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MISCELLANEOUS
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.
1273. It is unlucky to turn back after having once started out.
Quebec.
1274. To get out of bed on the wrong side puts one out all day. He got
out of bed with the wrong foot foremost is said of a person who has a
fit of crossness.
Northern Ohio.
1275. To drop your books on the way to school signifies that you will
make mistakes in your lessons.
Chestertown, Md.
1276. Drop a book and you will miss your lesson, unless it is immediately
picked up and kissed.
Alabama.
1277. Whoever eats the last piece of bread will be an old maid.
Pennsylvania.
1278. If you break something, you will break two other things.
Maine, Massachusetts, and Northern Ohio.
1279. To twirl a chair on one leg means that you are going to fight with
somebody.
Peabody, Mass.
1280. Whirling an empty chair indicates that a whipping is in store for
the transgressor.
1281. If you twirl a chair around on one leg, it is a sign that you are
about to break dishes.
Chestertown, Md.
1282. You mustn't pay the doctor entirely, or there will be sickness in
the family.
Lonsdale, R.I.
1283. You must leave by the door through which you enter, or there will
be trouble with the family, or ill luck to yourself.
Pennsylvania.
1284. If you leave by any other door than the one through which you have
entered, it is said that you will not come again.
Cumberland, Me.
1285. In bathing, the eyes should always be rubbed towards the nose, as
that makes them large, and rubbing out the opposite way makes them small.
Cambridge, Mass.
1286. In climbing a fence,--
Get over, meet with clover,
Get through, meet with a shoe;
Get under, meet with a blunder.
Sunderland, Mass.
1287. If you step on a grave, you will never grow any more.
Chestertown, Md. (negro).
1288. Step over a living thing, and that thing, whether a human being or
not, will not grow any more.
Province of Quebec, Can.
1289. To step over one leg of a child will cause it to grow longer than
the other.
Baltimore, Md.
1290. To comb the hair after dark is a sign of sickness.
Comb your hair after dark,
Comb sorrow to your heart.
Connecticut.
1291. If you comb your hair after dark, it will make you forgetful.
Northern Ohio.
1292. If the right hand itches, you are going to get money; if the left,
you will shake hands with a friend. If the nose itches, a friend is
coming.
Talladega, Ala.
1293. Two persons wiping hands on the same towel and twisting it
occasions a quarrel.
Pennsylvania.
1294. Wash and wipe together,
Live in peace together.
Northern Ohio.
1295. If two persons wash their hands at the same time, it is a sign that
they will be friends forever.
Alabama.
1296. If two persons wipe their hands at the same time, they will be foes
forever.
Alabama.
1297. When two persons put one hand of each flat together, palm to palm,
they will quarrel.
Province of Quebec, Can.
1298. If two persons clasp hands so as to lock the fingers, bringing the
palm of one person against the palm of the other person's hand, it will
break friendship.
Newton, Mass.
1299. If you hug your knee (hold your knee in clasped hands), you will
hug up trouble.
Salem and Medford, Mass.
1300. When your joints crack, it is a sign that you have not outlived
your best days.
New York, N.Y.
1301. If you kiss through a veil, there'll be a coolness.
Portland, Me.
1302. Crossed knives are a sign of a quarrel.
Cumberland, Mass.
1303. Stir with a knife,
Stir up strife.
1304. Never look after a friend who is leaving you till he is quite out
of sight, or you will never see him or her again; but turn your eyes away
while he is still visible, that he or she may return.
General in the United States.
1305. Never say good-by more than once.
Alabama.
1306. One who habitually bites the nails is ill-natured.
Ohio.
1307. If you bite your finger-nails you will always be poor.
Massachusetts.
1308. If you sleep with your head towards the north, it will prevent
sickness.
General in the United States.
1309. If you can cut a pie fair and true, you'll have a likely husband.
If you make the slices uneven, he'll be crooked.
1310. If you make a bed handsomely, you'll have a handsome husband.
1311. If you cut pie straight, you will go to housekeeping.
If you cut pie crooked, you will have no house to keep.
New Hampshire.
1312. If you make a rhyme involuntarily, you will have a present.
New Brunswick.
1313. The free use of salt is a sign of having a temper.
Lynn, Mass.
1314. To say anything backward is a sign you will get a present.
Peabody, Mass.
1315. If you sing before you eat,
You'll cry before you sleep.
Ohio and Iowa.
1316. If you sing before breakfast, you will cry before supper.
Cambridge, Mass.
1317. If you laugh before breakfast, you will cry before supper.
Prince Edward Island and Somerville, Mass.
1318. Little birds that sing in the morning
The old cat will catch before night.
Accustomed to be said to children when they were especially hilarious in
the early morning.
Northern Ohio.
1319. If a child sing before breakfast, it will get a whipping before
night.
New Hampshire.
1320. To sing after you go to bed is a sign that tears will come before
breakfast.
Maine.
1321. If the sole of either foot itches, you will walk on strange ground.
Boston, Mass.
1322. When about to begin a new enterprise, one must not step over straws
in starting out.
1323. If you stumble with the right foot, it means a glad surprise.
Pennsylvania (negro).
1324. In going anywhere, if you strike the right foot you will be welcome
wherever you may be going, and if the same happens to the left foot, you
will be on strange ground.
Bellville, O.
1325. To sit on a table is a sign of coming disappointment.
Maine and Massachusetts.
1326. In drinking tea, if you take a stem in the mouth it means an enemy;
you must bite it and throw it over the right shoulder.
Central Maine.
1327. If you stub your toe going into a house, you are not wanted there.
Guilford, Conn.
1328. If, in going visiting, you stub the right toe, you are welcome; if
the left, you are unwelcome.
Massachusetts and Ohio.
1329. If you stub your toe going anywhere, it means a disappointment.
Bathurst, N.B.
1330. Stub your toe,
Lose your beau.
Salem, Mass.
1331. To bite the tongue while talking means that you have told a lie.
1332. If you bite your tongue suddenly while eating, it is a sign some
one is coming hungry.
Cambridge, Mass.
1333. In going along the street or path, where there is a tree, go inside
rather than outside the tree, for you will be disappointed if you take
the latter course.
Eastern Massachusetts.
1334. In drinking water, if you glance over the glass, you are a flirt.
Pennsylvania.
1335. Whistling girls and crowing hens
Always come to some bad ends.
General in the United States.
1336. Whistling girls and sheep
Are the very worst cattle a farmer can keep.
1337. A whistling girl and a laughing sheep,
Are the very best property a man can keep.
Northern Ohio.
1338. Girls that whistle and hens that crow
Make their way wherever they go.
1339. Whistle before you eat,
Cry before you sleep.
Baldwinsville, N.Y.