,
and frequently gain the ascendancy over common sense. Though rather
reticent about expressing his religious views, he is in many respects
intensely religious. He may admit being superstitious and even boast
about it, or declare himself to be a fatalist. Fatalism in the
vocabulary of the soldier is just another name for Providence.

Few, if any, are afraid of death. They seldom give it a thought. The
general belief is that if a man's 'time' has come, nothing can
possibly avert it. Under this impression he goes into battle or takes
up his position in the lines. He consistently refuses, however, to be
a party to anything which is considered at all likely to
precipitate the end. For instance, no amount of persuasion would
induce him to be one of three to receive a light for his cigarette or
pipe from the same match, and owing to the strange coincidences in
connexion with the number thirteen, he is prepared to deny himself
much.

[Illustration: A silent tribute to the brave.]

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 rus