SUPERSTITIOUS PEOPLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19894, 23 March 1939, Page 3

SUPERSTITIOUS PEOPLE

PHILIPPINE HOUSEWIVES SLAPPED HEAT’S REVENUE MILK OF COCONUT Talk about the Irish have a look at the superstitions of the barrio housewives of tiie Philippine Islands as told by Maximo Ramos in the Philippine Magazine: The housewife never slaps meat, for meat that has been slapped is sure to | get its revenge by giving the eater a j stomach-ache. If upon opening a coconfit, she finds the shell only partially covered witn meat or the water (milk) too little, she throws it all away—-to avoid complete baldness! If, while cooking, she finds sparks on the 'black bottom of the pot, she js sure that plenty of fish is coming into her kitchen—or else unwelcome visitors to her home! If the fire roars or the cat paws its face, she had best prepare, for unexpected callers are on the way. The woman of the house doe,s not sing or lie down near the stove; ,if she. did, and were unfortunately widowed, she would get a very old man for her second husband, and if she is still a maiden, she would be forced to wed some hare-lipped old widower. Though it is a rare occurrence, it sometimes happens that a person, in the house has to go put while the household is at the table. So' that ■' the nourishment-in the food will, not go out with him —and so that the unmarried young men and women who are eating will not be so accursed as to remain unmarried through-out their lives —the family turns around every . food, receptacle on the table! Dealers in china should be glad that the barrio people are superstitious:”lf they break a dish -by accident,; they break another dish to "make it a pair,” for if this is not done, a member of , , the family will presently die, to serve as a partner to the broken dish.