“The owl shrieked at thy birth; an evil sign!
The night-crow cry’d, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl’d, and hideous tempests shook down trees.”
57. The howling of dogs, says Grose, is a certain sign that some one of the family will very shortly die.
The following passage is in the “Merry Devil” of Edmonton, 1631:
“I hear the watchful dogs
With hollow howling tell of thy approach.”
58. If you break your shoe-string, look out for your sweetheart, for she will bestow her love upon a stranger.
59. A flake of soot hanging at the bars of the grate, denotes the visit of a stranger, like the fungus of a candle, from the part of the country nearest the object.