46. The right hand itching is a sign that the person will shake hands with a stranger; the left hand itching is a sign that money will be received soon. 47. If you sing during any meal, it is a sign you will soon be disappointed. 48. To cross a funeral procession is an ill omen. 49. To find a pearl in an oyster betokens good fortune. 50. To break a looking-glass foretells death. Grose tells us that “breaking a looking-glass betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master.” Bonaparte’s (Napoleon I.) superstition upon this point is often recorded. “During one of his campaigns in Italy,” says M. de Constant, “he broke the glass over Josephine’s portrait. He never rested till the return of the courier he forthwith dispatched to assure himself of her safety, so strong was the impression of her death upon his mind.” 51. To find a trefoil, or four-leaved clover, implies good luck; a five-leaved clover, bad luck. Melton, in his “Astrologaster,” says that “if a man walking in the fields, finde any foure-leaved grasse, he shall, in a small while after, finde some good thing.” 52. If four persons cross hands while in the act of shaking hands, it indicates that two of the party will soon be married. 53. If three unmarried persons having the same Christian name meet at table, it is a sign that one of the three will be married within a year. 54. To be startled by a snake is a sign of sickness. 55. When thirteen persons sit down together at table, it is a sign that one of the party will die within a year. Fosbroke, in his _Encyclopædia of Antiquities_, states that “thirteen in company was considered an unlucky number by the ancient Romans;” but he does not give any classical authority for this statement. There is at Dantzic a clock, which at 12 admits, through a door, Christ and the eleven, shutting out Judas, who is admitted at 1. But is not the belief older than the clock? The iniquity of Judas may have led him to be considered the thirteenth at the Lord’s Supper; and his self-destruction may have given to the number thirteen its fatal association. It has, however, been explained away by M. Quetelet, in his work on _Probabilities_ as follows: “If the probability be required, that out of thirteen persons, of different ages, one of them, at least, shall die within a year, it will be found that the chances are about one to one that one death, at least, will occur. This calculation, by means of a false interpretation, has given rise to the prejudice, no less ridiculous, that the danger will be avoided by inviting a greater number of guests, which can only have the effect of augmenting the probability of the event so much apprehended.” This belief obtains in Italy and Russia, as well as in England. Moore, in his _Diary_, vol. ii., p. 206, mentions there being thirteen at dinner, one day, at Madame Catalani’s, when a French countess, who lived with her up-stairs, was sent for to remedy the grievance.