The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-12-14
TURKISH SUPERSTITION.
Even the Sultan Consults the Signs For the
Simplest Undertaking.

Simplest Undertakings
There is no land on earth where
more superstitions prevail than this
OF the unspeakable Turk. Some of
them are very interesting.
II by any chance a sparrow or
swallow flies in the window and cir
cles three times around the room. it
is a sign that blood relation of
some one present is about to die.
There are very many signs and
happenings that are supposed to pre-
dict marriage For instance. if a
horse sneezes when she passes one in
the street, she is positive that her
time has nearly come. If her hair
becomes unfastened, she knows that
she will soon be sought for, and if
she goes to eat peach and finds its
kernel split she is equally certain
that she will soon be welded.
There are fully as many little
charms tried by the Turkish maiden
to know when she will marry as by
her Christian sisters, and strange as
it may seem she is quite as anxious
| to enter that state.
When in summer a bee flies in at
the window, it is regarded as the
harbinger of good news as is also
a thlstledown or a beetle. A moth
at night flying about a light means
thoughts and good wishes from i'm
mortals; the unexpected braying of
a donkey visit from an unpleasant
acquaintance.
If man leaves his home for bust
ness and walks along the street and
a bird alights exactly in front of him
three times, he turns on his heel and
goes home, and no power short of an
imperial firman will make him pass
that place again that day, for he is
sure that if he attempts to do so
something will happen him. A dog
running three times across his path
will also turn him back.
When Turk is starting out upon
an important venture, he will say to
himself, THE issue will be as I de-
sire it if the first three persons l
meet have blue eyes" Blue eyes be-
ing far less common than black, he
takes the chances and sometimes
sees the three blue eyed ones first.
never could reconcile the belief in
the written destiny and in the omen
and signs together. If it was the
destiny of some one to be killed by
accident at such a place and mo-
ment, of what virtue would an evil
omen be or a good one2 He. is bound
to be killed anyhow.
Augury is also made by the forms
of the clouds and by the entrails of
fish, animals and fowls, by orange
pits and the odd or even number of
divisions in the pulp. If a red
orange was peeled by accident, the
person feels great pleasure, as that
betokens prosperity and gold
When the sultan is about to under
take anything, however insignifi-
can't, all the signs are consulted. If
he is to go to the mosque, all the
known means are employed to dis
cover whether it would be more pro
pltious for him to go by land or wa
| ter.
Probably there is not a foreign
minister or ambassador who has ever
been accredited to Turkey who has
not been annoyed beyond measure
on account of the unaccountable
postponement of a dinner to be given
him at the imperial palace, post
ponement that always seemed to
come in the most awkward and mex
plicable time. But if he had known
the truth it would doubtless have
been found to be that ON consulting
the augurs it was found that some
condition or other was unpropitious,
and so the dinner was suddenly post
poned until the fates were in some
measure appeased.
1t would take a volume to tell all
the ramifcations of the superstitious
beliefs in Turkey, and unimportant
as they would be under other cir
tcumstances they really have much
to do with the deciding of important
questions of international signif-
canoe, and he who intends to make
that country his even temporary
home would do well to study up
their many superstitions and try to
conform with their outward observ-
ance as far as is possible. -Constanti-
nople Letter in New York Press.