An amulet (probably the word is derived from the Arabic _hamalet_, a pendant) is anything which is hung round the neck or attached to any other part of the body, and worn as an imagined protection against disease, witchcraft, accidents, or other evils. Stones, metals, bits of parchment, portions of the human body, as parings of the finger nails, may constitute these charms. Substances like stones, gems, or parchment may have certain words, letters, or signs inscribed upon them. In the East amulets have from the earliest ages been associated with the belief in evil spirits as the causes of diseases. A talisman may for our purpose be considered as the same thing as an amulet. In Scott’s _Tales of the Crusaders_, there is one of these charms which has the power of stopping blood and protecting the wearer from hydrophobia. Charms, enchantments, the ceremonial use of words as incantations, songs, verses, etc., have all been used either with a view of causing, preventing, or curing diseases, and their use of course arose from the belief of primitive, or savage man his present representative, that our maladies have a supernatural origin. An amulet may consist merely of a piece of string tied like a bracelet round the wrist, as in India, where such a charm is commonly worn by school children; it is a talisman against fever, which has been blessed by a Brahman, has been sold for a half-rupee, and is highly esteemed by the wearer. Our word carminative (a comforting medicine, like tincture of cardamoms) means really a charm medicine, and is derived from the Latin _carmen_, a song-charm. This word enshrines the fact that magic and medicine were once united. The charm, _i.e._ song, was a spell, whether of words, philtres, or figures, as thus:— “With the charmes that she saide, A fire down fro’ the sky alight.” —_Gower._ Charms, amulets, characts, talismans, and the like, are found amongst all peoples and in all times. They unite in one bond of superstitious brotherhood the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatrans and the Egyptians, the Malay and the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant. The charm differs from the amulet merely in the fact that it need not be suspended. “There is scarcely a disease,” says Pettigrew, “for which a charm has not been given.”[544] And it is well to note that their greatest effect is always produced on disorders of the nervous system, in which the imagination plays so important a part. Charms are also used to avert diseases and other evils; so that the man, sufficiently protected as he supposes by these objects, not only will escape plague and pestilence, but will be invulnerable to bullet and sword. The Sumatrans practise medicine chiefly by charms; when called in to prescribe, they generally ask for “something on account,” under the pretext of purchasing the appropriate charm.[545]