POPULAR DELUSIONS.
There is a popular belief that if a glass globe be filled to the brim you can drop in several live goldfish without causing the water to overflow. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that this belief used to be universal, just because it did not occur to anybody' to try so sijnple an experiment.. Try it. Not only among servant girls, but among ladies of high intelligence,
there is a popular .delusion that, if | pokers ortongs be placed in front | of the grate, resting: on; the bars, the tire will ''draw " better. Why j should it? Ask anyone who puts this delusion in practice, and you i will either get a fantastic explana- | tioh or none at all. A popular do j lusion still survives in some parts of the country that the place where the body of a drowned person has j ■finally sunk may be ascertained by floating a loaf containing quicksilver, the supposition being that the loaf will stop immediately over ! the place where the body lies. When Norwegians are in quest of a drowned body they row to and fro with a rooster in the boat, fully expecting that the bird will crow when the boat reaches the spot where the corpse lies. There is a popular delusion in England that it is illegal to cut down a body j found hanging''before a policeman arrives, Lives might have been saved but for this vulgar error.
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Bibliographic details
Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 450, 11 December 1897, Page 5 (Supplement)
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243POPULAR DELUSIONS. Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 450, 11 December 1897, Page 5 (Supplement)
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