27. It has always been considered a very bad omen to have a hare (see 14), sow, or weasel cross your path when going on a journey or to business. Melton, in his “Astrologaster,” says, that “it is a very unfortunate thing for a man to meete early in the morning an ill-favored man or woman, a rough-footed hen, a shag-haired dog, or a black cat.” Shaw, in his “History of Money,” tells us that the ancient Scots much regarded omens in their expeditions; an armed man or a wolf meeting them was a good omen; if a woman barefoot crossed the road before them, they seized her and fetched blood from her forehead; if a deer, fox, hare, or any kind of game appeared, and they did not kill it, it was an unlucky omen. We gather from a remarkable book, entitled “The School-master,” published in London, 1583, that in the ages of chivalry it was thought unlucky to meet with a priest, if a man was going forth to war or a tournament. The following superstitions among the Malabrians are related in Phillips’s account of them, published in 1717: “It is interpreted as a very bad sign if a blind man, a Bramin, or a washerwoman meets one on the way; as also when one meets a man with an empty panel, or when one sees an oil mill, or if a man meets us with his head uncovered, or when one hears a weeping voice, or sees a cat or fox crossing the way, or a dog running on his right hand, or when a poor man or a widow meets us on our way, or when we are called back.” (See 37.) Gaule, in his “Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel’d,” holds it as a vain observation “to bode good or bad luck from the rising up on the right or left side (see 12); from lifting the left leg over the threshold, at first going out of doors; from the meeting of a beggar or a priest the first in a morning; the meeting of a virgin or a harlot first; the running in of a child between two friends; the justling one another at unawares; one treading upon another’s toes; to meet one fasting that is lame or defective in any member; to wash in the same water with another.” (See 15.) 28. To walk under a ladder portends disappointment. 29. To comb your hair after dark is also a sign of disappointment. 30. If a young lady loses her garter, it presages that she has an inconstant lover; therefore, O lady, when thou hast this ill augury, look about thee, and become the happy possessor of two strings to thy bow, or, what is the same thing, two beaus to thy string. N. B.--Rich or very good-looking young ladies may treat the above with disdain. 31. If you sing before breakfast, it denotes that you will cry before supper. 32. To drop a dish-cloth, duster, or any cleaning cloth, signifies the arrival of one or more visitors. 33. If a spider, in weaving his web in some high place, comes downward before your face, you may look for money from some unexpected source. (See 24.) 34. If you make a rhyme involuntarily, before speaking again make a wish, and it will be fulfilled.