If your nostrils burn you, so that you sneeze, some one is backbiting you.
When going on a business, if you butt your right foot, it means good luck, the left means bad luck.
If a baker after setting up his leaven, go to a place where a dead person is, the leaven will not rise.
To hinder people from chanting [? sic] your money, put a gravel or a grain of corn in it, or squeeze some lime juice upon them.
When plenty of roaches [cockroaches?] are flying in a house, it is a sign of rain. There are some flies also, that indicate rain by their flying.
When you want to beat a duppy, first give it a stroke with the left hand, then afterwards you can use the right. If you use the right first, the duppy will paralize [sic] it.
If a hog plays with thrash in the mouth, it is a sign of rain.
If a cock after a shower of rain flies up on any raised place and crows, it is a sign that the weather will slack.
If you hear thunder rolls in dry weather rain will soon be coming.
To shoot the duppy, load the gun with salt, blue-stone and sulphur, in addition to the powder and shot. When the duppy is shot down, you will find it in the form of an animal, generally a clucking lizard.
If you sew dirty clothes, it dim your eyes.
If you plant the seed of a plant called "mamy" you will die.
If you plant a pumpkin vine your relatives will die.
If you are eating, and a piece of the food just drop suddenly from your hand, it is some of your dead relatives who knocked it out for themselves.
There are many more superstitions, &c., but many are not believed in, except by a few dark people. The prevalent belief in these days is about the obeah-men and the duppy.
A.
(Assisted by A— B— , teacher, — — School, and by his mother.)
(To be continued.)
