Middletown transcript., 1919-09-13
SOLDIERS ARE
SOPERST TTII0OS
British War Museum Official Digs
Up Some Interesting
Information. J
NEARLY AL WEAR AMulETs
One Officer Carrying Charm Refuses to
Reveal Its Nature for Fear OF
Bad luck-Another Carries
Piece Of Coal.

London.-Certain interesting super
sti ions prevalent among British colo
niai 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 I 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 / stands for God,
absolutely alone. Figure 2 is the mind
Of God in operation as shown by the
works Of nature. Figure 3 represents
man as the highest work Of God. TAX
ing, therefore, figure l as being unique,
Inc figures and 3, that is, Gods work
il 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
dier. He told me that he knew nothing
If 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. 13 was con-
sidered by them a lucky number, and
most of the men in the Fifth company,
c'lriously enough, had 13 in their regi.
mental numbers, his own number be.
ng 51327. IN
ION one occasion, after lecturing to
;ome men from New Zealand and Aus
ralia, was entertained for the night
md put up in an officers hut. Before
turning in I chatted over the subject
). folklore and soldiers mascots with
q lr officers. One Of the officers told
ne that he carried a charm, and I said
would like to know what it was. II
urncd out to be simply a Swastika
which was apparently new to him, and
le was glad to hear more about It.
The second officer took from his pocket
+, small cross of grotesque form, which,
lie informed me, was his mascot. The
third officer laughingly added. swell,
need not show you mine, because 1t is
,nly piece Of coal, wrapped In little
)ag which brought over from Aus
.ralia." The fourth (and this to my
,stonishment. being the ''kighest pos.
;i5le') said, II also have mascot. but
regret to say that I don't intend to
'how it to you. l won't even tell you
What it is, because it would spoil my
uck." Nothing could say would in
luce him to alter his decision. His was
he most superstitiOus case of all.
"The commonest charms among the
'C1ulC1S VI Il A0ANC OAu OClS1u1u al g
made Of aluminium and copper frag-
nents Of German shells. 1t is consid-
,red that If you wear a piece of an
,nemy'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.
II 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 a people, and consist largely of
pigs, many Of which, regret to say,
are grossly vulgar and offensive. An
,ther German charm is small model Of
d fungus, which is Of natural blood-red
color This is really phallic emblem.
A third kind is q teetotum, the mean
ing of which is chance On the other
hand, in the German navy, or what re-
mains Of it, they have rather a pretty
charm. 1t consists of small, cheap
medal, bearing the figure of Christ
stilling the tempest, with the motto
Safety in storms l 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