e 



BULLETIN 



OF TUE 



ESSEX insrSTITTJTE 



Vol. 15. Salem: Jan., Feb., March, 1883. Nos. 1,2,3, 



SWEDISH SUPERSTITIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 



BY ALB AN ANDREN. 



READ MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1883. 



You find among the Swedes many peciiliar superstitions, 

 whicli seem to ding with great tenacity from by-gone 

 times. So, for instance, it is the custom for chamber- 

 maids or others, making the beds in the morning, not to 

 leave an unfinished bed under any pretext to go to any 

 other work, for fear that the person that is to occup}^ it 

 may not rest easily. In most Swedish stables you will 

 find a dead crow or blackbird hung over each horse, which 

 is considered a siire prevention for the evil one riding the 

 horse in the stable at night, and it is asserted by the farm- 

 ers that when such prevention is not taken the horses are 

 found in the morning foaming at the mouth, sweat^ and 

 blowing hard, as if just arrived from a furious drive. In 

 myboyhood, whenevera person sneezed it was considered 

 polite for bystanders to say " God save you " or " Prosit ; " 

 and the more populär a person was in society the more 

 people were ready to say " God save you " in case of sneez- 

 ing. At an evening party, a society belle, after being 

 duly coaxed, would sit down and commence fingering the 



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