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Show M ' I 'I ji! - - V-- - z - . , - , ss'ij ir " : " " " . 1 . Hi II1; ' , . - . - i -iiU 1 l! I1, - ' - ' - i , ? I; j -I - 5. 1 I !!:-'. Ml! I Leonardo da Vinci's famous fresco of the Last Supper which, it is believed, did more to spread the superstition about thirteen at a table than anything else. At this supper Peter, who later denied Christ, overturned the salt. By many the superstition about spilling salt is accredited to this incident. fVf-v fiEARLT every one Is bh-f bh-f j" perstltious. To be Bure, "T yt superstition belongs to vL YA the unenlightened, but AY J. jL It has been 80 deeply w rooted Id na from gen- HJlc1b erations and centuries back It 13 no simplo matter to discard It entirely. We have reached a stage oi develop- , ment where we no longer have the fear :md dread of the supernatural as the primitive and uncultured people, and we do not think that every animate and Inanimate In-animate thing In nature may be the dwelling dwell-ing place of spirits for whom we must be on the constant watch to serve and please. We do not live in the dread of Injuring these spirits and so bringing down their wrath, not only upon onr own heads but upon thosi of a countless number of innocents. inno-cents. Our modern religions have taught us better than this. The Horseshoe We know that a taboo shingle hung In front of our automobile Is not going to safeguard It from being stolen; we know " that if there Is a flood or a season when crops fall off it Is not due to any such reason rea-son as that some one In our vicinity has displeased the spirits, or that the people are being punished by not having lived rightly or not having offered up enough sacrifices to the spirit. The spirits have nothing to do with the case. At the time of the Galveston flood we did not flud It necessary to even kill a pig for "sacrifice" or offer up a man, woman or child in order to appease any spirits. At the same time we are superstitious and we do a lot of foolish things In the name of goodness knows what! It Is to be doubted, however, if most . people know just why they do these things excepting that what they do will bring pood luck or will be an antidote for some evil portent. Take the horseshoe. There Is not one In a dozen who will puss a horseshoe by. The shoe is carefully picked up, and the finder will tote It for miles to his home. There is an old legend which is supposed sup-posed to indicate the origin of luck In connection with the horseshoe. It is told that St. Dunstan, known for his skill iu making horseshoes, was one day visited In his smithy by his archenemy, the devil. The saint recognized the devil at once, even though he was disguised. He seized the devil and tied him to the wall in such a fashion as to make him writhe in pain. Ever since, his majesty of the red realms is supposed to have steered clear from any place where he has seen a horseshoe over the door or a place with a horseshoe in it or near it. The old belief that when we see a white horse we may expect to see a red-headed girl in the vicinity is probably due to the interpretation that artists have made of I.ady Godiva's ride through the streets of Coventry. Though there is no annal that tells us the savior of Coventry had golden tresses, artists have always depicted her so. and they have invariably placed her on a snow-white horse. The white horse has another special significance. It is considered the luckiest present which one friend can give another. According to tradition it cemented friendship friend-ship so firmly nothing could ever break it. In Africa one of the chiefs, long ago, gave a white horse to another chief and did so to bring peace and friendship between two enemy tribes. Since then the white horse lias stood for everlasting friendship. j$ Strangely enough, in England the white ' "irse, although considered the best of good '- hringers to the owners, is supposed )ng bad luck to those who meet It on ad. One writer explains this by say ing that the chiefs usually owned white horses because they were loss common than the other kind and more beautiful, and when the enemy saw the white horse of a chief it meant ill fortune to him. To counteract the evil portent of meeting the horse the English had an antidote, which was meeting a red-haired lady. A red-haired red-haired lady was choosen because In those days that color of hair was rather uncommon. uncom-mon. Nowadays there are not nearly enough white horses to go around for every red-haired damsel. Another means of averting any disaster which might befall a person from coming upon a white horse besides meeting a lady with a crown of red Is to spit in the direction direc-tion of the horse after it has passed by Why not lignum vita or tin or bone? Why three times? To begin with, speaking of good fortune, for-tune, no matter bow gratefully or how humbly, your words smack of self-satisfaction, and to the spirits of the primitive man self-satisfaction is arrogance, and arrogance arro-gance Is displeasing to the spirits, and unless un-less the spirits are immediately appeased that of which you boasted will be taken from you. Now, trees have been worshiped since the dim' dawn of history. To the unenlightened unen-lightened mind every object In nature is the dwelling place of a spirit, especially the trees. For this reason the trees are most sacred and have great power to ward off evil. Sacrifices were made to the deities Last Supper. In Da Yinci's picture Peter, who afterward denied Christ,' has turned over the salt, and thus people came to believe that whoever does likewise may take it an evil omen. . The antidote prescribed pre-scribed for this ill fortune Is to toss the spilled grains over your left shoulder. Friday is supposed to be a . very bad day on which to start anything. This idea has come down to us from the Mohammedan Moham-medan tradition that Friday Is a day set apart by divine command for prayer and worship. It is the day Adam was created; It is the day he was received into Paradise; Para-dise; the day he was expelled from the garden, and the day he repented, and the day he died. From this the superstition about Ft!- You Fear FRIl J . the 13th, Avj Passing BeneeC . LADDER, Stop to Pid (j Up HORSESHOE When V See One, KNOCK on WOOD When You Boast dx Good Fortune, Do or Do Not Do a Hundred Other NJ Things of the Sort? Here's a Story That Tells You Just WHERE Most Common SUPERSTITIONS CAME FROM passing under a. ladder. The reason that Is considered unlucky, besides the possibility possi-bility of the man on the top of the ladder falling off and smashing into you, or dropping, drop-ping, his bucket of paint on you, Is because in olden times convicts condemned to death had to pass under a ladder. It had the symbol of passing under the yoke. It is commonly 'reported that the breaking break-ing of a . looking glass foretells death to some member of the family. This probably prob-ably had Its origin by some one having broken a mirror and by the death of some member of the family following the accident. ac-cident. Hundreds of mirrors are broken every day and hundreds of people die; it ! pJ 'r ' 'h' Many still consider Friday, , the 13th, an unlucky day and will turn back after starting start-ing on a journey upon that day. Black cats crossing the path mean good luck to some and to others evil fortune. In any event we all take notice no-tice of a black cat. and say: "One, two, three, good luck for me." Knocking Wpod Another very common superstition Is that about "knocking wood" while making a boast about your good health or speaking of some very good fortune which has been yours for some time. Of course, It was done so that your good fortune would not We knock wood three times when boasting because our ancestors carried about pieces of sacred trees to ward off evil. be taken from you for having spoken of It, or, in other words, so that your pride would not be indicative of great fall. But do you know from whence came the Idea of rapping on wood three times? There is hardly one person in a dozen, however schooled in modern ideas, who will pass a horseshoe without picking it up. of the trees, and It was the main aim of our primitive forefathers to keep these spirits In good humor. To carry a piece of wood, a little twig or any part of a tree insured a certain amount of success, good fortune and safety. After a time the wearing of the wood' was not deemed necessary to invoke the magic of the spirit who dwelt In the tree. In fact, men forgot the spirits. But the sacredness of the tree still remained, and it needed but to be touched to bring good luck. Many people say they are not superstitious super-stitious about Friday, the 13th, and yet they would not begin a new job then or set that day for their wedding, or start out upon a long journey, or choose such a day to undergo a serious operation. It is generally believed that Da Vinci's-fresco Vinci's-fresco of the Last Supper did more to spread the superstition about thirteen at the table than it would at first seem possible. pos-sible. The painting shows the twelve apostles at the last supper with the Savior. One from the number was to he betrayer and one was to die before many moous. From this picture a wave of thirteen hysteria hys-teria swept over the civilized world, and the force of It Is still felt. It is something which once started gained a certain momentum mo-mentum that has carried along year after year, regardless of reason. From this ill luck idea of thirteen at table the number in any connection fell into disrepute and signified bud luck. Thirteen Thir-teen has come to be synonymous with bad luck. Rooms in hotels have had to be numbered num-bered 12. 14. 1.", etc., because so many guests refused to take the chances of staying stay-ing in No. 13. There are many buildings which have no thirteenth floor. There are oven street numbers which run 11, 12, 12' j. 14, 13. etc. To spill salt Is considered bad luck. This superstition is also connected with the We consider it unlucky un-lucky to pass under a ladder because in olden times death convicts had to walk under one. "There is practically no person who would not pick a four-leaf clover," says Professor Pro-fessor D. E. Rice of Columbia University. day's bad luck Is readily seen. It was believed be-lieved that anyone who worked on Friday Fri-day was doing wrong and would bring down punishment on himself. Friday also represents sorrow and death, because it Is the day Christ suffered and was crucified. Thus It is that you feel Friday is unlucky un-lucky aud that Friday the 13th is doubly so. In New York there Is a society which calls itself the Thirteen Club, which is endeavoring to do away with the superstition super-stition regarding thirteen. About five years ago a well-known society woman gave a Thirteen Dinner, at which thirteen guests were invited. Even ladders were placed at the entrance of the dining-room so that the guests had to pass under them. So far no bad luck has come to any one. Four-Leaf Clovers It is said that the reason this particular dinner has not proved fatal is due to the fact that the hostess had a little antidote at each place in the way of a four-leaf clover. David Edgar Rice, professor of psychology psychol-ogy at Columbia, has said: "There is practically no person, no matter how highly educated or enlightened, who would not pick a four-leaf clover If he had the luck to chance upon it." The clover itself is considered a lucky thing, but the reason the four-leaf clover is especially lucky is due to nothing more than to its rarity. Since St. Patrick preached the doctrine and made use of the shamrock, which bears three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great trinity, the shamrock aud the entire clover family have been highly esteemed and looked upon as symbols sym-bols of good luck. Then there Is the superstition about A coincidence probably led to belief in the superstition that to break a mirror foretold fore-told a death in the family. i tion whatsoever of Inductive reasoning, with the coincidence of the mirror being broken and the death of a brother or father having taken place not long after, probably Jumped to the conclusion that the breaking of the mirror had been a sign or warning. Thus another belief was spread. It Is Interesting to try to find an explanation ex-planation for your superstitions. Every superstition has a history. A person sneezes and you say "Gesund- heit," or "God bless you." Do you know why this salutation? A popular legend says that before the time of Jacob men sneezed but once, as the shock of that sneeze proved fatal. Jacob Interceded for those who might fall victims of the Bneeze so that the fatal result would not follow :t the sneeze would be consecrated by an ejaculatory prayer. An Italian historian believed that the practice began Id the sixth century, during the pontificate of Gregory the Great. At this period a pestilence pes-tilence raged through Italy. It was ob- A served that those who succumbed to the gfc disease were first attacked with sneezing. The pope therefore ordered prayers to be said agai ist sneezing, and the people were wont to say to those whj sneezed, "God be with you." Brides and Old Shoes The idea of luck Is generally associated with- an old shoe. The popular superstition supersti-tion today Is connected only with weddings. wed-dings. There Is a differing opinion among authorities as to the origin of the superstition. super-stition. In Anglo-SaxOD marriages the bride's father gave a shoe to the bridegroom, bride-groom, who touched her on the head with It In token of his authority. . It is said that the shoe had to do with ancient ceremonies or rites in connection with transferring property. If this Is so, then it can readily be seen' bow It came to be used in connection with marriages, for nuujeu were regaraea as property. In this is not surprising that a person should die !ight there are few brides who would who was related to a person who broke a thank you for sending a shoe after their mirror. An ignorant person without any no- wedding carriage. It. is sunnosed to be 0 - The auburn-haired Lady Godiva's famous ride through the streets of Coventry, declared to be the origin of the belief that if you see a white horse there's a red-haired woman near by. dreadfully bad luck to measure the length of a baby. Many people are superstitious enough to believe be-lieve this. It comes with the association of measur- ing a person for a coffin, i Black cats may bring either good or bad luck. There are some people who believe that if a black cat ' crosses their path or comes 1 to their homes it is a sure sign that the animal is bringing good luck. j The association with good luck comes from the Egyptians, who looked upon cats, black, white or otherwise, as sacred. . icy were even deemed worthy of being buried with their master, and there are as many as a carload of cat mummies to be found. There are some persons who believe that if yon meet a hay wagon on the road and make a wish the wish will come true, providing pro-viding you do not look at the wagon after the wish has been made. The pro- 1 vrso is mere tommyrot left over from the days of witchcraft. The idea of 1 hay and good luck comes J from the ancients who I worshiped the gods of t.N 1 fields and harvests as their great benefcV,.! factors. |