ADDENDA 



A MODERN TALISMAN 



A CURIOUS modern talisman is a splendid specimen of 

 artistic jewellery exhibited at the Paris Salon; this talisman 

 cleverly combines artistic merit with a dash of African magic. 

 It is a slender bracelet composed of interlaced spirals of 

 oxidized silver and gold; around the circlet is twined a 

 hair taken from an elephant. Among the tribesmen of the 

 Sudan the hairs of this animal are believed to be endowed 

 with great talismanic virtue; indeed, they enjoyed a simi- 

 lar repute among the ancient Romans. Whether this belief 

 was due to the idea that the wearer of the hair was assured 

 a mighty protection, typified by the enormous strength 

 of the elephant, or whether to the fact that the elephant 

 was with some peoples a divine symbol, we cannot easily 

 determine.* 



FOSSIL TUSKS 



The writer, on closely examining some of the fossil tusks 

 from the Lena River, Siberia, found what was evidently a min- 

 eral resulting from a decomposition of the mammoth tusks 

 in the form of deposits of a whitish crystalline substance. 

 When tested by Prof. William E. Ford, of the Sheffield 

 Scientific School, Yale University, this was pronounced to 

 be struvite, a hydrous phosphate of ammonium and mag- 



*George Frederick Kunz, "The Magic of Jewels and Charms," Philadelphia and Lon- 

 don, 1915, p. 375. 



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