If a child cut the upper teeth before the lower, it was very unlucky for the child.

If a cradle were rocked when the child was not in it, it was said to give the child a headache; but if it so happened that the child was too old to be rocked in a cradle, but its baby clothes were still in the house, then this incident portended that its mother would have another baby.

To make a present of a knife or a pair of scissors, and refuse to accept anything in return, was said to cut or sever friendship between giver and receiver.

If, at a social gathering, a bachelor or maid were placed inadvertently betwixt a man and his wife, the person so seated would be married within a year.

If a person in rising from table overturned his chair, this shewed that he had been speaking untruths.

To feel a cold tremor along the spine was a sign that some one was treading on the spot of earth in which the person so affected would be buried.

If a person spoke aloud to himself, it was a sign that he would meet with a violent death.

If a girl married a man the initial letter of whose name was the same as her own, it was held that the union would not be a happy one.  This notion was formulated into this proverb—­

   “To change the name and not the letter. 
    Is a change for the worse, and not for the better.”

If thirteen people sat down to dinner, the first who rose from table would, it was said, either die or meet with some terrible calamity within a year’s time.

When burning caking coal it often happens that a small piece of fused matter is projected from the fire.  When this took place the piece was searched for and examined, and from its shape certain events were prognosticated concerning the person in whose direction it had fallen.  If shaped like a coffin it presaged death, if like a cradle it foretold a birth.  I have seen such an incident produce a considerable sensation among a group sitting round a fire.

To find the shoe of a horse and hang it behind the house door was considered to bring good luck to the household, and protection from witchcraft or evil eye.  I have seen this charm in large beer shops in London, and I was present in the parlour of one of these beer shops when an animated discussion arose as to whether it was most effective to have the shoe nailed behind the door, or upon the first step of the door.  Each position had its advocates, and instances of extraordinary luck were recounted as having attended each position.

If a youth sat musing and intently looking into the fire, it was a sign that some one was throwing an evil spell over him, or fascinating him for evil.  When this was observed, if any one without speaking were to take the tongs and turn the centre coal or piece of wood in the grate right over, and while doing so say, “Gude preserve us frae a’ skaith,” it would break the spell, and cause the intended evil to revert on the evil-disposed person who was working the spell.  I have not only seen the operation performed many times, but have had it performed in my own favour by my worthy grandmother, whose belief in such things could never be shaken.