China.— Many Chinese guard their homes from witchcraft by suspending bunches of herbs and magic plants over the door. At the new year the Cantonese clean out their houses and post near the doors a pair of scrolls made of red paper (the lucky color) bearing an inscription such as "Leaves of the moxa, like a banner, procure a hundred blessings? In China the peony is regarded with superstitious reverence and pride. In China, too, the old man of the moon is known as Yue-loa, and holds in his hands the reins of marriages among mortals. The future husband and wife are tied together by an invisible silken cord, which is only sev ered at death.
Cuba.—A belief very prevalent among the common people is that the rain water of May has peculiar beneficial qualities which that of no other time possesses. The moonlight in Cuba seems particularly objectionable, and strangers are warned not to go out in it with uncovered head, and not to go out in it at all if it can be avoided; it is thought that this light brings many evil effects and not under any circumstan ces will a superstitious Cuban sleep in its rays— he thinks that, among other things, it will draw his mouth to one side of his face. The hoot ing of an owl is taken as a very bad sign. The superstitious Cuban kills any creature of this kind which makes weird sounds near his home. This is supposed to break the spell, and it is not then inevitable that a member of the family shall meet death in the near future.
When Egypt was in the height of her power her people worshipped a black bull with a circular white spot' in the exact centre of his forehead, and the advent of such a crea ture in any herd was the signal of wild demon strations. Even as late as the time of Cleopatra such animals were shod with gold and had their horns tipped with the same metal. Herodotus tells of a man who died with grief because he sold a cow that soon after became the mother of a black bull calf marked with the sacred white circle in his forehead. In modern times the Egyptian housewives mark their bread loaves with a cross, and housemaids insure a brisk kindling of a newly lit fire by making the same sacred sign over the grate. The sacred ibis of the Egyptians was supposed, from the color of its feathers, to symbolize the light and shade of the moon. It is said that its feathers would scare, and even kill, the crocodile. The bird was believed to deliver Egypt from winged and other serpents that came from Arabia. It
was so deeply venerated that it entered the most sacred temples with impunity, and to kill one, even by accident; was a crime punishable with death. After death, its body was embalmed, and thousands of their remains have been found at Thebes, at Memphis and at other Egyptian cities.
In England there existed, even so late as the 18th century, a superstitious belief that a man condemned to be hanged could es cape that undesirable fate provided some com passionate woman came forward at the foot of the gallows and expressed her willingness to marry him. Superstition has always clung to the cricket. In Hull it is unlucky to kin them, and in Lancashire, it is said, they cut holes in the worsted stockings of those members of a family that kill them. It is a custom in many parts of England and the Continent to announce to the bees a death in the family, especially that of the master. It is said that if a swarm of bees settle on the dead branch of a live tree a death will occur in the family within a year. In some places it is thought unlucky to sell them. They are given away for another gift. It was a popular superstition in Norfolk that whatever you are doing the first time you hear the cuckoo, that you will do most frequently all the year. The English housewife will not sweep the dirt out of the front door, fearing to sweep away the fortune of the house. In the north of England, the peasantry do not favor naming a child after some respected an cestor; that departed worthy might not like it. In the same locality when the dairy maid churned for a long time without making butter, she would stir the cream with a twig of moun tain ash and beat the cow with another, thus breaking the witch's spell. But to prevent acci dents of this nature it has long been customary to make the churn staff of ash. For the same reason herd boys employ an ash twig for driv ing cattle. In England it was thought, and not many years ago, that oak trees were mysteri cusly protected, and many superstitions clung round the sacred tree. The hawthorn used to be hung up at the entrances of houses in May to guard the dwelling from witches. In Devon shire it was considered unlucky to plant a bed of lilies of the valley, as the person who did so would surely die in the course of the next 12 months.