VULGAR SPECIFICS 83 



I shall mention several curious charms or amulets that were 

 prevalent in the various countries of the orient and Occident. Among 

 the Chinese, iron nails which have been used in scaling up a coffin are 

 considered quite efficacious in keeping away evil influences. They are 

 carried in the pocket or are braided into the queue. Sometimes such 

 a nail is beat out into a long rod or wire and is incased in silver. A 

 large ring is then made of it to be worn on the ankles or wrist of a boy 

 till he is sixteen years old. Such a ring is often prepared for the use 

 of a boy if he is an only son. Daughters wear such wristlets or anklets 

 only a few years, or for even a shorter time.^ 



Galen mentions an amulet belonging to an Egyptian king, who is 

 said to have lived 630 B.C. It was composed of a green jasper cut in 

 the form of a dragon, and surrounded with rays. This was applied to 

 strengthen the stomach and organs of digestion. 



The Hebrews have quite a variety of amulets or charms, each of 

 which has a specific virtue. In the middle ages, the quack necro- 

 mancers did a thriving business among the Jews that had settled in 

 Spain. Maimonides, the great physician, wrote vigorously against them. 



Believe not in the magician or the necromancer; they do but blaspheme the 

 name of God.* 



Still many of the old superstitions have remained with the Jews. 

 When a gentile physician goes into the lying-in room of the Hebrew 

 woman he will notice placards on all the four walls, written in the an- 

 cient biblical tongue. These papers invoke the aid of the great angels 

 for protection against the evil spirits that may attack either the new- 

 born infant or the mother. 



A mystic charm worn even at the present day bears the inscription 

 Abracadabra. The word abra which is twice repeated in this amulet is 

 derived from the initial letters of four Hebrew words: Ab, Ben, Ruach 

 Acodesch, which signify Father, Son and Holy Ghost. During the times 

 of the Crusades and for a long period afterwards, the very rich or the 

 very noble carried about them, or kept hidden in a holy shrine, amulets 

 made from a piece of wood from the true cross. As somebody has well 

 said, 



A grove of a hundred oaks would not have furnished all the wood sold in 

 little morsels as remnants of the true cross; and the tears of Mary, if collected 

 together, would have filled a very large cistern.' 



Sometimes the charms worn were not so harmless, and had no senti- 

 mentality or mystery to grant them fascinating potence. Very fre- 

 quently, horrifying things and repulsive substances were carried about 

 to ward off illness. In Egypt^ the finger of a Christian or Jew, cut off 



» Doolittle, ' ' Social Life of the Chinese, ' ' II., 309. 



* Maimonides, ' ' More Nebbuehim. ' ' 



* C. Mackay, ' ' Memories of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, ' ' 1850. 



* Lane, ' ' Modern Egyptians. ' ' 



