QUEER FEARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2676, 27 December 1923, Page 4

QUEER FEARS.

There are few people to whom the meaning of the word “fear” is nnknown. Fear seems to be part of our make-up. ' ■ Some fears are easy to understand. A lion, a man-eatinp- tiger, a deadly rattle snake in our path would- make lis afraid. These are reasonable fears. These animals are capable of doing obvious harm, of bringing death in their train. , But how strange and ..incomprehensible are our unreasoning fears of small' animals, even insects, harmless as they are! A fat, green caterpillar crawling over a girl's frock may prostrate her with real fear, though she may be quite unafraid of the largest black bettle. And possibly that girl’s friend would rather die than go down to the kitchen where that terror by night lurid). The timid little mouse can strike fear into many otherwise brave hearts; the spider and the earwig run him a close second, though it has long been proved that earwigs have no preference for making a home in the human ear. Some people turn pale with fright if a moth flutters round the room; they know no peace till it is caught or flies away. Men are not exempt from these peculiar fears. It is well known that the late Lord Roberts could not bear.a cat in the room; that he felt the presence of one even if lie could not see it. Some men ivill avoid the garden in the summer dusk because of their dislike of bats. There seems to be no accounting for these queer fears. It is # noticeable that the same fears seem to run in families so, perhaps, there may be an hereditary explanation.