NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1929. WHAT IS SUPERSTITION?

Northern Advocate, 18 November 1929, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE D AILY

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1929. WHAT IS SUPERSTITION?

Hegistered for Transmission Tkrough the Post as a Newspaper.

What is superstition, and to what v extent does it influence the every day t life of the average man and woman? '• The first part of the question provides 3 a problem as obscure as does the second part. Two interesting examples of what many people regard as superstition, even though they may be tin- . able to give a definition of the word, came under our notice this morning. The first was contained in a cable mes- - sage, which reported the death of the • secretary to the Howard Carter organisation which has been engaged in the excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb in • Egypt. The gentleman in question retired to rest apparently in normal health, but later was found lying dead across his bed. This tragic happen--1 ing has led a newspaper to comment • that it marks the tenth death which has taken place among those assoei- : a ted with the excavation of the ancient tomb, and it recalls the legend that a curse would descend upon any who interfered with the resting place of the Egyptian monarch. There certainly has occurred a scries of sudden and mysterious deaths sinee ,the late Lord Carnarvon fell a victim immediately after the tomb had been penetrated for the first time. His death brought into prominence the legend of a curse, and there have been hosts of people who have seen in each succeeding death a manifestation of supernatural power. Others have laughed at such a suggestion, but it may well be asked: are these scoffers entirely free from the domination of a belief that certain circumstances will be followed by certain results? A little honest heart searching will •almost surely make one stand self-convicted of superstition in some form. People nowadays profess not to believe in witches, but, in countless ways, they betray a belief ,in modern versions of witchcraft. They mask their frailty by employing an up-to-date nomenclature. They believe, for instance, in “psychic, phenomena," and they worry them-j solves lost the omens exhibited by animate and inanimate agencies should bring down upon them the equivalent of the old time witch’s curse. An instance- of this was provided in the second example to which we have referred as eoming under our notice this morning. It consisted of a chain letter, purporting to bring luck to any person who, on receiving it, forged other links by sending copies of the letter to three friends. If, however, the chain were broken, calamity would fall upon the breaker. It is possible that the author of the letter was moved by a spirit of curiosity, rather than superstition, when sending out the epistle, but there is not the slightest doubt that an inborn fear lest a curse should materialise has caused many a recipient of a chain letter to [add links as requested. Tim chain 1 letter is in itself an unmitigated curse, but neither the passage of time por the condemnation of the practice seems aide to stop it. The proper place for a chain-letter is the destructor, and this advice cannot be 100 widely spread, for there is no quMTTon as to the injurious effects of the circulation of such writing. Belief in the Tutankhamen curse, on j the one hand, and fear that ill-fortune will follow the breaker of a chainletter, would seem to have little tc distinguish them. What is superstition and to what extent does it influ- 1 encc the everyday life of the average j 1 man and woman? j 1