2. The _Magical_, with extraordinary figures, superstitious words,

and names of unknown angels. 3. The _Mixed_, of celestial signs and barbarous words, but not superstitions, or with names of angels. 4. The _Sigilla Planetarum_, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by astrologers and fortune tellers. 5. _Hebrew Names and Characters._ These were formed according to the cabalistic art. Pettigrew gives a Hebrew talisman,[594] which runs thus: “It overflowed—he did cast darts—Shaddai is all sufficient—his hand is strong, and is the preserver of my life in all its variations.” SCRIPTS. Sir John Lubbock says that “The use of writing as a medicine prevails largely in Africa, where the priests or wizards write a prayer on a piece of board, wash it off, and make the patient drink it. Caillie met with a man who had a great reputation for sanctity, and who made his living by writing prayers on a board, washing them off, and then selling the water, which was sprinkled over various objects and supposed to protect them.”[595] Mungo Park relates similar facts.[596] Sir A. Lyall says that a similar practice exists in India, where, however, the native practitioner may sometimes be seen mixing croton oil in the ink with which he writes his charms. “In Africa,” says Lubbock, “the prayers written as medicine or as amulets are generally taken from the Koran.” It is admitted that they are no protection against firearms; but this does not the least weaken faith in them, because, as guns were not invented in Mahomet’s time, he naturally provided no specific against them.[597] Among the Kirghiz Atkinson says that the Mullas sell such amulets at the rate of a sheep for each scrap of written paper,[598] and similar charms are in great request among the Turkomans[599] and in Afghanistan.[600] The very curious account of the trial of jealousy in Numbers vi. 11-31 may be studied in this connection as showing the extreme antiquity of the writing charm. In the case of the woman suspected of having committed adultery “the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord: and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: and the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: but if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: and the woman shall say, Amen, amen. And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: and the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.” This is quite evidently taken from the customs of African tribes. As the Egyptians gave the Jews their knowledge of the medical arts, and as this knowledge was doubtless largely intermingled with African ideas, it is easy to see how the ordeal of the bitter curse-water found its way into the Mosaic ritual. Of scripts as amulets we find that anything written in a character which nobody could read was worn as an amulet against disease or danger. Thus the Anglo-Saxon MS., known as the Vercelli MS., by some means found its way to a place near Milan, where no one could decipher it. When that discovery was made, the next step was to cut up its precious pages for amulets, and so many of its leaves have perished. After the death of Pascal, the philosopher, a writing was found sewn into his doublet. This was a “profession of faith” which he wore as a sort of amulet or charm, and his servants believed that he always had it stitched into a new garment when he discarded the old one.[601] “Mais ce qui montre que ce n’est par un simple engagement tel qu’on en peut prendre avec soi-même, c’est la forme étrange que Pascal lui a donnée. Pour quiconque a vu les écrits de ce genre de la part d’hallucinés, le premier coup d’œil montre que l’écrit de Pascal appartient à cette catégorie. D’ailleurs, il porte l’énonciation manifeste d’une vision en ces termes: ‘Depuis environ dix heures et demie du soir jusque environ minuit et demi, feu.’ Ainsi, ce jour-là, le lundi 23 Novembre, 1654, pendant environ deux heures, Pascal eut la vision d’un feu qu’il prit pour une apparition surnaturelle, et sa conviction fut si forte qu’elle le détermina à entrer plus avant qu’il n’avait fait jusqu’alors dans les voies de la dévotion et du rigorisme janséniste.”[602] CHARACTS. Of the species of charms known as characts we have many examples in the practice of Anglo-Saxon physicians. In the preface to the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, used at Glastonbury, Mr. Cockayne, the editor, gives the following from Marcellus, 380 A.D., to avoid inflamed eyes: “Write on a clean sheet of ουβαικ, and hang this round the patient’s neck, with a thread from the loom.” In a state of purity and chastity write on a clean sheet of paper φυρφαραν, and hang it round the man’s neck; it will stop the approach of inflammation. The following will stop inflammation coming on, written on a clean sheet of paper: ρουβος, ρνονειρας ρηελιος ως· καντεφορα· και παντες ηακοτει; it must be hung to the neck by a thread; and if both the patient and operator are in a state of chastity, it will stop inveterate inflammation. Again, write on a thin plate of gold with a needle of copper, ορνω ουρωδη; do this on a Monday; observe chastity; it will long and much avail. _Characts_ are amulets in the form of inscriptions, and are to be found in all the old houses still existing in Edinburgh.[603] The name of God is one of the commonest characts. Rabbi Hama gives a sacred seal with divine names written in Hebrew, which he declares will cure not only all kinds of diseases, but heal all griefs whatsoever. The seals are figured in Morley’s _Life of Cornelius Agrippa_.[604] When a charact or charm lost its original meaning, it came to bear that of something worn for its supposed efficacy in preserving the wearer from danger in mind or body, and now means a mere trinket to hang on a watch chain. One of the most famous of ancient charms was the name of the supreme deity of the Assyrians. This was the Abracadabra, which was supposed to have a magical efficacy as an antidote against ague, fever, flux, and toothache.[605] It was written on parchment, and arranged as follows:— A B R A C A D A B R A A B R A C A D A B R A B R A C A D A B A B R A C A D A A B R A C A D A B R A C A A B R A C A B R A A B R A B A This was suspended round the neck by a linen thread. The word Abraxas, or Abrasax, was engraved on antique stones, and used as amulets or charms against disease. Sometimes mystical characters and figures were added, as the head of a fowl, the arms and bust of a man terminating in the body and tail of a serpent. It is of Egyptian origin, and is referred to by the Greek Fathers. The Egyptians used it to dispossess evil spirits and to cure diseases.[606] Abraxas is the president of the 365th heaven, and is thus evidently a sun myth. Apollo is the sun in mythology, and he was the god of physic or healing.[607] Brande, in his _Popular Antiquities_, gives the following charm from a manuscript of the date of 1475:[608]— “Here ys a charme for wyked Wych. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Per Virtutem Domini sint Medicina mei pia Crux ✠ et passio Christi ✠. Vulnera quinque Domini sint Medicina mei ✠. Virgo Maria mihi succurre, et defende ab omni maligno Demonio, et ab omni maligno Spiritu. Amen. ✠ a ✠ g ✠ l ✠ a ✠ Tetragrammaton. ✠ Alpha, ✠ oo, ✠ primogenitus, ✠ vita, vita. ✠ Sapiencia, ✠ Virtus, ✠ Jesus Nazarenus rex judeorum, ✠ fili Domini, miserere mei. Amen. ✠ Marcus ✠ Matheus ✠ Lucas ✠ Johannes mihi succurrite et defendite. Amen. ✠ Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, hunc N. famulum tuum hoc breve Scriptum super se portantem prospere salvet dormiendo, vigilando, potando, et precipue sompniando ab omni Maligno Demonio, eciam ab omni maligno spiritu ✠.” One of the most famous charms of this kind is the “Solomon’s Seal.” [Illustration: Solomon's Seal] Amongst the Cabalists an amulet, with the names “Senoi, Sansenoi, Semongeloph,” upon it, was fastened round the neck of the new-born child.[609] The first Psalm, when written on doeskin, was supposed to help the birth of children; but the writer of such Psalm amulets, as soon as he had written one line, had to plunge into a bath. “Moreover,” says Mr. Morley, “that the charm might be the work of a pure man, before every new line of his manuscript it was thought necessary that he should repeat the plunge.”[610] SACRED NAMES AS CHARMS. Some of the Jews accounted for the miracles of healing wrought by our Saviour by declaring that He had learned the Mirific Word, the true pronunciation of the name Jehovah; this word stirs all the angels and rules all creatures. They said that He had gained admission to the Holy of Holies, where He learned the sacred mystery, wrote it on a tablet, cut open His thigh, and having put the tablet in the wound, closed the flesh by uttering the mystic Name. The names of angels and evil spirits were also held to be potent by the Cabalists. The name of a bad angel, Schabriri, was used when written down as a charm to cure ophthalmia. STOLEN PROPERTY AS A CHARM. In Mr. Andrew Lang’s delightful _Custom and Myth_ he says that he once met at dinner a lady who carried a _stolen_ potato about with her as a cure for rheumatism. The potato must be stolen, or the charm would not work. A small piece of beef, if _stolen_ from a butcher, is supposed by some persons to charm away warts.