" Among those who have written upon Neapolitan superstitions, one only is known to the writer who has alluded to the most curious of all the many charms worn there against the evil eye. Mr. Neville Rolfe, in Naples in 1888, gives a description of this remarkable amulet, to the infants of Naples just as common to-day as the "coral and bells" were until recently among ourselves."

We cannot find any notice of this charm throughout the Roman or mideval periods, nor indeed is there any amulet like it, known to the writer, in any of the museums where one would expect to find such things, except one. In the Bologna Museum among the very earliest Etruscan amulets is a small bronze object (which resembles the Cimaruta).

It is much to be regretted that no other ancient example of this kind can be produced..

..and that the "sprig-of-rue is one of the very oldest of existing amulets. We may safely give it an Etruscan or early Phoenician origin.

   The Double Sided Sprig-of-Rue measures 1.45"(w) x 1.65"(h) x 1/8"(t) and weighs over 1/2-troy ounce when cast in sterling.

The front of the pendant depicts four symbols intertwined at the end of the branches of the European Rue plant. These (5) symbols are: (in order from left to right)

1. a fish
2. a partial moon
3. a serpent wrapped around the moon
4. a key
5. and a five petaled flower

1. a double edge dagger
2. a partial moon
3. a serpent wrapped around the moon
4. a key
5. and a five petaled flower