Consult the Oracle: A Victorian Guide to Folklore and Fortune Telling

By Gabriel Nostradamus

“If you sing before breakfast you will cry before supper...' In their own words, what it meant for Victorians to dream of actors, April Fools, herrings or a railway ticket – why it was advised to throw a black snail by its horns over the left shoulder for good luck – and why it is essential to inform bees of a death in the family. “If one drops a knife, a woman is coming; a fork, a man is coming; a spoon, a fool.” Tappings on tables, questionable curatives, old wives' tales and whispers from beyond the grave – Victorians were fascinated by the supernatural. Consult the Oracle was where they might have turned when they needed to identify a witch, interpret an omen or dream, required a natural cure or wanted to divine their future with a pack of cards – or simply wished to understand what the supernatural meant to them and their ancestors. First published in 1899, it offered a layman's guide to 'matters magical and mysterious', and today is a quirky glimpse of a supernatural age now lost, by turns haunting and hilarious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Sep 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781783660018

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

THINGS TO REMEMBER

THE left cheek is the friend cheek. When you hear a singing in your left ear there is someone speaking well of you; if the singing is in the other ear it is someone speaking ill. In the latter case bite your little finger very hard, and the person talking ill of you will bite his or her tongue just as hard.

If you have your clothes mended upon your back you will be ill-spoken of.

When opening the window at night always make the sign of the cross with the forefinger against the glass. It is a sure method of preventing the evil spirits who hover about in the dark from seizing the opportunity to enter the house.

Yellow is the colour of jealousy. Green is also a colour of jealousy and of fickleness as well. Green, forsaken clean, says the proverb. A well-known rhyme has it –

"Green’s forsaken,

And yellow’s forsworn,

And blue’s the sweetest

Colour that’s worn."

One of Dr. Robert Chambers’s correspondents wrote to him when he was compiling his Popular Rhymes of Scotland as follows: An old lady of my acquaintance used seriously to warn young women against being married in green, for she attributed her own misfortunes solely to having approached the altar of Hymen in a gown of that colour, which she had worn against the advice of her seniors, all of whom recommended blue as the lucky colour.

It matters a good deal on what day of the week a child is born.

"Monday’s child is fair of face,

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,

Saturday’s child must work hard for his living.

The child of Sunday and Christmas Day

Is good, and fair, and wise, and gay."

There is an old saying that if a man is born on a Sunday he will live without trouble all his life. This is true enough, an intimate friend has remarked to us. I was born on a Sunday, and up to the present moment, having gone through over half a century of existence, I cannot recollect having had five minutes of real trouble about anything.

If you wish well to your neighbour’s child, when it first comes to your house you must give it a cake, a little salt, and an egg.

For children to cry when they are baptized is a good sign. It is an indication, for one thing, that they will be good singers.

If several children are baptized together, if the girls are taken to the font before the boys, the boys will have no beards when they are men.

A sprig of rosemary in the house is good to keep off thieves. This shrub grows best in the garden where the lady rules the roast. That be rosemary, sir, said a cottager in Hertfordshire; they say it only grows where the missus is master, and it do grow here like wildfire.

If you sneeze on a Saturday night after the lamp or gas is lighted you will during the incoming week see a stranger you never saw before.

UNLUCKY OMENS

To break a looking-glass is a bad omen. Some say it causes seven years of sorrow; others that it is a sign that a member of the family will shortly die.

Most readers are no doubt acquainted with Bonaparte’s belief in the bad fortune that goes with breaking a looking-glass. During one of his campaigns in Italy he broke the glass over Josephine’s portrait. So disturbed was he at this ominous occurrence, and so strong was the impression made upon his mind that she might be dead, that he never rested until the return of the courier whom he had forthwith despatched to convince himself of her safety.

To scatter salt by overturning the vessel in which it is contained is very unlucky. To some extent the evil may be averted by throwing a pinch of salt over the left shoulder.

Help no one to Salt. It is unlucky to help another person to salt. To whom the ill-luck is to happen does not seem to be settled, so it is as well for both to be careful. Help me to salt, help me to sorrow, says the proverb.

It is unlucky to lay one’s knife and fork crossways; crosses and misfortunes being likely to follow therefrom.

The accidental putting on of the left shoe on the right foot or the right shoe on the left foot may be taken as the precursor of some unlucky accident.

To take off or put on the left shoe before the right is unlucky.

If you break anything fate will pursue you till you break two things more. The best way out of the difficulty is at once to break two matches.

Getting out of bed backwards makes things go wrong for the day.

If meat shrinks in the pot when boiling it is unlucky; if it swells it is a sign of prosperity.

To walk under a ladder is unlucky. According to some, it is a sign that you will be hanged, but this is to exaggerate the ill-luck.

When starting on a journey take care to put the right foot first; to make the first step with the left foot is not good luck.

You will meet with misfortune if you start to go out and have to return for something you forgot, unless you sit down for a minute or so before you go out again.

To meet a squinting woman is unlucky unless you talk to her, which breaks the charm.

It is unlucky to meet a funeral procession; but the omen may be counteracted by taking off your hat, which is intended as a mark of respect to the evil spirits who may be hovering about the corpse.

It is unlucky for women to whistle. This has been the way ever since, when the nails of our Lord’s cross were being forged, a woman stood by and whistled.

To break the small end of an egg is unlucky.

A good housewife will never sweep the floor at night. Should circumstances ever compel her to do so she will sweep the dirt into a corner, and not lift it till the morning. Any other course will lead to misfortune.