On a previous page the views of Forlong have been presented, showing that there were reasons for believing that the sacred cords of the East Indies could be traced back to an ophic origin, and it has also been shown that, until the present day, among the peasantry of Europe, there has obtained the practice of making girdles of snake skin which have been employed for the cure of disease and as an assistance in childbirth. The snake itself, while still alive, as has been shown, is applied to the person of the patient by the medicine-men of the American Indians.
In connection with the remarks taken from Forlong's Rivers of Life on this subject, I should like to call attention to the fact that the long knotted blacksnake whip of the wagoners of Europe and America, which, when not in use, is worn across the body from shoulder to hip, has been identified as related to snake worship.
There is another view to take of the origin of these sacred cords which it is fair to submit before passing final judgment. The izze-kloth may have been in early times a cord for tying captives who were taken in war, and as these captives were offered up in sacrifice to the gods of war and others they were looked upon as sacred, and all used in connection with them would gradually take on a sacred character. The same kind of cords seem to have been used in the chase. This would explain a great deal of the superstition connected with the whole subject of "hangman's rope" bringing luck, curing disease, and averting trouble of all sorts, a superstition more widely disseminated and going back to more ancient times than most people would imagine. One of the tribes of New Granada, "quando iban à la Guerra llevaban Cordeles para atar à los Presos."[675] This recalls that the Apache themselves used to throw lariats from ambush upon travelers, and that the Thugs who served the goddess Bhowani, in India, strangled with cords, afterwards with handkerchiefs. The Spaniards in Peru, under Jorge Robledo, going toward the Rio Magdalena, in 1542, found a large body of savages "que llevaban Cordeles, para atar à los Castellanos, i sus Pedernales, para despedaçarlos, i Ollas para cocerlos."[676] The Australians carried to war a cord, called "Nerum," about 2 feet 6 inches long, made of kangaroo hair, used for strangling an enemy.[677]
The easiest method of taking the hyena "is for the hunter to tie his girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the whip with which he guides his horse."[678] Maj. W. Cornwallis Harris[679] describes a search made for a lost camel. A man was detailed to search for the animal and provided with the following charm to aid him in his search: "The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fettered was rolled betwixt his (the Ras el Káfilah's) hands, and sundry cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankáli 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 executioners merely.[680] "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."[681] There is a widespread and deeply rooted belief that a rope which has hanged a man, either as a felon or suicide, possesses talismanic powers.[682] Jean Baptiste Thiers[683] says: "Il y a des gens assez fous pour s'imaginer qu'ils seront heureux au jeu ... pourvu qu'ils 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 cut 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 reckoned a cure for the headache."[684] "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."[685]
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."[686] "A remarkable superstition 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."[687] 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 invited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the Irish of hair cords as we have already seen has been made by the Australians.
The Jewish garment with knots at the corners would appear to have been a prehistoric garment preserved in religious ceremonial; it would seem to be very much like the short blanket cloak, with tufts or knots at the four corners, still made by and in use among the Zuñi, Navajo, Tusayan, and Rio Grande Pueblos. But magic knots were by no means unknown to Jews, Assyrians, or other nations of Syria and Mesopotamia.
"In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, we read: About children's necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St. John's Gospel, a crooked nail of a horseshoe, or a piece of a wolve's skin, and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely plaited with woman's hair."[688]
Gainsford, in his Glory of England, speaking of the Irish, p. 150, says: "They use incantations and spells, wearing girdles of woman's haire, and locks of their lover's."