AMULETS: ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, ORIENTAL 339
The
giving of corals to new-born infants' was expressly forbidden in 1708
in the bishopric of Bamberg, because of the superstition connected
therewith, although Christian painters of the fourteenth century often
represented the child Jesus as holding corals in his hand. The
persistence of the superstition as to the Evil Eye and the belief that
coral safeguarded the wearer therefrom, have impressed many cultured
Italians of our day, and even so able and clear-headed a statesman as
prime minister Crispi is said never to have gone to a parliamentary
sitting without having with him a coral amulet.40
Some
characteristic Hindu amulets figure the god Jagan-nath (Lord of the
World), or associated divinities, and also symbols related to the
worship of this form of Krishna.41 In the month Joyestha
(May-June) his world-renowned temple at Puri in Orissa is thronged
with pilgrims from all parts of India, and on the great festival day
his image and those of his brother Balarana and of his sister Subhadra
are taken out of the sanctuary and placed in an elaborately decorated
car, which is drawn through the streets of the city. The readiness of
fanatical believers to sacrifice their lives by casting themselves
beneath the wheels of this ponderous car, has made the expression "Car
of Jagannath" almost a household word, freely used by those who know
little or nothing about Hindu religion. The English Government has long
since put a stop to these reckless and useless martyrdoms.
Many
of these amulets are made of a black steatite. One represents Krishna
(Jagannath) standing and playing on a flute, another figures this
avatar of Vishnu with his wife
40 " Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart," ed. by Friedrich Michael Schiele, vol. i, Tübingen, 1909, col. 455.
°
Enrico H. Giglioli, "Di alcuni ex-voto amuleti, ed altri oggetti litici
adoperati nel culto di Krishna, sotto la forma di Jagan-natha a Puri in
Orissa," Archivio per l'Antropologia, vol. xxiii, pp. 87-89; Firanzi,
1893.
