BOUBKE.] MAGICAL CORDS AND KNOTS. 577 



A variant of the same formula is to be found in Francois Lonorinant s 

 Chaldean Magic. 1 Leuormant speaks of the Chaldean use of &quot;magic 

 knots, the efficacy of which was so ftrmly believed in even up to the 

 middle ages.&quot; 



Again, he says that magic cords, with knots, were &quot; still very common 

 among the Nabathean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates,&quot; in the four 

 teenth century, and in his opinion the use of these was derived from 

 the ancient Chaldeans. In still another place he speaks of the &quot;magic 

 knots&quot; used by Finnish conjurors in curing diseases. 



&quot; The Jewish phylactery was tied in a knot, but more generally knots 

 are found in use to bring about some enchantment or disenchantment. 

 Thus in an ancient Babylonian charm we have 



Morodar-h, the sou of I lea, the priim*, with his holy hand* cuts the knots. 

 That is to say, lie takes off the evil influence of the knots. So, 

 too, witches sought in Scotland to compass evil by tying knots. 

 Witches, it was thought, could supply themselves with the milk of 

 any neighbor s cows if they had a small quantity of hair from the tail 

 of each of the animals. The hair they would twist into a rope and then 

 a knot would be tied on the rope for every cow which had contributed 

 lyur. Under the clothes of a witch who was burned at St. Andrews, in 

 1572, was discovered a white claith, like a collore craig, with stringis, 

 wheron was mouy knottis vpon the stringis of the said collore, craig. 

 When this was taken from her, with a prescience then wrongly inter 

 preted, she said: Now I have 110 hope of myself. Belyke scho 

 thought, runs the cotemporary account, scho suld not have died, 

 that being vpou her, but probably she meant that to be discovered 

 with such an article in her possession was equivalent to the sentence of 

 death. So lately as the, beginning of the last century, two persons 

 were sentenced to capital punishment for stealing a charm of knots, 

 made by, a woman as a device against the welfare of Spalding of 

 Ashintilly.&quot; 2 



&quot;Charmed belts are commonly worn in Lancashire for the cure of 

 rheumatism. Elsewhere, a cord round the loins is worn to ward off 

 toothache. Is it possible that there is any connection between this 

 belt and the cord which in Burmah is hung round the neck of a 

 possessed person while he is being thrashed to drive out the spirit 

 which troubles him? Theoretically the thrashing is given to the 

 spirit, and not to the man, but to prevent the spirit escaping too soon 

 a charmed cord is hung round the possessed person s neck. When the 

 spirit has been sufficiently humbled and has declared its name it may 

 be allowed to escape, if the doctor does not prefer to trample on the 

 patient s stomach till he fancies he has killed the demon.&quot; 3 

 &quot; The numerous notices in the folklore of all countries of magic stones, 

 holy girdles, and other nurses specials, attest the common sympathy of 

 the human race.&quot; 4 



1 P. 41. Il)id., (afU-r Tylor) pp. 176, 177. 



1 Black, Folk-Mediriur, p. 180. 1 Ibid,, p. 17H. 



9 ETU 37 



