Weapons of the Teachers

1917

Evil Methods Inspiring Fear Not Conducive to Best Results

Power to produce fear is a poor weapon. The teacher who uses it is not doing his best work.

Snakes are feared by reason of their sting. So are lions and tigers for reason of their power to produce harm.

Fear is the weapon of an enemy. We do not fear our friends, nor can we fear anything that we love.

Evil is just absence of good; for it cannot exist where good is. And evil chooses fear for its weapon. Neither evil nor fear should exist in the schoolroom, says an exchange.

Good is always stronger than evil; love always stronger than fear. Why should teachers employ evil methods and inspire fear in the hearts of children when springs of love are bubbling up on every side?

There are smiles, and kind words, and kind thoughts, and deeds of kindness and — but the list is too great to complete. These inspire love, and as weapons are much more efficient than is fear.

And then there is faith! When good loses its trust in its ability to overcome, fear disarms and evil conquers. An animal will not attack a man who has absolutely no fear of it. That is the secret of the lion-tamer's power. Evil cannot defeat a man who is strong in good, and therefore he has no cause to fear evil.

Ornaments Supposed to Ward Off Disease and Bring Luck

1911

Guard Against Evil

London. — Perhaps the instinct to avert the evil eye is born in our natures. Civilization had lessened it to a great extent, but in every race we find an instinct exists. The wearing of nearly all personal adornment seems to have originated in an idea of pacifying evil deities.

The savage wears ornaments symbolizing the protective powers supposed to be able to keep away harm or danger. In the West Indies there is a bean or seed which the natives think possesses many valuable properties. If carried in the purse they say the owner will never want for money; if hung on a watch chain good luck will ever be with the wearer. But woe betide the man who loses his precious charm. The East Indian leaves a tiny corner of his embroidery unfinished to propitiate the gods; the dusky mother calls her baby hard names for fear her love should bring ill fortune upon him

In England superstitious country folk tie amulets around their necks to prevent disease. Some of the earliest of those were skillfully wrought by the people who inhabited this country thousands of years ago and treated flint much the same as a cameo, producing varied effects by cutting through into the different layers of color. Several examples of this practically lost art may be seen in the museum at Ipswich. They are carved to represent the heads of men and women, birds, fishes and reptiles, and are for the most part cleverly and prettily done.

The fossil belemnites found on many of our coasts embedded in the rocks were once thought to be thunderbolts and were worn as charms by fisher folk. Farmers in ancient times decorated their horses by hanging amulets and gypsy fetish charms among their trappings to insure a good harvest. These amulets were frequently associated with the worship of the sun and were of Egyptian, Moorish and Persian origin.

Although most people profess to laugh at the idea of wearing them purely for luck or from superstitious motives, yet charms are worn still with good humored toleration and, for reasons none can explain, secretly favored, just in the same way that sober minded men and women cling tenaciously to a crooked sixpence and treasure a three-penny bit with a hole in it as omens of good luck.

A pink coral band in Italy is supposed to ward off the evil eye and plays its part in ornaments. Ruby ornaments are supposed to disperse evil spirits and are considered a protection from poison and other dire evils. Emeralds banish blindness. Garnet ornaments are supposed to keep one in good health; the sardonyx insures happiness. The sapphire keeps off fever. Amethysts keep off worries. A turquoise means that you will never want a friend. A four leaved clover in a crystal locket is a favorite charm and is said to bring good fortune and long life to its wearer. Jade also has a reputation for a luck bringer.

People Retain Belief in Amulets

1910

Superstitions That Once Were General Throughout the World Not Yet Entirety Gone

Faith in the virtue of amulets was well-nigh universal in ancient days; Lord Bacon says the historians had firm belief in them. Indeed, much of the art of medicine consisted in the direction for their employment. Gems, gold, stones, bones, bits of parchment with sacred writing, cylinders of stones, unicorns' horns, all of these would protect against the invading spirits or the influence of the evil eye.

This is the origin of countless popular superstitions that remain to this day. The form has been handed down, while the theories which prompted it have long since been lost sight of. This is why some people carry in their pocket a horse chestnut or a new potato to ward off rheumatism; this is why others tie around the necks of their children a tarred rope as a preventive against all the diseases common to children; this is why others think a gold chain will prevent quinsy sore throat, or a string of root beads worn around the neck will help children to cut teeth.

The coral beads which ease the troubles of teething children and the amber beads which cure asthma are beliefs which are firmly adhered to to this day. Pliny relates that Domitius Nero used to wear the hair of his wife on his neck, thinking it beneficial because it was amber colored. Amulets for teething are of very old date, and as red was a favorite color for an amulet, it can easily be seen how the coral necklace came to be so popular for infants who were teething.

Red was considered very potent in warding off the evil eye. In time of trouble, when the evil eye was especially triumphant, all the red tape in a certain county in England was brought up to ward off its baleful influence. The remains of this superstition still prevail, for many people believe that a red string around the neck is an excellent remedy for asthma, measles and mumps. The preservation of faith in red still exists, as is shown in the great virtues of red flannel, and the belief that the milk of the red cow is better than that of a cow of another color.

The German peasant, if he cuts himself, thinks he stanches the blood better with a red ribbon. This may be accounted for not only by tradition, but by the fact that blood would not form so startling a contrast when wetting a red ribbon as when wetting a white one.


They Really Believe It

Some people cling to the old-fashioned idea that a man must be a genius if he goes about with hair.

The Evil Eye

1912

It is probably that the "evil eye," for which many hapless old women were harried to their death on the suspicion of witchcraft in "the good old days," was no more than a common squint, a "cast" in the eye, or "bossing," as it is called in many parts of the country to this day, writes Dr. N. Bishop Harman in the British Journal of Children's Diseases. Not only was the squint though to be of evil significance, but the defect itself was considered to be the work of evil spirits. In "King Lear" we find the following in the scene on the heath at night:

"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye and makes the harelip, mildews the white meat and hurts the poor creature of earth."


Knew His Man

George Bubb, better known as Bubb Doddington, one of the wits of the eighteenth century, always dined well and always liked to doze after the repast. Falling asleep one day after dinner with Sir Richard Temple and Lord Cobham, the latter reproached Doddington with his drowsiness. Doddington denied having been asleep and to prove he had not offered to repeat all Lord Cobham had been saying. Cobham challenged him to do so. Doddington repeated a story, and Lord Cobham owned he had been telling it. "Well," said Doddington, "and yet I did not hear a word of it, but I went to sleep because I knew that about this time of the day you would tell that story."

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 30, 1916, page 5.

Evil Spirits, "Imps" Scaring People of Nova Scotia

1922

FARMER FLEES FROM "IMPS"

Tale of Tricks of Evil Spirits Excites People of Nova Scotian Community.

Halifax, N. S. — While no broomstick riding hags of the traditional witch features have been seen hurtling across the face of the moon, there are any number of people in Nova Scotia who will take an oath that imps of no good intent are peopling the fair hills of Antigonish county.

Alexander MacDonald, a farmer, has boarded up his valley home and fled with his family and chattels in the dead of winter. His neighbors say they have seen with their own eyes, and without the assistance of potable spirits, the manifestations of the Evil One.

So much credence is being given to the tales of witches and imps that a Halifax newspaper has assigned a member of its staff to break his way through the inland snows until he reaches the MacDonald house and live there for two weeks.

MacDonald and his family awoke one morning three weeks ago to find that their horses had been driven into a lather and returned to their stalls before dawn. The cattle had been turned out of the barns in a driving snowstorm. The tails of the heifers had been braided.

This was repeated the next morning and the next. The third night, MacDonald says, the fire imps appeared. In unexpected places jets of flame would break out for no apparent reason. The following nights he called neighbors to see for themselves. They swore that they saw fires leap from bare floors and subside, or flare up from a fireless stove and disappear.

In each case a bit of absorbent cotton or highly inflammable calico was found near the source of the fire, but that only deepened the mystery. Where had the cotton and calico come from? After a week McDonald and his family fled, taking up their home in Caledonia Mills.

—Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, New York, April 1, 1922, page 8.

Knocking on Wood

1919

Knocking on wood

The superstition of rapping on wood after a boast of a piece of luck is of European origin. The raps were supposed to drive away evil spirits vexed by others' good fortune. The raps later signified the Trinity, and the necessity for rapping on wood was because that was the material of the cross. The expression dates from a custom in vogue five thousand years ago.

--Middletown Daily Herald, Middletown, New York, June 2, 1919, page 4.