The wearing of amulets where these consist of parts of the bodies of animals is based on the same belief.

When a man wears on his person the claws of a tiger in an amulet, he thinks that the claws being the tiger's principal weapon of offence contain a concentrated part of his strength, and that the wearer of the claws will acquire some of this by contact.

The Gonds carry the shoulder-bone of a tiger, or eat the powdered bone-dust, in order to acquire strength.

The same train of reasoning applies to the wearing of the hair of a bear, a common amulet in India, the hair being often considered as the special seat of strength.

[124] The whole practice of wearing ornaments of the precious metals and precious stones appears to have been originally due to the same motive, as shown in the article on Sunar.
If the Gonds want a child to become fat, they put it in a pigsty or a place where asses have rolled, so that it may acquire by contact the quality of fatness belonging to the pigs or asses.