If a family keeps poultry, and is a cock among them crows between sun-set and mid-night [sic], that particular bird must be strangled immediately to overt misfortune!

Submitter comment:

The superstition is proper to the Batooro tribe of about 100,000 poeple of Uganda.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P530, P880] crossed out/replaced with current classifications

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): ANIMALS ; BELIEF ; CUSTOM ; ETHNIC ; FARMING ; MISFORTUNE ; Omens ; Poultry ; SUPERSTITION ; Tribe ; Uganda

Subject headings:

Observation
BELIEF -- Bird

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Maxim

Sun and Rain:

Happy is the bride the sun shines on;

Lucky is the corpse that rain falls on.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P880, P45] crossed out/ replaced with current classifications.

Where learned: OHIO ; TOLEDO

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Bride ; BURIAL ; Corpse ; DEATH ; Funeral ; MARRIAGE ; Maxim ; OMEN ; SUPERSTITION ; WEDDING

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Marriage
BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial

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Ethnic: Ukraine

Belief:

In Ukraine, it is believed that if you're locked out of your house and forced to come in through the window, you must also leave by the window or you will experience some misfortune.

Submitter comment:

Informant received information from grandparents in Ukraine.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P880] written and crossed out twice/replaced with current classification.

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; CUSTOM ; Door ; ETHNIC ; FUNERAL HOME SLOGAN? ; SUPERSTITION ; Ukraine ; UKRAINIAN ; UKRAINIAN BELIEF ; Window

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank

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Superstition:Wedding

Wedding Superstition:

For each ribbon a bride breaks on a wedding or shower gift she'll have a child.

Submitter comment:

This is a superstition common in the Oswald family

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P545] crossed out/replaced with current classifications

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; BIRTH ; CHILD ; CUSTOM ; FUTURE ; MARRIAGE ; OMEN ; Ribbon ; SUPERSTITION ; WEDDING

Subject headings:

Observation
BELIEF -- Marriage
BELIEF -- Fate Destiny Luck Chance

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Superstition

Superstition:

If you come in one door and immediately go out another you'll have company.

Submitter comment:

Sylvia learned this from her sister who in turn learned it at the nurses' lounge at Beaumont Hospital, Detroit.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P860] crossed out/replaced with current classifications

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Company ; CUSTOM ; Entrance ; Exit ; OMEN ; SUPERSTITION

Subject headings:

Observation

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Superstition

Certain tracks there is a figure of a man carrying a lantern down the tracks. He has no head and he is said to be looking for his head. [sic]

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

James Callow comment:

The following name and address is crossed out from the [Collector] section of the card:

Miller, Kathy 28 West Willow Monroe, MI

Card was located in a pile marked with a [?]

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT ; DORM

Keyword(s): Beheaded ; HEAD ; Headless ; Legend ; Scare ; Spooky ; SUPERSTITION ; Tale

Subject headings:

PROSE NARRATIVE -- Supernatural Being
PROSE NARRATIVE -- Body part Senses Head, physiognomy, face

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Custom/Belief

Belief - Baby/Motherhood:

After delivering a baby, a woman will eat the afterbirth of an animal, so that her afterbirth delivers well.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [F542] crossed out and replaced with current classification.

Where learned: HOME

Keyword(s): Afterbirth ; BELIEF ; BIRTH ; Child Bearing ; CHILDBIRTH ; Consumption ; CUSTOM ; FOOD ; Placenta ; PREGNANCY ; SUPERSTITION

Subject headings:

CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Birth

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Belief: Luck

Wedding Luck:

If it rains on a wedding day this is good luck; if it doesn't, the couple is sprinkled with champagne.

Data entry tech comment:

motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [I545] crossedo ut. Replaced with current classification

Where learned: HOME

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; CUSTOM ; LUCK ; MARRIAGE ; OMEN ; SUPERSTITION ; WEDDING

Subject headings:

CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Marriage

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Custom/Belief

School Belief:

In the middle of the "diag," the diagonal sidewalk bisecting the campus at the University of Michigan, there is embedded in the walk a large brass 'M.' If a freshman walks on this 'M,' it is assured that he will fail his next test.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Reference

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Myself ; ANN ARBOR

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; COLLEGE ; CUSTOM ; MICHIGAN ; Student ; SUPERSTITION ; TEST ; University ; University of Michigan

James Callow Keyword(s): Reference

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- School

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Superstition

Italian Superstition:

Our family doesn't believe this, but my grandmother and some relatives do: when a pregnant woman craves for some specific food, and doesn't satisfy this crave, she will get a beauty mark in the shape of that food somewhere on her body. My cousin has a beauty mark similar to a pork chop and her mother claims to have craved for pork.

Data entry tech comment:

motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Reference

Original Bn [P680] crossed out and replaced with current classification

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE WOODS ; Myself

Keyword(s): BABY ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; Craving ; ETHNIC ; FOOD ; Italian ; Old Wives Tale ; SUPERSTITION

James Callow Keyword(s): Reference

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Birth

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Superstition

Belief:

If a pregnant woman gets frightened and touches some part of her body, her child will be born with a birthmark on the same part of its body. The birthmark will be the same shape as the thing which frightened the mother.

Data entry tech comment:

motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Reference

Original BN [P438] crossed out and replaced with current classification

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BABY ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; FRIGHT ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION

James Callow Keyword(s): Reference

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Birth

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Superstition

Belief:

A pregnant woman should avoid being scared or shocked because this will disfigure or mark the baby.

Examples:

1. During a fire, a terrified pregnant woman grabbed her face with her hands and the baby was born with a red streak on its face.

2. A pregnant woman was scared by a mouse, and her baby was born with a marking on its shoulder similar to a mouse.

Submitter comment:

The informant heard of these two instances while she as a young girl in Poland.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Reference

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Biology ; BIRTH ; Birthmark ; CHILD ; FEAR ; FIRE ; Mouse ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; RODENT ; SUPERSTITION

James Callow Keyword(s): Reference

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Birth

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Superstition

Pregnancy Belief:

When the informant was a student nurse in obstetrics at Mt. Carmel Hospital in 1968, she had a Slavic patient who had a patch of hair on her back at the base of her spine. the woman haad been told by her mother that she had been frightened by a bear while she was carrying her daughter. She was extrememly frightened when she suddenly saw the bearbut as she made the spontaneous gesture of clutching herself, she thought it would be dangerous to her child if she raised her hands to her face in fear in the front, so she reached behind and grabbed her back. She belived this had caused the patch on her daughter's back.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Reference

Where learned: Public Health Nurse

Keyword(s): BABY ; Bear ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FEAR ; infant ; jinx ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; SUPERSTITION

James Callow Keyword(s): Reference

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Birth

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