SUPERSTITIONS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3225, 31 October 1881, Page 4

SUPERSTITIONS.

In many' portions of England the old Bttperatitions aro still in vogue. A friend now travelling abroad sends us some instances. # One of his companions, a lady, who was temporarily staying near Penzance, Cornwalf, attended a funeral, and noticed that while the clergyman was reading* the burial

aervice, a woman forced her way through the pall-bearers to the edge of the grave*, When he came to the passage, * Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' she dropped a white cloth upon tbe coffin, closed her eyes, and apparently said a prayer. On making inquiries as to the cause of this proceeding, this lady found that a superstition exists among the peasants in that part, that if a person with a sore be taken secretly to a corpse, the hand passed over the sore place, and tbe bandage afterwards dropped upon tho coffin during the reading of the burial service, perfect cure will be the result. This woman had a child wbo had a bad leg, and Bhe had followed this superstition, with firm belief in its efficacy. The peasants also, to the present day, as we havo been informed, wear charms, believing they will protect them from sickness and other evils. The wife of the clergyman of tho parish referred to was very charitable in attending the sick and dispensing medicines, and one day a woman brought a child, having sore eyes, to have them charmed, having more faith in that remedy than in medicinos. She was greatly surprised to find that medicines only were given to her. 1 »*«■».———■—— i