Northern mythology

113 SWEDISH TRADITIONS.
53. If a person forgets something when setting out on
a journey^ there is good hope of his safe return ; but to look
behind is not a good sign.
54. When cats wash themselves, or magpies chatter
near the house, they expect strangers. If a slothful housewife,
or a careless servant, has not already swept the
floor, it ought forthwith to be done.
55. The person that comes first home from church on
Christmas day, will be the first to die.
56. If a person walks thrice round a bed of cabbages,
after having planted them, they will continue free from
worms.
57. x\n empty sack must never be carried untied. If
a pregnant woman follows it, her child will never be
satisfied with food.
58. Wlien you bathe, be careful to put steel in the
water to bind the Neck, and cry, ^'Neck, Neck, steel
in strand, thy father was a steel-thief, thy mother was a
needle-thief; so far shalt thou be hence as this cry is
heard.^^ Then let all cry as loud as they can, '^ho hagla^"
59. On Easter-saturday, a long horn (lur) is to be
blown through the window of the cattle-house : so far as
the sound is heard, so far away will beasts of prey continue
during that year.
60. If a person seeking cattle in the forest meets with
a titmouse on his right hand, the cattle sought for will be
found.
61. If swine are let out on St. Lucius' day, they get
vermin.
62. If the cattle, on Michaelmas eve, are driven in without
noise, they will be quiet in the cattle-house the whole
year.
63. All labour when completed is to be signed with
the cross.
1
See p. 82.