Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for 686.1.3 returned 428 results.
I WAS TOLD THAT DEATH IN THE FAMILY HAPPENS IN SETS OF 3
WITHIN A YEAR.
Submitter comment:
HE TOLD ME THIS AFTER ONE OUR FAMILY MEMBERS DIED AND SAID
TWO MORE OF OUR RELATIVES WOULD DIE WITHIN THE YEAR.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Measure of time Year |
Date learned: 00001970S
TO GET RID OF THE HICCUPS YOU SHOULD SWALLOW THREE SPOONFULS
OF SUGAR FOLLOWED BY THREE GLASSES OF WATER.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; SAGINAW
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Plant BELIEF -- Mineral |
Balinese custom
If a set of twins are born, a boy and a girl, one of the
babies must be given away or left out on the street for three
days until someone else takes it.
Where learned: Bali ; Indonesia
Date learned: 00-00-1955
Chinese custom
When a close family member dies or a spouse the remaining
party will sleep next to the cemetery or grave every night for
the next three years.
Where learned: CHINA
Keyword(s): Survivors
Date learned: 00-00-1955
If you have the same dream three nights in a row, it
will come true.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Dreams |
Date learned: 00-00-1975
If someone admires your baby and says that
it's beautiful you must spit or the baby will
become sick or get a rash on its face. Her
parents and her husband's parents both truly
believed this. Her husband's parents used to
wipe the baby's face three times with a wash
cloth to prevent a rash if anyone admired the
baby.
Submitter comment:
Mrs. Wojtan doesn't believe this herself anymore,
but says many people in Kansas used to when she
was growing up.
Where learned: KANSAS ; Manhattan
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple Favorites BELIEF -- Curse BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 00001920S
Hawaiian Island Folklore
Find a lava rock. Take the rock and wrap it in a tea leaf and
set it down in front of the ocean. Make a wish. Your wish
will be granted in three days by the gods of the islands.
Submitter comment:
This is one of the folktales that Albert brought back with
him when he came back to the U.S. after his second honeymoon.
My father is good friends with this man and he told us the
story over dinner at our house. His mood was wishful and
mysterious when he was describing this folktale.
Where learned: Item was learned in the state of Hawaii
Keyword(s): lava, tea, ocean.
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Mineral BELIEF -- Plant BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1989
In Thailand it is good luck to walk under an elephant.
If a pregnant woman walks under an elephant three times
it means that her delivery will be easy.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Mammal BELIEF -- Birth BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 08-00-1990
IF YOU HAVE A DREAM THREE TIMES IN A ROW THE DREAM WILL COME
TRUE.
Submitter comment: MY INFORMANT ASSURES THIS IS THE TRUTH.
Where learned: MICHIGAN
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Dreams |
Date learned: 00-00-1950
Cure for a sore throat
When you have a sore throat, gargle with warm salt water three
times a day and right before you go to bed. Your sore throat
should be gone the next day.
Submitter comment:
Eric learned this from his mother when he was younger and
always got sick.
Where learned: MICHIGAN
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Mineral |
Date learned: 00001970S
Bad luck always happens in three's. It never stops at one or
two.
Where learned: MICHIGAN
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00001970S
When two people are walking together if they split the pole one
person must go back and walk around the pole three times, or have bad
luck all day.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): SUPERSTITION
Date learned: 00001960S
It is believed in Greece that if an unmarried woman places three
"koufetta," meaning sugar-coated almonds, taken from a priest's tray
(meaning they were blessed) during a wedding, and places them under
her pillow at night while she is sleeping, she will see in her dreams
who she is to marry. The same is true for an unmarried male.
Where learned: GREECE
Date learned: 00001950CA
In Greece, it is strictly believed that all good and all evil
will come in three's. My informants gave me an example to help me
understand:
"If you steal something, you may get away with it once, twice, but
the third time you will get caught."
Submitter comment:
Even though I don't believe in this superstition, I have
experienced it on a few occasions.
Where learned: GREECE
Keyword(s): LUCK
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Good luck BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00001943CA
If someone sweeps your feet with a broom you must do seven
complete turns and spit on the broom three times or you will soon go
to jail.
James Callow comment:
For earlier African-American predictions that sweeping one's feet
can send that person to jail see Puckett, "Folk Beliefs of the
Southern Negro," p. 397; the informants were from Alabama and
Georgia. Puckett, Ohio, nos. 20562-20572 also equate brooms and
sweeping with arrest and jail. Note that almost all the informants
are listed as Negro. No. 20573 contains three examples of converting
the consequences by spitting on the broom, but none of these
informants, two of whom are Negro, prescribes a certain number of
times for this action.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Date learned: 00-00-1978
Just as there are the different books to the bible, so are
there 3 different books to Satan's bible. Folklore has it that
the witch or warlock that can find all 3 of them will be able to
spell the forgotten name of God. And in so doing, the witch or
warlock will acquire all of the powers from God.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; BIRMINGHAM
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Devil Demon BELIEF -- Witch Shaman BELIEF -- Magic Book SPEECH -- Proper Name |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
If a horse has one white hoof, buy it. If the horse has two
white hooves, take a chance. If the horse has three white hooves,
think hard before you buy. If the horse has four white hooves,
don't buy it.
Submitter comment:
This saying is popular in horse circles. There is some truth
to the saying that white hooves frequently seem to be weaker than
darker hooves.
James Callow comment:
See Wayland Hand, North Carolina, no. 7633, for parallels from
Ontario, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Illinois, and in particular
Pennsylvania, where "a horse with one or more white feet is
considered more or less impaired in value." Hand seems to think
that such horses are called "white-stockinged"; but our
informant/collector notes that a stocking applies to the leg, not
to the hoof or foot. Also see the OED, s.v. "stocking."
"A horse with one white foot is always weak in it; and if he
goes lame, it will be that foot." -- Hyatt, Illinois (1965), no.
2530.
See Hyatt, Illinois (1
Date learned: 00-00-1956
"Ojo" Remedy (Pink-eye)
A remedy for Pink eye (Conjunctivitis) is the breaking of an
egg and saying a pray over the egg three times. Place egg in a
shallow dish whole at the head of the bed of the infected person.
The "eye" under will remove the infection from the eye above.
Submitter comment: The informant was unsure of the spelling of this custom.
Where learned: DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): PRAYER
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Method of Curing |
Date learned: 00-00-1968
Superstition
When wanting a man to fall in love, place sugar in a glass of
water and stir toward you (the stirrer) saying the person's name
three times.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Laurel
| Subject headings: | Charm / Enchantment / Conjuration 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple Favorites Food Drink -- Flavoring BELIEF -- Marriage |
Death
Death comes in 3's.
Submitter comment:
Mother says this a lot especially if we hear of at least 2
deaths. She always says there is going to be a 3rd.
Where learned: LOUISIANA ; LAFAYETTE
James Callow Keyword(s): THREES
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |