Superst. I

1005. If a maid have not spun her distaff clear by Sunday, those threads will never bleach white.
1006. She that sets the gridiron on the fire, and puts nothing on it, will get an apron in her face (be wrinkled).
1007. If you stand a new broom upside down behind the street door, witches can neither get in nor out.
1008. If a woman nurse her babe sitting on the boundary stone at the cross way, it will never have toothache.
1009. Children born after the father's death have the power of blowing away skin that grows over the eyes for three Fridays running.
1010. Why give ye not the bones of the Easter lamb, that is blessed, unto dogs? They will go mad, say ye. Ye may give them, it harmeth not (Keisersb. Ameisz. 52).
1011. Wouldst lame a horse? Take of a tree stricken by hail, and make thereof a nail, or of a new gallows, or of a knife that hath been a priest's cell-woman's (conf. priest's wife, Spell xxxiv), or the stump of a knife wherewith one hath been stuck dead; and push it into his hoofprint. (Cod. Pal. 212, 53b).
1012. To know how many 'good holden' are conjured into a man, he shall draw water in silence, and drop burning coals out of the oven into it: as many coals sink to the bottom, so many good holden he has in him.
1013. (10) If a tempest lasts three days without stopping, some one is hanging himself.
1014. Who bathes in cold water on Easterday, keeps well the whole year.
1015. If you go out on important business, and an old woman meet you, it is unlucky; if a young girl, lucky.
1016. When the night owl cries by day, a fire breaks out.
1017. If you look at a babe in swaddling bands, cross it and say 'God guard thee!'
1018. Whoever sees the corn in blossom first, and eats nine of the blossoms, will keep free from fever (conf. 718).
1019. If a howling dog holds his head up, it means a fire; if down, a death.
1020. Whoever on St. John's Eve puts as many John's worts as there are people in the house, into a rafter of his room, naming the plants after the people, can tell in what order they will die: he whose plant withers first will die first (conf. Dan. Sup. 126).
1021. It is not good to point with your finger at where a thunderstorm stands.
1022. Blood let out of a vein should always be thrown into running water.
1023. Let no milk or butter be sold out of the house after sunset.
1024. Moles are removed from the face by letting a dead person's hand rest on them till it grow warm.
1025. The rainwater left on tombstones will send freckles away.
1026. If you see blue fire burn at night, throw a knife into it, and if you go there before sunrise, you will find money.
1027. Hairs that comb out should be burnt: if a bird carries them to its nest, it gives you headaches, or if it be a staar (starling), staar blindness (cataract).
1028. When the schalaster (magpie?) cries round the house, guests are near.
1029. If you have the hiccough, drink out of your jug (mug) over the handle.
1030. When it rains in sunshine, the sky drops poison.
1031. Let a sold calf be led out of doors by the tail, and the cow will not fret; let a bought cow be led into stable by the tail, and she'll soon feel at home.
1032. When the floor splinters, suitors are coming.
1033. When a hanged man is cut down, give him a box on the ear, or he'll come back.
1034. If the moon shine on an unbaptized child, it will be moonstruck.
1035. If the dead man's bier falls, some one will die in 3 days; it will be one that did not hear it.
1036. If your right hand itch, you'll take money; if your left, you'll spend much.
1037. When a sudden shiver comes over you, death is running over your grave.
1038. If the altar candle goes out of itself, the minister dies within a year.
1039. If you run in one boot or shoe, you lose your balance, unless you run back the same way.
1040. A horse goes lame, if you drive a nail into his fresh footprint (conf. 1011).
1041. On Christmas eve thrash the garden with a flail, with only your shirt on, and the grass will grow well next year.
1042. As long as icicles hang from the roof in winter, so long will there be flax on the distaff the next year.
1043. If a straw lies in the room, there is snow coming.
1044. Good Friday's rain must be scratched out of the ground with needles, for it brings a great drought.
1045. If the godfather's letter be opened over the child's mouth, it learns to speak sooner.
1046. Flies in gallnuts betoken war, maggots bad crops, spiders pestilence (conf. 968).
1047. Rods stuck into the flax bed keep the cattle unbewitched.
1048. Three knocks at night when there's nobody there, some one at the house will die in 3 days.
1049. If a woman dies in childbed, wash out her plätsche (porringer) directly, or she will come back.
1050. If bride and bridegroom on the wedding day put a three-headed bohemian (a coin) under the sole of their right foot, it will be a happy marriage.
1051. Snow on the wedding day foretells a happy marriage, rain a wretched.
1052. If you stir food or drink with a knife, you'll have the cutting gripes; if with a fork, the stitch.
1053. When one is dying hard, lay him on the change (where the ends of the boards meet), and he'll die easy.
1054. Give your pigeons drink out of a human skull, and other people's pigeons will come to your cot.
1055. When hens crow, a fire breaks out.
1056. A house where cock, dog and cat are black, will not catch fire.
1057. One where the chain dog is burnt to death, will soon be on fire again.
1058. If the butter won't come, whip the tub with a willow rod, but not one cut with a knife.
1059. To win a maiden's love, get a hair and a pin off her unperceived, twist the hair round the pin, and throw them backwards into a river.
1060. If by mistake the pall be laid over the coffin wrong side out, another in the house will die.
1061. When you buy a dog, a cat or a hen, twirl them 3 times round your right leg, and they'll soon settle down with you.
1062. Under a sick man's bed put a potful of nettles: if they keep green, he'll recover; if they wither, he will die.
1063. A worn shirt shall not be given to be a shroud, else he that wore it will waste away till the shirt be rotten.
1064. If a women in childbed look at a corpse, her child will have no colour.
1065. A hanged man's finger hung in the cask makes the beer sell fast.
1066. If it rain on the bridal wreath, the wedded pair will be rich and fruitful.
1067. In measuring grain, sweep the top towards you, and you sweep blessing into the house; if you sweep it from you, you send it into the devil's hand.
1068. If a child's navel sticks out, take a beggar's staff from him silently, and press the navel with it cross-wise.
1069. To make a broodhen hatch cocks or hens, take the straw for her nest from the man's or the woman's side of the bed.
1070. He that has white specks on his thumb nails, he whose teeth stand close together, will stay in his own country.
1071. If wife or maid lose a garter in the street, her husband or lover is untrue.
1072. To find out who has poisoned your beast, cut the creature's heart out, and hang it pierced with 30 pins, in the chimney; the doer will then be tormented till he come and accuse himself.
1073. Wheat, sown on Michael's week, turns to cockle; barley, in the first week of April, to hedge mustard.
1074. If you have a fever frost (ague), go in silence, without crossing water, to a hollow willow tree, breathe your breath into it three times, stop the hole up quick, and hie home without looking round or speaking a word: the ague will keep away.
1075. Young mayflowers picked before sunrise, and rubbed together under your face, keep summer freckles away.
1076. A woman with her child shall not sit down on any box that can snap to under her, else her child will not come into the world until you have set her down on it again and unlocked it three times.
1077. If you see dewless patches in the grass before sunrise, you can find money there.
1078. Let linseed for sowing be poured into the bag from a good height, and the flax will grow tall.
1079. If you have fever, walk over nine field boundaries in one day, and you'll be rid of it.
1080. Or: hunt a black cat till it lies dead. It is good for epilepsy to drink the blood of a beheaded man, and then run as fast and far as you can hold out.
1081. On Christmas eve make a little heap of salt on the table: if it melt over night, you'll die the next year; if it remain undiminished in the morning, you will live.
1082. Whoever on St Walpurg's eve puts all his clothes on wrongside out, and creeps backwards to a cross way, will get into witches' company.
1083. If the reel hung awry, and the thread dangled downwards, when a child came into the world, it will hang itself. If a knife was lying edge upwards, it will die by the sword.
1084. The smallest box in the house is usually placed before the childbirth bed: if any one sit down on it, and it snap to of itself, the woman will never be brought to bed again.
1085. As many times as the cock crows during service the night before Christmas, so many böhmen will the quarter of wheat fetch the coming year.
1086. Whosoever shall spy the first ploughman ply, and the first swallow fly, on a year of good luck may rely.
1087. If a spinster in spring time, when birds come back, see two wagtails together, she'll be married that year.
1088. If a bridal pair on their way to the wedding meet a cartload of dung, it betokens an unhappy marriage.
1089. Before sowing barley, let the seed run through a man's shirt, and the sparrows will spare it.
1090. If you eat peeled barley, apoplexy cannot strike you while there is a grain of it left in your stomach.
1091. If you strike a light on the corner of the table or fireplace, the 'brand' (blight) will fall on your millet.
1092. When the women are going to wash, every one in the house must get up in a good temper, and there will be fine weather.
1093. Spinsters on St John's eve twine a wreath of nine sorts of flowers, and try to throw it backwards and in silence on to a tree. As often as it falls, so many years will they remain unmarried (conf. 848).
1094. If a chip in the fire in wintertime has a large catstail, it is a sign of snow; and if the catstail splits down the middle, of guests.
1095. It is not good to walk over sweepings (see Swed. 1).
1096. Children beaten with rods off a broom that has been used, waste away.
1097. If you want your cows to give much milk, buy a summer from the summer children, and stick it over the stable door.
1098. The first time the cows are driven to pasture, you tie red rags round their tails, so that the cannot be bewitched.
1099. If you want the witch to have no hold over your cattle, shut a bear up in their stable for a night: he scratches out the hidden stuff that holds the magic, and when that is gone, they are no longer open to attack.
1100. Flax bought on St Lawrence day will get 'burnt' (blasted).
1101. If you had something to say, and forget what, step out over the threshold and in again; it will come into your head again.
1102. Let a beemaster at honey harvest give away to many, and the bees will be generous to him.
1103. On Christmas eve put a stone on every tree, and they'll bear the more.
1104. When a girl is born, lay over her breast a net made of an old (female) cap, and the alp (night-elf) will not suck her dry.
1105. On Allhallows eve young folks in Northumberland throw a couple of nuts in the fire. If they lie still and burn together, it augurs a happy marriage; if they fly apart, an unhappy (Brockett p. 152).
1106. When the bride is undressing, she hands one of her stockings to a bridesmaid, to throw among the assembled wedding guests. The person on whom the stocking falls will be married next (ibid. 218).
1107. Bride and bridegroom, at the end of the wedding, sit down on the bridal bed in all their clothes except shoes and stockings. Each bridesmaid in turn takes the bridegroom's stocking, stands at the foot of the bed with her back to it, and throws the stocking with her left hand over her right shoulder, aiming at the bridegroom's face. Those who hit will get married soon. The young men do the same with the bride's stocking (ibid.).

Notes:
10. Nos. 1013-1104 from the New Bunzlau Monthly for 1791-2. [Back]