regard certain days as _unlucky_, or ominous of bad
fortune. The day of the week on which the third of May falls is deemed
unlucky throughout the year.

With a very slight change, a part of this description would apply well
to our own country, even up to the present time. How many thousands of
days are lost annually in the United States in consequence of
superstitious fears in relation to setting out upon a journey, entering
upon a new pursuit of any kind, or even beginning to plant or plow on
Friday, the unlucky day of the Americans. How many persons have had
misfortunes attend them all their lives because they were born, or
christened, or married on Friday! How many houses have been burned
because they were begun, raised, or moved into on Friday! How many
steamboats and vessels have been burned or wrecked because they were
launched or sailed on Friday! And yet, strange as it may seem, this is
the very day on which Columbus set sail on a voyage that resulted in the
discovery of the New World.

Many people, and in some instances whole communities, always commence
plowing, sowing, and reaping on Tuesday, though by this rule the most
favorable weather for these purposes is frequently lost. Others, again,
will not, on any account, perform certain kinds of labor on Friday. The
age of the moon is also much attended to in many parts of the world.
Among the vulgar Highlanders, an opinion prevails, that if a house takes
fire while the moon is in the decrease, the family will from that time
decline in its circumstances and sink into poverty. In this country,
equally unfounded and ridiculous opinions are entertained. Passing by
the more commonly received opinions that if swine are killed in the old
of the moon, the pork will shrink in the pot; that seed sown at this
time will be less likely to do well, etc., etc., I will mention one or
two instances of opinions which, although equally well founded, are
less commonly received, and which may therefore more forcibly impress
the popular mind. A few years ago, I spent some months in a neighboring
state, in a community where the belief was commonly entertained that
shingles should not be laid nor stakes driven in the old of the moon,
because the former would be more likely to warp, and the latter to be
thrown by the frost. The same and kindred opinions are extensively held
in various portions of the United States.

These are a few, and but a very few, of the superstitious notions an