SUPERSTITIONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 93, 8 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUPERSTITIONS.

Superstition, like prejudice, is impervious to logic, and no argument addressed to reason has any effect upon •ts power or prevalence. Why is 1111.1teen an unlucky number? What possible connection has the assemblage of thirteen persons at dinner with the death of any one of them during the ensuing year? If fourteen dined together, there is certainly a greater chance that one of tliem would i«ss away with the twelvemonth than if one less'sat at the table; and yet this is not the common estimate. There is hardly it housekeeper who would seat thirteen at her table without a feeling or regret, and the great majority would not entertain a company composed of that number for any consideration whatever. We recall an instance where a family given to a liberal hospitality had a dining-table which seated six on either side and one at each end. Once every week a dinner was given, to which twelve guests were invited, the host and hostess occupying the other seats. Tf one of the persons invited sent a letter of regret a substitute was sought for and secured if possible. But, fatting in this, a young woman, a poor relative with pleasant manners, living with the family, took the vacant chair, and was supported in the house for no other purpose than to meet this possible need. There have been "Thirteen Clubs'' organised to relieve the number ot its reputation, but they have utterly failed of their object. \Ye cannot find that those who thus braved the common superstition were cut short in their days on this account. But people cannot insure themselves against the fata' biow, even by a display of unusual courage, and the ranks of the tmrvcen were broken sooner or later by the assault which none can successfully resist.

There are stores of superstit'ops con. nected with the moon and its |(liases. The effect of the "changes" )n u.o weather is a natter of almost universal belief, although the most renowned of our scientists are agreed that tnere ts not the slightest observable dependence .between them. There is probably not a person in the country who would not, if he had his choice, prefer to catch the tiist glimpse of the new satellite over his right shoulder, while large numbers are rendered quite miserable if they happen to see the narrow crescent on its first appearance over their sinister side.

The prevalent impression that Friday is an unlucky day regulates in nwu., respects the business of the world. Those who are ready to assert that they have no feeling whatever on the subject are very careful in solicitation of patronage for any new enterprise, or in choosing the date for an entertainment or a marriage, not to run counter to this popular fallacy. Some years ago an English srtipowner. finding none of his vessels could get off to sea on Friday, owing to the feeling among the sailors, determined' to cure madness if he could. He therefore laiti the keel of a vessel on Friday, made ever contract concerning the construction on Friday, and launched the craft on the unlucky day. He christened the ship with this name, ana found an old sea captain called Friday whom he made master of her first voyage. She was loaded for an East India port, and after great difficulty in securing a crew she sailed on u given Friday for her destination. She was never spoken or heard from after the pilot left her. The presumption is tiiau v, hen she encountered her first storm the sailors, who are proverbially superstitious, became apprenenslve and took to the boats, leaving the ill-fated craft to founder in mid-ovean and them-

reives to perish in like manner. It is singular how one such incident will deepen a prejudice already existing and establish in the minds of many who art otherwise sensible, a connexion between two events that can have no pos. sible relation to each other.