BOURKE. } MAGICAL CORDS AND KNOTS. 569 
Burton ! alludes to the “inchanted girdle of Venus, in which, saith 
Natales Comes, . . . all witchcraft to enforce love was contained.” 
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. * 
“ King James* enumerates thus: ‘Such kinde of charmes as 
staying married folkes to have naturally adoe with each other, by Janie 
ting so many knots upon a point at the time of their marriage.’” 
“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.’” 
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. ° 
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.”7 
A girdle of Venus, ‘ possessing qualities not to be described,” was 
enumerated among the articles exhibited at a rustic wedding in England.® 
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.”® 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 (gar- 
ters, Shoe-strings, strings of petticoats, &c.), is carefully loosened.” 
“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 Vaiguillette being a common phrase for disappoint- 
ments of this nature.” !! 
1 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 91; vol. 2, p. 290. 
2 Picart, Cérémonies et Cofitumes, etc., vol. 10, pp. 69-73. 
3 Demonology, p. 100. 
4Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 299. 
5 Tbid., p. 170. 
6Frommann, Tractatus de Fascinatione, Nuremberg, 1675, p. 731. 
7 Markham, Bogle’s mission to Tibet, London, 1876, p. 85. 
8 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 149. 
°Thomas Wright, Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, vol. 2, p. 10. 
10 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 143. 
1) Pennant, in Pinkerton, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 382. 
