The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-14
DOOR LEGENDS.
Curious Old SuperstitiOns Prevalent
in Different Countries.
From the London STANDARD.

OAu
in Different Countries.
From the London Standard.
From the earliest ages, supersttions
have been associated with doorways, gates,
and thresholds. A modern traveller in
Italy describes the curious ancient porte
de mortuccio doors of the dead, which
stil exist In many Of the chief houses at
Perugia, side by side by the principal door
of the house. These porte de mortuccio,
tail, narrow! and pointed at the top, just
wide enough for a coffin to pass through,
arei now mostly disused blocked up, and
easily overlooked by any but obserVant
travellers; but thesessmall openings were
ORIGINALLY made for the exclusive use OF
the dead, and are mementoes OF a super
stition handed down from Etruscan times,
a belief that where death had once pass
ed out. death could the more easily pass
in" Opened only on the occasion of a
death in the household, the old Perugian
porte de mortuccio was heedfully bolted
and barred again after the corpse had
been passed out through il, and no coffin
was ever carried over the threshold of the
ordinary house door. In many places IN
Holland at the present day, the principal
door of the mansion Is only opened on the
occasion of a funeral or a marriage.
Blessing the threshold of a dwelling
house was a common practice in the mid
die ages and pious notices were frequent
Nv craven over the house doors, Perugia
presents many examples of this kind of
inscription: "Ora ut vivus, ct Dec wives,
"Janu coeli'' lover a church,, "Pulchra
Januae ubi honesta domus." Specimens
of this kind OF dor inscription are found
all over Europe. Goods providence is
mine inheritance" is written over a seven
teenth century house at Chester; and over
how many an English cottage do We sun
see "the. horseshoe nailed, the threshold S
guard" Inscriptions (often descriptive of
the character of the house itselD, are
found over some doorways at Pompeii, and,
when Dante described the awful gateway
of the Inferno as bearing motto
(tAu hope abandon, we who enter here'),
he was probably recalling the contempor-
ary custom of placing appropriate inscrip-
lions over doors and gateways. The old
houses at Spa formerly preserved memen-
toes OF the various celebrities who had
once occupied them Marguerite of Ma
varre. Peter the Great, Charles the Sec
ond, Alexander of Parma, all once Vislted
This bright little health RESORT In the
shane of the armorial bearings of the
house door. The Canongate of Edinburgh
had formerly many specimens of similar
lv ancient house inscriptions. Herrick has
Sung of the superstitious rites practiced at
a wedding in connection with the house
doorway:
aye that be her (brde's) nearest kin
O'er the threshold force her IN;
Rut TO avert the worst
let her her fillets first
Knit to the posts, this point
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT anoint
The sides, for tits charm
strong against future HARM"
witches were credited with burying noA-
,o'', tngredients under a house threshold,
- these rites at the door were supposed
10 a,,ert an evil spell, IL such had been at
temnted. There are many legends OF en-
obanted doorways Lady Fanshawe, writ
inc in the seventeenth century, from the
on,,rt of Madrid Ito which her husband
nos thon ambassador, gives a long ac-
count of such door at Granda. Ihere
Is at this place, an iron CRATE hxed INTO
the side Of the HILL which is rock. lald
nv head to the keyhole, and near SOUNDS
,uge the clashing Of arms, but could not
dietirg,,ish other shrill sounds l heard
,ith that Tradition says that this door
oo,ld never be opened since the Moors left;
sa,,eral persons have tried to wrench II
onen hut persisted in the attempt. Re-
oerd,ne The truth of this, l can only say
that there IS such door, and that l have
seen H." Probably this tradition was
legendary accretion to the true narrative
90 now the defeated Moorish King Boabdn,
u, rceiering his capital TO the Spanish con-
o,crors had made it his last request that
~ door nv which he qutted'the city might
ha walled 10 and never used again, re-
,,,ost complied with by Ferdinand and Is
aheila Lady Fanshawe has another story
-a,rardinp a doorway at Granada, relating
~ one Of the gates of the Alhambra was
adorned among other carved ornaments
III ne representaton Of "a bunch of
- cut In stone, with this motto, that
~, a hand should those key3 the Chris
-, sbould never possess this Alhambra."
~. nrophecy served to greatly animate
IL hil'9 Dsoors" as Lady Fanshawe records.
~. adds "sec how true 1t is that there is
.,,,,e for an things. II happened that,
the Moors were besieged an this
w. nv Don Ferdinand and Queen Isa-
tpn,sa that the King, with an arrow shot
- ~ a bow, cut that part of the stone
.,'hicb held the keys (Which was in the
sasbion of a chain), and 50 the keys fell
ION the carving of a hand beneath. This
strange occurrence happened but day or
two before the conquest Of Grenada"
MANY are the legends regarding enchanted
doors in hIsides which opened once, or
an a few occasions and then could never