AMULET (Lat. anittletion, from Ar. flame let, that which is suspended). Any object worn as a charm, or sometimes placed in a building to ward otI evil. Amulets originated at an early date in the Orient, and regard for them is among the earliest superstitions of the Babylonians and Egyptians. The magical formulas connected with them are frequent in early Babylonian texts. Their religion included belief in a multi tude of spirits present everywhere and influ encing every act. Hence the necessity of pre serving the house, property, and person by images and formulas, and these were from the beginning connected with medicine. Even the monotheistic Hebrews were not free from the taint, and the so-called phylacteries, with passages from sacred writ, were an adaptation of these magical be-. liefs. The Greeks and Romans inherited the same beliefs in a modified degree. Perhaps the most general evil to lie guarded against by amu lets at all time was the Evil Eye, which is still so firmly believed in throughout Latin countries. There were various classes of amulets. First came certain precious or other stones supposed to possess mysterious helpful properties: agates for spiders' and scorpions' stings, and for protection against thunderstorms; diamonds for melan choly; jasper for the tongue-tied and to bring on rain; amethyst against drunkenness, and, with certain inscriptions and figures. as antidotes to poisons, hail, and locusts, etc. One of the most permanent of all such beliefs is that in the bene ficial effects of coral. Metals, also, and plants. were used as amulets. So were various parts of certain animals, such as hyena teeth or marrow, wolves' fat, rats' ears, foxes' tongues, and bats' heads. Most efficacious of all are the teeth of different animals. After these natural objects come artificial ones. A large proportion of an cient jewelers'work was undoubtedly made in con nection with the wearing of amulets, especially necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and other pendants. Other ways of carrying amulet ma
terial was in gold balls or bullfr, or in sachets. The formulas carried were usually inscribed, not on paper, but on some durable substance—metal, terra cotta, ivory, precious stones. Trinkets of every variety and shape—crescents, disks. pend ants—were hung about the necks of children and adults as charms; and few went •ithput them. Figures of gods and genii had magic virtue as well ; so did verbal fornmlfe. (See ABRACADABRA, and ABRAXAS.) Many of such tiny images are found on necklaces. Anchors and horseshoes, heads and lig,ures of animals, votive hands and feet, thunderbolts, vases, and many other objects, all had their specific values. The amulets not only were suspended around the neck, worn in jewelry, and sewed in the clothing, but also were affixed to furniture and walls, painted or carved on doors and walls, and buried in the ground. They even followed the deceased to his grave. Christianity was as unable as Judaism to eradi cate the practice; so it sought to mitigate it by legislation and by offering devotional substi tutes in the form of sacred relics or formulas from the Bible. These substitutes were care fully distinguished from the heathen amulets which the clergy were forbidden in the fourth century to make, under pain of deprivation of holy orders, and the wearing of which was sol emnly condemned by a council in 721. But in the East the practice still flourishes, as well as in primitive parts of southern Europe. Consult: King, History of Precious Moves and. Gems (London, 1S73) ; and Wachsimith iu the Athe 71(r11111 (Berlin), Volume 11., pp. 209 folf.