Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.1 #33 (07 Mar 1891).
Among beliefs current with sailors is the notion that it is unlucky to turn a loaf upside down after helping one's self from it; the idea being that for every loaf so turned a ship will be wrecked. It is also said that if a loaf parts in the hand while being cut, it bodes dissension in the family—the separation of husband and wife. Again, it has been a widespread belief that the whereabouts of a drowned body may be ascertained by floating a loaf of bread down the stream, when it will stop over the spot where the body is.
A curious account of of body thus discovered near Hull appeared some years back. After diligent search had been made in the river for a child, to no purpose, a twopenny loaf, with a quantity of quick-silver in it, was set floating from the place where the child was supposed to have fallen in, which steered its way down the river upwards of half a mile, when the body happening to lie on the contrary side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about and swam across the river, and gradually sank near the child, and both the child and the loaf were brought up with the grapplers ready for the purpose.
A correspondent of Notes and Queries maintains it is a scientific fact that a loaf and quicksilver indicate the position of the body, as the weighted loaf is carried by the current just as the body is. This practice, too, prevails on the Continent, and in Germany the name of the drowned person is inscribed on the piece of bread; while in France loaves consecrated to St. Nicholas, with lighted wax tapers in them, have generally been employed for that purpose.