The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-11-16
TALES OF TALISMANS.
THEY ARE A POWER EVEN TO-DAY ALL
OVER THE WORLD.
Persons of Fame Who Have Trusted In
Them-PhilOsophers Recognized Them,
and Physicians Believed |hey Could
Keep on Disease--yirgil's razen Fly.

DESPITE our boasted civilizations there are
few of us Who in our innermost hearts DO
not retain belief in certain kind OF fet-
ichism or magic 10 ward off disasters. The
man who carries about with him the com
mon or garden potato as preventive
against rheumatism little guesses the an
tiauity OF this talisman. Most ancient writ
ers aRree in naming the great Zoroaster-
said by some to be Shem, the son Of Noah
las the originator of talismans, and there
Is lttle doubt as TO the popularity Of these
magic amulets at q very early period OF the
worlds history.
1t has indeed been asserted that the inn
sges of Iaban and the teraphim or Micah
nere nothing less than talismans, though
whether used for purposes OF divlnation 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 Eleizcr, 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-
tion is given by Jewish authority. A
nrstborn son was seized and killed, his
head torn of, embalmed and placed on a
gold plate whereon was inscribed the name
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
orJ orttGcioI Soma xvara euppOGad A pura
evil, others to prevent it. A natural tails
man was the bloodstone, warranted to
stanch the blood from wound, while
certain cure for the bite of the reptile might
be found in a fosslized serpent. In proper
tion 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 vio-
lent bleeding at the nose, expressed his be
lief in the magic cure of pressing piece of
moss taken from dead mans skull against
the skin till il became warm.
A celebrated Moravian physician told
Zwelfer of his faith in toad lozenges worn
as talismans as preventive against the
plague and its 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-
fetal talismans, the Influence of spectaf
consultations was called in aid From the
making of talismans to breadmaking the
help of the stars is always required, for, rs
says an old writer, I'VE see by experience
that biscuits made mt one time will keep
sound, whereas Others made before or aft
er, though Of the same flour and in all re-
spects like them, will speedily become fuli
of maggots."
To drive away serpents, take plate
of copper, and when the second face of
Aries is ascendant engravc thereon two
serpents To draw fish together in shoals,
cut upon piece of lead the figure of a fish
when the face of Pisces is ascendant. For
a huntsman to be Guccessful, he has only
10 make IA talisman representing him with
bent bow and drawn arrow engraved un-
der the influence of Sagittarius. julius
Scaliger declared that a leaden talisman
made by a caliph of Egypt drove away
crocodiles, while Joseph Scaliger asserted
that the image of n scorpion engraved on "A
stone built in certain tower kept away all
serpents and scorpions from the town ia
which IL stood.
Constantnople seems TO have been city
well provided with talismans. An image
OF brass set up in the midst thereof pre-
vented the incursion Of serpents, but when
this was broken on the entry of Mohammed
ii striking increase of these reptiles took
place. Storks likewise were kept out of the
city by the same talisman, and on the de-
struction of this magic image these birds
suddenly multiplied greatly. The figure of
brazen horse and horseman preserved the
city from contagion during the pestilence,
but disastrous were the consequences en-
tailed by the loss of this talisman, for we are
assured that $50, 900 people perished through
the plague Immediately on the removal of
the equestrian statue. The City OF Naples,
it IL said, was kept free from flies by a braz-
en- fly set upon the gates by Virgil.
The poet also made an image of a horse
leech on gold plate, which, on the principle
OF like curing like, succeeded in driving
out the horse leeches from the place. The
same Appollonius who made the figure OF
the stork also made "A talisman which ex-
PEELED the gnats from Antioch. Zachder
states that the image of woman with n
crescent placed in a field near Mecca kept
away all beasts and reptiles and greatly in
fluenced the fertility of their land Nearly
zoo years H. G. king of Egypt wrote that
~ green jasper NNh III lit lblil VI u uFtROn
and worn against the stomach would cure
indigestion. On the authority of Josephus
we learn that King Solomon cured epilepsy
by means of plant, assisted by form of
words
Sometimes the talsman took the form OF
an incantation. To drive away hail, the
ancient Egyptians used TO cause four wom-
en- TO place themselves i'm n certain posture
and then pronounce the magic words which
Immediately stopped the hailstorm. Vie
rus describes a method of producing like
result, Make first the sign of the cross;
then take three OF the hailstones that first
fell aud throw them in the fire in the name
of the Trinity; repeat the Lords Prayer
two or three times over; then read the gOs-
pei OF ST John; then make the sign OF the
cross toward the heavens and on the earth,
tast, west, north and south, and say three
times, Per Evangelical dicta fugia tempcs.
tas ista'" The skeptic is tempted TO re-
mark that during this lengthy process an
average hailstorm will probably stop of its
own accord, bat the writer goes on TO say