Knotted cords were in use among the Carib; "ce qui revient aux Quippos des Péruviens."[568] The accompanying citation from Montfaucon would seem to show that among the Romans were to be found sacred baldrics in use by the war priests; such baldrics are to be seen also among the American aborigines, and correspond very closely to the medicine cords. Montfaucon describes the Saliens, who among the Romans were the priests of Mars, the god of war; these priests in the month of March had a festival which was probably nothing but a war dance, as that month would be most favorable in that climate for getting ready to attack their neighbors and enemies. He says that these Saliens "sont vêtus de robes de diverses couleurs, ceints de baudriers d'airain." These would seem to have been a sort of medicine cord with plates of brass affixed which would rattle when shaken by the dancer.[569]
Captain Cook found that the men of the tribes seen in Australia wore "bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times about the upper part of their arm."[570]
"Whilst their [the Congo natives'] children are young, these people bind them about with certain superstitious cords made by the wizards, who, likewise, teach them to utter a kind of spell while they are binding them."[571] Father Merolla adds that sometimes as many as four of these cords are worn.
Bosman remarks upon the negroes of the Gold Coast as follows: "The child is no sooner born than the priest (here called Feticheer or Consoe) is sent for, who binds a parcel of ropes and coral and other trash about the head, body, arms, and legs of the infant; after which he exorcises, according to their accustomed manner, by which they believe it is armed against all sickness and ill accidents."[572]
In the picture of a native of Uzinza, Speke shows us a man wearing a cord from the right shoulder to the left hip.[573]
In the picture of Lunga Mândi's son, in Cameron's Across Africa,[574] that young chief is represented as wearing a cord across his body from his right shoulder to the left side.
On the Lower Congo, at Stanley Pool, Stanley met a young chief: "From his shoulders depended a long cloth of check pattern, while over one shoulder was a belt, to which was attached a queer medley of small gourds containing snuff and various charms, which he called his Inkisi."[575] This no doubt was a medicine cord. "According to the custom, which seems to belong to all Africa, as a sign of grief the Dinka wear a cord round the neck."[576] "The Mateb, or baptismal cord, is _de rigueur_, and worn when nothing else is. It formed the only clothing of the young at Seramba, but was frequently added to with amulets, sure safeguards against sorcery."[577] The Abyssinian Christians wear a blue cord as a sign of having been baptized, and "baptism and the blue cord are, in the Abyssinian mind, inseparable."[578] "The cord,[579] or mateb, without which nobody can be really said in Abyssinia to be respectable."[580] It further resembles the Apache medicine cord, inasmuch as it is "a blue cord around the neck."[581] The baptismal cords are made of "blue floss silk."[582]