CHAPTER VI.

AMULETS AND CHARMS IN MEDICINE. Universality of the Amulet.—Scarabs.—Beads.—Savage Amulets.—Gnostic and Christian Amulets.—Herbs and Animals as Charms.—Knots.—Precious Stones.—Signatures.—Numbers.—Saliva.—Talismans.—Scripts.—Characts. —Sacred Names.—Stolen Goods. In the ancient world, as with savages, the whole art of medicine was in many cases the art of preparing and applying amulets and charms. An amulet (probably the word is derived from the Arabic _hamalet_, a pendant) is anything which is hung round the neck or attached to any other part of the body, and worn as an imagined protection against disease, witchcraft, accidents, or other evils. Stones, metals, bits of parchment, portions of the human body, as parings of the finger nails, may constitute these charms. Substances like stones, gems, or parchment may have certain words, letters, or signs inscribed upon them. In the East amulets have from the earliest ages been associated with the belief in evil spirits as the causes of diseases. A talisman may for our purpose be considered as the same thing as an amulet. In Scott’s _Tales of the Crusaders_, there is one of these charms which has the power of stopping blood and protecting the wearer from hydrophobia. Charms, enchantments, the ceremonial use of words as incantations, songs, verses, etc., have all been used either with a view of causing, preventing, or curing diseases, and their use of course arose from the belief of primitive, or savage man his present representative, that our maladies have a supernatural origin. An amulet may consist merely of a piece of string tied like a bracelet round the wrist, as in India, where such a charm is commonly worn by school children; it is a talisman against fever, which has been blessed by a Brahman, has been sold for a half-rupee, and is highly esteemed by the wearer. Our word carminative (a comforting medicine, like tincture of cardamoms) means really a charm medicine, and is derived from the Latin _carmen_, a song-charm. This word enshrines the fact that magic and medicine were once united. The charm, _i.e._ song, was a spell, whether of words, philtres, or figures, as thus:— “With the charmes that she saide, A fire down fro’ the sky alight.” —_Gower._ Charms, amulets, characts, talismans, and the like, are found amongst all peoples and in all times. They unite in one bond of superstitious brotherhood the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatrans and the Egyptians, the Malay and the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant. The charm differs from the amulet merely in the fact that it need not be suspended. “There is scarcely a disease,” says Pettigrew, “for which a charm has not been given.”[544] And it is well to note that their greatest effect is always produced on disorders of the nervous system, in which the imagination plays so important a part. Charms are also used to avert diseases and other evils; so that the man, sufficiently protected as he supposes by these objects, not only will escape plague and pestilence, but will be invulnerable to bullet and sword. The Sumatrans practise medicine chiefly by charms; when called in to prescribe, they generally ask for “something on account,” under the pretext of purchasing the appropriate charm.[545] The hoof of the elk is used by the Indians and Norwegians and other northern nations as a cure for epilepsy. The patient must apply it to his heart, hold it in his left hand, and rub his ear with it.[546] “Medicine” amongst primitive folk is a synonym for fetich; anything wonderful, mysterious, or unaccountable, is called “medicine” by the North American Indians. The medicine-bag is a mystery bag, a charm. In fetiches primitive man recognises something which has a power of a sort he cannot understand straightway; therefore it becomes to him a religious object. “Why are any herbs or roots magical?” asks Mr. Lang; and he correctly answers the question, not by any far-fetched explanations, but by the observation that herbs really do possess medicinal properties (some of them indeed of extreme potency), and the ignorant invariably confound medicine with magic.[547] On this theory it is, of course, not necessary to swallow the medicine or apply it as we apply lotions and liniments; it is enough to carry it about as an amulet or charm, for it is the _life_ of the thing which is efficacious, the _spirit_, which resides in the outward form, which possesses the virtue, not the material object itself. Of course, it may be necessary to take the charm internally; but then it is not the physiological action which is looked for, but the magical. Dapper, in his _Description of Africa_ (p. 621), tells of savages who wear roots round their necks as amulets when they sleep out; they chew the roots, and spit the juice round the camp to keep off the wild beasts. At other times they burn the roots, and blow the smoke about for the same purpose. The Korannas carry roots as charms against bullets and wild animals. If successful in war, and obtaining much booty, they say, “We thank thee, our grandfather’s root, that thou hast given us cattle to eat.” The Bongoes and Niam-Niams have similar customs.[548] General Forlong, referring to the serpent Buddhism of Kambodia, says, that “Fetish worship was the first worship, and to a great extent is still the _real_ faith of the great mass of the ignorant, especially about these parts.”[549] “Probably one-quarter of the world yet deifies, or at least reverences, sticks and stones, ram-horns and charms.”[550] The Abyssinians are sunk in the grossest superstition; their medical practice is, to a large extent, based on the use of amulets and charms. Even leprosy and syphilis are treated by these means, and eye diseases by spitting in the affected organs.[551] “Fetiches” are claws, fangs, roots, or stones, which the Africans believe to be inhabited by spirits, and so powerful for good or evil. The word is derived from the Portuguese _feitiço_, a charm or amulet. The Tibetans wear amulets upon their necks and arms; they contain nail-parings, teeth, or other reliques of some sainted Lama, with musk, written prayers, and other charms.[552] Barth, travelling in Africa, found an English letter which had not reached its destination, used as a charm by a native.[553] Leaving primitive folk and savage peoples, and turning to the great civilized nations of the past, we find the Egyptians, the Chaldæans, Assyrians, and Babylonians not less addicted to the use of amulets, charms, talismans, and philters than their untutored progenitors (assuming with the anthropologists that the savage of to-day represents the primitive people who must have preceded the founders of civilization). The Magi, according to Pliny,[554] prescribed the herb feverfew, the _Pyrethrum parthenium_, to be pulled from the ground with the left hand, that the fevered patient’s name must be spoken forth, and that the herborist must not look behind him. He tells us also that the Magi and the Pythagoreans ordered the _pseudo-anchusa_ to be gathered with the left hand, while the plucker uttered the name of the person to be cured, and that it should be tied on him for the tertian fever.[555] Of the _aglaophotis_, by which some commentators understand the peony (_Pæonia officinalis_), and others the “Moly” of Homer, Pliny says, “by means of this plant, the Magi can summon the deities into their presence when they please.” Concerning the _achæmenis_, he says the root of it, according to the Magian belief as expressed by Democritus, when taken in wine, torments the guilty to such a degree during the night, by the various forms of avenging deities, as to extort from them a confession of their crimes. He tells, amongst other marvels, of the adamantis, a plant found in Armenia, which, when presented to a lion, will make the beast fall upon its back and drop its jaws. The Magi said if any one swallowed the heart of a mole palpitating and fresh, he would at once become an expert diviner. An owl’s heart placed on a woman’s left breast while she is asleep will make her tell all her secrets. For quartan fevers they recommended a kind of beetle taken up with the left hand to be worn as an amulet.[556] The use of scarabs or beetles made of steatite, lapis-lazuli, cornelian, etc., as amulets, dates from the most ancient periods of Egyptian history. In the fourth Egyptian room of the British Museum there are specimens of scarabs, with the names of kings and queens dating B.C. 4400-250. The objects are not in all cases as old as the dates of the sovereigns whose names they bear. “The beetle was an emblem of the god Khepera, the self-created, and the origin and source from whence sprang gods and men. Rā, the Sun-god, who rose again daily, was, according to an Egyptian myth, a form of Khepera; and the burial of scarabs with mummies probably had reference to the resurrection of the dead.”[557] Some large scarabs which were fastened on the breasts of mummies had inscriptions from the 30th chapter of the _Book of the Dead_. The deceased person prays: “Let there be no obstruction to me in evidence; let there be no obstacle on the part of the Powers; let there be no repulse in the presence of the Guardian of the Scale.” Other amulets consist of papyrus sceptres, buckles of Isis, hearts, fingers, etc., in gold and precious stones. They are laid between the bandages of mummies to guard the dead from evil. Professor Lenormant explains the magical incantations which were used in connection with these talismans; they had to be “pronounced over the beetle of hard stone, which is to be overlaid with gold and to take the place of the individual’s heart. Make a phylactery of it anointed with oil, and say magically over this object, ‘My heart is my mother; my heart is in my transformations.’”[558] The ancient Egyptians were buried with their amulets as a protection against the evil powers of the other world. Mr. Flinders Petrie, excavating at the Pyramid of Hawara, discovered on the body of Horuta a great number of these charms. He says: “Bit by bit the layers of pitch and cloth were loosened, and row after row of magnificent amulets were disclosed, just as they were laid on in the distant past. The gold ring on the finger which bore his name and titles, the exquisitely inlaid gold birds, the chased gold figures, the lazuli statuettes, delicately wrought, the polished lazuli and beryl, and carnelian amulets finely engraved, all the wealth of talismanic armoury, rewarded our eyes with a sight which has never been surpassed to archæological gaze. No such complete and rich a series of amulets has been seen intact before.”[559] Anodyne necklaces, made of beads from peony roots, are worn by children in some parts to assist them in teething. The ancient Greeks held the peony in great repute; they believed it to be of divine origin, and it was for many centuries held to have the power to drive away evil spirits.[560] Abydemis, a Greek historian who wrote a history of Assyria, says that the inhabitants made amulets from the wood of the ash, and hung them round their necks as a charm against sorcery. In the Sanskrit Atharvaveda are found charms for diseases, which are influenced by colours. Saffron and the yellow-hammer are prescribed for jaundice; red remedies, and especially red cows, for blood diseases. The extremity of the intestine of the ossifrage, says Pliny, if worn as an amulet, is well known to be an excellent remedy for colic. Another cure is for the patient to drink the water in which he has washed his feet![561] A tick from a dog’s left ear, worn as an amulet, will allay all kinds of pains, but we must be careful to take it from a dog that is black.[562] “Pliny says that any plant gathered from the bank of a brook or river before sunrise, provided that no one sees the person who gathers it, is considered as a remedy for tertian ague, when tied to the left arm, the patient not knowing what it is; also, that a person may be immediately cured of the headache by the application of any plant which has grown on the head of a statue, provided it be folded in the shred of a garment, and tied to the part affected with a red string.”[563] The cyclamen was cultivated in houses as a protection against poison. Pliny remarks that it was an amulet.[564] Vivisection was practised in connection with charms. “If a man have a white spot, as cataract, in his eye, catch a fox alive, cut his tongue out, let him go, dry his tongue and tie it up in a red rag and hang it round the man’s neck.” Alexander Trallianus was not able to rise above the absurdities of the amulet. He recommends bits of old sailcloth from a shipwrecked vessel to be tied to the right arm and worn for seven weeks as a protection against epilepsy. He advises the heart of a lark to be fastened to the left thigh as a remedy for colic; for a quartan ague, the patient must carry about some hairs from a goat’s chin. He admits that he has no faith in such things, but merely orders them as placebos for rich and fastidious patients who could not be persuaded to adopt a more rational treatment.[565] Dr. Baas tells us that “a regular pagan amulet was found in 1749 on the breast of the prince bishop Anselm Franz of Würzburg, count of Ingolstadt, after his death.”[566] GNOSTIC AND CHRISTIAN AMULETS. Gnosticism is responsible for the introduction of many wonder-working amulets and charms. This system of philosophy was a fantastical combination of Orientalism, Greek philosophy, and Christianity. The teaching was that all natures were emanations of the Deity, or _Œons_. On some of the gnostic amulets the word _Mythras_ was inscribed, on others _Serapis_, _Iao_, _Sabaoth_, _Adonai_, etc. Notwithstanding the fact that the spirit of Christianity in its early days was strenuously opposed to all magical and superstitious practices, the nations it subdued to the faith of Christ were so wedded to their ancient practices that they could not be entirely divorced from them, and thus in the case of amulets and charms it was necessary to substitute Christian words and emblems in place of the heathen words and symbols previously in use. Anglo-Saxon charms and amulets were used by the monks of Glastonbury Abbey, who treated disease. In the “Leech book”[567] we find a holy amulet “against every evil rune lay,[568] and one full of elvish tricks, writ _for the bewitched man_, this writing in Greek letters: Alfa, Omega, IESVM, BERONIKH. Again, another dust and drink against a rune lay; take a bramble apple,[569] and lupins, and pulegium, pound them, then sift them, put them in a pouch, lay them under the altar, sing nine masses over them, put the dust into milk, drip thrice some holy water upon them, administer _this_ to drink at three hours.... If a mare[570] or hag ride a man, take lupins, and garlic, and betony, and frankincense, bind them on a fawn skin, let a man have the worts on him, and let him go into his house.” For typhus fever the patient is to drink of a decoction of herbs over which many masses have been sung, then say the names of the four gospellers and a charm and a prayer. Again, a man is to write in silence a charm, and silently put the words in his left breast and take care not to go indoors with the writing upon him, the words being EMMANUEL, VERONICA. Mr. Cockayne, the editor of _Saxon Leechdoms_, has pointed out that the greatest scientific men of antiquity, even those who set themselves against the prevailing medical superstitions of their times, and did their utmost to establish observation and experiment in opposition to speculation and old wives’ fables, were by no means liberated from a belief in magic and incantations. Chrysippus believed in amulets for quartan fevers.[571] Serapion, one of the chiefs of the Empiric school, prescribed crocodile’s dung and turtle’s blood in epilepsy. Soranos will not use incantations in the cure of diseases, yet he testifies that they were so employed. Pliny has an amulet for almost every disorder. He tells of a chief man in Spain who was cured of a disease by hanging purslane root round his neck; he teaches that an amulet of the seed of tribulus cures varicose veins; that the longest tooth of a black dog cures quartan fevers; or you may carry a wasp in your left hand or half a dozen other equally absurd things for the same purpose. A holly planted in the courtyard of a house keeps off witchcrafts; an herb picked from the head of a statue and tied with a red thread will cure headache, and so on.[572] Josephus tells a tale which was probably the foundation of what was afterwards told about the mandrake. Xenocrates had a fancy for advising people to eat human brains, flesh or liver, or to swallow for various complaints the ground bones of parts of the human frame. Alexander of Tralles says that even Galen did homage to incantations.[573] He gives his words: “Some think that incantations are like old wives’ tales; as I did for a long while. But at last I was convinced that there is virtue in them by plain proofs before my eyes. For I had trial of their beneficial operations in the case of those scorpion-stung, nor less in the case of bones stuck fast in the throat, immediately, by an incantation thrown up. And many of them are excellent, severally, and they reach their mark.” Yet Galen is angry with Pamphilos for “his babbling incantations,” which were “not merely useless, not merely unprofessional, but all false: no good even to little boys, not to say students of medicine.”[574] Alexander of Tralles frequently prescribes amulets and the like. Mr. Cockayne calls them periapts. “Thus for colic, he guarantees by his own experience, and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a wolf, with bits of bone in it if possible, shut up in a pipe, and worn during the paroxysm, on the right arm, or thigh, or hip, taking care it touches neither the earth nor a bath. A lark eaten is good. The Thracians pick out its heart, while alive, and make a periapt, wearing it on the left thigh. A part of the cæcum of a pig prepared with myrrh, and put in a wolf’s or dog’s skin, is a good thing to wear. A ring with Hercules strangling a lion on the Median stone[575] is good to wear. “A bit of a child’s navel, shut up in something of gold or silver with salt, is a periapt which will make the patient at ease entirely. Have the setting of an iron ring octagonal, and engrave upon it, ‘Flee, Flee, Ho, Ho, Bile, the lark was searching’; on the head of the ring have an N[576] engraved; this is potent, and he thinks it must be strange not to communicate so powerful an antidote, but begs it may be reserved from carnal folk, and told only to such as can keep secrets and are trusty. For the gout he recommends a certain cloth—ἐκ τῶν καταμηνίων; also the sinews of a vulture’s leg and toes tied on, minding that the right goes to the right, the left to the left; also the astragali of a hare, leaving the poor creature alive; also the skin of a seal for soles; also a line of Homer, τετρήχει δ'ἀγορή, ὑπὸ δὲ στοναχίζετο γαῖα, on gold-leaf, when the moon is in Libra; also a natural magnet found when the moon is in Leo. Write on gold-leaf, in the wane of the moon, ‘mei, threu, mor, for, teux, za, zon, the, lou, chri, ge, ze, ou, as the sun is consolidated in these names, and is renewed every day; so consolidate this plaster as it was before, now, now, quick, quick, for, behold, I pronounce the great name, in which are consolidated things in repose, iaz, azuf, zuon, threux, bain, chook; consolidate this plaster as it was at first, now, now, quick, quick.’[577] “Then bits were to be chopped off a chameleon, and the creature living was to be wrapped up in a clean linen rag, and buried towards the sunrise, while the chopped bits were to be worn in tubes; all to be done when the moon was in the wane. Then again for gout, some henbane, when the moon is in Aquarius or Pisces, before sunset, must be dug up with the thumb and third finger of the left hand, and must be said, I declare, I declare, holy wort, to thee; I invite thee to-morrow to the house of Fileas, to stop the rheum of the feet of M. or N., and say I invoke thee, the great name, Jehovah, Sabaoth, the God who steadied the earth and stayed the sea, the filler of flowing rivers, who dried up Lot’s wife and made her a pillar of salt, take the breath of thy mother earth and her power, and dry the rheum of the feet or hands of M. or N. The next day, before sunrise, take a bone of some dead animal, and dig the root up with this bone, and say, I invoke thee by the holy names, Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Elai; and put on the root one handful of salt, saying, ‘As this salt will not increase, so may not the disorder of N. or M.’ And hang the end of the root as a periapt on the sufferer,” etc.[578] Although Alexander of Tralles was an enlightened and skilful physician, he recommended for epilepsy a metal cross tied to the arm; and went to the Magi for assistance in his art, and was recommended to use jasper and coral with root of nux vomica tied in a linen cloth as an amulet. It seems strange that, although Hippocrates and the scepticism of the Epicureans had apparently destroyed the faith in magicians amongst the learned, that men should have so soon reverted to the absurdities from which they had been delivered; but there is an element in our nature which can only be satisfied by that which magic represents, and even in the present age of science we have reverted to the same things under the names of Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Occultism. It would be grossly unfair to the Catholic Church to complain of the slavery in which it kept the minds of the ignorant barbarians whom it had converted from paganism to Christianity. When we read of medicine masses, of herbs and decoctions placed under the altar, of holy water mixed with drugs, and the sign of the cross made over the poultices and lotions prescribed, we are apt to say that the priests merely substituted one form of superstition for another, which was a little coarser. A little reflection will serve to dispel this idea. A belief in magic influence is, as we have abundantly shown, inseparable from the minds of primitive and savage man. It is as certain that a savage will worship his fetish, pray to his idol, and believe in disease-demons, and their expulsion by charms and talismans, as that he will tattoo or paint his body, stick feathers in his hair, and rings in his nose and ears; it is part of the evolution of man on his way to civilization. To suddenly deprive a savage or barbarian of all his magic remedies, his amulets and charms, would be as foolish as it would be futile: foolish, because many amulets and charms are perfectly harmless, and help to quiet and soothe the patient’s mind; futile, because whatever the ecclesiastical prohibition, the obnoxious ceremonies would certainly be practised in secret. It was therefore wiser for the Church to compromise the matter, to wink at innocent superstitions, and endeavour to substitute a religious idea such as the sign of the cross would imply, for the meaningless, if not idolatrous, ceremonies of a pagan religion. Let us never forget that the Church delivered the nations from “the tyranny and terror of the poisoner and the wizard.” HERBS, ANIMALS, ETC., AS AMULETS. Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, mentions several “amulets and things to be borne about” as remedies for head-melancholy, such as hypericon, or St. John’s wort, gathered on a Friday in the hour of Jupiter, “borne or hung about the neck, it mightily helps this affection, and drives away all fantastical spirits.” A sheep or kid’s skin whom a wolf worried must not be worn about a man, because it is apt to cause palpitation of the heart, “not for any fear, but a secret virtue which amulets have.” “Peony doth cure epilepsy, precious stones most diseases; a wolf’s dung borne with one helps the colic; a spider an ague, etc. Being in the country,” he says, “in the vacation time, not many years since, at Lindley, in Leicestershire, my father’s home, I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-shell lapped in silk, etc., so applied for an ague by my mother; whom, although I knew to have excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, etc., and such experimental medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can witness, to have done many famous and good cures upon diverse poor folks that were otherwise destitute of help; yet among all other experiments, this, methought, was most absurd and ridiculous; I could see no warrant for it—_Quid aranea cum febre?_ For what antipathy?—till at length rambling amongst authors (as I often do), I found this very medicine in Dioscorides, approved by Matthiolus, repeated by Alderovandus, _cap. de aranea, lib. de insectis_, and began to have a better opinion of it, and to give more credit to amulets, when I saw it in some parties answer to experience.”[579] The common fumitory (_Fumaria capreolata_) is said to derive its name from _fumus_, smoke, “because the smoke of this plant was said by the ancient exorcists to have the power of expelling evil spirits.”[580] The elder had many singular virtues attributed to it; if a boy were beaten with an elder stick, it hindered his growth; but an elder on which the sun had never shined was an amulet against erysipelas.[581] KNOTS AS CHARMS. Marcellus, a medical writer, quoted by Mr. Cockayne in his preface to _Saxon Leechdoms_, vol. i, p. xxix., gives an example of knots as charms. “As soon as a man gets pain in his eyes, tie in unwrought flax as many knots as there are letters in his name, pronouncing them as you go, and tie it round his neck.” PRECIOUS STONES AS CHARMS. The origin of the superstitious belief in the magic power of precious stones has always been traced to Chaldæa. Pliny[582] refers to a book on the subject which was written by Lachalios, of Babylon, and dedicated to Mithridates. The Eagle stone (_Ætites_) is a natural concretion, a variety of argillaceous oxide of iron, often hollow within, with a loose kernel in the centre, found sometimes in an eagle’s nest. This was a famous amulet, bringing love between a man and his wife; and if tied to the left arm or side of a pregnant woman it ensured that she should not be delivered before her time. Women in labour were supposed to be quickly delivered if they were girded with the skin which a snake casts off.[583] The Bezoar stone had a great reputation in melancholic affections. Manardus says it removes sadness and makes him merry that useth it.[584] “Of the stone which hight agate. It is said that it hath eight virtues. One is when there is thunder, it doth not scathe the man who hath this stone with him. Another virtue is, on whatsoever house it is, therein a fiend may not be. The third virtue is, that no venom may scathe the man who hath the stone with him. The fourth virtue is, that the man, who hath on him secretly the loathly fiend, if he taketh in liquid any portion of the shavings of this stone, then soon is exhibited manifestly in him, that which before lay secretly hid. The fifth virtue is, he who is afflicted with any disease, if he taketh the stone in liquid, it is soon well with him. The sixth virtue is, that sorcery hurteth not the man who has the stone with him. The seventh virtue is, that he who taketh the stone in drink, will have so much the smoother body. The eighth virtue of the stone is, that no bite of any kind of snake may scathe him who tasteth the stone in liquid.”[585] SIGNATURES. Colours have always had a medical significance, from their connection with the doctrine of “signatures.” White was cooling; red was hot. Red flowers were given in disorders of the blood; yellow in bile disturbance. The bed-hangings in small-pox and scarlet-fever cases were commonly of a red colour; the unhappy patient’s room was hung about with red drapery. He had to drink infusions of red berries, such as mulberries. Avicenna said that as red bodies move the blood everything of a red colour is good for blood disorders. NUMBERS. Magic numbers as charms were in use in Anglo-Saxon medicine. “If any thing to cause annoyance get into a man’s eye, with five fingers of the same side as the eye, run the eye over and fumble at it, saying three times, ‘tetunc resonco, bregan gresso,’ and spit thrice. For the same, shut the vexed eye and say thrice, ‘in mon deromarcos axatison,’ and spit thrice; this remedy is ‘mirificum.’ For the same, shut the other eye, touch gently the vexed eye with the ring finger and thumb, and say thrice, ‘I buss the gorgon’s mouth.’ This charm repeated thrice nine times will draw a bone stuck in a man’s throat. For hordeolum, which is a sore place in the eyelid of the shape of a barley-corn, take nine grains of barley and with each poke the sore, with every one saying the magic words, κυρια κυρια κασσαρια σουρωφβι; then throw away the nine, and do the same with seven; throw away the seven, and do the same with five, and so with three and one. For the same, take nine grains of barley and poke the sore, and at every poke say, ‘φεῦγε, φεῦγε κριθή σε διώκει, _flee, flee, barley thee chaseth_.’ For the same, touch the sore with the medicinal or ring finger, and say thrice, ‘vigaria gasaria.’ To shorten the matter, blood may be stanched by the words, ‘sicycuma, cucuma, ucuma, cuma, uma, ma, a.’ Also by ‘Stupid on a mountain went, stupid, stupid was;’ by socnon socnon; σοκσοκαμ συκιμα; by ψα ψε ψη ψε ψη ψα ψε. For toothache say, ‘Argidam margidam sturgidam;’ also, spit in a frog’s mouth, and request him to make off with the toothache. For a troublesome uvula catch a spider, say suitable words, and make a phylactery of it. For a quinsy lay hold of the throat with the thumb and the ring and middle fingers, cocking up the other two, and tell it to be gone.” Nine is the number consecrated by Buddhism, three is sacred among Brahminical and Christian people. Pythagoras held that the unit or monad is the principle and the end of all. One is a good principle. Two, or the dyad, is the origin of contrasts and separation, and is an evil principle. Three, or the triad, is the image of the attributes of God. Four, or the tetrad, is the most perfect of numbers and the root of all things. It is holy by nature. Five, or the pentad, is everything; it stops the power of poisons, and is redoubted by evil spirits. Six is a fortunate number. Seven is powerful for good or evil, and is a sacred number. Eight is the first cube, so is man four-square or perfect. Nine, as the multiple of three, is sacred. Ten, or the decad, is the measure of all it contains, all the numeric relations and harmonies.[586] Cornelius Agrippa wrote on the power of numbers, which he declares is asserted by nature herself; thus the herb called cinquefoil, or five-leaved grass, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the number five; one leaf of it taken in wine twice a day cures the quotidian, three the tertian, four the quartan fever. He believed that every seventh son born to parents who have not had daughters is able to cure the king’s-evil by touch or word alone.[587] GIRDLES. Amongst the ancient Britons, says Meryon,[588] when a birth was attended with difficulty or danger, girdles were put round the woman, which were made for the purpose, and which gave her immediate relief. Many families in the highlands of Scotland kept such girdles until quite recently. They were marked with cabalistic figures, and were applied with certain ceremonies, which came originally from the Druids. SPITTLE. Levinus Lemnius says of saliva: “Divers experiments show what power and quality there is in man’s fasting spittle, when he hath neither eat nor drunk before the use of it; for it cures all tetters, itch, scabs, pushes, and creeping sores; and if venomous little beasts have fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads, spiders, and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great pains and inflammations; do but rub the places with fasting spittle, and all those effects will be gone and dismissed.”[589] Sir Thomas Browne is not quite sure that fasting saliva really is poisonous to snakes and vipers.[590] In _Saxon Leechdoms_ a cure for the gout runs thus: “Before getting out of bed in the morning, spit on your hand, rub all your sinews, and say, ‘Flee, gout, flee, etc.’”[591] Spittle was anciently a charm against all kinds of fascination. Pliny says it averted witchcraft. Theocritus says,— “Thrice on my breast I spit, to guard me safe From fascinating charms.” Fishermen and costermongers often spit on the first money they take, for good luck.[592] TALISMANS. Talismans, says Fosbrooke,[593] are of five classes, 1. The _Astronomical_, with celestial signs and intelligible characters.