AMULET (am'a-let), probably from an Arabic word meaning a pendant (Is.
From tlie earliest ages the Orientals have be lieved in the influences of the stars, in spells, witchcraft, and the malign power of the evil eye; and to protect themselves against the maladies and other evils which such influences were sup posed to occasion, almost all the ancient nations wore amulets (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx :15). These amulets consisted chiefly of tickets inscribed with sacred sentences (Shaw, i :365 ; Lane's Mod. Egypt. ii :365), and of certain stones (Comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii:12, 34) or pieces of metal (Richardson, Dissertation; D'Arvieux, :208 ; Chardin, t :243, sqq.; iii :205 sqq; Niebuhr i :65; ii :162).
The previous existence of these customs is im plied in the attempt of Moses to turn them to becoming uses, by directing that certain passages extracted from the law should be employed (Exod. xiii 16 ; Deut. vi :8 ; xi :18).
By this religious appropriation the then all pervading tendency to idolatry was in this mat ter obviated, although in later times, when the tendency to idolatry had passed away, such writ ten scrolls degenerated into instruments of super stition.
The (leh-kaw-sheem', of Is. ill:20, Sept.
rept(34ta. per-ee-deks'ee-a, an armlet for the right arm Vulg. inaures; Auth. Vers. earrings), it is now allowed, denote amulets, although they served also the purpose of ornament. They were proba bly precious stones, or small plates of gold or silver, with sentences of the law or magic formula inscribed on them, and worn in the ears, or suspended by a chain round the neck. 'Earrings' is not perhaps a bad translation. It is certain that earrings were sometimes used in this way as instruments of superstition, and that at a very early period, as in Gen. xxxv :4, where Jacob takes away the earrings of his people along with their false gods (Hosea ii :13 ; Ezek. xxiii :4o, 42). Earrings, with strange figures and characters, are still used as charms in the East (Chardin, in Harmer iii :314). Augustine speaks strongly against earrings that were worn as amu lets in his time (Epist. 75, ad Pos.). Schroeder, however, deduces from the Arabic that these amulets were in the form of serpents, and similar probably to those golden amulets of the same form which the women of the pagan Arabs wore suspended between their breasts, the use of which was interdicted by Mohammed.
That these lechashim were charms inscribed on silver and gold was the opinion of Aben Ezra. The Arabic has boxes of amulets, manifestly con cluding that they were similar to those orna mental little cases for written charms which are still used by Arab women. Amulets of this kind are called hbegab, and arc especially adapted to protect and preserve those written charms on which the Moslems, as did the Jews, chiefly rely. The writing is covered with waxed cloth, and inclosed in a case of thin embossed gold or silver, which is attached to a silk string, or a chain, and generally hung on the right side, above the girdle, the string or chain being passed over the left shoulder. In the specimen here figured there are three of these hhegabs attached to one string. The square one in the middle is almost an inch thick, and contains a folded paper ; the others contain scrolls.
The later Jews regarded also as amulets the phylacteries, or sentences of the law which Nloses had commanded them to wear on their foreheads and wrists; although this command of Moses is probably to be understood no more literally than the command to impress them upon their hearts. ( Dem. vi :6, 8).
AMZI (Sm'zi), (1 leb. ' 4 ram, strung).
1. Son of Bani t t Chron. vi :46).
2. Son of Zechariah and ancestor of Adaiali ii 22).
ANAB (a'nab), ( Heb. an-a 40', grape town), one of the cities in the mountains of Judah, from which Joshua expelled the Anakim ( Josh. xi:21; xv:13, ANAH (a'nah). (Heb. an-aw', answering).
1. Son of Zibeon, the Hivite, and father of Esau's wife Aholibamah (Gen. xxxvi :2o, 24), B. C. 1760. While feeding asses in the desert he discovered 'warm springs (aqua. raida), as the original yetnim is rendered by Jerome, who states that the word had still this significa tion in the Punic language. Gesenius and most modern critics think this interpretation correct, supported as it is by the fact that warm springs are still found in the region east of the Dead Sea at Our version of 'mules' is now gen erally abandoned, but is supported by the Arabic and Veneto-Greek versions. The revised version reads, "A/rah/arm/Me hat springs." 2. A son of Seir, the I lorite, and one of the heads of a tribe (Gen. xxxvi:29; t Citron. i