Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for P444 returned 345 results.
Old folks would say when you comb your hair, any excess should
be thrown in running water (stream, brook, etc.) This would
make your hair grow. but if you throw it on the ground, the
birds would get it and use it to build their nest which would
cause you to have a ear ache.
Where learned: Arkansas ; LITTLE ROCK
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Body part Senses BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Running water BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1920
IF A BIRD FLIES IN THE HOUSE, DEATH WILL SOON FOLLOW.
Submitter comment: SOUTHERN BLACK AMERICAN SAYING
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 10-00-1987
YOU WILL GET A HEADACHE IF YOU THROW YOUR HAIR AWAY AND A
BIRD GETS IT AND MAKES A NEST WITH IT.
Submitter comment:
TOLD MY COUSIN THIS AS SHE THREW HAIR FROM HER BRUSH OUT
THE WINDOW.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; BIRMINGHAM
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses Hair, on head, mustache, widow's peak BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00001970S
It is bad luck if a bird gets into your house!
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Bad luck Animals |
Date learned: 00001988 ca
When two people break a wish bone of either a chicken
or a turkey, the person who gets the larger end gets
to make a wish and it will come true.
Submitter comment:
Informant said that his family believed in this for
as long as he can remember because it was a
Thanksgiving Day tradition.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00001930S
When there are a lot of pigeons on a roof there will
be a death in the family or the neighborhood.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; Carbon Hill
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001950'S
To hear a crow cawing is to foretell death.
Where learned: THAILAND
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001960S
When the birds all fly low, it means
that it is going to rain soon.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Allegan
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Cloud Fog Mist Rain Hail Ice Snow Frost Dew BELIEF -- Weather sign or control |
Date learned: 00001970S
If someone is sick and you hear an owl hooting,
it is a bad omen, the person will die soon.
This signifies the sound of death.
Where learned: KANSAS ; Manhattan
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001920S
IF A BIRD FLIES INSIDE YOUR HOUSE, THAT MEANS YOU WILL HAVE
GOOD LUCK. THE BIRD REPRESENTS SOMEBODY'S SOUL, SO IT IS
AS IF SOMEBODY'S SOUL CAME TO BESTOW GOOD TIDINGS UPON
YOUR HOUSE.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; WEST BLOOMFIELD
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 09-12-1990
SONG
IN THE LAND OF ODEN
THERE IS A MOUNTAIN
WHICH IS TWENTY MILLION
MILES IN THE AIR.
AND EVERY MILLION YEARS
A LITTLE BIRD COMES A WINGING
TO SHARPEN HIS BEAK ON THAT MOUNTAIN;
THEN HE QUICKLY DISAPPEARS.
AND WHEN THAT MOUNTAIN
HAS WORN AWAY
THAT'S WHEN ETERNITY WILL BE
ONE SINGLE DAY
ONE SINGLE DAY
ONE SINGLE DAY.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; LAPEER ; CAMP O'FAIRWINDS
James Callow Keyword(s): ODIN ; RELATIVITY
| Subject headings: | Favorites Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Religious BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Formation BELIEF -- Measure of time |
Date learned: 06-00-1979
ONE MUST NEVER LET THE HAIR FROM THEIR BRUSH OR COMB
FALL TO THE GROUND. IF A BIRD WERE TO BUILD A NEST
WITH THIS HAIR, THE PERSON FROM WHICH THE HAIR CAME
WILL EXPERIENCE HEADACHES.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00001930ca
Betting on a cock fight with an excess of more than one hundred
dollars and the cock that you bet on loses, you will have
bad luck for one week.
Submitter comment:
I learned of this belief back in seventh grade when we had a
guest speaker come in and talk to the class about games
involving animals.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; WEST BLOOMFIELD
Keyword(s): Ring, Money.
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Racing Chasing Fighting BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00-00-1983
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
The pelvic bone from a turkey must be saved
and put to dry for seven days. When it is dry
two people hold the two ends of the horseshoe
shaped bone and then pull. The one who gets
the middle part (a knob) gets their wish that was
wished before the pulling.
Where learned: NEW JERSEY ; Penns Grove
| Subject headings: | 686 Seven / Sevenths / Several BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 00001980S
IF YOU HEAR OR SEE BIRDS DURING A RAINSTORM THE POSSIBILITY OF
A TORNADO IS GREAT.
Where learned: MISSOURI
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Cloud Fog Mist Rain Hail Ice Snow Frost Dew BELIEF -- Wind Whirlwind Hurricane Cyclone Tornado BELIEF -- Weather sign or control |
Date learned: 00001940S
IF YOU SEE AN OWL DURING THE DAY YOU WILL HAVE BAD LUCK TILL
AUTUMN.
Where learned: GREECE
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Measure of time AutumnFall BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
In some small towns of Greece, it is believed that if an owl
appears at a house at night and "sings" someone in that house will
die.
Submitter comment:
My informant holds this superstition above all other
superstitions she believes in because when she was twelve she saw an
owl in her yard at some point in the evening and some weeks later her
mother became deathly ill. One year after that it is said that an owl
was seen on their rooftop and some months later her father passed
away.
Where learned: GREECE
Keyword(s): MYSTERIOUS ; unexplained
| Subject headings: | Observation Favorites BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001946CA
From the ages when the gods were said to live on Mt. Olympus, the
Greeks believed the owl to be the symbol of wisdom and the foreshadow
of death.
Where learned: GREECE
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001946CA
Death Owl
There's an old belief down South that when a person has been
gravely ill for a period of time or near death, an owl would come
to call for their spirit. The owl would perch on the ill person's
porch, window sill, or tree near the person's home. Exactly one
day later, the ill person would die. The owl was called a squench
Owl, because of the sound that he made during his visit. He would
appear in the late evening. No one knew where he came from or when
he left. People would try to run the owl away to keep the person
from dying and the owl from taking their love one's spirit, but the
owl would only move to another spot and continue to make squenching
sounds and leave like he came. The people were very afraid of this
owl because he brought death.
Submitter comment:
My friend was really adamant about this story because she had
exactly experienced this during her years growing up in Rome,
Georgia.
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Bird BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour |
Date learned: 00001944CA