[IV]
SIGNS OF ALL SORTS
“Authorized by her grandam.”—Macbeth.
If you sneeze before breakfast, you will have company before dinner.
If you pick the common red field lily, it will make you freckled.
A spark in the candle denotes a letter in the post office for you.
To hand a cup with two spoons in it to any one, is a sign of a coming wedding in the family.
If a cat is allowed to get into bed with an infant, the child will be strangled by the animal sucking its breath, or by lying across its chest.
If my right ear burns, some one is talking about me, hence the familiar saying, “I’ll make his ears tingle for him.” Pliny records this omen. Also in “Much Ado About Nothing,” Beatrice exclaims, “What fire is in mine ears!”