LUCK IN HORSESHOES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

LUCK IN HORSESHOES.

The old superstition of nailing a horseshoe over the door of a house as a protection ag ainsfc evil spirits and an assurance of good luck is aa widely spread in the United States as it is in England or Ireland. It also prevails among nearly all Teutonic and Scandinavian, races and flourishes largely in the East and West Indies and Hindo3tan. There are three elements united in the horseshoe —in the first place it is crescentshaped ; second, it is a portion of a .horse ; and, lastly, it is made of iron. Popular superstition has long endowed iron with protecting qualities. During the time of the plague in Rome the inhabitants of the Eternal City drove nails into the wall of their houses as a safeguard against the dread disease. When the Arabs are overtaken in the desert by the deadly simoon they seek succour from Heaven by crying "Iron ! Iron !" Celtic, Finnish, and Welsh superstitions all agree that against witchcraft iron is considered the only guard. Custom even recites that ib has always been considered & good omen to find old iron, and particularly to find an old horseshoe. In the mythology of England horses were and are to this day looked upon as luck bringers. In some parts of England ib is still thought that many forms of disease can be cured by burning a horse alive. A horse's hoof placed under an invalid's bed is considered a specific for many complaints in the North of Scotland. Many years ago in Ireland, so it is said, upon the death of a horse its feet and legs were hung up in the house, and even the hoofs are kept sacred. All of which, it is claimed, serve as a preventive of illluck or disease.* On account of its form, historians state that the qualities formerly accorded to the crescent have been transferred to the horseshoe. The Chinese build their bombs at the present day in a semicircular form like a horseshoe, and the Moors use ib in their architecture. ■ Lord Nelson nailed a horseshoe to the mast of his flagship Victory, and guarded it aa if it) had a citadel.— Graphic,