STILL SUPERSTITIOUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20105, 16 November 1928, Page 9

STILL SUPERSTITIOUS.

ANCIENT FEARS PERSIST.

Civilisation and superstition are supposed to be mutually antagonistic. Wo associate fetishes, omelis, ghosts, witches and goblins with peoples who are in tho infancy of their development and have not, yot evolved an educational code, a .Ballot Act, universal suffrage, and a slock cx-

change. a Yet the other day a famous actress nearly had a fit because a mouse ran out of the wings during rehearsal. Yet—mark this—it was not feminine" fear of a mouse which most perturbed her, but the dread lest,this little beast meant- tlw failure of tho plav in which she was taking the leading s role, states a writer in a London paper. . She was only pacified and reassured when tho leading actor—evidently a man of consummate tact and presence of mimb, —told her that in Franco the appearance, of a mouse is regarded, as a good omen. The point which emerges is that sli« was swayed and influenced by super stition on both counts. History finds a parallel for this mouse incident. It said that when the Conqueror stepped on tho beach at Pevensev ),« stumbled and fell Tho Normans wer« aghast at this bar) omen, but the astute William exclaimed: "See how 1 grasp this/ realm of England with both hands!" A bit of wit and common sense is evidently: the right nostrum for superstition. But the question still persists:>" Are we outgrowing this sort of thing? It may be "said that the grosser forms of superstition, tho forms which deeply touch the lifo of th.e people, are liltle in evidence to-day; but few of us fail, at one timo or another, to pay tribute to the little, demons which may work us harm. . Every time wo "touch wood," throw salt to the fairies, dodge ladders, turn our money over !U' the timo of new moon, we are reverting to that deepseated superstition which we - have inherited from otir pagan ancestor^ When Samuel Cunard established his liners, he made Friday the sailing day, :n order to break the age-long animus against that day. Yet many sailors would still refuse to sail on that unlucky day. ' Only the other day a well-known hostess brought in one of the upper servants to make a fourteenth at table, because all her guests were filled with superstitious fear of being one of thirteen. There are still many streets and tints which have no such number. House agents fay they can't let them. Thus it would seem that civilisation is but a thin veneer, polished to the semblance of philosophy and science and politics, whilst beneath it lies the same 'old barbarian, who does obeisance to his totem and keeps in with his medicineman.