Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/423

 Collectanea. 409

a '■^ Pietra Crocina" or '■^ della Croce" and serves against witches and sorcery.^

An object made of the same mottled brown, yellow, and white hardstone as the specimen referred to supra, vol. xxiv., p. 67^ Fig. 14, and resembling in shape a small neolithic axe which has been greatly waterworn, w'as obtained at Madrid ; it lacks the silver mounting of the other specimen referred to, but otherwise it is very similar to it. The vendor, when asked in a general manner as to its purpose, said that he believed it to be an amulet.

Fig. 24. A thin slab of black serpentine, mounted in silver ; Madrid. The stone shows at one end traces of a perforation now broken through ; the present silver binding, probably put on after the breaking of the end, shows traces of much usage. I could obtain no information concerning the intention of this specimen. As the material would serve as a touchstone, the object may have been possibly merely the testing-stone, conveniently mounted, of a buyer of precious metals.

Fig, 25. A representation of a pecten shell (an emblem of St. James of Compostella) of jet, mounted in silver; Madrid. (For some notes on jet and on its association with St. James of Com- postella, cf. supra, vol. xxv., pp. 206 sqq.)

Aliscellaneous. — Fig 26. An elongated polished red coral bead, mounted in silver ; Madrid.

Fig. 27. An Oliva (? Oliva irisans) shell, in a silver socket; Madrid. Probably a child's pendant ; compare the Oliva shell mounted with bells and a chain, described supra, vol. xxiv., p. 69, Fig. 25, These shells owe their selection as amulets, I imagine, partly to their pointed form, but largely to the natural designs formed of numerous intersecting, or wavy, and broken lines (com- pare description of Fig. 35, infra).

Fig. 28. A dried sea-horse (hippocampus) ; Seville. From a shop where it was kept, with others, for sale to women, to be carried by them in order to secure an abundance of milk during nursing.^

' Bellucci, op. cit.. Tablet v.

2 Dried sea-horses are used with the same intention in various parts of Italy ; for an example, cf. Bellucci, op. cit.. Tablet xi., No. 7. I do not know the