Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-24
SOME SUPERSTITTONS
AMONG THE MEXTCANS
Belief in O1ens and Signs Becoming Almost a
Religion Governing Every Act and
Thought of Lower Classes
From the MexIcan Herald.

be cured and the dog will die on the
coming Friday. But II your sufferings
come from stomach troubles, IL does
not matter what kind of disease it Is
or how serious It may be, all you have
to do is to get up before dawn one Fri
day, hunt up a black COW and drink a
glass of milk just milked by a girl who
has not reached the age of t3. You will
not feel any relief. however, until Sun
day morning when you will have to
attend mass; all your sufferings will
be completely relieved when the priest
gives you his benediction.
For deafness the remedy is to put a
small branch of rosemary or rue be-
hind your ears, but this after sinking
the plant three times in succession in
holy water, saying at the same time,
cure me-" cure me-" "Cure me-"
After three days the most desperate
case will be cured.
Is there among your relatives or
friends somebody deprived of the use
of speech? Give him for breakfast for
three consecutive days, three raw spar
rows and after a time he will find 1t
a very hard task to keep his tongue
quiet.
. Deer render very valuable services
IF you suspect that in conversation
which you cam t overhear your per-
sonality is being discussed, all you have
to do = to get a deer's right forefoot
and apply it to your right ear. You
will hear everything as over the tele-
phone.
Black cats, spiders and owls are very
bad omen creatures Never keep a
black cat at home, be sure to kill all
spiders you see crawling about your
bed, and always close tight your ears
when you hear an owlet hoot. Indians
abhor owlets; they say:
"Quando ell tecolote canta
Eel Indio muere;
Ello no es cierto,
Pero sucede,"
which means: "when an owlet sings,
an Indian dies; it may be untrue, yet
it always happens"
Butterflies are good or bad omen, ac-
cording to their color. White ones
bring happiness; yellow ones advise us
to maintain alive our hopes of love or
fortune; and black ones announce that
death is stalking around us or our
relatives.
Dog is the greatest friend of man, no
doubt about that, as he is endowed
with the power of seeing ghosts, devils
and death. When you hear your dog
bowling, it is a proof that he is warn
ing you against some evil intent.
q NnOW WHGH OHG Is 10 OlG
One thing of apparently small i'm
portance, but which brings fatal re-
suits, is the lighting of three cigars or
cigarettes on the same match. One of
the three persons lighting their cigar
VIII certainly die within the year.
Here we have q very safe means to
know whether we are going to die in
the course of any given year. 1t cam
not be more simple. You get up very
early in the morning of January and
await on the field for the sun to rise,
you looking westward. The minute
the sun rises you see your own shadow,
enormously enlarged; if it has a head
on, you are sure to live through the
year, but If there is no head at all,
then you had better draw up your will.
For love charms, women use, among
others, the loadstone. If a woman sus-
poets that her husband is in love with
another woman or that he is willing to
desert her, let her carry small load
stone sewn in her corset; the husband
will become more loving than ever.
If a man proves to be a bad husband
and his wife wants to get rid of him,
the only way to accomplish this is to
make him die, because divorce does not
exist in Mexico. But for this the
women do not appeal to knives, re-
volvers or drugs. but to other means.
The one most in vogue is TO nave q
ribbon blessed by a priest, on behalf
of the saint whose name her husband
bears; with this ribbon the man is
measured when asleep. The ribbon is
cut and next morning a mass is order
ed in honor of the mans saints name;
when the priest is giving the final
blessing the ribbon is burned and the
poor husband dies within a month
from an unknown disease.
There are scores of other very queer
superstitions. The above are common
to all lowly Mexicans, but there are
some which belong exclusively to GER
tain groups, like masons, blacksmiths,
bakers, BARRIERS, bullfighters, artists,
etc, and which are almost unknown
out of the circle where they belong.
Bullfghters, for instance, are so sup
erstitious about corpses and snakes that
they will not dare take part in fight
if they see a corpse or snake when
going to the ring.