Chapter Sun to Superstitions of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

It is unlucky either to keep or to kill a robin. J. H. Pott says, if any one attempts to detain a robin which has sought hospitality, let him “fear some new calamity.”—Poems (1780).

(51) Salamander. The salamander lives in the fire.

Should a glass-house fire be kept up without extinction for more than seven years, there is no doubt but that a salamander will be generated in the cinders.—J. P. Andrews: Anecdotes, etc., 359.

The salamander seeks the hottest fire to breed in, but soon quenches it by the extreme chill of its body.—Pliny: Natural History, x. 67; xxix. 4.

Food touched by a salamander is poisonous.—Ditto, xxix. 23.

(52) Saliva. The human saliva is a cure for blindness.—Ditto, xxviii. 7.

If a man spits on a serpent, it will die. —Ditto, vii. 2.

The human saliva is a charm against fascination and witchcraft.

Thrice on my breast I spit, to guard me safe
From fascinating charms.
   —Theocritos.

To unbewitch the bewitched, you must spit into the shoe of your right foot.—Scot: Discoverie of Witch. craft (1584).

Spitting for luck is a most common superstition.

Fishwomen generally spit upon their hansel.—Grose.

A blacksmith who has to shoe a stubborn horse, spits in his hand to drive off the “evil spirit.”

The swarty smith spits in his buckthorne fist.
   —Browne: Britannia’s Pastorals, i. (1613).

If a pugilist spits in his hand, his blows will be more telling.—Pliny: Natural History, xxviii. 7.

(53) Scorpion. Scorpions sting themselves—sometimes to death.

Scorpions have an oil which is a remedy for their stings.

Tis true the scorpion’s oil is said
To cure the wounds the venom made,
   —S. Butler: Hudibras, iii. 2 (1678).

(54) Spider. It is unlucky to kill a money-spinner.

Small spiders, called “money-spinners,” prognosticate good luck, if they are not destroyed or removed from the person on whom they attach themselves.—Park.

The bite of a spider is venomous.

No spider will spin its web on an Irish oak.

Spiders will never set their webs on a cedar roof.—Caughey: Letters (1845).

Spiders indicate where gold is to be found. (See Spiders Indicators of Gold, p. 1036.)

There are no spiders in Ireland, because St. Patrick cleared the island of all vermin.