THE SACRED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Bourke, John Gregory
The first general council of Milan, in 1565, prohibited the use of what were called phylacteries, ligatures, and reliquaries (of heathen origin) which people all over Europe were in the habit of wearing at neck or on arms or knees.[638]
"King James[639] enumerates thus: 'Such kinde of charmes as ... staying married folkes to have naturally adoe with each other, by knitting so many knots upon a point at the time of their marriage.'"[640]
"Tying the point was another fascination, illustrations of which may be found in Reginald Scott's Discourse Concerning Devils and Spirits, p. 71; in the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 225; and in the British Apollo, vol. 2, No. 35, 1709. In the old play of The Witch of Edmonton, 1658, Young Banks says, 'Ungirt, unbless'd, says the proverb.'"[641]
Frommann speaks of the frequent appearance of knots in witchcraft, but, beyond alluding to the "Nodus Cassioticus" of a certain people near Pelusia, who seem, like the Laplanders, to have made a business of fabricating and selling magic knots, he adds nothing to our stock of information on the subject. He seems to regard the knot of Hercules and the Gordian knot as magical knots.[642]
Bogle mentions the adoration of the Grand Lama (Teshu Lama). The Lama's servants "put a bit of silk with a knot upon it, tied, or supposed to be tied, with the Lama's own hands, about the necks of the votaries."[643]
A girdle of Venus, "possessing qualities not to be described," was enumerated among the articles exhibited at a rustic wedding in England.[644]
In 1519, Torralva, the Spanish magician, was given by his guardian spirit, Zequiel, a "stick full of knots," with the injunction, "shut your eyes and fear nothing; take this in your hand, and no harm will happen to you."[645] Here the idea evidently was that the power resided in the knots.
"Immediately before the celebration of the marriage ceremony [in Perthshire, Scotland] every knot about the bride and bridegroom (garters, shoe-strings, strings of petticoats, &c.), is carefully loosened."[646]
"The precaution of loosening every knot about the new-joined pair is strictly observed [in Scotland], for fear of the penalty denounced in the former volumes. It must be remarked that the custom, is observed even in France, nouer l'aiguillette being a common phrase for disappointments of this nature."[647]
In some parts of Germany "a bride will tie a string of flax around her left leg, in the belief that she will thereby enjoy the full blessing of the married state."[648]
"There was formerly a custom in the north of England, which will be thought to have bordered very closely upon indecency ... for the young men present at a wedding to strive, immediately after the ceremony, who could first pluck off the bride's garters from her legs. This was done before the very altar ... I have sometimes thought this a fragment of the ancient ceremony of loosening the virgin zone, or girdle, a custom that needs no explanation." "It is the custom in Normandy for the bride to bestow her garter on some young man as a favour, or sometimes it is taken from her ... I am of opinion that the origin of the Order of the Garter is to be traced to this nuptial custom, anciently common to both court and country."[649]
Grimm quotes from Hincmar of Rheims to show the antiquity of the use for both good and bad purposes of "ligatures," "cum filulis colorum multiplicium."[650]
To undo the effects of a "ligature," the following was in high repute: "Si quem voles per noctem cum fœmina coire non posse, pistillum coronatum sub lecto illius pone."[651] But a pestle crowned with flowers could be nothing more or less than a phallus, and, therefore, an offering to the god Priapus.
"Owing to a supposed connection which the witches knew between the relations of husband and wife and the mysterious knots, the bridegroom, formerly in Scotland and to the present day in Ireland, presents himself occasionally, and in rural districts, before the clergyman, with all knots and fastenings on his dress loosened, and the bride, immediately after the ceremony is performed, retires to be undressed, and so rid of her knots."[652]