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Baby Belief
Babies born with "outtie" (a navel that sticks out) navels will
have good luck.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; HAMTRAMCK
James Callow Keyword(s): outie -- variant spelling?
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Birth BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 03-00-1992
My mother told me that when any of my teeth came out I should
put them under my pillow so that the tooth fairy would leave me
some money. My mother also said I had to be a good boy in order to
receive any money.
Submitter comment: My mother sounded very convincing.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
Keyword(s): Little magical people
James Callow Keyword(s): Fairy
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Fairy Elf Goblin Gnome BELIEF -- Body part Senses |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
My mother believes that when a baby is born with a
veil(placenta) still covering its face that it will be able to see
spirits.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
Keyword(s): Gypsies
| Subject headings: | Prophet / Seer / Soothsayer Spirit / Mind / Body BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Birth |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
Baby's First Teeth
It's been said that if you let a baby look into the mirror
before he/she grows his/her first teeth then he/she will never grow
any teeth at all.
Submitter comment:
My mother had this big grin on her face when she told me this
but it took me a few years to realize she was lying.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
| Subject headings: | 686 Properties attributed to specific numbers or numerals individually. BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Number Emptiness, nothingness, zero |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
In school I would always hear the guys say that when a girl had
a wide gap in her crotch, it meant she was very sexually active.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
Content filter on this entry.
While growing up, I would always hear the girls say that guys
with big feet and big hands had large penises.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses Filter - Mature Content |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
It's been said that the vagina of an oriental is shaped
horizontally instead of vertically.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
If you don't burn your hair, someone can get a hold to it and
put a spell or something on you.
Where learned: LOUISIANA ; New Orleans
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Curse |
Date learned: 00-00-1969
If you remove a mole or wart from your body, you will bleed
to death.
Where learned: LOUISIANA ; New Orleans
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
A boy raised his arm to hit his mother and God struck him dead
in his tracks. When he was to be buried, his parents were unable
to close the casket because his arm had remained above his head in
the position to strike his mother. The parents eventually had to
break the boy's arm to close the casket.
Submitter comment:
This was told to children to prevent them from ever raising an
arm to strike a parent.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): FUNCTION
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Gods PROSE NARRATIVE -- Outlaw Criminal Bandit Pirate PROSE NARRATIVE -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 10-00-1991
If you make a strange face and someone hits you on the back,
your face will stay in that position forever.
Submitter comment: This saying is popular among grade school age children.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE FARMS
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Body part Senses Head, physiognomy, face BELIEF -- Measure of time BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1985
If you yawn and don't cover your mouth, the devil will steal
your breath away.
Submitter comment: This is a saying popular among young children.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Devil Demon BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 00-00-1990
Many Vietnamese people believe that the spirit of dead
ancestors sit on the heads and shoulders of the living. It is
therefore considered inappropriate to touch the shoulder or pat
the head of a Vietnamese person. This is an insult to the
ancestors.
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Body part Senses SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 00-00-1969
It has recently become popular for males to wear an earring in
one ear. Frequently the ear that the earring is worn in is used to
tell the sexual preference of the wearer. The saying "left is
right and right is wrong" tells that an earring in the left ear
means that the wearer is heterosexual and an earring in the right
ear means that the wearer is gay or homosexual.
Submitter comment: This has become popular in the early 1990s.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE
James Callow Keyword(s): LEFT RIGHT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses |
Date learned: 00-00-1991
Something that I heard a few years ago in school was that
whenever a person got his hair cut other people would ask if that
person got his ears lowered rather than if he got his hair cut. I
guess this is just an unusual way of referring to a haircut.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; ALLEN PARK
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses SPEECH -- Formula |
Date learned: 00-00-1986
Unknown
Always burn your hair when you cut it, because if a bird gets
ahold to it, you will have bad luck.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00-00-1990
How To Become Invisible
Find a black cat. On a full moon go to where the roads cross
and boil a kettle of water. Drop the cat into the water. Boil
the flesh off the bones. Put the bone between your eyes and then
in your mouth. This will allow you to become invisible. Take
the bone out of your mouth and you will become visible again.
James Callow comment:
See Hyatt 5: nos. 10061, 10076, 10078, 10082-10086, 10091-
10095, etc. for the invisibility (disappearance) effect. Also
see Hyatt 1: 74-97 for an earlier section on the black cat bone.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Lansing
| Subject headings: | Charm / Enchantment / Conjuration Favorites BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Mammal BELIEF -- Moon BELIEF -- Sign Geometric figure Cross and its various modifications BELIEF -- Color |
Date learned: 02-10-1992
Proverbial Saying
A dimple in your cheek,
Many hearts you will seek.
A dimple in your chin,
Many hearts you will win.
Submitter comment:
My grandmother used to tell me this because I have a dimple in
my chin, and did not like it.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Puckett, Ohio, no. 12841: "A dimple on the chin, /
Many lovers you will win." -- Irish - Dutch - German informant.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; ROSEVILLE
Keyword(s): Apothegm ; Cheek ; Dimple ; LOVE ; Maxim ; PROVERB
| Subject headings: | Favorites Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Lyrical Verse BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Marriage |
Date learned: 00001950S
Child Rearing
If a child is slow to walk (over one year old), stand the child
behind any door in your home and sweep his/her feet with a straw
broom.
Submitter comment:
This really works!!! I tried it with my son, within three days
he was walking.
Where learned: Arkansas ; PINE BLUFF
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Chills
If a person has a sudden chill up his/her spine, a mouse has
run over his/her grave.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Mammal BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Sensations and involuntary actions Chills, shivering |