84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a corpse and dried, is suspended from the neck and is reputed to have 

 the powers of an amulet. In Flanders, a sick person imprisons a spider 

 between two walnut shells and wears it around his neck.'^ 



There were also specific amulets in circulation. For every ailment 

 or unhappiness there was obtainable in the market of the necromancers, 

 a charm which was supposed to have a certain beneficial influence for 

 the affliction. Guttierez, a Spanish physician, who wrote a book on 

 "Fascination" in the year 1653, states that children of that country 

 wore amulets against the evil eye. In case a person who had the evil 

 eye should gaze upon a child wearing this stone-charm, the vicious in- 

 fluence of the gaze will be attracted by the stone which will then crack.' 

 For epilepsy there was in circulation a charm which had this inscription : 



Jasper brings myrrh, and Melchior incense brings, 

 And gold Balthazar to the King of Kings; 

 "Whoso the names of these three monarchs bears, 

 Is safe, through grace, of epilepsy's fears. 



For convulsions, as another example, they used to wear a necklace of 

 beads from the root of the peony. Pliny tells that for headache a remedy 

 to be tried is the halter by which somebody has been recently hanged; 

 this should be worn around the neck of the patient. In 1726, Philip, 

 Earl of Chesterfield, wrote in great praise of the Goa Stone : 



The Goa Stone is an admirable preparation of various ingredients; it is 

 made by a Jesuit at Goa ; it hath the same effects with the Lady Kent 's powder, 

 but is much stronger; it is a sudorificke, and expels all poisons and humors in the 

 blood; it is admirable in all feavours and agues; it drives out measles and 

 small-pox. 



There was a belief current in the middle ages that the cries of ani- 

 mals had each a significance. A very plausible arrangement of the 

 cries was made by a certain anonymous genius. One must, however, be 

 a scholar of Latin in order to understand what the animals were saying. 

 Arranging the conversation of the beasts in the form of a dialogue, we 

 have the following curious effect: 



Cock: Christus natus est. 



Duck: Quando, quando? 



Eaven: In hac nocte. 



Cow: IJbi, ubi? 



Lamb : Bethelem. 



" Incredulity," said Ashraole, " is given the world as a punishment." 

 It is no wonder then that human beings in order to avoid this penalty, 

 believed all that was told them, and relied upon others to grant them the 

 same courtesy; and then acting upon this privilege or license, helped to 

 burden the lore of the world with tales of absurdity and incongruity. 



^Chambers, "Book of Days," I., 372. 



* T. II. Knowlson, "The Origin of Popular Superstitions." 



