3507. Kill a tree toad. Put the head in a snuffbox until ants have eaten the flesh away. Break the lower jawbone into two parts. Put the right half into your clothes and the left half, which has a burr on it, into the hem of a woman's garment. She will not be able to get away from you......Mountains

3508. If you kill a tortoise, it will sleep on your neck the next night.........................Mountains

3509. You will have bad luck if a bird lights in your path..................................Mountains

3510. If birds make nests of your discarded hair, your hair will tangle.

3511. If birds make nests of your discarded hair, you may expect headache.

3512. If birds make nests of your discarded hair, you will die before next spring.

3513. If birds make nests of your discarded hair, you will become insane.

3514. If a bird flies against your window, you will receive a message.

3515. Birds flying against your window bring bad luck.

3516. A bird that flies into a house brings bad luck with it.

3517. If a bird comes into a room in which you happen to be and you speak before you get it out, you will suffer ill luck.......................Mountains

3518. The flying of a bird into the house is a sign of death.

3519. When a bird comes into the house and a picture falls down at the same time, a death will occur in the family............................Blue Grass

3520. If a bird of any kind flies into a sick room and lights on the bed post where the sick one is lying, there will be a death in the family in a short time................................Western Kentucky

3521. If a bird in the house injures itself, there will be a death.................North-eastern Kentucky

3522. If a bird comes into the house and lights on the stove, the building will be burned......Mountains

3523. The flying of birds around the house is a sign of visitors ....................Western Kentucky

3524. If you put salt on a bird's tail, you may marry any one that you desire.

3525. You will have bad luck if you break a bird's egg.

3526. If you throw a piece of feather over a house, you will find a sack of gold where it falls.. Mountains

3527. It brings bad luck to have a blackbird fly across your path. You will have bad luck before you arrive at your destination..............Mountains

3528. To eat chicken feet makes one beautiful.

3529. Go behind the door and eat a chicken foot, to become beautiful.

3530. To become beautiful, eat chicken gizzards.

3531. To become beautiful, swallow a chicken gizzard whole.

3532. To swallow a raw chicken-heart brings good luck.

3533. It brings good luck to have a ten-toed chicken......................................Blue Grass

3534. Hens will not lay in a field where there are potatoes.

3535. If you set hens in the afternoon, you will have bad luck ..............................Mountains

3536. If a hen is set after the sun goes down, all the eggs will hatch...................Central Kentucky

3537. It is well to set an odd number of eggs.

3538. If you carry eggs for setting to the nest in a bucket, they will all hatch roosters. If you carry the eggs to the nest in a basket, they will all hatch pullets ...........................Western Kentucky

3539. If you place the eggs under a sitting hen with the left hand, they will hatch hens; with the right hand, roosters............................Blue Grass

3540. If you set a hen on thirteen eggs, she will not hatch so well as on another number.. Western Kentucky

3541. If after the chickens begin to hatch, you put the shells up higher than the chickens can jump, the hawks will not catch the chickens......Mountains

3542. To keep an old hen from sitting, put her head under her wing and dip her into a tub of water three times. She will not sit again..........Central Kentucky

3543. If a chicken is hatched in the spring, it will lay only every second day. If it is hatched in the fall, it will lay every day...................Mountains

3544. Chickens hatched in June are said to sleep all the time.

3545. It is unlucky to bring in or take out eggs after dark.

3546. String eggshells on the twigs of trees to keep the hawks away .......................Mountains

3547. Bake eggshells and feed them to chickens to make them lay...................Southern Kentucky

3548. It causes bad luck to find a soft-shelled egg.

3549. You can avert the bad luck that a soft-shelled egg brings by throwing it over the house.

3550. The general cackling of hens is a prophecy of bad luck...............................Blue Grass

3551. A "bullrock," also called a "jackrock" (a small round rock), in the ashes keeps hawks away from chickens.

3552. A round rock in the fire will cause a hawk's claws to draw up to that shape, so that it cannot catch chickens.

3553. Put an Indian arrow into the chimney to keep off hawks.

3554. Any kind of flint rock in the chimney will keep off hawks.

3555. To keep a hawk off your chickens, carry a hawk rock in your pocket.

3556. A bottle half-full of water tied on a pole will keep away the hawks1....................Mountains

1 For other signs for keeping hawks away, see numbers 3438-3443.

3557. If hawks attack chickens, keep a poker in the fire until it is red hot; then take it out and make a young girl tell you her sweetheart's name. The hawks will vanish.

3558. If a cock crows before the door early in the day, a visitor will arrive.

3559. If a rooster looks in at the door and crows, someone will leave the family............Mountains.

3560. If a rooster looks out of the door, someone is coming into the family.

3561. If a rooster crows before breakfast, someone will come before supper.

3562. If a rooster crows before breakfast, you will have visitors before you sleep.