Folklore — legends , songs , tradition , superstition and art — is an all-important part of any culture . It ’s passed down through generation , sometimes bend and turn along the way , but stay generally the same . Much folklore is well-nigh impossible to trace back to its source . For example , if you ask someone , " Why is afour - leaf clover good luck ? " they ’ll probably respond , " Because that ’s what I ’ve always been tell . " However , that does n’t cease us from trying to discover out where the stories in our culture come from .
One piece of American folklore unremarkably passed around as fact is that swim women always drift faceup . Is this truthful ? Some will say this is merely a myth , the origins of which are a mystery . Some point to a passage in a famous study of literature . And some get true to the science .
Researching the " drown women float faceup " myth , we institute it listed in many Holy Writ and clause about American folklore and superstition . However , the statement alter from author to generator — sometimes the rule is that women float only faceup , and sometimes the prescript is that women blow only facedown ( due to modestness , even in death ) . The latter is referenced in a poem by Aldous Huxley called " Second Philosopher ’s vocal , " which reads :
Another literary instance of the linguistic rule of drowned women always floating faceup appears in Mark Twain ’s novel " Huckleberry Finn . " When Huck learns of his father ’s drowning , he insist it ca n’t be true , because the bushed body was found facing up . Huck says , " I knowed powerful well that a drownded man do n’t blow on his back , but on his face . So I knowed , then , that this warn’t pap , but a woman dress out up in a Isle of Man ’s clothes . "
In trueness , whether or not a drowned body floats faceup or facedown depends more on scientific and forensic factors than the sex of the deceased . The absolute majority of drown body ab initio float facedown , due to the exercising weight of the arms and legs dragging the body downward . However , people with surplus fat in the boob or tum may swim faceup — making it more likely that adult female might be adrift faceup more than men .
to boot , organic structure with short limbs lean to swim faceup . Eventually , though , most drowned corpses will finally pitch faceup — males included — as the undiscovered and decomposing dead body fill with gases and becomes more perky [ sources : HartstonandEngber ] .
ascertain out the links on the next Thomas Nelson Page for more about folklore .
