The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-10-23
SPILLING THE SALT.
THE ORIGIN OF AN OLD AND VERY
COMMON SUPERSTITION.

Glass and the Crossing of Knives.
1ror. Is wherefore" for all things,
even for those "sgns, omens, supersti-
TONS" which some men call frivolous
and foolish. Some men object to walking
under a ladder Well is there not the
danger of the ladder falling on you or Of
the man at work on it dropping his paint
| pot or his soapsuds on you? 1t is re-
| garded as q sign of bad luck TO cross
knives at table. This superstition came
about in this wise. The original knife was
nothing else but a dagger which men
wore in their belts, ready for carving the
mutton or their acquaintance. The cross
| ing of blades meant a fight, and it is no
wonder that women found crossed knives
a sign suggestive of misfortune.
Splitting the salt once meant the worst
of bad luck, and today there are many
people who throw a pinch over their left
shoulder 'to break the charm" if they
happen to tip over the saltcellar Salt
was until recently an expensive article
and a dear necessity. So important was
it that the finding Of salt wells in Chesh-
ire, England, first brought the merchants
Of Europe into savage Britain and led to
Aut NiNllAdliuu VI lue lslduu' L ut very
phrase worth his salt" means worth his
salary and the word salary itself means
salt money"
Because it was so important ancient
usage placed the saltbox in the middle OF
the table SO that it might be within reach
of all. The "gentles" sat above the salt
and the "simples" below it. In the rega-
liza in the Tower of London the saltcellar
is one of the most gorgeous pieces, being
| built like a castle of silver and heavily
gilded. Such being the importance Of the
satbox the upsetting of it was some
thing more than an accident. II was an
event, and being bad luck in itself, soon
came to be regarded as a sign of bad
luck
Some trace the beginning of the super
stition to the picture of THE Last Sup
per-" by Leonardo da Vinci. in which
painting the salcelar is represented as
overturned. But the superstition is older
than the picture. and it was undoubtedly
because Of the superstition that Leonardo
so depicted the salt in his celebrated
painting.
TO break looking glass is regarded in
some households as a sure sign of death
in the family. The superstition regarding
the looking glass came about in this way.
Before there were any poOrhouses there
were plenty of old women, poor and
friendless and long past the age when
they could make their living by manual
labor. But they knew the world and the
credulity and the passions Of mankind.
They also knew the herbs of the field and
the garden which were possessed Of me-
dicinal virtues, and so between their
knowledge of medicine and their knowl-
edge of the human heart they managed to
make living by selling simple remedies
for the body and dealing out advice,
prophecies and spells for the mind.
"If you have a proud foe to make
tracks, if you melt a rich uncle in wax"
or if you had the stomach ache, all you
had to do was to call in one Of these
wise women" as they were termed.
Sometimes the wise woman" got too
wise and was drowned or burned as
witch Hers was perilOus business, but
the only one by which the poor old bag
could make a living. If you wanted to
get rid of an enemy in those days, you
called in the local practitioner of witch
craft and told her your symptoms. Then
she made little image of wax or rag
doll, which was named from the person
whom you desired to get off the earth"
Set the image by the fire. and as it melt
ed away so would your enemy or your
rich uncle pine away and die. Stick pins
in the rag DOLL and the Objectionable one
would suffer the pains of pins and nee
dies" Smash the doll to pieces, and the
hated or superluous one would meet
with a violent and sudden death.
Another school of wtchcraft held that
a surer way to smash an enemy was to
break looking glass into which the
! hated one had just gazed. 1t must be done
before his image had vanished from the
surface of the glass and with proper in
cantations but was held to be more effec-
! tual than wax dolls and rag babies. Hence
/ the superstition regarding the breaking of
| looking glass.
! Why does horseshoe bring good luck?
One explanation of the use of this prosaic
piece of ironmongery as talisman Is
| that the Russian peasants used to paint
outside their doors a picture of the Bless
ed Virgin. The halo around the head
they gilded. The rains and SHOWS wash
ed off the paint eventually, but the gild-
ing remained in the shape Of horseshoe,
and the peasants regarded it with the
same reverence as they had the whole
picture. From Russia the travellers
brought stories of the peasants having
| horseshoes at their doors as a protection
against evil fortune, and so the supersti-
ton of the horseshoe spread over the
! world.
The other explanation, and probably
the true one, is that the symbol is Of
far more ancient origin. The Greeks and
the Romans who pinned their faith to the
goddess Diana used to wear as symbol
OF their loyalty to the divine huntress her
symbol of the crescent moon. AS the
ages rolled the crescent became horse
shoe. One is at liberty to accept either OF
| these explanations or to reject both OF
them, but whatever the origin of the be-
lief in the horseshoe as portent Of good
luck, whether it be the symbol Of the
heather goddess Diana or of the Chris
tan Virgin, there are hundreds of thou
sands of people throughout the world
who would ''never take the horseshoe
from the door"
Among the Italians horseshoe is sup
posed to be protection against the evil
eye, and when they feel in need OF such
an amulet and have not a horseshoe
handy they point out with the little finger
apd tba 6rst 6uppr tuckinp wav tho sap-