Another superstition is: “One for sorrow; two for mirth; three, a wedding; four, a death.”
One’s sorrow, two’s mirth,[mirth,]
Three’s a wedding, four’s a birth,
Five’s a christening, six’s a dearth,
Seven’s heaven, eight is hell,
And nine’s the devil his ane sel.
Old Scotch Rhyme.
In Lancashire, two magpies flying together is thought unlucky.
I have heard my gronny say, hoode os leef o seen two owd harries as two pynots [magpies].--Tim Bobbin, Lancashire Dialect, 31 (1775).
When the magpie chatters, it denotes that you will see strangers.