The notion that the tinkling and clanging of bells is a safeguard
against the influence of evil spirits, so common among Christian
nations, evidently prevailed also with the ancient Egyptians. Some
little hand-bells with representations of Typhon have been found in
Egyptian tombs, and are still preserved. The Hebrew high-priests had
bells attached to their garments, and the reason assigned to this usage,
given in Exodus xxviii., verse 35, is: "His sound shall be heard when he
goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that
he die not." Whatever may be the right interpretation of this
sentence--there are more than one--it cannot but remind us of the use
made by the ancient Egyptians of the Sistrum, the tinkling sounds of
which were considered indispensable in religious ceremonies. Nay, what
is more remarkable, the sistrum is still in use, being employed by the
priests of a Christian sect in Abyssinia; while the Copts, in Upper
Egypt, who are likewise Christians, shake in their religious
performances a tinkling instrument of metal, called _mar‚oueh_, avowedly
for the purpose of keeping off the Evil One. Moreover, the Shamans, in
Siberia, when preparing themselves for performing incantations, and for
prophesying, dress themselves in garments to which are attached tinkling
and rattling appendages. Likewise the "medicine men," or prophets of the
American Indians, when they engage in sorcery and invocation of spirits,
employ, if not tinkling metal, at least dried and rattling seed-pods,
loose bills of certain water birds, gourds containing pebbles, and
similar contrivances.
The old belief, even at the present day not uncommon, that bell-ringing
on the approach of a thunderstorm, and during its continuance, is a
protection against lightning, may not unfrequently have been conducive
to a deplorable accident, since the current of air produced by the
swinging of a bell is more likely to attract the electric fluid than, as
is supposed, to drive it away. In Prussia the old and cherished custom
of ringing bells during a thunderstorm was wisely forbidden by Frederick
the Great, in the year 1783, and his ordinance directed the prohibition
to be read in all the churches of the kingdom.