Deep South US superstitions...source?
Allright. Old southern (United States) superstitions.
1) Wash your clothes on New Year's Day and you wash for a funeral i.e. someone will die within the year
and the REALLY interesting one
2) To keep away a witch, place a number of needles (amount uncertain but it was my understanding it was to correspond with the number of members of the said witch's family) in one's front yard and uh...pee on them?
I've done some googling and am trying to find the sources of said superstitions and any more details pertaining to them such as cultures with similar beliefs, variations on these superstitions and so forth. I find both fascinating and would love to include them in a story of some sort but I'd like to know their background more thoroughly first.
1) Wash your clothes on New Year's Day and you wash for a funeral i.e. someone will die within the year
and the REALLY interesting one
2) To keep away a witch, place a number of needles (amount uncertain but it was my understanding it was to correspond with the number of members of the said witch's family) in one's front yard and uh...pee on them?
I've done some googling and am trying to find the sources of said superstitions and any more details pertaining to them such as cultures with similar beliefs, variations on these superstitions and so forth. I find both fascinating and would love to include them in a story of some sort but I'd like to know their background more thoroughly first.