IN A FISHING COUNTRY 



Consider. From those earliest days 

 when our ancestors began to raise their 

 keener eyes skyward, they assuredly knew 

 that a wind shifting from east to west by the 

 south brings fair weather — is a lucky wind; 

 that a backing wind ushers in foul weather 

 — bodes ill: vital facts to them for every 

 purpose of their lives. Nothing less than ex- 

 istence itself depending on the temper of the 

 heavens, would not these unfailing sequen- 

 ces engender and perpetually nourish the 

 conviction that the rotations were lucky or 

 unlucky at all times, in every association? 



It has been said that the path of the sun 

 across the sky impressed those living north 

 of the equator with the idea that such a 

 motion was in harmony with the order of 

 nature. The conception may have grown 

 up with and become confused with the 

 other; but the sun provides no contrast of 

 circuits or concomitants, the notion of atten- 

 dant good fortune has to be lugged in, body 

 and bones, and that of evil fortune must be 

 built up out of nothing, to suit the theory. 



It is worth recalling that a lost man al- 

 ways circles in the unlucky sense — showing 

 that for some reason (probably constitu- 

 tional to the human brain) the natural turn 

 is from left to right — showing also that 

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