BOBBKK.] ROSARIES AND OTHER COHDS. 561 



Lnppes, who sold wind contained in ;i cord with three knots. If the 

 first were untied, the wind became favourable, if the second, still more 

 so, but, if the third were loosed, a tempest was the inevitable couse 

 luence.&quot; 1 The selling of wind knots was ascribed not only to the 

 Laps and Finns, but to the inhabitants of Greenland also. 2 &quot;The 

 northern shipmasters are such dupes to the delusions of these impos 

 tors that they often purchase of them a magic cord which contains a 

 number of knots, by opening of which, according to the magician s di 

 rections, they expect to gain any wind they want.&quot; 3 &quot;They [Lapland 

 witches] further confessed, that while they fastened three knots on a 

 linen towel in the name of the devil, and had spit on them, &c., they 

 called the name of him they doomed to destruction.&quot; They also 

 claimed that, &quot;by some fatal contrivance they could bring on men dis 

 orders,&quot; . . . as &quot;by spitting three times on a knife and anoint 

 ing the victims with that spittle.&quot; 4 



Scheffer describes the Laplanders as having a cord tied with knots 

 for the raising of the wind; Brand says the same of the Philanders, of 

 Norway, of the priestesses of the island of Sena, on the coast of Gaul, 

 in the time of the Emperor Claudius, the &quot;witches&quot; of the Isle of Man, 

 tc. 5 



Macbeth, speaking to the witches, says: 



Though you untie the winds, and let them fight 

 Against the churches; though the yesty waves 

 Confound and swallow navigation np. 6 



ROSAEIES AND OTHER MNEMONIC CORDS. 



The rosary being confessedly an aid to memory, it will be proper to 

 include it in a chapter descriptive of the different forms of mnemonic 

 cords which have been noticed in various parts of the world. The use 

 of the rosary is not confined to Roman Catholics; it is in service among 

 Mahometans, Tibetans, and Persians. 7 Picart mentions &quot; chapters&quot; 

 among the Chinese and Japanese which very strongly suggest the izze- 

 kloth. 8 



Father Grebillon, in his account of Tartary. alludes several times to 

 the importance attached by the Chinese and Tartars to the privilege of 

 being allowed to touch the &quot;string of beads&quot; worn by certain Lamas 

 met on the journey, which corresponds very closely to the rosaries 

 of the Roman Catholics. 9 



1 Malt-Brun, Universal ( leojjraphy, vol. 4, p. 259, Phila., 1832. 



Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2. p. 040. 



Nightingale, quoted in Madden, Shrines and Sepulchres, vol. 1, pp. 557,558. 



LeemH, Account of Danish Lapland, in Pinkerton, Voyages, London, 181*8, vol. 1, p. 471. 



Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 5. See also John Scheffer, Lapland, Oxford, 1674, p. 58. 



Act IV, scene 1. 



7 Benjamin, Persia, London, 1877, p. 99. 



&quot;Ceremonies et G ofitunie.s, vol. 7, p. 320. 



Dn Halde, History of China. London, 1736 vol. 4, pp. 244. 245, and elsewhere. 



9 ETH , 50 



