Just as these beliefs rest on faith, and, supernaturalism or transcendentalism--ideas that supposedly thrive on forces beyond human understanding, but could be rationally explained someday-- like in western religion and past concepts that later was explained or disproved by science, outsiders should not completely dismiss these institutional, African concepts as fallacious or fictitious representations or misrepresentations.

BBC: Most African societies associate a black cat with bad luck

Millais's captivating scenes from drama, the Bible and poetry deservedly remain among his most famous pieces, each revealing a visionary sensibility in search of a pictorial solution the supernaturalism of his green, batwinged sprites in "Ferdinand Lured by Ariel" (after Shakespeare's "The Tempest"), the extraordinary brick backdrop for the tender lovers in "The Huguenot" (inspired by Meyerbeer's opera "Les Huguenots").

WSJ: Victorian Avant-Garde | Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design | National Gallery of Art | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer