Of fortune bad to keep us.
Ellison, Trip to Benwell, lx.
Hoopoe (The). The country people of Sweden consider the appearance of the hoopoe as a presage of war.--Pennant, Zoölogy, i. 258.
Lizards warn men of the approach of a serpent.
Looking-glasses. If a looking-glass is broken, it is a warning that some one in the house will ere long lose a friend. Grose says it “betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master.”
To break a looking-glass is prophetic that the person will never get married; or, if married, will lose the person wedded.
Magpies are prophetic birds. A common Lincolnshire proverb is, “One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a wedding, four for death;” or thus: “One for sorrow, two for mirth, three a wedding, four a birth.”
Augurs and understood relations have,
By magotpies and choughs and rooks, brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.