Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/285

 Correspondence. 257

the hands of the translators, (Ezek. viii. 3), makes the angel get hold of the prophet Ezekiel by a " lock of his head." Here the Hebrew word is also sisit. Many an artist has endeavoured to realize that remarkable feat. But the true meaning is that the angel got hold of the knot of the head into which the hair of the prophet had been tied, and we now more clearly understand how he could seize the prophet by the knot at the crown of the head and carry him away from Babylon to Jerusalem.

I may no longer dwell here on this philological aspect of the problem, e.xcept to point out that there are other Hebrew words for locks, e.g. in Numb. vi. 5, Judges xii. 13, etc. It suffices to prove the continued use of the knot, — even fastened to a garment, — as a mnemonic sign in a religious service. These knots on the garment have survived only because they have been placed in direct connection with divine service and were fastened to a special vestment used for such purpose.

It is not unimportant to notice that a certain number of knots had to be fastened at each corner. There is no indication of this number in the Bible, but tradition, unchangeable in all matters of ceremonial forms of worship, has fixed the number. There are four double knots at each corner. If these thirty-two knots, instead of being divided between four separate strands, were all tied one after the other on one string, we should have a complete parallel to the nautical knot and the prototype of a string with a corresponding number of beads. For one had only to substitute pebbles with holes in them, or stones, fruit, or bones with holes, on one string, and the rosary of 32 beads, or the short rosary of 32 or 33 of the Mohammedan and Jewish rites is seen. The coincidence of this number of beads with the above-mentioned knots is perhaps not fortuitous, and at any rate, in the absence of a clear proof of their independence, such a coincidence is, to say the least, rather remarkable.

Once this principle has been recognized of the substitution of some lasting sign by means of stones, bones, or kernels for the temporary knot, easily frayed out or broken, we have the rosary fully explained. The beads serve then the same purpose as mnemonic signs, and are far better suited for use than knots with their necessary monotony and monochromy, — unless threads of

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