(_For the Mirror_.)


Notwithstanding the ridicule which in later ages has been deservedly
thrown on the idea of _good and evil days_, it is certain, that from time
immemorial, the most celebrated nations of antiquity, the Chaldeans, the
Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, adopted, and placed implicit faith
in this superstitious notion, which is still prevalent in all parts of the
east. According to Plutarch, the kings of Egypt never transacted business
on the third day of the week, and abstained even from food till the
evening; because on that day, Typhon, who was considered by them the cause
of every evil, was born. The seventeenth day of the month was also deemed
unfortunate, as on that day Osiris died. The Greeks, too, had their
unlucky days, which they denominated [Greek: apophrades]. The Thursday was
generally considered by the Athenians of so unlucky an import, that the
assemblies of the people, which happened to fall on that day, were always
deferred. Hesiod enumerated the days when it might be proper to commence
certain undertakings, and those when it was necessary to abstain from
every employment; among the latter, he mentions the fifth of every month,
when the Infernal Furies were supposed to bestride the earth. Virgil has
the same idea:--

Quintam fuge--pallidus Orcus
Eumenidesque satae: tum partu terra nefando,
Coeumque, lapetumque creat, saevumque Typhaea,
Et conjuratos coelum rescindere fratres.

1 GEOR. 279.