570 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
Insome 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.” ! 
“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 cere- 
mony, who could first pluck off the bride’s garters from her legs. This was 
done before thevery altar . . . Lhave sometimes thought this a frag- 
ment 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 some- 
times it is taken from her . . . Lamof 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.” ” 
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.” * 
To undo the effects of a *‘ ligature,” the following was in high repute: 
+“Si quem voles per noctem cum foemina coire non posse, pistillum cor- 
onatum sub lecto illius pone.”* 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 bride- 
groom, 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, imme- 
diately after the ceremony is performed, retires to be undressed, and so 
rid of her knots.”? 
USE OF CORDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION. 
Folk medicine in all regions is still relying upon the potency of mys- 
tical cords and girdles to facilitate labor. The following are a few of 
the many examples which might be presented: 
Delivery was facilitated if the man by whom the woman has con- 
ceived unties his girdle, and, after tying it round her, unties it, saying: 
“JT have tied it and I will untie it,” and then takes his departure.® 
“Henry, in his History of Britain, vol. 1, p. 459, tells us that‘ amongst 
the ancient Britons, whena birth was attended with any difficulty, they 
put certain girdles made for that purpose about the women in labour 
which they imagined gave immediate and effectual relief. Such girdles 
were kept with care till very lately in many families in the Highlands 
' Hoffman, quoting Friend, in Jour. Am. Folk Lore, 1888, p. 134. 
2Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, pp. 127 et seq. 
3Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p.1174. He also speaks of the ‘‘nouer]'aiguillette, ibid., p. 1175. 
4Saxon Leechdoms, vol. 1, p. xliv. 
*Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186. 
*Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 9. 
