BOURKE. } SACRED CORDS. 563 
little, as they are both industrious and honest—had kept account of 
the days of their labor. There was a horizontal datum line, as before, 
with complete circles to indicate full days and half circles to indicate 
half days, a long heavy black line for Sundays and holidays, and a 
crescent moon for each new month. These accounts had to be drawn 
up by the overseer or superintendent of the rancho at which the Indi- 
ans were employed before the latter left for home each night. 
THE SACRED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS. 
I have already apologized for my own ignorance in regard to the 
origin and symbolical signification of the izze-kloth of the Apache, 
and I have now to do the same thing for the writers who have referred 
to the use by the religious of India of the sacred cords with which, un- 
der various names, the young man of the Parsis or Brahmans is invested 
upon attaining the requisite age. No two accounts seem to agree and, 
as [ have never been in India and cannot presume to decide where so 
many differ, it is best that I should lay before my readers the exact 
language of the authorities which seem to be entitled to greatest con- 
sideration. 
“A sacred thread girdle (kistik), should it be made of silk, is not 
proper; the hair of a hairy goat and a hairy camel is proper, and from 
other hairy creatures itis proper among the lowly.” ! 
Every Parsi wears “a triple coil” of a “ white cotton girdle,” which 
serves to remind him of the ‘three precepts of his morality— good 
thoughts,’ ‘good words,’ ‘good deeds.’”? 
Williams describes the sacred girdle of the Parsis as made “ of seventy- 
two interwoven woollen threads, to denote the seventy-two chapters of 
the Yasna, but has the appearance of a long flat cord of pure white wool, 
which is wound round the body in three-coils.”. The Parsi must take 
off this kusti five times daily and replace it with appropriate prayers. 
It must be wound round the body three times and tied in two peculiar 
knots, the secret of which is known only to the Parsis.? 
According to Picart, the “sudra,” or sacred cord of the Parsis, has 
four knots, each of which represents a precept.‘ 
Marco Polo, in speaking of the Brahmans of India, says: “They are 
known by a cotton thread, which they wear over the shoulders, tied 
under the arm, crossing the breast.” ® 
Picart described the sacred cord of the Brahmans, which he calls the 
Dsandhem, as made in three colors, each color of nine threads of cotton, 
which only the Brahmans have the right tomake. Itis to be worn after 
the manner of a scarf from the left shoulder to the right side. It must 
be worn through life, and, as it will wear out, new ones are provided at 
' Shayast 14-Shayast, cap. 4, pp. 285, 286. In Sacred Books of the East, Max Miiller’s edition, vol.5. 
2 Monier Williams, Modern India, p. 56. 
3 Ibid., pp. 179, 180. 
4 Cérémonies et Cofitumes, vol. 7, p. 28. 
5 Marco Polo, Travels, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 7, p. 163. 
