The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-04-02
ODD sUPERsTITIoNs.
SOME PECULIAR ANALocIEs OF
.xys FOLK LORE. XII
Or. Oswaid's Comments o, the Legends
OF the American Abor gnes--The
white Horse Foiiows Red
"a Haired Girls Only. $3.50

On the prairies OF our Northwestern
border lands as well as In Peru and
Scand 'navia. the crow is considered a
bird OF Ill omen. Vampires revisit
the glimpses Of the moon In the North
ern Alleghanies as on the banks
OF the Danube and both the
Bule a.ian rustics and the Cherokees
believe that the migratory propensi-
ties OF the ghoul can be cured by Inn
pal!ng the corpse. They moreover
agree upon the characteristic symp-
toms OF the prodigy blood-red lips
and protruding canine teeth.
Does the evolution OF superstitions
proceed by fixed laws. like the devel-
opment OF toadstool or starfshp
asks DIR. Oswald in the San Francisco
Chronicle The natives OF Costa
Rica not only believe in mermaids
but pretend to have seen them comb
their sea-g reen hair and try the effects
Of their coquetry on unwary fisher
Boys and II DIR. Brinton should succeed
in translating their hieroglyphics. he
would probably come across Melusina
traditions and Lohengrin sagas Briar
roots now and then assume the form
OF human hand, and II the number
OF the gnarled fingers should happen
to be five it Is 10 TO l that the fifth
will be the smallest and the one in
the middle the longest. No philoso-
pher will perhaps solve the enigma Of
the consistency OF apparently acct
dental analogies. Cor
That the wailing OF the night birds
should be mistaken for the lament of
departed soul seems conceivable
enough. but what marvel OF coinci-
dence can have induced the high
landers OF Southern Switzerland and
Northern Mexico to connect that be-
lief with the idea of infanticide and
evil portentsp Die Klag (.the wail'')
OF the Canton Tessin Is the wandering
spirit Of mother explaining the crime
against the life OF her child and ap-
palling her hearers with the PRESENT.
ment Of impending evil. La Llorona
C'the weeper"), OF the Zalisco high
lands. is the spirit OF stepmother
who has driven out her husbands
children to beg their bread. and who
now in her turn has to wander home
less and freezes the blood of belated
travellers with her boding cry. Ay
de mi alma! Ay. de mis- ninas!" is
the Spanish version of the Llorona's
wall, though the spirit OF a hirt who has
Tilted her chance away would seem to
have equally cogont reasons for self
reproach.
And why does the dramaturgy of
magic deal chiefly with female char
acterp Lamias. harpies. parces ban
shoes, female necromancers (about
fifty witches to one black wizard as
our California miners would probably
distinguish him), fairies and Lloronas
Il know my old crones," says the wer-
wolf hunter in Goethe's .'Goetz Won
Berlichingen:"
knew them all called their names,
Old Sues and Kate's and Pegs,
They barked at me, they howled at me,
But had to run home on two legs.
Even the white horse omen asso-
ciates its augury with red haired girls
"a mystery which in every other re-
spect has, by the way. been fully ex-
q
stefan calls the necessary frequency
OF one Of the concurrent events" In
plainest English there are good many
white horses. An observer stationed
near the corner OF market and Kear-
ney streets might count /. 900 OF them
between morning and noon The only
marvel would be II they should sud-
denly become scarce after the appear
ance OF the fox-headed female. In
nine out of ten cases one of the nu-
merous quadrupeds will be sighted
within two minutes. but the sight OF a
yellow dog or Doodle alderman
could not be more strictly non. mirac-
ulous.
Giants and dwarfs on the other
hand. appear in stag parties like the
colonists of Rips Harmonic. Thor,
on his expedition to Gotunheim meets
only male monsters and the dwarfs OF
Tauler's Enchanted World" are all
learned and long bearded. And here,
too, the history of fairyland repeats
itself on the traditions of the American
aborigines. The dwarfs in the folklore
of the Yucatan Mayas. quoted in Wal
dek's Mexican Antiquities resemble
the old Saxon dwarfs as the honeycomb
OF Yucatan wood-bee resembles the
honeycomb OF Saxon hive-bee; the
same quaintness Of conceit the same
rustic flavor. the same realism OF do
tails. as in the Discovery OF Quatpan
Annals Treasure" A boy OF q neigh
boring hill tribe visits the kings hunt
ing ground in quest of nuts climbs
tree. and while filling his pouch
happens to look down. and
In the high grass at tho foot OF
the tree sees little creature which he
at first mistakes for a raccoon. till he
sees the bearded face and bag which
The pigmy is busy filling with wind
falls. After dropping few nuts to
divert the brownies attention the boy
leaps down and at once gives chase
but finds himself unable to overtake
the imp who has dropped his bag and
flies through the woods In wide leaps
like. q frightened rabbit. A WE'LL
aimed stone at last cripples the fugi-
tive as he climbs up a steep cliff. but
In the hauda Of his cantor he tr,rns