8. An overturned salt-cellar is a ship wrecked. If a person take salt and
spill it on the table, it betokens a strife between him and the person next
to whom it fell. To avert the omen, he must lift up the shed grains with a
knife, and throw them behind his back.
9. After eating eggs in Holland, you must break the shells, or the witches
would sail over in them to England. The English don't know under what
obligations they are to the Dutch for this custom. Please to tell them.
10. If you make a present of a knife or scissors, the person receiving must
pay something for it; otherwise the friendship between you would be cut
off.
11. A tingling ear denotes there is somebody speaking of you behind your
back. If you hear the noise in the right one, he praises you; if on the
left side, he is calling you a scoundrel, or something like that. But,
never mind! for if, in the latter case, you bite your little finger, the
evil speaker's tongue will be in the same predicament. By all means, don't
spare your little finger!
12. If, at a dinner, a person yet unmarried be placed inadvertently between
a married couple, be sure he or she will get a partner within the year.
It's a pity it must be inadvertently.
13. If a person when rising throw down his chair, he is considered guilty
of untruth.
14. A potato begged or stolen is a preservative against rheumatism.
Chestnuts have the same efficacy.
15. The Nymphaea, or water-lily, whose broad leaves, and clear white or
yellow cups, float upon the water, was esteemed by the old Frisians to have
a magical power. "I remember, when a boy," says Dr. Halbertsma, "that we
were extremely careful in plucking and handling them; for if any one fell
with such a flower in his possession, he became immediately subject to
fits."
16. One of my friends cut himself. A manservant being present secured the
knife hastily, anointed it with oil, and putting it into the drawer,
besought the patient not to touch it for some days. Whether the cure was
effected by this sympathetic means, I can't affirm; but cured it was: so,
don't be alarmed.
17. If you feel on a sudden a shivering sensation in your back, there is
somebody walking over your future grave.