3 Superstitions

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds, says Burke. Such feeble minds are found everywhere and in every age. In human life, there occur certain incidents which cannot be explained satisfactorily. When man has to face such incidents or situations, he at once seeks to explain them in a fanciful way or in a way that is not approved by logic or common sense. This is how superstitions have grown in all ages amongst the peoples of the world. _.,..r.It is a mistake-to think that every man in the west follows the path of reason and is free from superstition. In many European countries, the placing of knife and fork on the dinner-table is considered an ill omen. Agaj& the spilling of salt is regarded by the average Englishman as a sigh of bad luck. Number thirteen is looked down upon as inauspicious; the hotels of Europe or the European hotels religiously shun the number as ominous. Lastly, the finding of a horse-shoe in the street is considered as a piece of good fortune. Superstitions, therefore, may be grouped under two heads: those that are associated - with good luck and those that are supposed to indicate bad luck. In Pakistan, the. superstitions that have grown in the different parts have followed this line of development. If a person hears the tick-tack of a lizard on the eve of his departure for a certain place, he feels uneasy lest the object of his visit should be foiled and he should meet with disappointment. If,

again a man on getting up from his bed in the morning meets a good man, he feels that he will pass the rest of the day happily and without much trouble. By contradistinction, the sight of a washerman on the eve of departure is considered by most people as the worst omens. Superstitions in our country as elsewhere admit of another classification. Superstition in our have grown mostly around the three great stages of human life, namely, birth, marriage and death. If a child is born on a particular day, he is considered to be a lucky arrival. Numerous superstitions have sprung up around death. For instance, if there is a sick person in a family and jackal cries or a dog moans at night near the house, the members of the family believe that the patient will die. We see, then, that astrology, religious custom and untoward happenings in nature have all helped to develop superstitions in the minds of men. Most superstitions are comparatively harmless. But some of them are a positive danger to society. Irr the past, many Hindus in India threw their first-born children into the Ganges in the hope that they might gain some boon from their idols. Again, there was the custom, amongst some sects in India, of sacrificing human beings at the altar of a deity with a view to appeasing its wrath. All this reminds us of the ancient Greek practice of human sacrifice. Agamemnon, it is said, wanted to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order to appease the wrath of the goddess, Artemis. Such superstitious practices of course have to be put a stop with a strong hand. Some people defend superstitions; others attack them. Those who defend them quote with approval the lines from Shakespeares Hamlet There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Then are dreamt of in your philosophy. They argue that some of the greatest men in history such as Napoleon and Caesar were superstitious. They further point out that mud on the bank of the Ganges heals many skin diseases and maintain that medical science has not so far been able to find out the healing power in this kind of silt or mud. It is trua that some superstitions contain some truth. But for one to defend all superstitions on the ground that science cannot penetrate the mystery of life is not a reasonable attitude. Science, says Adam Smith, is an antidote to superstitions will grow less. But science cannot reach perfection. Therefore, some superstitions must remain and take hold of the human mind. With the growth of witchcraft; they no longer hold that hysteria or infantile disease is due to some evil influence exercised by a witch. But there are some almost universal superstitions that appeal to the popular fancy. Fcrinstance, the appearance of a comet is held in some country as , ill-omen, foretelling some great calamity that is to befall the whole nation. When Halleys comet appeared in the sky in 1912, most educated people believed that a great calamity would befall the world. Even so did Calpurnia, Caesars wife warn Caesar againoi going to the capital. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.