e!"

Warnings of approaching death are given in various ways. There are
ancient families to whom the ghosts of their ancestors appear before
the death of the chiefs or heads of the families. In one instance we
have heard that the ghost of an old murdered lady keeps wandering
through the castle halls shortly before any of the family dies; and in
another instance it is said that a mysterious light blazes from the
lofty battlements before the noble proprietor is laid low in death.

The falling of his portrait or statue is a sure presage of a great
man's death. Archbishop Laud, going into his study (which no one could
enter without him being present, as he invariably locked the door and
kept the key), found his portrait one day lying on its face on the
floor. He was extremely perplexed, for to him it was as his death
knell, and he commenced setting his house in order. The sad summons
was not long of coming, and death took him for its own.

AMULETS AND CHARMS.

CHAPTER XLV.

Amulets and Charms among the Chaldaeans, Jews, and
Persians--Amulets among the Greeks and
Romans--Ecclesiastics forbidden to wear Amulets and
Phylacteries--Amulets and Charms very
numerous--Pericles' Amulet--Lord Bacon's Opinion of
Charms--Cramp Rings and Eel Skins--Moss off a Dead
Man's Skull--How to remove Warts--Cure for St. Vitus'
Dance--Effect of Music--Kittens and Pigeons used as
Cures--Yawning and Laughing, Fear and Shame--Diseases
cured by Charms--Surprise a Cure for Hooping-cough--A
Mad Dog's Bite--Touch of a Torpedo--Philosophers'
Opinions of Amulets--Bane and Antidote--Mr. E.
Chambers on Amulets--Poets on Enchantments--A
Dairymaid's Charm--A Charm sent by a Pope to an
Emperor.

Amulets and charms were in great variety among the Chaldaeans, Jews,
and Persians. They were also held in estimation among the Greeks and
Romans, chiefly on account of their supposed virtue in exciting or
conquering the passion of love. The Council of Laodicea forbade
ecclesiastics to wear amulets and phylacteries, on pain of
degradation. St. Jerome was likewise opposed to their use.
Nevertheless, although amulets and charms are not held in the same
repute they once were, their efficacy is not supposed to be entirely
gone. Among early Christians amulets and charms were acknowledged to
possess peculiar virtues beneficial to man. Amulets and charms were,
and are,