Various Versions of the Magpie Riddle

In ancient European cultures the magpie is said to predict omens, and there is a type of divination based on the magpie according to an old riddle. The gist of it is according to how many magpies are seen the following will be one's fate.

The first time I heard of the magpie riddle from an Irish guy whom I shared a house with in Derry. He told me the riddle when we saw some magpies:

One for sorrow 

Two for joy 

Three for a girl 

Four for a boy 

Five for silver 

Six for gold 

Seven for a secret that's never to be told

This version only goes to seven. Later, I heard a longer version with either to ten.

... 

Eight is a wish 

Night is a kiss 

Ten for a bird that's never to be missed 

(or "Ten for a time of joyous bliss")

When I was pregnant with my second child, I walked for 40 minute to work everyday and on my way there is a large park where I always saw magpies. If I caught sight for one, I tried to spot more in order to find the baby's gender ("three for a girl, four for a boy").

Then one day when I read The Poison Maiden (by Paul Doherty), a history novel about murder and mayhem in the court of Edward II in medieval England and came across another version of the rhyme which might be popular in medieval Europe. It goes:

One for anger 

Two for mirth 

Three for a wedding 

Four for birth 

Five for rich 

Six for poor 

Seven for a bitch 

Eight for a whore 

Nine for burying 

Ten for a dance 

Eleven for England 

Twelve for France

Another version of the magpie riddle found in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable goes:

One's a sorrow, 

two's for mirth, 

Three's for a wedding, 

Four's for a birth, 

Five's a christening, 

Six a death, 

Seven's heaven, 

Eight is hell, 

And nine's the devil his old self.

Magpie symbolic meanings take on a brighter note in the East, where the Chinese regard the magpie as a good luck symbol, joy, marital bliss, sexual happiness, and long lasting fortune. When the Chinese hear the cry of a magpie it is said to be an announcement of the arrival of friends and family.