A speck on your finger nail, Is a gift that’s funny, If your hand itch in the middle, You will get some money. Spilling of the salt Is anger outright, You’ll see a ghost, if the door Should rattle in the night. If your sweetheart Dreams of bacon and eggs, She’ll have a little boy That has got three legs. The cat washing her face, The wind will blow, If the cat licks her foot It is sure for to snow. Put your gown, or your jacket On inside out, You will change your luck, And be put to the rout. If your nose itches, You’ll get vexed till you jump; If your great toe itches, You’ll get kicked on the rump. If a girl snaps one finger, She’ll have a child it deems, And if she snaps two, She’s sure to have twins; And if she snaps eight, Nine, ten, or eleven, It’s a chance if she don’t Have twenty and seven. If you lay with your head Underneath the clothes, You’ll have an ugly old man, What has got no nose. If you see a star shoot, You’ll get what you wish, If a hair get’s in your mouth, You’ll get as drunk as a fish. If your little toe itch, You’ll be lost in a wave, If you shiver, there’s somebody Going over your grave. If you go under a ladder, You’ll have bad luck and fall, And some say that bad luck Is better than none at all. So to please all outright, I have told you in rhyme, The great superstitions Of the olden time. BALLADS exemplifying the first half of the present Century would be incomplete without some mention of coaching. It was essentially a horsey age, for railways were not, at least during the first quarter, the first (Stockton and Darlington) being opened September 27, 1825, so that people were obliged to rely on horses for their means of locomotion to any distance. Great improvement had been made in the construction of the stagecoaches, and they were very well horsed; in fact, with the exception of their being larger, they were very much like those which now run to Brighton, Guildford, etc. Bob Logic, who is supposed to have written the subjoined ballad, was the companion of Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn, whose pranks were so graphically described by Pierce Egan in his “Life in London.” The George Shillibeer who is sung in the last verse was a large coach proprietor, even letting out hearses and mourning-coaches.--Nay, almost everything on wheels. To him is due the introduction of the Omnibus, the first of which ran from the Yorkshire Stingo, Marylebone Road, to the Bank of England, on July 4, 1829. BOB LOGIC’S DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW BRIGHTON DILIGENCE FOR INSIDE PASSENGERS ONLY. [Illustration]