SUPERSTITIOUS PEOPLE

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 165, 31 March 1939, Page 1

SUPERSTITIOUS PEOPLE

PHILIPPINE HOUSEWIVES SLAPPED MEAT'S REVENGE MILK OF COCONUT Talk about the Irish! Have a look at the superstitions of the barrio housewives of the Philippine Islands as told by Maximo Ramos in the Philippine Magazine: The housewife never slaps meat, for meat that has been slapped is sure to get its revenge by giving the eater a stomach-ache. If upon opening a coconut, she finds the shell only partially covered with meat or the water (milk) too little, she throws it ail away—to avoid complete baldness! if, while cooking, she finds sparks on the black bottom of the pot, she is sure that plenty of lish is coming into her kitchen—or else unwelcome visitors to her home! If the fire roars or the cat paws its face, she had best prepare, for unexpected callers are on the way. The woman of the house does not singj or lie down near the stove; if she did, and were unfortunately widowed, she would get a very old man for her second husbandl, and if she is still a maiden, she would be forced to wed some hare-lipped! old widower. Though it is a rare occurrence, it sometimes happens that a person in the house has to go out while the household is at the table. So that the nourishment in the food will not go out with him—and so that the unmarried young .men and women who are eating will not 'hei so accursed as to remain unmarried throughout their lives—the family turns around, every food receptacle on the table! Dealers in china .should he glad that the barrio people are superstitious: If they break, a dish by accident, they break another dish to “make it a pair,” for if this is not done, a member of tlie family will presently die, to serve as a partner to tliei broken dish.