is also very unfortunate to walk under a ladder; to
forget to eat goose on the festival of St. Michael; to tread upon a
beetle, or to eat the twin nuts that are sometimes found in one shell.
Woe, in like manner, is predicted to that wight who inadvertently upsets
the salt; each grain that is overthrown will bring to him a day of sorrow.
If thirteen persons sit at table, one of them will die within the year;
and all of them will be unhappy. Of all evil omens this is the worst. The
facetious Dr. Kitchener used to observe that there was one case in which
he believed that it was really unlucky for thirteen persons to sit down to
dinner, and that was when there was only dinner enough for twelve.
Unfortunately for their peace of mind, the great majority of people do not
take this wise view of the matter. In almost every country of Europe the
same superstition prevails, and some carry it so far as to look upon the
number thirteen as in every way ominous of evil; and if they find thirteen
coins in their purse, cast away the odd one like a polluted thing. The
philosophic Beranger, in his exquisite song, _Thirteen at Table_, has
taken a poetical view of this humiliating superstition, and mingled, as is
his wont, a lesson of genuine wisdom in his lay. Being at dinner, he
overthrows the salt, and, looking round the room, discovers that he is the
thirteenth guest. While he is mourning his unhappy fate, and conjuring up
visions of disease and suffering and the grave, he is suddenly startled by
the apparition of Death herself, not in the shape of a grim foe, with
skeleton-ribs and menacing dart, but of an angel of light, who shews the
folly of tormenting ourselves with the dread of her approach, when she is
the friend, rather than the enemy, of man, and frees us from the fetters
which bind us to the dust.

If men could bring themselves to look upon death in this manner, living
well and wisely till her inevitable approach, how vast a store of grief
and vexation would they spare themselves!

Among good omens, one of the most conspicuous is to meet a piebald horse.
To meet two of these animals is still more fortunate; and if on such an
occasion you spit thrice, and form any reasonable wish, it will be
gratified within three days. It is also a sign of good fortune if you
inadvertently put on your stocking wrong side out. If you wilfully wear
your stocking in this fashion, no good will come of it. It is very lucky
to sneeze twice; but if y