As already intimated, the Chaldeans attributed special virtues to certain numbers, of which seven would seem to have been the most highly esteemed. Unfortunately, none of their numerical formulæ have as yet been discovered. The “mamit” or “number” has been referred to before. Lenormant remarks: “More powerful than the incantations were conjurations wrought by the power of numbers. In this way the supreme secret which Hea taught to his son, Silik-mulu-khi, when he consulted him in his distress, was always called ‘the number.’”[491]
A remnant of the old belief in the relation of seven to health is the wide-spread superstitious notion that the seventh son of the seventh son is possessed of special healing powers. Curiously enough, I had a visit from such a person, just before writing this; and he as firmly believes that he can cure “the evil” and other ills with certainty as any king that ever exercised the royal gift.
The color red has long served the purpose of an amulet. To this day a red string is occasionally seen around the necks of children to protect them against scarlet fever and other pestilential diseases; and the belief in the special virtue of red flannel is almost universal. Says Aubrey: “Johannes Medicus, who lived and wrote in the time of Edward II, and was Physition to that king, gives an account of his curing the prince of ye small-pox, a disease but then lately known in England, by ordering his bed, his room, and his attendants to be all in scarlet, and imputes ye cure in great measure to the virtue of ye colour.”[492] The same was done in the case of the Emperor Francis I, in 1765.
Of red it is certainly true that it is a warm color; and the impression of it on the mind is stimulating. Experiments have shown that different colors exert various influences over living forms, including man.
But, although medical virtues have been ascribed to red, it has been looked on as anything but good. Says Ebers: “In the ‘Papyrus-Ebers’ all injurious and evil things are called red.”[493] The scorching sands of the desert, likely, gave the Egyptian his dislike to the color. In the Hindu book of the law,[494] a man is forbidden to marry a girl with reddish hair, but why is not stated. Satan is usually given a suit of fiery hue.
The Ankh was a symbol of the Egyptians signifying life. It received the Latin name of crux ansata, or handled cross, from its shape. Sometimes it is spoken of as the key of life. Each of the great divinities carries one. “We do not know,” says Kenrick, “the reason why life was represented by the crux ansata.”[495] It seems, however, that the object was at first simply a crossed pole, used to measure the degree of rise in the waters of the Nile during the period of flood, an annual occurrence of vital importance to the inhabitants of the historic region. From this originated, according to Pluche and others, the meaning of life attached to it. In the hand of Thoth, a serpent was sometimes twined around it. From it has sprung, according to Gerald Massey, many modern symbols and words. “It is extant,” says he, “in the great seals of England, in a reversed position, as the token of power and authority;”[496] and he ventures to affirm that “to be anxious is to be very much alive.”[497]
Fig. 22.—Ankh, or Crux Ansata.
Regarded as a Tau or T[498] with a link attached, it was often interpreted as Typhon chained. As such it was customary to suspend it as an amulet from the necks of children and sick people; and it was connected with the wrappings of mummies. M. Pluche, who has gone at length into this interesting subject, says: “This custom of bridling the powers of the enemy, and of hanging a captive Typhon about the necks of children, of sick persons, and of the dead, appeared so beneficial and so important that it was adopted by other nations. The children and the sick most commonly wore a ticket, whereon was a T, which they looked upon as a powerful preventive. In process of time, other characters were substituted in the room of the letter T, which was at first engraved on this ticket, but of which the other nations understood neither the meaning nor intention. They often put a serpent on it, an Harpocrates, or the object of the devotions in vogue; nay, sometimes ridiculous figures, or even some that were of the utmost indecency. But the name of amulet that was given to the ticket, and which signifies the removal of evil, most naturally represents the intention of the Egyptians, from whom this practice came.”[499]
