Grimm's TM - Superstitions
Superst. I
Page 7
627. The thorn-twister (a
bird) carries thorns to Our Lord's crown.
628. The swallow mourns for Our Lord.
629. If you pull down a redbreast's nest, your cow will give red milk,
or lightning will strike your house.
630. When a tooth is pulled out, nail it into a young tree, and draw the
bark over it; if the tree is cut down, the toothache will return. Take
a sliver out of a willow, and pick your bad tooth till it bleeds, put
the sliver back in its place, with the bark over it, and your toothache
will go.
631. When a tooth falls out, put it in a mousehole, and say: 'Give me,
mouse, a tooth of bone, You may have this wooden one.' (Rääf
130).
632. If a woman dies in childbed, give her scissors and needlecase (yarn,
thread, needle and thimble), or she'll come and fetch them.
633. When a child is dead, it visits the person it was fondest of.
634. One born on a Sunday can see spirits, and has to carry them pick-a-back.
635. Nail up three pigeon's feathers of the left wing inside the cot,
swing the pigeons you let in three times round the leg, and don't let
their first flight be on a Friday.
636. Have about you a harrow tooth found on a Sunday, and you'll see the
witches at church with tubs on their heads; only get out before the P.N.
is rung, or they'll tear you to pieces (see 539. 685. 783).
637. A child in the cradle, who does not look at you, is a witch.
638. Take a crossed knife with you at night, and a witch can't get near
you; if she comes, throw the knife at her, and she'll stand there till
daylight.
639. If the eldest child in the house ties up the calf, witches can't
get at it.
640. If a goat in the stable is black all over, the witch can't get in;
nor if the cow has white feet and white stripe on her back.
641. Any beast with a black throat you've no hold upon.
642. If you are afraid of a witch at night, turn your left shoe round.
643. If you meet a doubtful-looking cat, hold your thumb towards her.
644. A drud's foot (pentagram) on the door keeps witches away.
645. If a thing is bewitched, and you burn it, the witch is sure to come,
wanting to borrow something: give it, and she is free; deny it, and she
too must burn (see 569. 692).
646. If your cattle are bewitched, go into the stable at midnight, and
you'll find a stalk of straw lying on their backs: put it in a stack,
call your neighbours in, and thrash the sack; it will swell up, and the
witch will scream (see 692).
647. Witches pick up money at the cross-ways, where the devil scatters
it.
648. They can make rain, thunder and a wind, which sweeps up the cloth
on the bleaching ground, the hay in the meadow.
649. They anoint a stick with the words: 'Away we go, not too high and
not too low!'
650. When a witch has gone up (in ecstasis), turn her body upside down,
and she can't come in again.
651. Under bewitched water, that will not boil, put wood of three kinds.
652. If a child is 'becried,' let its father fetch three stalks of straw
from different dung-heaps unbecried, and lay them under his pillow.
g. From Würtemberg.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1788. 2, 183-4).
653. Give no milk out of
the house without mixing a drop of water with it.
654. On the day a woman is delivered, or a horse gelded, lend nothing
out of the house, lest house or woman be bewitched.
655. If in bed you turn your feet towards the window, you get the consumption.
656. A shirt spun by a girl of from 5 to 7 makes you magic-proof.
657. When a spectre leads you astray, change shoes at once, put your hat
on another way, and you'll get into the right road again.
658. If you talk of witches on a Wednesday or Friday night, they hear
it, and avenge themselves.
659. Who runs not as he might, runs into the devil's arms (see 604).
660. Children dying unbaptized join the Furious Host.
661. If a bride at the altar kneels on the bridegroom's cloak, she gets
the upper hand. And if she gets into bed first, and makes him hand her
a glass of water, she is sure to be master.
662. Of a wedded pair, the one that first rises from the altar will die
first.
663. If at the altar they stand so far apart that you can see between
them, they'll pull two ways.
664. When a sick man is dying, open the windows, and stop up all the house
that is hollow, or turn it over, so that the soul may have free exit.
Also shift the vinegar, the birdcage, the cattle, the beehives (see 576.
698).
665. See that the dead on the bier have no corner of the shroud in their
mouth.
666. Fold your thumb in, and dogs cannot bite you.
667. Set the churn on a 'handzwehl,' and put a comb under it, and you'll
have plenty of rich butter.
668. The first time you hear the cuckoo call in spring, shake your money
unbecried, and you'll never run short.
669. The boundary where a suicide is buried, will be struck by lightning
three years running.
670. The farmer that goes into another's stable for the first time without
saying 'Luck in here'! is a witch-master.
671. Step into a court of justice right foot foremost, and you'll win.
h. From Swabia.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1790. 1, 441.)
672. Let a woman in childbed
take her first medicine out of her husband's spoon.
673. In the pains of labour, let her put on her husband's slippers.
674. Put water under her bed without her knowing it.
675. A child under three, pushed in through a peep-window, stops growing.
676. Hair that is cut off shall be burnt, or thrown into running water.
If a bird carry it away, the person's hair will fall off (see 557).
677. If a child learning to talk says 'father' first, the next child will
be a boy; if 'mother,' a girl.
678. If a man drink out of a cracked glass, his wife will have nothing
but girls.
679. When you've bought a cat, bring it in with its head facing the street
and not the house; else it will not stay.
i. From the Ansbach country.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1786. 1, 180-1.)
680. She that spins on Saturday
evening will walk after she is dead.
681. If a dead man's linen be not washed soon, he cannot rest.
682. He that eats millet-pap at Shrovetide is never out of money.
683. Spin at Shrovetide, and the flax will fail. The wheels must all be
packed away.
684. If the farmer is tying strawbands at Shrovetide, and uses but one
to a sheaf in a whole stack of corn, no mouse can hurt.
685. Have about you three grains found whole in a baked loaf, and on Walburgis
day you'll see the witches and night-hags at church with milkpails on
their heads (see 636. 783).
686. In the Twelve-nights neither master nor man may bring fresh blackened
shoes into the stable; else the cattle get bewitched.
687. He that cooks or eats peas at that time, gets vermin or leprosy.
688. If a pregnant woman pass through the clothes lines or anything tangled,
her child will tangle itself as many times as she has passed through lines.
689. If a child has convulsions, lay a horseshoe under its pillow.
690. A sick child gets better, if its godfather carries it three times
up and down the room.
691. If a mare foals at the wrong time, she must have stept over a plough
fork. If you knock that to pieces, she can give birth.
692. When bewitched with vermin, wrap three in a paper, and hammer on
it. The witch feels every blow, and comes in to borrow something: if you
refuse, she can't get free, and will sink under the blows (see 645-6).
693. Never burn a broom, and you are safe from Antony's fire.
694. When the Christmas tree is lighted, notice the people's shadows on
the wall: those that will die within a year appear without heads.
695. Draw the first three corn blossoms you see through your mouth, and
eat them: you'll be free from fever for a year (see 784).
696. He that passes palm brushes (catkins) over his face, will have no
freckles.
697. Nor he that washes his face during the passing-bell on Good Friday.
698. When a man dies, his bird-cages, flower pots and beehives must be
differently placed; and you must knock three times on his wine casks (see
552. 576. 664).
699. It furthers the dead man's rest, if every one that stands round the
grave throws three clods in.
700. The comb and knife that have combed and shaved a dead man, shall
be put in his coffin; or the hair of those who use them will fall off
(see 546).
701. If you leave any of the bread set before you, you must at any rate
stow it away, or you'll have the toothache.
702. If you hand bread to a pregnant woman on the point of a knife or
fork, her child's eyes will be pricked out.
703. If you sew or even thread a needle on Ascension day, your house will
be struck with lightning (see 772).
704. Lightning strikes where a redstart builds; but a swallow's nest brings
luck (see 629).
705. If children bring home the female of a stagbeetle, get it out of
the way directly, or lightning will strike the house.
706. On Good Friday and Saturday one dare not work the ground, for fear
of disquieting the Saviour in his sepulchre.
707. If the last nail the carpenter knocks in a new house gives fire,
it will burn down (see 411. 500); and if the glass he throws from the
gable after saying his saw break, the builder will die; if not, he will
live long.
708. He that comes into court, wearing a shirt of which the yarn was spun
by a girl of five, will obtain justice in every suit.
709. They put turf or a little board under a dead man's chin, that he
may not catch the shroud between his teeth, and draw his relations after
him.
710. A girl can be cured of St Antony's fire by a pure young man striking
fire on it several times.
711. Who steps not barefoot on the floor on Easterday, is safe from fever.
712. If the first thing you eat on Good Friday be an egg that was laid
on Maundy Thursday, you'll catch no bodily harm that year.
713. Three crumbs of bread, three grains of salt, three coals, if worn
on the person, are a safeguard against sorcery.
714. If a woman getting up from childbed lace a crust of bread on her,
and make her child a zuller or schlotzer of it, the child will not have
toothache.
715. If on the wedding day the bridegroom buckle the bride's left shoe,
she'll have the mastery.
716. If he tie her garters for her, she'll have easy labours.
717. Whichever of them goes to sleep first, will die first.
718. If you eat the first three slou blossoms you see, you'll not have
the heartburn all that year.
719. To get rid of freckles, take the first goslings without noise, pass
them over your face, and make them run backwards.
720. Turn the loaf over in the drawer, and the drude can't get out of
the room.
721. If a man can't die, take up three tiles in the roof (see 439).
722. If a child has the gefrais, put a swallow's nest under his pillow.
723. He that lies on inherited beds, cannot die.
k. From Austria above Ens.
(Journ. v. u. f. D. 1787. 1, 469-472.)
724. If a pregnant woman dip her hand in dirty water, her children will
have coarse hands.
725. If she dust anything with her apron, they will be boisterous.
726. If she wear a nosegay, they'll have fetid breath, and no sense of
smell.
727. If she long for fish, her child will be born too soon, or will die
soon.
728. If she steal but a trifle, the child will have a strong bent that
way.
729. If she mount over a waggon pole, it will come to the gallows; if
she dream of dead fish, it will die.
730. If women come in while she is in labour, they shall quickly take
their aprons off, and tie them round her, or they'll be barren themselves.
731. In fumigating, throw in some sprigs from the broom that sweeps the
room.
732. When the child is born, she shall take three bites of an onion, be
lifted and set down three times in the stool, draw her thumbs in, and
blow three times into each fist.
733. In the six weeks she must not spin, because the B. Virgin did not;
else the yarn will be made into a rope for the child.
734. If the child, when born, be wrapt in fur, it will have curly hair.
735. Put three pennies in its first bath, it will always have money; a
pen, it will learn fast; a rosary, it will grow up pious; an egg, it will
have a clear voice. But the three pennies and the egg must be given to
the first beggar.
736. The first cow that calves, milk her into a brand new pot, put three
pennies in, and give them with the milk and pot to the first beggar.
737. The smaller the jug in which water is drawn for a little girl's bath,
the smaller will her breasts be.
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