A dog howling under your window three nights in succession portends evil or death in the near future. A picture falling, if the glass be broken, speaks clearly of a death in the family at no very distant date; the glass being intact, implies that misfortune of some kind is hanging overhead, but possibly everything may come right in the end.
A strange cat coming to your house, if black, should never be driven away; if you do so, you simply drive luck from your door.
If you are unmarried, be very careful to keep in mind the fact that, having attended three funerals, you must at least be present during part of a wedding service before standing at the graveside of a fourth, or you will die single, unless you are exceedingly rash, and get married in spite of everything.
If you accidentally break anything, it is a good plan to let two other articles of little or no value slip from your hand. This will save you from breaking two other things of value, because you are bound to smash three, and it is really an advantage to be allowed to choose two of them yourself.
Yes, things go by threes. If one death takes place in a street, it won’t be long ere the bell tolls for two others—so say they.
If the youngest daughter in a family is married first, the eldest had better unravel one of her garters, knitting the same, mixed with other wool, into something a man can wear. This she must present to the one she has a special regard for, and it most likely will incline his heart towards her. Garters, by-the-way, are rather out of it now; they once were articles in great request, to work charms and spells with, but that was in the days when either a long band with a buckle, or a knitted affair about an inch wide and a yard long, was universally worn. In these days of patent things and other inventions, some of which do not encircle the leg at all, the girls are debarred from resorting to many of the old-time spells. In days past, so long as a fellow wore one of his lady love’s garters round his neck, he was bound to be true to her and she to him. Did a fellow try the same thing now, he would strangle himself. The old-time garters, by-the-way, had other uses; the Bible, a key, and a garter often playing the part of a private detective, or infallibly making known to some doubting maiden the name of the man she would marry. The modus operandi was as follows:—In the case of an undetected thief, a key was placed within the Bible; this was bound securely within by winding a garter round it, the whole being suspended from a nail. The name of the supposed thief was now mentioned three times—in some districts seven—and if the key turned round, the thief was discovered.
Very similar were the rites used for the discovery of a future husband. In this case, however, the maiden wishing to know her fate, had to use one of her own garters, and it was also needful that the Bible should be opened at Ruth i. 16, 17. Some part of the key resting on the verses named, the Bible was then closed, and the key as before bound fast with the garter. The questioner and some other person now seated themselves opposite each other, each placing an elbow on a table and resting the open part of the key on their index fingers. All being thus arranged, the names of several of their male acquaintances were mentioned, the key turning on the name of the future husband being uttered. Not long ago the writer helped a maiden through the ceremony. The above, and the two following, are still commonly resorted to.
There is no difficulty in obtaining information touching the time you will be married. Simply let an anxious maiden take a looking-glass, and an apron which she has never worn or held between herself and the light, into the garden when the moon is at full; she must be careful not to look upon the queen of night until the rites are concluded. Keeping her back, then, to the moon, let her stand upon something she has never stood upon before—a newspaper, an old box, anything—and drawing the apron over the glass, hold it so that the moon shines upon it; let her now count the number of moons she sees reflected through the apron, and so many years will it be before the happy day arrives. I may mention, if such a one is in any violent hurry to get married, it is best to choose the apron of some light material, and to draw it tightly over the glass; careful attention to these small details has a marvellous tendency to lessen the number of moons.
Throughout Cleveland the maidens have recourse to the following method of divination for the discovery whether they are to be married or die old maids. From a stream running southward a maiden fills a clean glass with water, and having borrowed an old wedding ring, or one worn by a widow—the ring must grace maternity—she suspends it over the glass of water hanging by a single hair drawn from her own head, her elbow resting on the table and the hair being laid over the ball of the thumb. Should the ring hit the side of the glass, her fate is sealed—she will die an old maid; if, however, it spins round quickly, she will have to wait a year; if slowly, she will be wedded more than once.
It is commonly held that if you can find a four-leaved clover, and then walk backward upstairs to bed, sleeping with the leaf under your pillow, you will dream of the man you will marry.