The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-06-01
The MYSTERY OF FORTY
The Significance Of this Number In
lnsdiasVal Alchemy.
Its Frequent Use In ScrIpturaI His
tory and Chronological Sys-
tems-A Custom Common
Among OrientaIs.

From the London Illustrated News.
The termination OF the Lenten season
1.-THE forty days and forty nights corre-
spending TO the period of the te nptation
OF Jesus Christ in the wilderness, with
dark shades M rocks environed round
recalls the peculiar significance which
formerly attached To the number forty
"a significance originating, Of course, in
Its Biblical employment as one Of those
numbers which, as ~. Augustine remarks,
are To be representative rath-
er h determinative: which convey
the idea OF completeness, but are not To
be construed literally. Mr.. Phillote has
pointed out that this notion Of representa-
tive numbers in certain cases is exceed
ingly common among Orientals, who en-
terrain a superstitious dislike to counting
their numbers accurately. Ii also enters
into several chronological systems, while
II Is To he met with in the philosophical
and metaphysical speculations not only
OF h Pythagorean and other ancient
philosophical schools, both Greek n
Roman, but also in those Of the later
Jewish writers, of the Gnostics, and more
than u Of the fathers.
The reader will not fail to remember
how often the number ~ occurs i'm scrip
ture; generally in a representative,
sense, Thus we read that Isaac xas ~
years old when he took Rebekah 10 wife.
and Esau of the same aye when he
welded .he two Hittite damsels; tina Je-
seph and his kinsmen tasted 40 days for
their father, Jocob: that the Hebrew spies
searched Caanan during 10 days. We
read also that the rains of the de-
luge descended 40 days, and that 10 days
elapsed before Noah opened the win
lows OF the ark. Also, Of the forty days
~ -. sI. -.
OF the lsraelites: Elijah's forty DAYS and
nights. when he was fad Inv ravens.
Jonah's forty DAYS warning to- Nineyah:
the forty days of Christ between the resur.
rection and ascension. After their war
fare with the King OF Mesopotamia the
people of Israel had rest for forty wears.
Eli Judged Israel for forty years Saul,
David, Solomon. eacb reigned for the
same period.
The prominence given Ia this number
in the biblical records invested il with a
strong attraction for the Eastern nations.
The Mahommedans mourn forty days for
the dead, and keep their Ramadan for
forty DAYS, I'm Arabian fiction thieves
and footpads always 90 in gangs of forty.
as in the story of ALI BAHIA and the Forty
Thieves" aud in that of ahmed the Cob
bier" where a body of forty robbers plun-
| der the royal treasury. In the tale of
.The Third Calender.r his voyage pros-
pers for forty days. and he ia Entertained
by forty damsels, who absent tbemselye.
for forty days. In Aladdin and His
| Lamp" after the -disappearance of his
| fairy palace, which the cenii transport To
Africa, the sultan of China allows him ~
days TO recover il and recover his dauph-
ter, the beautiful princess, Nasir. I'M a
Persian story, il instructed i'm the last
will of a hermit, whom he finds Wing
| dead In his cell, TO spend 40 days i'm prayer
for the restoration of the fairies fountain.
This hero is so cxpcrt with bis how that
he shoots an arrow through a suspendcd
finger ring 40 times runninv-a feat which
none Of Robin Hoods merry men seem
ever 10 have caualed.
The mediaeval lcech made n rood deal
of mystcry about this period Of 10. while
the alchemist taught his dupes that 40
days were required for the perfectinc of
the ma0isterinm, or p~hilosopher's stone.
We know that il il rain upon 81. Svithin's
Day, rain there will be for 40 days after
varl. A. GAY nuts IL; "Twice 40 DAYS
shall clouds their iieeces DRAIN" Th.
large place which this number ccupied
in the usopes of the Western
%natiou il shown by the 40 day-
which the old law conceded for the raw.
ment of the fin. for manslnuvbter. and