MAGIC, 
fare, or gathered from feveral different. languages, or 
patched from the Hebrew, or formed in imitation of it. 
And among the primitive Chriltians there vwas a fuperfti- 
tioits cuftom, of which fome remains may yet be found 
among the illiterate vulgar in different countries, of fall¬ 
en ing to the neck of a Tick perfon, or to the bed on which 
he lay, fome text from the New Teftament, and efpeci- 
ally the firll two or three verfes of tire Gofpel of St.John, 
as a charm undoubtedly efficacious to banifli the dif- 
C3 f*C. 
The volume of the TranfaClions of the Royal Irilh 
Academy for 1788, contains an account, faid to have 
been read before the fociety in March 1789, (here weleem 
to tread on Irijh as well as on magic ground,) of a 
magical or talifmanic lilver medal dug up in Dungannon- 
park, the feat of lord Welles. It is one of thofe Arabian 
talifmanic medals called by the Arabs Ain, from the firll 
letter of the infcription always beginning with that cha¬ 
racter. The myffical word is generally compofed of three 
letters, viz. Ain, Lam, le, forming the word Ah, which 
is very confpicuous on the front of this medal, as appears 
from the figure, which is of the iize of the original. On 
the front is the word AH, encircled with the rays of the 
fun; over the letter Ie is a liar. On the reverfe are two 
myffical characters, the meaning of which is not known. 
What marks the Angularity of this talilman are the nu¬ 
merals under the word AH. The figures are European, not 
Arabian. Figures came firll from the Perfians or Indians, 
to the Arabians, and from them to the Moors, and fo to 
the Spaniards, from whom the other Europeans received 
them. The Arabians acknowledge they had them from the 
Indians, as profelfor Wallis has ftiown from their writings. 
The figures, then, being molt affuredly Spanilh, Englifli, 
or Irifli, and not Arabian, Perfian, or Indian, it is pro¬ 
bable this talifman was (truck by the Saracens of Spain, 
.at the requell of fome European, who engageS them to 
put the date of the year in European figures. Thefe nu¬ 
merals in Arabian charadters would be thus //AV* 
The cabaliltical Arabs have written volumes on the 
charms and powers of the charadter Ain. Zain Abadaal 
fays, “ Whoever beholds and refledts on the form of the 
letter Ain, and (hall read the myltical name of God therein 
contained, (viz. AH,) (hall be beloved by all who fee him; 
and, if he (hall be overtaken by ftorms andtempelts, God 
will fave him, and caufe fountains of wifdom to flow in 
his bread; and God will indrudl him in the hidden myf- 
teries of fcience, and the occult fignifications of them. 
Moreover, if any one (hould write the letter Ain in the 
firlt hour of the labbath-day, the moon being at the ex¬ 
tremity of one of her manfions, and (hall bury this letter 
in any place whatever, that place will be defolated and 
laid walte, and no one will ever after inhabit it.” The 
word Ain, in Arabic, fignifies not only the letter of the 
alphabet known by that name, but alfo the eye, fight, 
alpedl, a fountain, a fpy, a fpeculator, the belt part of 
any thing, a dignified man, a lord, the body of the fun, 
alfo its rays, money, coin, gold or filver fpecie, effence, 
any thing prefent, Sec. See. In Irilh alfo the word has 
nearly all thefe meanings; as, the eye, water, fountain, 
noble, riches, cornucopiae, the fun ; whence Beain, Griain, 
See, &c. The infcription Ali fignifies high, noble, ex¬ 
alted ; the proper name of a man, the fon-in-!aw and fuc- 
ceffor to Mahomet. In Irilh the word Ali, or Eli, has 
the fame fignification, and was alfo a proper name; as, 
Eli O’Carrol, Eli O’Ghurty, &c. See. 
90 
Sometimes the Arabs included the word AH within 
another Ain, with other myltrcal charafters; and of a 
figure of this kind, Kircher, in his Oedip. ./Egypt, fays, 
“ Hoc figilluni folita fuperllitione multum venerantur 
multumque geftantibus conferre afferunt ad amoris al- 
le&amenta.” 
The revival of learning, and the fuccefs with which the 
laws of nature have been inveftigated, have long ago ba- 
nilhed this fpecies of magic from all the enlightened na¬ 
tions of Europe. Amongourfelves,nonebut perfonsgrofsly 
illiterate pay the lead regard to magical charms; nor are 
they any-where abroad more prevalent than among the inha- 
tants of Lapland and Iceland. Thefe people, indeed, place 
an abfolute confidence in the effeCls of certain idle words 
and adlions; and ignorant failors from other parts of the 
world are deceived by their affertions and their ceremo¬ 
nies. The famous magical drum of the Laplanders is (till 
13 conftant ufe in that nation; and Scheffer, in his Hillory 
of Lapland, has given an account of its ftruflure. This 
inftrument is made of beech, pine, or fir, fplit in the mid¬ 
dle, and hollowed on the flat fide where the drum is to b® 
made. The hollow is of an oval figure; and is covered 
with a Ikin clean drefled, and painted with figures of va¬ 
rious kinds, fuch as liars, funs and moons, animals, and 
plants, and even countries, lakes, and rivers; and of later 
days, fince the preaching of Chrillianity among them, the 
aCts and fufferings of our Saviour and his apoftles are of¬ 
ten added among the reft. All thefe figures are feparated 
by lines into three regions or clullers. There is, befides 
thsfe parts of the drum, an index and a hammer. The index 
is a bundle of brafs or iron rings, the biggeft of which has 
a hole in its middle, and the fmaller ones are hung to it. 
The hammer or drumllick is made of the horn of a rein¬ 
deer; and with this they beat the drum fo as to make 
thefe rings move, they being laid on the top for that pdr- 
pofe. In the motion of thefe rings about the pictures 
figured on the drum; they fancy to themfelves fome pre¬ 
diction in regard to the things they inquire about. What 
they principally inquire into by this inftrument, are three 
things, x. What facrifices will prove moll acceptable to 
their gods. z. What fuccefs they {hall have in their 
feveral«ccupations, as hunting, filhing, curing of difeafes, 
and the like; and, 3. What is doing in places remote 
from them. On thefe feveral occafions they ufe feveral pe¬ 
culiar ceremonies, and place themfelves in various odd 
poftures as- they beat the drum; which influences the rings 
to the one or the other fide, and to come nearer to the 
one or the other fet of figures. And when they have done 
this, they have a method of calculating a difeovery, which 
they keep as a great fecret, but which feems merely the 
bufmefs of the imagination in the diviner or magician. 
But even among ourfelves, and at this time, there^are 
not wanting pretended conjurors, who impofe upon the 
weak and credulous, by felling them what they call holy 
confecrated lamens, pentacles, amulets, telefmes, &c. the 
pofielfion of which is to proteCl ladies from hopelefs love 
and feduCtion, or at any rate from the perils of child¬ 
birth; and gentlemen from robbers and from fickneis. 
One of thefe, for which the fimpleton whofent it us from 
Hereford paid a guinea, confills of nothing more than a ftrip 
of vellum (fowed up in a bit of cloth), whereon is writ¬ 
ten the name of the three perfons of the Trinity, and a 
text of Scripture in Ihort-hand. We hope that the party 
has before this time obtained the return of the money he 
had been defrauded of ; if not, a magiltrate will readily 
afford him redrefs, (though perhaps he does not deferve 
it;) for, although the learned doClor vvhoiffues thefe gui¬ 
nea lamens, “ engages alfo to teach any perfon how to 
make one fingle grain or corn of wheat produce more than 
half-a-bulhel of the fame grain in one year, fo that the 
poor man who has a garden, may get as much bread from 
the fame as will fuppqrt his family; the tradefman may 
alfo thus accumulate as much money as will enable him 
to pay his debts; while the farmer may alfo obtain riches, 
by the fame yet we think he would not have the ability 
to 
