(Thap. 5.] A DESCRIPTIOIf OF VAUIOUS USAGES. 283 
in the thigh, by repeating a charm ; and Theophrastus''^ says 
that sciatica may be cured by similar means. Cato*^ has 
preserved a formula for the cure of sprains, and M. Varro for 
that of gout. The Dictator Caesar, they say, having on one 
occasion accidentally had a fall in his chariot,*^ was always in 
the habit, immediately upon taking his seat, of thrice repeating 
a certain formula, with the view of ensuring safety upon the 
journey ; a thing that, to my own knowledge, is done by many 
persons at the present day. 
CHAP. 5. A DESCEIPTION OF VARIOUS USAGES. 
I would appeal, too, for confirmation on this subject, to the 
intimate experience of each individual. Why, in fact, upon 
the first day of the new year, do we accost one another with 
prayers for good fortune, and, for luck's sake, wish each other 
a happy new year ? Why, too, upon the occasion of public 
lustrations, do we select persons with lucky names, to lead the 
victims ? Why, to counteract fascinations, do we Eomans 
observe a peculiar form of adoration, in invoking the ITemesis 
of the Greeks ; whose statue, for this reason, has been placed 
in the Capitol at Rome, although the goddess herself possesses 
no Latin name Why, when we make mention of the dead, 
do we protest that we have no wish*^ to impeach their good 
name Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every 
purpose odd numbers are the most effectual — a thing that is 
particularly observed with reference to the critical days in 
fevers? Why is it that, when gathering the earliest fruit, 
apples, or pears, as the case may be, we make a point of saying 
— This fruit is old, may other fruit be sent us that is new ? 
Why is it that we salute^^ a person when he sneezes, an obser- 
vance which Tiberius Csesar, they say, the most unsociable of 
men, as we all know, used to exact, when riding in his chariot 
^0 De Enthusiasmo. See B. xvii. c. 47. 
*2 In passing along the Velabrum, on the occasion of his Gallic triumph, 
the axle of the carriage having broke. 
*3 See Ovid's Fasti, B. i. 1. 175, et seq,, and Epist. de Ponto. B. iv. 
El. 4. 1. 23, et seq. 
See B. xi. c. 103. 
^•^ Hence the saying, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum." 
*' Defunctorum memoriam a nobis non sollicitari/' 
It is still a saying, and perhaps a belief, that " There is luck in 
odd numbers." 
This has been a practice from the earliest times to the present day. 
See Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 123, I^ohn's Ed, 
