i SE — | Superstitions Have Such » Strong Hold “It is the hardest thing in the world,” wrote Gilbert White in 1776, “to shake off superstitious prejudices. They grow up with us at a time when | ‘they take the fastest hold and make | the most lasting impressions; they be- come so interwoven into our very con- | stitutions that the strongest good sense 18 required to disengage ourselves frow | | them.” And even with the strongest good sense, there are those among us today | who look with dismay upon a mere | black cat crossing our path and who | wouldn't think of molesting the crick- | ets chirping on the hearth. And think | with what solemnity we enter into the | ancient custom of wishing on the | %reast bone of a fowl. . | Although the supply seems inex- haustible, there are many superstitions that have been long forgotten. White | tells of the shrew-ash that stood in the barnyards of his English forefathers. It was just an ordinary ash whose twigs and branches were endowed with curative powers, It was believed that when a shrew-mouse crept over a horse or cow, the animal was threat- | ened with the loss of the use of its limbs, The beast could be restored to its normal state only by applying the twigs of the shrew-ash to the af fected part. But in order that the shrew-ash pos- sess those curative powers, it had to be prepared in a certain way. Into the trunk of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, a shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no | «doubt, with certain quaint inecanty- “tions. —Detroit News, ‘Why One Is Cautioned to Mind His P’s and Q’s | My grandmother frequently used “the expression “Now, mind your p's | and q's,” when cautioning her grand- | «