Current Superstitions Part 53

Move in the light of the moon.

Butcher in the increase of the moon.

Boil soap in the increase of the moon.

Cut corn in the decrease of the moon, else it will spoil.

Spread manure when the horns of the moon are down.

Lay the first or lower rail of a fence when the horns of the moon are up.

Put in the stakes and finish the fence when the horns are down.

Roof buildings when the horns of the moon are down, else the shingles will curl up at the edges and the nails will draw out.

Lay a board on the gra.s.s; if the horns of the moon are up, the gra.s.s will not be killed; if they are down, it will.

Cut your hair on the first Friday after the new moon.

Never cut your hair in the decrease of the moon.

Cut your corns in the decrease of the moon.

Nos. 1114-1123.--These superst.i.tions regarding planting crops according to the moon are by no means idle sayings that have no influence over farmers. I know positively that in many parts of the United States and in Prince Edward Island gardens and fields are often planted after direct reference to the almanac in regard to the moon's changes. Metropolitan dwellers have small knowledge of what an important book the almanac is to many country people. In many a quiet farm home the appearance of the new almanac is looked forward to with great interest. Its arrival is welcomed, and it is hung up near the kitchen clock for constant reference. It is studied with care, especially on Sundays. The farmer or farm-wife, who would scorn to do an hour's work in the hay-field to save a crop from a Sunday shower, earnestly peruses the almanac to get rules to guide the week-day sowing and planting. There are old auguries, too, of whose import I am not definitely informed, to be derived from consulting the signs of the zodiac; auguries, I think, concerning human destiny as well as the planting of crops. Speaking of the place held by the almanac recalls one of those neighborhood anecdotes that by oft telling become cla.s.sic. A young woman long ill, with consumption I believe, died very suddenly. Her brother, in speaking of the event, said: "Why, no, we never thought of Mary dying so soon. Why, she sat up in the big rocking-chair most all Sunday afternoon, reading the almanac, and then she died on Monday." Poor Mary, the thin volume was her sole library!

CHAPTER XVI.--It would involve a much more extended discussion than the s.p.a.ce-limits of these notes will allow, to undertake to show the origin and meaning of the superst.i.tions in regard to the sun and sunwise movement. While the origin and meaning of sun-worship has been very fully treated by Sir G.W. c.o.x, Professor Max Muller, Professor De Gubernatis, and others, the existence in modern times and among civilized communities of usages which seem to be derived from sun-worship has apparently almost escaped notice. I quote in this connection a few paragraphs from my brief article on this subject in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for June, 1895:--

"In dealing with the origination of actions or customs in which is involved what Dr. Fewkes calls the ceremonial circuit,[158-1] it is difficult to determine the value of the factor, whether it be large or small, that is due to the greater convenience of moving in a right-handed direction. Occasionally the dextral circuit is followed in cases in which it is evidently less convenient than the sinistral would be, as in dealing cards in all ordinary games. Also, who can tell just how large or small an element may depend upon the tradition that the left hand in itself is uncanny without reference to the sun's apparent motion? There certainly is a general feeling of wide distribution that to be left-handed is unfortunate. Dr. Fewkes's careful and valuable researches among the Moki Indians of Arizona, however, show without doubt that they in their religious rites make the circuits sinistrally, _i.e._, contrary to the apparent course of the sun, or, as physicists say, contra-clockwise. The Mokis also are careful to stir medicines according to the sinistral circuit. But doubtless instances go to show that among Asiatic and European peoples the general belief or feeling is that the dextral circuit--_i.e._, clockwise, or with the apparent motion of the sun--is the correct and auspicious direction."

"As contra-sunwise notions were thought to be of ill omen or to be able to work in supernatural ways, so it came to be believed that to reverse other acts--as, for instance, reading the Bible or repeating the Lord's Prayer backward--might produce powerful counter-charms. The negroes in the Southern States often resort to both of these latter practices to lay disturbing ghosts. In the ring games of our school children they always move sunwise, though whether because of convenience or from some forgotten reason who can say?"

"In New Harbor, Newfoundland, it is customary, in getting off small boats, especially when gunning or sealing, to take pains to start from east to west, and, when the wind will permit, the same custom is observed in getting large schooners under way. So, too, in the Western Isles, off the coast of Scotland, boats at starting are, or at any rate used to be, rowed in a sunwise course to insure a lucky voyage."

"It will be noticed that in several of these cures, as well as in some of the charms already cited, no rule is given as to the direction to be followed in movement; but it is quite possible that the original description was more explicit, and it is almost certain that in every instance a sunwise course would now be followed."

No. 1166.--This appearance is due to the presence of a minute unicellular plant of a red color, which grows and multiplies with great rapidity on the surface of bread, starch-paste, and similar substances. So general was once the belief in its portentous nature that Ehrenberg described it under the name _Monas Prodigiosa_.

No. 1176.--The non-appearance of _rigor mortis_ as omen of another death is alluded to in a skeptical way by Sir Thomas Browne in his _Vulgar Errors_, Book V. chapter xxiii.

No. 1280.[TN-12]--Doubtless this apparently most trivial and meaningless sign is but one of hundreds of examples of pure symbolism. The custom of draping the bell or front door-k.n.o.b with c.r.a.pe when death has come to a house is suggested by seeing anything hung on the door-k.n.o.b. It might be convenient to hang the dish-cloth to dry on the kitchen door-k.n.o.b, as the door stands open. The idea of death is suggested, then comes the thought, "this is like death, hence it may bode death," and so the omen arises.

No. 1204.--See article on "Current Superst.i.tions," _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. ii No. IV.

No. 1207.--Not infrequently people of education and culture feel that mourning is significant of further deaths. In popular arguments about the advisability of wearing mourning it is said that if one begins to wear it, he will have occasion to continue to do so. It is also claimed that mourning is directly unhealthful on account of injurious components of the black dyes used. This delusion no doubt proceeds from observed cases of ill-health due to the depressing effects of mourning upon the spirits (and therefore the physical condition) of the wearer.

No. 1237.--See "Current Superst.i.tions," _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. ii. No. IV.

I chanced to know a few years ago of a family party of educated, unusually intelligent people, when it happened that the number to dine was thirteen. One laughingly proposed to sit at a side table and did so.

The dinner table would otherwise have been a bit crowded, the hostess said as excuse for heeding the evil omen of thirteen at table. I doubt if one of those present had any real faith in the superst.i.tion, and yet I fancy there was a certain feeling of relief in avoiding the augury predicted by the old saying.

No. 1241.--See article, "Survivals of Sun Worship," by the author, in _Popular Science Monthly_, June 9, 1895.

No. 1247.--To what extent an old custom of touching the dead survives I cannot say, but I well remember a painful experience of my own early childhood. I had been taken to the funeral of a little child, and at the proper time pa.s.sed with the little procession to take leave of the dead baby. A lady who had charge of me turned down the wrist of my glove and bade me touch the corpse, which I did. At the time I felt it was to show me how cold were the dead, but I now think it must have been in conformity with some tradition, for the person who directed me was one who had great regard for what were deemed the proprieties in funeral rites.

Nos. 1335-1338.--It is quite a general custom among country people on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e of Maryland to decapitate a crowing hen. The same custom is reported from New Hampshire and from Prince Edward Island. Does not this proverb then refer to the common superst.i.tion that it presages death or disaster for a hen to crow, in consequence of which such hens are summarily killed?

No. 1415.--There is a somewhat widespread prejudice in the minds of old people against having their pictures taken, particularly if they have never done so. I do not think the objection is a natural conservatism, or dislike of doing something to which one is unaccustomed. The ill omen does not appear to have been feared for the young as well as for the old, even in provincial localities, when for the first time portraiture by daguerreotypy or more recently by photography was introduced. It has long been known that among primitive peoples there is a decided prejudice against portraiture. The notion seems to be that the individual may lose his vigor, if not his life, by allowing a copy of himself to be made in any way. Catlin in his intercourse with the North American Indians found great difficulty in gaining the consent of individuals to his painting them. He says in his work on _The Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians_, "The Squaws generally agreed that they had discovered life enough in them [Catlin's portraits] to render my medicine too great for the Mandans; saying that such an operation could not be performed without taking away from the original something of his existence which I put in the picture, and they could see it move, could see it stir." Herbert Spencer, in his _Principles of Sociology_, vol. i.

p. 242, refers to a similar belief among the Chinooks and the Mapuches.

It would seem as if there is in the popular mind an instinctive recognition that the tenure of life is less strong in the aged than in the young. So while the general notion that it is dangerous to have one's person represented has disappeared from the mind of civilized man, a similar psychological condition survives here and there among people leading peculiarly simple lives.

Another evidence of a popular belief in some vital relationship between a portrait and its original is suggested by the quite general superst.i.tion that photographs (or other pictures) fade after and in consequence of the decease of the original. I have found this to be a common belief in Ireland, Prince Edward Island, and in various parts of the United States.

I remember as a child to have heard persons remark while turning over a family alb.u.m of photographs, "That looks as if the person were dead." In fact, I think that I thus received the impression that the picture of one dead underwent some change that many persons could perceive and thus become aware of the death of the original. This notion is akin to a superst.i.tion of the Irish peasantry that the clothes left by the dead decay with unusual rapidity.

In parts of New Hampshire it is counted unlucky to have a photograph copied while the original lives. Is this because death is thereby suggested, since it is so customary to have enlarged copies of a photograph made after the decease of the original?

FOOTNOTES:

[157-1] _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. iv. No. XIII., "Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley," J.H. Owens.

[158-1] _Journal of American Folk-Lore,_ vol. v. No. XVI. p. 33.

OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, 1896.

=President.= JOHN G. BOURKE, FORT ETHAN ALLEN, VT.

=First Vice-President.= STEWART CULIN, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

=Second Vice-President.= HENRY WOOD, BALTIMORE, MD.

=Councillors.= W.M. BEAUCHAMP, BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y.

FRANZ BOAS, NEW YORK, N.Y.

DANIEL G. BRINTON, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

HELI CHATELAIN, NEW YORK, N.Y.

JOHN H. McCORMICK, WASHINGTON, D.C.

OTIS T. MASON, WASHINGTON, D.C.

JAMES W. ELLSWORTH, CHICAGO, ILL.

ALICE C. FLETCHER, WASHINGTON, D.C.

*ALCeE FORTIER, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

*ALFRED C. GARRETT, CAMBRIDGE, Ma.s.s.

*E. FRANCIS HYDE, NEW YORK, N.Y.

*FREDERICK W. PUTNAM, CAMBRIDGE, Ma.s.s.

GARDNER P. STICKNEY, MILWAUKEE, WIS.

=Permanent Secretary.= W.W. NEWELL, CAMBRIDGE, Ma.s.s.