Show u v ACHE WHY o of f SUPERSTITIONS B By H. H IRVING KINQ COVERING MIRRORS I V SOME sections ot of the country itIs It ItIs Is customary when a death has hns OC carted In the family to cover the life mir tors and to keep them shrouded while the body bolly remains In the house Generally Gen Gen- orally how ver It Is only a mIrror which happenS happenS' to be In the room where the body lies Iles whIch Is celled This custom Is traced by Professor I to the belief bellet of primitive roan roan- of which belief beliet we still see vestiges that the ghost the soul ot of ota ofa a dead per person On hovers hoers for a while about Its ILs late tenement A mans man's reflected image n was as consIdered to be n a part of him elf possibly his exterior soul lied find concernIng the belief bellet In exterIor ex spins the professor n a saes mt amount of data The Idea In In yelling veIlIng the mirror was to obviate oblate the chance of the lingerIng soul ot of the deceased taking away with It the exterior soul of any person those reflected Imago Image appeared li In the glas Mirrors are very ancIent and before mirrors were Introduced there were pieces ot of brIght metal In which nn an Image might be reflected reelected and which were covered upon occasions ot of death a custom stIll observed by some savage savage sav sav- age trIbes Whether the exterior soul Idea op plies here as the professor thinks or oat not It Is certain hat primitive e manlike man lII like e the savage who Is the primitive man o of today regarded his reflection as something vitally pertaining to hIs personality and It was natural that he should protect It against any pos pos- ot at contact with u a lingerIng by preventing Its exIstence And what was begun ns as- asa a precaution Is practiced today because ot of on an atavism which makes the superstitious feel It might be unlucky not to do ItC It to C by Ne SyndicAte n |