MALAY SUPERSTITIONS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12424, 14 December 1908, Page 4

MALAY SUPERSTITIONS.

Writing on superstitions •• in tho Malay States, a traveller says :— Curiously, there are several omens, which, here are taken to mean exactly, the opposite of ivhat is generally ascribed to them in the Old Country. Thus, for instance, while Europeans look upon a swarm of bees settling near .the house as a forerunner of good luck, the Malay native believes it to portend the most dire misfortune. - Again, if a bird flies into the house, all will be well, for the inmates need only catch the intruder,

smear his wings . with oil and let him go again, whou he will fly away bearing all the bad hick 'of the house. A terrible thing is to build a house in which the stairs are nob directly under the middle rafter. For, unless this be the case, the inmates will spund ail their days in quarrelling. And if any of your reader^ shoiild visit .these regions, let them be careful not to lean against the steps of a house while talking, for a funeral will be sure to then take place. A curious fact which I have never heard explained is that of th 6 Chinese, ■\yho share to some degree the belief in the ill-luck "attaching to a peacock's feather, should yet place these feathers .before . their idol's shrines. - - -.