A spider on one's clothes means a new suit or dress.
Woodlice, of the kind which roll themselves up when touched, if swallowed in that state, were taken for the ague.
With regard to wearing out boots, there is a doggrel on this subject:—
Trip at the toe, live to know woe,
Trip at the ball, live to spend all,
Trip at the heel, live to do well.
One funeral brings two more.
A variation of this makes the "two more" dependent on a Sunday intervening between the death and burial of the body.
Another variation affirms that the first death must be that of a female.
When a grave opens for a "she," it will open for three.
It is the custom, in some places, to place some salt, in a pewter plate, on the chest of a dead body; but especially when the death has been through dropsy. This was done only a short time since.
The roaring noise of a fire foretells a quarrel in the house.