Pendulous, and foreboding in the view
Of superstition, prophesying still,
Though still deceived, some stranger’s near approach.”
60. To drop a slice of bread, with the buttered side down, is a sign that a visitor will come hungry.
61. To eat up all the food which is on the table at tea-time, is a sign that the morrow will be a fair day.
62. In olden times it was not considered a good omen to find money. Melton says that “it is a sign of ill-luck to find money.” We have seen superstitious people, at the present day, keep for luck any piece of money they found, but Greene, in his “Art of Cony-Catching,” a very old work, tells us: “’Tis ill luck to keep found money.” Therefore it must be spent. Mason, in his “Anatomie of Sorcerie,” 1612, enumerating our superstitions, mentions as one omen of good luck, “if drink be spilled upon a man: or if he find old iron.” Hence it is accounted a lucky omen to find a horseshoe. (See [8].)
63. The ancients thought there was luck in odd numbers. In setting a hen, says Grose, the good women hold it as an indispensible rule to put an odd number of eggs. All sorts of remedies are ordered to be taken, three, seven, or nine times. Salutes of cannon consist of an odd number. Notwithstanding these opinions in favor of odd numbers, the number thirteen is considered very ominous. (See [55].)
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The belief in omens has existed in all ages and countries, and traces of it linger even yet in the most civilized communities, in the dread, for instance, that many entertain of sitting down to table in a party of thirteen. Not a little of the philosophy of omens is contained in the Scottish proverb: “Them who follow freits, freits follow;” meaning that a fantastic belief in impending evil paralyzes the endeavor that might prevent it.