Caution of our Ancestors--A Magpie crossing one's Path--What four Magpies betokened--The Poet and the Magpies--More about Magpies--Flight of Birds--Swarming of Bees--Howling of Dogs--Lowing of Cattle--Crowing of Cocks--Dogs' Power of Sight--Stockings wrong side out--Evil effect of Suspended Eggs--Burning Fish Bones--Sign of a Letter coming--Sneezing of a Cat--Various Signs--The sight of a Fox foreboding Evil--Owls and Ravens--Various Signs and Omens--How to prevent Ill Luck--Reputed Witches crossing the Path--Highland Superstition--Print of a Caldron, what it denoted--Unlucky to pass over a Balance--How to see in the Dark--When not to pare your Nails--Touching a Dead Body--Funeral Processions--Storks and Storks' Hearts--How to Sit--Marriages--A Prophetic Rhyme--Favourable and Unfavourable Times for Marriages--Unfortunate to lose or break a Wedding Ring--Rules to be observed in taking possession of a House--Throwing Slippers, Besoms, Salt, and Rice after Newly-married Persons--Charms for Bridegrooms and Brides--Mothers and Children--More about Marriages--Rules to be observed at Baptisms--How to treat Young Children. Mark the caution of our ancestors: If a magpie crossed one's path when setting out on a journey, his mission, whatever it happened to be, was certain to prove unsuccessful, unless the traveller immediately crossed himself--a ceremony he invariably performed--and thus the unfavourable influence of the hateful bird ceased. In the south of England, people supposed that if a person saw four magpies at one time, he would soon lose by death a dear friend. But an old English poet, writing of magpies, says: "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth; Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of birth." The chattering of one of these birds in the morning bespeaks the arrival of a stranger before evening. It is thought unlucky to kill a magpie or a swallow. The congregating of magpies on a house-top precedes an important event, in which the inmates are interested. If a bird fly through a window, it is a sign that one of the inmates will soon die. If a pigeon, which does not belong to any one of the family, come into a house, it forebodes death to the occupant of the domicile. The alighting of a swarm of bees on a dead tree or on the withered bough of a living tree, signifies that the owner of the tree will soon pass through death's portal. The howling of dogs, the lowing of cattle, and the crowing of cocks at night, foretell the death of some person in the neighbourhood. Dogs are supposed by not a few people to see death as it enters a dwelling; and hence, in their opinion, the cause of that quadruped's frequent dismal howling.