Do not lend a pin, your friend may take one, but it is unlucky to give it.
Never begin anything on Friday, it will not prosper.
If you must pass under a ladder, cross your fingers and wish. The unsophisticated spit; and if you are walking with anyone wait for him to speak first, and any ill luck that may be coming will fall on his head.
"Spitting for luck" is still common enough. Hucksters and fish-women spit on the handsel (the first money they receive), and many horsedealers do the same. Colliers, when considering a strike, used to spit on one stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy, and schoolboys used to spit their faith when making a challenge to fight. This was considered a sacred pledge which it was thought a point of honour to fulfil.
It is wrong to point at the stars, or even to count them; you may be struck dead for doing so.
Hawthorn blossoms should not be brought into the house; they are as unlucky as peacock’s feathers, which also should never be brought indoors.
And evergreens should not be burnt.
"If you burn green,
Your sorrow’s soon seen."
The luck of three is much believed in. If you fail twice in trying to do a thing, you will probably succeed in the third trial. "The third time’s catchy time."
Servants say that if they break one thing they are sure to break three, a foreboding which not seldom comes true.