Lightning attractors
Many things attract lightning, at least according to popular folklore. Small metal items have often been considered dangerous, along with mirrors, and certain types of tree. Some of these beliefs turn out to have a basis in science, while others are the result of misinterpretation or magical thinking.
The belief in mirrors as lightning attractors appears in different forms in Ireland, Italy, the Caribbean, Latin America and part of Asia. One writer in El Salvador watched her sister taking down all the mirrors at the first sound of thunder. South Africa has an unusually high rate of mortality lightning.
