If you must pass under a ladder, cross your fingers and wish. The unsophisticated spit; and if you are walking with anyone wait for him to speak first, and any ill luck that may be coming will fall on his head. "Spitting for luck" is still common enough. Hucksters and fish-women spit on the handsel (the first money they receive), and many horsedealers do the same. Colliers, when considering a strike, used to spit on one stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy, and schoolboys used to spit their faith when making a challenge to fight. This was considered a sacred pledge which it was thought a point of honour to fulfil. It is wrong to point at the stars, or even to count them; you may be struck dead for doing so. Hawthorn blossoms should not be brought into the house; they are as unlucky as peacock’s feathers, which also should never be brought indoors. And evergreens should not be burnt. "If you burn green, Your sorrow’s soon seen." The luck of three is much believed in. If you fail twice in trying to do a thing, you will probably succeed in the third trial. "The third time’s catchy time." Servants say that if they break one thing they are sure to break three, a foreboding which not seldom comes true. And when the minute-bell of the cathedral rings once it is bound to ring three times. If you break a looking-glass, you will have no luck for seven years. Some say that it betokens a death in the house, probably that of its master. If a black cat enters the house, it must by no means be turned away, for it brings good luck. "Wherever the cat of the house is black, The lasses of lovers will have no lack." Kittens born in May are unlucky and useless, never keep them. It is lucky, when you see the first lamb of the year, if its head is turned towards you; but unlucky, if its tail. It is thought that hedgehogs suck cows as they lie asleep. A toad is poisonous; do not touch it. In all ages the flight and behaviour of birds have been thought worthy of notice. When setting hens, the number of eggs should be odd (generally eleven or thirteen); if the number be even, you will have no chickens. A hen that crows brings ill luck, just as does a woman who whistles. If the hens come into the house, or if the cock crows on the threshold, a visitor is coming. If you have money in your pocket and turn it when you first hear the cuckoo you will be rich all that year; but if your pocket be empty so it will remain. There is a small bird attending on the cuckoo, generally a meadow-pipit. It is called in Durham the cuckoo’s sandy, and is supposed to provide its patron with food. When the peacock screams, it is going to rain. The magpie is an unlucky bird because it would not go into the ark with Noah, but sat outside, "jabbering at the drowned world." "One is sorrow, two mirth, Three a wedding, four a birth, Five heaven, six hell, Seven the de’il’s ain sel’!"