The San Francisco call., 1907-06-23
Superstitious Mexican Poems

ride on car No. 49, and under no cir
cumstanees eat, drink or wear anything
that has cost you Is cents or dollars,
or that you have bought on the 18th
of the month.
Tuesday and Friday are very bad
omen days. and there is common say
ing that means do not marry or start
on any business on Tuesday OF Fri
day. D.
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. In
diars abhor owls; they say: When an
owlet- sings an Indian dies; it may be
untrue, yet it always happens"
Butterflies are good or bad omen.
according to their color. White ones
bring happiness; yellow ones advise US
to maintain alive our hopes Of love OF
fortune. and black ones announce that
death is stalking around US or our
relatives.
The 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 il is a proof that he is warn
ing you against some evil event.
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 ci-
gars will die within the year.
Here we have a very safe means to
know whether we are going to die In
the course OF any given year. 1t cannot
be more simple. You get up very early
in the morning OF January 1 and await
on the field for the sun to rise. you
looking westward. The minute the sun
rises you see your own shadow, enor-
mously enlarged; il it has a head on,
you are sure TO live through the year,
but IL there is no head at all. then you
had better draw up your will.
For love charms women use, among
others. the loadstone- If woman sus-
poets that her husband is in love win
another woman or that he is willing to
desert her. let her carry 4 small load
stone sewn to her corset; the husband
will become more loving than ever
A man proves to be 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 women
do not appeal to knives, revolvers or
drugs, but to other means. The one
most in vogue Is to have a 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 cur ard
next. morning Il mass is ordered in
honor of the mans saints names when
the priest Is giving the final blessing
the ribbon is burned and the poor hus-
hand GIes within month from an IN
known disease.
There are scores of other very queer
superstitions. The above are common
to all lowly Mexicans. but t0ere are
some which belong exclusively TO GER
tain groups. like Inasons. blacksmiths.
bakers. BARRIERS, bull fighters. artists.
etc, and which are almost unknown out
of the circles where they belong.
Bull fighters. for instance. are so super
stitious about corpses and snakes that
they will not dare to take part in a
fight II they see corpse or a snake
when going to the ring.--Mexican
Herald