While soldiers are ever ready to avail themselves of every possible
comfort when in the trenches, they hesitate to make use of a field
service stretcher. They prefer to make their bed on the ground, under
the impression that if they were to lie on stretchers in the trenches
they would be carried out from the trenches on stretchers. One of a
draft of reinforcements was attached to a platoon which had been
detailed to proceed to the lines. On arrival, this man, despite many
warnings from the others, took possession of a stretcher and used it
as a bed. About eleven o'clock the following morning, the same
stretcher was used to carry him back to the R.A.P. While working in
the lines he was seriously wounded by a piece of shrapnel. It is
hardly necessary to state that this man was completely won over to the
belief which only the previous evening he had laughed at.

At the head of a trench in the vicinity of Ploegsteert a rusted
revolver which had been found by a working party was suspended from a
short pole. It caught the eye of all who passed by on their way up the
lines. Nearly every man was seen to touch that useless weapon. Upon
making enquiries it was ascertained that a superstition had grown up
round that revolver. It was supposed to possess a certain charm, and
the men who merely touched it on their way into the line would be
protected from all danger. Certainly many incidents occurred which
tended to support the belief that the mud covered rusted revolver
possessed all the remarkable miraculous powers attributed to it.

In course of conversation with a soldier, I questioned the
advisability of his proceeding to the trenches. 'Oh,' he declared, 'it
is all right; no matter where I may be, if a shell has my number on
it, I will have to take delivery, whether I like it or not.' While