_Lammer Beads_--Lammer, or Lama beads are so called from an order of
priests of that name among the western Tartars. The Lamas are extremely
superstitious, and pretend to magic. Amber was in high repute as a charm
during the plague of London, and was worn by prelates of the Church. John
Baptist Van Helmont (_Ternary of Paradoxes_, London, 1650) says, that
"A translucid piece of amber rubbed on the jugular artery, on the hand
wrists, near the instep, and on the throne of the heart, and then hung
about the neck,"
was a most certain preventative of (if not a cure for) the plague; the
profound success of which Van Helmont attributes to its magnetic or
sympathetic virtue.