The sacred thread and garment which were worn by all the perfect among the Cathari, and the use of which by both Zends and Brahmans shows that its origin is to be traced back to a pre-historic period.[624]
"No religious rite can be performed by a (child) before he has been girt with the sacred girdle, since he is on a level with a Sûdra before his (new) birth from the Veda."[625]
In explaining the rules of external purification—that is, purification in which water is the medium—Baudhâyana says:[626]
The sacrificial thread (shall be made) of Kusa grass, or cotton, (and consist) of thrice three strings.
(It shall hang down) to the navel.
(In putting it on) he shall raise the right arm, lower the left, and lower the head.
The contrary (is done at sacrifices) to the manes.
(If the thread is) suspended around the neck (it is called) nivita.
(If it is) suspended below (the navel, it is called) adhopavita.
A former use of sacred cords would seem to be suggested in the constant appearance of the belief in the mystical properties and the power for good or evil of the knots which constitute the characteristic appendage of these cords. This belief has been confined to no race or people; it springs up in the literature of the whole world and survives with a pertinacity which is remarkable among the peasantry of Europe and among many in both America and Europe who would not hesitate to express resentment were they to be included among the illiterate.
The powers of these knots were recognized especially in strengthening or defeating love, as aiding women in labor, and in other ways which prove them to be cousins-german to the magic knots with which the medicine-men of the Lapps and other nations along the shores of the Baltic were supposed to be able to raise or allay the tempest. "One of the torments with which witchcraft worried men was the Knot by which a man was withheld so that he could not work his will with a woman. It was called in the Latin of the times Nodus and Obligamentum, and appears in the glossaries, translated by the Saxons into lyb, drug." "To make a 'ligatura' is pronounced 'detestable' by Theodoras, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 668. The knot is still known in France, and Nouer l'aiguillette is a resort of ill-will." Then is given the adventure of Hrut, prince of Iceland, and his bride Gunnhilld, princess of Norway, by whom a "knot" was duly tied to preserve his fidelity during his absence.[627] "Traces of this philosophy are to be found elsewhere," (references are given from Pliny and Galens in regard to "nod").[628] "A knot among the ancient northern nations seems to have been the symbol of love, faith, and friendship, pointing out the indissoluble tie of affection and duty. Thus the ancient Runic inscriptions, as we gather from Hickes's Thesaurus, are in the form of a knot. Hence, among the northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious kind of a knot, a mutual present between the lover and his mistress, which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore called a true-love knot: a name which is not derived, as one would naturally suppose it to be, from the words 'true' and 'love,' but formed from the Danish verb Trulofa, fidem do, I plight my troth, or faith.... Hence, evidently, the bride favors or the top-knots at marriages, which have been considered as emblems of the ties of duty and affection between the bride and her spouse, have been derived."[629]
Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors,[630] says "the true-lover's knot is much magnified, and still retained in presents of love among us; which, though in all points it doth not make out, had, perhaps, its original from Nodus Herculanus, or that which was called Hercules, his knot resembling the snaky complications in the caduceus or rod of Hermes and in which form the zone or woolen girdle of the bride was fastened, as Turnebus observes in his Adversaria." Brand shows[631] that the true-lover's knot had to be tied three times. Another species of knot divination is given in the Connoisseur, No. 56: "Whenever I go to lye in a strange bed, I always tye my garter nine times round the bed-post, and knit nine knots in it, and say to myself: 'this knot I knit, this knot I tye, to see my love as he goes by,' etc. There was also a suggestion of color symbolism in the true-lover's knot, blue being generally accepted as the most appropriate tint. I find among the illiterate Mexican population of the lower Rio Grande a firm belief in the power possessed by a lock of hair tied into knots to retain a maiden's affections.
"I find it stated that headache may be alleviated by tying a woman's fillet round the head.[632] To arrest incontinence of urine, the extremities of the generative organs should be tied with a thread of linen or papyrus, and a binding passed round the middle of the thigh.[633] It is quite surprising how much more speedily wounds will heal if they are bound up and tied with a Hercules' knot; indeed, it is said that if the girdle which we wear every day is tied with a knot of this description, it will be productive of certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been the first to discover the fact."[634] "Healing girdles were already known to Marcellus."[635]
"In our times 'tis a common thing, saith Erastus in his book de Lamiis, for witches to take upon them the making of these philters, to force men and women to love and hate whom they will; to cause tempests, diseases, &c., by charms, spels, characters, knots."[636]