The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1919-10-02
SOLDIERS ARE
SUPERSTITIOUS
British War Museum Official Diqs
Up Some Interesting
Information.
NEARLY ALL WEAR AMULETs
One Officer Carrying Charm Refuses TO
Reveal It's Nature for Fear of
Bad Luck-Another Carries
Piece of Coal.

Lon0on.-Certain interesting super
stitions prevalent among British colo
Mai troops at the front are described by
Edward Loyett, 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 5 on the collar Of his tunic.
This 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 1 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 God. TAX
ing, therefore figure / as being unique,
the figures 2 and 8, that is, Gods work
in the hands of man, equal 5, ard this
is said to represent everything. In
this country we do not fully appreciate
tue meaning OF the 0gure ..
Lucky Australian Five.
To come back to our Australian sol
der. He told me that he knew nothing
Of the Pentad, and he was rather in
clined to sneer 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 Is men
out of $50, while the Second company
had lost much larger proportion. He
also told me that the No. ID was CON
sidered by them a lucky number, and
most of the men in the Fifth company,
curiously enough, had IL in their regi-
mental numbers, his own number be
ing 51327.
''On one occasion, after Iecturing to
some men from New Zealand and Aus
tralia, was entertained for the night
and put up in an officers hut. Before
turning in / ehatted over the subject
of folklore and soldiers maseots 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 it.
The second officer took from his pocket
small cross of grotesque form, which,
he informed me, was his mascot. The
third officer laughingly added, well,
need not show you mine, because it Is
only piece of COAL wrapped in little
bag which brought over from Aus
traIia." The fourth (and this to my
establishment, being the highest pos
sible'') said, 81 also have a mascot, but
regret to say that / don't intend to
show it to you. I won't even tell you
what it is, because it would spoil my
luck" Nothing I could say would in
duce him TO alter his decision. His was
the most superstitious case of all.
'The commonest charms among the
soldiers of France and Belgium are
made of aluminium and copper frag-
ments of German shells. 1t is eonsid-
cred that If you wear piece Of an
enemy's projectile it inoculates you
against future danger from such
sources. In Italy the men wore the
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 q number of examples of
German charms, some of which were
taken from German prisoners, while
others were collected by myself in Ger
many about IL years ago. They are
of character you might expect from
such a people, and consist largely of
pigs, many of which, regret to say,
are grossly vulgar and offensive. An
other German charm is a small model of
d 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. It consists of small, cheap
medal, bearing the figure Of Christ
stilling the tempest, with the motto
Safety in storms / gathered from
several Of my friends that the charms
In common use by the Germans were
generally small objects. such as have
mentioned. which had been presented
to the wearers by their mothers or sis