Social Superstitions

1895

"Hurry up, Katie," urged Mabel as she sat in her friend's morning room waiting for her to don her wraps for a promenade. For answer Miss Katie stopped short in her rapid circuit of the room and began to whistle shrilly.

"What is that for?" asked Mabel. "The dog?"

"No. For my gloves."

"But you surely don't expect your gloves to come in answer to a whistle?" asked her amazed chum.

"Yes, I do — that is, I will find them as soon as I whistle for them. There they are now. If they were bears, they would have eaten me, but I never saw them until I whistled for them."

"Well, I never!" gasped her friend.

"It's true," responded Katie, "every time. Don't sailors whistle when they want to raise the wind, and doesn't it come? It's a scientific fact, dear."

But the friend, who was not up in scientific facts, called it superstition. — Detroit Free Press.


Sicily

Dioscorides says that in Sicily in his time the rock oil or petroleum was collected and burned in lamps.

Tradition of The Horseshoe

1895

How It Came to Be Protection Against Evil Spirits

In Morocco iron is considered a great protection against demons, who are the lineal representatives, after all, of the hostile spirits. Hence it is usual to place a knife or dagger under a sick man's pillow, his illness being, of course, attributed to demoniacal possession. In India the mourner who performs the necessary but somewhat dangerous duty of putting fire into the dead man's mouth carries a key or a knife in his hand to keep off the evil spirits. In short, a bit of iron is a very useful thing to have about you at any time if you desire to escape the unfavorable attention of the ghosts, the trolls, the fairies and the demons generally. This is good reason for buying a pocketknife. It is also a reason for nailing up a horseshoe. "But why a horseshoe in particular," you ask, "more than any other odd piece of iron?" Well, primarily the good luck depends more upon the iron as iron than on the special shape or function of the horseshoe as a horseshoe.

But there are also many reasons why the superstition should happen to fix itself more particularly upon horseshoes. We must remember that in Europe at least it is the cattle, the horses and the domestic beasts in general that are specially liable to the hostile attacks of "the little people." Therefore the elves and trolls are most likely to be dreaded on farms or in the country, where horses and cattle most do congregate. Now, if you went to nail up a bit of iron as a protection against the fiery darts of the evil ones on your stables or cowhouses, which is the place where one oftenest sees them, nothing is more likely to come handy to your purpose than a cast horseshoe. Besides it has obvious congruity for the place and object, and it can readily be picked up in the road almost anywhere. Furthermore, it is provided beforehand with convenient holes, by means of which you can readily hang it up, either over your own house door or over your sheds and stables. These various advantages of cheapness, ease and readiness for fixing would have given the horseshoe a fair start in life, it is believed, as a charm against fairies, trolls and evil spirits generally, even without any other and more special advantages. — Cornhill Magazine.

Ways of Picking Husbands

1916

Maidens Have Various Methods, Some of Which Would Seem to Border on the Ludicrous

To ninety-nine girls out of a hundred the most important duty in life is choosing a husband. Methods of choice vary a good deal, of course, chiefly perhaps as between town and country-bred maidens.

To the town or suburban girl a man's clothes count almost for everything. The bride is to the best dressed. The cut of a coat or the color of a cravat weighs more with Clara than character.

Her country cousin, on the other hand, knows better than to pin her faith to a tailor's dummy. She is guided in her choice by more than occult signs. By agitating with her hand the water in a bucket she can see the image of her future spouse. If she desires confirmation she has only to throw broken eggs over a friend's head and the same image will appear.

The peasant girls of Russia arrive at a similar result by seating themselves in front of a small looking glass in a semi-dark room, when a vision of their future lord and master will be certain to present itself.

Once a year an exceptional opportunity occurs. At twelve o'clock on Christmas eve every girl who can contrives to steal out in order to ask the first man she meets his name. Whatever he gives is that of the bridegroom-to-be.

An Engineer's Experience

1902

"The superstition about owls is a wonderful thing," said an old railroad engineer, "and if I had not been inclined to be superstitious about the birds the engine I was riding one night would have been knocked into smithereens and the passengers in the coaches might have fared very badly. I am not always superstitious, but I am particularly so about owls. But I like the creatures, for one certainly saved my life.

"The incident occurred on a very dark night. The train was running at full speed. We were running on a straight line, and there was nothing for the fireman and myself to do but to look directly ahead and let her run. I had been looking intently for an hour, when something flew into the cab. It struck the coal pile and fell back dead. It was a great gray owl. Within less time than it takes to tell it I began to think that the owl was a bad omen, and I stopped the train immediately. I cannot say what made me feel so, but I was sure that death was ahead. I descended and walked to a switch that was a short distance ahead of us. It was open and a long train of empty freight cars was on it.

"I had the owl stuffed, and since that time he has had a place in the cab of my engine. I owe my life to the superstition about owls, and if another one strikes my engine I will close the throttle at once." — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Hubby's Superstitions Made Her Life a Burden

1909

List Shows He Knew Them All

Woman Put Up With Them Until Life Ceased to Be a Pleasure, Then She Asked for a Divorce — Story She Had to Tell Beats Any Ever Heard in a Court Room

SEATTLE, Wash., Oct. 6. — Because he is "the most superstitious man in the world," and for cruelty and eccentric habits arising from his beliefs, Mrs. Sofia Rudd was granted a divorce from Robert Rudd, a well to do farmer of Kitsap County. Here are some of the things he did, according to allegations presented for evidence:

When their only child was 1 year old she was forced to swallow a teaspoonful of fine sand, one grain meaning every [*line of text missing.]

He hung a live toad in the stable, in the belief that the total number of days required for the tortured thing to die would be the number of prosperous years of his life.

Last spring he compelled his wife to disrobe and walk wound a newly planted potato patch, that the crop might be a prolific one.

Nailed a wagon wheel over the gate and tied a skull bone of a horse to the gate, that none passing through bring disease to the family.

Impaled an owl on the gable and fastened a hawk to the side of the barn to discourage other birds from visiting his barnyard.

Would not permit his wife to raise ducks or geese, because white fowls are said to bring discontent.

Kept a piece of wood from a coffin once dug up in Oregon tied to his wagon to keep caterpillars off the farm.

A rooster was kept tied on to a nest for six months to discourage hens from wanting to set.

Scattered boards full of nails and pieces of barbed wire in the path traveled by his cattle on turning them into the fresh green pastures in springtime. If an animal was injured he immediately killed it, because he believed that same animal would have died from overeating before the summer was passed, and that to end its life then would thus save the grass for the other cows.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Oct. 9, 1909.

*Note: A good guess would be one grain of sand for every day of the child's life that year.

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.

Wet and Dry Moons

1910

There is an old superstition, which dies hard, that the position of the horns of the new moon tells what the weather will be; if the horns of the crescent are on the same level, it will hold water, and hence it is a dry moon; but if it is tipped up, then the water will run out, and it is a wet moon.

One thing has helped keep this belief alive; the moon is "dry" in the part of the spring that is usually fair, while it is "wet" during the season of autumn rains.

If this were a sure sign of the weather we could have our predictions years in advance, for an astronomer can predict the exact position of the moon at any time in the future.

The cause for the different positions of the crescent is simple: The moon is south of the sun in the autumn and north of it in spring. The crescent is found by the light of the sun falling on the moon, and the horns are naturally in a line perpendicular to the direction of the sun from the moon.

That is all there is to it.

Fox as "Will O' The Wisp"

1905

Curious Belief That Is Prevalent Among the Japanese

Among the many superstitions of the Japanese there is none more strange or more universal than the belief in the power of the fox to do them harm, and many are the stories told of those against whom this power has been exercised.

The Japanese fox is a pretty creature about two feet long and of a tawny color, and is found nearly everywhere in Japan. The mischievous tricks which foxes are said to play upon the unwary are many, and wonderful are the tales told to awed groups of listeners by those who have been duped by them.

The designing fox usually takes the form of a fairy maiden in order to play tricks upon some unsuspecting wayfarer, and beckons him on until he falls into a ditch or is lost in the mountains. It is almost always at night that the fox goes out to deceive, and those who have met with such adventures say that the only way to know the difference between a real maiden and a fox lady is that the latter is clearly distinguishable, even on the darkest night, the stripes or patterns on her clothing being clearly visible even in the darkness.

It is usually to those who are carrying some article of food that the artful fox appears, with the design of obtaining the dainty, and those who have been through the experience say that a bewildered feeling takes possession of them and they are not able to exert their own wills.

White House Wedding Superstitions

1915

Mrs. Champ Clark, wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, writing of the White House wedding scheduled to take place Saturday, says:

"Concerning President Wilson and the Select Lady (predestined in the councils of eternity before the foundations of the world, that is, if Calvinism still holds good) to preside over the social destinies of the White House in 1916, this much is apparent: neither is superstitious. Else in selecting the date of their marriage they would not have run contrary to the marriage day proverb, which says:

"'Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth.
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for losses,
Friday for crosses,
Saturday no day at all.'

"I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Saturday leap forward into popularity among the list of wedding days out of compliment to the high contracting parties. For the influence of the bride-elect is already manifest in the beautiful 'Edith pinks' lavishly displayed in all the department stores.

"However, among Mr. Wilson's predecessors in office there were several who were superstitious, notably among them General Grant, who tells in his autobiography the story of his own wooing and how it was affected by his pet superstition.

"General Grant says be was brought up to regard it bad luck to stop or turn back after you had stopped any place until you had arrived at your destination. So when he received orders to go to the Mexican War he suddenly realized that he was very much interested in Miss Julia Dent. He was on leave of absence at the time, but he rushed back with all possible speed to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he polished up his armor and brushed up his clothes and made himself as attractive as possible. Then mounting his horse he rode away, taking a bee line for Miss Julia Dent's house.

"Arrived at Gravoist Creek, a small, insignificant stream that ordinarily would not have had power to turn a coffee mill, he found it on the boom, out of its banks and making as much noise as the cataract of Lodore.

"But he was not to be stopped by a little old creek, even if it was on the rampage. So he plunged in and swam for dear life, the current carrying him down the stream, and if he had not been a country boy and used to meeting emergencies the story of Appomatox and its 'famous apple tree' would have had a different ending.

"As it was, he kept his own head and headed his horse persistently for the opposite bank. And got there safe and sound but wet to the skin and with no dry clothes on that side of the creek. However, he borrowed some clothes of his future brother-in-law, courted Miss Julia, was accepted, and four years afterward they were married and lived happily afterward, at least as much so as the circumstances would permit."

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 6. The publishing date of this paper is the same day President Wilson and Edith Galt were married.

2 Plus 2 Plus 3 Plus 6 is 13

1915

They Give Barney Oldfield Badge 2,236, and He Broke Rod

The number thirteen is not popular with drivers of racing cars, and it was noticed that no car at the Astor cup race bore that number. And thirteen did not appear on the official score board.

Barney Oldfield had badge number 2,236 given to him quite by chance. An hour or so before the race W. Bob Holland of the speedway publicity department was talking to Oldfield, and he noticed the badge number.

"You have a hoodoo number, Barney," he laughingly remarked.

"What's the matter with it?" asked

"Add the figures together," said Holland.

Barney turned the badge up. "Two and two are four and three is seven and six is thirteen," he said slowly. He eyed the badge suspiciously for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and remarked: "Oh, I'm not superstitious; I guess the badge is all right."

An hour or so later Oldfield completed six laps, twelve miles, in the race for $50,000 in prizes. While negotiating the thirteenth mile the connecting rod of his car broke, and he was out of the race.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 8.

The Great Sargasso Sea

1896

Sailors have always been superstitious fellows. No wonder, then, that the ignorant sailors of Columbus, anxious for some excuse to turn back to Spain, believed the "sargasso sea" — that tangled mass of seaweeds in mid-Atlantic — was a trap set by Providence to catch them. Science to-day analyzes and explains all such natural phenomena once deemed supernatural. What is it that causes that mysterious sargasso sea?

Simple enough. The rotation of the earth, the rush of the tides, the steady winds unite to cause a vast surface current in tropical waters, moving at about ten miles an hour from east to west, known as the equatorial current. This, in the Atlantic Ocean, feeds the Gulf Stream, which then is shifted by the contour of the North American continent out across the Atlantic to warm the outlying shores of Northern Europe and only spend itself away on the frozen borders of Franz Josef Land. What results? An eddy. Put a few bits of wood in a basin of water and stir the water till it acquires a circular motion. The bits of wood will all collect in the center of the whirling mass.

So the Atlantic Ocean is one great eddy, and the sargasso sea is only the center of it. A "marine meadow," the Spaniards first called this stagnant water. Later it came to be called the sargasso or sargassoa sea, from the Spanish word sargazo, meaning seaweed. Here the seaweed detached from the bottom of the ocean collects, buoyed up by peculiar little air-cells.

Woe to the ship that wanders into the meshes of this great net, six times as big as all France. The same conditions that produce the great sargasso sea of the Atlantic make similar eddy-spots in various regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, though much smaller. The Chinese, always ready to utilize whatever is at hand, use the sargasum weed as a food, and as such it is both palatable and nutritious. — Pathfinder.

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.

Luck In the Clover

1903

Any one who carries about a four leaved clover will be lucky and will have the power of discovering ghosts or evil spirits. With it under the pillow the lover may insure dreams of the beloved one. A fragment in the shoe of a traveler insures a safe journey. Of the five leaved clover it is declared that if it be worn on the left side of a maiden's dress or fastened behind the hall door the Christian name of the first man who enters will be the same as that of the future husband.

The power of the four leaved shamrock for good is familiar to all, from Lover's once popular and pretty song, the speaker in which pictures what she would do should she find the magic plant:

"I would play the enchanter's part and scatter bliss around,
And not a tear or aching heart should in the world be found."


Centenarian Chances

Taking a million as a basis of calculation, statistics show that at the end of seventy years there will still survive 212,000 out of 1,000,000 persons. At the expiration of eighty years there will be 107,000 survivors of the original million. When it comes to ninety years of existence only 8,841 out of the 1,000,000, or one in 115, will be living. Of the original 1,000,000 only fifty-four will live to see ninety-nine years, or about one person out of 18,500. The century mark will be reached by only twenty-three out of the 1,000,000.

Eccentric Tramp Character Dead

1914

"Johnny" Wire Wealthy, But Dressed and Lived as a Tramp

York, Pa., Jan. 24. — "Johnny" Wire, one of the most familiar figures of York county, died here.

He was known over the county as "the rich tramp." Wire was possessed of a fortune, but dressed as an ordinary tramp, wandering from place to place over the country and walking many miles to get a free meal from some of the farmers.

His brother died some time ago leaving an estate of several hundred thousand dollars. Wire was about seventy years old.


Superstitions of Miners

As a man of perilous occupation, the miner has many superstitions. One widespread belief is that to introduce a rabbit into a mine is to court disaster, and many stories are current of catastrophes heralded by the appearance of a white rabbit to the men who were doomed to die. He would be a bold miner, too, who would whistle at work for whistling is a direct invitation to disaster, and though miners are cleanly folk, very few ever wash the small of their back, lest the roof should fall on them.

The Wogglebug Story — Witches and Hobgoblins

Wisconsin, 1905

Bachelor Brothers Move Away to Avoid Witches and Hobgoblins

Christian and William Born, who live in Lebanon on the Woodland R.F.D. road next to J. B. Schneider, have been busy for some time past in building a sort of a Noah's ark on wheels, and there has been considerable speculation by their neighbors as to whether the outfit would turn out to be an automobile or a flying machine. Nothing would have surprised their friends, however, as the boys have long been regarded as foolish.

Last week Thursday they loaded up their deep sea going cab with a number of trunks and boxes, and started on a pilgrimage, leaving everything on the place as though they intended returning that day. Their shepherd dog was left as custodian over the eighty acre farm and about thirty head of stock, besides a large number of chicks.

When they did not return that day nor the next the neighbors went over and cared for the stock and notified the chairman of the town, Herman Witte, of the case. He started a deputy sheriff after the boys, and he overtook the outfit at Troy Center Tuesday evening. They said they were en route to the sunny south in obedience to a command from the spirit of their dead father, who has also ordered the construction of their portable house. The deputy invited them to return by rail with him to Juneau to meet a number of his friends, members of the medical profession and they readily assented, as their team needed a rest anyway. So they are now in Juneau, where they were examined as to their sanity.

The boys' father died some years ago, and they have been living with their mother on the farm, neither of them being married, although they are both over forty-five years of age. They have been having a strenuous time with the witches and hobgoblins the past year. Somebody bewitched three of their best milkers at a time when milk was high, while another witch cast a spell over their chickens when the egg market was around thirty cents. All this they were up against for years and withstood manfully, but when the Wogglebug told them that their farm was heavily encumbered and would soon be foreclosed upon by a number of witches, they gave up in despair and at this time their father's spirit appeared and billed them for a trip to Missouri.

The neighbors say that Mrs. Born has been mentally unsound for years, and that the boys have always been very eccentric and extremely superstitious.

Their team and wagon passed through the village this afternoon being driven back to Lebanon, and its odd appearance attracted lots of attention. — Neosho Standard.

An Odd Superstition — The Name of "Graham" a Terror

1907

British Fishermen Balk at the Name of Graham

One of the most curious of British fishermen's superstitions, the one which perhaps to this day has the strongest hold upon them, is that connected with the name of Graham.

No fisherman will go to sea if he has heard this name mentioned, nor will he do any manner of work upon that day. He will refuse to sail in a boat with any one bearing the name, and a house painter from Newcastle called Graham, who had been sent to do some work in one of the large houses, found his life made so unbearable by the villagers that he incontinently returned to the town, leaving his work uncompleted.

The women who bait the lines in the winter will unbait every hook and rebait the whole length — the labor of hours — if they hear it mentioned. A local tradesman bearing this unfortunate patronymic is never referred to save as "Puff;" another, an innkeeper, is known as "Lucky Bits." No rational explanation is to be found.

One of the most intelligent fishermen being questioned on the subject, he laughed the idea to scorn. Why, his daughter was married to a Graham. But, he added, a strange thing happened, two years ago when he was off at the herring fishing and had not been home for some weeks. Having received a letter at Shields to say that his son-in-law was ill, he hailed a passing boat which had come from the north, asking if they had heard how Jack Graham was. "And, wad ye beleev't, ne soonor had aa syed the words than theor wes a crash, and the mast went ower the side!" None of the crew spoke to him for the rest of the day. — New York Post.

Haiti Worships at Voodoo Shrine

1920

"As no accurate history of Haiti can be written without a reference to Voodooism, the story of this strange cult, which some authorities say still is in practice in its most violent form among the people of this island and others of the West Indies, may be interesting in connection with the recent investigation of American occupation in Haiti," says a bulletin from the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Geographic Society.

"Voodooism could scarcely be called a religion, but so strong is its influence upon the superstitions of the negroes, that despite efforts to eradicate it, every year or two dispatches report that there has been a sudden outbreak of cannibalistic practices in connection with a revival of devotional enthusiasm.

"It is said that no white man would be allowed to live long after he had given testimony leading to the conviction of a culprit charged with sacrificing a child to his god. As a consequence, authentic information is difficult to get, and proof of a human sacrifice almost impossible. Many teachers and inhabitants of the islands deny the existence of the cult, though many stories of the horrors perpetrated at a meeting of the Voodoos are recorded by naval officers who have visited the islands and by other men of integrity.

"The general belief is that Voodooism was brought to the Western Hemisphere from West Africa by the negroes imported as laborers, especially to Haiti, and it may probably be traced back to the serpent worship of Egypt. Many of the characteristics of the worship also were attributed to the French witches of the Fifteenth century, the most violent phases of the practice, perhaps, being an outgrowth of the African superstitions of the black and of the French imagination of the white inhabitants of Haiti.

"The God Obeah or Vaudoux, of which Voodoo is an American corruption, is supposed to know, to see and to do all things, but he manifests himself to his worshippers only in the form of a nonpoisonous snake and communicates with them only through a priest and priestess, known as papa-loi and maman-loi, who are held in great veneration by their followers.

"The ceremony is always held at night, usually in the fastness of some deep wood, where there will be no interruption of the rites. The devotees take off their shoes and bind about their bodies handkerchiefs, the predominating note of which is red, and the priest and priestess wear red bands about their heads in the form of crowns. Then they pray to the snake, which is exhibited for the purpose of arousing their emotions. Maman-loi mounts the box in which the god is usually kept and emits groans, shrieks and wild gesticulations as she utters her prophetic sentences.

"A dance closes the ceremony. The king puts his hand on the box and a shudder somewhat similar to the effect produced by the most recent kind of 'jazz' seizes him, and from him it passes to all the rest. Then the devotional exercises evolve into a wild debauchery and indecency under the cover of drunkenness and night.

"The initiation of a convert to the faith is enough to inspire him with terror. He pledges himself, when his lips are touched with warm goat's blood, never under any circumstances to reveal the secrets of the fraternity and to kill any member who proves a traitor to the brotherhood. This is the point at which the cannibalism is supposed to occur, but investigation has shown that many of the shocking phases of the worship have been eliminated, and the worshippers usually satisfy themselves with a cock or a goat which is afterwards cooked and eaten.

"The Voodoo women are thought to possess supernatural power, and by working on the superstitions of the natives attain a potent influence over them. Many strong men have pined away merely because they thought an enemy had 'put Obeah' on them, just as the Southern negro believed in the 'conjure' doctor who cast a 'spell' on him by leaving in his path a bottle containing horse hairs, snake's teeth, lizard claws, a piece of dried rat and a frog's foot. Objects which have been used in the practice of the black art may be seen in the museum of the Petit Seminaire at Port au Prince.

"So deeply have the people of Haiti become imbued with the cult that an empty bottle, which probably would entice a reminiscent grin from an American assembly, will throw a Haitian group into consternation, and educated Haitian girls have been known to faint at the sight of the shivers of spilled mercury."

—Reno Evening Gazette, Reno, NV, Dec. 20, 1920, p. 5.

Friday the 13th and 12-12-12

1912

TODAY WAS LAST OF THE HOODOO DATES

Friday the Thirteenth Will Not Come Again Until June 1913 a Genuine Jonah Day.

. .B-e-w-a-r-e! This is Friday the 13th! But, thank goodness, it is the last "hoodoo" day we will have this year. Next year only one Friday falls on the unlucky number. It is June 13, 1912.

Yesterday was Dec. 12, — or, written in business form, 12-12-12. No triple set of numerals will be seen again until Jan. 1, 2001, which may be written 1-1-1.

Christmas shoppers took warning and kept their clutches tightened on handbags and pocketbooks.

The superstitious dread of the number 13 seems to have spread over the earth. It is said Italians never use it in making up the numbers for their lotteries; that the thirteenth card in one of their games bears the figure of Death, and that no house in Paris is No. 13. The Quatorziemes are persons known in Parisian society who hold themselves in readiness to go to any dinner which otherwise would have the fatal 13 at the table.

—Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Dec. 13, 1912, p. 14.


Today Friday, Thirteenth and Yesterday, 12-12-12

Today is Friday the thirteenth, the last unlucky day of its kind until the second week of June, which the superstitious believe will be especially unlucky on account of the year being 1913. Yesterday the date could be Written "12-12-12," and it will be 88 years before the similarity is duplicated. January 1, 2001, can be written "1-1-1."

—Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO, Dec. 13, 1912.


THURSDAY WILL BE 12-12-12

Making the Last of Such Combinations for 88 Years.

Thursday, when the "tired business man" and the busy stenographer dash off a letter headed by 12-12-12 on the date line, few will recognize the fact that it is a calendar peculiarity, the last of a series of twelve such which will not recur again for 88 years, or until the dawning of a new century.

The superstitious may draw satisfaction from the fact that the following Friday is the last that will occur in his lifetime falling upon the thirteenth and having the sum of the numerals of the year likewise make the fateful thirteen.

—The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, Dec. 10, 1912, p. 8.

Killing The Mountain Spirit

1874

In illustration of the excessive superstition of the California Indians, a writer in a Sacramento paper relates the following story:

"Two years ago, 'Whistler,' a noted hunter and brave warrior, of the Klamaths, was on the sacred mountain, at the head of Sprague River (a tributary of Williamson's River, and the one referred to so often as the latter stream), when, in the dusk of the evening, he saw a large mule deer, and at once fired, bringing it to the ground.

"In going to cut its throat he was horror-stricken at what he saw before him. There was a deer, a male, weighing over 300 pounds, whose horns were to him a mystery. From one side of the head grew a single spike, ten or twelve inches in length; while from the other side grew a stump horn, with seven short prongs. He had never seen or heard of the like before, and his superstition got the better of him.

"His health for a long time had been bad, and this and the excitement of having, as he supposed, killed the spirit of the mountains, threw him into convulsions. He bled at the mouth and nose, and laid there helpless for hours. At last he managed to crawl to the camp of his party at the foot of the hill, where he told his story and went into a trance. His party were terribly alarmed, and one rode to the agency and told O. C. Applegate that Whistler was dead. Applegate had his coffin made, and it was set out to dry.

"The next morning news came by another rumor that Whistler was alive. It happened the Indian doctor was along with the party, and when Whistler went into a trance he did likewise and kept him company, and brought him back with him, as he expressed it."

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.