Mr. Russell,

I'm not sure whether this information will be timely for your 7th grader's
assignment, but if you can lay your hands on a copy of  *The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Detective,* edited by John
C. Gerber, Paul Baender, and Terry Firkins, volume 4 in The Works of Mark
Twain (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press,
1980), you will find many if not all the supserstitions "documented" to
some extent in the so-called "Explanatory Notes," pages 469-93. For
instance, the dead cat cure for warts is found (according to these notes)
in T. J. Farr, "Riddles and Superstitions of Middle Tennessee," *Journal
of American Folkore* 48 (1835): 328, no. 44. I realize that journal may
not be very accessible to you, but other citations in these notes may be
somewhat more so, and they do in any case say whether or not
documentation has been found by the editors.

If you can't find a copy of this edition, please just send me your
address and I'll do what I can to help out. Good luck.


Bob Hirst, General Editor, Mark Twain Project