New-York tribune., 1901-05-19
CURRENT SUPERSTITIONS-
From Notes and Queries

From Notes and Queries
Sometimes in the quiet Os my own study /
smile at the absurd fancies of other men. for
getting that l. too cannot plead absolute I'M
uunity 1 used 70 know a very worthy gentle
man who never Stirred abroad without carrying
Il piece OF coal in his pocket fer luck yet ne n
variably threw il away the moment ne sat down
u take a hand at whist cTibbaSe- Another
had a mortal aversion To a babys crying az
breakfast time: this spelled bad luck for him
the whole day. Jewish DANES of a bygone school
went continually in fear of the evil eye 10
counteract its attacks upon their offspring they
resoIted to many devices. among which were
the quasi-religiOUs ones of tackinS ~mezuzoUs
,charrnsl 10 the lintels OF the doorWays ana OF
fixing "camires round their children's thTOatS-
Now. my own idiOsyrcraSy Is IN favor OF odd
numbers How acquired the harmless passion
happened in this way. Among my schOOlfel-
lows was a Turkish lad who the first u
point out To curious law of numbers We
would take string of figures at random. which
added up in line Till they tOtted 10 a
sultant number nine or not If they showed
up nine declared them lucky; If not not
For example. take numbers 1St245@9; but num-
bers lb2.H@4 So lnSrained Is this meaningless
habit that never buy railway ticket without
submitting its number To this ridiculous
tiny. Many time have puzzled myself as TO
the origin of this silly habit. yet it would ap-
pear that the affection for number nine dis
played by this lad reached Turkey via Arabia
According To the anonymous author of Table
Talk. published in 1876 by Charles Knight. long
residence in Cairo by the famous traveller j. l..
Burckhardt had also rendered him susceptible
10 the strange fascination of odd numbers He
spent many years collecting a storehouse of
Arabian sayings illustrative of the manners and
customs of this enlightened people. but. strange
To say. he stopped short at the number 800
adopting, says my authority. "a notion prev
alent among the Arabs that even numbers are
unlucky. and that anything perfect in it's guam
tty Is particularly affected by the evil eye
Whereupon the writer proceeds TO give an in
stance that came under his notice. At that
time there lived in ISlingtOn a wealthy cow
Keeper named Rhodes. who made MANY futile
attempts TO keep one Thousand cows on his prem
iSeS In a thriving condition time. but was
invariably hatited- He could. however keep 500
without experiencing any loss of stock
:. similar prejudice the author discovered 70
prevail IN his JOurneyings through the remoter
districts of France Spain. Italy and Switzerland
Jews have for ages paid special veneration Z,
the number seven and its multipleS though 4
strong partiality for Uinyan or number ten
mas been fosterett by the rabbis in the dicta OF
Ethics. vi. - Thus prayer is impossible in
synagogue without quorum of ten / was told
u funny story about this the other day by Il
scholarly contributor To N x @" Some years
ago, being in Prague. he stroIled one Sa hbath
evening inside the old synagogue to have a quiet
look around. suddenly the voice of PRAYER
startled him out of his musings The beadIa
had mistaken him for a regular worShipper who
Was late IN arriving To form the regulation
number. minyan-