Dr. James T. Callow publications
Browse by
Questions or comments on this site? Please email davidsor@udmercy.edu.
The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for P740 returned 781 results.
WHEN ONE SEES A LOVELY CHILD, ONE MUST SPIT ON THE
GROUND TO WARD OFF THE EVIL EYE, TO PREVENT SICKNESS.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: DETROIT ; MICHIGAN, ASSUMED
Keyword(s): BABY ; BEAUTY ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; CUSTOM ; EVIL ; EVIL EYE ; Eye ; Fingers ; GESTURE ; Prevent ; SUPERSTITION ; Ward
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Curse BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Body parts involved S602.12 |
Date learned: 11-19-1971
WHEN GOING UNDER A BRIDGE OR TUNNEL PUT UP YOUR ARMS AS IF
YOU WERE HOLDING UP THE ROOF OF THE CAR SO THE BRIDGE WON'T
FALL ON YOU.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Arms ; BELIEF ; Bridge ; Collapse ; CUSTOM ; GESTURE ; LUCK ; PREVENTION ; Protection ; SUPERSTITION
Date learned: 03-00-1971
AFTER AN AMBULANCE GOES PAST YOU, MAKE THE SIGN OF
THE CROSS TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST BEING THE NEXT
ONE IN THE AMBULANCE.
Submitter comment:
INFORMANT TAUGHT AS A SMALL BOY TO DO THIS.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT ; LANSING-REILLY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Sign Geometric figure Cross and its various modifications BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness BELIEF -- Conversions P883.22 |
Date learned: 10-06-1970
Potus Sack
In Ireland, people wear potus sacks around their neck to ward off illness.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Holistic ; ILLNESS ; IRELAND ; MEDICINE ; Potus
James Callow Keyword(s): ILLNESS
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Warm Blood
Vivien's mother would drink warm blood from the butcher shop to prevent disease and sickness.
Data entry tech comment:
Stamped into Archive; December 1969
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BLOOD ; Butcher ; ILLNESS ; MEDICAL ; PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE ; PREVENTION ; Vampire ; Vampirism
James Callow Keyword(s): PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE ; Warm Blood
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Omen
A cat on board a ship will keep death and disaster away.
Data entry tech comment:
Motif added by T.R. Davidson
Where learned: CANADA ; ONTARIO ; TORONTO
Keyword(s): CAT ; DEATH ; Disaster ; Nautical ; OMEN ; PREVENTION ; Ship
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Superstition
Superstition:
That warts come from handling frogs
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P880.440] crossed out. Replaced with current classification
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): AMPHIBIAN ; ANIMAL ; BELIEF ; CURE ; Fallacy ; FROG ; HEALTH ; ILLNESS ; MEDICINE ; SUPERSTITION ; Touching tabu ; Warts
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Entry filtered.
Superstition: Pregnancy
Birth Marks:
After giving borth to a child, an Italian woman will ask the doctor, "are there any marks?" Immediately, if there were any, they would disappear.
Submitter comment:
This is another Italian "in" story
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P740.542, F542] crossed out. Replaced with current classification
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BABY ; BIRTH ; Birth Mark ; CURE ; CURSE ; Delivery ; ETHNIC ; Italian ; PREGNANCY ; REMEDY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Superstition: Pregnancy
Superstition:
A Polish pregnant woman must be shielded from the sight of cripples, any people that are ugly, abnormal or diseased for fear of "marking" the child.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Keyword(s): Able-ism ; Able-ist ; BELIEF ; BIRTH ; ETHNIC ; Ignorant ; POLAND ; POLISH ; PREGNANCY ; PREGNANT ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Ethnic: Isreali Superstition
The Druse, a tribe in Isreal, protect their babies from the Evil Eye by painting a circle around each eye of the child with a dye called Kehl.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Keyword(s): BABY ; CHILD ; CURE ; CURSE ; Druse ; Dye ; ETHNIC ; EVIL EYE ; Israel ; Israeli ; Kehl ; Protection ; REMEDY ; SUPERSTITION ; Tribe
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Superstition: Pregnancy
To Spit on a New-Born Baby:
Whenever a woman looks at another's new-born baby, they must have a little saliva fall on the child. If not, the evil-eye is cast upon the baby.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Written in the bottom left hand corner of the card: [IA25 Mark again for S600 + S644]
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BABY ; CHILD ; CURE ; CURSE ; EVIL EYE ; Newborn ; PREVENTION ; REMEDY ; Saliva
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Gesture SPEECH -- Shame |
Ethnic:Polish Superstition
Superstitions:
A Polish pregnant woman must not eat twin pears, apples, or other fruits for fear of bearing attached twins.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
The card has been stamped as KEYPUNCHED, but the word has been crossed out.
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BABY ; BELIEF ; Conjoined ; CURSE ; Eat ; ETHNIC ; FOOD ; FRUIT ; Newborn ; POLAND ; POLISH ; PREGNANCY ; SUPERSTITION ; TABU ; TWINS
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Saying
Step on a crack you'll break your mother's back
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs Added By TRD
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE
Keyword(s): Back ; Crack ; Line ; MOTHER ; Saying ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
GROWTH BELIEF
IN THE UKRAINE IT IS BELIEVED THAT IF A SMALL CHILD IS LYING
DOWN AND A PERSON JUMPS OVER THEM, THE CHILD WON'T GROW.
BUT IF THE PERSON JUMPS BACK OVER AGAIN, THEN WALKS AROUND HIM, HE
WILL
GROW NORMALLY.
Submitter comment:
BELIEF STILL HIGHLY RESPECTED, HEARD FROM GRANDPARENTS.
BY INFORMANT IN UKRAINE.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P644] crossed out. Replaced with current classifications
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BEHAVIOR ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; GROWTH ; HEIGHT ; Jump ; Lore ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): HOMEOPATHIC ; RITUAL
| Subject headings: | Custom Favorites BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 10-01-1967
SUPERSTITION
WHEN YOU ARE IN A CAR, AND GOING OVER RAILROAD TRACKS,
YOU MUST PUT YOUR HAND FLAT AGAINST THE ROOF OF THE CAR, OR
YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SEX APPEAL.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Car ; Relationships ; SEX ; SUPERSTITION ; Train
James Callow Keyword(s): DIRECTION ; POSITION
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- P533: P533:.21 BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 02-02-1971
FULL MOON
WHEN THE FULL MOON APPEARS PEOPLE GET LOONEY.
James Callow comment:
LOONEY COMES FROM WORD FOR MOON IN LATIN=LUNA; MADNESS
Where learned: HIGH SCHOOL
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Physically handicapped Deformed BELIEF -- Moon BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1965
MOON SICKNESS
THE FULL MOON ACTUALLY HAS AN EFFECT ON SOME PEOPLE.
IT IS BELIEVED THAT A COUPLE TYPES OF MENTAL DISORDERS CAN
ACTUALLY BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE MOON. THERE ARE PEOPLE WHOSE
MOODS FOLLOW THE CYCLES OF THE MOON.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Physically handicapped Deformed BELIEF -- Moon BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 11-00-1968
A game that I (and a lot of other children) played revolved around trying to avoid stepping on a crack when walking on the sidewalk. This rhyme was recited -- "Step on a crack, Break your mother's back."
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector are the same person.
Informant probably first learned this in Houston, Texas.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; TEXAS ; NASHVILLE ; HOUSTON
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- C5 BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
WEATHER BELIEF AND PRECAUTION
NEVER TOUCH METAL WHEN IT'S RAINING OR YOU WILL BE ELECTROCUTED.
Submitter comment:
THE INFORMANT HAD WITNESSED THIS CATASTROPHE MANY TIMES.
Where learned: during a thunderstorm ; garage
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Cloud Fog Mist Rain Hail Ice Snow Frost Dew BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1963