Rare Magic Charms Discovered at Harvard

Anyone
who believes in magic, even a little bit, can’t help but be excited by
today’s announcement out of the University of Cincinnati. It seems
that John Brolley, a professor of Religious Studies there, has been hard
at work for over a year translating four little books of Syriac charms
he came across at Harvard’s Houghton Library (who knew?). And he has
discovered between 200 and 400 authentic magic charms, including such
extremely practical ones as charms designed to correct a disobedient
child, a charm to ward off gunfire, and a charm to make the
judge favorable to you when you have a court appearance. I suspect that
the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense are competing for the
anti-gunfire charm, but I bet the rest are up for grabs.

If that Professor Brolley has a lick of business sense he’ll forget
about "publishing his results" and sell off these charms one at a time,
perhaps in some sort of worldwide Dutch auction, with sealed bids coming
in from around the globe. Or E-bay, which is basically the same thing.
See,
by
limiting supply to just ONE of each charm, demand will go through the
roof.  Price will follow. Trust me, I teach business, I know about
these things. Why, the competitive bidding for the Favorable-Judge charm
alone will set you up for life.

Anyway, here are the details:

John Brolley, University of Cincinnati program director for Religious
Studies, has been at work for more than a year translating four little
books of Syriac charms that are among the rare collections at Harvard
University. Brolley believes the leather-bound books, dating back to
the 17th and 18th centuries, may have once belonged to a priest who would
have lived in Urmia, a region in Kurdistan that is one of a handful of
Aramaic-speaking regions worldwide. Syriac, though now used almost exclusively
in church liturgy, is one dialect of Aramaic.

from
the University of Cincinnati via Eureka Alert