injury to the flesh. (In Northern India, the garnet enjoys the same repute, and the turquoise, I believe, in Persia: see exhibit No. 1). In like manner, too, the teeth and claws of certain predatory animals are worn as charms against the animals themselves. I have ascertained that men engaged in menageries and wild-beast-shows wear upon their watch chains teeth and tusks of dangerous animals as a "danger charm," which brings this belief down very close to our own doors.[1]
Of the third group, I may mention such abnormal objects as arrowheads, polished celts, &c., certain fossils, such as ammonites, belemnites, &c., stones perforated (probably fossil sponges), nodules of iron pyrites, and many others, all of which, being unintelligible to the primitive mind, are usually regarded with superstitious awe, and worn as luck charms, or as a defence against the power of the Evil Eye."[2] Charms of this latter group are usually worn in such a position as to be readily seen; they act, or are supposed to act, as a sort of lightning conductor, so that the first glance of the Evil Eye, which I believe is the dangerous one, is received by the charm instead of by the individual wearing it On the other hand, amulets, which usually take the form of some extract, however small, from the holy books of the wearer, are invariably hidden from sight, as in the case of the phylacteries of the Jews and the scrolls in silver cases worn by the warriors of the Soudan. Every Neapolitan carries a charm (in some cases several), but they are likewise hidden away, and not even referred to or
- ↑ A marine-store dealer, who looked out for curious things for me, ha some teeth roughly mounted as pendants. He told me that they were purchased by wild-beast-showmen, who wore them for luck and to save them from being attacked by the animals.
- ↑ I once heard of a collector of flint implements who labelled all his specimens with oil colours upon the flint itself. He was overhauling his collection and threw several specimens away. The country people found these, and not understanding the mysterious marks upon them, regarded them as charms, and treasured them accordingly.
