The Portland daily press., 1879-03-22

story, but we find it ridiculous or indecent
when we see it observed. In that strange
medley OF legends, the Sons of Attila, re-
peated in the charming book "WoDder
World" we read with awe and SYM
pathetic admiration Of the death OF
the Human King: how "Great lamentations
arose among the Huns at the tidings;" how
"The mobiles among the warriors and the
valiant captains SCARED their faces with
knives; the women cut short their hair; in
all the tents for three days and three nights
the men drank, and in all the camp was aw-
ful orgie. The heroes stabbed sharp irons
into their limbs, let the blood flow into the
wine, and Herewith drank TO each other"
And when the burial came and Atta was
lain in the golden coffin, 'The vacant space
was filled 10 the edge with blood. The IA
vorite horse, the cup.illing slave, the boy
singer, they sacrificed before the bier, and
with their blood filled the coffin; so that
should the great king ever leave his grave, he
would find his weapons, his horse, his treas
ures and his attendants around him" All
IL4io We AOou WthOub PlCdSulC3 UUb CduuOb
bring ourselves to understand how the burial
rite, even deprived of its savage features, still
exists among an isolated race extraordinarily
strong in its traditional attachments. We
find no difficulty in accounting for our ad-
herence to heather customs, many of which
are alien to us and borrowed from the myth
ology Of Greece or the East. Why then can
we not have little consideration for the
wild superstition CT the Celt, handed down
to him through, centuries? Why can we not
understand how it has so long resisted the
protest of reason and the exorcism of the
priest?
Bot the horseshoe and the death-howl are
gentle superstitioDs, it nay be urged, while
the wake is savage rite. 1t was rite of
our Saxon forefathers whose idea of heaven
was place where men fought all day and
rested at night so they might fight on the
morrow; and we have forgotten it and our
Scandinavian heaven through no merit of
our own, but through our capacity for for
getting old traditions which other races hold
dear, and our intercourse with the polite and
civilized Latin. Have we forgotten all the
cruel superstitions our ancestors cherished?
How many days ago was it that men in
Portland refused to rescue a young girl from
drowning for fear Of the evil that might
come? 1t is only short time since-Mon-
cure Conway told the story when he lee
tured 10 this city three winters ago-that the
up;r Of Rr;ti tieh mil, liua snt<,
colliery pit to feed the hunger of the de-
mon who had his abode there. They were
worshippng the Karen devil, the great stom-
ach, winged and clawed, black aud loath-
some, that infests the earth; and very likely
had it not been for their fear of an even
stronger power, the Law, they would have
cast in their children as sacrifice to the hun
ger-demoD. Within five years, Conway tells
US again. the Rev. William Rose, of Peace
dale Rhode Island, dug up the body OF his
daughter and cut out her heart because it
was believed she was dragging the rest of the
family to the grave after her. Where ply
-sicians saw disease arising from bad drainage
and foul air, the Rhode Island clergyman saw
the Arab ghoul rising from the grave to
fatten on the bodies OF the living. The terri
BILE story Of Salem and her witch hangings
is still reproach to the Pnritan common
wealth of Massachusetts. Aud to-day,
while we believe in Juggling fends that unite
sailor-knots, and tip tables, and indulge
their ghostly merriment by tossing dinner
bells over screens upon the unguarded pates
of bald headed and awe-struck witnesses oi
manifestations" it lies not in our mouths
to complain Of the superstition of the Celt.
The Irish BaDshee and the white woman who
warns the Hohenzollern of approaching
death are certainly more dignified nor less
probable than the s'materialized spirit" that
frees itself from convict fetters or waves
parsffine hands before the astonished gaze of
nineteenth-centu7y-S Saxon Protestant Ameri-
can superst.tion. Indeed so long as the old
tradition of serpent remains in the
fear of the Great Dragon, it becomes us to
deal gently with the false beliefs of our breth-
rep. La other ways we hold this tenacity of
belief, this reverence for old things, commend
able. In politics we call it patriotism, in
manners conservatism, in religion, sometimes
orthodoxy or Catholicism; and we sound its
praises. Why then should we so harshly
condemn people mol faithful to their ira
dtions than we have been, or reproach them
because they, more logical than we, do
not hesitate TO carry their argument to its
extreme though it land them in the suprem-
est demonstration of folly, the reductiO
od dbsurdum?
Yet it is in this very capacity for forget
fulness and this disincnalion to carry pro-
position to its ultimate terms-in action at
east-that lie our safety and the secret OF
our success. 1t has been said by prac-
tical men thai logic rigidly pursued, often
leads to the doing of foolish things. The
trait of the Saxon is his want of logic, OF
rather his refusal to follow out logical pro-
position If he sees it will work him harm
He pu,sues it as long as he baleves it viii
bring him good-and then stops short, like tht
| avitian clock, never TO go again. The acut
| est reasoning will not move him. He ha
| something that is sometimes better thar
| orse-sense-mule-sense He is as obstinate
as that much abused hybrid which on dark
| and experimental path refuses to swerye an
inch, no matter how viciously its keen-witted
rider drives the spur into its rowels. The
mule feels,-he cannot see,-that a gul
| yawns on either side of the narrow road h'
treads, aud he will not bulge from the path
way.
We of English blood trust to experience
and have little faith in untested theory, how
ever plausible it is or well-reasoned. Ou
law is based on the decisions Of shsewd, oh
servant, honest judges, who sought 10 d.
Justice between man and man. Our State
craft is modelled on the experience Of pract
cal politicians who have successfully ruled
great State. We prefer to profit by the tr
ais of others rather than to strike out ney
ways of our own. OF course in unattempte
woods we must blaze our paths, but we fol
low an old trail in preference TO seemingl
shorter cut that has never been passed owe
We may hasten slowly but do not have t
retrace our steps. We care not to try expel
iments, however brilliant or logical. Ou
adyocacy of the equality of man does nc