Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-09-10
SOLDIERS ARE
SUPERSTITIOUS
British War Museum Official Digs
Up Some Interesting
Information.
NEARLY ALL wear AMULETS
One Officer Carrying Charm Refuses to
Reveal Its Nature for Fear Of
Bad Luck-Another Carries
Piece of Coal.

Lond0n.-Certain interesting super
stitiOns prevalent among British colo
NAL troops at the front are described by
Edward Lovett, an official of the I'M
perial War museum at London, in the
Morning Post. He says:
MANY of the superstitiOns held by
British soldiers are also held by our
troops from overseas and by men of
the allied forces. One day happened
to meet an Australian soldier who wore
the figure on the collar of his tunic
This 8 is known on the continent as
the Pentad, and in Belgium the Fifth
regiment is considered to be the lucky
regiment. The logic of the Pentad is
as follows: Figure l stands for God,
absolutely alone. Figure is the mind
of God in operation as shown by the
works Of nature. Figure 8 represents
man as the highest work of Cod TAX
ing, therefore, figure l as being unique,
the figures 2 and 3, that is, Gods work
in the hands of man, equal 5, and this
is said to represent everything. In
this country we do not fully appreciate
the meaning of the figure 5.
Lucky Australian Five.
ITO come back to our Australian sol
der. He told me that he knew nothing
of the Pentad, and he was rather in
clined to sheer at luck in general. But
he told me that his company, which
was the Fifth, was very lucky, and day
after day the men had many narrow
escapes from death or wounds. The
company, in fact, had lost only 10 men
out of $50, while the Second company
had lost a much larger proportion. He
also told me that the No. Is was con-
sidered by them lucky number, and
most of the men in the Fifth company,
curiously enough, had Is in their regi-
mental numbers, his own number be-
ing 51327.
ION one occasion, after lecturing to
some men from New Zealand and Aus
tralia, was entertained for the night
and put up in an officers hut. Before
turning in / chatted over the subject
of folklore and soldiers mascots with
four officers. One of the officers told
me that he carried a charm, and said
l would like to know what it was. 1t
turned out to be simply a Swastika,
which was apparently new to him, and
he was glad to hear more about 1T.
The second officer took from his pocket
s1all cross of grotesque form, which,
he informed me, was his mascot. The
third officer laughingfy added, "Well,
need not show you mine, because it Is
only piece of coal, wrapped in a little
bag which l brought over from Aus
tralia." The fourth (and this to my
establishment, being the "highest pos
sible'O said, II also have a mascot, but
/ regret to say that l don't intend to
show it to you. / won't even tell you
what it is, because it would spoil my
luck" Nothing / could say would in
duce him to alter his decision. His was
the most superstitious case of all.
"The comonest charms among the
soldiers of France and Belgium are
made of aluminium and copper frag-
ments of German shells. 1t is consid-
cred that if you wear piece of an
enemys projectile it inoculates you
against future danger from such
sources. In Italy the men wore tho
kinds of charms and amulets which
have been common In that country for
many generations-even centuries, /
may say. They consist chiefly of phal-
lie emblems, and may be seen by thou
sands in the streets and markets Of
Naples especially.
What the Germans Wear.
81 have a number of examples Of
German charms, some of which were
taken from German prisoners, while
others were collected by myself in Ger
many about II years ago. They are
of character you might expect from
such people, and consist largely of
are grossly vulgar and offensive. An
other German charm Is small model of
fungus, which is of natural blood-red
color. This is really phallic emblem.
A third kind is teetotum. the mean
ing Of which is Chance On the other
hand, in the German navy, or what re-
mains of 1t, they have rather pretty
charm. 1t consists Of small, cheap
medal, bearing the figure Of Christ
stilling the tempest, with the motto
Safety in storms I gathered from
several of my friends that the charms
in common use by the Germans were
generally small objects, such Us l have
mentioned, which had been presented
to the wearers by their mothers or sis
tiers, but in few cases had the charm