I have found this to be a common belief in
Ireland, Prince Edward Island, and in various parts of the United States.
I remember as a child to have heard persons remark while turning over a
family album of photographs, "That looks as if the person were dead." In
fact, I think that I thus received the impression that the picture of one
dead underwent some change that many persons could perceive and thus
become aware of the death of the original. This notion is akin to a
superstition of the Irish peasantry that the clothes left by the dead
decay with unusual rapidity.
In parts of New Hampshire it is counted unlucky to have a photograph
copied while the original lives. Is this because death is thereby
suggested, since it is so customary to have enlarged copies of a
photograph made after the decease of the original?
FOOTNOTES:
[157-1] _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. iv. No. XIII., "Folk-Lore
from Buffalo Valley," J.H. Owens.
[158-1] _Journal of American Folk-Lore,_ vol. v. No. XVI. p. 33.
OFFICERS
OF
THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY,
1896.
=President.=
JOHN G. BOURKE, FORT ETHAN ALLEN, VT.
=First Vice-President.=
STEWART CULIN, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
=Second Vice-President.=
HENRY WOOD, BALTIMORE, MD.
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