nly cause, but also as easily cure
Diseases; as I may justly refer all magical and jugling
Cures thereunto, performed, as is thought, by Saints,
Images, Relicts, Holy-Waters, Shrines, Avemarys,
Crucifixes, Benedictions, Charms, Characters, Sigils of
the Planets and of Signs, inverted Words, &c., and
therefore all such Cures are rather to be ascribed to
the Force of the Imagination, than any virtue in them,
or their Rings, Amulets, Lamens, &c."--RAMESEY.

Attention has already been called to the fact that the characteristic
of the amulet is that it must be worn about the person, while the
talisman may simply be in possession of a person wherever it may be,
or deposited at a certain place by or for the person. The Arabic
equivalent of the word Amulet means "that which is suspended."

The derivation of the word is uncertain, but there are at least two
Latin antecedents claimed for it. Some claim that it is derived from the
barbarous Latin word "amuletum," from amolior, to remove; others
consider that it comes from "amula," the name of a small vessel with
lustral water in it, which the Romans sometimes carried in their pockets
for purification and expiation. Pliny says that many of these amulae were
carved out of pieces of amber and hung about children's necks. Whatever
the derivation of the word, it is doubtless of Eastern origin.

There is also little doubt concerning the early belief in the efficacy
of an amulet to ward off diseases, and to protect against supernatural
agencies. So powerful were they supposed to be that an oath was
formerly administered to persons about to fight a legal duel "that
they had ne charme ne herb of virtue." St. Chrysostom and others of
the church fathers condemned the practice very severely, and the
Council of Laodicea (366) wisely forbade the priesthood from studying
and practising enchantments, mathematics, astrology, and the binding
of the soul by amulets.[89]

Burton has the following passage on the subject: "Amulets, and Things
to be borne about, I find prescribed, taxed by some, approved by
Renodeus, Platerus, and others; looke for them in Mizaldus, Porta,
Albertus, &c.... A Ring made of the Hoofe of an Asse's right
fore-foot carried about, &c. I say with Renodeus they are not
altogether to be rejected. Piony doth help epilepsies. Pretious
Stones, most diseases. A Wolf's dung carried about helps the Cholick.
A spider, an Ague, &c.... Some Medicines are to be explode