To take another original grain of common-sense. Warnings against carelessness assumed the form of omens. To spill the salt was unfortunate; or in some country places, to spill new milk; or in parts of Southern Europe, to spill the oil. Leonardo da Vinci painted spilt salt near Judas in his famous ‘Last Supper.’ It is one of the most widespread of ill omens, though in different places there are shades of difference; for instance, in Holland it betokens a shipwreck.
Beside the superstitious disposition being what we may call an unlucky disposition, and beside the germ of encouragement that makes its own success out of some ‘good signs,’ and the atom of original prudence that still exists in some so-called bad omens, there are two other reasons why superstitions still keep hold of the people by a reputation for ‘coming true.’ These two reasons cover a great deal of ground in our theory of explanation. The first is the vague character of forecasts. For instance, we all know the rhymes about the luck of birthdays, which country-people of different shires repeat rather variously. One Scottish version is:
Monday’s bairn is fair of face;
Tuesday’s bairn is full of grace;
Wednesday’s bairn is a child of woe;
Thursday’s bairn has far to go;
Friday’s bairn is loving and giving;
Saturday’s bairn works hard for a living;
But the bairn that is born on the Sabbath day,
Is lively and bonnie, and wise and gay.