“Lord L(ansdowne) said he had dined once abroad with Count Orloff, and perceived he did not sit down at dinner, but kept walking from chair to chair; he found afterward it was because the Narishken were at table, who, he knew, would rise instantly if they perceived the number thirteen, which Orloff would have made by sitting down himself.” (See 63.) 56. If a dog bays under your window at night, it portends sickness or death. Shakspeare ranks this among omens. In the play of Henry VI., he says: “The owl shrieked at thy birth; an evil sign! The night-crow cry’d, aboding luckless time; _Dogs howl’d_, and hideous tempests shook down trees.” 57. The howling of dogs, says Grose, is a certain sign that some one of the family will very shortly die. The following passage is in the “Merry Devil” of Edmonton, 1631: “I hear the watchful dogs With hollow howling tell of thy approach.” 58. If you break your shoe-string, look out for your sweetheart, for she will bestow her love upon a stranger. 59. A flake of soot hanging at the bars of the grate, denotes the visit of a stranger, like the fungus of a candle, from the part of the country nearest the object. Dr. Goldsmith, in his “Vicar of Wakefield,” among the omens of his hero’s daughters, tells us “purses bounded from the fire.” In some parts of England, the cinders that bound from the fire are carefully examined by old women and children, and according to their respective forms are called either _coffins_ or _purses_; and consequently thought to be presages of death or wealth. A coal, says Grose, in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire towards any particular person, betokens their death not far off. Cowper alludes to this superstition in the following lines in his “Winter Evening:” “Me oft has fancy, ludicrous and wild, Sooth’d with a waking dream of _houses_, _towers_, _Trees_, _churches_, and strange visages express’d _In the red cinders_, while with poring eye I gazed, myself creating what I saw. Nor less amused have I quiescent watch’d _The sooty films that play upon the bars,_ _Pendulous, and foreboding_ in the view Of superstition, _prophesying still_, Though still deceived, some stranger’s near approach.” 60. To drop a slice of bread, with the buttered side down, is a sign that a visitor will come hungry. 61. To eat up all the food which is on the table at tea-time, is a sign that the morrow will be a fair day.