Offensive content Filter is ON
Your search for P440 returned 190 results.
Balinese custom
If snakes appear at a temple and you kill one, if it is a
snake of one of the God's, a God will come down and kill you
in a horrible way within twenty-four hours.
Where learned: Bali ; Indonesia
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Church BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour |
Date learned: 00-00-1955
If the cows are standing it means that there is
good fishing.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Burt
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal |
Date learned: 00-00-1977
WHILE VISITING THE WEST, TOURISTS MIGHT BE TOLD THE STORY
OF THE MOST FEROCIOUS AND DIFFICULT ANIMAL TO HUNT. THIS
BEAST IS CALLED A JACKALOPE. IT HAS THE BODY OF A
JACKRABBIT AND THE ANTLERS OF AN ANTELOPE. WILD JACKRABBITS
MATED WITH ANTELOPE TO SCARE OFF SETTLERS. IN SOME SMALL
TOWNS YOU MAY ACTUALLY SEE ONE OF THESE WILD BEASTS
STUFFED AND MOUNTED ON THE WALL AS A WARNING TO
OVERZEALOUS TOURISTS.
Submitter comment:
THE REALLY INTERESTING PART OF THE STORY IS WHEN
TOURISTS REALLY BELIEVE IT!
Where learned: MONTANA
James Callow Keyword(s): HYBRID
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote BELIEF -- Animal |
Date learned: 00001980S CA
If you play with frogs you will get warts on your
hands.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00001950S
My aunt heard this story from a friend whose
friend had it happen to her. She had gone to
a large nursery and bought a cactus that was
about two or three feet tall. She had just had
a baby and was home alone all day caring for it.
When she sat down to rest she thought she saw the
the cactus moving a little. When she told her
husband he just figured that she was fatigued from
taking care of the baby all day. One day it really
started to bother her so she called the store.
The manager got on the phone and told her not to
panic but to put the cactus in a dark closet and
to leave the house until he arrived. A few minutes
later, they arrived, went into the house, covered
it up and carried it to a truck. The manager was
also sending an exterminator to the house.
Apparently a whole shipment of cactuses from the
southwest had eggs laid in them by tarantulas.
When the sun warmed up the cactus, the eggs would
begin to hatch and that's what gave the cactus the
appearance of moving. If they don't eat their way
out, the cactus will literally explode from the
pressure created by all the baby tarantulas inside.
Submitter comment:
I thought that this story was true, but in the
last couple years I've heard other people tell
similar stories. I think my aunt also thought it
was true.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; ROCHESTER HILLS
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Animal PROSE NARRATIVE -- Plant BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Plant |
Date learned: 00001980S
Camp Songs, Girl Scouts
This song was taught to me
by a Girl Guide Troop from England
It is sung to the tune of O'Christmas Tree
or O'Tannenbaum
O'Tom the toad, O'Tom the toad
Why are you lying in the road?
O'Tom the toad O'Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?
You did not see the truck ahead.
And now you're marked with tire tread.
O'Tom the Toad O'Tom the Toad
That's why you're lying in the road.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Camp Innisfree ; Howell
| Subject headings: | Favorites Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Good humor Jest Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Social reunion Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Children BELIEF -- Animal |
Date learned: 07-00-1989
IF YOU WALK INTO A SPIDER'S WEB IT WILL BRING YOU GOOD
LUCK.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 00-00-1935
If your legs fall asleep or become numb when you are horseback
riding out West, be careful. A rattlesnake might be
around.
Submitter comment:
I heard this line a long time ago from a movie and it's
been with me ever since.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Sensations and involuntary actions |
Date learned: 00-00-1987
Putting tabasco sauce on bread and feeding it to ducks can
put a curse on you. And soon something degrading will
happen to you.
Submitter comment:
I learned of this story back in grade school when the
teacher scolded some of my friends for going to the pond
and feeding the ducks with bread soaked in tabasco sauce.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; WEST BLOOMFIELD
Keyword(s): tabasco, hot, spicy.
James Callow Keyword(s): CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ; FUNCTION
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Curse |
Date learned: 00-00-1983
Down South dragon flies are called snake doctors by the old
blacks because they believe that dragon flies bring dead
snakes back to life and the blacks are really afraid of
snakes. So, whenever a black man sees a dragon fly around
he knows that there's a snake around.
Where learned: VIRGINIA, ASSUMED
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Lightning Thunder |
Date learned: 00001977CA
Never eat split hoof animals because they are unclean
animals; they carry disease, and they eat their own defecation.
Submitter comment:
My mother told me about split hoof animals as I told her how
much I loved Bar-B-Que.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Food Drink -- Meat Bred animal Food Drink -- Meat Wild animal BELIEF -- Animal |
I was told that when you can smell watermelon and there's none
around it usually means a snake is near.
Submitter comment: My mother had this scary look on her face.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
Keyword(s): Fragrances
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Plant |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
If you kill a snake, it must be hung on a fence until sundown.
If you do not, the snake will come back to life.
Submitter comment:
When I was young, I remember seeing a snake hanging on the
fence all day that my father had killed.
James Callow comment:
See Puckett, Ohio, nos. 30842-30846: snakes, when killed,
won't die or even stop wriggling until sundown.
"A snake won't die until the sun goes down unless you hang him
on a barbed-wire fence." Puckett, Ohio, no. 30847.
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Sun BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour |
Date learned: 00-00-1956
To catch a tapeworm, you must shine a flashlight down the
throat to attract the tapeworm. When you see it, simply pull it
out.
Submitter comment:
This was told to the informant around 1960 by a nursing
instructor. The informant at that time was a nursing student.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Method of Curing |
Date learned: 00-00-1960
To get rid of a tapeworm, you must not eat all day and then
put peanut butter on your tongue. You should then stick your
tongue out and wait for the tapeworm to crawl out. When you see
the tapeworm, you must grab it and pull it out of the body.
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Method of Curing |
Date learned: 00-00-1960
Red and yellow,
Kill a fellow.
Red and black,
Venom lack.
Submitter comment:
This rhyme is used to tell venomous and non-venomous snakes
apart. The color refers to the consecutive color bands only. If
red and black color rings touch on the snake, it is not venomous.
If red and yellow color bands touch on the snake, it is usually a
venomous snake.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal |
Date learned: 00-00-1991
A remedy or treatment that I learned at my parent's cottage
in Hillsdale, Michigan is that one can remove a leach that is
stuck to his leg or other body part by pouring salt right over
the leach. Doing this will simply cause the leach to fall off
without trying to pull it off.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; HILLSDALE
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Mineral |
Date learned: 00-00-1985
Unknown
Do not kill any white spiders because white spiders are good
luck.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Color BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 05-31-1981