Peist, undated

Magical signs against harm: The researcher of legends, Arnold Büchli (1885-1970) who worked in Graubünden, again and again donated folkloric objects to the Raetian Museum. One of them is this amulet, called «Blutstrich» in the vernacular. It is a star scratched in leather, which was hung up on the door of the cowshed against blood stained milk, or on the chicken coop or goat-shed against «Düster» (infectious disease). The eight-point star was called a «double blood stain», whereas the five-point pentagram stood for «small» or «ordinary” blood stain.