, if not then averted, should accrue from the spilling.

That the superstition originated in a tradition that Judas Iscariot
overturned a salt-cellar is ridiculous, for there is but little doubt it
was in vogue long before the advent of Christ, and is certainly current
to-day among tribes and races that have never heard of the "Last
Supper."

In all probability the superstition is derived from the fact that salt,
from its usage in ancient sacrificial rites, was once regarded as
sacred. Hence to spill any carelessly was looked upon as sacrilegious
and an offence to the gods, to appease whom the device of throwing it
over the left, the more psychic shoulder, was instituted.

_Looking-glasses_

The breaking of a looking-glass is said to be an ill omen, and I have
certainly known many cases in which one misfortune after another has
occurred to the person who has had the misfortune to break a
looking-glass. Some think that because looking-glasses were once used in
sorcery, they possess certain psychic properties, and that by reason of
their psychic properties any injury done to a mirror must be fraught
with danger to the doer of that injury, but whether this is so or not is
a matter of conjecture.

_Psychic Days_

"Friday's child is full of woe." Of all days Friday is universally
regarded as the most unlucky. According to Soames in his work, _The
Anglo-Saxon Church_, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday
and died on a Friday. And since Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday,
it is naturally of small wonder that Friday is accursed.

To travel on Friday is generally deemed to be courting accident; to be
married on Friday, courting divorce or death. Few sailors care to embark
on Friday; few theatrical managers to produce a new play on Friday. In
Livonia most of the inhabitants are so prejudiced against Friday, that
they never settle any important business, or conclude a bargain on that
day; in some places they do not even dress their children.

For my part, I so far believe in this superstition that I never set out
for a journey, or commence any new work on Friday, if I have the option
of any other day. Thursday has always been an unlucky day for me. Most
of my accidents, disappointments, illnesses have happened on Thursdays.
Wednesday has been my luckiest day. Monday, Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday the days when I have mostly experienced occult phenomena. On
All-Hallows E'en the spirits of the dead are