The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29
ARE YOU A SUNDAY BABY?
Why and Wherefore of d Number of
Strange Superstitions.

There are few corners of modern life
into which trace of superstition does
not penetrate. Most people accept a
few relics OF it playfully. On some Of
the more simple it still has a living in
fiuence. In the remote, Out-Of-the-Way
parts of the country it is almost as
powerful a force as it was in mediae-
val days.
Of course, each place has its distinc-
tive forms of superstition, but a few
are common everywhere. They cover
the -four ages of man. 1t is generally
| thought lucky to be born on a Sun
day. Every day of the week has its
special measure of good or i'll, but it
is regarded as inevitable that Thurs
days child" should turn out aSthief.
Cats are supposed to be the hered-
itary enemies of children. Babies and
kittens cannot thrive in the same
house. Some peasant women believe
that they inhale the breath of chill
dTen and so cause them to die; others
that they possess the evil eye-and the
evil eye is Nstill believed in in other
places than Ireland. In some parts of
Northumberland the sickness of cat
tie is put down to its malign influence.
The origin of this dislike for cats
may be put down to the old belief that
witches were accustomed to take feline
! form. On the other hand, dogs were
! regarded as the guardians of mankind
against supernatural evils. Many in
stances are related by northern farm
ers of how WatchdOgs have shown
signs of great distress in growing and
whimpering Immediately before their
masters death, as if they detected
some presence mat was invisible to hu-
man eyes.
Long before palmistry had become a
me- do old MOI holt
that a child's future could be told by
marks on the hands, and by little
specks on the finger nails. 4 hand with
/ a tendency to close was supposed to be
] the index of a grasping nature. When
| the first two fingers were the same
| length, it was the sign of a predes-
tined pickpOcket. Even now many
mothers shrink from cutting tbeiF
child's nails lest ii should bring bad
| luck.
There are few boys who do rot
hold that they can split their masters
cane by inserting a small hair in it
| before a thrashing. Another way of
working the miracle is to sprinkle the
hands with a thin layer of rosin. It is
/ to be feared that there is no evidence
to support the efficacy of these ex-
pedients. They are probably super
stitiOns that have been handed down
| through SentIdtiOilS DI boys.
Superstition also comes hand in hand
with Cupid. The young girl of today is
often found throwing the peel of an
apple over her shouider-as did her
prototype two centuries ago-tO find
out the initials of her lover. To see
his face they still peer into the glass
at Halloween. In olden days. to find
out his name, a girl generally wrots
the names of a dozen or 50 of her ac-
quaintances on little pieces of paper.
covering each with a ball of snow and
dropping them together in a tub Of
water. The paper that rose to the top
! first was supposed to bear the name OF
/ her future husband. Friday is looked
upon as the luckiest day for a we'd
ding in Scotland, but in England It
/ is Wednesday that is regarded as most
suspicious.
In the acceptation of certain physical
/ traits as iniices of character, it is
hard to distinguish between the acre
lions of superstition and scientific OBJ
servation. In some parts of England
heavy eyebrows that meet together are
looked upon as a sign of good fortune,
but generally they are supposed to de-
note a cunning nature. There seems.
| however, to be little division among
rhe superstitions about pfoles. One on
the throat signifies luck, and on the
left forehead the reverse. On the chin,
the ear and the neck they foreshadow
great wealth for their pOssessor.
The common antipathy to red hair
seems to have been handed down
| through the centuries. a red-haired
man is generally regarded with a GER
| tain amount of distrust. and a few
cling to the proverb, Never trust a
red-haired woman or a chestnut horse, "
as if it were inspired by divine wis
dom. Probably it had its foundation
in hereditary dislike for the fiery
haired Danes who ravaged the Eng
Iish coast.