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, Mass.

Sailors are unwilling that their friends should sweep after dark, because in that case their wages will be swept away by sickness or otherwise.
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 655.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.