Amber beads, worn as a necklace, can protect against illness or cure colds.
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Collect seven or nine different flowers on midsummer eve and place them under your pillow and it is said that you will dream of your future spouse. (Sweden)
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When you speak of bad luck, it is said that one should always knock on wood. Also knocking when speaking of good luck apparently helps with having good luck. This is an old Celtic tradition related to belief of wood spirits.
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A single magpie is considered a sign of bad luck. A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar recites an old proverb concerning the incidence of bad weather when magpies forage alone and a possible scientific explanation for this.
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Pirates believed that piercing the ears with such precious metals as silver and gold improved one's eyesight.
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Before traveling a person should, apparently, sit on their luggage. (Russian)
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According to an age old custom, carrying a dead shrew in your pocket wards off rheumatism!
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There are numerous sailors' superstitions, such as: it is considered bad luck for a ship to set sail on a Friday, to bring anything blue aboard, to stick a knife into the deck, to leave a hatch cover upside-down, to say "pig", or to eat walnuts aboard.
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