“Itchy palms” “Itchy feet”
“itchy nose” “burning/itchy ears” September, 8, 2001
2. “Toddy” (Kathleen) Ritter
3. Adrian McGarrity, male, 40s
Irish-born, Irish-English speaking
Oct 6, 2001
in an airplane enroute, Lisbon to London somewhere over Galicia
“When you get itchy palms, said my cousin Sineád, holding out her palms, “it means you’re either going to get something or give something away. Left means you’re going to get something, right means you’re going to give something away.”
Sineád, who lives in Nicasio, Ca., said she learned this saying from her mother, my aunt Canice. Sineád insists that it’s accurate. Canice’s sister, our aunt Toddy, who lives in Santa Cruz, also knew of this superstition ever since she was a young girl in San Francisco in the ‘40s, but she says Sineád has the hands reversed.
Toddy said, “itchy feet means travel, or “you’re antsy.” She thinks she learned these superstitions in the ‘40s from her father, who was from Longford, Ireland.
She said, “itchy nose: kiss a fool. Itchy ears: someone’s talking about you.” Her daughter Ceit and I have the same versions, but I learned them from my grandmother who is Toddy’s mother. Sineád is the only one who has reversed the order of the hands. But Sineád is left-handed.
I decided to collect data further afield. I met Adrian McGarrity, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, on a turbulent plane ride enroute from Lisbon to London. An excellent informant, if not a captive audience, Adrian gave me the variations which I was hoping to find.
He said, “itchy palms or hands mean money if it’s the left, and a fight if it’s the right palm. Or get in an argument with someone. Itchy feet means you’re going to walk on strange ground, somewhere you haven’t been. My mother, she would tell me these things.” He’d never heard of “itchy nose, kiss a fool.”
Because Sineád is left-handed, I assumed she switched directions to suit herself. I made a guess based upon the Latin definition: dexter = right; sinister =left. Toddy, Canice, Ceit and I equate good with right, and bad with left. But note how Adrian who is right-handed, has a similar scheme to Sineád’s, left= $ ; right = trouble/loss. Truly a variation. When it came to tossing salt over a shoulder to ward off bad luck, Sineád was the only one with left hand over right shoulder. Adrian’s itchy ear story formula: “left for right; right for spite,” would be interesting to apply.
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