Got home this morning after a long drive through Texas.  Nice to be home,
and even nicer to have Elizabeth with me.  Even if she wears polished
boots.  It was really nice in Texas; warm and bright instead of cold and
overcast Missouri.  Elizabeth has lost her cold Missouri conditioning, and
thinks a balmy 27F is cold.  Silly girl.
 
Q: "After reading about ferret myths and things, I was wondering if there
    are any superstitions regarding ferrets?"
 
A:  You mean like, sniff a polecat's tail and never go to jail?
 
Had to look this one up.  Not many in the literature.  For ferrets
specifically, there is a really good one regarding curing whooping cough.
If you let a ferret drink from a dish of milk, then you drink the left-over
milk, you are supposed to be cured of the disease, according to British and
Irish tradition.  The same superstition applies to milk drank from by fox
as well.  So I guess the best of all would be milk drank from by a foxy
ferret?
 
I couldn't find any specific to polecats in my short search, but I did find
some regarding weasels.  Apparently, seeing a weasel is bad luck troughtout
most of Europe because they may be a witch in disguise.  If the weasel is
white, then a death will come to your one of your relatives before the year
is over.  If it runs to the left, Ooooooooooo, bad news for you!  You have
enemies in your own house.  The only thing you can do is to throw three
small stones in front of you then make the sign of the cross seven times.
I suspect it will work every time.
 
Another weasel superstition is they never allow themselves to be caught
sleeping, that they cannot be caught and will turn into a fairy and fly
away if approached, and that weasels that have feasted on rue (a herb
symbolizing repentance and sorrow) will actively kill snakes.  If you can
get a weasel to lick salt from your finger, you will be brave in battle.
Like only cowards let weasels lick their fingers.
 
Treading on the tail of a young weasel will stop dogs from barking.
Keeping your coins in a weasel skin purse will insure they never run out.
And my personal favorite; eating the still-beating raw heart of a weasel
will give the gift of prophency and divination for an entire year.  I don't
know if the year starts before or after ralphing.
 
Since there are so few, I thought I would make some up and start urban
myths of my own.  Here are a few Bob Superstitions regarding ferrets:
 
1) Three poops on the floor and you'll never be "dirt" poor.
 
2) If a ferret licks your chin, you'll always have a grin.
 
3) If a ferret sniffs the sky and turns hard right twice, you will meet a
   CaCa Land Fishing Gestapo Agent covered with warts.  Don't touch!  If
   they touch you, throw three poopies at the largest warts.
 
4) If you can do any one of the following three things blindfolded, you
   will always have good luck.  Perform sucessful open heart surgery.
   Pilot a skateboard down the narrow Cactus Lane.  Clean a ferret litter
   pan without gloves.
 
5) Fresh jill urine cures herpes.  Try it.
 
6) Fresh hob urine can be used to fight vampires.  It is called Poley
   Water....
 
7) A ferret poopie a day keeps the irradiated mutant rodentia away.
 
8) If you walk barefooting through a ferret room at night, you will wake
   up to find your bed sheets have strange stains and odors.
 
9) Ferret hair in coffee is a cure for visitors that stay too late.
 
10) If you drink soda sampled by a ferret, you will be cured of Bhordom.
 
I only have a couple of books on superstitions, so there may be more cool
stuff I don't know about.  How about people who know ferret, polecat,
weasel or ermine supertitions that I haven't mentioned, post them for the
rest of us to chortle over.  Just grab a handful of small stones first....
 
Bob C and 19 Mo' Herpes Curers and Vampire Fighters
[Posted in FML issue 2607]