New Hampshire

Entries

• #48

  Rock the cradle empty,
  Have children a plenty,
  Rock the chair empty,
  Have sickness a plenty.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #88

  Go to the woodpile and say, “Johnnie with your fingers, and Willie with your toes,” and something (suthin) will come out of the woodpile and tear off all your clothes (close).

  Gilsum, N. H.
• #89

  An “eyewinker” placed in the palm of the hand will cause the ferule to break when the teacher strikes the palm with it.

  Portsmouth, N. H.
• #170

  “A common project in my girlhood was to place an apple-seed on each of the four fingers of the right hand, that is, on the knuckles, first moistening them with spittle. A companion then ‘named’ them, and the fingers were worked so as to move slightly. The seed that stayed on the longest indicated the name of your future husband.”

  Stratham, N. H.
• #182

  Rub the four bed-posts with a lemon and carry the lemon in the pocket the next day, and the first man you speak to you will marry.

  New Hampshire.
• #183

  Read the third verse of the third chapter of Hosea, Joel, and Amos for three Sundays in succession, and the first gentleman you walk with you will marry.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #188

  With reference to the habitation to be occupied:—

  Big house, little house, pig-sty, barn.

  New Hampshire.
• #225

  Take an egg to your window; break it over a knife; remember the day and date. Wish that your true love would come to you. If you go too high, he will be killed.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #253

  Wear a piece of fern in the toe of your shoe, and the first person you meet you will marry.

  New Hampshire.
• #278

  Take a looking-glass and walk backwards to the wall, and you will see your future husband’s picture.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #319

  On Halloween, girls place three saucers beside each other, two filled with earth and water, in the other a ring. They are respectively death, cloister or unmarried life, and marriage.

  Convent School, Manchester, N. H.
• #322

  On May first look in an unused well, and you’ll see the face of your future husband or wife.

  New Hampshire.
• #384

  If a gentleman and lady are riding and are tipped out, they will be married.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #400

  Pins in the front of a dress waist are a sign that the wearer will be an old maid.

  New Hampshire.
• #462

  Make a wish while throwing a leaf into running water. If it lands right side up, you will have your wish or good luck.

  Lebanon, N. H.
• #603

  Dreaming of persons being sick is a sign of being well.

  Newfoundland and New Hampshire.
• #621

  When the two figures that tell one’s age are alike, as 22, 33, etc., some great change in life is to be expected.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #678

  Sewing in the twilight is an ill omen.

  Chatham, N. H.
• #680

  When going fishing, fishermen wear white mittens for luck.

  Portsmouth, N. H.
• #752

  If you go in at one door and out of another of the house of a friend, a stranger will enter the house soon.

  Central New Hampshire.
• #759

  If the scissors drops there will be visitors; if the small blade sticks in the floor it will be children; if the large, adults.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #773

  If the stems of tea-grounds come on top of the cup, visitors are coming. Bite one, and if it is hard, it will be a man; if soft, a woman.

  New Hampshire.
• #799

  A string of gold beads is still held to be a preventive of quinsy, sore throats, and so on.

  New Hampshire.
• #824

  If you don’t want the cramp in your foot, turn your shoes bottom up at night.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #841

  An Indian doctor used for inflammation of the eyes rain-water caught on the third, fourth, and fifth of June. It is said that this will not putrefy.

  New Hampshire.
• #872

  Blood from the warts on a cow’s bag coming in contact with a person’s hands will cause warts to appear on them.

  New Hampshire.
• #881

  The handling of large species of toadstool, sometimes popularly called “wart-toadstool,” will cause warts to grow on the part of the hand coming in contact with it.

  New Hampshire.
• #890

  The juice of “wild celandine” (Impatiens fulva) is used as a wart cure.

  Franconia, N. H.
• #1050

  A broom falling across the doorway, or chairs set crosswise, is the sign of a storm.

  Stratham, N. H.
• #1087

  When it is new moon, take out a stocking, and as you knit repeat,—

  This knot I knit
  To know the thing I know not yet,
  This night that I may see
  Who my husband is to be,
  How he goes and what he wears,
  And what he does all days and years.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #1097

  If you see the moon square in the face, you’ll have a fall.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #1099

  If you have money in the pocket when you first see the new moon, turn it over, and you’ll have plenty all the rest of the month.

  Stratham, N. H.
• #1100

  If you have money in your pocket the first time you see the new moon, and it is seen over your right shoulder, you will have money all the year.

  Nashua, N. H., and Massachusetts.
• #1140

  To cure warts, go out of doors when the moon is new, take up a handful of mud, looking at the moon all the time, and rub on the wart.

  Holderness, N. H.
• #1142

  If you wish to secure lightness, you must always stir cake and eggs a certain way, that is, the way the sun goes.

  Kittery, Me., Nashua, N. H., Eastern Massachusetts, and Southern Michigan.
• #1182

  The last name a dying person calls is that of the next to follow.

  New Hampshire.
• #1206

  If three persons look into a mirror at the same time, one will die within the year.

  Peabody, Mass., and New Hampshire.
• #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.
• #1319

  If a child sing before breakfast, it will get a whipping before night.

  New Hampshire.
• #1345

  If your ears burn, people are talking well of you; if your ears are cold, the contrary.

  New Hampshire.
• #1371

  If you shudder without apparent cause, some one has stepped over or upon your grave.

  Gilsum, N. H.
• #1373

  There is an old superstition that every sigh causes a drop of blood to flaw from the heart.

  Exeter, N. H.
• #1377

  As many stitches as you take (in mending a garment while wearing it), so many lies will be told about you.

  New Hampshire.
• #1415

  There was a superstition among old people who had never been much abroad, in the town where I was born (Stratham, N. H.), that if they were photographed they were likely to die soon after, and many rather objected on that account.

  Stratham, N. H.
• #1422

  Study on Sunday, forget it through the week.

  Nashua, N. H.
• #1459

  When sparks are seen on the bottom of the tea-kettle, it is a sign that folks are going home from meeting.

  New Hampshire and Boxford, Mass.