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Show Old Superstitions Find Firm Belief in Sicily Sicily Is still a land of superstitions, super-stitions, most of them worthy of the Middle ages. The traveler who believes that a country loses Its Individuality when superstition succumbs to schools and sewers, will find In Sicily an adherence to the old beliefs unequnled In Europe, Eu-rope, except, possibly. In the Balkans. Bal-kans. Your Sicilian peasant would regard an American fundamentalist fundamental-ist (If he ever had heard of one) as an advanced radical. R J. Cooper Coop-er writes In the Mentor-World Traveler. All Souls' day, celebrated more or less throughout Christendom, Is a day of purtlculur significance In Sicily. On the night of All Souls' day the (lend leave their graves, and one who Is near a graveyard at nightfall Is likely to see the departed de-parted of his vlllnge, the purified souls In white, the condemned In black, and the ghosts of those murdered mur-dered In robes of red. Arriving at their former homes, these spirits change themselves Into ants In order or-der to creep Into the houses. To guard against their presence the Sicilian closes every door and window win-dow of the house. Apparently some Sicilians believe that the dead are abroad every night, for throughout through-out the year doors and windows are tightly closed at nightfall. |