the witches who made it.
555. If a mole burrow in the house (see 601), and the cricket chirp, some one will die; also if the hen crow, or the screech-owl shriek.
556. If one steals in rainy weather, cut out his footprint and hang it in the chimney: the thief will waste away with the footprint (see 524).
557. Combed out hair, if thrown on the highway, lays you open to witchcraft (see 676).

e. From Gernsbach in the Spire Country.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1787. 1, 454-5-6.)

558. Bride and bridegroom, on your way to church avoid the house-eaves, and do not look round.
559. Stand close together before the altar, lest witches creep in between you.
560. During the wedding whichever of you has your hand above the other's, shall have the mastery.
561. Let a woman with child, when she has a wash, turn the tubs upside down as soon as done with, and she'll have an easy confinement.
562. If sponsors on the christening day put clean shirts and shifts on, no witch can get at the child.
563. If at night there's a knock at the door of the lying-in room, never open till you've asked three times who it is, and been answered three times; no witch can answer three times.
564. In swaddling the babe, wrap a little bread and salt in.
565. In the bed or cradle hide a sword or knife with its point sticking out: if the unholde tries to get over mother or child, she'll fall upon it.
566. If at the wash a woman borrows lye and thanks you for it, she's a witch.
567. A woman that plumps butter on a Wednesday, is a witch.
568. If you go out and are greeted with 'good morning,' never answer 'thank you,' but only 'good morning'; then, if one of the greeters be a witch, she cannot hurt.
569. If your hens, ducks, pigs, etc., die fast, light a fire in the oven, and throw one of each kind in: the witch will perish with them (see 645).
570. When a witch walks into your house, give her a piece of bread with three grains of salt sprinkled on it, and she can't hurt anything.
571. If the cloth is laid wrong side up, people can never eat their fill.
572. If you leave it on the table all night, the angels won't protect you.
573. Smear a goitre with the wick out of a lamp that has burnt in a dying man's room, and it will heal.
574. If you make a promise to a child, and do not uphold it, it will have a bad fall.
575. If a woman set her hen to hatch with her garters dangling, her hair streaming and her worst frock on, she'll have chickens with knobs on their heads and feathery feet (see 19).
576. If any one dies in the house, shift the beehives, shake the vinegar and wine; or bees, wine and vinegar will go bad (see 664, 698, 898).
577. When you buy poultry, lead them three times round the table's foot, cut a chip off each corner of the table to put in their food, and they will stay (see 615).
578. The first time a pig is driven to pasture, make it jump over a piece of your apron, and it will readily come home (see 615).
579. If a girl on St Andrew's night melt some lead in a spoon, and pour it through a key that has a cross in its wards, into water that was drawn between 11 and 12, it will take the shape of her future husband's tools of trade.
580. To measure a child for clothes in its first year, spoils its figure.
581. A mouse's head bitten off with teeth, or cut off with gold, and hung about a child, helps it to teethe.
582. The same if you give a child an egg the first time it comes into a house; though some say it makes them talkative.

f. From Pforzheim.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1787. 2, 341-345.)

583. A seven year old cock lays a small egg, which must be thrown over the roof, or lightning will strike the house; if hatched, it yields a basilisk.
584. If you've a cold, drink a glass of water through a three pronged fork.
585. He that eats a raw egg fasting on Christmas morning, can carry heavy weights.
586. Eat lentils on Good Friday, and you'll not be out of money for a year.
587. If the stork does not finish hatching an egg, one of the highest in the land will die.
588. White spirits such as have buried money when alive, must hover between heaven and earth.
589. At an eclipse of the sun, cover the wells, or the water becomes poisonous.
590. If you leave a glass of wine standing between eleven and twelve on Newyear's night, and it runs over, the vintage will be good that year.
591. In going out, put your right foot out of the door first.
592. Lizards were once maidens.
593. A child cannot die peacefully on fowls' feathers.
594. It is unlucky to yoke oxen on Innocent's day.
595. If you cross a bridge or see a shooting star, say the Lord's Prayer.
596. If you lay a knife down edge upwards, you cut the face of God or those of the angels.
597. If you carry a rake teeth upwards, or point up with your finger, it will prick God's eyes out: it also destroys the rainbow.
598. Where the rainbow touches the earth, there is a golden dish.
599. The gravedigger's spade clatters when a grave is bespoke.
600. Crickets, dogs and waybirds foretell a death by their cry.
601. If a mole burrows under the room, the grandmother dies (see 555).
602. If the palace-clock is out of order, one of the reigning family dies.
603. If clocks strike while bells ring for prayers, some one dies.
604. He that dawdles makes the devil's bed (see 659).
605. Whoever commits a crime that is not found out in his lifetime, walks after death with his head under his arm.
606. He that buries money must walk after death, until it is found.
607. If you don't pray, the schwaben (black worms) steal flower out of your bin.
608. Schwaben are got rid of by being put in a box and given to a dead man.
609. Swallow's nests and crickets bring a blessing to the house.
610. Don't beat down the joiner's charge for the coffin, if the dead are to rest.
611. Cry to the fiery man: 'Steuble, Steuble, hie thee, Be the sooner by me!' then Will wi' the wisp will come, and you must take him on your back. If you pray, he approaches; if you curse, he flees.
612. If you find a treasure, don't cover it with any clothing worn next the skin, or you're a dead man; but with a handkerchief, a crust of bread. The treasure appears once in seven years.
613. Wednesday and Fridays are accursed witch-days. Pigs first driven to pasture on a Wednesday, don't come home; a child begins school on Wednesday, and learns nothing. On Wednesday nobody gets married, no maid goes to a new place.
614. Every one has his star. Stars are eyes of men (ON).
615. The first time pigs cross the threshold, make them jump over the wife's garter, the man's girdle, or the maid's apron, and they'll come home regularly (see 578).
616. When a fowl is bought, chase it three times round the table, give it wood off three corners of the table with its food, and it will stay (see 577).
617. If you lose a fowl, tie a farthing in the corner of a tablecloth upstairs, and let the corner hang out of window: the fowl will come back.
618. If you creep under a carriage-pole, or let any one step over you, you'll stop growing (see 45).
619. Creep between a cow's forelegs, and she'll never lose a horn.
620. Pigs bathed in water in which a swine has been scalded, grow famously.
621. He that stares at a tree on which a female sits, is struck blind.
622. To make a nut-tree bear, let a pregnant woman pick the first nuts.
623. If you've the gout, go into the fields at prayer-bell time on a Friday.
624. Rain-water makes children talk soon.
625. If you laugh till your eyes run over, there will be quarrels.
626. If you are in league with the devil, and want to cheat him, don't wash or comb for seven years; or else ask him to make a little tree grow, which he can't, and so you are rid of him.