CHAPTER III.
THE SACRED NUMBER, ITS ORIGIN AND APPLICATIONS.
The number FOUR sacred in all American religions, and the key to their symbolism .-- Derived from the CARDINAL POINTS .-- Appears constantly in government, arts, rites, and myths .-- The Cardinal Points identified with the Four Winds, who in myths are the four ancestors of the human race, and the four celestial rivers watering the terrestrial Paradise .-- Associations grouped around each Cardinal Point .-- From the number four was derived the symbolic value of the number _Forty_, and the _Sign of the Cross_.
Every one familiar with the ancient religions of the world must have noticed the mystic power they attach to certain numbers, and how these numbers became the measures and formative quantities, as it were, of traditions and ceremonies, and had a symbolical meaning nowise connected with their arithmetical value.

For instance, in many eastern religions, that of the Jews among the rest, _seven_ was the most sacred number, and after it, _four_ and _three_.

The most cursory reader must have observed in how many connections the seven is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, occurring, in all, something over three hundred and sixty times, it is said.

Why these numbers were chosen rather than others has not been clearly explained.

Their sacred character dates beyond the earliest history, and must have been coeval with the first expressions of the religious sentiment.