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.

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.
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 659.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.