BOURKE. ] MAGICAL CORDS. DUD 
by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each 
spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankali about to be sent on 
the quest.” Stanley describes the “lords of the cord” at the court of 
Mtesa, king of Uganda, but they seem to be provost officers and exe- 
cutioners merely.' “In cases of quartan fever they take a fragment of 
a nail from a cross, or else a piece of a halter that has been used for 
crucifixion, and after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the patient’s 
neck, taking care, the moment he has recovered, to conceal it in some 
hole to which the light of the sun can not penetrate.”” There is a wide- 
spread and deeply rooted belief that a rope which has hanged a man, 
either as a felon or suicide, possesses talismanic powers.’ Jean Bap- 
tiste Thiers* says: “Il y a des gens assez fous pour s’imaginer quwils 
seront heureuxaujeu . . . pourvuquwils ayent sur eux un morceau 
de corde de pendu.” Brand says: “I remember once to have seen, at 
Newcastle upon Tyne, after a person executed had been eut down, men 
climb upon the gallows and contend for that part of the rope which 
remained, and which they wished to preserve for some lucky purpose or 
other. I have lately made the important discovery that it is reekoned 
a cure for the headache.”° “A halter with which one had been hanged 
was regarded within recent times in England as a cure for headache if 
tied round the head.”® 
In the long list of articles employed by the ancients for the purpose 
of developing affection or hatred between persons of opposite sex, 
Burton mentions “funis strangulati hominis.”*7 “A remarkable super- 
Stition still prevails among the lowest of our vulgar, that a man may 
lawfully sell his wife to another, provided he deliver her over with a 
halter about her neck. It is painful to observe that instances of this 
frequently occur in our newspapers.”* While discussing this branch 
of the subject, it might be well to peruse what has already been 
inserted under the head of the uses to which were put the threads 
which had strangled vipers and other serpents. 
UNCLASSIFIED SUPERSTITIONS UPON THIS SUBJECT, 
In conclusion, I wish to present some of the instances occurring in my 
studies which apparently have a claim to be included in a treatise upon 
the subject of sacred cords and knots. These examples are presented 
without comment, as they are, to all intents and purposes, “survivals,” 
which have long ago lost their true significance. Attention is in- 
vited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the 
1 Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 398. 
2 Pliny, Nat. Hist..lib. 28, cap. 11. 
3 Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. 5, pp. 295, 390. 
4 Traité des Superstitions, tome 1, chap. 3, paragraph 3. 
5 Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 276. 
® Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 10°. 
7 Anat my of Melancholy, vvl. 2, pp. 288, 290. 
8 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2 p. 107. 
