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Show THE WHY 71 SUPERSTITIONS . By H. IRV1NQ K1NQ AN ITCHINA NOSE 'TMIE idea that an itching nose means that "company is coming," or "a stranger is coming" Is now merely a common and widespread superstition. IUit it was not always thus. There was a time when the nose actually announced the coming of company or a stranger, not by itching, it Is true, but by the exercise of those keen olfactory powers which it possessed in the days of our primitive ancestors. Scientists tell us that primitive man's organs of smell were so well developed in acuteness and kept sharp by constant use, that his olfactory olfac-tory powers were er.ual, if not superior, supe-rior, to those possessed today by the lower animals remarkable for their gift of scent. Many tribes of savages retain to this day extraordinary powers pow-ers in this respect. Mr. Caveman was, in all probability, a rather high-scented high-scented creature and when he went with a party of friends to visit the dwelling of Mr. Clifidweller, if the wind was right, that gentleman could smell him coining p. long way off, just as many of the lower animals today 'snuff the tainted gale" and become aware of the approach of their ene-riies ene-riies before they can see them. Civilization Civi-lization has caused the sense of smell to become atrophied in modern man but though the nose has lost its power it has retained fls reputation by means of a popular superstition. ( by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) r . |