ABSTRACT
The prehistoric Hebrews, like the nations round about them, made use of uninscribed amulets to protect them from the Evil Eye, and from hostile influences of every kind. Such amulets were made of semi-precious and precious stones, stones which possessed peculiar shapes or forms or were marked in some way naturally, berries of trees and plants, and grain of various kinds. According to Bischoff (Die Elemente der Kabbalah, ii. 190) animals could be protected from the assaults of devils and the Evil Eye by a fox's tail or by patches of some white substance placed between the eyes. A special stone was attached to the body of a pregnant woman to prevent miscarriage, and knotted cords or bands were tied to the new-born babe to preserve it from all evil. The prehistoric Hebrews probably possessed a far-reaching system of magic, but we do not know much about it. It is, however, quite clear that many of the magical practices which are made known to us by the Hebrew Bible were of very great antiquity, and were winked at by the lawgivers and prophets because it was impossible to put an end to them. Moses himself was so great a magician that he‘ defeated Pharaoh's magicians in their own arts, and when necessity demanded it he set up the brazen serpent, the belief in the power of which was undoubtedly of pagan origin. The Hebrews inherited much of their magic from the Sumerians and Babylonians, and many details of it survived among the Jews and others even after the Middle Ages. We read in the famous Epic that Gilgamish succeeded in obtaining speech with the spirit of his dead friend Enkidu through the good offices of Ea and Nergal, and Saul, the Lord's anointed, had recourse to the witch of Endor, who must have enjoyed a great reputation as a raiser of the spirits of the dead to obtain speech with the spirit of Samuel.
