Evening star., 1921-01-23
in q scientific age like ours,
- superstitions in regard to the
most familiar things as well ~

-
the most unfamiliar still linger.
can remember as boy firmly he
| lieving that If should touch . toad
I should have warts grow on my fin
gers; that il should drop a hair from
a horses tail into water. it would be-
come a water snake; that a cobweb
would stop the bleeding Of q wound ;
tokened cold winter. Every coun-
| tryman believes some of these and
scores besides. It would be worth
somebody's time to collect similar su-
perstitions and traditions the coun-
try over. It would make an enter.
tanning contribution to unnatural
natural history and throw light upon
popular psychology.
These superstitions are merely sur
vivals of countless beliefs which
| seem mostly ridiculous. but which
were frsyely+ g+ o b. fa Ssc
| they go nobody knows. but Pliny. in
his Natural History written in the
first century A. D.. is full Of .hem.
And all down the centuries, espe-
cially through the fifteenth and six
teenth centuries. there were scores Of
such wisdom; and they found public
down into the eighteenth century.
They find their way-these beliefs
into literature, and Shakespeare's
plays are scattered through with ex-
"As You Like It" Of "the toad ugly
and venemous." which wears yet q
precious jewell in his head; in Two
Gentlemen OF Verona" Of chameleon
love which can feed on air.: in "Ham-
ward. etc. These traditions were a
part Of his mental OUTFIT. as they were
part Of the mental outfit Of every
body else. and nobody ever ques-
toned them seriously. SO that they
continued to be handed down even to
Here are a few examples drawn
from sixteenth and seventeenth CEN
tury books. some in regard to the
most familiar things, and a few in
regard to fabulous creatures:
The goat breathes at the ears and
verish. Ashes Of goats horns and
goats wool will drive away snakes.
If you cut of the boards Of goats
they will stay faithfully at home.
Goats die If they lick honey. He
goats have more teeth than She
goats. Their hoofs burned, pounded
and mixed with liquid pitch will cure
badness. Goats milk will prevent
rusty iros bsssr han
a file. It has another marvellous
power-a magnet rubbed in garlic
loses its magnetic force. but IL 1t is
bathed in goats milk 1t will recover
its magnetism.
When the kline ca1ve often and have
many calves it is q sign that there
will be much rain during the coming
winter. When cows have sore feet
anoint the animals between the horns
with oil and pitch.
II the OK bends its head to the
right to lick ffs halter It presages q
storm. II 1t bends to the left It
presages q calm day. II It lows and
smells the ground. or eats more
than usual. It betokens . change Of
weather. In the head Of the or is
a little stone, which the OK VIII spit
out of its mouth II 1t is thoroughly
frightened. This Same stone will
ease the teething Of children.
That horse is accounted best in
var and battle that thrusts it's head
Tho blood Of q horse 10 poison, like
that Of the bun. II a sword or q
spear be anointed with the sweat Of
a horse it will make q wound which
will not stop bleeding 50 long rs life
lasts The horse has q bone like a
dogs tooth in its heart. The man
who wears one OF these about his
neck will never feel grief or sorrow.
The tooth Of a yearling colt hung on
the neck Of baby will assure pain
less teething.
If the long hairs growing about the
mouth of q eat be cut away It loses
it's courage. To keep . cat indoors
and 20 protooe the nelGhborD chick