Consult the Oracle
Page 2
IF ONE DAY OF THE YEAR IS TO BE SELECTED for marriage before another let it be the 4th day of June. Next to that stands the 9th of October, a day of the brightest promise in the calendar of Cupid.
THE DAYS OF THE WEEK VARY IN EXCELLENCE for taking this important step. Their values will be easily remembered by any one who will take the trouble to learn the following rhyme –
“Monday for wealth,
Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for crosses,
Friday for losses,
Saturday no luck at all.”
BEWARE OF THE LOOKING-GLASS
It is unlucky for a bride on her wedding-day to look in the glass when she is completely dressed before starting for church. Care should be taken to put on a glove or some slight article of adornment after the last look has been taken in the mirror.
HAPPY OMENS
The sneezing of a cat is a lucky omen to a bride who is to be married the following day. Her casting eyes on a strange cat is also a very good sign.
The bride who dreams of fairies the night before her marriage will be thrice blessed.
LUCK IN THE WEDDING DRESS
To be lucky the bride must wear –
“Something old and something new,
Something gold and something blue.”
Should a girl find a spider on her wedding dress she may consider herself uncommonly fortunate. No girl who would be a happy bride must take a hand in the making of her wedding cake or the sewing of her bridal gown.
AN UNHAPPY OMEN
It is an unhappy omen for a wedding to be put off when the day has been fixed.
ON THE WAY TO CHURCH
The best and most fortunate homes are always those which start with a wedding on a bright sunshiny day. “Happy is the bride,” says the proverb, “that the sun shines on.”
No bride or groom should be given a telegram while on the way to church. It is a sign of evil.
THE WEDDING RING
Whatever ring a bride is married with she should take care it is not a diamond ring. That is to be avoided, says an old writer, “because the diamond hinders the roundness of the ring, ending the infiniteness thereof, and seems to presage some termination in their love, which ought ever to endure.”
To try on a wedding ring before the ceremony is unpropitious. Should the shaking hand of the groom drop this symbol of love in the act of putting it on the bride’s finger, the ceremony had better be stopped right there. To lose it is prophetic of evil, and to remove it after it is placed on the finger is unlucky.
THE FINGER FOR THE WEDDING RING
The wedding ring is almost invariably placed on the fourth finger of the left hand, and all because many centuries ago the Egyptians believed that a certain small artery proceeded directly from the heart to the termination of that digit.
IN LEAVING THE CHURCH
In leaving the church the bride should be very careful to put her right foot foremost, and on no account allow any one to speak to her husband until she has called him by name.
Be sure when you get married that you don’t go in at one door and out at another, or you will always be unlucky.
TEARS OF GOOD FORTUNE
It is not a good sign if a bride fails to shed tears on her wedding-day.
HINTS TO THE BRIDEGROOM
On the wedding day if the bride drops her handkerchief and the bridegroom politely picks it up, it is an omen that he will play second fiddle during his married life.
If the bridegroom carries a miniature horseshoe in his pocket he will always in his married life have good luck.
THROWING THE SHOE
Both when leaving the church and when starting for her wedding tour, an old shoe or slipper should be thrown after the bride for luck.
WHEAT AND RICE
Sprinkling the bride with wheat brings good luck. So also does sprinkling her with rice.
A NOTE FOR THE BRIDESMAIDS
When the bridesmaids undress the bride they must throw away and lose all the pins. Woe to the bride if a single one is left about her. Nothing will go right. Woe also to the bridesmaids if they keep one of them, for they will not be married before Whitsuntide or until the Easter following at the soonest.
ENTERING HER NEW HOME
When the bride enters her new home it is a good and lucky practice to break a cake over her head. Care should be taken that it is not done over the head of any other person, which would be a singularly bad omen.
WILL BRIDE OR BRIDEGROOM DIE FIRST?
The first to kneel down at the altar – be it bridegroom or bride – is sure to die first.
MARRIAGES ON BOARD SHIP
Ship marriages are considered anything but lucky. Get married on land or don’t get married at all.
IN THE COUNTRY
TAKE COURAGE!
Magical arts cannot be practised so well upon persons in the open air as in houses.
DO NOT GO TO SLEEP IN A BEAN-FIELD
This is a very unlucky proceeding. Those who go to sleep in a bean-field, especially if their slumbers are prolonged beyond sundown, have awful dreams and often go crazy.
WHIPS AND STICKS MAY DO HARM
It is not good to crack a whip or swing about a stick aimlessly. Do not do it, for who knows what is in the air?
AT THE VILLAGE STILE
At certain places the devil exerts a stronger influence than at others, and this is most perceptible in narrow and difficult ways. A village stile is a favourite resort of the adversary, and when, under such circumstances, an unfortunate wight attempts the surmounting, he may find his efforts fruitless, till he has turned some article of clothing inside out.
THE WITCH IN THE DAIRY
There is no place about a farmhouse in which witches work more mischief than in the dairy. Their baneful powers are there exercised to the discomfort and annoyance of all industrious dairymaids.
To keep them out the best protection undoubtedly is the horseshoe over the door or a sprig of the mountain ash or rowan-tree hung up in full view of all possible visitors. In other sections we have spoken of the virtues of both horseshoes and sprigs of mountain-ash. Should the witch, however, gain entrance, to expel her from the churn put a red-hot iron into the cream, or throw salt into the fire before you begin to churn. The butter then will come, and everything be just as it ought to be.
AT SEA
IMPORTANT NOTES FOR FISHERMEN
When putting out to sea for fishing it is not lucky to communicate one’s intention to one’s neighbour. When fishermen are on the way to their boats, should they meet a pig they should turn back. A pig under such circumstances is an unlucky sign, indicating possibly a storm and at the very least a poor catch.
SURE TO BE DROWNED
The old clothes of a fisherman should never be mended with needle and thread on Sunday; if this is done the owner is sure to be drowned.
WANTED, A GOOD BREEZE
In a dead calm whistling is the best of all methods by which to induce the wind to come. To whistle at sea, however, when there is no necessity for it is highly objectionable; the breeze then blowing may become much stronger than is either agreeable or safe.
BEWARE WHAT YOU DO
When on the ocean one should beware of seals. Witches have often been known to change themselves into seals and follow mariners and fishermen. To throw a cat overboard or drown one at sea is very unlucky; it is a sure way indeed to raise a deadly storm.
ON DEATH
DEATH is sure, but as the when and the manner of it are uncertain, the following notes will prove useful to all who desire to know something regarding their own passage and that of their friends through the dark portal which leads to another existence.
WHEN YOU MAY EXPECT SOMEONE TO DIE
THE WHINING OF A FAVOURITE DOG is a sign of approaching calamity to the family to which it belongs.
IF THE CLOCK STRIKES while the text is being given out in church on a Sunday, a death may be e
xpected in the parish.
WHEN ANY ONE IS ILL and a sudden knock is heard for which there is apparently no possible cause, then we may expect the speedy end of life to the sufferer.
TO HAVE A LONG SUCCESSION OF BLACK CARDS dealt to a person while at play is prophetic of death to himself or some member of the family.
WILL LIFE BE LONG OR SHORT?
To find out whether any one will live long throw a lock of his or her hair on the fire. If it burns brightly it is a sure sign that he or she will reach a good old age. The brighter the flame the longer the life.
THE BANSHEE GIVES WARNING
In the last century every great family in Ireland had a banshee who attended regularly, but of late years their visits have been few and far between. The banshee is a sort of aristocratic fairy, who, in the shape of a little, hideous old woman, has been known to appear and sing, in a mournful, supernatural voice, under the windows of great houses, to warn the family that some of them are soon to die.
A PROCESSION OF THOSE ABOUT TO DIE
If a person have the hardihood to place himself within the porch of the church, or in a position which commands the church door, on the ghostly eve of St. Mark – St. Mark’s Day being the 25th of April – he will see the souls of those whose bodies are to be buried at that church the following year approach the building in the dead waste and middle of the night. The doors are flung open by some invisible hand just at twelve o’clock, and the spirits enter in the rotation their mortal bodies are to die in.
DYING FAR FROM HOME
The spirits of people about to die, especially if they are in distant parts of the earth, often return to their friends, and thus predict the calamity. While the spirit is thus away the person dying is supposed by those around him to be in a swoon.
NO DYING ON PIGEONS’ OR GAME FEATHERS
No person can die when lying either on pigeons’ feathers or on game feathers.
IN THE CHURCHYARD
TAKE AN ELDER BUSH AND TRIM IT into the form of a cross, then plant it on a newly-made grave; should it bloom after that it is a sign that the soul of the dead person is happy.
A SHIVERING SENSATION suddenly felt in your back is a sign that some one is walking over your future grave.
IT IS BAD LUCK to walk by accident over the graves of the dead.
THE MURDERER DETECTED
The corpse or bones of a murdered person will bleed on being touched by whoever was guilty of the murder.
CHAPTER TWO
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
MAY CATS
Cats born in the month of May are good for catching neither mice nor rats. They are unlucky too to have about the house, and will suck the breath of children.
THE BEST MOUSERS
These are cats that have been stolen.
PUSS WITH HER BACK TO THE FIRE
To allow the cat to sit with her back to the fire is unlucky.
A LUCKY OMEN
A kitten coming to a house is a lucky omen.
THE LATTER END OF CATS
Any one wilfully or accidentally killing a cat will be punished by seven years of unhappiness.
CATS IN WITCHCRAFT
Black cats, in case they should be witches, should never be allowed to go near the cradles of young children.
Witches in the shape of cats are in the habit of roaming about the roofs of houses, especially during the month of February.
When a cat looks weak and thin it may arise from its being ridden on by witches at night.
Cats should be carefully shut up on All Hallows’ Eve, the 31st of October. Those cats that contrive to escape incarceration that night “may be seen, by those brave enough to look out, scampering over hill and dale and across the lonely moors, each one ridden by a brownie, a bogie, a spunkie, or some other infernal jockey.”
RATS
To see a white rat is a token of good fortune.
If rats gnaw a man’s clothes it is a great sign of ill-luck.
Rats have a presentiment of coming evil, and always take care to desert in time a ship about to be wrecked, or a house about to be flooded or burned.
MICE
A number of mice suddenly coming into a house is an omen of death. For a mouse to run over any person and to squeak behind the bed of an invalid also foretells death.
When starting on a journey it is unlucky to meet with a shrew.
A STRANGE DOG
A strange dog following you is a sign of good luck.
A HOWLING DOG
The howling of a dog at night indicates approaching death to those who may be ill in the neighbourhood.
WORKING BEASTS
LUCKY HORSES
If a horse has a white star on its forehead that is a lucky sign.
To meet a piebald horse is lucky, and if you meet two in succession you have but to express any reasonable wish and it will be gratified within a few days.
AN UNLUCKY HORSE
It is a sign of “bad luck” to meet a white horse, unless the person spits at it; which action averts the ill consequences.
HORSES SEE SPIRITS
Horses are able to see spirits. The exhibition by them of signs of terror when no cause of alarm is noticeable by human vision is an omen of death.
WHEN A HORSE NEIGHS
In warfare the neighing of a horse is a sure pledge of coming victory, and his silence is an indication of defeat. At the battle of Agincourt, in 1415, the French augured badly for their success from the fact that their horses had not neighed the night before.
COWS
An ox or a cow breaking into a garden is an omen of death.
Should a farmer’s cows become restive without any apparent cause it forebodes trouble to either the master or the mistress.
LAMBS AND COLTS
For the first lamb or colt you see in the season to have its tail towards you is unlucky.
PIGS
If a pig is killed in the wane of the moon the bacon is sure to shrink in the boiling; if, on the other hand, the pig is killed when the moon is at the full, the bacon will swell.
HARES
To have a hare cross the road in front of any one who is going on an errand is not lucky. Under such a circumstance it is wisest to turn back and not pursue one’s business till the next meal has been eaten, for beyond that the evil influence does not extend.
LITTLE CREATURES
AN UNLUCKY SIGN
To see three butterflies together is unlucky.
“LET THE SPIDER RUN ALIVE.”
It is not lucky to injure a spider.
“If you wish to live and thrive,
Let the spider run alive.”
The favour with which the spider is regarded perhaps arises from the influence of an old legend which tells how, when our Saviour lay in the manger at Bethlehem, a spider came and span a web over Him as a protection against surrounding dangers.
The bustling housekeeper should take note that if she kills a spider she may calculate on breaking a piece of crockery or glass before the day comes to an end.
If the little red spider known as the “money spider” is found on any one’s clothes, it is a sign that he or she will shortly have money.
WHAT COMES OF KILLING A WASP
The first wasp seen in the season, like the first butterfly, as we have just mentioned, should always be killed. By so doing you secure to yourself good luck and freedom from enemies throughout the year.
ABOUT BUTTERFLIES
Not to catch and kill the first butterfly seen in spring is unlucky – and the ill-luck will last until spring comes round again.
CRICKETS BRING GOOD FORTUNE
The cheerful cricket is always lucky in a house, and should be most carefully preserved. Their presence is a sure omen of prosperity, and to kill one, even accidentally, is one of the worst things that could happen.
MAKING A SNAIL OF USE
If black snails are seized by the horns and tossed over the left shoulder, the process will insure good luck to the person who
does so.