If he puts a horse-hair into water, it will turn into an eel.
Durham schoolboys used, when they saw a rainbow, to make a cross of straws or twigs upon the ground, in order to send it away, or, as they said, to "cross out the rainbow."
Borrow tells of "the gipsy mystery of the trus’hul, how by making a cross of two sticks the expert in occultism could wipe the rainbow out of the heavens"; and the charm might have its roots still farther back in the cross of Thor, anciently used to dispel rain and thunderstorms.
In Confirmation, those who are touched by the Bishop’s left hand will never marry.
When the time for marriage comes, it is important to choose a lucky day and season. The days of the week are thus fated:
"Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses,
And Saturday no luck at all."
It is well to avoid marriage in Lent, for
"If you marry in Lent,
You’ll live to repent."
And May is an unlucky month for weddings, as for births. But the time being happily settled, the bride must not hear the banns given out, or her children will be deaf and dumb, and neither she nor any of the guests must wear anything green. She should wear
"Something old, something new,
Something borrowed, and something blue."