“Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.”
And, again (vii. 189-191):
“Ter se convertit; ter sumtis flumine crinem
Irroravit aquis; ternis ululatibus ora
Solvit.”
Vergil, too, in his “Eclogues” (viii. 75), says:
“Numero deus impare gaudet.”
The belief in the luck of odd numbers is noticed by Falstaff in the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (v. 1):
“They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death!”
In “King Lear” (iv. 2) when the Duke of Albany tells Goneril,
“She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither
And come to deadly use”—
he alludes to the use that witches and enchanters were commonly supposed to make of withered branches in their charms.[70]