[145] Metamorph. ii. 34.
[146] Ennemoser, i. 258, et seq.
[147] Caylus, vi. 295, Pl. xciii.
[148] Addison, (Tickell’s edit.,) v. 178.
[149] Since writing the above, we have come across Ennemoser’s History of Magic, who refers to these hands; and while he takes up with the notion of their being votive offerings, he refers to the extended fingers to show that a cure had been effected by magnetic manipulation. In reference to one particular specimen, the author considers the hand itself to be an appropriate emblem from having performed the cure. (Vol. i. p. 255.) This, then, does away with the idea that a cure in the hand itself was effected; and if we take away the hand, the remarkable figures with which it was studded do not seem to be connected with or emblematical of any kind of disease. All this brings us nearer to our notion, that these hands were used as amulets.
[150] Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, ii. 354.
[151] Fosbroke’s Encyc. of Antiquities, 246.
[152] Notes and Queries, v. 492.
[153] Whitlock’s Memoirs, p. 356.
[154] Fortescue de Laud. Legum Angl., cap. 50.