PIN PRICKS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 2

PIN PRICKS

■ ■ „..„ 4.,,- - .. „-.. Did you ever arauie yourwlf by pricking through paper with a pin and - admiring the raised effeet of tjie punctures on the other side (aeks a London "Star" writer). About 200 year* ago- pictures were made by the same means. Sow of these have been preserved, cninint examples of what must 'assuredly.- make modern artistic folk shudder. The pricking with a pin has been used ; in more tragic cause. Marie Antoinette sent- a message marked ' out in this way to friends who were, plotting heir escape in Austria. ■ The message was betrayed, however. She probably did not think of the old plan of making images of her enemies and sticking . them with pins, j This way of trying to put a tragic end to one's foes, was practised even-as recently as seventy yearn ago. Not quite st> well known is the custom of hanging a piece of bacon stuck with pins-in the chimney to keep away witches. On Midsummer Eve the following., cbarm.;-ueqd to ba jis'itctise'd by those who wiihed' to know them' future. A black- velvet cushion was marked on one side with a cross in a circle, both made of pins. On the other side was marked in the same way the name of the person u»ing the chavin. Then, at bedtime; the cushion was placed in a stocking and hung at the-foot of the bed. After which the future would be revealed in a dream.