SUPERSTITIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 27

SUPERSTITIONS.

LUCKY THIRTEEN. THREE CANDLES. Many ■women who have been constantly assured that their sex is riddled with superstition must have been amused when they read of the dozens oi charms and mascots given by their male supporters to the principals in the recent great fight (Lady Decies ■writes to the London "Weekly I) ispatch"). Sprigs of white heather for Beckett when he landed, lucky black cats for Carpentier; Swastikas, horseshoes, Billikins were spread in such profusion before the path of the conqueror or the conquered that even if they had not received, as seems to be the case, adequate compensation, they would have been able to maintain a prosperous livelihood as the proprietors of old curiosity shops. •'ln reality, probably few who sent those tokens really believed that the \ Englishman wa3 defeated because he , could not wear white heather, or that the Frenchman won because his horseshoe was hanging in the dressing room. But the fact that they sent them at all is a vivid illustration of the strides j which superstition lias made among . men since the war. '< Thirteen at 1> !nner. 1 ''What, then, since it is nothing to be I ashamed of, is your favourite supersti--1 tion? Taking a general census of my ! friends, I am inclined to think that 13 ! is the emblem which strikes most awe ' into their hearts. Strangely enough, I have never been alarmed by 13, for the ■ simple reason that it has often ' been associated with strangely happy coincidences. One instance in particular occurs to mc. It was in the early summer, befor* the outbreak of the Great War, when I was entertaining a party in the country. There were 11 guests, and I suddenly realised that this would mean that we should make 13 for dinner. I <lid not mind myself, and decided to say nothing about it, hoping that mv guests, among whom were some halfdozen soldiers, would not notice the coincidence. •'Nobody noticed, the party ended happily, and the incident was forgotten. _ A few months later war broke out. Nearly every man who had sat at my table was in Franc, before the end of the war. And, throughout tbe entire hostilities, not one was killed, nor even "gravely wounded. Three Candles. "The same situation and the same result were almost exactly repeated in the early months of the war. Again it was a dinner party of 13, caused by! the absence of one man, whose car had' broken down. Again half the guests! were soldiers. But with one exception, that of a man who was already well over 70, each of those guests is alive I to-day. "Although 13, therefore, leaves mc unmoved, there are some superstitions that will strike an unmistakable chill to the most indifferent heart. "The legend fo the three candles is one of the most potent of aIL. Death is supposed to hover in the air when three candles are burning in the same room, and, however steadily they may burn, and however bright one's companions, one cannot rid oneself of the suggestion that, after all, perhaps—by some chance, in some dim way the magic is still there."