Amulets (totka, tawiz ; hirz ; ta'it, jantar, nadli) are worn by ahnost all Eastern nations. They are especially prized by Mahomedans, both young and old of whom wear them. They are usually put on the young to ward off disease, and to guard from the evil eye, and consist of figures with numbers on pieces of paper, or Arabic words, often extracts from the Koran, engraved on pot stone or silver or gold, and worn from the neck. They are also put over the door-porch or on the house-wall. Amongst the Malays of Java, Mustika means amulet, which is always some very scarce substance, and which, being worn about the person, they are supposed to act itS a talisman, and ward off evil. The mustika kerbo, or buffalo amulet, is quite white, and round like a marble, marly an inch in diameter, and semi-transparent ; it is stated to bo found nt Panggul. The mustika waringin, a calcareous concretion, is found at Ngadi Rejo. It is quite black, and a little smaller than the mustika kerbo.
Arati, TAIL, a Hindu ceremony fur warding off the evil eye.
The Romans had peculiar ntodes of divination,— their dies fasti, nefasti, their auguries, etc. Tacitus informs us that among the ancient Germans, who were originally Scythians the prototype of rhabdomancy was engraven on ;ode. The Chinese had also rods with similar inscriptions. The Ambs, before the birth of Malunned, divined by bundles of arrows in the Kaba. Mahomed destroyed this practice.
The practice of astrology at the present day in Ceylon, and the preparation of the ephineres pre dicting the weather and other particulars of the forthcoming year, appear to have undergone little or no change since this custom of the inhabitants of India was described by Arrian and Stmbo.
But in later times the Brahmans and the Buddhists have superadded to that occupation the casting of nativities and the composition of horoscopes for individuals, from which the Sophistm described by Arrian abstained. It is practised alike by the highest and Most humble castes of Singhalese and Buddhists, from tho Vellala, or agricultural aristocracy, to the beaters of tom-toms, who have thus acquired the title of Nakatiya or astrologers. The attendance on particular ceremonies, how ever, called Bali, which are connected with divination, belongs exclusively to the latter class. The Mahoinedans of British India keep their calendar (Jantri), and the Hindu Joshi caleu lates the ephmeris. The Hindus also have their calendar or Panjangam, but they all practise divination from books, for which the Chintamini Pastakam is in use in the south of India.— I Vilson's Glossary ; Burton's Scinde ; 7'od's Rajasthan ; Tennant's Christianity in Ceylon ; Jour. Ind. Archi. 1853, 1857; 3Iilner's Seven Churches of Asia, p. 127 ; Ilasamala, Hindu Annals, ii. p. 403 ; Onseley's Travels, i. p. 227 ; Skinner's Overland Journ. p. 70 ; Ward's Ilincloos, p. 71 ; Herklots ; Burton's Mecca, iii. p. 255; Lyelrs Studies.