Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says that "they are observed to present their lovers with bracelets of women's hair, whether in reference to Venus' cestus or not, I know not."[689] This idea of a resemblance between the girdle of Venus and the use of the maiden's hair may be worth consideration; on the same page Brand quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher:
Bracelets of our lovers' hair,
Which they on our arms shall twist,
and garters of the women were generally worn by lovers.[690]
"Chaque habit qu'ils [the Jews] portent doit avoir quatre pands, & à chacun un cordon pendant en forme de houppe, qu'ils nomment Zizit. Ce cordon est ordinairement de huit fils de laine filée exprès pour cela, avec cinq nœuds chacun, qui occupent la moitié de la longueur. Ce qui n'est pas noué étant éfilé acheve de faire une espece de houppe, qu'ils se fassent, dit la Loi, des cordons aux pands de leurs habits."[691]
The following is from Black:[692]
When Marduk [Assyrian god] wishes to comfort a dying man his father Hea says: "Go—
Take a woman's linen kerchief!
Bind it round thy left hand: loose it from the left hand!
Knot it with seven knots: do so twice:
Sprinkle it with bright wine:
Bind it round the head of the sick man:
Bind it round his hands and feet, like manacles and fetters.
Sit round on his bed:
Sprinkle holy water over him.
He shall hear the voice of Hea.
Davkina shall protect him!
And Marduk, Eldest Son of heaven, shall find him a happy habitation."
A variant of the same formula is to be found in François Lenormant's Chaldean Magic.[693] Lenormant speaks of the Chaldean use of "magic knots, the efficacy of which was so firmly believed in even up to the middle ages."
Again, he says that magic cords, with knots, were "still very common among the Nabathean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates," in the fourteenth century, and in his opinion the use of these was derived from the ancient Chaldeans. In still another place he speaks of the "magic knots" used by Finnish conjurors in curing diseases.
"The Jewish phylactery was tied in a knot, but more generally knots are found in use to bring about some enchantment or disenchantment. Thus in an ancient Babylonian charm we have—