^56 On the State of Medicine in 



menstriuim is preferred, the holy words are written with chalk 

 upon a piece of board, this is washed, and the water with which 

 the ablution is performed, forms a draught potent in proportion 

 to its impurity. Amulets, however, form the favourite charm 

 of the Turks; and, over the whole of the east, Mahammedans*, 

 Jews, and Christians, appeal to their protection, when threatened 

 or overtaken by misfortune. Hence, few die without wearing 

 two or three amulets, to whose safe guardianship they had in- 

 trusted their lives. They generally consist of a scrap of paper, 

 containing a sentence from the Koran or Bible, embellished with 

 cabalistic figures, and folded in a triangular shape, enclosed 

 carefully in a little bag, and w^orn next the skin, either by means 

 of a string hanging from the neck, or by being stitched inside 

 the turban. Some amulets, supposed to possess a spell capable 

 of protecting from ball and dagger, are sold at an enormous 

 price. Thus, says Dr Oppenheim : — "^ iiB^u. 



" After the defeat and death of Wihli-Begin Monastir, an 

 amulet (Nusko) was found on his body, which he had purchased 

 for sixty thousand piastres. The Selictar (sword-bearer) of the 

 grand Vizier, had its virtues renewed by a dervise, and then 

 wore it himself. I asked him how it happened that the fate of 

 its late possessor had not rendered him sceptical concerning its 

 protective powers. He answered that nought, save the holy will 

 of the Sultan, exceeded this Nusko in power, and that so long as 

 he who wears it refrains from provoking the displeasure of his 

 sovereign, he is secure against the hottest fire of the enemy of' 

 the poniard of the assassin." 



The unsuccessful Turkish suitor invokes his amulet to soften 

 the obdurate heart of his mistress, and those who are afflicted 

 with ophthalmia, ague, and various other diseases, often place 

 their whole reliance upon the virtues of a scrap of consecrated 

 paper. As the dervises who practise the healing art, can alone 

 infuse power into these amulets, they foster the public credulity, 

 and by selling them at an enormous price, contrive to lose no- 

 thing by the confidence of their patients being transferred from 

 themselves to the amulets they manufacture. This is silly and 

 melancholy enough ; but after all, while the newspapers of Great 



• The name of the prophet is pronounced Mahammed. 



