This Talismanical Opinion, says a Learned Pen[371], appears the most probable.... All the Eastern People are still much addicted to this Superstition of _Talismans_. The _Persians_ call them _Telesin_, a Word approaching to _Teraphim_. In those Countries no Man is seen without them, and some are even loaded with them. They hang them to the Necks of Animals, and Cages of Birds, as Preservatives against Evils. Such were the _Samothracian Talismans_, which were pieces of Iron, formed into certain Images and set in Rings.... Footnote 371: Father _Dom. Calmet_. The _Labanic Images_ are supposed to be the most antient, if not the first religious Images, made of some precious Metal, and had their Birth in _Laban_’s Country, that is, _Chaldea_, or _Mesopotamia_. From _Laban_’s History, it seems as if these _Teraphim_ were Pictures or Images of certain Persons deceased; that is, they were a sort of Idols, or superstitious Figures venerated by them as _Demy-Gods_. That they were such artificial Portraitures of Men, is evident from that Instance in _Michal_, who, to deliver _David_ her Husband from bloody Assassins that threaten’d his Life, laid an _Image in his Bed_, a _Teraphim_, says the _Hebrew_, that is, a material Image, probably a Figure of Wood, or Sticks hastily made up, drest in Man’s Clothes, to make those sent by King _Saul_ to apprehend him, believe he was sick. Why does _Laban_ call them his Gods? Very probably because he believed they retain’d their Affection for Mankind in the invisible World, and being rank’d among the Gods, might be serviceable to his Family, therefore adopted them to be Guardians of his House. They were only his _domestick Gods_, and not the established Gods of the Country; and ’tis very likely they might be the Images of _Noah_ and his _Sons_; or some other illustrious Ancestors, whom he had chosen for his _Tutelary Gods_. The Scripture mentions another sort of _Teraphim_, sometimes consulted by the _Jews_ as an Oracle, not imagining that thereby they abandon’d the Worship of the true God. Such was the _Teraphim_ that _Micha_ made and set up in his House, and to which he appointed a _Priest_ of the _Levitical Race_, with an _Ephod_ or Sacramental Garment, by the Influence of which he flatter’d himself that God would bless his House. This probably might be some _Hieroglyphical Figure_, to which the superstitious _Jews_ attributed the Virtue of an Oracle, and the Power of foretelling Things to come: Hence speaking Teraphims.