Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/76

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64
Collectanea.

and those in italics to the Figures of the original paper. Where specimens are noted as having been obtained at Madrid or San Sebastian the provenance must be considered as uncertain, since objects from all parts of Spain are brought to Madrid either by the collectors supplying the dealers there or by a natural gravitation to the capital, and San Sebastian draws, I think, in part from Madrid.

Horns. — The horns worn suspended at the neck by pack-animals were noted as being still in use at Toledo and Granada. Further specimens of the obsolete type of bone "horn" shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7 (Pl. IV.) were noted at Seville; the florid style of ornamentation of the silver sockets of these appears to be peculiar to that locality. Amulets similar to Figs. 8 and 40 (Pl. IV.) are still made and used at Seville.

Fig. I (Plate I.). — A piece of antler, in a silver socket; Madrid. The lower end is carved in a shape suggestive of a phallus, a form to which, in Roman times, several of the present-day virtues of the horn were attributed ; the resemblance may, however, be merely a chance one due to the ornamental smoothing of the material to avoid paining the child's gums during dentition. (See also Musical Horns and Tritons below.)

Lunar Crescents. — Several specimens were noted of the silver compound amulet shown in Fig. 15 (Pl. VII.). One of these, of unknown provenance, has a right "fig" hand (instead of the left hand of Fig. 15 (Pl. VII.)). Another (with left hand), from Seville, has a square piece of clear blue glass [1] set above the four-petalled emblem. Such silver specimens do not, in general, appear to be very old, but I think that they are not of present-day manufacture ; I have seen no like amulets made of other metals.

Fig. 2 (Pl. I.).— A brass amulet, quite new; Seville. This is particularly interesting as showing the disappearance of the "fig" hand of the older specimens noted above, which is here replaced by a small conventional circle, and by the increased resemblance to a cross of the four-petalled flower-like emblem. I have noted this emblem as occurring upon the wrists of the "fig" hands of some of the Portuguese compound amulets combining profane

  1. Bellucci, Catalogo Descrittivo, Amuleti Italiani, (189S), Tablet x., mentions blue glass as used against the evil eye in Italy.