off the bad luck. Also, when Huck dumps the salt-cellar over at breakfast and Miss Watson prevents him from throwing some over his shoulder, he believes that this means he will have great misfortune. He doesn't question the validity of these superstitions, for he attributes any bad luck following these incidents to the prophesied misfortune. Sure enough, bad luck follows, for Huck soon finds his abusive, drunken father's tracks in the mud, near the widow's garden.Later, when Huck runs away from his father and meets up with Jim, he shows more evidence that he only believes what is directly proven. Jim says that young birds flying in a certain manner meant it was going to rain, and that hairy arms and a hairy breast was a sign that you were going to be rich. Sure enough, it rains soon after, and Jim (who has a hairy chest) says he is rich, for he is worth $800. When Huck brings in a snake-skin that he finds, Jim tells him it is the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with his hands. Bad luck does follow, for Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake whose mate Huck killed and curled up on Jim's blanket as a joke. Huck says, "I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take aholt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it" (1234). This shows that Huck now believes this superstition because Jim was bitten by a snake soon after Huck picked up the snake-skin, proving it to him that it is accurate.Any time anything bad happens to Huck or Jim, they connect it to a superstition. Huck is so superstitious because he believes every misfortune is prophesied by a superstition, and this belief is upheld by Jim's strong support. While these superstitions probably have no connection to any of their bad luck, both Jim and Huck interpret it as a result of the superstition. This explains why Huck is so superstitious....
