Chapter War of Wartburg to Warning-Givers of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

(61) Soot on Bars. Flakes of sheeted soot hanging from the bars of a grate foretell the introduction of a stranger.

Nor less amused have I quiescent watched
The sooty films that play upon the bars
Pendulous, and foreboding…some stranger’s near approach.
   —Cowper: Winter Evening.

(62) Sophia’s Picture, given to Mathias, turned yellow if the giver was in danger or in temptation; and black if she could not escape from the danger, or if she yielded to the temptation.—Massinger: The Picture (1629).

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

(64) Stag’s Horn is considered in Spain to give warning of an evil eye, and to be a safeguard against its malignant influences.

(65) Stone. To find a perforated stone is a presage of good luck.

(66) Swallows forecast bad weather by flying low, and fine weather by flying high.

(67) Teeth Wide Apart warn a person to seek his fortune away from his native place.

(68) Thunder. Thunder on Sunday portends the death of some learned man, judge, or author; on Monday, the death of women; on Tuesday, plenty of grain; on Wednesday, the death of harlots, or bloodshed; on Thursday, plenty of sheep, cattle, and corn; on Friday, the death of some great man, murder, or battle; on Saturday, it forebodes pestilence or sickness.—Leonard Digges; A Prognostication Everlasting of Ryght Good Effecte (1556).

(69) Tolling Bell. You will be sure of tooth-ache if you eat while a funeral bell is tolling. Be warned in time by this American superstition, or take the consequences.

(70) Veipsey, a spring in Yorkshire, called “prophetic,” gives due warning of a dearth by rising to an unusual height.

(71) Venetian Glass. If poison is put into liquor contained in a vessel made of Venetian glass, the vessel will crack and fall to pieces.

(72) Warning Stones. Bakers in Wiltshire and in some other counties used to put a certain kind of pebble in their ovens, to give notice when the oven was hot enough for baking. When the stone turned white, the oven was fit for use.

(73) Water of Jealousy (The). This was a beverage which the Jews used to assert no adulteress could drink without bursting.—Five Philosophical Questions Answered (1653).

(74) White Rose (The). A white rose gave assurance to a twin-brother of the safety or danger of his brother during his absence. So long as it flourished and remained in its pride of beauty, it indicated that all went well; but if it drooped, faded, or died, it was a warning of danger, sickness, or death.—The Twin- Brothers.

(75) Witch Hazel. A forked twig of witch hazel, made into a divining-rod, was supposed, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, to give warning of witches, and to be efficacious in discovering them.

(76) Worms. If, on your way to a sick person, you pick up a stone and find no living thing under it, it tells you that the sick person will die, but if you find there an ant or worm, it presages the patient’s recovery.