well or ill in the glass, accordingly they presumed of his future condition. Sometimes, also, Glasses were used, and the images of what should happen, without water. Mr. Douce's manuscript notes add that "washing hands in the same water is said to forebode a quarrel."

Willsford, in his "Nature's Secrets," p. 138, tells us: "Mettals in general, against much wet or rainy weather, will seem to have a dew hang upon them, and be much apter to sully or foul any thing that is rubbed with the mettal; as you may see in pewter dishes against rain, as if they did sweat, leaving a smutch upon the table cloaths: with this

Pliny concludes as a sign of tempests approaching.

"Stones against rain will have a dew hang upon them; but the sweating of stones is from several causes, and, sometimes, are signs of much drought. Glasses of all sorts will have a dew upon them in moist weather: Glasse windows will also shew a frost, by turning the air that touches them into water, and then congealing of it."

In the "TEXNOгAMIA, or Marriage of the Arts," by Barton Holiday, 4to. Lond. 1630, sign. M 4 b. is the following: "I have often heard them say 'tis ill luck to see one's face in a Glasse by candle-light."

TINGLING OF THE EARS. EYE.

ITCHING OF THE RIGHT SIDE.

IN Shakspeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," Beatrice says: "What fire is in mine EARS!" which Warburton explains as alluding to a proverbial saying of the common people, that their Ears burn when others are talking of them. On which Reed observes that the opinion from whence this proverbial saying is derived is of great antiquity, being thus mentioned by Pliny: "Moreover is not this an opinion generally received, that when our Ears do glow and tingle some there be that in our absence doe talke of us?"-Philemon Holland's Translation, b. xxviii. p. 297; and Browne's "Vulgar Errors." Sir Thomas Browne says: "When our Cheek burns, or Ear tingles, we usually say somebody is talking of us, a conceit of great antiquity, and ranked among superstitious opinions by Pliny. He supposes it to have proceeded from the notion of a signifying genius, or universal Mercury, that conducted sounds to their distant subjects, and taught to hear by touch." ()

Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 181, has not omitted, in his list of "Vain Observations and Superstitious Ominations thereupon," the tingling of the

Ear, the itching of the EYE, the glowing of the Cheek, the bleeding of the Nose, the stammering in the beginning of a speech, the being over-merry on a sudden, and to be given to sighing, and to know no cause why."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his "Dæmonologie, or the Character of the crying Evils of the present Times," Svo. Lond. 1650, p. 61, tells us, "If their Eares tingle, they say it is a signe they have some enemies abroad, that doe or are about to speake evill of them: so, if their right Eye itcheth, then it betokens joyfull laughter and so, from the itching of the Nose and Elbow, and severall affectings of severall parts, they make severall predictions too silly to be mentioned, though regarded by them."

In the third Idyllium of Theocritus, the itching of the right Eye occurs as a lucky

omen:

Αλλεται οφθαλμος μεν ο δεξιός αρα γ' ιδησῶ Αυταν;

thus translated by Creech, 1. 37:

66 My right Eye itches now, and shall I see My love?" (2)

Mr. Douce's MS. notes preserve the following superstition on measuring the NECK,

extracted from "Le Voyageur à Paris," tom. iii. p. 223: "Les anciennes nourrices, quand l'usage etoit de leur laisser les filles jusq'à ce qu'on les donnât a un mari, persuadoient à ces credules adolescentes que la grosseur du Cou etoit de moyen d'apprecier leur continence; et pour cela elles le mésuroient chaque matin. Retenue par une telle epreuve, la fille sage dût tirer vanité de la mesure; de là l'usage des colliers."

In Petri Molinæi "Vates," p. 218, we read: "Si cui riget Collum, aut Cervicis vertebræ sunt obtortæ, præsignificatio est futuri suspendii." (3)

To rise on the right SIDE is accounted

lucky; see Beaumont and Fletcher's "Women Pleased," at the end of act i. So, in the old play of "What you will:" "You rise on your right side to-day, marry." Marston's Works, Svo. 1633, signat. R. b. And again, in "The Dumb Knight," by Lewis Machin, 4to. 1633, act iv. sc. 1, Alphonso says: "Sure I said my prayers, ris'd on my right side,

Wash'd hands and eyes, put on my girdle last;

Sure I met no splea-footed baker,

No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch,

Nor other ominous sign."

In Petri Molinæi "Vates," p. 218, we read: "Si cui Aures tinniunt, indicium est alibi de eo sermones fieri."

I find the following on this in Delrio, "Disquisit.Magic." p.473: "Quidam sonitum spontaneum auris dextræ vel sinistræ observant, ut si hæc tintinet, inimicum, si illa, amicum, nostri putent memoriam tum recolere; de quo Aristænetus in Epist. amatoria: ουκ βομβεισοι τα ωτα, σουμεταδ ακροων εμεμνημην, nonne auris tibi resonabat quando tui lachrymans recordabar: et alicui huc pertinere videatur illud Lesbyæ Vatis a Veronensi conversum,

"Sonitus suopte tintinant aures.

σε Quod illa dixerat βομβευς ενδ' ακοα εμοι : et apertius incertus quidam, sed antiquus, (inter Catalect. Virg.)

"Garrula quid totis resonas mihi noctibus Auris

Nescio quem dicis nunc meminisse mei." | The subsequent occurs in Roberti Keuchenii "Crepundia," P. 113: "Aurium tinnitus.

"Laudor, et adverso, sonat Auris, lædor ab

Ore:

Dextra bono tinnit murmure, læva malo.

Non moror hoc, sed inoffensum tamen arceo vulgus :

Cur? scio, me famâ nolle loquente loqui."

The following is in Herrick's " 'Hesperides," p. 391: "On himselfe.

"One Eare tingles; some there be
That are snarling now at me;
Be they those that Homer bit,
I will give them thanks for it."

Mr. Douce's MS. notes say:
"Right
Lug, left Lug, whilk Lug lows?" If the left
Ear, they talk harm; if the right, good.
Scottish. J. M. D.

Werenfels, in his "Dissertation upon Superstition," p. 6, speaking of a superstitious man, says: "When his right Ear tingles, he will be chearful; but, if his left, he will be sad."

(2) In Molinæi "Vates," we read, "Si palpebra exiliit, ominosum est,” p. 218.

In "The Shepherd's Starre," &c., 4to. 1591, a paraphrase upon the third of the "Canticles" of Theocritus, dialoguewise, Corydon says: "But my right eie watreth; 'tis a signe of somewhat do I see her yet?" (3) It is said, ibid., "Si Servulus sub Centone crepuit-ominosum est."

:

In the old play called "The Game at Chesse," 4to. p. 32, we read:

"A sudden fear invades me, a faint trembling Under this Omen,

As is oft felt, the panting of a turtle
Under a stroaking hand."

Answer.

"That boads good lucke still.

Signe you shall change state speedily, for that trembling

Is alwayes the first symptom of a bride."

MELTON, in his " Astrologaster," p. 45, No. 7, observes, that "when the left Cheek burnes, it is a signe somebody talks well of you; but if the right Cheek burnes, it is a sign of ill.”(1)

Itching of the NOSE. I have frequently heard this symptom interpreted into the expectation of seeing a stranger. So in Dekker's "Honest Whore," Bellefront says:

"We shall ha guests to day, I'll lay my little maidenhead, my Nose itcheth so."

Reed's Old Plays, vol. iii. p. 281. The reply made by her servant Roger further informs us that the biting of fleas was a token of the same kind. In Melton's "Astrologaster," p. 45, No. 31, it is observed that, "when a man's Nose itcheth, it is a signe he shall drink wine;" and 32, that, "if your Lips itch, you shall kisse somebody." (2)

The Nose falling a bleeding appears by the following passage to have been a sign of love:

"Did my Nose ever bleed when I was in your company? and, poor wench, just as she spake this, to shew her true heart, her Nose fell a bleeding." Boulster Lectures, 12mo. Lond. 1640, p. 130.

Launcelot, in Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice," says, "It was not for nothing that my Nose fell a bleeding," &c.; on which Steevens observes that, from a passage in Lodge's "Rosalynde," 1592, it appears that

some superstitious belief was annexed to the accident of bleeding at the Nose: "As he stood gazing, his Nose on a sudden bled, which made him conjecture it was some friend of his." To which Reed adds: "Again, in the 'Duchess of Malfy,' 1640, act i. sc. 2:

'How superstitiously we mind our evils! The throwing down salt, or crossing of a hare,

Bleeding at Nose, the stumbling of a horse,
Or singing of a creket, are of power
To daunt whole man in us."

Again, act i. sc. 3: My Nose bleeds.' One that was superstitious would count this ominous, when it merely comes by chance." (3)

Melton's "Astrologaster," p. 45, observes, "8. That when a man's Nose bleeds but a drop or two, that it is a sign of ill lucke." "9. That when a man's Nose bleeds one drop, and at the left nostril, it is a sign of good lucke, but, on the right, ill."

Grose says a drop of blood from the Nose commonly foretells death, or a very severe fit of sickness; three drops are still more ominous. (*) Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," edit. 4to. 1621, p. 214, says that "to bleed three drops at the Nose is an ill omen.'

If, says Grose, in eating, you miss your MOUTH, and the victuals fall, it is very unlucky, and denotes approaching sickness.

(1) Grose says that, when a person's Cheek or Ear burns, it is a sign that some one is then talking of him or her. If it is the right Cheek or Ear, the discourse is to their advantage: if the left, to their disadvantage. When the right Eye itches, the party affected will shortly cry; if the left, they will laugh.

In Ravenscroft's "Canterbury Guests, or a Bargain Broken," 4to. p. 20, we read:

"That you should think to deceive me! Why, all the while I was last in your company, my heart beat all on that side you stood, and my Cheek next you burnt and glow'd."

(2) Poor Robin, in his Almanac for 1695, thus satirizes some very indelicate superstitions of his time in blowing the Nose: "They who, blowing their Nose, in the taking away of their handkercher look stedfastly upon it, and pry into it, as if some pearls had drop'd from them, and that they would safely lay them up for fear of loosing:

These men are fools, although the name they hate,

Each of them a child at man's estate."

The same writer ridicules the following indelicate fooleries then in use, which must surely have been either of Dutch or Flemish extraction: "They who, when they make

water, go streaking the walls with their urine, as if they were framing some antic figures, or making some curious delineations; or shall piss in the dust, making I know not what scattering angles and circles; or some chink in a wall, or little hole in the ground-to be brought in, after two or three admonitions, as incurable fools."

(3) In Bodenham's "Belvedere, or Garden of the Muses," 8vo. Lond. 1600, p. 147, on the subject of "Feare, Doubt," &c., he gives the following simile from some one of our old poets:

"As suddaine bleeding argues ill ensuing, So suddaine ceasing is fell feares renewing." (4) I found the following in Roberti Keuchenii "Crepundia," p. 214:

"Tres stillæ sanguineæ. "Cur nova stillantes designant funere Guttæ, Fatidicumque trias Sanguinis omen habet?

Parce superstitio: numero Deus impare gaudet,

Et Numero gaudens impare vivit homo." "That your Nose may never bleed only three drops at a time," is found among the omens deprecated in Holiday's "TEXNOгAMIA, or the Marriage of the Arts," a comedy, 4to. Lond. 1636, signat. E b.

GAULE, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 183, very justly gives the epithets of "vain, superstitious, and ridiculous," to the subsequent observations on HEADS: "That a great Head is an omen or a sign of a sluggish fool"-(this reminds one of the old saying "Great Head and little wit"); a little Head, of a subtile knave; a middle Head, of a liberal wit; a round Head, of a senselesse irrational fellow; a sharp

16

Head, of an impudent sot," &c. Our author's remarks, or rather citation of the remarks, upon Round Heads above, seem not to have been over-well timed, for this book was printed in 1652, and is dedicated to the Lord General Cromwell.

There is a vulgar notion that men's hair will sometimes turn grey upon a sudden and violent fright, to which Shakspeare alludes in a speech of Falstaff to Prince Henry:

"Thy father's beard is turned white with the news." See Dr. Grey's Notes on Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 338. He adds, "This whimsical opinion was humorously bantered by a wag in a coffee-house, who, upon hearing a young gentleman giving the same reason for the change of his hair from black to grey, observed that there was no great matter in it; and told the company that he had a friend who wore a coal-black wig, which was turned grey by a fright in an instant."

By the following passage, a simile in Bodenham's "Belvedere, or the Garden of the Muses," 8vo. Lond. 1600, it should seem

Grose says that " a person being sud

denly taken with a shivering is a sign that some one has just then walked over the spot of their future grave. Probably all persons

are not subject to this sensation, otherwise the inhabitants of those parishes whose burialgrounds lie in the common foot-path would live in one continued fit of shaking."

SIR THOMAS BROWNE admits that conjectures of prevalent humours may be collected from the spots in our NAILS, but rejects the sundry divinations vulgarly raised upon them. Melton, in his "Astrologaster," giving a catalogue of many superstitious ceremonies, tells us, 6, "That to have yellow speckles on the Nailes of one's hand is a greate signe of death." He observes, ibid. 23, that, "when the palme of the right Hand itcheth, it is a shrewd sign he shall receive money."(1) In Reed's Old Plays, vol. vi. p. 357, we read, "When yellow spots do on your hands appear,

Be certain then you of a corse shall hear.”(2)

Washing Hands, says Grose, in the same bason, or with the same water, that another person has washed in, is extremely unlucky, as the parties will infallibly_quarrel. "wherefore" for this "why" I nowhere find even conjectured.

A

Burton, in his " Melancholy," edit. 1621, p. 214, tells us that a black spot appearing on the Nails is a bad omen.

To cut the Nails upon a Friday, or a Sunday, is accounted unlucky amongst the common people in many places. (3) The set and statary times, says Browne, of paring Nails and cutting of hair, is thought by many a point of consideration, which is perhaps but the continuation of an ancient superstition. To the Romans it was piacular to pare their Nails upon the Nundina, observed every ninth day, and was also feared by others on certain days of the week, according to that of Ausonius, Ungues Mercurio, Barbam Jove, Cypride Crines.

Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 187, ridicules the popular belief that a great thick HAND signes one not only strong but stout; a little slender Hand, one not only weak but timorous; a long Hand and long Fingers betoken a man not