Current Superstitions Part 41

1134. Cut hair in the new moon, bury it in earth near a running brook, and it will make the new hair grow long and abundant.

_Maine._

1135. Clean the spring or well during the increase of the moon, so the water will _run in_ and fill the spring after it is emptied.

_Mansfield, O._

1136. Make soap in the new of the moon.

_Talladega, Ala._

1137. Make soap in the full of the moon.

_Prince Edward Island._

1138. Do not marry or move during the wane (decrease) of the moon.

_Mansfield, O._

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 n.o.body.

_Talladega, Ala._

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._

CHAPTER XVI.

SUN.

DOMESTIC AND MECHANICAL OPERATIONS.

1141. To make good bread, stir it with the sun. To make good yeast, make it as near sunrise as possible.

_Northern Ohio._

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 Ma.s.sachusetts, and Southern Michigan._

1143. Eggs and cake are commonly beaten and b.u.t.ter made by stirring sunwise.

_Newfoundland._

1144. To make cake light, it must always be stirred the same way.

_Dalton, Ma.s.s., and Alabama._

1145. In cooking soft custard, the stirring must be continued throughout in the direction in which it was begun; otherwise the custard will turn to whey.

_Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._

1146. If, after turning the crank of a churn for a while with the sun, you change and turn the other way, it will undo all the churning you have done.

_Ferrisburgh, Vt._

1147. Ice cream will not freeze rightly unless the crank is turned the right way.

_Concord, Ma.s.s._

1148. In making lye soap, if you stir it backward it will turn back to lye.

_Warren Co., N.Y., and Alabama._

1149. In melting sugar for taffy, stir always one way, or it will grain.

_Allston, Ma.s.s._

1150. In greasing the wheels of a carriage, always begin at a certain wheel and go round in a set way.

_Peabody, Ma.s.s._

CURES.

1151. In rubbing for rheumatism, etc., rub from left to right (sunwise).

_Concord, Ma.s.s._

1152. Ringworm may be killed by moistening the finger in the mouth and rubbing sunwise around the diseased spot.

_Central Maine._

1153. To rub for "sweeney." Rub the diseased part of the horse's shoulder with a corn-cob with the sun every third morning.

_Northern Ohio._

1154. Rub a corn, a wen, etc., with the sun if by day, with the moon if by night. The sun or moon will draw all the pain away. Related by a Pennsylvania German.

_Northern Ohio._

1155. To cure a curb in a horse, rub it with a bone, at the going down of the sun.

_Plymouth, O._

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._

1157. To cure a burn, moisten it with saliva, repeating:--

As far as the east is from the west, Come out fire and go in frost.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Come out fire and go in frost.

Blow three times, and rub sunwise three times. To be taught to not more than three persons of the opposite s.e.x.

_Eastern Tennessee._

CHAPTER XVII.

DEATH OMENS.

1158. To raise an umbrella in a house is a sign of an approaching death.