The age of the world, in the opinion of learned men of former times, was properly divided into seven great epochs; namely, the first, from the creation of Adam to the Deluge; second, from the latter event to the time of Abraham; third, from Abraham to the Exodus of the children of Israel; fourth, from that time to the building of Solomon’s Temple; fifth, from then to the Babylonish Captivity; sixth, the period between that and the coming of our Lord; and seventh, from the beginning of the Christian era to the end of the world.
According to astrologers, man’s age was divided into seven parts, governed by seven planets. The first part, Infancy, comprised four years, and was ruled by the Moon, a weak, moist, and changeable body. Next came Childhood, a period of ten years governed by Mercury, a planet indifferently good or bad, according to the character of the planets with whom he was associated. Following this came Youthhead, from fourteen to twenty-two, over which Venus presided. Next was Adolescence, lasting twenty years and ruled by the Sun, and in this age man attained his full strength and vigor. The fifth, from forty-two to fifty-six, was called Manhood, and was under the dominion of Mars, a bad star. At this time men began to wax angry, impatient, and avaricious, but were more temperate in their diet, and more discreet. The next period of twelve years was called Old Age, governed by Jupiter, a noble planet, whose influence rendered men religious, chaste, and just. The seventh was Decrepit Old Age, ruled by Saturn, and comprising the years from seventy-eight to ninety-eight.[530]
In the Lambeth Palace Library there is a manuscript of the fifteenth century in which the seven canonical hours are compared with the seven periods of human life, as follows:—
| Morning, | Infancy. |
| Midmorrow, | Childhood. |
| Undern, | School Age. |
| Mid-day, | the Knightly Age. |
| Nones, or High Noon, | the Kingly Age. |
| Midovernoon, | Elderly Age. |
| Evenson, | Declining Age.[531] |
In the “Secrets of Numbers,” by William Ingpen, Gent. (London, 1624), the number seven is described as the most excellent of all for several notable and curious reasons, and prominent among these was the alleged fact that the Soul consists of seven parts, namely, Acuminie, Wit, Diligence, Counsel, Reason, Wisdom, and Experience.
IV. ODD NUMBERS IN WITCHCRAFT
Odd numbers are intimately associated with the black art, for witches’ incantations are commonly repeated three or nine times. Who ever heard of a witch performing any of her mystic rites exactly four or six times? Apropos of this may be quoted the following story, taken from the advance sheets of a work entitled “Golspie,” edited by Edward W. B. Nicholson, M. A., Bodley’s Librarian in the University of Oxford, England, and loaned by him to the writer. The book contains much interesting folk-lore of the extreme north of Scotland:—
A woman who lived near Golspie was always telling her neighbors that a woman whom they all believed to be a witch had cast an evil eye upon the cow and herself. “Her milk and butter were spoiled,” she said; and she also told them that in a dream she saw the witch in the shape of a hare come into her milk-house and drink the milk. One day when she was in the wood for sticks, her neighbors went into her byre, and seeing a petticoat on a nail, cut a number of crosses on it and put it in the cow’s stall. Then they tied nine rusty nails to a cord with nine knots on it. This cord they tied to the chain on the cow’s neck, and then went away. Shortly after the woman came home, she went into the byre, and seeing the petticoat, nails, etc., ran out to her neighbors screaming, and calling to them to go and see what the witch had done on her. To make sure that it was the witch’s work, she showed them the unequal number of nails and knots. Then she took everything that she thought the witch had handled, and made a fire of them, saying that she could no longer harm any person, because her power was destroyed by fire.
The employment of odd numbers in magical formulæ is exemplified in the following recipe for a drink against all temptations of the Devil, used by the Saxons in England:—