Sympathetic magic bulks largely in the life of backward peoples, not merely in the form of actions to be performed, but also in those to be abstained from. The ‘Thou shalt not’ is more in evidence than ‘Thou shalt.’ The prohibitions of savages and barbarians are now spoken of under the general term of =tabu=. Some tabus are rational from our point of view, others seem to us to be utterly irrational, but this does not affect their validity in any way. So much has been written on this subject by divers writers that only one or two examples need be given here. The subject is again referred to on p. 55. The old Irish tale, the ‘Bruiden Dá Derga,’ tells of the destruction following the violation of tabus. Conaire, King of Ulster, was put under certain _geasa_ by his father, such as: ‘Thou shalt not go _desiul_ round Tara nor withershins round Bregia,’ ‘The evil beasts of Cerna must not be hunted by thee,’ ‘There shall not go before thee three Reds to the house of Red,’ and others. But on the way to Dá Derga’s Hostel ‘They went righthandwise round Tara, and lefthandwise round Bregia, and the evil beasts of Cerna were hunted by him, but he saw it not till the chase had ended.’ Then he saw three red men going before him to the house of Red, and Conaire says, ‘All my _geasa_ have seized me to-night,’ and before the next day Conaire and all his host were destroyed in Dá Derga’s Hostel (66, xxii.). When Cuchulain was on his way to his last combat he met three hags, daughters of a wizard, all blind of the left eye. They were cooking a dog with poisons and spells on spits of a rowan tree. It was _geis_ to Cuchulain to eat at a cooking-hearth, or to eat the flesh of a hound, but the women put him on his honour not to refuse the piece they offered him, so he took it, and all the strength went out of the left hand in which he took the food (66, iii.). III. TALISMANS AND AMULETS In the forms of magic we have hitherto considered, something is done by a human being, whether by action, representation, or word, but there is another branch of magic in which the virtue resides intrinsically in certain objects which are variously termed charms, talismans, amulets, or mascots. Those that transmit qualities or are worn for good luck may be termed =talismans=, while the term =amulet= may be restricted with advantage to those charms which are preventive in their action; but the same charm is in some cases employed for both these purposes. These objects are continuously effective without any action on the part of the preparer or wearer, as they possess power in their own right, but this is from very diverse causes.