Reference: Amulets And Charms
Hastings
1. The custom of wearing amulets (amuletum from Arabic root = 'to carry') as charms to protect the wearer against the malign influence of evil spirits, and in particular against 'the evil eye,' is almost as wide-spread as the human race itself. Children and domestic animals are supposed to be specially subject to such influence, and to-day 'in the Arabic border lands there is hardly a child, or almost an animal, which is not defended from the evil eye by a charm' (Doughty). The Jews were in this respect like the rest of the world, and in the Talmud it is said that ninety-nine deaths occur from the evil eye to one from natural causes (see Magic Divination and Sorcery).
2. RV has substituted 'amulets' for AV 'ear-rings' in Isa 3:20, the Heb. word being elsewhere associated with serpent-charming. There is nothing to indicate their precise nature or shape. Our knowledge of early Palestinian amulets has been greatly increased by the recent excavations at Gezer, Taanach, and Megiddo. These have brought to light hundreds of amulets, bewildering in their variety of substance and form