Bad Luck
- coiling a rope against the sun
- buying a broom in May
- red-haired women (sigh...)
- black cats
- solitary crows (one for sorrow)
- whistling while floating on water
Death
- augured by banshees and broken clocks striking the hour
- heralded by a glaring cat that looks you in the eye (I guess my cat's are out to get me!)
Taboos
- stepping over a child
And beware the terrible power of a widow's curse; ; little carts drawn by horses at a brisk pace; and trapped dead hares on sale in the streets.
Good Luck
- horseshoes (often still found in the walls of older houses)
- two black crows (two for joy)
- clothes inside out (remember my post about fooling the fairies with bread in your pocket, well wearing clothes inside out is supposed to confuse anything wishing you ill)
- finding a pin or a white button
- a rooster sounding off on your doorstep
- bees blundering into the room
Excerpt from My Newfoundland: The Sensations of Landing on the Island Long Ago Haunted a Writer's Final Memories by Paul Noden West (1930 - 2015). Newfoundland Quarterly;Volume 109, Number 4, 2017
