Alabama

Entries

• #140

  A person with an initial in his hand will be very fortunate in selecting a companion for life.

  Alabama.
• #154

  Mole on your arm,
  Live on a farm.

  Alabama.
• #202

  Count one hundred gray horses (one mule stands for ten horses), and the first gentleman with whom you shake hands is your intended.

  Alabama.
• #215

  Name a daisy, and then pull off the petals (ray-flowers) one by one, saying “yes, no,” and if “yes” falls on the last, the person loves you, and vice versa.

  Alabama.
• #217

  If you find a five-leaf daisy (that is, one with five ray-flowers) and swallow it without chewing, you will in the course of the day shake hands with your intended.

  Alabama.
• #220

  Put the breast-bone of a fowl over the front door, and the first one of the opposite sex that enters is to be your future companion.

  Alabama.
• #267

  If you look at a bright star intently before retiring, you will dream of your sweetheart.

  Alabama.
• #269

  Count nine stars for nine consecutive nights, and the person you dream of the last night is your intended.

  Prince Edward Island and Alabama.
• #281

  Run three times around the house, and on the third round a vision of your husband will rise before you.

  Alabama.
• #290

  On accidentally making two lines rhyme, kiss your hand, and you will be so fortunate as to see your lover before nine that night.

  Alabama.
• #296

  Take three grains of coffee, put one notch on one, two on another, put them in a glass of water under your bed, and name them. The one that sprouts is the one you are going to marry.

  Alabama.
• #300

  Cut your finger-nails nine Sundays in succession, and your sweetheart will dine with you.

  Alabama.
• #303

  A Halloween custom is to fill a tub with water and drop into it as many apples as there are young folks to try the trick. Then each one must kneel before the tub and try to bite the apples without touching them with the hands. The one who bites one first will marry first.

  Alabama.
• #314

  On the last night of October place a mirror and a clock in a room that has not been used for some time, and at a quarter to twelve take a lighted candle and an apple, and finish eating the apple just as the clock strikes twelve, and then look in the mirror and you will see your future husband.

  Alabama.
• #323

  If you look into a well at exactly twelve o’clock, on the first day of May, through a smoked glass, you will see your future husband.

  Alabama.
• #324

  Hold a mirror over a well on May first, and you will see the image of your future husband or wife.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #341

  It is bad luck for a bride to keep any of the pins that she used when she was married.

  Alabama.
• #352

  If it rains on the wedding, the bride will cry all her married life.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #359

  After the marriage ceremony is performed, the one that walks first from the altar is the one who will die first, either bride or groom.

  Alabama.
• #375

  If you are cross when you are young, you will be an old maid.

  Alabama.
• #379

  If you sit on a table, you will not be married that year.

  New England, New York, and Alabama.
• #387

  If your shoe comes untied, your sweetheart is talking about you.

  Alabama.
• #395

  Knock over your chair on rising from the table, and you won’t get married that year.

  Peabody, Mass., New York, and Talladega, Ala.
• #401

  If, in making a dress, the thread kinks badly, the person for whom it is made will either die or get married before the dress is worn out.

  Alabama.
• #472

  To dream of lice is a sign of “coming wealth.”

  Alabama.
• #502

  To dream of seeing a deceased friend means rain within a few days.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #516

  If you dream of fire, it is a sign of trouble in the family.

  Alabama.
• #521

  If you dream about a large blaze of fire, you will get some money unexpectedly.

  Alabama.
• #522

  Dreaming of smoke indicates trouble.

  Alabama.
• #531

  If you dream of a person of the opposite sex three nights in succession, you are sure to marry him.

  Alabama.
• #546

  If you dream of gold, it is a sign of an increase of property.

  Alabama.
• #557

  To dream of seeing muddy water signifies that you will have trouble.

  Alabama.
• #561

  If you dream of a marriage, it is the sign of a death; and if you dream of a death, it is the sign of a marriage.

  Alabama.
• #562

  If you dream of a marriage, you will hear of a death next day.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #571

  To see while asleep fresh meats of any kind is a warning of death.

  Alabama.
• #572

  To dream of blood is a sign of sickness.

  Alabama.
• #575

  To dream of flowers is a sign of sickness.

  Alabama.
• #610

  At cards, it is unlucky to turn up your hand before the dealer is through.

  Alabama.
• #628

  The putting of the left shoe on the right foot, lacing it wrong, or losing a button, are all bad signs.

  Alabama.
• #629

  Walking across the room with one shoe off is a sign of ill luck.

  Alabama.
• #642

  Find a pin and let it lie,
  You’ll want a pin before you die.

  Alabama.
• #651

  Never sweep the floor after sunset; it is bad luck.

  Alabama.
• #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.
• #663

  If two persons shake hands across the gate, they are bringing on themselves ill luck.

  Alabama.
• #682

  It is bad luck to have any one step across the fishing-pole; you will catch no fish.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #685

  Getting out of bed with the left foot first, or taking anything with the left hand when the right is disengaged, is a sign of bad luck.

  Alabama.
• #707

  To carry a hoe through the house is ill luck.

  Alabama.
• #711

  If a chair be turned about on one of its forelegs, there will be bad luck in the house all that year.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #717

  If when you stir your coffee at breakfast you will try to catch the bubbles on top, you can have as many dollars as you can catch whole ones.

  Alabama.
• #718

  To find money and keep it insures good luck through the year.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #719

  Put the first piece of money you get in the morning into your stocking, and you will have more to add to it before night.

  Alabama.
• #720

  If you find a piece of money the first day of the year, you will have good luck all the rest of the year.

  Alabama.
• #721

  If paper money is folded lengthwise first, it will insure the possession of money. If folded the short fold first, money will not remain in the pocket.

  Alabama.
• #747

  If you drop a dish-rag, some one is coming hungry.

  Alabama.
• #762

  If you drop a knife at table, a lady will come during the evening; if a fork, a gentleman is coming.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #774

  If successful in the attempt to take stems from your tea, a friend is going to visit you.

  Alabama.
• #793

  When you see the soot burning in the back of the chimney, it is a sign of your being visited by a stranger.

  Alabama.
• #807

  Brass earrings or rings are thought by negroes to keep away rheumatism.

  Alabama.
• #809

  Wearing brass rings will prevent cramp.

  Alabama.
• #816

  To keep fire always burning on the hearth will prevent cholera among chickens.

  Alabama.
• #829

  For a sty on the eye, take a small piece of paper, rub it on the sty, go across the road three times, and say each time,—

  Sty, sty, go off my eye,
  Go on the first one that passes by.

  This is a sure cure in two or three days.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #888

  If a person has warts, he should rub them with a bone, and after replacing the bone they are said to leave.

  Alabama.
• #922

  When a person wishes to remove warts from his hand, cut as many notches on a stick as you have warts, and standing on a bridge, throw the stick over your left shoulder, and turn your head; they will go off before you leave the bridge.

  Alabama.
• #924

  Some pretend to remove warts by “touching with the sharp point of a stick and rubbing them in the notch of another stick; then if the patient tells of it, they will come back.

  Alabama.
• #1010

  Conjurers can stop rain by throwing up clods of dirt.

  Alabama.
• #1016

  When the glass sweats, it is the sign of rainy weather.

  Alabama.
• #1039

  When the sun sets in a bank of clouds, there will soon be rain.

  Alabama.
• #1047

  When you hear a distant locomotive whistle, it is a sign of rain.

  Alabama.
• #1093

  If you shake your dress at the new moon, you will get a new one.

  Alabama.
• #1096

  It is bad luck to look at the moon over your right shoulder. If through mistake you should look at it over your right, face around, take three steps backward with your hands clasped behind, and then look at it over the left shoulder.

  Alabama.
• #1102

  Look at the new moon through a ring, wish something while doing so, and your wish will come true.

  Alabama.
• #1109

  One who chances to have a cup in his hand when he first sees the new moon is destined to wait on the sick until another new moon appears.

  Alabama.
• #1122

  Plant seed the first three days after the moon changes.

  Alabama.
• #1131

  To make hair grow, cut it in the new of the moon.

  N. F., N. B., N. S., Me., Mass., and Talladega, Ala.
• #1136

  Make soap in the new of the moon.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #1139

  To take away warts, steal a dish-rag out of the house, without anybody’s knowledge, and go out of doors in the first of the moon, rub the dish-rag on the wart, and say: “Here, new moon! take away my new wart.” Then throw the dish-rag away where no one can find it, and tell nobody.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #1144

  To make cake light, it must always be stirred the same way.

  Dalton, Mass., and Alabama.
• #1148

  In making lye soap, if you stir it backward it will turn back to lye.

  Warren Co., N. Y., and Alabama.
• #1156

  A “conjurer” can rub away a “rising” (boil) by coming to your bedside about daybreak, before you speak to any one, and rubbing the “rising” for nine successive days.

  Talladega, Ala.
• #1195

  If it rains during a burial, another member of the family will soon follow.

  Poland, Me., Baldwinsville, N. Y., Ohio, and Alabama.
• #1227

  If you sneeze at table with the mouth full, an acquaintance will die soon.

  Virginia and Alabama.
• #1260

  It is bad luck to meet a corpse. One may follow it, but never meet it. A colored person will turn square about on seeing a funeral procession approaching.

  Talladega, Ala., and Virginia.
• #1276

  Drop a book and you will miss your lesson, unless it is immediately picked up and kissed.

  Alabama.
• #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.
• #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.
• #1305

  Never say “good-by” more than once.

  Alabama.
• #1354

  If while going to see any one your left foot itches, you are not welcome.

  Alabama.
• #1376

  If you mend your apron or dress while on you, some one will lie about you.

  Maine and Alabama.
• #1382

  If, when dressing, one puts on any of his clothing wrong side out, it is a sign that he will soon receive a present.

  Alabama.
• #1383

  If you happen to put your skirt on wrong side out, you are likely to get a new one.

  Alabama.
• #1386

  If the hem of a lady’s dress turns up, she is sure to have a new one.

  Alabama.
• #1405

  If you wash your face in dew before sunrise on May Day, you will become very beautiful.

  Alabama.
• #1431

  Sneeze at the table, there will be one more or one less at the next meal.

  Alabama.
• #1433

  If you sneeze once, a girl is thinking of you; twice, she is wishing for you; thrice, it is a sign of a cold.

  Alabama.
• #1451

  One of the negro superstitions was that when the fire burned with a blue flame, it was the devil seeking to speak to them. A handful of salt would make him go away.

  Alabama.
• #1471

  Throw a strand of your hair in the fire; if it blazes you will live long and happily; if not, you will die soon.

  Alabama.
• #1472

  If a tree falls to the right while you are looking at it, you are going on a long trip before the end of the year, and will have some unexpected piece of good luck.

  Alabama.
• #1473

  A person born on Halloween is said to be possessed of evil spirits.

  Alabama.
• #1474

  Place a broom across the door, and if any of your departed friends wish to speak to you they are free to come and go at will while the broom remains there.

  Alabama.
• #1475

  If a person who raises fowls is bothered with hawks, he may prevent the trouble by throwing a handful of “rocks” into the fire while it is burning brightly.

  Alabama.