"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 l'aiguillette being a common phrase for disappointments of this nature."[647]
In some 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."[648]
"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 ceremony, who could first pluck off the bride's garters from her legs. This was done before the very altar ... I have sometimes thought this a fragment 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 sometimes it is taken from her ... I am of 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."[649]
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."[650]
To undo the effects of a "ligature," the following was in high repute: "Si quem voles per noctem cum fœmina coire non posse, pistillum coronatum sub lecto illius pone."[651] 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 bridegroom, 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, immediately after the ceremony is performed, retires to be undressed, and so rid of her knots."[652]
USE OF CORDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION.
Folk medicine in all regions is still relying upon the potency of mystical 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 conceived unties his girdle, and, after tying it round her, unties it, saying: "I have tied it and I will untie it," and then takes his departure.[653]