The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-03-29
LUCK IN HORSESHOE
ODD POINTS ABOUT THIS WIDELY
ACCEPTED BELIEF.
Dates Back to tire Mythology Of the
Ancient Greeks--once Generally
Considered Specific Against
Earthquakes.

OF all tho emblems for good fortune
the horseshoe stands among the first.
Everybody knows IL Is unlueky to
pass q horseshoe ON the road without
picking IL up. II is luck emblem of
the greatest power. Again, we are in
debted for this statement to old tales,
centuries in age, that have descended
from father TO son. from mother to
daughter, through the years.
II is necessary to notice how the
horseshoe lies before picking it up. If
the ends are away from one, the sign
is that fortune will be within grasp,
but by extravaganza, carelessness, or
the operation Of rogucs, It may depart
almost as soon as 1t comes. A sign
to take care is given, therefore.
The right thing to do is TO turn the
horseshoe around, so that the ends arc
toward the finder before picking it up.
And In carrying 1t home 1t IL correct
to hold 1t with the ends upward or the
earth will attract to itself all the prom.
ised fortune.
or window in its destined place the
ends must be upward. or the whole
luck emblem will be nullified. Instead
of keeping evil spirits away, the shoe.
in the wrong position, will attract
them! Instead of bringing good for
tune, the luck Of the house win be
diverted
A century ago 1t was very common
to see upon cowBhed door the horse
shoe that scared off witches who
would milk the cows or dry them up
Nowadays they are not so common.
yet here and there they are still seen
The old myths repay research. The
luck Of the horseshoe has a most re-
spectacle beginning. II Is traced TO
the religion OF the old Greeks and
their sea god Poseidon, who was
identical with the Roman sea god
Neptune.
TO Poseidon horses were sacred,
and TO him they were sacrificed
Poseidon was believed to have created
the first horse when he struck the
ground with his trident and horse
sprang from the hole, which after
wards became spring The sea god
was the lord of springs. To him all
springs were ascribed In the shape
of a horse he sometimes wandered by
the shores of his ocean domain and
where he struck his hoofs deeply
there the waters gushed out and per
manent springs were found.
This Is the reason why horseshocs
are reckoned lucky. Going 90 the root
of the matter, one sees a nature myth
as the root principle. From the sea
all rain comes, and to the sea all
springs owe primal origin; and to the
rain and the fresh waters. sea derived,
we owe all fertility on earth.
The old Greeks therefore worshipcd
Poseidon as the fortune giver through |
his springs. They gave him horses,
his precious beasts. and they adored
the footprints of horses when they
found them. for they might be the |
very footprints Of the cod himself.
Pega2us, the winged horse, from
wfcse hoofs inc water springs
eushcd coblously when he came to |
earth, has been credited with the |
origin of The horseshoe luck
Some legends called him the son Of |
Poseidon. and therefore gifted by his |
father with power to cali the waters |
f,om the earth. other legends state !
that Pegasus spr:ng from the trunk |
OF Gorgon Medusa after Perseus had |
cut off her head. lie had the power Of |
producing famous springs which gave |
the aft OF poesy. OF art. Of intellectual |
powers. From these springs the /
mnses drank yearly,
The HORSE shoe was a specific against |
Ii would keep a house (,
safe from harm by earth shaking
Again. one percelves the sea myth
POseidun was the shaker of the earth. /