The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1856-08-30
Popular sape,sti.ions.

Addison, in, one of his inimitable "Specta-
tors. rhumorously shows up the folly and i'll
convenience oftn. practical belief i'll popular
supcrstitions, which were as rife in his day us
in the present time. He says: .G; 9s.lpf os i
!. Going yesterday to dine with an old nc
quaintance, l had the misfortune to find his
whole family very much detected. Upon asking
him the occasion of it, he told me that his wife
had dreampt a strange dream the night before,
which they were afraid portended some misf6r.
tune to themselves or to their children. AT her
coming into the room, I observed a settled me-
lancholy in her countenance, whichtI should
have been troubled for, had I not heard from
whence it proceeded. We were no sooner sgt
down, "My dear" snys she, turning to her huss
band, you may now see the stranger that was
i'm the candle last night" j was rejecting with
the midst Of my musings she desired me to
reach her a little salt upon the point of my
knife, which did / in such d Itrepidation and
hurry of obedience, that ! let it drop by the
way, at which she Immediately started, and
said it fell toward her. Upon this l looked
very blank and observing the concern Of the
whole table, began to consider myself, with
some confusion, as u person that had brought
a disaster upon the family. The lady, however.
recovering herself after q little space, said to
her husband, with a sigh, "My dear, misfor-
tunes never come single. De you not remem-
Der that the pigeon-house fell the very afternoon
that our careless wench split salt upon the
table 2" .tlGJ1-7 .9ttsfs l1" " 3D. n5.-'i
"I'he reader may guess at the figure ! made.
after having done all this mischief, dispatched
my dinner us rapidly as I could, with my usual
taciturnity when to my utter confusion, the
lady seeing me quitting my knife and fork, and
laying them across one another on my plate,
desired me that | would honor her so far as to
take them out of that figure, and lay them side
by side. What the absurdity was which / had
committed l did notlknow, but ! suppose there
was some Evolutionary superstition in it and
therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house,
| disposed of my knife and fork in two parallel
lines, which is the figure i shall always lay
them in future, though l do not know any rea-
son for it.
Upon my return home. / fell into n pre-
found contemplation on the evils that attend
these superstitious tollies o fmaukind how they
subject us to imaginary Affections and addl-
tional sorrows that do not properly conc with
in our lot. As ii the natural calamities of life
were not sufficient for it, we turn the most in
different circumstances iuto misfortunes, and
suffer as much from triHing accidents as from
real evils. I have known the shooting of a star
spoil a nights rest and have seen a man in
love grow pale, aud lose his appetite, upon the
plucking of a merry-thought. A screeeh-owl
at midnight has alarmed q -lami''' more than u
band of robbers; nay the .Sof II cricket
hath struck more terror than'the roaring of a
lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable, which
may not appear dreadful to an imagination
that is filed with onlens and prognostics. A
rusty nail, or u crooked pin, shoot up into
p~rodigies." i.