southern shore, 100 m. w. of the Sault Ste. Marie, are the Pictured Rocks, cliffs of gray and red sandstone, from 100 to 300 ft. high, in many places presenting fantastic forms, and marked by numerous perpendicular stripes of red and yellow, from ferruginous waters trickling down the face of the rock. The boundary between the United States and West Canada, starting from the outlet of the lake at the Sault Ste. Marie, sweeps toward the n., so as to include in the United States even the Isle Royale, which is only 13 m. from the British coast, and strikes inland from the mouth of Pigeon or Arrow river, on the n.w. shore. The only obstacle to navigation between lake Huron and lake Superior is the Sault Ste. Marie, which is overcome by canals and locks on the U. S. and the Canadian sides. They are, perhaps, the finest canals in the world. The locks are admirably contrived, and the largest ships can pass through with ease. The trade has increased rapidly since the completion of the canals. The water of lake Superior is remarkable for its coldness, purity, and transparency, although the affluents on both sides are either turbulent or deeply colored by vegetable matter from swamps and forests. A rise or fall in the level of the water, amounting to several inches in a few hours, is frequently to be observed along the shore, and has been supposed to be due to a regular tide, but is probably caused by the wind. Fresh water being more easily moved by the wind than salt water, great waves arise in lake Superior with wonderful rapidity; and even in summer, large steamers are compelled to take shelter in some bay, or under the lee of an island. Owing to the low temperature of the water, compared with that of the air, in summer, fogs are prevalent, resting on the water at night, and vanishing an hour or two after sunrise. Lake Superior never freezes over, but the bays are sealed up in winter, and a rim of ice extends to some distance all around the shore. The rocks around the lake are very ancient, belonging principally to the Laurentian and Huronian systems of the Azoic series, overlaid in some places, especially on the s. side, with patches of the lower Silurian. The prevalent Laurentian rock is orthoclase gneiss. Among the Huronian rocks are greenstones, slates, conglomerates, quartzites, and limestones. The lower Silurian rocks are soft sandstones. There is everywhere much evidence of glacial action. The Huronian rocks are well stored with useful minerals. The copper and iron mines of the s. side are celebrated for their extent and richness, and there is every reason to think that the mineral resources of the British side are equal to those of the Ameri can, although as yet comparatively undeveloped. The richest copper-mines are situated near Kee-wee-naw point. The metal occurs principally native, and sometimes in single masses of great size. One was met with in 1853, which measured about 40 ft. in length, and was calculated to weigh about 400 tons. Native silver is found associated with the native copper, and sometimes intimately mixed with it. A rich vein in an islet in Thunder Bay (British side) yielded in 1870-72 silver to the value of $1,230,000. Gold has been found in small specks at Namainse on the British side. Lead ore occurs in some places. The beds of hematite, or red iron ore, at Marquette, on the s. side, are of wonderful extent. The ore is conveyed by rail and water to cities in the United States, where it is smelted. SUPERPHOSPHATES. See PHOSPHORUS. 64 SUPERSTITION. The origin of this word has occasioned much controversy, as it is involved in the mystery of the ages, but it is generally accepted as a strictly Roman word, for which the Greek had no synonym. We owe to Cicero (q.v.) its true signification, which has recently been rescued from the oblivion which has obscured it for ages namely, standing over," or "surviving," and thence it signifies something remaining after a change, by which it might possibly have been destroyed. Those who escaped in battle or survived death. were called superstites, superstitios, or survivors. Cicero says "they who prayed all day that their children might over-live them" were called superstitious. Lactantius objects to this derivation, but says the word gets its meaning from the worship of deceased parents and relations, by the superstites or survivors, or from men holding the memory of the dead in superstitious veneration. Thus Cicero and Lactantius agree in connecting the origin of the word with the relations between the dead and the living who survive them. Cicero gave it his sanction when he wished to consecrate the image of his dead daughter to the gods, whom he did not hesitate to affirm were men who had survived death. In any case, the word originated in some mysterious connection between the dead and the living, the deceased and those who survived, the world that is seen and the world that is unseen; whether it might be that it arose from the "Promise made to the Seed of the Woman," and it was considered a great misfortune to die childless, or to survive one's children; or that the death of one person might be influenced by the death of another. The word "survival," then, best defines "superstition," meaning the remainder or residue of something gone before, although it has long received a different signification, namely, that of being in excess, over-scrupulous, exact, and it cannot be denied that this secondary sense, did, from an early period, influence the acceptation of the term, until, at length, it superseded the primary sense. 95 Superstition. and was received as the true germ and original idea of superstition. Being comprehended in the same word, this sense of scrupulosity, idle ceremony, and superfluous care, overestimating trifles, which underlies all superstitions, finally swallowed up its obscure and mysterious origin involved in the relations between the dead and the living. But the word "survivals" may be used in a broader sense than "superstitions," as the latter is practically confined to things appertaining to religion, while "survivals" may indicate habits, or expressions inexplicable by the light of our present advanced ideas, but easily explained by reference to similar customs or prejudices still to be found among distant tribes and mentioned by ancient writers. Thus a word which originally signified merely those religious delusions which "survived" the influence of advancing civilization came in process of time, by a kind of historic metonymy, to denote the brutalized ignorance, the unobservant credulity, and the unreasoning awe by which these errors were distinguished; and objects unworthy of reverence were accorded a kind of religious veneration, and the true God was worshiped through improper rites and ceremonies, and His divine will was announced by omens. "Sur Until recently, wise men have only looked askance when the subject of superstitions was mentioned, but now in England, Germany, Bohemia, China, and America men of learning have set about collecting documents on this subject, as they now regard them as the wrecks of former beliefs over which centuries have spent their storms. vivals" have been aptly called "milestones on the way of culture." Many theologians unite in defining religion to be the feeling which falls upon man in the presence of the Unknown. Man naturally fears what he does not understand, the unknown may bring danger to him, and all the future is hidden in the unknown. Under strong excitement Man has personified the Unknown and that personification he sought to propitiate when he offered sacrifices to the shades of his ancestors and commanded the burial of their bodies ANIMISM (q.v.), in which all the powers of life that their spirits might rest in peace. and nature were attributed to the spirits of those who had gone before, constituted the lowest form of superstition; hence arose the feeling of veneration among the earliest savage tribes with which their ancestors were always regarded, and the facility with which hero-worship developed into a religion in the minds of the simple pagani (country folk), already alive to the fear inspired by the phenomena of nature and the grandeur of the elements. This first semblance of religion, gradually, by mere observation and experience, was converted into the belief in a superintending being long before ReveBut, necessarily, the lation had made known the benevolent system we have now. progress was gradual, and at every stage, the peoples, as they advanced in knowledge, were enabled to look back upon those barbarous sections who still lingered behind, called superstites, and to discern the remnants, superstitia, of that ignorance and fear from which the most degraded had not wholly emerged. The question arises whether any tribes have ever existed, destitute of a form of what may be called religion. If not, it might have been so much mixed up with superstition that those who criticise sharply and maintain that superstition is the reverse of religion, as well as morals, asserted that the country-folk practised SHAMANISM (q.v.) under the guise of religion. Traces of superstition or prehistoric religion may still be found in every part of the world, in the heart of civilized Europe, where many of its crude and grotesque customs still practised are very similar to those of China, central Asia, dark Africa, and Australia. How can this prevalence of the same ideas be explained? Does it prove that communications between distant members of the human family were more frequent than we have always supposed, or that we have all sprung from a common stock? Or may we credit the fact that men have similar beliefs because they have similar minds? We know that Superstition took its rise very early in the world and soon spread itself all over the face of the earth, and few, very few, were there who were wholly free from it. The mischiefs it has produced are well known-gods of all sorts and kinds, sacrifices of beasts and men; rites, ceremonies, absurd tricks, and cruel torments, with every other thing which from all time has been falsely called by the name of religion, have arisen from hence. The doctrine of the divine Jesus was calculated to destroy its influence and cause religion to glow with a new light, but superstition soon found an entrance among Christians, and increased and remained in spite of the Reformation (q.v.) and the revival of letters, and even showed itself among those who rejoiced that they were free from the Papal yoke. The form which superstition has assumed throughout the dim ages sof the past, before revelation of the true God arose, leaving hideous wrecks strewing its pathway, as it heralded the advance of civilization, were so many and so varied that the mind of the present day shrinks with horror at the contemplation. The belief in appa ritions (q.v.), brownies (q.v.), elves (q.v.), fairies (q.v.), ghosts (q.v.), or spectres has prevailed in connection with supernaturalism from the earliest ages, and has not died out with the light of the nineteenth century. It arose with the dawn of the world, and has lived despite all persecution. In the same category may be mentioned the following subjects, to special articles on which reference is made: Amulet, Astrology, Augury, Auspices, Cabbala, Demoniacs, Demons, Divination, Evil Eye, Exorcism, Horoscopes, Incantation, Lycanthropia, Magic, Mandrake, Mascot, Necromancy, Oracle, Ordeal, Possession, Rhabdomancy, Seers, Sorcery, Sortilege, Talisman, White Lady, and Witch craft. The Gradually there arose above the reverence for the spirits of the air and hero-worship an idolatry for the objects and phenomena of nature, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars gave rise to Zabism (q.v.) in some countries, Totemism (q.v.), Shamanism (q.v.), and Lamaism (q.v.). Folk-lore (q.v.) is a science of itself. During the middle ages, for centuries, thaumaturgy, or the study of the supernatural, was almost universally popular, and in every part of the world the magician and the sorcerer vied with the priest in the practice of their arts, until all the better qualities of the human mind were well-nigh suffocated with the noxious weeds. Many venture to affirm in their innocence that the days of superstition are past. How little do they know of what they affirm, concerning the belief, not only of the so-called uneducated class, but of those who it might be supposed from their station and education would rise above such influences. And this is true of the old-fashioned belief in ghosts, wizards, and uncanniness; which still prevails. To this fact the daily papers bear witness, when they publish the account of some wretched old woman being dragged before the judge, for pretending to tell fortunes with a dirty pack of cards, or the dregs of a teacup, and yet, with human inconsistency, the legislator permits the turf-touters to advertise their superstitions, and allows the wise man to cure warts, toothaches, and certain cattle-diseases by incantation. How common to find the rustic apply to the charmer to have his toothache cured, not understanding the well-known effect of a visit to the dentist upon the nerves. rumor of a haunted house is a source of joy to a whole neighborhood, as it immediately becomes the centre of curiosity. And many times, in the opinion of the rustics, the ringing of the bells, or the fancied apparitions, are owing to the fact of the bones of a human body lying unburied in some part of the house, thus recalling even at the present day the old obligation of burial of ancestors, to assure peace. CHIROMANCY (q. v.), or the art of foretelling the future by the hand, is a science of antiquity recently revived in fashionable circles, and it retains all the superstitions attached to it in the past. All secrets are revealed by the lines in the palm of the hand, and besides, the thumb is given to Venus, the forefinger to Jove, the middle finger to Saturn, the ring finger to Sol and the little finger to Mercury. "Little finger tell me true," is a French proverb used by Molière (q.v.) in his Malade Imaginaire, when a French gentleman of renown wishes to question his little daughter respecting a young man who visits her elder sister and he says to her: "Be very careful there, because here is a little finger which knows everything and will tell me if you deceive." When the child has told him all she knows, he puts his finger to his ear, and says: "There is my little finger, yet which mutters something. Listen! He! Ah, ah! yes? Oh, oh! there is my little finger which tells me something that you have seen and that you have not told me." To which the child replies: "Ali, my papa, your little finger does not tell the truth!" But there are many other sciences besides Chiromancy, SCAPULAMANCY is still practised among the tribes of Central Africa and Asia. It is built on lines, but they are the cracks on the bladebone of a shoulder of mutton. CAPNOMANCY foretells the future from the rising smoke, and by pyromancy it can be read from fire. ÆROMANCY augurs from the breeze and clouds, and hydromancy from the water. Even by the waves of the sea can be told the visions of the future. In ancient times the Spirit troubled the water, and the clew was found in the lines produced. If the Spirit was an evil one, all things were read backwards. Later, a ring was hung by a thread over a glass and shaken, and the message was given by the strokes on the glass; or three pebbles were thrown together in a well, and the future read from the figures caused by the widening circles. PALOMANCY is divination by fountains, into which loaves of bread, dice, etc., were thrown. At Palicorus, in Sicily, was a celebrated fountain, and Ino's, near Epidaurus, is well known in history. Among the Germans the rapids and eddies of running water were made to divine the future. CATOPTROMANCY foretold by means of mirrors a development of hydromancy, for the first mirror was the water. In one form a mirror was let down into a well, until it touched the water, and the answer was given by the reflection from both. In SCYPHOMANCY a drinking cup was used. When the foundations of Persepolis were laid there was found the cup of Djemscheed, full of the elixir of immortality, and in this cup the Persian told how the whole world was shown; and while it was possessed the Persian empire flourished. When Seringapatam was stormed Tippod Sahib retired in the midst of the battle to consult his divining cup and from it he fled in terror to die in the breach. Sometimes a drop of oil was floated on the surface of a bumper, thus forming the mirror on which the images would appear. Sometimes the oil would give place to treacle in a cup, or ink in the hand, which formed a connecting link with crystallomancy in which the seeker gazed into a transparent body. From Catoptromancy the transition was easy to divination by crystals, glass, etc. CRYSTALLOMANCY is practised at the present time, and spheres and eggs of quartz and glass prepared for the purpose, can be seen in the shop windows. Rock crystal, however, is a modern innovation, as the favorite stone in the past was beryl. There are certain formulas of prayer,' says Aubrey, "to be used before they make the inspection, which they term a call; these calls are always to be used, as nothing will appear in the crystal without." ONOMANCY was used by the Greeks, and was a science that depended upon the number of vowels in a name. If the number was odd, something was the matter with the right side. A curious story is told of the Goth, Theodotus. When he was about beginning his fight with Rome, in order to discover the result, he gave names to thirty pigs, half being Roman, half Gothic, and in three different styes he locked them up, five Romans and five Goths in each. When the styes were opened, all the Romans were alive with half their bristles off, but all the Goths were dead. The signification was clear-the Goths would be beaten, but the Romans would lose half their force. MYOMANCY made use of the sounds and damage done by rats. The great dictator, Fabius Maximus, resigned his dictatorship because the squeal of a mouse warned him to do so. And for a similar cause Cassius Flaminius threw up the command of the cavalry. The bite of a rat was fatal to success, but Cato was equal to the occasion, when he replied to a soldier who came to him in terror, saying a rat had gnawed his shoe: Would it not have been strange if the shoe had gnawed the rat ?" ORNITHOMANCY, which depended on the habits of animals, was a branch of augury which was much practised by the ancients, and consisted in waiting for the flight of a bird. A hawk betokened victory, an owl, misfortune. If the bird flew to the right hand it meant good fortune, if to the left, evil. The call of the bird was also ominous. If chickens came slowly to their feed and pecked the corn about, misfortune was in the wind, but if they rushed ravenously to the grains all would be well. In ALECTROMANCY a white cock played the chief part by pecking a grain of corn or wheat off certain letters, his choice spelling out the future. A somewhat similar method was by DACTYLOMANCY, where a round table was divided into spaces, each having a letter, and over it a wedding ring was hung by a thread, its swing giving the letter forming the message from the spirit world. AXINOMANCY was also dependent on the direction of the unseen force and was used for the detection of guilty parties. GYROMANCY detected the guilty party by causing an innocent boy to run round and round until he was giddy, and fell opposite the letters containing the name of the culprit. CARTOMANCY tells fortunes by the use of playing cards, CoSCINOMANCY by a sieve which is hung and tells tales by turning, and ONYCOMANCY depends upon the spots on the finger nails. In CLEDONISMANCY the first words uttered by friends when meeting gave the necessary indication as to coming events. In CLIDOMANCY a key was tied to the Bible and hung on a maid's ring finger, the key being found to move when the guilty name was uttered. For GEOMANCY pebbles were used; while in LITHOMANCY a particular stone was taken, and it is not unlikely that ventriloquism was brought into action and that in GASTROMANCY "deep whispers came from corporeal depths." 'When Saturn thought he was devouring Jupiter, he was merely chewing a batulum, which was a rounded stone which fell down as a globe of fire, and the terrified observer saw that it was guarded by a lion. A learned doctor picked it up and it proved a mine of wealth." ALEUROMANCY was a test of innocence by means of a piece of bread or cheese an ounce in weight, cursed to kill if guilty, which the accused had to swallow; barley bread was preferred, as being more likely to choke. In RHABDOMANCY two staves were set up and talked to, until one or both, under the incantation fell down, the position giving the expected sign. In BELOMANCY arrows were drawn on which were the names of cities it was thought advisable to attack. In HARUSPICATION the victim was slain on the altar and the future read from the twist of his entrails. "If frogs by croaking," Cicero makes his Stoic say, "can give us signs to foretell the weather, why should there not be omens in the fibres of a victim's entrails?" Among the Zulus of Africa, at the present day, the belief in magic and sorcery still reigns supreme, and its influence is utterly demoralizing. Wizards and witches may produce their enchantments from a foot-print, or from the impress of the body in sitting or lying upon the ground. The finger-nails and hair, when cut, must be carefully kept and buried. Each sorcerer pretends to get his communications directly from the spirit-world and delivers them in the form of riddles or dark parables. They have a potion in use among magicians, which, when taken, enables a man to influence another at a distance simply by willing. And this gives them immense power, together with the force of custom, so that, although their predictions may fail, thieves may go unpunished, rain may not fall, patients may die, the magicians still remain a sacred order, and every failure is explained away, and the fetters of custom continue unbroken. It is interesting to note that Africans never speak of a man as dead; and the same thing may be observed in Scotland; they say, "He is taken away,” or "He is not here.' If a man has a narrow escape from death, he says, "My father's soul saved me." Although they have a superstition about spirits inhabiting caverns, roofs of houses, and other places, yet their general belief is that the spirit, at death, goes directly up to the spirit-land. Ancestor worship is not only their religion, but they actually regulate their whole life by it. They have a class of spirits corresponding to the fairies and brownies of England and Scotland. Among the negroes of Washington there exists a superstition, that oftentimes, at midnight, there rushes through the streets a supernatural being formed like a man, having long, hook-like fingers and a poisonous breath. Whenever he turns and breathes upon a house where a child lies sick, the child is doomed to death before another night. The night-doctor, as he is called, is only ominous when seen not heard. It is a common thing for the negroes to get together and inquire of each other who has heard him, and some one is sure to assert that he or she heard the low, moaning, rushing sound, as he passed during his Alight. Sometimes, at midnight, negroes who are in the street wil suddenly stop, turn their faces to the wall, and stand with their hands over their eyes, as they fancy they have heard him pass, and, if they turn, he will blow his murderous breath upon them. The superstition concerning the CHILD'S CAUL is very old, and came originally from the East, several words in Arabic being found to express it. The caul is a membrane found on some children, encompassing the head, when born. This is thought to be a good omen for the child itself, and in Scotland is believed to carry with it the gift of second sight. The vulgar opinion is, that whoever obtains it, by purchase, will be fortunate and escape danger. Hence it is often advertised for sale, the price being about twenty or thirty guineas. It is an infallible preservation against drowning, hence seamen often become the purchasers. The superstition was very prevalent in the Middle Ages, even in the church, and Chrysostom inveighs against it, in several of his papers. In France it is proverbial, Etre né coiffé, signifying, "born with a caul," indicated extreme good fortune. The superstition concerning WELLS AND FOUNTAINS is of the most remote antiquity. They were supposed to impart virtues of many kinds, and the implicit faith in them is not yet extinct. The devoted would spend hours in them, standing in water up to their chins, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of evolutions round the polygonal well. The bathing well of Whiteford had a large stone, two feet beneath the water, which received many a kiss from the faithful, who never failed, it is said, to obtain their desires, provided they were offered with faith. Scotland furnishes many instances of wells superstitiously believed to have the power of imparting health and blessing. Near the parish church of Kirkmichael, in the county of Banff, is mentioned a fountain over which a guardian angel, in the form of a fly, formerly presided, and love-sick maidens and sober matrons flocked there to watch the motions of the fly. A singular phase of this superstition was leaving shreds and bits of cloth around the well to receive the blessing; these could afterwards be removed for the cure of diseases. This custom was not confined to England and Scotland, it was also common on the continent. To such an extent was it carried, that it was forbidden by the sixteenth of the canons issued in 960 by Edgar, and it was also condemned by the canons of St. Anselm in 1102. Among the popular superstitions which the civilization of modern times has not been able to obliterate, that of the DEATH WATCH still maintains its hold. It has long been credited with predicting a death in the house where it is heard. Investigation has shown that the monotonous raps are caused by a small insect belonging to the timberboring tribe, which is not discernible, being of the same color as a tree. It is the signal of the male to the female, made by tapping its head against the wood; strokes from nine to eleven in number, and then a pause. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE MOON. The moon, which was an ancient object of idolatry, has in later times become an article in the creed of superstition. The ancient Druids had their customary rites and ceremonies at the changes of the moon, and these have had great influence among the rustics. The custom of addressing the new moon for the purpose of getting information as to the future husband or wife is one of the commonest prevalent, as, for example: "All hail to thee, moon, all hail to thee, 64 A dream is expected to follow in which the future spouse will be revealed. The Man in the Moon is supposed to have originated in the ancient account given in the book of Numbers, XV. 36. of a man punished with death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. In Ritsin's Ancient Songs we read the Man in the Moon is represented leaning upon a fork, on which he carries a bush of thorn, because it was for picking a stake that he was punished. In A Midsummer Night's Dream the Man in the Moon is personated by Peter Quince, with his lantern the moon. The Man in the Moon is a source of wonder to all children, to whom he is shown in connection with the nursery rhyme, "The Man in the Moon came down too soon." Different countries have different legends to account for his presence there. One widely extended, and alluded to by many writers, says that a man, while traveling along on Sunday, with a bundle on his back, was met by a fairy who asked him why he worked on Sunday. He replied, "Sunday on earth or Monday in heaven, it is all one to me." Then bear your bundle forever, and as you have no regard for Sunday on earth, yours shall be a perpetual Monday in heaven, and you shall travel for eternity in the Moon." There he remains to this day. In some legends he has a companion, a woman with her buttertub, who was transported thither because she made her butter on Sunday. The Scandinavian mythology relates the story of two children that the moon stole and carried up to heaven. They had been drawing water from a well in a bucket, which is seen in the Moon, suspended from a pole on their shoulders. This recalls the nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill. The fall of Jack and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon spot after another. April is called the Moon of bright nights, May the Moon of leaves, June the Moon of Strawberries, September, of falling leaves, and November the Moon of Snow-shoes. Astolpho reckoned the Moon to be the great depository of misspent time, wasted wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, fruit |