fall into the umbra of the king’s sunshade.)
Folklorists claim that the superstitious belief that opening an umbrella indoors augurs misfortune has a more recent and utilitarian origin. In eighteenth-century London, when metal-spoked waterproof umbrellas began to become a common rainy-day sight, their stiff, clumsy spring mechanism made them veritable hazards to open indoors. A rigidly spoked umbrella, opening suddenly in a small room, could seriously injure an adult or a child, or shatter a frangible object. Even a minor accident could provoke unpleasant words or a serious quarrel, themselves strokes of bad luck in a family or among friends. Thus, the superstition arose as a deterrent to opening an umbrella indoors.
Today, with the ubiquitousness of radio, television, and newspaper weather forecasts, the umbrella superstition has again been altered. No longer is it really considered a bad luck omen to open an umbrella indoors (though it still presents a danger). Rather, on a morning when rain is in the forecast, one superstitious way to assure dry skies throughout the day is to set off for work toting an umbrella. On the other hand, to chance leaving the umbrella at home guarantees getting caught in a downpour. Subtle, unobtrusive, and even commonplace, superstitious beliefs infiltrate our everyday conversations and actions.
Walking Under a Ladder: 3000 B.C ., Egypt
Here is one superstition whose origin appears to be grounded in obvious and practical advice: walking under a ladder, after all, should be avoided since a workman’s plummeting tool could become a lethal weapon.
The true origin of the superstition, though, has nothing to do with practicality. A ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle, long regarded by many societies as the most common expression of a sacred trinity of gods. The pyramid tombs of the pharaohs, for example, were based on triangular planes. In fact, for a commoner to pass through a triangulated arch was tantamount to defiance of a sanctified space.
To the Egyptians, the ladder itself was a symbol of good luck. It was a ladder that rescued the sun god Osiris from imprisonment by the spirit of Darkness. The ladder was also a favorite pictorial sign to illustrate the ascent of gods. And ladders were placed in the tombs of Egyptian kings to help them climb heavenward.
Centuries later, followers of Jesus Christ usurped the ladder superstition, interpreting it in light of Christ’s death: Because a ladder had rested against the crucifix, it became a symbol of wickedness, betrayal, and death. Walking under a ladder courted misfortune. In England and France in the 1600s, criminals on their way to the gallows were compelled to walk under a ladder, while the executioner, called the Groom of the Ladder, walked around it.
Ancient cultures invariably had antidotes to their most feared superstitions. For a person who inadvertently walked under a ladder, or who was forced to do so for convenience of passage, the prescribed Roman antidote was the sign of the fico . This nullifying gesture was made by closing the fist and allowing the thumb to protrude between the index and middle fingers. The fist was then thrust forward at the ladder. Any person interested in applying the antidote today should be aware that the fico was also a Roman phallic gesture, believed to be the precursor of the extended middle finger, whose accompanying incantation is not all that different in sound from fico .
Evil Eye: Antiquity, Near East and Europe
A “dirty look,” a “withering glance,” “if looks could kill,” and “to stare with daggers” are a few common expressions that derive from one of the most universal of fears, the evil eye.
It has been found in virtually all cultures. In ancient Rome, professional sorcerers with the evil eye were hired to bewitch a person’s enemies. All gypsies were accused of possessing the stare. And the phenomenon was widespread and dreaded throughout India and the Near