Superst. I

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.