314 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
with
which all writers on such subjects were acquainted. A stranger argument
in support of the truth of this property was adduced by the seventeenth
century physician, Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), who writes : *
If
amulets do work by emanation from their bodies upon those parts
whereunto they are appended and are not yet observed to abate their
weight; if they produce visible and reali effects by imponderous and
invisible emissions, it may be unjust to deny all efficacy to gold, in
the non-emission of weight or déperdition of any ponderous articles.
While
the learned doctor does not expressly state his belief in these
"imponderous and invisible emissions" from amulets, he certainly does
not attempt to deny their existence.
The
Bolivian natives believe that the so-called mountain-sickness, the
affection from which some travellers suffer at high altitudes, probably
originates in subtle emanations from certain mineral veins. A
confirmation of the fact that such a belief exists, though not of the
truth of the theory, is found in the native name for this illness, veta, which
signifies at once "mountain-sickness" and a vein or lode. The fact
that at the pass of Livichuco, on the trail from Challa-pata to Sucre,
there are considerable deposits of antimony, is regarded as
substantiating this strange fancy.3
Among
the Babylonians one of the most dreaded of the malign spiritual powers
was the terrible female demon Labastu, and a long series of amulets are
recommended, one or more of which should be worn to ward off her
pernicious influence. For some of these amulets precious stones were
used, and the effect of color, probably a determining circumstance in
the selection of the particular stone, was to be strengthened by the
color of the wrapping about the stone
* Browne, " Pueudodoxia Epidemica," London, 1650, Bk. II, chap. 5, p. 65. 'Scientific American, June 28, 1013, p. 575.
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