There is a man named Uonosuke Yamamoto, whose daily vocation for
fifty years has been to gather up and to sell at a high price
all the dust which is left in the Kannon temple in Asakusa by
the thousands of visitors who daily go there to worship.
The superstitious purchasers sprinkle small patches of this
dust in front of their own doors, believing it will bring them
blessings and immunity from plague and famine.
(3121)
* * * * *
The rude and unread of past ages have always connected natural
phenomena with supernatural agencies, adoring the sun and the
moon with altar fires on high places and in groves, of which
the witches’ Sabbath was a fancied descendant; and even in
the twelfth century there were remnants of these forms in the
fire-worship supposed to be led by old women, one of whom was
called the night-queen, and who, as old women will, cherished
traditions and forms to such an extent that the bishops were
finally ordered to have them watched. It was but a little more
than three hundred years ago when it was generally believed that
the appearance of a huge comet was the work of Satan, and its
disappearance was the work of the Church. Perhaps we have not
left all these follies quite behind us yet. People who nowadays
make a wish at the first sight of the evening star, expecting to
receive the thing wished for, who are particular about seeing
the new moon, not through glass, and with silver in their
pockets, and who hold that the position of the slender horn
signifies either a dry month or a wet one, as it may be--such
people have hardly any right to call in question the demonology
believed in by the people of the Middle Ages and the old dames
of later days.--_Harper’s Bazar._
(3122)
* * * * *
“Refuse old wives’ fables,” is a good Biblical rule. Christianity is
slowly dispelling such foolish beliefs as the following:
There are still some places where people believe a felon on the
finger is caused by having pointed the finger at the moon, and
that some headaches are caused by having one’s hair cut while
the moon is crescent.
(3123)
* * * * *
“They who believe not in God will believe in ghosts.” This is the
nature of superstition, of which these Tahitians are an example:
The Tahitians had great confidence in the power of red feathers,
attributing large success in fishing to their presence on the
canoes, but had little conception of the soul or of duty; and,
while faithless toward God, they were credulous toward the
most absurd imposture, placing their trust in fortune-tellers,
dreams, and signs of good or ill luck.--PIERSON, “The
Miracles of Missions.”
(3124)
* * * * *
Fishermen the world over are as prone to superstition as sailors
are, and many curious notions prevail among them as to what
shall be done to court luck in their catches.
One of the strangest notions in this respect is that held by the
Indians in British Columbia. With great ceremony and solemnity
these red men go out to meet “the first salmon,” endeavoring in
flattering tones to win the favor of the fish by addressing them
as “great chiefs.”
The salmon fisheries in California used to be responsible for
a queer custom on the part of the Indians. Every spring they
would “dance for salmon.” If the fish did not appear with that
celerity deemed appropriate there would be employed a “wise
man,” who made an image of a swimming fish which was placed in
the water in the hope of attracting live fish to the bait.
The Japanese fishermen have the quaint notion that silence must
be observed, and even the women left at home are not permitted
to talk lest the fish should hear and disapprove. Among the
members of the primitive race of the Ainos, the first fish
caught is brought in through a window instead of a door, so that
the other fish “may not see.”
Among the Eskimos it is held that bad luck will come should
their women sew while the men are fishing. If the necessity for
mending arises the women must do the job shut up in little tents
out of sight of the fishermen.
The fishermen off the northeast coast of Scotland will, under
no circumstances, allow a fisherman at sea to make mention of
certain objects on land, such as, for instance, “dog,” “swine,”
“cow,” etc. If on land chickens are not to be counted before
they are hatched, so at sea fish must not be counted till the
catch be completed. The Scots think that it is good luck to find
a rat gnawing at a net; also a horseshoe nailed to the mast
will help; but the greatest good luck of all is to see a mouse
aboard.--_Harper’s Weekly._
(3125)
See BARRIERS; DECEIT WITH GOD; EYE, THE EVIL; FEAR; JUNK;
SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA; THIRTEEN SUPERSTITION, THE; WITCHES,
BELIEF IN.