The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notesLawrence, Robert Means
History
The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes
Lawrence, Robert Means
Folklore
Among the Moslems of India there are in each month seven evil days, on
which no enterprise is to be undertaken on any consideration. Some of
the peculiar superstitions of these people with regard to traveling on
the different week-days are shown in “Zanoon-E-Islam, or the Customs of
the Mussulmans of India,” by Jaffur Shurreef. Thus, if any one proposes
journeying on Saturday, he should eat fish before starting, in order
that his plan may be successfully accomplished, but on Sunday betel-leaf
is preferable for this purpose. In like manner, on Monday he should
look into a mirror in order to obtain wealth. On Tuesday he should eat
coriander-seed, and on Wednesday should partake of curdled milk before
starting. On Thursday, if he eat raw sugar, he may confidently anticipate
returning with plenty of merchandise; and on Friday, if he eat dressed
meat, he will bring back pearls and jewels galore.
Some idea of the beliefs current in the mother country during the last
century may be obtained by a study of the advertisements of astrologers
and medical charlatans in the public press of that period. For example,
in the year 1773 one Sylvester Partridge, proprietor and vendor of
antidotes, elixirs, washes for freckles, plumpers for rounding the
cheeks, glass eyes, calves and noses, ivory jaws, and a new receipt for
changing the color of the hair, offered for a consideration to furnish
advice as to the proper times and seasons for letting blood, and to
indicate the most favorable aspect of the moon for drawing teeth and
cutting corns. He proffered counsel, moreover, as to the avoidance of
unlucky days for paring the nails, and the kindest zodiacal sign for
grafting, inoculation, and opening of bee-hives.
In enlightened England there are still to be found many people who
believe that the relative positions of the sun, moon, and planets are
prime factors in determining the proper times and seasons for undertaking
terrestrial enterprises. Zadkiel’s Almanac for 1898 states that natural
astrology is making good progress towards becoming once more a recognized
science. To quote from the preface of this publication:—
As the whole body of the ocean is not able to keep down one
single particle of free air, which must assuredly force its
way to the surface to unite with the atmosphere, so cannot the
combined forces of the prejudice and studied contempt of all
the _soi-disant_ “really scientific men” of the end of the
century prevent the truth of _astrologia sana_ from soaring
above their futile efforts to crush it down, to join the great
atmosphere of natural science, to enlighten the human mind in
its onward course and effort,—“to soar through Nature up to
Nature’s God.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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