SUPERSTITIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4321, 23 September 1921, Page 4

SUPERSTITIONS.

WORTH!' OF RESPECT. Dr. Herbert Smith (writes “Pem” in John o’London’s Weekly) was recently courageous enough to deciare in a letter fo the Daily Mail that “superstition js worthy of respect.” He w.ent on tp say : “Folk-lore is the basis of primitive medicine, and still survives in the country—in ‘ herbal cures,’ in the wearing of sulphide rings, in the 'blue bag,’ and in the arrest of bleeding by cobwebt. f "The cleansing by fire of ‘the earthly cottage” at the 1 last is the wise Survival of an honoured and an .ancient cult. “Yes, superstition is justified of her children!” z • FOLK-LORE. Folk-lore embrac.es popular traditions, popular proverbs, and popular customs, as well as popular superstitions, and these superstitions have an outstanding interest, for it has been well said that "there is scarcely any child’s story pt a vain thought that may not be traced back to the boyhood of the' world.” There are % thousand superstitions i.n everyday life that are still cherished despite the advance of civilisation and the discoveries of science, and. it is a most curious and suggestive fact that highly intelligent persons cling, against their better judgment, to utterly unreasonless superstitions. People who are unable to believe in'the existence of God will carefully throw salt over their left shoulders and will tap wood if someone t.elils them how their children are looking. Apart altogether, frpm the scientific interest of superstitions, they seem to me-to demonstrate .the unalterable conviction of the great majority of human beings that things are not what they seem, and that, however learned Horatio may be, there are more things in heaven and in earth than are dreamed of in his philosophy. SYMBOLICAL ACTS. Moreover, many of the practices that are denounced as superstitious are really very beautiful symbolical acts. For example, there was a common custom, which still survives in many parts of the country, that a new-born baby should be placed in the arms of a maiden before any other person touched it. The practice was the consequence of the belief that the Virgin Mary was present at the birth of John the Baptist, and was the first person to hold him in her arms. Other superstitions are based on common sense—for instance, the belief that a baby should never be allowed to sleep on bones—that is to say, on the lap. This, is admirable common sense, for it is an obviously bad thing for a child to lie with its head pr its legs llower than the rest of its body. MAY MARRIAGES. The idea that it is unlucky to marry in May comes to us from the

Romans, and is, of course, enshrined in the proverb: “Marny in May an.l you’ll rue the day.” It was believed that the first child of a M:ay marriage would be an idiot pr have -s'dme physical deformity. It is rather a curious fact that this May superstition was not accepted in the Middle Ages, the month of May being the time when “The King of Love and all his company Shall holde his feste fully rially and well.” June, with the Romans, as with us, was the most popular month for marriages. The poet Ovid was particularly that his daughter should marry in June. There are many explanations of the belief that to throw an old shoe after a bride and bridegroom is to bring them luck. It has been suggested that the shoe was a symbol of authority, and to throw a shoe after the bridegroom meant *o show that the authority over the bride was transferred from her father to him. EBBING OF THE TIDE. The belief that deaths mostly occur with the ebbing pf the tide seems to me to be particularly beautiful, linking man up with the world in which he lives. This popular belief was expressed by Mr Peggotty when his brother-in-law, Barkis, lay dying. “People can’t die along the coast except when the tide’s pretty nigh out. They can’t be -born till flood. He’s going out with the tide—he’s agoing oujt with the tide. It’s ebb at halfarter three, slack water half ah hour. Tf he lives till it turns, he’ll hold his own till past the flopd, and go put with the next tide.” It will be remembered that after many hours, it being low water, Barkis went out with the tide. It is impossible in a short article to do more than nibble at the millions of interesting and suggestive supersti-

tions. In a sort of way, it seems to me that a superstition may give an added dignity to the commonplace events of one’s everyday life. EVen the morning’s dressing may become a sort of ritual. There is an old Jewish cus.tom, first to put on the right stocking and .the right shoe, but co leave the shoe undone; then to put on the left stocking and the left shoe, and to do up '.the left shoe before the right, so that the beginning and the end of the ceremony is with the right or lucky side.