_Webster City, Iowa._

Or bad luck (_Virginia_); disappointment (_New Jersey_).

1225. If three drops of blood fall from your nose, one of your family is dead.

_Labrador._

1226. If you sneeze on Sunday morning before breakfast, you will hear of the death of some person you know before the next Sat.u.r.day night.

_Northern Vermont._

1227. If you sneeze at table with the mouth full, an acquaintance will die soon.

_Virginia and Alabama._

1228. When sowing grain, if a strip of land is missed there will be a death inside of a year.

_Ohio and Maryland._

1229. When you shiver, it means that some one is walking over the place where your grave is to be.

_General in the United States._

1230. If sparks are left (unintentionally) in the ashes over night, it is a sign of death.

_c.u.mberland, Md._

1231. If sparks of fire fly out of an opened stove door, it is a sign of death.

_Trinity Bay, N.F._

1232. If any one in the town lies dead over Sunday, there will be another death before the end of the week.

_Bedford, Ma.s.s._

1233. Three horses of the same color indicate death, but this sign is not very noticeable in a thickly settled community.

_Baldwinsville, N.Y._

1234. Three chairs placed accidentally in a row mean death.

_Ohio._

1235. If there is a death there will be three deaths in the family within a short time.

_New York._

1236. To break the spell of thirteen at table, all should rise together, otherwise the first up (or, as some say, the last down) dies inside a twelvemonth.

_New England._

1237. If thirteen sit at table, the one who rises first will not live through the year.

_Somerville, Ma.s.s., Newark, N.Y., and Mifflintown, Pa._

1238. If thirteen sit at table, the last one who sits down will not die that year.

_Brookline, Ma.s.s._

1239. If window-shades fall down without being molested, it is a sign of death.

_Cape Breton._

CHAPTER XVIII.

MORTUARY CUSTOMS.

1240. If "salt water pigeons'" feathers are in a bed, the sick person on it will not die easily.

_Newfoundland._

1241. In old colonial burying-grounds--in Plymouth, Concord, Cambridge, and Rutland, Ma.s.s.--the graves are so placed that the headstones face west, that is, the body lies with the feet toward the east.

_Perhaps general in New England._

1242. Among Irish Catholics it is usual to place the body with the feet toward the door. The body of a young girl is usually draped in the robes of the society to which in her church she belonged. Over the corpse is constructed a white canopy, from one end of which images of white doves are often hung. At the feet is a stand or table, on which flowers are laid, and where, at night, candles are kept burning.

_Boston, Ma.s.s._

1243. Country people turn the mirror to face the wall while one lies dead in the house.

_Northern Ohio._

1244. While the corpse is in the house, the looking-gla.s.s must be turned toward the wall; otherwise, whoever looks into the mirror will die within the year. This custom is said to be most common among Irish Catholics, but it is not confined to them.

_Baldwinsville, N.Y._

1245. Bad luck (instead of death) is also said to follow violation of this rule.

_Washington, D.C._

1246. If, when any one dies, you put the coffin in any other room than the one the corpse is in, some other member of the family will die within a year.

_Western Ma.s.sachusetts._

1247. "I have noticed at funerals of the aged, that when elderly people pa.s.sed by the casket they would touch the forehead of the dead person. I was confident that there was some superst.i.tion connected with the act, because the same look was apparent on every face; but on being asked why this was done, they pretended it was bidding an old comrade good-bye. At last one told me that it was that they might not dream of the dead or see them."

_Westport, Ma.s.s._

1248. It is usual, after the conclusion of the funeral service, for the persons present at the ceremony to pa.s.s in front of the dead, and look on the face. Not to perform this token of respect is felt as a lack of propriety. It is not uncommon for the undertaker, or some person in charge of the proceedings, to say in a loud voice: "An opportunity is now offered to those who desire to look on the face of the corpse," or words to that effect.

_General in the United States._

1249. Only male relatives take part in the funeral procession.

_Philadelphia, Pa._

1250. In regard to the ceremonies at the grave, usage differs widely. In New England it is usual for near relatives to attend; and, in the case of important persons, for a procession to march to the cemetery. Among Catholics a great number of friends attend the hea.r.s.e of persons in humble life.

1251. It is an old Connecticut custom that the yard gate should never be shut after being opened to let through a body being carried from its former home to the graveyard.

1252. The funeral procession must not cross a river.

_Baldwinsville, N.Y._

1253. "I was first led to notice the superst.i.tion about crossing a river, from having to attend funerals on the south side, when they would otherwise have been held on the north side. This is losing ground, owing to the frequency of crossing to reach the cemetery, but I had an instance only last spring."

_Baldwinsville, N.Y._

1254. The corpse must not pa.s.s twice over any part of the same road.

_Baldwinsville, N.Y._