Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606).
Alexander Ross tells us that the battle between the British and French, in which the former were overthrown in the reign of Charles VIII., was foretold by a skirmish between magpies and jackdaws.--Arcana Microcosmi.
Mantle (The Test). A boy brought to King Arthur’s court a mantle which no one could wear who was unfaithful in love, false in domestic life, or traitorous to the king. If any such attempted to put it on, it puckered up, or hung slouchingly, or tumbled to pieces.--Percy, Reliques (“The Boy and the Mantle”).
Meteors. Falling stars, eclipses, comets, and other signs in the heavens, portend the death or fall of princes.
Meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth ...
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Shakespeare, Richard II., act ii. sc. 4 (1597).
Consult Matt. xxiv. 29; Luke xxi. 25.
Mice and Rats. If a rat or mouse, during the night, gnaw our clothes, it is indicative of some impending evil, perhaps even death.