Notes & Queries Archive
REPLY1850

Emerods

By TREBOR.

"Golden emerods" would be an absurdity if *emerod* meant "emerald." "The Philistines made golden emerods," i.e. golden images of hæmorrhoids (diseased veins), in commemoration of being delivered from plagues, of which such states of disease were concomitant signs.

Topics: Philistines, Plagues, Historical Customs