Chapter 20

omens to be derived from dreams may be obtained from the fact that dream books are still enough in demand to warrant their publication. I have seen but one such volume. That was more than thirty years ago. A dream book is now published by a New York firm, and I find, from inquiries in Boston, that it sells at a moderate rate.

No. 626.--See Shoe Omens in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_ (Bohn's ed.), iii. 166.

Nos. 785-789.--The curious reader will find an excellent summary of the beliefs in regard to sneezing in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii.

Nos. 796-800.--In New Hampshire it was formerly usual for young people to purchase gold beads, one at a time, with their earnings. When a sufficient number of beads was obtained the necklace was made, and after it had once been put on was never taken off by night or day. It is difficult to induce the elderly people who still retain these necklaces to part with them, there being a superstitious feeling in regard to the consequences.

Nos. 831, 832.--These cures and a few other superstitions have been taken from a very interesting paper, "Notes on the Folk-Lore of Newfoundland," in the _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. viii. No. XXXI. Almost all of the other folk-lore from Newfoundland and Labrador has been given me by Rev. A.C. Waghorne. It is interesting to notice how among these seafaring people weather-lore predominates over all other kinds.

Nos. 845-848.--These devices for suppressing hiccoughs are scarcely superstitions in reality, as they doubtless often do relieve the nervous, spasmodic action of the respiratory muscles, by fixing the attention upon the cure. But in the popular mind some charm, I take it, is attributed to the counting, repeating, or what not.