the mystic word ANAMZAPTUS is a charm against epilepsy, if pronounced in a man's ear when he is fallen in the evil, and for a woman the prescribed formula is ANAMZAPTA. By this is ascertained the import of the following legend on an ancient ring—ihc T ananizapta + xpi + T. On another ring, found in Coventry Park, was read the same word, ANANYZAPTA, with various curious devices[1].
Before quitting this curious subject of the use of physical charms inscribed upon personal ornaments, it may not be irrelevant to recur to the elegant little brooch of gold, in the form of an A set with five gems, found near Devizes, and exhibited by Mr. Herbert Williams at the meeting of the Institute at Winchester[2]. It bore on one side the letters A G L A, which occur as part of a physical charm against fevers in the Stockholm MS., with the sign of the cross between each letter, and succeeded by the names Jaspar, Melchysar, Baptizar[3]. The same mysterious word is likewise found on a thin gold ring, discovered in a garden at Newark, about the year 1741, and thus inscribed—AGLA . THALCVT . CALCVT . CATTAMA[4].
The use of rings accounted to possess some talismanic virtue might be further shewn in regard to "the king's cramp rings," highly esteemed on the continent as well as in England, as we learn from a letter addressed to Ridley by Bishop Gardner, who designated them as endued by "the special gift of curation ministered to the kings of this realm." A more homely remedy for the same disorder is pointed out in "Withal's Little Dictionary."
"The bone of a haires foote closed in a ring
Will drive away the cramp, when as it doth wring."
A curious passage occurs in a letter addressed by Lord Chancellor Hatton to Sir Thomas Smith, preserved in one of the Harl. MSS., relating to an epidemic at that time prevalent. "I am likewise bold to commend my most humble duty to our deer mistress (Queen Elizabeth) by this letter and ring, which hath the virtue to expell infectious airs, and is (as it telleth me) to be worn betwixt the sweet duggs, the chaste nest of pure constancy. I trust, Sir, when the virtue is known, it shall not be refused for the value."
Two sepulchral effigies of diminutive dimensions exist in Pembrokeshire, which have not been included in the list given by Mr. Walford, in his notice of the little effigy at Horsted Keynes[5]. Sketches of these figures have been communicated by Mr. Thomas Allen, of Freestone Hall, Tenby. One of them, much defaced, appears to have been intended to represent a female, with a coverchief thrown over her head. The slab is narrower at the lower end than at the head, where it terminates in a pointed arch, crocketed, and forming a sort of canopy over the figure. This was found
- ↑ Archæologia, xviii. 306. Allusion is often made in the early romances to the credited virtues of precious stones, and talismanic rings, as in Sir Eglamour, v. 715; Sir Perceval De Galles, v. 1860, c.
- ↑ Proceedings of the Archæol. Instit. Winchester, p. xxiv.
- ↑ Archæologia, xxx. 400.
- ↑ Camden's Brit., ed. Gough, ii. 404. See a notice of a curious talismanic ring against leprosy, Archæol., xxi. 25, 120.
- ↑ Archæol. Journal. See p. 234 of this volume.
