The Ocala evening star., 1911-01-03
SHADOW LEGENDS
ZuIus Believe the Bodily Shade Is
the Future Spirit.
TAKING AWAY ONES SHADOW.
Why Some Races Are Forbidden to
Look Into a Dark Pool of Water.
The Way Donald Mckay Managed to
Escape the Clutches of the Devil.

That mysterious counterpart of
human being which lengthens with
the day and disappears with the sun.
to reappear more family with the
rising Of the moon. which we call
shadow, has always struck the imagi-
nation of man. 1t has played a promi-
nent part in primitive superstition and
in later folklore. Shadows or shades
was the classical name or figure for
the spirits Of the departed which still
remains in use.
This idea Is not confined to civilized
races. Among the Zulus the spirit Is
the shade. Bishop Galloway, whose
knowledge of Zulu beliefs and modes
of thought was unriyaled, says that
the Zulus connect the bodily shade
with the future disembodied spirit.
They believe that the shadow cast by
the body will ultimately 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 very little thing.
When they see the shadow Of a man
thus contracting, they know he will
die. The long shadow goes away
| when a man Is dead, and it is that
which is meant when it is said, The
shadow has Departed There is, how
ever, a short shadow which remains
| with the body and Is buried with 1t.
The long shadow becomes an ances-
trail spirit.
Identification of the shadow in any
| Wi ha
person whose body casts it, naturally
| leads to respect for the strange second
| self To tread on the shadow of a
| chief Is an insult to the chief himself
In the Institutes of Manu-, the ancient
| Hindu law giver, the law runs:
| LET him not Intentionally pass over
| the shadow of sacred images, of
natural or spiritual father, Of king,
| Of a Brahmin 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
mans shadow in the English country
| feeling that it 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 it is not
surprising to find superstitions about
the shadow mingled with widely scat
tered versions of the Narcissus legend.
The story of the beautiful youth who
! became enamored Of his own image.
as he saw it 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 a settled rule" COM
mands Manu-, the Hindu law giver.
The reason for the prohibition is to
be found in the beliefs Of man in a
primitive state Of civilization. The
Me1anesians of the Pacific, says a
learned observer, say: There Is a
stream in Saddle island, or, rather, a
pool in a stream, into which If any
one looks he dies; the malignant spirit
|
his reflection In the 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 q story
Of great beast in the water which
can seize the shadow Of a man and
when his shadow is gone man no
longer wishes to turn back, but de-
sires to enter the pool. He goes in,
dies, and is eaten by the great beast
which inha bits it. So, says Bishop
Galloway, men are forbidden to lean
over and look into dark pool, it be-
ing feared that their shadow should be
taken away"
There are other ways in which a
man may lose his shadow There was
a temple Of Jupiter in Arcadia which
if entered by those who were for:
hidden to do so, robbed them of their
shadows.
In the north Of Scotland there are
some quaint legends Of folk who lost
this usual attendant. In Sutherland
they tell more than one story Of a
wizard named Donald-Duival Mckay
Donald went to a school in Italy where
the black art was taught by the devil
who sat In the 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
a scramble, none wishing to be last
On one occasion Donald was really
the last. but just as the devil wa:
about to seize him, the resourcefu
Donald pointed to his own shadow
which fell behind him, saying, TAKE
thou the hindmost" Accordingly, hi:
shadow was seized, while he himself
escapes, and after his return to Scot
land was never seen to have {
shadow!
4 companion illustration OF dell tai
the utmost" from Aberdeenshire, /:
, a story of witch helped laird watch
. ing his reapers. whose shadow wa'
, seized by Satan. and who was evel
after shadowless. In literature Cha
misso's famous tale Of Peter Schle
mihl' is a well known example o.
the stories Of the shade less.-NeV
. York American