Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-17
SUPERSTITION.
Queer HeIiefs-Good Luck and Bad Luck
Buying Fair Winds.

properly speaking credullty - exists IN
every cline and amongst all people. 1t
NAV differ according TO the country in the
manner of its exhibition, but whether it
be Spanish peasant who turns the image
| of the virgin face to the wall when about
! to do something he fears may offend her.
or my Lord Tomnoddy who puts thou "
| on a certain horse for 40 other earthly
reason but that he has dreamed that it
will win, or the schoolboy, whose faith IN
certain ally when playing at marbles
nothing can shake--the sum total Is the
same. It is tactic acknowledgement of
their own weakness and of their belief in
something MYSTERIOUS invisible, indedn-
able. but all-powerfut. In our own land
these queer beliefs are plentiful in the ex-
treme, and probably one of the oldest OF
them is that of ''peeping Although by
some writers it has been asserted that It
was first practiced by DR.. Dee, the aStrol-
oyer, in the time of James |. This Is not
| so, for not only was 1t practlced In the
middle ages, according to Irlthemleus,
| bishop of Spanheim, but 1t Is even men
toned by the Prophet Isaiah, thus: And
when they shall say unto you seek unto
them that have familiar spirits;
ana unto wizards that peep and
mutter, should not people seek unto their
! God?" etc.-Isaiah viii, 10. This refer
! ence of the prophet to the peeplng and
/ muttering can leave no room tor doubt on
/ the mind of anyone who has ever wit
messed the custom as 1t IS observed at the
present time in the north of England.
| The mode of operation Is as follOws:-Ihe
person who is, we Will say, young
| woman as a typical case-wishing to dive
( g-k, lzo
! that the glass may be charged for her. She
is presented with piece of solid crystal
of the form of and orange, while the
woman, takes A piece of an egg shape.
Tue wizard, a male aceompIice, then
stands between them, with hand on each
shoulder, and proceed to charge The two
! glasses by muttering an incantation, which
is addressed to one or the other of the
seven angels, according as he happens to
rule the day and hour. Their names are
Michael, Gabriel, CamaeI. Raphael,
Sachiel, Anael, and Cassil. When the in
cantation is completed, the glass is said TO
be charged and the vision is supposed to
appear in it, The inquirer is requested to
look In the glass. She does SO but of
course sees nothing. Then comes the turn
of the seer to look, and upon her doing so
she appear. to see, and will describe freely
the destiny of her dupe. There is no
limit to the airy imaginations of these
'peepers;' but that their seeing does
not always coincide with facts the inquirer
finds out. unfortunately, too late. One
old lady in large Lancashire town pre-.
tended to see, and most graphically de-
scribed, the laundering of a vessel upon
which was her own son. on the very day
that it dropped anchor safe and sound In
Sidney harbor. When the art is practised
in Egypt, black liquid, placed in the
hollow of the hand, is used instead of a
glass, but in all otser particulars the cere-
mony IS practically the same. The super
stition of sailors is proverbial, but the
queerest belief of all was that held In by
gone days as to TIE possibility of buying
fair wind 1t is mentioned by Sir Walter
Scott who, in his notes TO the Pirate,
describes an old woman of Stromness
whom he visited, Bessie Mile, and who
lived by selling winds to the sailors. Says
Sir Walter: He was venturesOme mas
ter of a vessel who left the roadstea0 OF
Suomness without paying his Offering to
propitiate Bessie Mile. Her charges
were certainly not extortionate, for 1t was
but sixpence for favorable wind. For
the vessel that paid it, and she said the
wind was sure to come, sooner or later. -
Steam has, fortunately, nowadays
rendered us independent of such d
doubtful operation Another strange
piece of superitition is tIe belief, or
! iginaIly Morse, still held by some of oul
northern fishing communities, that
: whoever saves a drowning man must
reckon on him ever after as an enemy
1t is commonly remarked by these fsn
. ermen, as a strangely mysterious fact
that persons who have been rescued from
death by drowning regard their deliver
ers ever after with dislike bordering OIL
enmity; and it is affirmed, too that wher
! the crew of some boat or vessel have perish
ed, with but the exception of one person
the relatives of the deceased invariably
look up the survivor with deep, ire
pressible hatred. And in both cases tb'
ELECTED feelings of hostility and dislike
are said to originate not simply in grief
embittered envy, or uneasy ingratitude
o tut in some occult and supernatural
o cause. The following anecdo,e is strik
ingly illustrative of this kind of apotheo
sis of the envious principle. Some sixt,
q years ago all the crew of a Cromarty boa
persisted, with the exception of one fisher
. man and he was SO prosecuted by the re
latives of the drowned. who even threaten
ed his life, that he was compelled, mucl
r against his inclination, to remove t.
q Nairn. There, however, only few year
\ after, he was wrecked second time, and
. as in the first instance; proved the sol
q survivor of the crew Again he was sub
] jected to a persecution similar to the one b
: had already endured, and was ultimate
p compel ed to quit Marin as he had befor
q Quilted Cromarty.
q The mystical pro, rites OF number
t from another queer but widely spread be
/ lief. Dabalism is of, the greatest anti
: ouity, and the Hythagoreans went so ia
T as to specify the particular character an
e sex of numbers. Thus | was male, as be
= ing the parent of all; was female, as, i
/ conjunction with l, the two great proper
r ties of numbers, unity and multiplicity
= are produced: but was the first perfec
} number, because multiplied by make
8 more than 3 added to 3, which is not th
: case with 2, for 2x "a. and 2 x "a
n So unity or trinity both began the numel
b alton series. according TO the light i
e which they were viewed. Certain mum
} bers haze always been held to be sacred
e the number especially 50. In the belle
b of some of the early Christians was mad
d lucky because a human being sheds hi
ii teeth at seven, becomes a youth at twice
n MN at thrice 7. and reaches hir gran
l. ciimacteric at ninetimes seven
10 Is also sacred nun
Al Der. sanctifed, it is said, in the huma
d form by ten fingers and toes, which, som
r people assert, are to be discern