Sev’n sacred Arts, the World’s sev’n Wonders rare,
The week sev’n dais, the Heav’ns sev’n Trions show.
But one thing rests, sev’n shillings you me ow,
Which that you’l pay, sev’n Verses I bestow.[526]
In ancient Ireland every well-to-do farmer had seven prime possessions,—a house, a mill or a share in it, a kiln, barn, sheep-pen, calf-house, and pigsty.
The number seven appears more than three hundred times in the Scriptures. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, and throughout the Old Testament, as well as in the Apocalypse, the constant recurrence of this sacred number is noteworthy. Thus we read of the seven fat and seven lean kine of Pharaoh’s dream, and also, in the account of the Fall of Jericho (Joshua vi. 4): “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.”
According to a popular mediæval tradition, Adam and Eve remained but seven hours in Eden.
Seven archangels are mentioned in the Bible and in Jewish writings,—Michael, who was the special guardian and protector of the Jews, and in whose honor the Festival of Michaelmas is celebrated on the twenty-ninth day of September by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; Gabriel, the messenger who appeared to the Virgin Mary and to Zacharias; Raphael, spoken of in the Book of Tobit as the companion and guardian of Tobias, and conqueror of the demon Asmodeus; Uriel, an angel mentioned in the Book of Esdras; Chamuel, who, according to Jewish tradition, wrestled with Jacob; Jophiel, who expelled Adam and Eve from Eden, and who was the guardian of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil;” and Zadkiel, the angel who is supposed to have stayed the hand of Abraham when the latter was about to sacrifice his son Isaac.[527]
Samson’s strength resided in seven locks of his hair, representing the seven rays of Light, the source of Strength. And the shearing of these seven locks by Delilah, a woman of low character, has been described as a triumph of Evil in suppressing Light.[528]
According to Herodotus, the Arabs of the desert had a peculiar method of confirming a vow of friendship. Two men stood on either side of a third, who made incisions with a sharp stone on the palms of their hands, and, having dipped in the blood therefrom some portion of a garment of each, he proceeded to moisten with it seven stones lying on the ground.[529]