STRANGE FIGURES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2196, 18 February 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

STRANGE FIGURES.

The number of three possesses so many peculiar properties (remarks ' Knowledge ' for November) that it is I no matter of surprise that the ancients came to look upon it with sense of profound admiration. In a paper lately published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Mr S. C. Laharry descrifow x> few mysterious and unaccountable properties of the number ; and in themselves they are sufficient to surround it with an atmosphere of supers ition. To begin with, when any numbu?-"is multiplied by three, as six, nine, twelve, etc., the separate figures in the result, if added together, give a total of three or a multiple of three, thus: 4multiplied by 3 gives 12, and Ix2 •" ~ by 3 gives 15, and 1x 5 = 6 17 ,- bv 9»iveß 153, andlxox3 = 9 22 „ byl2give«264, and 2x6x4 -12 Another noteworthy property of the number three is that when 37 s multiplied by three, or any multiple of it up to nine times—that is, 27 the result consists of three same figures, thus : 37 multiplied l>y 3 gives 111 37 ~ by 6 gives 222 37 „ by 9 gives 333 37 „ by 12 gives 444 ' Knowledge ' then proceeds to cite sheets in the wind," three Druid Orders j sayings and practices in which three is prominent three Druid colors (white, blue, and green), the various Trinities of the East, the three Fates, the three Graces, I etc. But we take leave to remark that j there is no proved or apparent con- j nection between such '• threes " and the numeral three. In the next place, it j may to some minds seem remarkable that three times 37 should amount to 111, but no one has any occasion to think that he is dealing with mystery when 111 multiplied by two yields 122, or by three yields 333. —Exchange.