It is thought auspicious to eat facing eastwards, to gaze at the full moon and then at the face of a kind relative or a wealthy friend; to have a girl as the eldest in the family; to have a cavity between the upper front teeth: and if a male to have a hairy body.
If a person yawns loud the crop of seven of his fields will be destroyed; a child’s yawn indicates that it is becoming capable of taking a larger quantity of food.
If a person bathes on a Friday it is bad for his sons, if on a Tuesday for himself; if he laughs immoderately he will soon have an occasion to cry; if he allows another’s leg to be taken over him he will be stunted in his growth; if he passes under another’s arm he will cause the latter to get a boil under the armpit, which can be averted by his returning the same way.
If a person eats standing, or tramples a jak fruit with one foot only he will get elephantiasis; if he eats walking about he will have to beg his bread; if he gazes at the moon and finds its reflection round his own shadow his end is near.
If the second toe of a female be longer than the big toe she will master her husband; if the left eye of a male throbs, it portends grief, the right pleasure—of a female it is the reverse.
If the eyebrows of a woman meet she will outlive her husband; if of a man he will be a widower; if a male eats burnt rice his beard will grow on one side only; if the tongue frequently touches where a tooth has fallen the new tooth will come out projecting; if an eye tooth be extracted it will cause blindness.
A sneeze from the right nostril signifies that good is being spoken of the person, from the left ill; when an infant sneezes a stander by says “ayi-bôvan” (long life to you).
If a child cuts its upper front teeth first, it portends evil to its parents; a child sucks its toe when it has drunk seven pots of milk.
An infant whimpers in its sleep when spirits say that its father is dead as it had never seen him, but smiles when they say its mother is dead as it knows she has nursed it only a little while before. Mothers hush crying children by calling on the kidnapping goblin Billâ or Gurubâliyâ.
A person who dangles his legs when seated digs his mother’s grave. As one with a hairy whorl on his back will meet with a watery death, he avoids seas and rivers.