This section is from the book "Kentucky Superstitions", by Daniel Lindsey Thomas, Lucy Blayney Thomas. Also available from Amazon: Kentucky Superstitions.
1702. Never sleep with your head toward the east.
1703. You must not place your bed with the head to the west, as that position is the one in which the dead are buried.
1704. If you he with your head out the door, you will die before the year is out...............Blue Grass
1705. If you lie with your head toward the fire, you will be ill.
1706. "Early to bed and early to rise,
You'll be healthy, wealthy, witty and wise."
1707. It brings bad luck to get into bed over the footboard.
1708. It causes bad luck to climb over any one in bed.
1709. If you get into bed on the side opposite to the one you are used to getting in, you will have bad luck.
1710. If you go to bed backwards, you will have pleasant dreams.
1711. If you say your prayers after going to bed, you say them to the Devil............Central Kentucky
1712. If you go to bed thirsty, your spirit will wander off and drink from foul mud-puddles.......Negroes
1713. If you go to bed very happy, you will awake ill the next morning.
1714. If you laugh in bed, you will cry before morning.
1715. If you whistle in bed, you will cry before you retire again.
1716. To sing in bed brings bad luck.
1717. If a solid crown of feathers is found in a pillow, misfortune will fall on the household.
1718. If a cross of feathers is found in a pillow, misfortune will fall on the household.
1719. If you get up in the morning with a feather in your hair, you have slept one hour late.....Mountains
1720. If a person walking in his sleep is awakened, the awakening will kill him.
1721. It brings bad luck for three people to make up one bed.
1722. Never put a broom on the bed; it brings bad luck.
1723. To lay an umbrella on the bed causes bad luck.
1724. It brings bad luck to raise an umbrella over any one's head in the house. He will not grow any more.
1725. If you raise an umbrella in the house, you will have bad luck.
1726. If a man gives a woman an umbrella, bad luck will follow......................Louisville Negroes
1727. New sheets must not be slept in unlaundered, as the occupant will have bad luck.
1728. It brings bad luck to keep a quilt of hexagonal pattern. This pattern is sometimes called "Job's Trouble"....................Central Kentucky
1729. In quilting, if you leave out a line, one in the family will die.........................Mountains
1730. You will have good luck if you use tablecloths, towels, and the like before they are laundered.
1731. If two people use a towel at the same time, they will fight.
1732. "Wash and wipe together, You'll be good friends forever." or "Wash and wipe together, Live and love forever."
1733. Do not empty the water that someone else has washed in, as a quarrel will follow.
1734. If you wash in the same water that some one else has used, the two of you will quarrel.
1735. When a candle is allowed to burn entirely out, a death will follow.
1736. If a short flame rises from the candle, expect a small stranger.....................Central Kentucky
1737. If a long, straight flame rises from the candle, expect a tall stranger............Central Kentucky
1738. If a candle flame, instead of being straight, spreads around the tallow, it forms a winding sheet and is prophetic of death.
1739. A spark on the wick of a candle flame is the sign that you are to receive a letter. . Central Kentucky
1740. If a guest blows out a candle, he will come again.
1741. If there are three candlesticks in a row, you must move them to different parts of the room before lighting them.
1742. It causes bad luck to let a lamp go out. You should blow it out.
1743. If a lamp goes out in the room, there will be a death in the family.
1744. It causes bad luck to bring a lighted lamp into a room where there is one already lighted.
1745. You will have bad luck if you put two lamps on a table at one time.
1746. It causes bad luck to have three lighted lamps in a room.
1747. If you light a lamp after you sit down at the table, some one will die............Southern Kentucky
1748. You will have bad luck if a lamp chimney breaks in your hand..
1749. As many times as it takes you to blow out the lamp, just so many lies have you told.......Blue Grass
1750. If your lamp chimney breaks after you have gone to bed, there will be a death in the family.........................................Blue Grass
1751. It brings good luck to drop a knife if the blade sticks into the ground. The direction towards which the knife points is the one from which the good fortune will come.
1752. If you drop a table-knife, you will have a disappointment.
1753. If you drop a knife at the table, the one who picks it up will have good luck.............Blue Grass
1754. Do not give a sharp instrument to a friend of yours; if you do, trouble will follow.
1755. Avert the ill luck that comes from giving a sharp instrument to a friend by sticking the friend with the sharp point.
1756. Avert the ill luck that arises from giving a sharp instrument to a friend by receiving a penny.
1757. If a person lends you a knife open, return it open.
1758. If a person hands you a knife shut, return it shut.
1759. It brings good luck to find a knife open. Mountains
1760. "A dull knife, a dull wife"............Mountains
1761. It causes bad luck to sit on a pair of scissors........................................Mountains
1762. To sing at the table causes bad luck.
1763. If two forks are accidentally put at your plate, instead of one knife and one fork, you will go to New York..................Western Kentucky
1764. If by some mistake someone puts two forks by your plate at the dinner table, you will go to a funeral or a wedding.1
 
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