two were ever found to agree in their reckoning. So at least say the people, and it was to illustrate their superstition in regard to numbers that I have dwelt upon the legend.

In the Isle of Man the superstition is reversed. There within Peel Castle is a vault in which are thirteen pillars supporting the church above, and the people firmly believe that the stranger who visits this cavern out of curiosity, and omits to count the pillars, will do something to occasion his being confined there.*

In regard to the qualities inherent in odd and even numbers, there seems to be some difference of opinion amongst the learned in such high mysteries. Pliny assures us that odd numbers were more effectual than even, and were a thing of the greatest consequence to be observed in fevers.† Philo Judæus, who flourished at Alexandria in the time of Caligula, tells us that nature delights in a septenary; the planets, he says, are seven; the Bear is composed of seven stars; the changes of the moon take place once in a se'nnight, that is to say, in each week she accomplishes a full quarter; children born at seven months are prosperous, while those who come into the world at eight are unlucky; the third septenary, i. e., twenty-one, is the termination of a man's growth; and many other instances he adduces of the virtue residing in

* See Waldron's Isle of Man, p. 19 12mo. 1731.

"Cur impares numeros ad omnia vehementiores credimus ; idque in febribus dierum observatione intelligitur ?" C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist. lib. xxviii. cap. 5. So far from doubting the truth of the dogma put thus interrogatively, Pliny uses it in confirmation of other matters, saying, "libet hanc partem singulorum quoque conscientia coarguere." It was a fact too generally known and admitted to be called in question, and might therefore be safely appealed to in corroboration of other less demonstrated opinions.

the number seven; but as those already given are quite as cogent as the remainder, it is unnecessary to repeat them.*

The Romans found as many and as valid reasons for admiring the number three, as Philo did for his eulogies on seven; indeed, they are much after the same fashion of logic; as, for instance-Jove's thunder was three-forked; Neptune's trident was three-pronged; Pluto's house-dog, Cerberus, was three-headed; the Furies were three; and Diana was of a threefold nature, being Diana upon earth, Hecate in the shades below, and Luna in the sky above. Nothing can be more convincing.

Pythagoras formed a whole system of philosophy upon numbers, and even went so far as to declare that, according to the odd or even numbers in a man's name, blindness, lameness, or any such casualties, will fall upon his left or right side. But it is not often that the philosophy of numbers, as it was expressed both by the Greeks and Romans, is so intelligible as this; at times they dived into depths, or soared up into heights, whither it is no easy affair to follow them; as when they tell us that the soul is united to the body by the force of numbers, and that so long as the numbers remain the union con

* “ Χαίρει δε ἡ φύσις εβδομαδι &c.” Philonis Judæi Opera, vol. i. p. 45. London. 1742. But the most sensible part of Philo's observations is on the Creation. He says, that it is idle to talk of the world having been made in seven days, according to our ideas of the words, as time could not exist till after the world was created. When however, he adds, that the phrase is to be understood as meaning a perfect senary he is not quite intelligible. Those who wish to grapple with this mystery will find it fully discussed by our author in the Sacrorum Legum Allegor. lib. i.

"E Pythagoræ inventis non temerè fallere, impositivorum nominum imparem vocalium numerum clauditates, oculive orbitatem, ac similes casus, dextris assignare partibus, parem lævis." C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist. lib. xxviii. cap. 6.

tinues, but on their surcease the secret power is destroyed which held soul and matter together. In this way has been explained the poet's line,

"Explebo numerum reddarque tenebris."

"I shall have fulfilled my number and be restored to darkness."

The Romans had at least a semblance of reason for their preference of odd numbers, since they believed, as Servius tells us in his notes on Virgil's eighth eclogue, that the gods above delight in them, while the deities of the shades below rejoice in even numbers. It would seem to be somewhat contradictory of this doctrine that seven should be held particularly dangerous to males. If we may believe Pliny, they who were made to die of hunger in prison, never survived the seventh day; and Aristotle mentions several animals, who never lived beyond the seventh year. The number, sixty-three, which is a multiple of seven by nine, is particularly fatal to old men, as we learn from Aulus Gellius,† who observes that all of advanced age meet with some disease or misfortune, or the loss of life itself, at that period, whence it acquired the name of climacteric. He then goes on to give a letter from Augustus Cæsar to his grandson Caius, in which this superstitious feeling is simply yet beautifully

* Upon this Rhodiginus observes, " Ex hac item occultiore facultate scribit Aurelius Macrobius, numerorum certa costitutamque rationem animas sociare corporibus, qui numeri dum supersint, perseverat corpus animari; quum vero deficiant, arcanam illam vim solvi quâ societas ipsa constabat." Ludovici Calii Rhodigini Lectiones Antiquæ, lib. xxii. cap. 6, p. 1034, folio. 1599.

"Observatum in multâ hominum memoriâ, expertumque est in senioribus plerisque omnibus, sexagesimum tertium vitæ annum cum periculo et clade aliquâ venire, aut corporis morbique gravioris, aut vitæ interitus, aut animi ægritudinis; propterea, qui rerum verborumque istiusmodi studio tenentur, eum ætatis annum appellant Kλiμактηρikóν." Auli Gellii Noctes Atticæ, lib. xv. cap. 7.

expressed. "Be of good cheer, my beloved Caius, whom, so help me heaven!-I ever long for when thou art absent. But more particularly do my eyes demand my Caius on days like yesterday, when I hope, wherever you were, that you celebrated in health and joy my sixty-fourth birth-day; for, as you see, I have escaped my sixty-third year, that common climacteric of old men."*

Bodin, however, assures us that this peril, belonging to seven and its multiples, affects only men, while it is six that brings danger to women; and for this excellent reason; women came to puberty in their twelfth year, whereas the same constitutional change does not take place with the male sex till two years later.† The argument, as Sir Lucius in the play says of a quarrel, would be only spoiled by explanation.

As if in continuation of the same contradictory system, it was reckoned highly unlucky for thirteen people to meet at table, the odd number in this case losing its usual good character. It would seem, therefore, that the exceptions to the rule of the "gods rejoicing in odd numbers" is pretty numerous.

From the Greeks and Romans the traditional superstition in regard to numbers came down to the moderns

* "Have, mi Caii, meus ocellus jucundissimus, quem semper medius fidius desidero cum a me abes; sed præcipuè diebus talibus qualis est hodiernus oculi mei requirunt meum Caium, quem, ubicunque hoc die fuisti, spero lætum et benevalentem celebrasse quartum et sexagesimum natalem meum ; nam, ut vides, кλμактñра communem seniorum omnium tertium et sexagesimum annum evasimus." Auli Gellii Noctes Atticæ, lib. xv. cap. 7.

"At numero Deus impare gaudet, ut ait poeta," (Virgilii Eclog. viii.) "et impares numeri maribus tribuuntur; nam quòd Seneca scribit, septimus quisque annus ætati notam imprimit,' de maribus tantum dictum est, nam fæminis quisque sextus ætati notam aliquam indidit, ut cum mares anno decimo quarto, fæminæ duodecimo pubescant." Bodinus, De Republicâ, lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 414. folio. Paris. 1586.

though with many alterations. Werensal in enumerating the fears and precautions of one under this belief says, that if sick he will never take the prescribed pills in an even number" ægrotus præscriptas pilulas pari numero nunquam deglutiet ;"* and we read in Delrio that the seventh son of a seventh son has a singular gift of curing fevers, provided no female birth has intervened,† and they are born in legitimate wedlock.

This, long as it may seem to many, is only a slight taste of the various superstitions connected with the subject. But enough has probably been detailed to satisfy the mass of readers, who would not, I fear, derive much pleasure from any attempt to explain the Pythagorean philosophy of numbers, if indeed it be capable of explanation.

Les Hans. (France).—A sort of spirits that inhabit certain houses, and every night torment the inmates by making a terrible uproar. Noise and disorder seem to be the natural element of these goblins, and in consequence the houses, which they have unluckily selected for their vagaries, generally end by being deserted.‡

Revenans (Ghosts; France.) Ghosts are spirits, which

*Werenfelsii Opuscula, vol. ii. p. 634. 4to. Basileæ, 1718.

"Tale curationis donum, sed a febribus tantum sanandi, habere putantur in Flandriâ quotquot nati sunt Die Parasceues, et quotquot nullo fæmineo fœtu intercedente septimi masculi legitimo thoro sunt nati." Disquisitiones Magica, a M. Delrio, lib. i. cap. 3. Quæstio iv. p. 24. 4to. Venetiis. 1616. So far is plain enough, but Delrio is not always, or often, so intelligible. In imitation of the ancients he tells us that heaven delights in odd numbers, and odd numbers are given to men, who by the same token change every seven years, while women change in six. One might be inclined to find in these more rapid bodily changes an excuse for the proverbial inconstancy of the sex.

For this, and the following popular French superstitions, I am in part indebted to Pluquet, Contes Populaires, Préjuges, &c., 8vo. Rouen. 1834.