our district. Witness the learned Cardan:

"Fascinari pueros fixo intuitu magnorum bufonum et maximè qui è subterraneo
specu aut sepulchris prodierint, utque ob id occulto morbo perire, haud
absurdum est."--_De Rerum Varietate_, lib. xvi. c. 90.

_Crickets_, contrary to the idea prevailing in the western counties, are
supposed to presage good luck, and are therefore most carefully preserved.
Their presence is believed to be a sure omen of prosperity; while, on the
other hand, their sudden departure from a hearth which has long echoed with
their cry, betokens approaching misfortune, and is regarded as the direst
calamity that can happen to the family.

_Magpies._--To see one magpie alone bodes bad luck; two, good luck; three,
a "berrin;" four, a wedding. This is our version of the saying: Grose gives
it differently.

_Spiders._--When a spider is found upon your {4} clothes, or about your
person, it signifies that you will shortly receive some money. Old Fuller,
who was a native of Northamptonshire, thus quaintly moralises this
superstition:

"When a spider is found upon our clothes, we use to say, some money is
coming towards us. The moral is this: such who imitate the industry of
that contemptible creature may, by God's blessing, weave themselves
into wealth and procure a plentiful estate."--_Worthies_, p.58. Pt. 2.
ed. 1662.

Omens of death and misfortune are also drawn from the howling of dogs--the
sight of a trio of butterflies--the flying down the chimney of swallows or