They quickly acquired a celebrity undiminished for ages, and were known under the general name of Abraxas. They were composed of various materials, gla.s.s, paste, sometimes metals, but princ.i.p.ally of various kinds of stones. Through the irresistible might of Abrax, their supreme divinity, the Basilideans were protected and cured. Clement of Alexandria strictly interdicted the use of gems for personal ornamentation, with evident allusion to the Abraxas stones. These stones had various inscriptions carved upon them, most of which had some hidden meaning of great puissance. One of them, for example, is engraven with Armenian letters, and contains a standing invocation for fruitful delivery; in its medicinal property it was evidently a cure for sterility.[93]
From the stone itself the word "Abraxas" came to be used as an amulet when written on paper. The numerical equivalent of the Greek letters when added together thus, A = 1, B = 2, R = 100, A = 1, X = 60, A = 1, S = 200, is 365. The significance of this was that the deity was the ruler of 365 heavens, or of the angels inhabiting these heavens; he was also ruler over the 365 days of the year. Notwithstanding the fact that it was referred to by the Greek fathers, the name was evidently Egyptian in origin, some of the figures on the stones being strictly Egyptian.
Amulets in the form of inscriptions were called "Characts," the word Abraxas being an example. The very powerful word "Abracadabra" was derived from Abraxas, and when written in the proper way and worn about the person was supposed to have a magical efficacy as an antidote against ague, fever, flux, and toothache. Serenus Samonicus, a physician in the reign of Caracalla, recommends it very highly for ague, instructing how it should be written, and commanding it to be worn around the neck. It might be written in either of two ways: reading down the left side and up the right must spell the same word as at the top; or, having the left side always start the same, reading up the right side should be the same as the top line. Below are the two forms:
ABRACADABRA ABRACADABRA BRACADABR ABRACADABR RACADAB ABRACADAB ACADA ABRACADA CAD ABRACAD A ABRACA ABRAC ABRA ABR AB A
Julius Africa.n.u.s says that p.r.o.nouncing the word in the same manner is as efficacious as writing it. The Jews attributed an equal virtue to the word "Aracalan" employed in the same way.[94]
Bishop Pilkington, writing in 1561, protests against a then current practice in this way: "What wicket blindenes is this than, to thinke that wearing Prayers written in rolles about with theym, as S. Johns Gospell, the length of our Lord, the measure of our Lady, or other like, thei shall die no sodain death, nor be hanged, or yf he be hanged, he shall not die. There is so manye suche, though ye laugh, and beleve it not, and not hard to shewe them with a wet finger." The same author observes that our devotion ought to "stande in depe sighes and groninges, wyth a full consideration of our miserable state and G.o.ddes majestye, in the heart, and not in ynke or paper: not in hangyng writtin Scrolles about the Necke, but lamentinge unfeignedlye our Synnes from the hart."
The following charact was found in a linen purse belonging to a murderer named Jackson, who died in Chichester jail in February, 1749.
He was "struck with such horror on being measured for his chains that he soon after expired."
"Ye three holy Kings, Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar, Pray for us now, and in the hour of our death."
"These papers have touched the three heads of the holy Kings at Cologne. They are to preserve travellers from accidents on the road, headaches, falling sickness, fevers, witchcraft, all kinds of mischief, and sudden death."
Belgrave prescribes a cure of agues, by a certain writing which the patient wears, as follows: "When Jesus went up to the Cross to be crucified, the Jews asked him, saying Art thou afraid? or hast thou the ague? Jesus answered and said, I am not afraid, neither have I the ague. All those which bear the name of Jesus about them shall not be afraid, nor yet have the ague. Amen, sweet Jesus, Amen, sweet Jehovah, Amen." He adds: "I have known many who have been cured of the ague by this writing only worn about them; and I had the receipt from one whose daughter was cured thereby, who had the ague upon her two years."[95]
Among other written amulets, the first Psalm, when written on doeskin, was supposed to be efficacious in childbirth. It was necessary, however, for the writer of such amulets to plunge into a bath as soon as he had written one line, and after every new line it was thought necessary that he should repeat the plunge.
The following process for avoiding inflamed eyes is taken from Marcellus, 380 A. D.: "Write on a clean sheet of paper [Greek: oubaik], and hang this round the patient"s neck, with a thread from the loom. In a state of purity and chast.i.ty write on a clean sheet of paper [Greek: phyrpharan] 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: [Greek: roubos rnoneiras reelios os kantephora kai pantes eakotei]; it must be hung to the neck by a thread; and if both the patient and operator are in a state of chast.i.ty, it will stop inveterate inflammation.
Again, write on a thin plate of gold with a needle of copper, [Greek: orno ourode]; do this on a Monday; observe chast.i.ty; it will long and much avail."[96]
In Africa, prayers taken from the Koran are written and worn as amulets at the present time.
After the death of the philosopher Pascal some ma.n.u.script was found sewed in his doublet. This was a "profession of faith" which he always wore st.i.tched in his clothing as a sort of amulet.
In the East, generally, the amulet consists of certain names of the Deity, verses of the Koran, or particular pa.s.sages compressed into a very small s.p.a.ce, and is to be found concealed in the turban. The Christians wore amulets with verses selected from the Old and New Testaments, and particularly from the Gospel of John. The amulets or charms, called "grigris" by the African priests, are of similar description. These were used for preservatives against thunderbolts and diseases, to procure many wives and to give them easy deliveries, to avert shipwreck or slavery, and to secure victory in battle. One, to be used for the last purpose, which had belonged to a king of Brak, in Senegal, was found on his body after he had the misfortune to be killed in battle with the amulet upon him. It had the following sentences from the Koran: "In the name of the merciful G.o.d! Pray to G.o.d through our Lord Mohammed. All that exists is so only by his command. He gives life, and also calls sinners to an account. He deprives us of life by the sole power of his name: these are undeniable truths. He that lives owes his life to the peculiar clemency of his Lord, who by his providence takes care of his subsistence. He is a wise prince or governor."[97]
The Jews used as amulets some sacred name, such as the true p.r.o.nunciation of the name of Jehovah, written down. The Mischna permitted the Jews to wear amulets provided they had been found efficacious in at least three cases by an approved person. One of the most famous amulets is that known as "Solomon"s Seal."
Ligatures, similar to the earlier amulets, a heritage from the northern pagan races, were freely applied for the prevention and cure of maladies.
After imposing invocations and the addition of mystical characters, these medical charms were presumed to be of the greatest efficacy, and ready for suspension from the neck. Their efficacy was admitted by Christians, but they were condemned on account of their pagan and consequently satanic origin.
Alexander of Tralles recommended a number of amulets, some of which I will mention later, but admits that he had no faith in them, but merely ordered them as placebos for rich and fastidious patients who could not be persuaded to adopt a more rational treatment. Baas tells us that "A regular Pagan amulet was found in 1749 on the breast of the prince bishop Anselm Franz of Wurzburg, count of Ingolstadt, after his death."
Amulets were also worn to protect the wearer from charms exercised by others. The "Leech Book" gives us one to be worn and another to be taken internally for this purpose. To be used "against every evil rune lay, 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, and lupins, and pulegium, pound them, then sift them, put them in a pouch, lay them under the altar, sing nine ma.s.ses over them, administer this to drink at three hours."
The powers of the mandragora, as an amulet, place it almost in a cla.s.s by itself. Fort tells us that in addition to its power to protect herds of cattle and horses, to prevent misfortunes of various kinds, to preserve the exhilarating wine and beer against loss of their intoxicating property, to render successful commercial negotiations, and promote infallibly, rapid and enormous influence, "other virtues of a surprising character were awarded the omnipotent mandragora. It conciliated affection and maintained friendship, preserved conjugal fealty and developed benevolence. The immensity of worth inherent in this mystical medicament, its vital essence, was by no means confined to sustaining health and providing certain remedies for infirmities; its power manipulated tribunals and secured judicial favor at court; and when this resistless amulet was held under the arm by a suitor at law, however unjust his cause, the vegetable Rune controlled the forum and obtained the verdict."[98]
It may be well at this point to enumerate at least a number of the most noted amulets, according to the disease for which they were supposed to be efficacious.
_Ague._--On account of the periodic character of this disease it was considered to be a supernatural complaint and hence many unnatural cures were suggested, among which were a number of amulets. The Abracadabra amulet was supposed to be especially efficacious in ague.
The chips of a gallows put into a bag and worn around the neck, or next the skin, have been said to have served as a cure, at least, so reports Brand.[99] Millefolium or yarrow, worn in a little bag on the pit of the stomach is reported to have cured this disease, and Alexander of Tralles advises, for a quartan ague, that the patient must carry about some hairs from a goat"s chin.[100]
Elias Ashmole, in his Diary, April 11, 1681, has entered the following: "I tooke early in the morning a good dose of Elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove my Ague away. Deo Gratias!"[101]
Wristbands, called pericarpia, were employed in the cure. Robert Boyle says he was cured of a violent quotidian ague, after having in vain resorted to medical aid, by applying to his wrists "a mixture of two handfuls of bay salt, the same quant.i.ty of fresh English hops, and a quarter of a pound of blue currants, very diligently beaten into a brittle ma.s.s, without the addition of anything moist, and so spread upon linen and applied to his wrists."[102]
Burton gives us a leaf from his own experience.[103] "Being in the country in the vacation time, not many years since, at Lindly, in Leicestershire, my father"s house, I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-sh.e.l.l, wrapped in silk, &c., so applyed for an ague by my mother; whom, although I knew to have excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, &c., and such experimental medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can witness, to have done many famous and good cures upon divers poor folks that were otherwise dest.i.tute of help, yet among all other experiments, this methought was most absurd and ridiculous. I could see no warrant for it. _Quid aranea c.u.m 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 Aldrovandus, _cap. de Aranea, lib. de Insectis_, I 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."
A narrative of not a little interest, concerning Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King"s Bench, 1709, should be given in this connection. He was extremely wild in his youth, and being once engaged with some of his rakish friends in a trip into the country, in which they had spent all their money, it was agreed they should try their fortune separately. Holt arrived at an inn at the end of a straggling village, ordered his horse to be taken care of, bespoke a supper and a bed. He then strolled into the kitchen, where he observed a little girl of thirteen shaking with ague. Upon making inquiry respecting her, the landlady told him that she was her only child, and had been ill nearly a year, notwithstanding all the a.s.sistance she could procure for her from physic. He gravely shook his head at the doctors, bade her be under no further concern, for that her daughter should never have another fit. He then wrote a few unintelligible words in a court hand on a sc.r.a.p of parchment, which had been the direction fixed to a hamper, and rolling it up, directed that it should be bound upon the girl"s wrist and there allowed to remain until she was well. The ague returned no more; and Holt, having remained in the house a week, called for his bill. "G.o.d bless you, sir," said the old woman, "you"re nothing in my debt, I"m sure. I wish, on the contrary, that I was able to pay you for the cure which you have made of my daughter. Oh! if I had had the happiness to see you ten months ago, it would have saved me forty pounds." With pretended reluctance he accepted his accommodation as a recompense, and rode away. Many years elapsed, Holt advanced in his profession of the law, and went a circuit, as one of the judges of the Court of King"s Bench, into the same county, where, among other criminals brought before him, was an old woman under a charge of witchcraft. To support this accusation, several witnesses swore that the prisoner had a spell with which she could either cure such cattle as were sick or destroy those that were well, and that in the use of this spell she had been lately detected, and that it was now ready to be produced in court. Upon this statement the judge desired that it might be handed up to him. It was a dirty ball, wrapped round with several rags, and bound with packthread. These coverings he carefully removed, and beneath them found a piece of parchment which he immediately recognized as his own youthful fabrication. For a few moments he remained silent. At length, recollecting himself, he addressed the jury to the following effect: "Gentlemen, I must now relate a particular of my life, which very ill suits my present character and the station in which I sit; but to conceal it would be to aggravate the folly for which I ought to atone, to endanger innocence, and to countenance superst.i.tion. This bauble, which you suppose to have the power of life and death, is a senseless scroll which I wrote with my own hand and gave to this woman, whom for no other reason you accuse as a witch." He then related the particulars of the transaction, with such an effect upon the minds of the people that his old landlady was the last person tried for witchcraft in that county.[104]
_Calculus._--Boyle tells us[105] that the _Lapis Nephriticus_, a species of jasper, when bound to the left wrist, was a cure for this trouble. Others have borne evidence to its efficacy.
_Childbirth._--Among the ancient Britons, when a birth was difficult or dangerous, a girdle, made for this purpose, was put around the woman and afforded immediate relief. Until quite recently they were kept by many families in the Highlands of Scotland. They were marked with certain figures and were applied with certain ceremonies derived from the Druids. Women in labor were also supposed to be quickly delivered if they were girded with the skin which a snake has sloughed off.[106]
_Cholera._--Bontius declared the _Lapis Porcinus_ to be good for cholera, but dangerous to pregnant women. If the females of Malaica held the stone in their hands an abortion was produced. When cholera was prevalent during the early part of the last century, it was common in many parts of Austria, Germany, and Italy to wear an amulet at the pit of the stomach, in contact with the skin. Pettigrew describes one of these which was sent to him from Hungary. "It consists merely of a circular piece of copper two inches and a half in diameter, and is without characters."
_Colic._--Says Pliny, the extremity of the intestine of the ossifrage, if worn as an amulet, is well known to be an excellent remedy for colic. A tick from a dog"s left ear, worn as an amulet, was recommended to allay this and all other kinds of pain, but one must be careful to take it from a dog that is black. Alexander of Tralles recommended the heart of a lark to be fastened to the left thigh as a remedy for colic. Mr. c.o.c.kayne, the editor of _Saxon Leechdoms_, gives us further remedies for colic which Alexander prescribed. "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 or a bath."[107]
_Cramp._--The following amulets are mentioned as specifics against cramp:
"--Wear bone Ring on thumb, or tye Strong Pack-thread below your thigh."
The subject of cramp rings will be considered in another connection.
_Demoniacal Possession._--In the sixth century exorcists frequently wrote the formula on parchment and suspended it from the neck of the patient. This was as efficacious as the uttered words.
_Epilepsy._--The elder tree has been the foundation of many superst.i.tions, chief among which have been some connected with epilepsy. Blochwick[108] tells us how to prepare an amulet from an elder growing on a sallow. "In the month of October, a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these pieces being bound in a piece of linen, be in a thread, so hung about the neck, that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed cartilage; and that they may stay more firmly in that place, they are to be bound thereon with a linen or silken roller wrapt about the body, till the thread break of itself. The thread being broken and the roller removed, the amulet is not at all to be touched with bare hands, but it ought to be taken hold on by some instrument and buried in a place that n.o.body may touch it." Some hung a cross, made of the elder and the sallow entwined, about the children"s neck.
Rings of various kinds have always been supposed to have some superst.i.tious power. Brand[109] tells us of some of their uses. A ring made from a piece of silver collected at the communion is a cure for convulsions and fits of every kind. If the silver is collected on Easter Sunday its efficacy is greatly increased. This was the receipt in Berkshire, but in Devonshire silver was not necessary. Here they prefer a ring made from three nails or screws dug out of a church-yard, which had been used to fasten a coffin. We are also informed that another kind of ring will cure fits. It must be made from five sixpences collected from five different bachelors, conveyed by the hand of a bachelor to a silversmith who is a bachelor. None of the persons who gave the sixpences, however, are to know for what purpose, or to whom, they gave them.[110]
A silver ring contributed by twelve young women, and constantly worn on one of the pattens fingers, has been successfully employed in the cure of epilepsy after various medical means failed.[111] Lupton says: "A piece of a child"s navel-string borne in a ring is good against the falling-sickness, the pains of the head, and the collick."[112]
Alexander of Tralles recommended for epilepsy a metal cross tied to the arm, or, in lieu of that, bits of sail-cloth from a shipwrecked vessel might be tied to the right arm and worn for seven weeks; the latter was a preventive as well as a cure. Among the ancients, Serapion prescribed crocodile"s dung and turtle"s blood as a cure for this disease.[113] Lemius remarks that "Coral, Piony, Misseltoe, drive away the falling Sicknesse, either hung about the neck or drunk with wine."
_Erysipelas._--The elder seems to have been efficacious in erysipelas as well as in epilepsy, at least so we are told in the "Anatomie of the Elder." The following is the method of preparing the amulet. It is to be made of "Elder on which the sun never shined. If the piece betwixt the two knots be hung about the patient"s neck, it is much commended. Some cut it in little pieces, and sew it in a knot in a piece of a man"s shirt, which seems superst.i.tious."
_Evil-eye._--Coral was supposed to avert the baneful consequences of the evil-eye, and Paracelsus recommends it to be worn about the necks of children. Douce has given engravings of several Roman amulets which were intended to be used against fascinations in general, but more particularly against that of the evil-eye.[114]
_Eye Diseases._--Cotta relates, so says Pettigrew, "a merrie historie of an approved famous spell for sore eyes. By many honest testimonies it was a long time worne as a Jewell about many necks, written in paper and enclosed in silke, never failing to do sovereigne good when all other helpes were helplesse. No sight might dare to reade or open.
At length a curious mind, while the patient slept, by stealth ripped open the mystical cover, and found the powerful characters Latin: "Diabolus effodiat tibi oculos impleat foramina stercoribus.""
Vivisection was practised to procure an amulet for sore eyes, according to the following prescription: "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." Pliny"s way was to "take the tongue of a foxe, and hange the same about his necke, so long it hangeth there his sight shall not wax feeble."
Like was also used to cure like, at least in the following directions: "Take the right eye of a Frogg, lap it in a piece of russet cloth and hang it about the neck; it cureth the right eye if it bee enflamed or bleared. And if the left eye be greved, do the like by the left eye of the said Frogg."[115]
_Fevers._--Charms rather than amulets were employed in fevers, yet we find that among the ancients Chrysippus believed in amulets for quartan fevers and Pliny taught that the longest tooth of a black dog cured quartan fevers.
_Gout._--Alexander of Tralles has preserved for us a remedy for gout as follows: "A remedy for the gout. Write, on a golden plate at the wane of the moon, what follows, rolling round it the sinews of a crane. Put it in a little bag, and wear it near the ankles. The words are meu, treu, mor, phor, teux, za, zor, phe, 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 p.r.o.nounce the great name, in which are consolidated things in repose, iaz, azuf, zuon, threux, bain, choog; consolidate this plaster as it was at first, now, now, quick, quick."
_Headache._--Pliny"s amulet for this disease was an herb picked from the head of a statue, tied with a red thread, and worn upon the body.
_Hysteria._--Monardes is quoted as saying: "When hysterical persons feel an attack coming on, they may be relieved by a stone, which will prevent, if constantly worn about the person, any subsequent attack.
From my knowledge of cases of this kind, I attach credit to this amulet."