THIRTEEN THURSDAY -- SUPERSTITIONS

THIRTEEN THURSDAY -- SUPERSTITIONS

I’m a day late, but I did want to keep the momentum going.

Thirteen Thursday is a list of 13 items relating to one subject. I hope you enjoy.

1. Cane – in the days when students were subject to punishment by strokes of the cane, it was widely held that a single strand of horsehair laid across the palm would cause the cane to disintegrate.

2. Eagle-stone – a hollow oval of clay ironstone, which was once credited with magical powers. Brought to the west from the Orient in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such stones were reputedly recovered from the nests of Eagles. It was said that wearing eagle-stones as amulets would ease the pain of childbirth. Records show some women wore them tied to the thigh during labor as far back as the thirteenth century, though the practice more or less died out in the British Isles in the early nineteenth century.

3. Flying Ointment – This magical ointment, said to be made of fat of babies, blood of bats, soot aconite, hellebore, hemlock, and belladonna, was supposed to give witches the power of flight when they smeared it all over their bodies.

4. Hand of Glory – The hand of an executed criminal. It was prized ob witches throughout Europe as part of black magic. Thieves also valued its alleged ability to make the occupants of a house fall into a deep entranced sleep while they went about their nefarious business.

5. Iona stone – A small greenish stone found on the shores or western Scotland and believed to have the power of granting wishes. The story goes that such stones received a blessing from St Columba and grant one wish to each anyone who wears them.

6. Knee – according to English superstition, and itching knee means that the person concerned will shortly be kneeling in a strange church. The U. S. variation says it is a sign of the owner being jealous of someone.

7. Lips – a common superstition on both sides of the Atlantic holds that itching lips are a sure sign that the owner will shortly receive a kiss.

8. Moonwort – a favorite of thieves as it supposed to open locks and loosen nails and other fastenings of iron. A single leaf of the plant inserted into a lock would open the door.

9. Nipple – According to one central European superstition, certain information about a man may be obtained by careful observation of his nipples. If they are pink, he has never fathered a child, but if they are brown, he has already sired offspring.

10. Ox – In parts of eastern England the superstition holds that eating the animal’s spinal cord can make a person go deaf.

11. Pie – a rather curious Irish superstition claims that it is unlucky to see a single pie on its own. It is, however, lucky to see two of them.

12. Recognition – According to an ominous English superstition, it is suppose to be unlucky to mistake a total stranger for someone else. The consequences of such an error are the imminent death of the person the stranger was mistaken for.

13. Thatch – Those who believe that they have been subjected to witchcraft can steal a little of the thatch from the house of the suspected witch and then burn it on their fire to release themselves from her power.

Cassell Dictionary of Superstitions by David Pickering, 1995