For sure as a gun they will give up the ghost ...
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected
Infallibly cures the timber infected;
The omen is broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.
Swift, Wood an Insect (1725).
Dog. If dogs howl by night near a house, it presages the death of a sick inmate.
If doggs howle in the night neer an house where somebody is sick, ’tis a signe of death.--Dr. N. Home, Dæmonologie, 60.
When dogs wallow in the dust, expect foul weather: “Canis in pulvere volutans....”
Præscia ventorum, se volvit odora canum vis;