AMULET (probably from the Arabic a pendant ; Is. iii. 20, Talm.
From the earliest ages the Orientals have believed in the influences of the stars, in spells, witchcraft, and the malign power of the evil eye ; and to pro tect themselves against the maladies and other evils which such influences were supposed to occasion, almost all the ancient nations wore amulets (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 15). These amulets consisted, and still consist, 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, iii. 208 ; Chardin, i. sqy• ; iii. 205, sqq. ; Niebuhr, i. 65 ; ii. 162). Not only were persons thus protected, but even houses were, as they still are, guarded from sup posed malign influences by certain holy inscriptions upon the doors.
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. 9, 16 ; Deut. vi. 8 • xi. 18). The door schedules being noticed elsewhere [Al EZUZOTH], we here limit our attention to personal amulets. By this religious appropriation the then all-per vading tendency to idolatry were in this matter obviated, although in later times, when the dency to idolatry had passed away, such written scrolls degenerated into instruments of superstition.
The C+V„i6 of Is. iii. 20 (Sept. reptalEta ; Vulg. inaures ; Auth. Vers. earrings), it is now allowed, denote amulets, although they served also the pur pose of ornament. They were probably precious stones, or small plates of gold or silver, with sen tences of the law or magic formulae 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 some times used in this way as instruments of super stition, 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. Earrings, with strange figures and characters, are still used as charms in the East (Chardin, in Harmer, iii. 314). Augustin speaks strongly against earrings that was worn as amulets 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 (Schroeder, De Vestitu Mulierum, cap. xi. pp. 172,
173 ; Grotefend, art. Amulete, in Ersch and Gni ber's Encyclop. ; Rosennafiller, ad Isa. iii. 20 ; Gesenius, ad eund. ; and in his Thesaurus, art.
Orb).
That these lecizashim 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 ornamental little cases for written charms which are still used by Arab women. This is represented in the first figure of cut 1. Amulets of this kind are called hhegab, and are specially adapted to protect and preserve those written charms, on which the Mos lems, as did the Jews, chiefly rely. The writing is covered with waxed cloth, and enclosed 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 con tains a folded paper ; the others contain scrolls. Amulets of this shape, or of a triangular form, are worn by women and children ; and those of the latter shape are often attached to children's head dress (Lane's Modern Egyptians, ii. 365).
The superstitions connected with amulets grew to a great height in the later periods of the Jewish history. There was hardly any people in the whole world,' says Lightfoot (Hoy. Hein.: ad Matt. xxiv. 24), ' that more used or were more fond of amu lets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments. . . . The amulets were either little roots hung about the neck of sick persons, or, what was more common, bits of paper (and parch ment), with words written on them, whereby it was supposed that diseases were either driven away or cured. They wore such amulets all the week, but were forbidden to go abroad with them on the Sabbath, unless they were approved amulets,' that is, were prescribed by a person who knew that at least three persons had been cured by the same means. In these amulets mysterious names and characters were occasionally employed, in lieu of extracts from the law. One of the most usual of these was the cabalistic hexagonal figure known as ' the shield of David' and the seal of Solomon' 'Bartolocc. Bibliotheca Rabbinica, 1. 576; Lake macher, Observatt. Philol. ii. 143, my). The reputation of the Jews was so well established in this respect, that even in Arabia, before the time of Mohammed, men applied to them when they needed charms of peculiar virtue (Mischat-ul lY7asabih, ii. 377).—J. K.