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Show I cfHE WHY of I SUPERSTITIONS By H. IRVINQ K I N Q U..-. I GIVING AWAY SHOES MANY people believe that It brings good luck to give away a pair of shoes to the poor now and then. This is a survival from the old belief which existed among various peoples that after death the soul has to pass through a rocky or briary field, or along a sharp ridge, or in some beliefs be-liefs even walk a sword-blade to get into the Elysian fields or whatever place is substitute for them in the particular creed. If the dead person has in life given shoes to the poor, those shoes will be waiting for him when after death, he starts on his perilous passage and his feet thus be protected from briar or blade or sharp ridge. Marian Cox, In her Introduction to Folklore has several interesting references ref-erences to this ancient belief. The Icelandic sagas tell how "The, death shoes were bound on the feet of the dead hero that he might walk safely In the ways of Hela"; and In Chinese shops today special shoes are sold to be used upon the dead. Sir Walrer Scott, In his "Demonology and Witchcraft," Witch-craft," tells of a Yorkshire superstition supersti-tion thai "It is good to give away, at least once In a lifetime, shoes- to the poor," as ufter death the soul will otherwise have to pass barefooted across a great field full of thorns. But If the dead person has given away shoes to the poor a spirit will have them ready for him at the edge of the field that he may walk across shod And there Is the same Idea expressed in what Miss Cox calls "the comfortable comfort-able words" of an ancient "lyke-wake dirge." There can be no doubt as to the origin of the popular superstition, that It brings good luck to bestow now and then a pair of shoes on the poor. (tT b McClnre Newspaper Syndtcale.l ( ) |