Ahrens, W.

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W AR ClIAKMS AND KINDRED AMULETS. 51\A'AR CHARMS AND KINDRED AMULETS.'BY W. A II REN S.**"^E sais ccrtaincuient que hi reviendras:' A Bavarian aviationI officer when driving- over a battlefield read this legend on agolden amulet found on the body of a dead French soldier. Ananxious mother or fond sweetheart must have bestowed the charmwith her parting tears and blessings upon this scion of a noble house.It is said that talisman letters written in Arabic characters are oftenfound on fallen Turcos, and it accords with the irony of a mercilessfate that the deadly lead sometimes reaches the very spot where theprotective letter is lying, piercing through it to the breast of thewearer. Since the diplomats and stategists of the Entente Powershave chosen the ancient historic ground of France for the locationof their ethirological exposition, a collector and antiquarian in thislocality could make an interesting collection, or at least a variedone, on the battle-fields of to-day.From times immemorial superstition has flourished in war-time, and the same is true again to-day. and on one side as muchas on the other. For instance, in some localities in Saxony thereis said to be a busy trade in "letters from heaven" (Flimmelsbriefe)at prices ranging from twenty to twenty-five marks each, and evenin the very first days of the war in 1914 the press took occasionproperly to brand the recommendation of protective charms as aconscienceless exploitation of superstition and ignorance. All thesetools of occultism and magic must have existed in secret for manyyears and decades hidden away in chests and shops. As soon asthe fanfare of war sounded these also hastened to the colors tojoin the standards of every belligerent army. It has been the samein all European wars of the last century, not excepting the Warof Liberation nor that of 1870-71. In the Crimean War every Frenchsoldier from the simplest puihi to General Canrobert carried hischarm with him. In those days physicians found whole collectionsof the most various kinds of amulets combined in the closestintimacy on many a fallen Frenchman ; next to a Christian charm aTurkish one and sometimes CAcn a Hebrew one besides. TwoFrench generals carried fragments of the holy cross with them, andPrince Napoleon, the well-known "Plon-Plon" who was in the^ Translated from Das JVcltall of January, 1915, by Lydia G. Robinson.52 THE OPEN COURT.forefront of the expedition, was likewise said to have carried acharm supposed to make him invulnerable.The formula in which we invariably find this superstition ex-pressed in all occult writings is "To make proof against blow, shotand thrust" (hicb-, schiiss- und stichfest machen). An executionerin Passau, Kaspar Neithart by name, is said to have discoveredthis art three centuries ago, so it was called after him the "Passauart." It was defined as a secret art wdiose adepts "could not bewounded by rapier nor dagger, and who could receive musket ballsin their sleeves and catch them with their hands," in the words ofBartholemew Anhorn in his Magiologia, a work of the year 1674.To tell the truth, the priority of Master Neithart may well be con-tested, as Gustave Freytag, among others, has justly observed inhis Bilder aus der deitfschcn Vergangenheit. For this war super-stition is much older ; it was current in ancient Egypt, and in Ger-man antiquity Tacitus tells of tiny images representing boars whichthe Aestii carried with them as war charms.In modern times during the seventeenth century this superstitionreached its zenith in the long wars. Executioners and monksespecially plied this trade and sold the famous "Passau slips" whichthe superstitious warrior either wore upon his person or even, forgreater security, swallowed. For the most part the dealers foundwilling and grateful customers, and that duke who was so cautiousas to try the efficacy of the highly commended amulet on the venderhimself and thoroughly test its merits was probably almost the onlyskeptic of his time. In contrast to him Charles XII regarded him-self as immune, and the old Duke of Dessau and Frederick theGreat were surround;d by halos of invulnerability in the eyes oftheir soldiers.The Croatians were obliged to invent a special mode of deathfor a certain equerry of IJernhard of Weimar who likewise boretiie rei)Utation of being proof against shot or thrust. Since hecould not be killed by gun or sword they buried him in the earthso that only his head showed above and then they bowled him todeath. Xor did the peoi>le in those days stop with man but alsoturned their magic arts upon the animal that is preeminently thebeast of war. Thus we hear of invulnerable horses and occasionallyalso of dogs, and one chronicler even tells about a herring that wasimmune, so that it could not be sliced and therefore could not fulfilthe purpose of its existence..Special salves ( IVaffeiisalben ) were also used by soldiers tomake them inxulnerable, and "magic shirts" served and still serveWAR CHARMS AND KIXDRl'.H AMULETS. 53a similar purpose in the Orient. .\ magic shirt of this kind is pre-served under glass in the municipal armory in \^ienna. It was wornby no less a person than the Grand \'izier Kara Mustafa who laidsiege to Vienna in 1683. Another Turkish dignitary, a certain Begwho had been taken prisoner at Warna in 1828, was of the firmconviction that he owed his rare good fortune in surviving thisbattle unwounded to the magic shirt he wore, and this same shirtis preserved to-day in the Xeukloster monastery at W'iener-Neu-stadt. The famous Orientalist Josef von Hammer-Purgstall hasdescribed these two magic shirts in detail—by no means a simpletask, especially in the case of the latter. This one is completelyembroidered over with the longest and most strenuous formulas ofconjuration, prayers, talismanic numbers and symbols, so that itrepresents a whole prayer book, a regular encyclopedia of talismanicutterances from the Koran, and benedictions whose mere repetitionwould fill an imposing pamphlet.These magic shirts were made in Arabia and for the most partin Bagdad, and very definite prescriptions must be observed punc-tiliously in their manufacture if the talisman is really to serve asa positive protection. The shirt must be made from start to finishon one certain definite night in the year, to be determined by magi-cians and astrologers. It must be completed by sunrise from thespinning and weaving of the cotton to the embroidering of all thecountless prayers, etc. Forty pure virgins must perform this entirelabor, which is no slight task, and if afterwards the magic shirtshould fail to afl:'ord its wearer the expected protection, this onlyproves that some one of the indispensable prescriptions and con-ditions for its manufacture has not been obeyed or carefully ful-filled.Coins have also been utilized as war amulets to a large extent.In the Thirty Years' War the Mansfeld dollars with St. George andthe Dragon, especially those of 1609 to 1611, were greatly in demand,and soldiers gladly paid twenty or thirty current dollars for one ofthem. A well-founded report relates how one ofificer succeeded inescaping with his life from an engagement only because he hadcarried a St. George dollar ( Gorycntaler) of this particular kind.Then, too, medals with the figure of the grim and warlike Marsand often covered with cabalistic names and symbols served warriorsas amulets of ofifense and defense, and since this particular classof war amulet arouses a greater interest on account of its relationto astrology and often to arithmetic as well, we have here set our-selves the task of illustrating and explaining some of this sort of54 THE OPEN COURT.medals. Figures 1- and 2 represent two such Mars amulets. Theoriginals are to be found in the history of art department collectionof Austria Hungary at \^ienna in the division of coins and medals,which is probably the richest collection of amulets in the world.Fig. 1.Turning now to describe the two amulets the first thing thatstrikes us is the figure of an armed warrior with sword, helmet andshield. It is impossible to have any doubt about the personality ofthe warrior. He carries his visiting card with him, so to speak,in both instances. In Figure 1 at the left below the sword werecognize the well-known symbol which stands both for the planetand the planetary deity Mars and in Figure 2 we find the samesymbol above the head of the warrior in the center of the star sup-posed to represent his planet, and then too between its rays wecan even read the name Mars The Hebrew word to be seen oneither side of the war-god's head in Figure 1 reads "Camael," andaccording to the strange teachings of the Cabala it denotes thetutelary angel of Mars, just as Gabriel for instance was the angelof the moon. The animals that we see on both amulets at the feetof Mars are a ram and a scorpion. These denote the two constella-tions of the zodiac which have a place .on our Mars amulet, becauseAries and Scorpio are regarded by astrology as the mansions ofMars, just as Leo was the -mansion of the sun and Taurus and LibraWAR CHARMS AND KlNDRl'".!) AM ULl^I'lS. • 55the mansions of X'enus. The animal above Mars's head on Figure 1may be similarly accounted for. It is a goat and belongs here be-cause according to a strange teaching of astrology it is in this con-stellation of Capricorn that Mars attains his elevation, his so-calledv\f/(ofia. Most of the other strange names and signs to be seen inour Figure 1 have also some special reference to Mars. Here, toselect at least one instance, we read in the letters around the edgeof the obverse the word Annap.it., and the same word is also foundon the reverse. It is probably a corruption of Amabiel which inthe writings of the Cabala was the name of one of the angels of theday of Mars, i. e.. Tuesday {mardi = Martis dies). Likewise themagic squares to be found on the reverse of both of our amuletsbear a special relation to Alars, since each contains the numbers from1 to 25 in magic construction.So everything on these two amulets refers to the god of warand is definitely dedicated to Mars and war. The first one is in-tended to be worn around the neck as is shown by the hole, and itspossessor, some soldier or other, must have worn it in the confidencethat this trinket inspired by Mars would give him the power toslaughter the enemy and yet to remain himself unharmed by anyhostile "shots, blows or thrusts."Through the traditionally close relation between Venus andMars in Grecian antiquity the goddess of love also furnishes amuletsof protection to fighting men. To be sure most Venus amulets arenot thought of as war charms but as love charms. I shall here takeFig. 3.the liberty of presenting in Figure 3 a specimen of Venus amuletsfrom the collection of medals in the Bibliotheque Nationale inParis. On the obverse we see the goddess of love pictured in theusual way with long streaming hair, though apparently covered with56 THE OPEN COURT.a sort of veil, a long arrow in her right hand and in her left aflaming heart. At her feet we find a balance, Libra being one ofthe two mansions of Venus, as was incidentally mentioned above.The numerical square on the reverse is given in Hebrew characters,as is often the case in these charms. It is of course the planetaryFig. 4.seal belonging to \'enus, that is, a magic square of 49 cells. Figure4 translates it into our own numbers, each row, each column andeach of the two diagonals all yield the sum 175.\'ienna and Paris, friend and foe, have furnished us the speci-mens of war charms which we have discussed and illustratedhitherto, so now in conclusion a neutral country offers an amuletwhich is very remarkable and certainly unique in its way. Theroyal collection of coins and medals in Copenhagen possesses anamulet of gilded silver which we reproduce in Figure 5. Its dis-tinctiveness lies in the fact that its obverse and reverse sides areof entirely unrelated character and of absolutely different origin.On the obverse we see St. George mounted on a charger and beforehim the mangled form of his conquered foe. The picture shows thebattle scene at the moment in which the knight is thrusting hislance down the dragon's mouth while poisonous fumes are issuingfrom the monster's yawning throat.We have already mentioned certain sorts of Mans feld St.George dollars that have been used as war amulets, and althoughour special picture of the knight is not found on any of the Mans-feld or Kremnitz. coins, yet this St. George, together with theastrological and cabalistic character of the reverse side of themedals, leaves no doubt that we have here to deal with an actualamulet, and it is equally certain that it is a war amulet. The makerof the charm evidently wished to heighten the efficacy of themiracle-working trinket and so combined the St. George motivewith a reverse borrowed from a certain astrological charm, as weWAR CitAK.MS AM) KINDKICl) AMULETS. 57shall soon see. I was most kiiully informed by Colonel von Kretsch-mar in Dresden, the owner of the richest collection of St. Greorgecoins and medals, that the representative of St. George on the ob-verse of our amulet was taken from one of the lead models forgoldsmiths so plentiful in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,and that this medal was in the old museum at Berlin as late as in'f/'Vrf 'i'Fig. 5.the seventies, although I cannot say anything about its furtherwhereabouts except that it is not to be found in the collection ofplacques in the Emperor Frederick Museum. So much for theobverse of our St. George amulet.Its reverse, on the other hand, is taken from an astrologicalcabalistic amulet which we reproduce in Figure 6 for purposes of58 THE OPEN COURT.comparison. To discover the nature of this medal we must firstof all study its obverse which shows a crowned king sitting on athrone with his scepter in his right hand and in his left hand animage of the sun. This together with the symbol of the sun nearFig. 6.by at the right and the name Sol above at the left show that theking represents the sun-god in a favorite treatment. Many of theother names and symbols refer to the sun, but we will not enter intothem more closely here, since this entire amulet is of only incidentalinterest to us on account of its connection with Figure 5.Let us mention only one more point here in connection withan earlier observation. We have already said incidentally that Leowas selected by astrology as the mansion of the sun. This choice isexceptional in having—in contrast to the other decrees of astrology—a certain astronomical and meteorological justification, for in thedog days when we are most intensely conscious of the sun it actuallystands in the constellation of Leo. So it is a matter of course thatthe lion should form an essential element of our medal. We seea lion below the sun-god's feet ; the familiar sign of its constellationis to be found on both sides of the amulet; the name Verhiel (onthe obverse) denotes the angel that controls the Hon. According toall these indications Figure 6 depicts a typical sun-amulet. Sincegold was regarded by alchemists and astrologers as the metal sacredto the sun the strict rules of magic decreed that our sun should beproduced only in gold, and indeed this particular amulet, which isby no means rare, is found in gold for instance in the royal Saxoncoin cabinet in Dresden (two specimens), in the Germanic nationalmuseum at Nuremburg and also in two specimens in the Viennacollections mentioned above. The numerical square on the reverseis of course corresponding to the character of the whole, the typicaltabula solis, the 36-celled magic square which in all its rows, columnsWAR ClIAKMS AND KINDRED AAFULETS. 59aiul tliagonals yields the .sum 111. Now this reverse, or possiblythat of another closely related sun-amulet, has served as a modelfor the reverse of the Copenhagen war-charm in Figure 5, little asone" can regard a sun-amulet as usable for war purposes. The onlydifference between the two reverse sides is that the two -centralcolumns of the numerical square are interchanged, a variation whichin no wise disturbs its magical properties, that is, the ec[ual summa-tion of the various rows.These are strange and curious doctrines at which we havebriefly glanced : science and superstition bound together into astrange hybrid formation, arithmetic and astronomy in league withmagic and astrology. Indeed these services which science and herrepresentatives were compelled to render to superstition in pastcenturies and which are nevertheless only too easily comprehensiblein the setting of a period in which scholars were often forced intosuch by-paths in the struggle with the material necessities of life—furnishes a picture in the history of civilization which is by nomeans a gratifying one. T\ven a Kepler was forced to complain ofthe unworthy dependence of astronomy upon her degenerate daugh-ter, astrology. "Indeed this Astrologia is but a foolish daughter,but, good Lord ! where would her mother, the highly reasonableAstronomia, be if she did not have her foolish daughter? Theworld is much more foolish, so foolish in fact that the sensible oldmother must be talked over and deceived by her daughter's folly.-Vnd the mathcmaticonim salaria is so small that the mother wouldcertainly suffer hunger if the daughter earned nothing."Such astrological amulets as we have here described may notbe found among soldiers to-day or only in isolated cases, but insteadof them there are war charms of every other possible form. Gen-erals of all times, even when themselves entirely devoid of super-stition, have willingly given free rein to such follies, for the morefirmly the soldier trusts in his secret remedies the greater bravadowill he show in plunging into the tumult of battle. Of course ina war that is waged with the weapons of the most advanced tech-nique not much success can be expected of soldiers whose courageis rooted in superstition and brutal savagery. Among modernsoldiers, and particularly Germans, proficiency and valor rest upona strict sense of duty, upon virile training and above all on a goodeducation in military and other affairs, and it is exactly these thingswhich must deliver them from all superstition.

War Charms and Kindred Amulets.

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War Charms and Kindred Amulets.

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