Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/476

 45 8 Collectanea.

same source as a modern Moorish decorative symbol, much like it, representing the protective number five?- A similar symbol, between the horns of a crescent, is a favourite decoration of Algerian amulet pouches ; to some Algerians its meaning was unknown; to others it represented a star. An almost identical crescent was obtained at Toledo.

(i6, VII.) A boar's tusk, mounted with chains as a pendant; Seville. This amulet was said to have been worn by a woman to secure abundance of milk during nursing ; no confirmation, or other instance of this belief was obtained.

(17, VII.) A boar's tusk, mounted in metal; Madrid. A usual type.

(18, VII.) A boar's tusk, mounted in silver, with small bells ; Granada. An amulet for children.

(19, VII.) A crustacean's claw, mounted in silver; Granada.

Hands. Hands occur in two forms in Spanish amulets ; hands making the " fig " gesture, and open hands. The former, in the shape of a closed fist whose thumb protrudes between the index and middle fingers, is the mano fica of the Italians, and is identical in form with the ancient Roman and Phoenician, and probably prehistoric, charms against the evil eye. This hand, which the Romans left wherever they founded colonies, was until recently a favourite Spanish amulet, but although it is still extensively employed in Portugal, it has, judging from the cheap ornaments and trinkets for sale on street stands, in the markets, and at the silversmiths' shops, almost or entirely lost its former vogue in Spain. Despite the fact that the only hands of this type met with, having the simple form, were of coral or of glass, it may reasonably be assumed that anciently numbers of such made of bone, of cow's horn, or of some similarly cheap material were used, just as in Portugal to-day, and that these, being neither beautiful nor curious, have disappeared.^

^ Westermarck, "The Magic Origin of Moorish Designs, "yijz^rw. Anth. Inst., vol. xxxiv. , 1904.

2 Mr. C. J. Tabor has called my attention to the fact that these hands are, or were until quite recently, worn at the neck, or at the wrist, or