Infallibly cures the timber affected;
The omen is broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.”
45. If a knife, scissors, or any sharp-pointed instrument is dropped, and stands, sticking in the floor, company may be expected.
46. The right hand itching is a sign that the person will shake hands with a stranger; the left hand itching is a sign that money will be received soon.
47. If you sing during any meal, it is a sign you will soon be disappointed.
48. To cross a funeral procession is an ill omen.
49. To find a pearl in an oyster betokens good fortune.
50. To break a looking-glass foretells death. Grose tells us that “breaking a looking-glass betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master.” Bonaparte’s (Napoleon I.) superstition upon this point is often recorded. “During one of his campaigns in Italy,” says M. de Constant, “he broke the glass over Josephine’s portrait. He never rested till the return of the courier he forthwith dispatched to assure himself of her safety, so strong was the impression of her death upon his mind.”
51. To find a trefoil, or four-leaved clover, implies good luck; a five-leaved clover, bad luck. Melton, in his “Astrologaster,” says that “if a man walking in the fields, finde any foure-leaved grasse, he shall, in a small while after, finde some good thing.”