• When you see white moths flying around lamps at night or four crows flying together, you will not have bad luck if you make the Sign of the Cross, and bless yourself.
• Old-timers keep four-leaf clovers in the Bible. The leaves form a Cross and are used to ward off evil, for good fortune, and to keep away witches.
• Palm (Canadian yew), sometimes shaped like a Cross, is put on the kitchen wall or worn in coats for Palm Sunday. A piece of it is believed to keep people from danger if carried in a coat pocket.
• Lady’s thumb is called the Blessed Virgin’s leaf because it shows a thumb print believed to be from where Eve used it to stop blood after she pricked her finger on a thorn. If applied while one is making the Sign of the Cross, it is said to stop any type of bleeding.
• The blessed brand (the remains of wood used on Ash Wednesday) is placed in a new fire to protect the house from burning that year.
• Buried treasure is enchanted. Treasure hunters finding it need to make the Sign of the Cross so that walking skeletons won’t frighten them into leaving, and to ensure that no one will be able to take the treasure. Sometimes treasure hunters kill one of their own and leave his corpse behind as a ghost to guard the treasure.
• Keep the colour blue out of your house if you want to keep the family safe.
• Tie a bag of salt in a baby’s nightdress while she is sleeping to keep her from fairies.
• Keep a cat if you want to know if fairies are inhabiting your house. You will see the cat’s ears draw back.
• Wear odd socks to confuse the fairies and they won’t take you.
• Turn your jacket inside out to protect yourself from fairies.
• To be sure of a safe journey, people sometimes pick 12 blades of yarrow; they throw one away for the fairies, and drop the other 11 into the right shoe.
• Put a child through the limbs of a dogwood tree to secure his future.
• If you carry the letter of Jesus – “The Saviour’s Letter” – or hang it framed in your home, no harm will come to you. You will be saved in childbirth and your house won’t burn.
• To forestay the Jack-o’-Lantern (spirit lights), stick a hornhandled knife in the ground and set its handle alight while you run as fast as you can, knowing the light will not pass until the handle burns.
• Rose branches are placed around the house of a family whose relative has died to keep the dead person’s ghost away.
• Cross bread dough by punching four holes with a finger to mark the Cross and drive out the Devil.
• A lit candle in a loaf of bread set in a lake is supposed to stop at the location of the body of a drowned person.
• Before you sell a horse, tie a knot in the horse’s tail to ensure the luck of the new owner.
• If someone gives you a knife as a gift, you have to give them a coin; otherwise, you will lose that person’s friendship later in life.
• It is necessary to have witch hazel (yellow or grey birch) in some part of a new boat.
• Carry a four-leaf clover to keep yourself from being taken in witchcraft.
• A witch will lose her evil powers if the roof is hauled off her hut as soon as the first rays of the sun strike it.
• If a baby is born with a caul, she is deemed to have special curing powers; the child will never die by drowning.
I was walking with Gertie, my mother-in-law, on the path to her son Raymond’s house. It was springtime and she stepped to the side looking for a four-leaf clover.
Without thinking I said, “I’ll get you one.” I didn’t stop or look when I reached down and quickly grabbed a sprig of clover on the lawn. I was as surprised as she was when I opened my hand to find a four-leaf clover. My mother-in-law put it in her Bible, where it remains, a reminder of my lucky day. No matter how hard I’ve looked since, I haven’t picked a four-leaf clover.
• It is good luck to carry a turn of wood on the left shoulder and a bearing stick on the right shoulder for balance.
• Flying flags on a ship when it is leaving port invokes a good voyage.
• Turn one’s coat for good luck.
• Find a four-leaf clover. Carry it on you in secret and you will be lucky in gambling.
• If your long jib is drawn you will have good luck. If the long jib holds, a person can get out of almost any difficulty.
• Certain parts of a bear’s and porcupine’s bones are buried or burnt for good luck, and used to predict the outcome of the next hunt.
• A May pole is a tree that has its branches removed except for a plume on top. It is decorated with ribbons and paper. A hole is dug and the pole is stood beside a gatepost for good luck and plenty.
• Make an X sign on a widow’s or a mother’s ring for good luck.
• Leave a lucky rock (one with a natural hole in the middle) in your house and the house won’t burn.
• It is good luck to have an old sail on a boat when she is being launched.
• An old sailor always puts his right foot forward when stepping from a ship.
• To ensure good luck, throw a penny over your shoulder without looking behind you.
• Part your hair in a fair (even) line to one side for good luck.
• If you hear a cuckoo call with your right ear, you will have good luck for 12 months.
• A nickel or a one-cent piece is bored through and a string pushed through it, tied, and worn around a newborn’s neck for good luck.
• A snub-nosed cod (one with a round, blunt, or broken nose) used to be left in a boat or hung on a stagehead as the sign of a good load of fish to come.
• Cross a baby’s hand with silver and you’ll have good luck.
• Count the corners of a room and make a wish to bring good luck.
• Dead dogs were buried under fruit trees to ensure a good harvest.
• Voyagers, in centuries past, often wore a tattoo (sometimes a Cross) as a lucky charm against shipwrecks or other disasters.
• Seeing two crows sitting together on a wire will bring good luck.
• A ringing in the right ear signifies that good news is on the way. It can also mean that someone is talking about you.
• Some people believed that the sight of a ghost ship was a good omen.
• A person who possesses some oddities of nature is sometimes called a jonah (jinker, jinx, jone), and is considered to be a jinx on a ship.
• It is bad luck to carry a turn of wood on your right shoulder.
• If a golden-eyed duck visits a house someone in it will die.
• The colour green is believed to bring bad luck to weddings and theatrical performances in Newfoundland.
• If a vessel sails away without at least one stowaway it is thought by some people to be jinxed; other people believe that having a stowaway is a jinx.
• It is bad luck to leave a tree up past Old Christmas Day.
• Sealers won’t kill a jinny, a third-year seal, that acts as a sentinel for the seal herd, for fear of invoking bad luck.
• If a fish is left in a boat after a day’s haul, it will jinx the catch for the next day.
• A voodooed voyage means a jinxed voyage.
• If you burn your kettle stick while on water you will have headwinds and a tedious time; if you burn your kettle stick on land you will kill no game.
• A person who sews a stitch while the clothes are on her back will always be in want.
• Anyone falling upstairs won’t be married this year.
• Someone who parts a peacock from one of its feathers is asking for bad luck.
• A dream about a wedding betokens a funeral.
• If a person is sulky the cow’s milk in the house will go sour.
• It is bad luck to let a rooster near a doorstep.
• Speak ill of the dead and they will hag you.
• If you step on the back stock (wooden part) of a gun you have to step right back or risk bad luck.
• The sound of ticking (death clock) in the woodwork of a house foretells death.
• If you make a birch broom in May there will be a death in the family.
• If you buy a broom in May you will sweep away a member of the family.
• Speak ill of fairies on Fridays at your peril
• It is unlucky not to make the Sign of the Cross on an unbaptized child.
• A black crow pitching on a building on shore or on the deck of a ship off shore brings bad luck.
• If a bird gets into the house someone there will die.
• Banshee wailing is a token of someone’s death.
• A whistling female is considered bad luck. She whistles to cover up what she’s been up to.
• A crowing hen must be killed because it may be bewitched by fairies.
• It is bad luck to give the head of a bird away with the bird.
• If you go into the woods without a piece of bread in your pocket, the fairies will carry you off.
• It is unlucky for a hunter to shoot a bird while he is on a ship at sea.
• A corpse on a ship is a sign of bad luck to come.
• To leave a piggin (bailer) in the bottom of a boat instead of in the side of the gunnels (gunwales) is to bring bad luck.
• If you whistle at the northern lights:
1. you may be smothered by them.
2. you may be turned into a snowman.
3. you may be struck blind.
4. they may come to earth and capture you.
• A mare-browed person (having eyebrows meeting in a continuous line) can cast an unlucky spell.
• It is bad luck to enter a house by the front door and not leave by the back door, and vice versa.
• If you dream you cut your timbers short there will be a death in the family.
• Sun dogs on the side of the moon could mean a decline in one’s fortunes.
• Never light three cigarettes with one match.
• When the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky, is seen, it is a dark omen.
• Dream about snow in summer and death will come in the winter.
• It is bad luck for mummers not to count the four corners of a room when they come into a house.
• Step over a young child lying on the floor and he will stop growing.
• A green postage stamp brings bad luck.
• It was believed by the first people that the Great Auk (extinct by 1852) lost its ability to fly because of a curse placed on its species after the big bird carried a child away.
• To have tea leaves read properly, you must turn your cup three times in a clockwise direction and make a wish.
• Never walk backward. That’s when the Devil will keep you company.
• When someone is dying, hens crow to forewarn people who are sleeping to wake up and prepare to lay someone out.
• When you are going for a swim at sea, you must wet your head before your feet or the gods will be angry at you for stepping into the sea before bowing to it.
• When a boat is being built a coin is placed in the stem for prosperity.
• To be sure of a good catch of fish, some fishermen beat up their wives before going to sea.
• The dragonfly is the Devil’s darning needle. It will sew up the lips of naughty children.
• Wood cut on the waning of the moon will shrink.
• When the moon is waxing/newing (between the new moon and the full moon), don’t cut wood; it won’t dry.
• If you place an angel dog (worm: a quarter-inch thick and four inches long) on the palm of the seventh son of a seventh son it will turn white and die. Put it on the other hand and it will regain its life.
• If a person picks the Deadman’s daisy (common yarrow) his father will die.
• The death plant is a type of cabbage with cup-shaped leaves. Finding one in your garden patch means that a family member will die within the year.
• If you forget your alarm clock, ask your dead relatives to awaken you and they will.
• If you bury three husbands your liver will turn white.
• To avoid hair loss, don’t cut your hair on St. Patrick’s Day.
• If you throw water out of doors after dark into the face of a ghost or a fairy, you may receive a blast (a quick stab of pain in the finger). Afterward a discharge of bone may come from an infected finger (possibly a dermiod cyst which often contains bone and teeth).
• If a person gets thrush (white mouth) as a child he will get it nine days before he dies.
• A person who takes the last slice of bread on a plate will remain unmarried.
• Drop a dishcloth and a stranger will visit you.
• When you accidentally break a glass you have to break two glass bottles because things are broken in threes.
• If a sick person is rafted (moved) from one bed to another he will live for another nine days.
• The leaves of an aspen (aps) always tremble. Some say Christ’s Cross was made from an aspen.
• Go to the landwash and mermaids will get you.
• Don’t screw up your mouth. If the weather changes, it will stay screwed up.
• If you were born in the morning you will have no sight of fairies. If you were born in the evening or through the night you may see them.
• The screeching noise of the wind on a stormy night was called holly (ghost noise) and was thought to be the cries of the dead. If you hear the Old Holly (an unfamiliar noise) this is an omen of danger.
• If you pick a ravel (jib, ravel, thread) off your clothes you can use it to determine the initial of the name of your next date by putting a length between thumb and forefinger and moving it a length for each letter from “A” to the end of the thread and the initial of your date.
• Never light a lamp with three people sitting at the table.
• Throw slop water outside the door on Good Friday and risk throwing it into the Face of Our Saviour.
• The cravings of a pregnant woman must be satisfied to save the baby from being born with a birthmark similar to the object craved, such as a strawberry.
• If a pregnant woman is frightened by a mouse, or something else, her offspring may bear a birthmark resembling a mouse, etc.
• When Indians peddled their baskets, white residents were afraid not to buy a basket for fear the natives would put a spell on them.
• If water runs over nine rocks in a stream, it is safe to drink.
• A pregnant woman was cautioned not to touch her body while craving a food she was unable to avail of. Otherwise, her newborn could be marked.
• A sprig of everlasting flowers placed under a pillow will bring along the right lover.
• If a person keeps a lead heart (flattened slug) on a green ribbon, a brown piece of paper in her hand, and a pebble between her lower lip and gum she will be guaranteed a lover.
• Bite the corner of your apron to stop someone from talking about you. They’ll bite their tongue instead.
• Saltwater eels nailed to a post will not die until the sun goes down.
• Throw hairs from a horse’s tail into a pond and eels will grow there.
• Never launch a boat on Friday. Saturday’s sail will never fail.
• If two midsummer flowers entwine, there will be true love between a couple. If the flowers grow apart love will not last (see chapter on customs).
• Walk over hungry (tall) grass and you will come home hungry.
• Flankers popping out of a stove grate onto the floor is a signal that strangers are coming.
• A white bird on a windowsill is a messenger of death.
• If a person calls you from out of earshot, you know that something is “after” happening to that person.
• Dreaming about a monkey is a sign of scandal.
• Three unexplained knocks in succession on a person’s door signal the death of a close family member or friend.
• The Christmas cactus is a foreteller of death. If it doesn’t bloom, death is coming.
• If a person sets out a potato bed and nothing grows in it, there will be a death in the family within a year.
• The sight of a steering (fish bird) in the harbour is the cue for a fisherman to go fishing.
• If sharks follow a ship there will be a death on board.
• Dogs howling like wolves foretell a death.
• A rooster crowing three times at night means death.
• If a cake goes down in the middle, someone close to the baker will die.
• A window blind falling for no apparent reason indicates that a family member will die.
• If you leave the cover off the teapot, you will have unexpected company.
• Sounds in the night from an unseen being (a bide, a female phantom) forewarn that there will be a death in the community.
• A person who cuts down a maiden dogberry tree is sure to die.
• If a sick person garps (yawns) coming on evening he is improving.
• A tally fish (a fish with slant markings) is a sign of lots of fish to come.
• When someone is sighted who is not “there” or a ghost boat is seen moving through the water, a death is coming.
• The fetch (ghost) of a living person seen in the morning signifies a long life; the fetch seen at night is the sign of a short life.
• Someone having a mole between their elbow and hand will never want for money or land.
• If you want to see your future husband in your dreams, walk up the stairs backward and put a piece of a bride’s wedding cake under your pillow. If the cake is dark the man will be dark-haired.
• A person who has diastema (a gap between two teeth) will one day be rich.
• Hold a handkerchief against the sun on Easter Sunday morning and you will see a Cross.
• If your left hand itches, you will meet a stranger who will shake your hand.
• If children bite their fingernails they are destined to become thieves.
• If a new baby squalls, it is said to be tongue-tied.
• Once, when fishermen found a fish left in the boat from the day before, they believed that their boat was bewitched and they stayed on land that day.
• There will soon be a wedding if there are three people with the same name sitting together in a room.
• The Wadham sign: When Newfoundland fishermen who were far off shore and ready to perish saw a white bird that mewled at the boat, they set their course to the Wadham Islands and were saved.