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647. If you spill salt, throw some over your left shoulder, and then crawl under one side of the table and come out on the other, to prevent bad luck.
_Bucks Co., Pa._
648. Spilling salt at table is ill luck to the one towards whom it is spilled.
_Iowa._
649. If you spill salt, you will have a whipping.
_New England and Canada._
SWEEPING.
650. If the broom is moved with the rest of the household furniture, you will not be successful. The broom should be burned while standing in the corner, being watched meanwhile, to prevent the house from taking fire.
651. Never sweep the floor after sunset; it is bad luck.
_Alabama._
652. Carrying ashes out of the house after sunset is bad luck.
_Virginia._
653. It is ill luck to sweep dirt out of doors after sunset.
_Virginia._
654. Dirt must not be swept out of doors after dark, or it will bring disaster to the master of the house. This belief is common among negroes and superst.i.tious whites.
_Chestertown, Md._
655. Sailors are unwilling that their friends should sweep after dark, because in that case their wages will be swept away by sickness or otherwise.
_Westport, Ma.s.s._
TURNING BACK.
656. It is unlucky to turn back for anything after you have set out to go anywhere.
_Prince Edward Island._
657. Returning to the house for something and starting again without sitting down is bad luck.
_Virginia._
658. It will prove unlucky if you return for a forgotten article after you have left the house; but if you seat yourself before leaving the house again, the misfortune will be averted.
_New York._
659. To avert ill luck or disappointment that will come if a person comes back to a house for something forgotten, he must sit down a minute.
_General in New England._
660. To go back into the house for something after starting on a journey is unpropitious. To have it brought out is all right.
_Iowa._
661. If you have to go back to the house after something forgotten, you must not sit down, but stand a moment or two, or else it is bad luck.
_Cape Breton._
662. If you start anywhere and go back, it is bad luck unless you make a cross-mark and spit in it.
_Alabama and Kentucky._
MISCELLANEOUS.
663. If two persons shake hands across the gate, they are bringing on themselves ill luck.
_Alabama._
664. It is unlucky to pa.s.s under a ladder.
_Canada._
665. Go under a ladder and you will be hanged.
666. Walking under a ladder is considered very unlucky. In the outposts girls will climb the rockiest cliffs to avoid such a contingency. On one occasion in St. John's, where a ladder extended across the sidewalk, of one hundred and twenty-seven girls who came along, only six ventured under it, the rest going along the gutter in mud ankle deep.
_Newfoundland._
667. If, in pa.s.sing, one parts two people, it is a sign of disappointment to the parter.
668. When two or three people go between different posts, in the entrance of gardens, cemeteries, etc., it is a sign they will be separated or disappointed.
_General in the United States._
669. Sing on the street, Disappointment you'll meet.
670. To count the steps of stairs, as you lie on your back, indicates the number of your troubles.
671. To fall upstairs means good luck; downstairs, ill luck.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
672. To stumble downstairs, or on going out in the morning, means bad luck.
_Peabody, Ma.s.s._
673. Opals are unlucky.
_General in the United States._
674. The opal is unlucky, unless set with diamonds.
_New York._
675. Don't let the tea-kettle boil so as to make a bubbling or thumping noise, as some say it is unlucky.
_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._
676. A tea-kettle boiling so as to make a bubbling sound is said to boil away luck, and should be removed from the flame.
_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._
677. Never let your dish-water come to a boil, as every bubble means bad luck to the family.
_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._
678. Sewing in the twilight is an ill omen.
_Chatham, N.H._
