1269. If you put clothes of a live person on a corpse, when the clothes decay the owner will die.
St. Joseph, Mo.
1270. It is quite customary, both in the United States and in Canada, to give the whole house a thorough cleaning after a death has occurred, even when the deceased has undergone no prolonged illness and has died of no contagious disease. A day or two after the funeral one sometimes sees, particularly in country homes, feather beds, mattresses, etc., etc., put out to air. Sometimes even rooms are whitewashed in the purification process.
CHAPTER XIX.
MISCELLANEOUS.
ACTIONS.
1271. If a child in eating an apple merely girdles it and leaves the apple good at stem and below, it indicates that he will be a poor man; the saying is, “a poor man’s core.”
1272. It is unlucky to turn back after starting to go anywhere. To avert misfortune after turning back, make the sign of the cross in the dust with the heel, and spit in the cross.
Arkansas (negro), and Kentucky.