_Lammer Beads_ (Vol. iii. p. 84.).--If L. M. M. R. had taken the trouble to
consult Jamieson's _Etymological Dictionary_,--that rich storehouse of
curious information, not merely in relation to the language, but to the
manners and customs, and the superstitions of North Britain,--he would have
found interesting notices connected with his inquiry. See the word LAMMER,
and the same in the Supplement. We might accept, without a moment's
hesitation, the suggestion of a learned friend of Dr. Jamieson's, deriving
Lammer from the French, _l'ambre_, were it not that Kilian gives us Teut.
Lamertyn-steen, _succinum_. In Anglo-Saxon times it was called Eolhsand
(_Gloss. AElfr._), and appears to have been esteemed in Britain from a very
early period. Amongst antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon age, beads of amber
are of very frequent occurrence. Douglas has collected some interesting
notes regarding this substance, in his _Nenia_, p. 9. It were needless to
cite the frequent mention of _precularia_, or Paternosters, of amber,
occurring in inventories. The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, purchased
a most costly chaplet from a Parisian jeweller, in 1431, described as "une
patenostres a signeaux d'or et d'ambre musquet." (Leber, Inventaires, p.
235.) The description "de alba awmbre," as in the enumeration of strings of
beads appended to the shrine of S^r William, at York Minster, may have been
in distinction from jet, to which, as well as to amber, certain virtuous or
talismanic properties were attributed. There were, however, several kinds
of amber,--_succinum rubrum_, _fulvum_, &c. The learned professor of
Copenhagen, Olaus Worm, alludes to the popular notions and superstitious
use of amber--
"Foris in collo gestatum, contra fascinationes et nocturna
terriculamenta pueros tueri volunt; capitis etiam destillationibus, et
tonsillarum ac faucium vitiis resistere, oculorum fluxus et ophthalmias
curare."
By his account it would seem to have been received as a panacea, sovereign
for asthma, dropsy, toothache, and a multitude of diseases.
"In summa (he concludes) Balsami instar est, calorem nativum roborans
et morborum insultibus resistens."--_Museum Wormianum_, p. 32.
Bartholomaeus Glanvilla, in his work, _De Proprietatibus Rerum_, has not
overlooked the properties of amber, which he seems to regard as a kind of
jet (book xvi., c. xlix.).
"Gette, hyght Gagates, and is a boystous stone, and never the les it is
precious."
He describes it as most abundant and of best quality in Britain of two
kinds, yellow and black; it drives away adders,--
"Is contrary to fendes,--helpeth for fantasies and ayenste vexacions of
fendis by night.--And so, if so boystus a stone dothe so great wonders,
none shuld be dispisid for foule colour without, while the vertu that
is within is unknowe." (Translation by Trevisa.)