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_."
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: