BOUKKE.J NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH. 487 



The opinions entertained in Pliny s time descended to that of the 

 Reformation 



Finger of birth -strangled babe, 

 Ditch-deliver d by a drub. 1 



&quot; Scrofula, imposthnmes of the parotid glands, and throat diseases, 

 they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of a person who has 

 been carried oft by an early death ; &quot; but, he goes on to say, any dead 

 hand will do, &quot;provided it is of the same sex as the patient and that the 

 part affected is touched with the back of the left hand.&quot; 2 A footnote 

 adds that this superstition still prevails in England in regard to the 

 hand of a man who has been hanged. 



The use of dead men s toes, fingers, spinal vertebra , etc., in magical 

 ceremonies, especially the fabrication of magical lamps and candles, is 

 referred to by Frommann. 3 



Grimin is authority for the statement that in both France and Ger 

 many the belief was prevalent that the fingers of an xinborn babe were 

 &quot;available for magic.&quot; 4 



In England witches were believed to &quot; open graves for the purpose 

 of taking out the joints of the fingers and toes of dead bodies . . . 

 in order to prepare a powder for their magical purposes.&quot; 5 



Saint Athanase dit meme, que ces parties du corps humain [i .e., hands, 

 feet, toes, fingers, etc.] dtoient adorees connne des dienx particnliers. &quot; 



According to the sacred lore of the Brahmans &quot; the Tirtha sacred to 

 the Gods lies at the root of the little finger, that sacred to thellishis in 

 the middle of the fingers, that sacred to Men at the tips of the fingers, 

 that sacred to Agni (fire) in the middle of the hand.&quot; 7 



In the Island of Ceylon &quot;debauchees and desperate people often play 

 away the ends of their fingers.&quot;&quot; 



Hone shows that &quot; every joint of each finger was appropriated to 

 some saint.&quot; 9 



NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH. 



A number of examples are to be found of the employment of neck 

 laces of human teeth. In my own experience I have never come across 

 any specimens, and my belief is that among the Indians south of the 

 Isthmus such things are to be found almost exclusively. I have found 

 no reference to such ornamentation or medicine&quot; among the tribes of 

 North America, but there are many to show the very general dissemina 

 tion of the custom in Africa and in the islands of the South Sea. 

 Gomara says that the Indians of Santa Marta wore at their necks, like 



1 Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 4, scene 1. 



Pliny, Xat. Hist.. li!&amp;gt;. 28, cap. 11. 



Tractatiis do Fascinatione. Nuremberg. l(&amp;gt;7o. p. 681. 



1 Teutonic Mythology, vol. li, p. 1073. 



&quot;Brand. Pop. Ant., vol.3, p. 10. 



Montfaucon, l Alltiqilit6 expliquee, vol. 2, liv. 4, cap. 0. p. 249. 



Vasishtta, cap. 3, pars. 64-68, p. 25 (Sacred Books of the Kant, Oxford, 1882, Max Miiller sedition). 



Travels of Two Mohammedans through India and China, in Pinker-ton s Voyages, vol. 7. p. 218. 



9 Every-I)ay Book, vol. 2, col. 95. 



