To put salt on another person's plate at table. The superstition that overturning salt at table is unlucky is said to have originated with Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper, where Judas is represented as overturning the salt; but this little incident in the picture was more likely the result than the cause of the superstition. To see the first of the new moon through a window, or glass of any sort, is also unlucky. But if you see it in the open air, turn the money in your pocket, and express a wish for luck during the ensuing month; you are supposed to ensure it. "Always kill your pig in the new moon, or the fat will run," is an old saying. It is unlucky to point to the moon, there being a notion that the "man" who was transported to that satellite for stealing sticks won't stand being pointed at. To have a female come into your house the first thing on New Year's morning. So extensively does this absurdity prevail, that in many towns young lads make "a good thing of it" by selling their services to go round and enter the houses first that morning. As to cutting your nails on a Sunday, the following couplet is very expressive: "Better a child was never born Than cut his hoofs of a Sunday." This is varied in some districts, thus-- "Better a child were never born Than on the Sunday[7] shear the horn." [7] Some say Friday. The itching of the nose is a sign of bad news, or, as some have it, that "you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed, or shake hands with a fool." If the ear itches, you may expect news from the living; if the face burns, some one is talking about you; when you shudder, a person is walking over the spot where your grave will be; and if your foot itches it is a sign you will tread on strange ground. To make presents of knives or scissors will be sure to cut off love or friendship; but if something is given in exchange, it prevents this bad effect. Babies must never have their nails cut, but bitten, to prevent their becoming thieves. To snuff out a candle accidentally entails the fate of not getting married in the same year. It is in the highest degree unlucky to give your neighbour a light at Christmas time, or New Year's Day; and those who have neglected to lay in a stock of matches at that season often have to repent the oversight by being unable to light their fires in the morning, and in most cases amongst the poor neither prayers nor entreaties will induce them to part with their fire. At Mathon, some people believe that if land is left unsown in a field, there will be a death in the family within the year; and when the accident is discovered they do not sow it again (see Mr. Watson's sketch of that parish).