Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1855-04-14
Popular Superstitions.

The following is very quaint and diverting
list of the Sympathetic superstitions which
were once devoutly believed in by thousand of
| the human races:
When woman boil yarn they must tell a; lie
at the same time, otherwise it will not get
white.
Parents must not buy their children any
rattles nor allow any to be given them, or they
| will be slow in learning, and Will speak with
difficulty
When you take straw for hens nest out of
marriage bed, you must take from the mans
side if you want cock chickens, and from the
wife's if you want hen chickens.
No one must, on any account, weigh an
empty cradle, or he will weigh the child's rest
away.
The nails on the hands of an infant must be
bitten off by the mother for the first time, or it
will learn to steel.
If you wish child to be hundred years
old, you must get it godfathers out Of three
different parishes.
If you let child look into lookingglass
before it is year old it will become proud.
Children that cry at christening will die soon
Let mother go three Sundays successfully
out of church in silence and blow each time
into the mouth of her child, and it will get its
teeth easy.
Let the father Immediately after christening
give the child sword in its hand and it will
become brave
Blue cornhowers gathered on Corpus Christi
Sunday stop the bleeding at the nose if they are
held in the hand till warm.
woman can cure her ear ache BY binding
mans stocking around her head.
Elder planted before the stable-door pre-
servas the cattle from witchcraft
He who carries about him cord with which
doctor has bound up rupture, may lift the
heaviest weight without any danger.
piece of wood out of coffin that has been
dug up, when laid on a cabbage bed, defends
it from caterpillars.
One should not lean over cradle where a
child is sleeping, nor should it be left standing
open.
splinters from an oak split by lightning cure
toothache.
He who would sow seed, let him be careful
not to lay it on q table, otherwise it will not
grow.
He who has the hiccup let him plunge a
naked knife into can of beer and take good
draught of it at one breath
He who cannot sleep, be it child or adult, let
him lay composing wisp under his pillow
that is straw which workmen put under the
burdens on their backs; but it must be taken
from the people unknown to them.
In brewing, lay bunch of nettles in the
barrel; it is then quite safe against thunder.
wife who has cold must sneeze into her
husbands shoe.
1t is not good to strike beast with o switch
| which has been used to correct child.
Chastise neither man nor beast with peeled
stick, for whatever is beaten with it will dry mp.
When you place your shoes reversed at the
head Of your bed, the nightmare cannot Cypress
| you.
Old women often cut turf of foot long
which their enemy has lately trodden on and
| hang it up in their chimney, and their enemy
must wither away
Let any one who has great anxiety touch the
great toe of dead person, and they will at
| once be free from it,
If any one dies in the house you must shake
| the bee-hives and the wine and vinegar; or the
bees, the wine and the vinegar will all 60 off or
spoil.
The first medicine which lying-in woman
takes should be out of her husbands spoon; it
will then be more efhcacious.
During the pains of childbirth, it does good
| to turn the slippers of the husband round.
Three grains of salt in measure Of milk
preserves it from withcraft
No one must taste the first warm beer which
is given to a lying-in woman it must be tried
with the finger, otherwise the woman will be
attacked with collie.
If child has the red-gum, take piece Of
wood from mill-wheel, burn it and smoke the
child's swadding- clothes Herewith, then wash
the child with water chat flows from the wheel.
The wheel that remains must be cast into run
ming water.
You should never wean'a child while trees
are in blossom, otherwise it will have gray
hair.
Three buttons bound together with thread
and laid in coffin, will free from warts.
If any one has received a bodily hurt, wash
him with brook water while the bell is tolling
for a funeral