Note 2 — IV.—PORTENTS OR OMENS, AUGURIES, LUCKY NUMBERS AND DREAMS.

“In China the crowing of a hen is considered ominous of something unusual about to happen in the family to which it belongs. In order to ascertain whether this event is propitious or unpropitious, the relative position of the fowl, while crowing, is to be observed. If the hen crows while her head is toward the outside, or the front of the premises, it is an unpropitious prognostication, foreshadowing poverty or ill luck of some kind; whereas, if her head is pointing toward the rear of the premises while crowing, it is an omen of good, indicating a more prosperous state of the family. Few families will keep a crowing hen, even should she betoken future good, as extraordinary omens like this are deemed undesirable. The unfortunate fowl is either sold or killed as soon as possible after she has commenced to crow. It is said that if a cock should crow about ten or eleven o’clock in the evening, he is not allowed to remain on the premises long, being killed or sold, as such crowing denotes future evil to the family of the owner.”2 A precisely similar belief obtained amongst our own ancestors. “Moresin ranked the unseasonable crowing of a cock amongst omens,” says Brand; and in Morier’s Journey through Persia, p. 62, we read: “Amongst the superstitions in Persia, that which depends on the crowing of a cock is not the least remarkable. If the cock crows at a proper hour, they esteem it a good omen; if at an improper season, they kill him. I am told that the favourable hours are at nine, both in the morning and in the evening, at noon, and at midnight.” The flight of birds, more especially swallows, is also an omen in Chinese eyes. Classical scholars do not need to be reminded how often this augury was consulted amongst the Greeks and Romans. A Chinaman never wilfully kills swallows. The French of the Mediterranean term them ames damnées and have also a superstitious regard for them—a queer coincidence, to say the least of it. Bats again in China afford omens of good fortune. The Chinese name of the animal is fuk shil (in Cantonese) or “Rat of Happiness,” and its erratic dashes into a room or summer-house are held to augur coming luck to the occupants. With us, similar conduct on the part of a robin red-breast is an omen of calamity.