Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-06-07
EasTg8N SUPERSTITION.
Bc0;cu7ovs He1icf stiH Held BY Beni0hfed
Ecopic of mod Island.

EASTERN 81 iEA'9AAAAO-''
Ridiculous Relief stu Hela "y 1'e"'O"'e"
This wild. wooded and rocS-rlbbed
region, less than days journey from
Gen. Putnam's historic wolf den In
Northeastern Connecticut is full OF
snuerstitions, writes Rhode Island
correspondent of the New York Times.
1t is one of the queerest OF localities
In the center OF Gloucester lies Pona-
gansett Lake, and all about this lake
are the dwellings Of hale and hearty
people. who make this country, far
from the busy haunts OF men, ve-ita-
BILE wonderland of legend and remin-
iscence. The old men delight in tell
ing ghost stories, and the young people
like to listen. Gloucester lies on the
crooked old Indian trail which ran be-
tween Connecticut ard the Providence
plantations.
For generations bac. tnc Gloucester
farmers have believed in wizardry.
They will do much Of their work only
during the full of the moon. Otherwise
they would expect to die or to have
very bad luck. Planting must not be
done until the signs of the zodiac are
rropitious, and gardens must never be
plowed on Fridays. Even tooth
must not be pulled unless the stars are
right; if it is, it will come hard and
cause great suffering.
Pork, if killed during the small of
the moon, will shrink to nothing in
cooking, while that butchered at the
full of the moon will continue white
and firm. To insure luck in the man
agement of domestic animals the sign
of the zodiac must be in the leg. The
wish bones of fowls are preserved on
sticks. Some families keep hundreds
on hand all the time. When the zodiac
sign is in the head, then the Glouces-
ter people believe one can do the most
at catching pickerel and can hook
the biggest fish. Hence, the almanac
being hung by the kitchen fireplace in
all Gloucester houses is thing the set
tiers could not live without. Its study,
if one would reap good harvests, "catch"
good claiming tides, and avoid misfor-
tune, is imperative.
These people also believe that if you
take up black snake and bite it your
teeth will never decay; that if the nails
are pared on Friday toothache will be
prevented, and that child born in the
heat of the day can see into the future,
and will be exempt from influences of
witchcraft. A ship that has such one
on board they say will never sink.
Perhaps the most curious belief still
haunting these hearthstones of interior
Rhode Island is that relating to the
character of the little fish in Ponagan-
sett reservoir. This pond is the source
of the Pawtuxet River, which flows east
erly into Narragansett Bay, and years
before the building of the dam across
the outlet of the lake, herring from the
salt sea used to swim up the stream to
the shoal waters of the lake to spawn.
The old settlers who have lived about
the lake all their lives aver that the
sinners which now glisten in its crystal
waters are naught else but the degener-
ated descendenants Of the herring race,
and show the same characteristics.
One Of "the Bowen boys" at the lake
frequently says that my father used to
say there was no sinners before any
ID dams was built to fence out the
herrins