3883. To change a will is unlucky.

3884. It brings bad luck for a boat to be christened with anything but champagne.

3885. "Laughing's catching," that is, if you laugh at another's bad luck, you will have bad luck yourself.

3886. To leave a book unfinished that you have begun to read is unlucky..............Western Kentucky

3887. It causes bad luck to break a piece of candy or the like in anybody else's hand.

3888. It is unlucky to throw a gift away.

3889. Never walk under a ladder, especially if there is someone on the top of it, for bad luck will follow.

3890. If one jumps from a window, someone in the person's family will pass away.

3891. To go through a window brings bad luck.

3892. If you forget anything, you will see a cross.

3893. It brings good luck to bury a pencil... .Mountains

3894. If you start to say something and do not finish it, you will be disappointed.. North-eastern Kentucky

3895. If you measure a person while he is lying down, he will soon die.

3896. It brings death to answer a mysterious voice...........................................Negroes

3897. If you think that you hear someone call your name when no one has done so, something bad will happen to the person whom you thought you heard calling you.

3898. If you hear your name called, some soul in purgatory is calling for your prayers........................................North-eastern Kentucky

3899. If you slip on a banana peeling, you will have bad luck.

3900. It brings bad luck to boast (unless you knock on wood) of immunity from any trouble or illness.

3901. Billikens bring good luck.

3902. After making a call, you must leave the room through the same door by which you entered it.

3903. Leave any room by the door through which you entered; otherwise you will have bad luck.

3904. If you give something away that is given you, it will smell bad......................Blue Grass

3905. Misfortunes never come singly.

3906. If a person's given name is changed, he will die.

3907. Never whistle in a dressing room of a theatre. This superstition is held by actors.

3908. It brings very bad luck to step over a hole.

3909. It brings bad luck to ring a bell upside down..................................Central Kentucky

3910. It brings bad luck to give away or spend anything you find.

3911. If you sing secular music, you will come to grief....................................Mountains

3912. You will have good luck if you rub coal oil on your neck..............................Mountains

3913. It causes good luck to meet a gypsy fortune-teller.

3914. It is a sign of good luck if, upon opening the Bible, your finger accidentally falls on the words, "Verily, verily."............................Blue Grass

3915. Upon the first visit to the source of a spring, put a pebble from the brook into the hem of your skirt. Then lose it without being conscious of the loss. You will have good luck.....Southern Kentucky

3916. If you smoke a cigarette with a gold band on it, you will have good luck.

3917. A whistling girl and a bleating sheep, will always come to the top of the heap.... Western Kentucky

3918. To pick up gravel under the right foot and sleep on it will bring good luck...............Mountains

3919. If you have hiccoughs, someone will tell a story on you...............................Mountains

3920. If you have hiccoughs, you have told a lie..........................................Blue Grass

3921. If you once get your feet wet in the Cumberland river, you will always return to the Kentucky mountains.........................Mountains

3922. Human vitality is always lowest between midnight and morning.

3923. Human vitality is lowest at three o'clock in the morning.

3924. If you cross your fingers when you see a one-legged negro, you will remove the ill luck that follows the sight of such a person...............Blue Grass

3925. Smoke follows beauty.

3926. Smoke from an out-of-door fire drifts to the most beautiful person within range.

3927. If you go through an unfinished building, you will see someone whom you are not expecting to see.

3928. If you use the same towel with another, you will certainly quarrel with that person.

3929. The negroes think that when they "get religion," the Lord speaks to them directly. For instance, one said that the Lord told him to crawl on a log ....................................Negroes

3930. Poison oak will not affect a really black negro.................................Central Kentucky

3931. A sandman who sprinkles sand in the eyes is responsible for sleepiness.

3932. If you wish to learn to pick a banjo, take the banjo to the forks of the road on a dark night and try it ....................Central Kentucky Negroes

3933. Engineers have a premonition that they should avoid a certain run.

3934. If you curse God and shoot at the sun, you will be able to see the wind.................Mountains

3935. If you start to tell a thing and forget it, what you were planning to tell is not so........Mountains

3936. If the dews are heavy in August, tobacco will weigh heavy.

3937. Jews will not kill a chicken.

3938. In talking to someone if you call him by someone else's name, the one named is thinking of you.

3939. "Come easy, go easy," that is, something that comes without effort will be lost.

3940. A sudden silence in the midst of a conversation means that an angel is passing through the room. Human voices are hushed in reverence.

3941. If two persons collide at work, they will work together another year.

3942. If two people in bending over knock their heads together, they will sleep together that night................................Southern Kentucky

3943. A comet is a sign of war.

3944. If three persons in conversation say the same word simultaneously, a fool is coming.

3945. "If you speak of an angel, you will hear the rustle of his wings," that is, if you speak of anyone, you will find him near.

3946. "If you speak of the Devil, he will appear." This saying has the same meaning as the preceding one,

3947. Keep a seat for the unexpected guest. You will some day entertain an angel in disguise.Blue Grass

3948. You will have good luck if you find a rusty nail. You should not pick it up, but you should reverse the ends just where the nail lies.......Mountains

3949. You will have bad luck if you follow the light of a jack-o'-lantern.............Blue Grass Negroes

3950. A stone with a hole through the middle is a good talisman.....................Central Kentucky

3951. You will have bad luck if you find a stone with a hole in it, unless it contains a crack from the outer edge to the hole..............Central Kentucky

3952. To have iron or steel about you during a thunder storm will bring good luck.

3953. A fool for luck.

3954. Some people have the power of finding underground water with the use of a forked peach or hazel switch. When the water-witch, as such a person is called, walks above the water, the fork or divining rod turns downward.1

1 The divining rod is considered by some folk-lore students to have been originally a symbol of forked lightning. See, for example, John Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, pp. 41-44, 64, 66-67.