The following witty account of this superstition, by Dean Swift, furnishes us with a charm to avert the omen:
——“A wood-worm
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form,
With teeth or with claws it will bite, or will scratch,
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch,
Because, like a watch it always cries click;
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick;
For as sure as a gun they will give up the ghost,
If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post.
But a kettle of boiling hot water injected