DISAPPEARING SUPERSTITIGNS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 70

DISAPPEARING SUPERSTITIGNS.

It is asserted that people are losing one by one their old superstitions, and that the time is not far distant when common sense will have entirely routed even such traditions as the ill-luck supposed to be attached to opals or to oittn.^ down thirteen to dinner. The latter superstition is one that only th* most strong-minded hostess of past generations would have dared to disregard. She knew that among her guests there would inevitably be -some who would consider the number ill-omened, though they might be quite ignorant of the origin of the superstition — the thirteen who sat down to the Last Suppei. Even to-day the smart dume will avoid limiting her dinner-party to thirteen, if possible.

The time i& pot very remote — a few hundred years os • so — when, also owing to Biblical traditions, the name Thomas was very unpopular. The superstition attached to this name is even yet not wholly extinct. "A Thomas always has or gives trouble," an old countrywoman was heard to say the other day. The busy Early Edwardian has no time to defer to the minor superstitions which the less harried Early Victorian carefully observed. The former rushes under ladders, for instance, and has probably forgotten that in the old days this would have been tantamount to defying the god of ill-luck ! The craze for a?stheticism brought green, a tint once written down as unlucky, into favour, and up-to-date brides have even been known to choose it for their bridesmaids' frocks.

The opal, a precious stone formerly systematically barred by the superstitious, is now a particularly modish gem. Engagement rings to-day are frequently set with this beautiful jewel ; and the society dame usually includes a necklace of opals in her jewel box. A recent fiancee has even chosen an engagement ring set with thirteen opals. The prevailing fancy for peacock's feathers seems to prove that the world of women has made up its mind to renounce even this once most firmly cherished of former superstitions. Who now remembers to wish when he iP(vts .> piebald horse, or fears the atten-

!.> i i-i a t ro^s-eyed waitc-) ' Trip s< hoolj,.il ijd.s ctased to watch for ;i mion of her future husband in the mirror at midnight on All Hallows Eve ; and the present-day debutante would no doubt be disgusted to be informed that her practice of sitting on the table indicated that she was tired of her spinsterdom.

Our predecessors were sent, into the depths of despair by perceiving a magpie in the hedge or on the lawn, and the flight of three crows was understood to be a melancholy portent. The traveller who had once started on his journey would, in the old days, seldom venture to court disaster by returning again to the house, however important the reason. To one superstition, however, the r.resent-day girl still clings. She thoroughly believes that to be married in May is a certain way to ensure misfortune of some kind of another, and the weddings which take place during this (fiom a matrimonial point of view) illfated month are usually only those for which it is impossible to fix a more propitious date. It is doubtful whether evi-n the May wedding of King Alfonso and Princess Ena will inspire the society fiancee to defy the evil auguries of the month of flowers.