The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-12-22
TALES OF TALISMANS.
THEY ARE A POWER EVEN TODAY ALL
OVER THE WORLD.

Persons of Fame Who Have Trusted In
Them-Philosophers Recognized Them,
and Physicians Believed They Could
Keep OFF Disease-virgils Brazen Fly.
Despite our boasted civilization, there are
few of us who in our innermost hearts do
not retain a belief in a certain kind of fet-
ichism or magic to ward off disasters The
man who carries about with him the COM
mon or garden potato as preventive
against rheumatism little guesses the an
tiuuity of this talisman. Most ancient writ
ers agree in naming the great Zoroaster-
said by some to be Shem, the son OF Moab
AS the originator of talismans, and there
| is little doubt as to the popularity of these
magic amulets at a very early period OF the
worlds history
| 1t has indeed been asserted that the i'm
ages of Laban and the teraphim of Micah
were nothing less than talismans, though
whether used for purposes of divinatiop or
the foretelling of events is doubtful. The
learned Jew, Aben Ezra, declares they were
in the form of sundials in order to forecast
the right time of divination, while another
authority states these images were in the
shape of men made under certain constel-
lations, the influences whereof caused them
to speak at certain hours. The same writer,
Rabbi Eleizer, gives this as the reason why
Rachel stole her fathers images, because
she feared if left behind they might divulge
the route taken by Jacob. Of the construc
ton of these teraphim terrible descrlp-
tion is given by Jewish authority. A
firstborn son was seized and killed, his
head torn off, embalmed and placed on a
III bod har
of the demon whose services were requisi-
toned. The plate was then hung up in the
midst of lamps, to be adored on particular
occasions.
Talismans were of two kinds-natural
and artificial Some were supposed to cure
evil, others to prevent it. A natural tails
man was the bloodstone warranted to
stanch the blood from wound, while a
certain cure for the bite of the reptile might
be found in fossilized serpent In proper
ton as the knowledge of Arabic literature
spread among men of light and learning, so
increased the belief in talismans. Boyle,
: the eminent philosopher, subject to VIC
lent bleeding at the nose, expressed his be-
lief in the magic cure of pressing piece OF
moss taken from a dead mans skull against
the skin till it became warm.
. A celebrated Moravian physician told
Zwelfer of his faith in toad lozenges worn
as talismans as preventive against the
: plague and it's accompanying evils. Even
Bacon narrates seriously that his own warts
were cured in Paris by rubbing them with
a piece of rind of bacon and afterward nail
ing the said rind to post with the fat side
. toward the south. For the success of arti-
5 fetal talismans, the influence of special
consultations was called in aid From the
: making of talismans to breadmaking the
!, help of the stars is always required, for, as
: saws an old writer I'VE see by experience
9 that biscuits made at one time will keep
!. sound, whereas others, made before or aft
n er. though of the same -four and in all re-
: spects like them, will speedily become full
of maggOts."
: To drive away serpents. take plate
of copper, and when the second face OF
Aries is ascendant engrave thereon tw y
serpents. To draw fish together in shoals,
! cut upon piece of lead the figure of fish
u when the face of Pisces is ascendant. Fol
|, a huntsman to be successful, he has only
I to make talisman representing him with
Q Dent bow and a drawn arrow engraved I'm,
f der the influence of Sagittarius. Julius
y Scaliger declared that leaden talisman
}. made by caliph of Egypt drove away
f that the image of scorpion engraved on 6
a stone built in a certain tower kept away al
r serpents and scorpions from the town il
J, which it stood.
b Constantinople seems to have been city
8 well provided with talismans An image
% of brass set up in the midst thereof pre-
|. vented the incursion of serpents, but wher
g this was broken on the entry of Mohamme(
&c II a striking increase of these reptiles tool
J. place. Storks likewise were kept out of thu
70 CITY by the same talisman, and on the de
It struction of this magic image these birds
J. suddenly multiplied greatly. The figure o
l. q brazen horse and horseman preserved tn
b .ity from contagion during the pestilence
It Int disastrous were the consequences en-
s. Jailed by the loss of this talisman, for we ar
,s assured that $50, 900 people persisted through
g. The plague Immediately on the removal o
y me equestrian statue The City of Naples
i Vt is said, was kept free from flies by a braz
er n fly set upon the gates by Virgil.
e The poet also made an image of a hors
s. ,eech on gold plate, which, on the principl
re Of like curing like, succeeded in drivin!
If out the horse leeches from the place. Tn
n same Appollonius who made the figure o
&c the stork also made a talisman which ex
c pelled the gnats from Antioch. Zachde
if states that the image OF a woman with
crescent placed in a field near Mecca KEEP
away all beasts and reptiles and greatly IN
If fuenced the fertility of their land. Nearl
Al 700 years B. C. king of Egypt wrote tina
m a green jasper cut in the form of dragon
" and worn against the stomach would cur
is indigestion On the authority of Josephu
we learn that King Solomon cured epileps
. by means of a plant, assisted by form O
, words
IN Sometimes the talisman took the form Q
"A an incarnation. To drive away hail, tn
ar ancient Egyptians used to cause four won
"A en- to place themselves in a certain postum
10 and then pronounce the magic words whic
a Immediately stopped the hailstorm. Viz
" rus describes method of producing lik
q result, Make first the sign of the eros:
- then take three of the hailstones that frs
3, fell and throw them in the fire in the nam
q. of the Trinity; repeat the Lords Praye
"a two or three times over; then read the goi
80 pel of St. John; then make the sign OF tn
m cross toward the heavens and on the eartf
~ east, west, north and south, and say thre
: times, Per Evangelical dicta fugia tempe
y. tas ista'" The skeptic is tempted to n
n mark that during this lengthy process a
~ average hailstorm will probably stop of il
- own accord, but the writer goes on to sa
H. ~, ctr th