d some sympathetic with others. The chances, therefore,
must be carefully calculated, no number or combination being ever played
without profound consideration, and under advice of skilful friends.
Almost every event in life has a numerical signification; and such is
the reverence paid to dreams, that a large book exists of several
hundred pages, called "Libro dei Sogni," containing, besides various
cabala and mystical figures and lists of numbers which are
"sympathetic," with directions for their use, a dictionary of thousands
of objects with the numbers supposed to be represented by each, as well
as rules for interpreting into numbers all dreams in which these objects
appear,--and this book is the constant _vade-mecum_ of a true
lottery-player. As Boniface lived, ate, and slept on his ale, so do the
Romans on their numbers. The very children "lisp in numbers, for the
numbers come," and the fathers run immediately to play them. Accidents,
executions, deaths, apoplexies, marriages, assassinations, births,
anomalies of all kinds, become auguries and enigmas of numbers. A
lottery-gambler will count the stabs on a dead body, the drops of blood
from a decollated head, the passengers in an overturned coach, the
wrinkles in the forehead of a new-born child, the gasps of a person
struck by apoplexy, the day of the month and the hour and the minute of
his death, the _scudi_ lost by a friend, the forks stolen by a thief,
anything and everything, to play them in the lottery. If a strange dream
is dreamed,--as of one being in a desert on a camel, which turns into a
rat, and runs down into the Maelstroem to hide,--the "Libro dei Sogni" is
at once consulted, the numbers for desert, rat, camel, and Maelstroem are
found and combined, and the hopeful player waits in eager expectation of
a prize. Of course, dream after dream of particular numbers and
combinations occurs,--for the mind bent to this subject plays freaks in
the night, and repeats contortedly the thoughts of the day,--and these
dreams are considered of special value. Sometimes, when a startling
incident takes place with a special numerical signification, the run
upon the numbers indicated becomes so great, that the government, which
is always careful to guard against any losses on its own part, refuses
to allow more than a certain amount to be played on them, cancels the
rest, and returns the price of the tickets.

Sometimes, in passing through the streets, one may see a cro