Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-11-06

The Way Donald Mckay maas aod 2.
 Eseafs tha Glatede4 Of ths bseIts
 Fiat mysterious counterpart oi $ human beiHs which lehsthcas -1t the day and disappears with the au1, to reappear nofe faInty with tAe rising o2 tho moon, which We cal! q shadow, has always sQuek the !maGi nGtion of man. Ii Las playe1 q prom ncnt nart In primitive superstition an3. in later folklore. Shadows or shade wag the classical name or fG0le f51 the spirits of he departed which st!l remains In use.
 This idea is uot confined to civifized races. Among the Zulus the spirit the shade. Bishop Galloway, whose knowledge of Zulu beliefs and noGes of thought was unriealed, says that the Zulus connect the bodily shade with the future disembodied spirit. They believe that the shadow cast by the body will ultimate become the 'itongo." or spirit, when the body dies, and they say that the long shadow shortens "as . man approaches his end and contracts into q very little thing. When they sec the shadow of a man thus contracting. they know he will die. The loag shadow goes away when q maa s dead, and it Is that which b meant when 1t is said, The shadow has departed There Is. how ever, a short shadow which remains Axy ;c I,r1ri ind with it The long shadow becomes an ances-- tral spirit.
 Identification of the shadow in any mysterious or spiritual way with the person whose body casts it. naturally leads to respect for the strange second self To tread on the shadow of q chief is III insult to the chief himself. In the Institutes of Nanu. the ancient Hindu law .iver. the law runs:
 ."Let him not Intentionally pass over the shadow of sacred images. of natural or spiritual father. of king. of Brahnin who keeps house. or of any reverend parsonage. nor of one who has just performed a sacrifice" There are traces of the survival Of these primitive ways of regarding a mans shadow in the English country feeling that 1t Is unlucky to cross the | path of a newly married man as he leaves the altar; and in another rural belief that 1t is unlucky to cross the path of horses ploughing when the sun is shining behind them.
 Association between shadows and mirrored representations of the human form is obviously natural. so 1t is not surprising to find Euperstitions about the shadow mingled with widely scat tered versions of the Narcissus legend. The story of the beautiful youth who became enamored u3his own image. as he saw 1t represented in the water and languished thereafter till he died, has its origin in the belief that trouble follows from beholding the watery image.
 Let him not look at his own image In water; that Is settled rule" com. mands Manu. the Hindu law giver.
 The reason for the prohibition is to be found in the beliefs of man in . primitive state of civilization. The Melanesians of the Pacific. says T learned observer. say: 'There b stream in Saddle island. or. rather. pool in a stream. into which ii any one looks he dies: the malignant spirit takes hold upon his life by means of his reflection in tho water" Some such idea as this was probably the root of the Narcissus legend.
 The Zulus explain why it is Ill to look into the water of pool by story of great beast in the water whicE can seize the shadow of Il man ana when his shadow is gone a man no longer wishes to turn back. but dc sires to enter the pool. He goes in. dies. and is eaten Ly the great beast which inhabits 1t So. says Bishop Galloway. men arc forbidden to lear over and look into dark pool. it be- ing feared that their shadow should be taken away"
 TGere are other ways in which { man may lose his shadow. There va. a temple of Jupiter in Arcadia which If entered by those who were for oidden to do so. robbed them of the:- shadows
 In the north of Scotland there are some quaint legends of folk who lagf :his usual attendant In Sutherland they tell more than one story of 2 wizard named Denald-DuIval Mckay Donald went to school in Italy Where the black art was taught by the devil 1 who sat in tic professors chair. and at the end of each term claimed as his own the last scholar to depart. Break ing up at this academy was naturally scramble. none wishing 10 be last,
 On "ue vccaSiou Donald wss rea,..S7 the last. but just as the devil was about to seize n.;li. ;se r>Sourcefu Donald pointed 10 his own shadow. which fell behind htm. saving. Take thou the hndmoSt" Accordingly. his shadow was seized. while he himself escapes. ard after his return to Scot. land was never seen to have q shadow.
 A companion illustration of "de'il tak ;he hin n'most." from AlerGeenshire, is a story Of a witch helped laird watrh ing his reaperf. whose shsdow wa. seized by Sata1. and who was eve, after shadowlesh In literature Cha misso's famous lta,e of Peter Schle nihl'' is . vel known example o1 the storlee ee Ae sAAlowlen-hov Tex Anaelean.