babies ; and ancient grandmothers recount how mothers, having left their babies in the cradle, with the cat in the room, have returned to find the baby dead, and the cat purring innocently in the cradle, just as if it had been guilty of nothing contrary to law. In this there is nothing original. It is simply a relic of the days when natural history was one tangle of superstition ; when bats and beetles were invested with strange instincts of evil doing ; when the owl was a ghoul. In regard to a certain species of insect, designated the earwig, a superstition exists, which is perhaps original, and according to which the insect is supposed to have a special affinity for getting into one’s ears.
From— The Elk County Advocate. (Ridgway, Pa.), 14 March 1872. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
|
|
|