Huckleberry Finn

And Jim said you musn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shake the tablecloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a bee hive, and that man died, the bees must be told before sun-up next morning, or else the sees would all weaken down and quit work and die. 


If you have read Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you know Huckleberry is a very superstitious man. As I read this, I wonder if Jim is the reason Huck is superstitious in the first place, or if he simply provokes it. In any case, Huck believes almost every word Jim says, and is learning all these bad luck theories from Jim. In some ways, I could be seen that this is part is Jim and Huck's father-son relationship, this passing down of beliefs.