The Arkansas advocate., 1834-07-04

ice pot on itself, an old woman Is sent for immediately, and with great air of gravity and mystery breathes upon the arm, and mumbles few words over #. If the pa- rents arc not quite credulous enough to be- lieve aiiy and every thing. they scrape pc tatoe and apply II to the arm. The cold sooh relieves the pain. The arm gets well, and the old woman takes the credit of the cure. If they are creduloils enough. they just let the scald take care of itself and the result is long Doctors bill. faboy or man has some dozen warts, insteado of put ting little potash on them, he has some old fellow to rub dry stick over item and whisper d word or two, or he steaLs a bit of meat and ruhs them. and then throws 1t away. Sometimes they get vel, and if they do not, whys they ought to5haye done so. If a horse has the swinny, some little withered up old fellow is sent for. He cuts out bit of skln and produces q supnuration. ] That of itself would cure tine lo.se. but then there would be no mystery abou it. So he goes into the woods, ,alone---makes an open- ing in tree, slips in the skin, and lets the bark close over 1t. The wound in the tree grows up. and the horse gets we'll. Such yagrants ought to be whipped out of society.
 There are certain men throughout the
 west, who have the power of bewitching guns. Good hunters frequently find their guns in an awful ondition-atid they must go and have the charm taken off \ friend of ours was in North Carolina once, at a shooting match. Several shots had been made, and at length one of the best marks Fiien among them declared that his gun was bewitched. Our friend enquired, by whom2 The man was pointed out, little smoke dried old tellow--who was declared to be bewitcher general to the whole neighbor- hood. Our friend ridieu!ed the idea, and at length offered to bet any sum that he would take any gun in company, and the
 man might do his best 10 bewiteh 1t, and that still he would bet on three quarters of an inch at forty steps. At this moment, his coat was twitched from behind, and he fol- lowed the great bewitcher little way from the crowd. The eman begged him not to ex- pose him. Said he, II get my meat from these fools by taking the charm off their guns, for the first deer they kill after- wards, claim quarter. IL will do you no good to expose me, and l am poor and need ali can make by it.7 Our friend de- clared himself firm believer in witchery, and no doubt the old man still gets many a l quarter Of yenison for removing the charm. To the lower classes in tie East, 1t IS a certain sign of misfortune, leszgsss-sssd death, to have a cuckoo come into your garden and commence his song. Itisequally dan gerous to hear whip -poor-ail begin his dolorous lament in the day time The song tof the rihg-dove, too, IS unludky-and the | yell of an owl. Salt split upon the carpet l betokehs something indistinctly awful-and knives and forks crossed after particular fashioh portend disasters. In New York you will hear them talk of seeing srooks, which we fake to mean some species oi l ghosts. The sailor will not allow you to whistle when the wind is rising, and firmly believes in ghosts and gobitis,
 All these things are ridiculous enough, and we imagine that they are likely 10 cling to us for long time. They disappear but slowly from among us, for they have been woven into the very nature of the people by education. If a silly nurse wishes to quiet child, she tells it of something com ing to take 1t away--she makes some noise, and persuades the child that 1t IS supernat- ural Superstition Is imbibed with its moth- er's milk-and as it grows up, 1t learns all the absurd notions of its parents. All this Is rarely counteracted. Those who could do t and who ought to do 1t, act too lre- quently on the principle, that out of evil, good may come-a and hold that a mind so diseased, IS better fitted, and more ready, to receive any bundle of absurdties which they wish to fill it with, under the nan1e of creed Men boast much of their req son, and at the same time have Tot one be- lief or one theory out of twenty, in the adoption of which reason had any share, or which reason and common sense could successfully oppose. II seems very ra- tional, that the Creator should be employed in making coffins in candle wicks, pinching doos to make them howl, and breaking fid- i ble strings-all 10 show that some one Is about to die. Man likes to create to him. self supernatural world, full ofiniuences acting mysteriousfy upon him and his for tunes. He does this from various causes. His overweening vanity is one, which leads him to imagine himself of importance suf- ficient to be acted upon by other and high CT beings-to excite enmlty in the malig- nant spirits or powers of the Universe, and friendship and affection in the good. An l other is, his desire of ascribing iiis evils and hts misfortunes to any other cause than bis own stupidity and folly. When he can lay the blame on nothing else, he rails m good set terms against his luck-as though there were anything or could be any thing