AMULET
20S
AMULET
nil tfjO
tory. " There was hardly any people in the whole world," says Lightfoot (Hor. Ilebr. ad Matt, xxiv, 24), "that more used or were more fond of amulets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of en- chantments. . . . The amulets were either little roots hung about the neck of sick persons, or, what was more common, bits of paper (and parchment) with words written on them, whereby it was supposed that dis- eases were either driven away or cured. They wore such amulets all the week, but were forbidden to go abroad with them on the Sabbath, unless they were ' approved amulets ;' that is, were prescribed by a person who knew that at least three persons had been cured by the same means. In these amulets myste- rious names (especially the tetragrammaton, or sacred name, ni!"P) and characters were occasionally em-
I ployed in lieu of extracts
! from the law. One of the most usual of these was the
! cabalistic hexagonal figure
known as ' the shield of Da-
Ancient Egyptian King and Ear-ring Amulets. Cyclop. ; Eosenmuller, ad Isa. iii, 20 ; Gesenius, ad eund. ; and in his Thesaurus, art. Unb). Thus the basilisk is constantly engraved on the talismanic sca- rabaji of Egypt, and, according to Jahn (Bibl. Arch. § 131), the lechashim of Isa. iii, 23, were " figures of serpents carried in the hand" (more probably worn in the ears) " by Hebrew women." The word is derived from E3H3, lachash' , to kiss, and means both " enchant- ments" (comp. Isa. iii, 3) and the magical gems and formularies used to avert them (Gesenius, s. v.). It is doubtful whether the Sept. intends Trepidt£ia as a translation of this word (Schleusner's Thesaui-us). For a like reason the phallus was among the sacred emblems of the Vestals (Smith's Diet, of Ant. s. v. Fascinum). See Ear-king. That these lechashim were charms inscribed on silver and gold, was the opinion of Aben- Ezra. The Arabic has boxes of amulets, manifestly concluding that the}' were similar to those ornamental little cases for written charms which are still used by Arab women. These are represented in the first figure of cut 1. Amulets of this kind are called chegab, and are specially adapted to protect and preserve those written charms, on which the Moslems, as did the Jews, chiefly rely. The writing is covered with wax- ed cloth, and enclosed in a case of thin embossed gold or silver, which is attached to a silk string or a chain, and generally hang on the right side, above the gir- dle, the string or chain being passed over the left shoulder. In the specimen here figured there are three of these chegabs attached to one string. The square one in the middle is almost an inch thick, and contains a folded paper ; the others contain scrolls. Amulets of this shape, or of a triangular form, are worn by women and children; and those of the lat- ter shape are often attached to children's head-dress (Lane's Modern Egyptians, ii, 365). Charms, con- sisting of words written on folds of papyrus tightly rolled up and sewed in linen, have been found at Thebes (Wilkinson, 1. c), and our English translators possibly intended something of the kind when they rendered the curious phrase (in Isa. iii) is:n ^na (houses of the spirit I by " tablets." It was the danger of idolatrous practices arising from a knowledge of this custom that probably induced the sanction of the use of phylacteries (Deut. vi, X; ix, IS, MBo'lO, bil- lets, "frontlets"). The modern Arabs use scraps of the Koran (which they call "telesmes" or "alakakirs") ' in the same way. See PHYLACTERY.
The superstitions connected with amulets grew to a great height in the later periods of the Jewish his-
Cabaliftie Amulet.
! vid' and ' the seal of Solo- | mon'" (Bartoloc. Bibliotheca ! Eabbinica, i, 57G ; Lakema- I cher, Observatt. Philol. ii,143 I sq.). The reputation of the I Jews was so well establish- j ed in this respect that even in Arabia, before the time of Mohammed, men applied to them when they needed charms of peculiar vir- tue (Mishkat vl-Masabih, ii, 377). A very large class ! of amulets depended for their value on their be- : ing constructed under certain astronomical condi- \ tions. Their most general use was to avert ill-luck, etc., especially to nullify the effect of the " evil eye" (6<p9a\j.ibr fiacrKavoc), a belief in which is found among all nations. Some animal substances were considered to possess such properties, as we see from Tobit. Pliny (xxviii, 47) mentions a fox's tongue worn on an amu- let as a charm against blear-eves, and says (xxx, 15) that beetles' horns are efficacious for the same pur- pose— perhaps an Egyptian fancy. In the same way one of the Roman emperors wore a seal-skin as a charm against thunder. Among plants, the white bryony and the Hypericon, or Fuga decmonum, are mentioned as useful. On the African " pieces of med- icine"— a belief in which constitutes half the religion of the Africans (see Livingstone's Travels, p. 285 et passim). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.
Many of the Christians of the first century wore amulets marked with a fish, as a symbol of the Re- deemer. See Ichthus. Another form is the pentan- gle (or pentacle, ride Scott's Antiquary), which "con- sists of three triangles intersected, and made of five lines, which may be so set forth with the bod}- of man as to touch and point out the places where our Saviour was wounded" (Sir Thos. Brown's Vulg. Errors, i, 10). Under this head fall the "curious arts" (ret Tripitpya') of the Ephesians (Acts xix, 19), and in later times the use of the word "Abracadabra," recommended by the physician Serenus Samonicus as a cure of the hemitri- taeus. Among the Gnostics, Abraxas gems (q. v.) were used as amulets. At a later period they were formed of ribbons, with sentences of Scripture written on them, and hung about the neck. They were worn by man}- of the ( 'hristians in the earlier ages, but were condemned by the wiser and better of the clergy as disgraceful. Cbrysostom mentions them for the pur- pose of reprehension (In Psal. ix, 15; also Horn, vi, Cunt, ./minus). The. Council of Laodicea, A.D. 3(14, condemns those of the clergy who pretend to make them, declaring that such phylacteries, or charms, are bonds and fetters to the soul, and ordering those who wore them to be cast out of the Church (Can. 36). Au- gustine ( Tract. 7, in Ison.) expostulates with those that wore them in this language: "When we are af-