Counting Superstitions
Forget individual numbers — the very act of counting itself comes with a series of positive and negative superstitions. One folk remedy suggests that counting the number of warts on your body and revealing the number to a stranger will cause the warts to go away. Of course, you should never count money, your children or your possessions, as this can make them go away as well. The same is true for livestock — like counting chickens before they hatch — as well as fish and gambling winnings. Some superstitious types claim that weighing babies at birth also brings bad luck, as does counting the stones in ancient monuments.