HOMAGE TO ANIMALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOMAGE TO ANIMALS.

STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS.

RELICS OF ANCIENT DAYS.

EXTRAORDINARY SURVIVALS,

GOOD AND EVIL OMENS.

The respectable ratopaying citizen who entertains such a contempt; for-the superstition!? of other countries makes quite a parade of establishing a black cat in his household—an animal that has ever been associated with Witches and their like. So writes Mr. E. G. Boulenger in the London Daily Telegraph. Man first paid homago to the-.black cat when many of tho members of the hnmati race were devil-worshippers. Today, in a civilised country, tho worship of the black cat still survives among a large section of. the community. Superstition is--o?<lor than- any of the established religions, and extraordinary survivals of it arc. to be met with" on every hand. Ii dies very hard, and makes a brave fight against education. The dread of reptiles and batrachians, inherent -in so. large a percentage of the world's population, is responsible for many strange superstitions. Anything with scales —bar a fish—appears to repel the average man, and frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders, by reason of their peculiar movements and cold skins, share in the reptilian anathema. Toads and newts are still credited with the habit of " spitting fire," while the adder is capable of anything from sucking cows to swallowing its own young. Many a rustic who will cheerfully force into submission a vicious bull quails beforg;a- crested newt, while the Madeira fisherman, " while riot hesitating to tear the 18in. dagger from tho tail of a giant stingray with his teeth, becomes almost hysterical npon seeing anyone touch an ordinary wall lizard. Boatman And Green Lizards.

On one occasion the writer, while fish* ing o/f the coast of -Madeira, exhibited to his boatman a box containing a, few of the olive green, lizards which abound all over the island. The effect was elecp Ideal,, and tile • figheroiaft ".was restrained ivlth -.difficulty ". .tliroiving himsolf overßoard • He ■ would- certainly have done so if the lizards had not been promptly committed.to the ocean depths. The only reason the man gave for his behaviour was that the reptiles wore ovil, and that !no good would come of meddling with such infernal objects. The toad is undoubtedly the most useful of all Nature's night-walkers, and is the gardener's best friend. Yet annually hundreds of thousands of these creatures are killed by the ignorant, who, in so doing, believe they are benefiting human* Sty, .

Toad superstition—now almost dead—lis that which has reference to the " toad stone," a supposed jewel lodged in the animal's head. Shakespeare says:— Sweet tlio uses of adversity, ,"Whichj like the toad, tiffly and venomous. Wears yet a precious jewel in hiß head. Old writers and the leading savants of their days had much to say on the subject of this stone. In the . light of present-day knowledge, their writings are like one famous actor's description of a rival star's performance of Hamlet: "Funny without being vulgar." " Salamander" Traditions. An allied batrachian, the salamander, is

credited with still more extravagant at-

tributes. " Salamander" is a byword ex--4f pressing excessive heat, and is a trade term given to a host of gas stoves, radiators, etc. Actually, the salamander is a newt-like creature, which does not liko warmth, and in captivity, to avoid it quickly becoming mummified, must be kept in comparatively cool and' damp surroundings. Pliny, the Munchausen among naturalists, sets forth that the salamander secrets a poison harmless to extinguish fires by its contact, in the same way as ice doth." Like the common toad, the skin of the salamander secretes o poison harmless to man. The ancient Romans, however, believed its venom to be deadly, and made a habit of dipping the live animals into " cups of wine intended for inconvenient politicians. Needless to say, many of their schemes went amiss. The idea of the salamander being incombustible took a long time to die. Even as late as 1789 the French Consul at Ehode3 is recorded as having found one in his kitchen fire, and to have secured it with the tongs. There are likewise ■tories of salamanders having been found in the craters of active volcanoes, and one can only wonder' how such beliefs Originally arose. Jn certain parts of Africa, there is a belief that the hyaena is the possessor of remarkable hypnotic powers. "The natives state that it is capable of casting a jfipell over any solitary wayfarer, forcing him to follow the animal to its lair. It appears that the victim's only hope of salvation is to strike his head on the rocky entrance to the den with enough force to draw blood. This, so it is assorted, will immediately break the spell.

Prophecy By Means of Birds. Tho horn of the rhino is regarded as exceedingly, valuable by certain tribes of Arabs, owing to the old superstition of its power to nullify any poison drunk out of it when converted into a cup. Hence, once a possessor of such a receptacle one need have no fear of drinking with a stranger. " In the more uncivilised parts of the world, the diviners foretell events by means of good and evil birds. In Madagascar the kite is regarded as a creature of very ill-omen, and should its droppings fall upon the head of anyone, the victim is doomed to die. In the same country the laying by a fowl .of an unusually egg is ominous of something good, while an unusually small egg is feared as foreboding evil. No bird inspires more fear than the nocturnal devil bird of Ceylon—a species of owl. Its cry has been described as a " shriek of torture, followed by a gurgling sound, as of a victim of strangulation." This unpleasant call being followed by a silence "as of death" naturally inspires great fear in the hearts of the superstitious natives.

Amazing Malay Superstition. The slow loris of the Malay Archipalego possibly heads the list of mystery animals, by reason of the unholy aura that surrounds i+ Its supposed influence upon every place of human activity is quite amazing, and often clashes with British jurisdiction. For instance, a native may excuse himself for having committed a murder by merely stating that a loris told him to do so. The animal may affect the harvest, kill by fever or cure of fever, make, delay, or annul a •wedding, and bo responsible for any occurrence from a flood to an earthquake. The habits and appearance of the loris create an atmosphere of superstition in the minds of a simple and unsophisticated people. It has a grotesquely human shape, is deliberate, almost mesmeric, in its movements, and has enormous bulging eyes, which it covers with its grotesque hands when exposed to light, a habit the Malays attribute to "seeing visions."

The ayo-ayo of Madagascar, an aberrent nocturnal monkey, with a bear-shaped l>iad and a fox-like taS, is another

creature that is much dreaded in its native land, where many strange rites were once practised in order to counteract its evil spell. The eyes of the animal, like those of the slow loris, are fashioned for seeing in the dark, while its great toe is extremely long and slender, and is used for extracting insects from , the bark of trees.

Many animals are still regarded as Bacred. The African ibis has from time immemorial been associated with the annual rising of the Nile, while the spoiled sacred bulls and langur monkeys of India, confident that none clare interfere, make nuisances of themselves in the public markets. The Indian and Egyptian cobras, the marsh crocodile, or mugger, of India, and the insect hypocrite, the praying mantis, are all Worshipped to this day. Even in Holland there is universal regard for the stork, the original cause of its adoration being its suppression of animals that once undermined the wooden dykes.

The oven-bird of South America, which has a habit of plastering mud on its nest all day long, is Credited by the natives with a reverence for Sunday, .and they affirm that on that day the creature refrains from all manner of work. A known traveller has stated that against the persistent assertions that tho bird never works on the Sabbath, it is vain to say that it is ' seen bringing home and plastering mud on its nest without anv regard for the Christian day of rest. Tho superstition sticks faster than the mud.