13 was also a 'coven', the number of witches in a group. The bakers dozen was 13 too. But does anyone know what the Botany Bay dozen was? It was also called a 'taste', being 25 lashes with the cat o'nine tails, which would tear one's back to shreds. One wonders why this peculiar pet, which was prevalent on British Navy ships up to the end of the18th century and in the Australian penal colonies had 9, not 10 or 12 tails.
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2002-01-05 15:32 Subject: [USMA:17211] Re: The number twelve and the universe!! 2002-01-05 But, if you consider Jesus as part of his group, there were 13 total. Now, isn't that a lucky number? John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adrian Jadic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 2002-01-04 21:59 Subject: [USMA:17203] The number twelve and the universe!! As Post Scriptum to my previous posting: Jesus also had 12 disciples. Don't get me wrong, but I don't see this as a sign from God but simply as result of the fact that 12 was the base number in those days. Everybody was thinking in "packs of 12". To stay with the religious teachings: God gave Moses the 10 commandments. Was that a sign? A.
