HORSESHOES AND SUPERSTITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 81, 1 May 1909, Page 3

HORSESHOES AND SUPERSTITION.

A writer iii a contemporary says:— A young friend asks me, "Cau you tell me why horse-shoes are coasidered lucky r The superstition in regard to kurse-shoes is centuries old, and the belief iu their magical powers has been handed down from parent to *hild in all European countries. Everybody has heard that it is "ualucky" to pass a horse-shoe on the road without picking it up. it is necessary to notice how the horse-shoe lies before picking it up. If the ends are away from one, it is a sign that good iortune is within grasp, but by carelessness, extravagance, or the operation of rogues it may depart almost as soon as it comta. A eign to-take earo is therefore given. The right thing to do is to turn the horse-shoe round, to that the ends are towards the finder uefoix- picking it up. And in carrying it home it is correct to hold it with tho cads upwards, or the earth will attract to itself the promised fortune. When the shoe is nailed upon door or window, the ends must he upward, or the whole emblem will be nullified.

ft is supposed that tho element of electricity enters into the matter. From the shoe proceeds a current 01 beneficent rays that, with the ends upward, will spread over the house as a protecting inllueneej with the ends downwards j th 0 rays are drawn hto tho all-receiving earth, and iwith them many of the good inllueuccs that are about the place. A century ago it was very common to see upon the door of a cowshed the horse-shoe to scare away wUclw-'s. Xbwladiiyn they arc not so common, but in remote country villages may still be soon.

The old tales seem vvry absurd now. It is merely fun to pick up a horse-Ehoc and try with its supposed luck. But once on a time the belief operated by suggestion; of course matters came about by ordinary means, but they were ascribed to the horse-shoe all the same. The old myths repay research. The luck of tho horse-shoe is traced to the seagod Poseidon, who was identical with the Roman sea-god Neptune. To Poseidon horses were sacred, and to him they were sacrificed. To him all springs were ascribed. In the shape of a horse he wandered by the seashore, and where ne I struck his hoofs deeply the wators gushed out and permanent springs were found,

This is the reason why horse-shoes are considered unlucky. Going to the root of the matter, one 6ces a Nature-myth as the root principle. From the sea all rain comes, awl to flie sea all springs owe their primal origin; and to the rain and the fresh waters, sea-derived, we owe all fertility on earth.

The- old Greeks therefore worshipped Poseidon as Ihi; iortune-giver through his springs. Tfcry gave him horses, his precious hr '- ■••::! they adored the footprints ■.■)' !i..t<i„ when they found them, for they might be the very footprints of {he sod himself. When horses enmu to br -li'i.l !!ie transition of the luck-emblems hum the footprint itself to the shoeiiKiik--practically the same tiling—was easy, and to finl a shoe was a piece of good fortune. Pegasus, the winged horse, ironi whose hoofs the water firings gushed copiously, has been credited with being the origin of the horse-shoo luck. Some legends called him the son of Poseidon, and I therefore gifted by his father with the ■ power to call the 'waters from the earth. Other legends state that Pegasus sprang i from the shoulders of the Gorgon Me- | du'sa, after Pegasus had cut off her hca:l. j He had the power of producing famous I springs, the waters oi which bestowed tho gifts of poesy, art, and literature on all who drank of them. From these springs the nine Muses drank yearly. Coltsfoot leaves, growing round the | water-springs, received the print of tho i winged horse's foot, and wero given power to heal bruises, which they keep I to this day.