an Indian prince, presented by him to Apollonius
of Tyana, who, at the age of a hundred, was
restored by their virtue to the freshness and
strength of thirty; a fortune-telling ring, mentioned
by Ammianus Marcellinus, which was
consulted to reveal who should succeed the
Emperor Valens (as we now consult our Planchettes);
and a ring commemorated by Petrarch,
which was found in the mouth of a dead woman
with whom Charlemagne was desperately in love.
It was the quality of some of the talismanic
rings of the Arabians, not merely to preserve the
wearers from poison, to cure diseases, and to
drive away evil spirits, but to make all whom
the owners desired to affect in that way, passionately enamoured of them. With the early
Egyptians, talismans were more frequently
fashioned in the shape of gods, men, and animals,
than in that of rings. Sometimes these figures
were carved on plants, branches of trees, or
roots. Stones wrought into the shape of beetles
were thought to be very effectual in procuring
strength and courage; because, says Ælian, this
animal has no female, and is an image of the
sun. Frogs, represented in the same way, were
also held in great repute; which gave Pliny
occasion to remark that, if we are to believe
such traditions, "a parcel of frogs ought to be
esteemed more significant in a commonwealth
than a body of laws." An old historian relates
that a philosopher put a stop to a plague at
Antioch, by a stone which had engraved on it a
head of Charon. Apollonius made use of the
figures of storks and serpents. Gregory of
Tours relates that the city of Paris was for some
ages preserved from fire and other calamities by
a serpent and a mouse of brass; but that a little
before the conflagration of the year 588 these
talismans were unfortunately dug up from under
the arch of a bridge. In like manner, Virgilius
the Enchanter, according to the old story books,
preserved Rome from rebellion, by statues of
armed knights, and Naples from flies and leeches
by figures of those creatures in brass and gold;
and thus was Constantinople protected from
storks by a magical effigy of that bird, from
plague by the image of a knight, and from
snakes by a brazen serpent. When Mahomet
II. took the capital of the Eastern empire, say
some gossiping historians, he broke the teeth
of this metal serpent: whereupon, a prodigious
number of snakes made their appearance in the
city; but, luckily for the people, they all had
their teeth broken, like the figure of the
guardian serpent which the Turk had so foolishly
misused.*
* See Collier's Dictionary. Arts.: Rings and
Talismans.

Not in itself a talisman, yet acquiring something
of a talismanic character, was that wedding-ring
which a certain young nobleman of Rome,
newly married, placed one day on the outstretched
finger of a brazen statue of Venus, while he was
playing at ball in his garden, together with his
friends. The story is related by William of
Malmesbury in his Chronicle of the Kings of
England (book ii. ch. xiii.); and the incidents
are briefly as follows:—The young nobleman,
having completed his game, went to the statue
to resume his ring, but found the finger clenched
fast in the palm of the hand. His efforts to
remove the ring or to unbend the finger were
fruitless; and for a while he gave up the attempt.
But, going again in the dead of night, he was
astonished to see the finger once more extended,
and the ring gone. In utter dismay, he retired
to bed, where he was conscious of something
dense and cloud-like lying beside him; and at
the same time heard a voice, saying, "I am
Venus, whom you wedded to-day—on whose
finger you put the ring: I have it, and will not
restore it." This continued night after night
for a long while; and the young nobleman was
then advised by the bride's parents to follow
the directions of one Palumbus, a priest and
sorcerer. This person gave the bridegroom a
letter, and told him to go at night into the high
road where it divided into four several ways,
and to stand there in dumb expectation. A procession
of diverse people of both sexes, some
on horseback, and some not, would pass by;
but with these he was not to exchange a word,
even if they should address him. Then would
follow the chief of that company, riding in a
chariot adorned with emeralds and pearls; to
whom the letter was to be delivered in profound
silence. The young nobleman went to the spot
at the prescribed time, and the procession moved
past, exactly as had been foretold. At last came
the chief, who, looking sternly on the intruder,
demanded the occasion of his visit. He, stretching
out his hand in dead silence, gave the necromancer's
letter to the demon, who read it
through, and, lifting his eyes to heaven, solemnly
asked how long the crimes of the priest Palumbus
were to be permitted to endure! The devil
then sent one of his attendants to take the ring by
force from Venus, who parted from it with great
reluctance. Thus were matters set right, as
far as the young nobleman was concerned; but
Palumbus, on hearing what the demon had said
about him, concluded that his time was come.
Accordingly, he made atonement by cutting off
all his limbs, having previously confessed incredible
iniquities in the presence of the Pope and
the Roman people.

The ghastliest talisman on record is "The
Hand of Glory," or dead man's candle, at one
time thought to be used by burglars. The hand
must be that of a murderer hung in chains. It
must be the right hand,— that is to say, the
hand that has done the deed. After blanching
it in the sun, with many mystical ceremonies,
the candle is to be placed within the white and
marrowless fingers. This candle is to be composed
mainly of the fat of a murderer scooped
from under a wayside gibbet; and the wick is
to be made from the dead criminal's hair. According
to the old tradition, the light of this
awful candle has such an effect on those who
see it that they are unable to move or cry out;
so that he who holds it may ransack the room
at his leisure, and set all resistance at defiance.