Monday 8 October 2012

Australian Wives Tales - I Need Your Help!

Hello my readers.
If you look at the updated Synopses tab, you will see the new description for my current project:

Zoe should have listened to her mother, because then she would have known not to flaunt glittery things where magpies might see them.
That is not the only thing Zoe should have listened to.
When she is carried off by a giant magpie she finds herself in a land where all the old wives tales come true.
Can she remember enough to find her way home?

Sounds pretty good, huh?

Well, I need your help!

I'm trying to collect as many old wives tales, proverbs, oral history etc. about Australia as I can. Things such as magpies collect glittering objects, or to never walk in long grass. Things that you were told as a child, true or not true, that gave you an image of Australia.

If you think of any (or any good ones that aren't specifically Australian, but universal) please post them below.

Thanks!

3 comments:

  1. Something about not stepping on the cracks in the footpath?

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  2. That's just given me a really good spooky scene.
    Though the rhyme is 'don't step on the cracks or you'll break your back' which is not really an event that you can learn from. One wrong step and you're pretty much dead.
    But will work a way around that. Thanks Ben.

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  3. The rhyme I heard was 'don't step on the cracks or you'll break your mother's back' which is even nastier!

    Also, "don't pull a face because if the wind changes you'll stay that way".

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