, with evident allusion to the Abraxas stones. These
stones had various inscriptions carved upon them, most of which had
some hidden meaning of great puissance. One of them, for example, is
engraven with Armenian letters, and contains a standing invocation for
fruitful delivery; in its medicinal property it was evidently a cure
for sterility.[93]

From the stone itself the word "Abraxas" came to be used as an amulet
when written on paper. The numerical equivalent of the Greek letters
when added together thus, A = 1, B = 2, R = 100, A = 1, X = 60, A = 1,
S = 200, is 365. The significance of this was that the deity was the
ruler of 365 heavens, or of the angels inhabiting these heavens; he
was also ruler over the 365 days of the year. Notwithstanding the fact
that it was referred to by the Greek fathers, the name was evidently
Egyptian in origin, some of the figures on the stones being strictly
Egyptian.

Amulets in the form of inscriptions were called "Characts," the word
Abraxas being an example. The very powerful word "Abracadabra" was
derived from Abraxas, and when written in the proper way and worn
about the person was supposed to have a magical efficacy as an
antidote against ague, fever, flux, and toothache. Serenus Samonicus,
a physician in the reign of Caracalla, recommends it very highly for
ague, instructing how it should be written, and commanding it to be
worn around the neck. It might be written in either of two ways:
reading down the left side and up the right must spell the same word
as at the top; or, having the left side always start the same, reading
up the right side should be the same as the top line. Below are the
two forms:

ABRACADABRA ABRACADABRA
BRACADABR ABRACADABR
RACADAB ABRACADAB
ACADA ABRACADA
CAD ABRACAD
A ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A

Julius Africanus says that pronouncing the word in the same manner is
as efficacious as writing it. The Jews attributed an equal virtue to
the word "Aracalan" employed in the same way.[94]

Bishop Pilkington, writing in 1561, protests against a then current
practice in this way: "Wh