"The superstition with reference to thirteen at table dates from the
Last Supper, of which Our Lord partook with His twelve Apostles on the
eve of His crucifixion. Hence the saying that of thirteen persons who
sit down together to a repast, one will soon die. I think it was
originally the custom to avoid having thirteen at the festive or family
board, not so much from this notion, as to express a horror of the
treachery of Judas. Such would be, for instance, the chivalrous spirit
of the Crusaders. We can understand how, in feudal times, a knight
would consider it an affront to his fellows to bid them to a banquet
spread for thirteen. In those days, when a feast was so apt to end in
a fray,--when by perfidy the enemy so often entered at the castle gate
while the company were at table, and frequently a chief was slain ere
he could rise from his place,--the circumstance would point an analogy
which it has not with us, suggesting not merely mortality but betrayal;
a breach of all the laws of hospitality; impending death by violence.
Since we can not live forever, among every assemblage of individuals
there is likely to be one at least whose life may be nearly at its
close.
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