Wicked Cool Cheremis Omens and Magic

From the Sebeok and Ingemann book "Studies in Cheremis: The Supernatural"

• If when hunting you meet a woman with bare genitals, you will not have luck - you will not catch anything.
• If a woman gives birth to a child in a shirt, the child will be lucky.
• If a person has much hair in his armpits, he has luck.
• If your anus itches, a Tatar is coming.
• A big-testicled man's testicles begin to ache before there is rain; his testicles descend; then the rain comes; the weather will be wet.
• If on your way somewhere you must defecate, you will have luck.
• If Russians sing, there will soon be rain.
• If a cat washes its face with its left paw, a Russian will come.
• If a cat washes its face with its right paw, a Cheremis will come.
• If a person's horse harnessed for a trip defecates in the yard, he will have luck.
• If a person's horse harnessed for a trip urinates in the yard, he will not have luck.
• If, they are taking a horse to be sold, it defecates in the yard, they will not be able to sell it.
• If you meet a pig, you will have luck.
• If a squirrel comes into the village, the village will burn down.
• If an ant urinates on your foot, your foot will be injured.
• If there is a big cockroach in the house, it is a good sign.
• If the cockroachs hide in summer, it is not good, the village will burn down.
• If a tick sticks to one's neck in the spring, the hemp will grow tall.
• If all the crabs disappear from the river, there will be war.
• If the frog croaks, potatoes must be planted early.
• If a lizard urinates on your foot, it will be wounded.
• The time when peas bloom is difficult for children; they die then.
• If there are many hazelnuts, many girls will become pregnant.
• If maple leaves fall rightside up, the thief will be caught.
• If the Volga freezes on a meat day, the cows will give rich milk and there will be many fish.
• If there are piles of snow on the tops of trees, there will be many swarms of bees in the following summer.
• If bread falls out of your mouth while eating, you will not have anyone to give you food and drink when you are old.
• If your shoe becomes untied while you are walking, your wife is having sexual intercourse with another man.
• When a woman sings she is asking for the whip.
• If you place a stick into an ant hill and many ants climb up the stick, cucumbers will grow well that year; if they don't climb up, cucumbers will grow only here and there.
• A person catches a louse on a sick person and lays the louse on ashes sprinkled on the floor. If the louse crawls toward the door, the sick person will die; if the louse crawls toward the holy corner, he will recover.
• If a man keep's a cat's afterbirth rolled up in a kerchief, he will not become a soldier. If he is conscripted he will not pass the examination and be rejected.
• If a child eats burned bread, he will not be afraid of bears.
• If a person urinates into a river, the but bozez 'water spirit' will punish the person with some affliction.
• If a person puts on a new shirt on Wednesday, his body will itch until he puts on another shirt.
• If a person urinates into a spring, a sore will appear on his penis.
• If a person urinates toward the sun, either skin will come off the tip of his finger or sores will appear on his head.
• If a person eats food from which a cat has eaten, he will have lung trouble and breathe panting like a cat.
• When a girl sees her image in a mirror, she kisses the mirror and says, "Do not take my likeness."
• If children go far to play, an antlered hare will carry them off on its back.
• If a man has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law, the sheep will multiply.
• Work done at night will not amount to anything.
• If a person cooks and eats a black cat in the bathhouse at midnight, he will become rich.
• "Ant butter," a salve to heal wounds, is made in the following manner: A cream-smeared glass is placed in an ant heap. When the glass is full of ants, it is put in dough and baked in the oven. Later the ants are shaken from the glass onto a cloth. The cloth is squeezed and "ant butter" comes out.
• If a cow's afterbirth does not come out, any man who comes in must undo his belt. If he does not do this, the afterbirth will not come out.
• A growth on a person's body, face, or neck, called pi ota 'dog testicle,' can be removed by rubbing it with bread and saying, "Let the dog testicle be the dog's," and spitting. The bread is then taken outside and fed to a dog.
• A stomachache can be cured "by rubbing it with another stomach," that is, by having sexual intercourse.
• If a person vomits, he should eat pickles, marinated herring, or some other sour food.
• Urine is used to cure certain diseases. A person who has jaundice (sar muze 'yellow sickness') must wash himself in his own urine daily three times before sunrise. A person who has sem muze 'black sickness,' must drink urine from a black sheep and wash himself in it.