of sowing seed before the shrine of the god, and hope thus
to ensure that the subsequent sowing will be auspicious. The common
stories of the appearance of a ghost, or other variety of apparition,
before the deaths of members of a particular family, are based partly
on the belief in the recurrence of associated events. The well-known
superstition about sitting down thirteen to dinner, on the ground that
one of the party may die shortly afterwards, is an instance of the
same belief, being of course based on the Last Supper. But the number
thirteen is generally unlucky, being held to be so by the Hindus,
Muhammadans and Persians, as well as Europeans, and the superstition
perhaps arose from its being the number of the intercalary month in
the soli-lunar calendar, which is present one year and absent the
next year. Thirteen is one more than twelve, the auspicious number
of the months of the year. Similarly seven was perhaps lucky or
sacred as being the number of the planets which gave their names
to the days of the week, and three because it represented the sun,
moon and earth. When a gambler stakes his money on a number such as
the date of his birth or marriage, he acts on the supposition that a
number which has been propitious to him once will be so again, and this
appears to be a survival of the belief in the recurrence of events.

63. Controlling the future.

But primitive man was not actuated by any abstract love of knowledge,
and when he had observed what appeared to him to be a law of nature, he
proceeded to turn it to advantage in his efforts for the preservation
of his life. Since events had the characteristic of recurrence, all he
had to do in order to produce the recurrence of any particular event
which he desired, was to cause it to happen in the first instance; and
since he did not distinguish between imitation and reality, he thought
that if he simply enacted the event he would thus ensure its being
brought to pass. And so he assiduously set himself to influence the
course of nature to his own advantage. When the Australian aborigines
are performing ceremonies for the increase of witchetty grubs, a long
narrow structure of boughs is made which represents the chrysalis of
the grub. The men of the witchetty grub totem enter the structure
and sing songs about the production and growth of the witchetty
grub. Then one after another they shuffle out of the chrysalis,
and glide slowly along for a distance of