Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/213

Rh heads are the very curious skull-masks from certain South Sea Islands. These are built up from parts of human skulls, pieced out with wood, cements, hair, and ornaments into horrid representations of faces. These are worn in dances and hence are true objects of dress.

The subject of amulets and charms would, of itself, furnish more material than could be used in our whole course of lectures. Scarcely any trinket or odd object exists that may not be worn upon the person "for luck," or to ward off danger or harm. All peoples use them. Savage, barbarian, and civilized man are alike here. Nubians are inveterate wearers of charms. Theirs usually consist of something done up in a red leathern case; the contents must not be known. For what will charms not be worn? I know American mothers who buy seeds—"Job's tears"—at drug-stores, to string them into a necklace to hang about the baby's neck to ward off eye troubles. The Bechuana mother strings beetles of a certain species and hangs them about the neck of her baby to help it in teething. Prof. Putnam found metacarpal bones of birds buried with babies in the little graves which he discovered under the hard clay floor of old house circles in Arkansas and Missouri. From analogy with modern Indian customs, he believes these were charms to help the child in cutting its teeth. We can not find that asafœtida is a specific for or a preventive of diphtheria, but we did find a small Afro-American who wore a little bag of it about his neck as a charm against the disease. Hundreds of Roman Catholic boys do not take off the medals they wear about their necks when they go in swimming, as these are a sure preventive against drowning. One of the most precious and beautiful amulets of history is that of which Moncure D. Conway tells us. It was a treasure from the past, owned by the Emperor Louis Napoleon III. It was set with a blaze of precious stones, the gifts of many princes. It descended to the Prince Imperial, who wore it as a watch-charm. He wore it when he was killed among the Zulus, and it is gone, no one knows where. Ah! if he had but known the rules