Phylacteries, strips of vellum inscribed with certain texts of Scripture, enclosed in small cases of calf-skin, and attached to the forehead or the left arm; originally connected with acts of worship, they were eventually turned to superstitious uses, and employed sometimes as charms and sometimes by way of ostentatious display.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Phtah * Physiocratic School